Kawaikereba Hentai demo Suki ni Natte Kuremasu ka? Volume 11 Chapter 3

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Do you like a big butt or a small butt?

The short winter break came to an end, and the first day of the third school term arrived. During PE class in the 4th period, Keki was in the corner of the gym hall, dwelling in his thoughts while watching Shouma play basketball. Of course, the reason for this was Sayuki’s words he had heard on the day of the first shrine visit.

“Sayuki-senpai… likes me?”

Keiki had totally missed his chance to ‘wake up’ from his fake slumber, and instead had acted like nothing happened. After the girl apologized for what had happened, she went home as well. She definitely shouldn’t know that Keiki had heard her monologuing. But that didn’t change the fact that he did hear her. And because of that, he’d been thinking about it nonstop ever since.

“Ohh, Kiryuu-shi.”

“Hm?”

When Keiki raised his head, he spotted Onizuka Megumi, who was wearing the same jersey as Keiki and waving at him.

“Ah, Onizuka-san.”

“I’m currently on the bench, so how about we talk a bit?”

“I don’t mind.”

“Great. I’ll sit next to you, then.”

Megumi sat next to Keiki, with a bit of distance between them. They hadn’t talked ever since they met during the date at the aquarium. She was waiting for her own match to start, and when Keiki glanced over at the volleyball court, Mao had just landed a wonderful shot.

“Nanjou-chan is so athletic. I’m really jealous.”

“She’s the type of person who can do basically anything.”

She’s good at playing games, she can swim, her drawings are even pro-level. She’s the type of person who’s loved by the gods.

“Akiyama-shi is also more of the sports type.”

“If you ignore the fact that he’s a lolicon, he’s super handsome.”

“His girlfriend looks like a loli, too.”

“She’s a Senpai, but she’s adorable at the same time.”

At first, Keiki was a bit leery of Koharu since she was such a stalker, but after he got to know her better, he held her in great respect.

“By the way, Kiryuu-shi, are you thinking about something?”

“Huh?”

“You were just sighing all the time, so I was wondering.”

“Ahhh…”

That’s probably why she had called out to him.

“I can listen if you want.”

“Well…”

Keiki himself had come to a stalemate. An outsider’s opinion might not be half bad.

But bringing up the other people’s names would be a bit…

It’s not that Keiki didn’t trust Megumi, but Keiki wouldn’t feel right just openly talking about other people’s confessions.

I’ll just use that manga cliché everyone always uses.

“This is about a friend of mine.”

“I’ve read enough manga to know that you’re talking about yourself.”

“Haha, no way. This really is about a friend.”

“Okay, if you say so. I really like love talk, so give me something interesting.” Megumi let out a sigh, and Keiki started his explanation.

“So, there’s this friend… let’s call him K-kun. This K-kun was confessed to by a Kouhai of his last year on Christmas Eve.”

“A confession on Christmas Eve? Not bad, not bad.”

“So, this K-kun is currently wondering how he should respond to that confession.”

“I see, I see.”

“And, the other day, K-kun happened to overhear a Senpai girl from his club saying that she likes him.”

“Phew, that’s a pretty abrupt development, isn’t it?” Megumi’s eyes lit when she heard this manga-like development. “I see, I see. So that Kouhai confessed to him, and how he also found out that his Senpai also holds positive affection towards him.”

“That’s what it boils down to.”

“Basically, it’s a love triangle.”

Ironically, it used to be a pervert triangle. A triangle between Keiki, a Kouhai who wanted to make him her slave, and a Senpai who wanted to become his slave. Thanks to the development of romantic feelings on the behalf of the two girls, this abnormal relationship had changed into something different yet again.

“And now K-kun is lost as to what he should do.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

“More than anything, he still doesn’t know if his Senpai really holds romantic affection for him in the first place.”

“Well, there’s a lot of different kinds of ‘like’ in the world.”

Tokihara Sayuki is a pervert who wants to be turned into a pet and humiliated. The word ‘like’ coming from her might be a different ‘like’ than a romantic one. That only left one possible solution of confirming it with the person herself. After hearing the circumstances, Megumi nodded.

“I understand the gist of it, so let me give you my analysis.”

“Please do.”

“Let me start with the Kouhai.”

“Yes…”

“If K-kun likes her, he can just go out with her, and if not, he can reject her. Don’t you think?”

“That’s pretty sound reasoning!”

It was so straightforward that Keiki himself was surprised. So much so that he couldn’t even find a rebuttal.

“If anything, why is K-kun delaying his response? Is it that he doesn’t like the girl who confessed to him?”

“No, that’s not the problem. She’s genuinely cute. Actually, she’s mega cute, and she even makes K-kun think that she’s an angel. That’s how cute she is.”

“The heck is that? A lump of cuteness?”

“Anyway, that’s not the reason why he’s not giving her a response yet.”

“So…K-kun just doesn’t like that girl?”

“That’s…”

When Keiki first saw Yuika, he thought that she was an unfriendly Kouhai. She wouldn’t even smile. She’d basically ignore him if he talked to her. She wasn’t social at all whatsoever. But Keiki couldn’t help but be drawn towards the girl who was always sitting alone in the library room. He kept constantly talking to her, and she eventually warmed up to him. The first time Keiki saw her smile, he was really happy.

Well, I never expected that she would stuff her panties in my mouth like that…

She had turned out to be really perverted, and had inflicted a trauma upon Keiki that would probably never disappear. But he still couldn’t help but think that she was cute. No matter what kind of devilish pranks she pulled off, Kieki would still forgive her. And thanks to her recent declaration that she wouldn’t mind becoming a normal girl, she had stopped acting like a pervert altogether. If anything, she had become more cute after she stopped hiding her affection towards him.

Keiki felt happy when she smiled at him, and when they held hands, his heart would always race faster. He really felt like he was about to fall in love with her.

“…I think he likes her. But he’s not sure if that emotion is romantic affection or not.”

“That sounds like an excuse from a boy who has no experience in love.”

“How cruel! Even though you only recently got a boyfriend yourself, Onizuka-san…”

“That’s right~ Ever since we started dating, Nao-kun has been head over heels for me~”

“I don’t need to hear you bragging right now.”

“Oh right, we were talking about K-kun.” Megumi cleared her throat. “Well, if K-kun doesn’t hate that person, he might as well go out with her and see how things work out?”

“If K-kun were that heartless, he wouldn’t have this much trouble.”

“Yeah, Kiryuu-shi doesn’t seem like the kind of person who’d do that.”

“We’re talking about my friend, remember?”

“Ah, right, we’re still going with that. It’s completely obvious, you know.” Megumi looked like she couldn’t be bothered.

“I don’t want to try dating her. I can’t go into detail, but because that girl made such a serious confession, I want to seriously think this through, and give a resolute answer.”

Yuika said she wouldn’t mind becoming a normal girl. That’s why Keiki didn’t want to give a half-baked answer.

“Huh, that sounds really complicated.”

“Yup, that it is.”

If he could make up his mind that easily, he wouldn’t have so much trouble thinking about it.

“But I’m glad.”

“About what?”

“You’re acting like a real man and thinking about people important to you. It made me realize that you’re a good person, Kiryuu-shi.”

“Onizuka-san…”

“—Ah, it’s my turn.”

When they looked up, the girl’s match had ended. Megumi got up and started to head over towards the court when she turned around.

“As for the Senpai, you should probably confirm her feelings first. It might just be a misunderstanding on your part.”

“Yeah… Wait, we’re talking about a friend of mine, okay?”

“You don’t need to keep saying that.” Megumi made an exasperated expression.

“This seems difficult for Fujimoto-chan.” These last words vice president Onizuka muttered didn’t reach anybody’s ears.

*

That day, once classes came to an end, Keiki made his way to the clubroom building.

“Onizuka-san’s advice was completely correct, but confirming it with Sayuki-senpai sounds easier than it is…”

If he could just ask her about it, he wouldn’t be having this much trouble. The only way to bring it up would be to confess that he was pretending to be asleep when she said it.

“She probably said that because she thought I was sleeping…”

There was no way that Keiki could just say ‘I was actually awake, tee hee~’. Nor could he just ask ‘Sayuki-senpai, do you actually like me?’.

If I turn out to be wrong, it’d definitely be the worst part of my dark past ever.

What would Keiki do if Sayuki responded with a nonchalant ‘Huh? I don’t, though.’? The hurdle for a boy to confirm a girl’s feelings for them is way too hard.

“Hm… What should I do about this?”

Without coming up with an answer, Keiki arrived at the clubroom. He opened the door and entered.

“…Hm?”

The moment he stepped inside, he noticed something was off.

“The heck is this…?”

The door to the locker set up inside the room was open, and all the objects and private belongings of the club president had been taken out. On top of that, a girl’s butt, covered in a blue skirt, stuck out from inside.

“A butt!?”

Met with this unbelievable scene, Keiki had to look twice. However, the scene didn’t change the next time he looked. What remained solidly in his field of view was definitely a girl’s butt. Although Keiki couldn’t see the underwear because of the skirt, the butt was still quite erotic to watch, and the bare legs showing between the skirt and socks held a great appeal. Keiki couldn’t make out the upper body, but because of the skirt and butt, Keiki knew the owner.

“Is it… Sayuki-senpai perhaps?”

“That voice! Is that you, Keiki-kun!?”

“I knew it was you, Senpai.”

Her face was buried deep in the locker, but the voice made it obvious.

“Ahh, don’t! You can’t, Keiki-kun! Don’t use this chance to ravish my body as much as you want!?”

“I won’t.”

“Whaaat?! You won’t?! You’re not going to pull up my skirt, stare at my panties, and fondle my butt with your hands until you’re satisfied?! …I mean, I love it when you purposefully ignore me, but why don’t we go for something more stimulating this time?”

“What kind of mood is this supposed to be?” Keiki felt stupid for worrying so much before coming here. “So what are you doing, Sayuki-senpai?”

“I tried to clean up, but then an avalanche happened.”

“So that’s why you’re stuck. I thought you were trying out some new kind of perverted roleplay or something.”

“Um, Keiki-kun? I seriously can’t move right now, so could you help me?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Keiki would have felt bad leaving her like this, so he quickly went to help.

He stood next to the girl and cleared away all the cleaning tools, documents, and other goods. After a few seconds, the work was done, and the black-haired beauty was freed.

“Phew. I felt like a mummy there.”

“Be more careful next time, okay?”

“Thank you. You saved me.” Sayuki stood up and gave her Kouhai a warm smile.

“Ugh…”

That was a surprise attack. It made him remember what happened on the day of the first shrine visit.

“………”

She was acting as weird as ever, but she was undoubtedly beautiful. She had great style and tall stature. Her long, glossy hair, white skin, and facial features all added to that beauty of hers.

And she actually feels that way towards me?

Could a beautiful girl like her really have feelings for an average Kouhai like Keiki?

“Keiki-kun?”

“Yes, I am Keiki-kun!”

“…Huh?”

Keiki panicked and spoke his name like an NPC from some video game.

“What’s wrong? That’s not like you.”

“R-Really? I’m the same as alwaysh.”

“Alwaysh?”

“……” He bit his tongue.

“What does that mean? Is that some new popular greeting?”

“No, I just bit my tongue…”

“Really? You’re acting a bit off today, Keiki-kun.”

“I don’t want to hear that from the person who got stuck like that.”

Keiki managed to somewhat divert the topic. But that gloomy and hazy feeling inside Keiki’s chest hadn’t been cleared up so easily.

My heart’s beating like crazy, but Senpai is acting the same as ever.

Keiki felt a bit frustrated by that. Sayuki doesn’t even know that Keiki had heard what she had said, and yet he was acting childish.

“Oh my. Your face is a bit red, isn’t it?”

“Huh?”

“Do you have a fever or something?”

“Wha!?”

That was the second surprise attack of the day. Sayuki stood in front of Keiki and put her hand on his forehead.

“S-Sayuki-senpai!?”

“Hm. It doesn’t seem like you have a fever.”

“…!?”

Keiki knew. He knew that this action held no deeper meaning to it. She was just worried about her Kouhai. But knowing it in his head and accepting that with his feelings were two different things. The sensation of her palm on his forehead reminded him of the time she patted him on the head, along with her ‘like’, and his head burned up even more. Now that it had come to this, he had to confirm her feelings.

“I’m sorry! I remembered something urgent, so I’m going home!”

“Eh? …Ah, Keiki-kun!?”

It was all too much for Keiki, and it made him run away. He grabbed his bag, ran past Sayuki, and dashed out of the room. At the same time—

“What happened to him? Rushing out like that…” The upperclassman who had been left behind stared after him in confusion.

*

After that day, Keiki started to avoid her.

“Oh, Keiki-kun, good mor—”

“I’m sorry, I still have some homework left, so I’ll excuse myself!”

“Huh?! Keiki-kun?!”

In the morning, when they ran into each other at the student entrance, Keiki ran away at full speed.

“Ah, Keiki-kun, you’re eating in the cafeteria as well—”

“I’m sorry, a teacher called for me!”

“Wait! You only ate a bite of your curry, though!”

Keiki lied about the whole teacher thing and ran out of the cafeteria.

“Ah, Keiki-kun! About the club today—”

“I’m sorry! I have to watch an anime for girls that has a rerun going on right now!”

“Your excuses are getting worse and worse!?”

On the third day after classes came to an end, Keiki grew tired and just came up with a random excuse. Once you make the choice to run away from someone, it requires an even greater amount of courage to face them again. Ever since Keiki ran away from Sayuki, just running into her made him feel embarrassed, and it turned into an endless spiral where he ran away the instant he spotted the girl. Of course, all her emails and messages were read and ignored.

‘What’s wrong? Did I do something?’

‘Why are you avoiding me? Do I smell?!’

‘If you don’t respond, I’ll become a priestess instead, okay?’

‘I think that leaving someone on ‘read’ without responding is pretty rude.’

All these messages came in, but Keiki tried his best to ignore them. He felt scared all the same, especially since that last message sounded like she was seriously angry. Of course, since he kept acting this way, the people around him caught on to it.

“Keiki-senpai, did something happen between you and Witch-senpai?”

On the fourth day of him avoiding Sayuki, a Friday, Yuika asked that question while she was putting some returned books on the shelf. Of course, the person she asked was none other than the criminal Kiryuu Keiki himself.

“N-Nothing…at all?”

“Keiki-senpai, you’re really bad at lying.”

“W-What about me makes you think that?!”

“Literally everything. You’re making it really obvious.”

“Ugh…”

“Keiki-senpai, could you bring Yuika that material over there?”

“Yes…” Keiki took the book from the cart and handed it to Yuika.

She put it in its proper place on the shelf and gave Keiki another dubious gaze.

“Yuika can’t help but feel worried.”

“Worried about what?”

“Whenever Keiki-senpai is with Witch-senpai, she always tries something indecent.”

“O-Okay… Well, that makes sense.”

“But there’s no need to hide that, right? Yuika knows about Witch-senpai’s tastes. And you’re still trying to cover it up. Doesn’t that mean that something has happened that you can’t even tell Yuika about?”

“……”

She was sharp. It was a perfect conclusion. Although they didn’t exactly do anything indecent.

I can’t tell her, can I…?

Keiki was still trying to think of his response to Yuika’s confession. Even still, using the excuse that Sayuki might hold feelings for him as well would be too cruel.

“The thing is, when I went to the clubroom a while ago, Sayuki-senpai was stuck in a mountain of stuff and couldn’t move her body.”

“Ah, right, she was cleaning the locker.”

“You knew that?”

“Yuika helped her after that.”

“I see.”

That made explaining things more convenient.

“And when I helped Sayuki-senpai there, I accidentally saw her panties.”

“Huh…?”

“And she was wearing some really lewd ones. It made it a bit awkward.”

“Hmm? …Well it makes sense that Witch-senpai would wear nasty ones.”

“That’s one horrible way to agree.”

Keiki felt guilty for making up a story like that.

“Then we can leave it at that. We still have work to do, so let’s hurry and get this done.”

“Yessir~”

Keiki somewhat managed to avoid further investigation, and he focused on his work again. Since he’d been doing this for nearly two years now, he was used to the work, allowing him to know where to put a book just by looking at it. Right when he was making good progress, and put the final few books away—

“Oops…”

When Keiki leaned over to pick up a book from the bottom of the basket, a pen fell out of his chest pocket.

“Hey now.”

The pen rolled deeper into the rows of bookshelves.

“Where do you plan on going?” Keiki walked after the pen, his waist lowered. “Alright, I’ve finally got you.”

He grabbed his beloved pen and raised his head.

“Mfugh!?”

“Hyaaaa?!”

Something soft hit the front of his face, and Yuika let out a shriek at roughly the same time.

“W-What happened?”

When Keiki separated his face from the uncertain something, he found a familiar fabric.

“Ke… Keiki-senpai?”

“Huh?”

When he lifted his gaze, Keiki was greeted by a beet red face. Said face belonged to Yuika. Her body shook as she pulled the green fabric—namely, her skirt—downwards, and Keiki realized the crime he had committed. Indeed, he had shoved his face right onto Yuika-chan’s butt.

“Um, it’s not what it looks like, Yuika-chan!”

“Hmph…” Yuika glared at him, while holding her skirt down.

The second Keiki saw that face, all the blood drained from his body.

This is seriously bad!

Although he didn’t do it intentionally, he had still pushed his face right onto her behind. No matter what excuse he might make, it was undoubtedly sexual harassment. On top of that, since the victim was the sadistic Yuika, Keiki won’t get away that easily. If anything, she’d probably step on his head after tying him up, saying ‘Ahaha, a slave candidate like you has the nerve to touch your master?’—

“Keiki-senpai…”

“Yes?”

“Sit.”

“Yes.” Keiki obliged without a second’s hesitation.

Although the heater was working just fine, the floor seemed cold nonetheless.

“Yuika will listen to any excuses you may have.”

“My pen fell out of my pocket, and when I was chasing it down, I ended up bumping into your behind. I am very sorry.”

“Is that so? You wanted to touch Yuika’s butt so badly that you would make up an excuse like that?”

“Why would you come to that conclusion!?”

“Then you’re saying that you’re not a pervert who is greatly interested in girls’ butts?”

“Not in a million years. I would never want to be regarded as such a pervert.”

Of course, Keiki did not dislike a good bum, but he decided to keep silent about that or things would get more complicated.

“…Then do you not have any interest in Yuika’s butt?”

“Excuse me?”

“If it’s Senpai, Yuika wouldn’t mind too much if you touched it.”

“Eh?”

“Ah, it’s nothing! Yuika didn’t say anything! Because Yuika isn’t a perverted girl!” Yuika-san retracted her previous words and frantically waved her hands.

“O-Okay…” Keiki read the mood and decided to not press her on it any further.

“Haaah… it’s fine. Just be more careful in the future, okay?”

“Eh, that’s all?”

“Are you dissatisfied?”

“I thought you were going to insult me, and step on me, and that sort of thing…”

“Yuika wouldn’t, because Yuika is a normal girl right now. The sadistic Yuika has been locked away.”

“………”

That was their current agreement. In order for Keiki to develop feelings for the girl, Yuika had said that she would act like a normal girl. The moment Keiki heard that, he should have felt happy and accepted her feelings right away. So why…?

My chest feels weird again. What is this gloomy feeling?

Every time Yuika denied her true self, Keiki felt something sharp stab his chest. But he was still lost as to what this unfamiliar feeling could be.

“—Ah, an email from Witch-senpai.”

“From Sayuki-senpai?”

Keiki was freed from the lecture, and Yuika told him the contents of the email as he stood up.

“Witch-senpai says that she has some business after school, so club is cancelled.”

“I see…”

“Because Keiki-kun isn’t giving me any attention, I’ll drown my sorrows in alcohol! But, since I can’t drink alcohol, I’ll make do with tapioca milk tea—is what she said.”

“Drown her sorrows… She is still taking her entrance exams, right?”

That girl is unbelievable. She talks about how much she likes someone when they’re right in front of her, gets buried in trash while trying to tidy up the locker with her butt sticking out in the open…

…Huh?

While he was thinking about that, Keiki realized something was off.

Why was Sayuki-senpai cleaning the locker anyway?

They had already cleaned the clubroom before the start of winter break. And Sayuki was never the type of person to clean. But before Keiki could finish his thoughts, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch break.

That very day marked the end of Keiki’s constant running away.

“You finally came. I’ve grown tired of waiting.”

“Sayuki-senpai!?”

Keiki finished his cleaning duty in the classroom and quickly made his way to the shoe lockers at the front entrance. Tokihara Sayuki was already there, waiting for him.

“Why are you here, Senpai? Didn’t you have some business to attend to?”

“Hee hee. I just fed Koga-san some false information. If I had told you directly, you probably wouldn’t have believed me, so I used that girl.”

“Oh lord…”

Keiki’s head felt dizzy. Sayuki might be a masochist, but she apparently was the type of person to learn things quickly. She knew that Keiki was together with Yuika for the library committee during lunch break, so she used that to spread false information.

“I hate beating around the bush, so let’s get to the main deal point away.” Sayuki ran her fingers through her long hair as she approached Keiki. “Why are you avoiding me? Is there some special reason?”

“W-What might you be referring to?”

“Don’t play dumb now. You used to love me so much that you were constantly clinging to me, and now you’ve been avoiding me for the past few days. Of course I know that something’s off.”

“I feel like part of that is totally made up.”

Keiki didn’t remember being that clingy. If anything, the girl was the one who was always acting clingy towards him.

“I was worried that my body odor was unbearable or something.”

“If anything, you smell really nice, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

“Then why have you been avoiding me?”

“That’s…”

“That’s what?”

“Because…”

“Because why?”

“Ugh…” There was no way he could tell her.

How could he say he was avoiding her because he had grown too conscious of her? That’s a reason only a grade school student in their adolescence would make. That being said, there was only one way to escape this situation.

“Au revoir!”

Keiki took a sharp right and ran away. Indeed, the cornered Kouhai boy once again decided to run away from his big-breasted follower.

“Ah! Hey! Why are you running away again!?”

“Even I don’t know anymore!”

The situation only grew more confusing. Keiki didn’t know why he was running away, nor why Sayuki said something like that. Keiki felt scared to know his feelings, or her feelings, but he couldn’t bring himself to face them, so the only escape he could see was to run from her. But this time, the black-haired upperclassman didn’t let up.

“Hey! Stop already!”

“I refuse!”

“I’m not letting you escape today!”

“If you think you can catch me, then go ahead and try!”

During both the culture festival and his work for the student council, Keiki had gained a lot of endurance. Compared to that, Sayuki was hopeless when it came to athletic abilities. The difference here was clear as day, so she shouldn’t be able to catch up with Keiki anytime soon. As things stood, the distance between them didn’t show any signs of shrinking. On top of that, thanks to Sayuki’s well-endowed chest, it didn’t take long for her to be out of breath.

“Haah… haaah… Wait a second… Wait… Kyaaa!?”

“Eh?”

Keiki heard a shriek from behind him, which made him stop in his tracks. When he turned around, he saw that Sayuki had fallen head-first into the ground.

“Auuu…”

“Sayuki-senpai!?”

Keiki completely forgot that he should be running away, and instead called out to Sayuki, who was glued to the ground like a piece of chewing gum.

“Senpai!? Are you okay!?”

“I’m obviously not…”

“Right!”

The impact must have hurt quite a bit.

“Are you injured anywhere?”

“My nose hurts…”

“Yeah, it looks red.”

“Could you help me up?”

“Understood.” Keiki grabbed Sayuki’s hand, pulling up her body.

“Can you stand on your own?”

“Yes, I should be fine now.”

As far as Keiki could tell, she wasn’t hurt aside from her nose. When Keiki saw that, he let out a relieved sigh.

“Thanks for helping me up. And that’s it, Keiki-kun.”

“Huh?”

“I’ve caught you!”

“Ah! Oh no!?”

In the brief moment when Keiki let down his guard, Sayuki reached out for him with her hands. With a dull banging sound, the girl’s hand was slammed against the wall behind Keiki, leaving him no room to escape. Of course, Keiki knew exactly what this skill was called.

“A reverse wall-slam…!?”

Whenever a boy does this to a girl, you call it a ‘Wall-slam’, but when the opposite happens, and the girl becomes the assertive one, it’s a ‘reverse wall-slam’, or so Keiki had heard. Sayuki must have been thinking of this back when she tripped. Specifically she had made him drop his guard, and had used this chance against him.

“Heh heh, this is the result of my hard labor!”

“Excuse me, but you’re too close. Your chest is hitting me…”

“Who cares about that?!”

“Seriously, they’re hitting me quite a bit.”

“Shouldn’t you be happy?”

“To be honest, I’m delighted.”

“Anyway, you won’t be able to run away anymore.”

“…It seems like it.”

There was a big chest in front of him, and to his back was a wall. To his left and right were two arms.

“So why did you run away again?”

“That’s… Um…”

“Is it some kind of abandonment roleplay? Sorry, but I’m not in the mood for it.”

“I never intended for such a roleplay to happen.”

“Then stop running away already!”

“S-Sayuki-senpai…?” Keiki was surprised by the loud voice that Sayuki let out.

This might have been the first time he had seen his Senpai so agitated. The two of them were at a distance close enough to touch each other, and from this close distance the girl made a distressed face as she dropped her gaze.

“Being avoided by Keiki-kun… makes me feel really lonely…”

“Huh…?”

“I’m about to graduate. So we won’t be able to spend as much time together…”

“Ah…”

When Keiki heard that, he realized something. He had been ignoring the inevitable future. Tokihara Sayuki is a third-year student. That means she’s going to graduate from this school soon.

I see. That’s why she was tidying up the locker…

She was most likely trying to clean up as much as she could. Once February arrives, all the third years would be free from school, so she’d be retiring from the club as well. Even though Sayuki had treasured her time in the calligraphy club until the very end, Keiki tried to distance himself from her. He only needed to look at the tears in her eyes to realize how much that had hurt her.

I’m the worst.

Keiki had only thought about himself, without even bothering to consider her feelings. He couldn’t have done anything worse.

“Did I do something to make you angry, Keiki-kun?”

“No. You’re not the one who’s at fault, Senpai.”

“Then why were you avoiding me?”

“It’s my fault. I made things awkward myself…”

“Awkward?”

Keiki wouldn’t be able to hide it any longer. And he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to betray his Senpai’s feelings anymore.

“During the day of the first shrine visit, you came to my place, right?”

“Indeed. We sat under the kotatsu.”

“And I lost consciousness because of your breasts.”

“I’m still sorry about that.”

“After that, you gave me a lap pillow.”

“Because I thought your head would hurt if you left it on the floor.”

“During that time, I actually woke up midway.”

“…Huh?” Sayuki’s eyes opened wide.

“I woke up fairly quickly, but I enjoyed your lap pillow so much that I pretended I was sleeping.”

“Eh, wait? Hold on. This is too much to take in. So basically you were awake the whole time?”

“Yes, I was just pretending to be asleep.”

“So that means…”

The Kouhai she had assumed to be asleep was actually wide awake. When it dawned on Sayuki what that meant, her face turned beet red.

“You heard everything I said?”

“…Basically, yes.”

“How could this happen!?” Sayuki hid her face with both her hands. “I want to crawl into a hole and die.”

“I figured as much.” Keiki would have reacted the same way if he were in her position. “I’m sorry for lying to you. But don’t worry, I won’t have any weird misunderstandings.”

“Misunderstandings like what?”

“Knowing Senpai, you must have been talking about a master and servant relationship. That you like your owner. I almost got the wrong idea that you actually had feelings for me.”

“…It’s not a misunderstanding.”

“Huh…?” Keiki’s gaze shot to Sayuki, who spoke with a sulking tone.

“It wasn’t… a misunderstanding…”

“Do you mean…?”

When he saw his Senpai’s moist eyes, Keiki felt his heartbeat accelerate.

“……”

“……”

They were both blushing, and a sweet atmosphere clung to the two of them. At the same time, a crowd started to form around them.

“—Hey, look at them. Is someone going to confess?”

“—A lover’s quarrel? Just watching them makes my heart race.”

“—Calm down. They’ll notice.”

Thanks to their loud conversation, people gathered around, watching them from the doors of the classrooms or corners of the hallways. To them, it looked like Keiki and Sayuki were a couple in the middle of a lover’s quarrel. Feeling uncomfortable, Sayuki whispered to Keiki.

“…Let’s go somewhere else.”

“…Yes, let’s.”

They chose the calligraphy clubroom for a calmer location. Since Sayuki had announced that the club was on break, nobody was there. Sayuki turned on the switch to the stove, stood with her back to the window, and crossed her arms with a displeased ‘Hmph’.

“…Is that bad?” She asked.

“Huh?”

“Is it bad that I like you, Keiki-kun!?”

“Are you getting angry at me!?”

“Yes, I am! I love you, Keiki-kun! I want you to hug me! I always look at pictures of you until I fall asleep, and I want to be lovey-dovey with you! I’m sorry for feeling this way!”

“S-Sayuki-senpai…?”

“…I’m sorry, it all rushed to my head.”

“A bit, yeah…”

“I was trying to hide my embarrassment, so just forget about it.” Her face was still red like before, so she must have really been trying to hide her embarrassment. “Still, I didn’t think that you actually were awake back there, Keiki-kun.”

“I’m really sorry about that.”

“It’s fine. To be honest, I’ve been worried ever since you went on that date with Koga-san.”

“Worried about what?”

“I thought that Koga-san might get swept along in the atmosphere, confess to you, and you’d start dating right away. Well, I’m glad that it was just me thinking too deeply into it.”

“A-Ahaha…”

In reality, Sayuki wouldn’t be more correct about the confession. But Keiki somehow managed to cover it up on the day of the first shrine visit, and he decided to take that secret to the grave.

“I thought about it a lot back then. I realized I didn’t want Keiki-kun to be taken away by her. That I wanted to be the one next to you, Keiki-kun.”

“Sayuki-senpai…”

“That’s why all my feelings just came gushing out when I gave you that lap pillow.”

“So that’s what that was.”

“You know, I like you more than you might think. When you called out to me, right before the club would have been disbanded, and showed up every day in the room… I’ve liked you ever since then.”

“………”

Every single word the girl said sent warm and passionate shivers down into Keiki’s heart. There was no way Keiki would be able to stay calm if a girl he knew so well used words such as ‘like’ or ‘love’ when talking to him.

“Ah. You’re turning red, Keiki-kun.”

“Whose fault do you think that is?!”

“Fufu. I really never get tired of you, Keiki-kun.” Sayuki snickered in a teasing tone.

Her smile was so radiant that Keiki couldn’t complain.

“And this is just like you, Keiki-kun. I tried to win you over and show you so many times, but you never realized.”

“No no no, there’s no way I would have. You always talked about wanting to become my pet or wanting me to become your master, so I never would have thought you felt this way.”

Even Keiki wasn’t so arrogant as to just blindly assume that she held romantic feelings for him.

“Keiki-kun.”

“Y-Yes.”

“Think this through, will you? There’s no girl who would want a boy she doesn’t even like to become her master.”

“A normal girl wouldn’t want to become someone else’s pet.”

In this case, Tokihara Sayuki’s fetish made things too complicated.

“I really think that you have the talent to become a sadist, Keiki-kun.”

“That’s not exactly a compliment.”

“I’d probably be very happy if you became my master. You’d treat me well every day, using both belt and candy to make me feel blessed and excited at the same time.”

“I-Is that so…?”

Keiki didn’t want to imagine that kind of thing.

“But there are times when I wouldn’t mind forgetting all of that.”

“Eh?”

“I’m not going to give up on becoming a pet, you know? But there’s no meaning to staying thickheaded if the person I like ends up hating me.”

“………”

“I want to be even closer with Keiki-kun. And for that, I wouldn’t mind forgetting about the master and pet relationship. As long as you keep me at your side, I can give up on being a pet.”

“Sayuki-senpai, do you mean…?”

It sounded almost identical to what Yuika had said.

“So, if possible…” Inside the empty calligraphy clubroom, filled with memories, the girl made her second confession. “…Please make me your girlfriend.”