The night had settled over the room like a heavy curtain of velvet, wrapping everything in deep darkness.
Now and then the sound of a car passing through some distant street drifted in from outside the window.
The evening breeze slipped in through the gap in the window, gently teasing the edge of the curtains.
Tsushima Kagami could feel Yukinoshita Shizuku's breathing beside him growing quick and shallow, and the faint, tense trembling of her body.
Even though he couldn't make out her face, he knew she had to be looking at him.
And just as he imagined, Yukinoshita Shizuku's eyes were brimming at that moment with a light woven of anticipation and worry.
The mood had already come this far.
They were close enough now to feel each other's heartbeat.
Everything felt as if it were being pushed along by some unseen force.
Naturally, inevitably, like water finding its channel.
Kagami's heart pounded in his chest like a war drum, blood rushing to his cheeks until he could feel them burning without even needing to touch them.
Facing a Yukinoshita Shizuku who had already stripped away that thin veil tonight, and who still looked so heartbreakingly lovely.
How could he refuse?
How could he possibly refuse?
In the darkness, drawn by instinct as if pulled by something, he leaned slowly closer.
The instant his lips met hers, time seemed to freeze.
Soft, warm, carrying the clean sweetness that belonged only to a girl.
Yukinoshita Shizuku's body stiffened for a moment, then relaxed.
Kagami could feel her eyelashes fluttering, brushing across his eyelids like the wings of a butterfly.
Her eyes lit up in the dark, alight with a joy and excitement she couldn't hide.
Like fireworks suddenly bursting open across a night sky.
Their lips tangled together, from tentative to deep, from gentle to fervent.
Kagami's hand found its way to her waist without his meaning it to, sliding slowly beneath her nightclothes.
Even through the thin fabric he could feel the heat of her body climbing at a startling rate.
Yukinoshita Shizuku's hands rose to his shoulders, fingertips pressing in.
As if gripping something she never wanted to let go of.
Both of their breaths came faster and faster.
The sound of heartbeats echoed between their pressed-together chests, until neither could tell whose was whose.
In that small space, the air turned scorching and thick.
Dopamine, secreted endlessly by brains driven by hormones, tangled together with each other's breath.
In this moment, each took pleasure in the other's pleasure.
Kagami's mind began to grow hazy, as if the whole world had been reduced to this one person in his arms.
This girl who had long since set his heart racing.
His left arm wrapped around Yukinoshita Shizuku's slender waist, while his right hand climbed steadily higher beneath her clothes.
And just as he thought he'd found the next handhold to climb toward.
"Click."
A blinding white light snapped on, tearing through the darkness that filled the room without any warning.
The living room was flooded with brightness once more.
The two of them froze instantly, unable to move, as if struck by a Body-Fixing Incantation.
Kagami's mind went blank, only a single thought echoing round and round.
Who?
He looked at Yukinoshita Shizuku, and she wore exactly the same expression he did.
After a single glance shared between them.
He and Yukinoshita Shizuku turned their heads at the same time, looking toward the switch on the wall by the entryway.
No one was there. Nothing at all.
Then, on instinct, they both turned toward the couch leaning against the inner bedroom door.
There was another switch here that controlled the living room lights.
Right on the armrest at the right side of the couch.
A small figure was stretching its body out as far as it could, one fuzzy paw still resting on the switch panel.
It was Yukino!
That black-and-white cat, mischievous in the most unexpected ways one moment, impossibly sweet and obedient the next.
It seemed that earlier, in the dark, it had been drawn by the faint glow of the switch.
And so it hadn't been able to resist getting up to a little mischief again.
It did this sort of thing every now and then.
Kagami and Yukinoshita Shizuku would often get up during the day to find the living room lights, which they'd definitely switched off the night before, somehow turned on again.
They'd eventually realized it was Yukino, drawn in the middle of the night by the glow of the switch, giving it a press whenever it had nothing better to do.
But clearly, the timing today had been more than a little off.
It tilted its head, its big golden eyes full of innocence and curiosity.
As if it couldn't understand why, when it had merely turned on a light, the humans in the living room had suddenly turned into a pair of statues.
Kagami and Yukinoshita Shizuku looked at each other.
They shared a smile.
And then…
Embarrassment came surging in like a tide, drowning the tender mood of a moment ago in an instant.
Kagami could feel his ears burning; he didn't need a mirror to know they were red enough to bleed.
Yukinoshita Shizuku wasn't faring much better. Her cheeks were tinted a faint rose, especially vivid under the light.
They looked away at the same time, and then, at the same time, couldn't help stealing glances back at each other.
Their gazes collided in midair, then hurriedly darted apart.
As if they were playing a game where whoever spoke first would lose.
Yukino seemed to grow bored with the two humans suddenly ceasing all interaction.
It gave a yawn, leapt lightly down from the couch, and padded off toward its bed with an elegant feline gait.
Its tail stood high, its whole manner saying, "What's any of this got to do with me?"
Kagami cleared his throat, a guilty edge to his voice.
"Um…"
"Should we keep going?"
The moment the words left his mouth he regretted them.
What kind of question was that?
So stupid, stupid enough that he wanted to find a crack in the floor and crawl into it.
Yukinoshita Shizuku lowered her head, the flush on her cheeks spreading to the tips of her ears.
She bit her lower lip, as if making some momentous decision.
After a stretch of silence.
She slowly reached out and gently pushed against Kagami's chest.
Her strength was so slight that it could hardly be called a push.
It was more a symbolic gesture, expressing a wish to "pause."
"Wait for me a moment."
Her voice carried a trace of guilt too, and along with it a soft, tender note Kagami had never heard from her before.
With that, she stood and walked, her steps a little flustered, toward the bedroom next door.
The door closed softly behind her.
But Kagami still heard the click of the latch sliding into the doorframe.
Only he was left in the living room now, along with a cat in the corner that lifted its head from time to time to watch the two dull humans perform.
Kagami got up in a daze, then sat down on the couch.
His eyes drifted absently after the halo of the ceiling lamp.
That thrilling experience in the dark just now had left a man who was thirty-odd in soul yet could still fairly be called a shy virgin.
Feeling as if he were caught in a dream.
Just now… that was real, wasn't it?
It wasn't a dream, was it?
He reached up and touched his own lips; that soft sensation seemed to linger on them still.
His heart began to race again, and he drew a deep breath.
He tried to calm himself down, but it didn't work in the slightest.
The minutes and seconds ticked by.
He didn't know how long had passed.
Maybe five minutes.
Maybe half a century?
Maybe even longer.
As he waited, he ran through every single moment between the two of them, from when they'd first met all the way to tonight, in his mind.
As if to confirm that all of it was real.
A creak.
The door finally opened.
When Yukinoshita Shizuku stepped out of the bedroom, Kagami felt as though he'd forgotten how to breathe.
She was wearing a set of aqua-toned athletic maid attire.
The design of the outfit's upper half cleverly blended the elegance of a Victorian maid with the dynamism of modern tennis wear.
The main color was a low-saturation pale aqua blue, accented with pure white.
It broke free of the constraint of the traditional maid dress, presenting a kind of healthy, vibrant, functional sweetness!
Kagami looked toward Yukinoshita.
A white maid's headpiece adorned her hair, the two ties trailing down at the back of her head.
The neckline was cut open just right.
No, given Shizuku's figure at the moment, it should be said it was cut open a bit further than he'd expected.
The cinched-waist tailoring perfectly traced the curves of her body.
The short sleeves were gathered tight at the cuffs and trimmed with white lace.
A white apron was tied at her waist in a bow that swayed gently with each step she took.
The hem of the skirt was short enough to reach the very top of her thighs, baring a stretch of fair, slender leg.
The most eye-catching thing of all was the pair of white over-the-knee stockings on her legs.
Thin white silk of around 20 denier, semi-transparent.
Yukinoshita Shizuku's fair, tender, rosy thighs were wrapped in the semi-transparent over-the-knee white.
Giving off a hazy beauty that was there and yet not quite there.
The tops of the stockings pressed into the thigh just above the knee, drawing out a fullness that was exactly right.
A small patch of bare skin was left at the back, that absolute territory, before it vanished beneath the hem.
Image: "aqua-toned," location: "Images/1776978416-100460486-114743592.jpg"
Image: "aqua-toned," location: "Images/1776978488-100460486-114743592.jpg"
"How… did you find them?"
Kagami looked at Yukinoshita Shizuku as she was now and asked, a guilty edge to the question.
Of course he remembered this outfit.
Last October, at the culture festival, when he'd designed team uniforms for the Manga Research Club and the Light Music Club.
On a whim, he'd designed several sets of casual wear as well.
Everything from jirai-kei to athletic maid outfits.
The styles ranged from conservative to bold, the exposure from modest to daring.
There were also different color variants of each type.
At the time he'd only been drawing them for fun, but once he'd finished, the more he looked, the more pleased he was, and the more his hands itched.
He admitted it, this was exactly his sort of thing.
He'd even seriously considered whether he should try expanding into a new line of work.
Like opening a clothing shop that specialized in designs in this style.
Attire like this was bound to be a runaway hit in the future, guaranteed to sell like wildfire.
Of course, that was on the condition that someone could handle running it for him.
He was just an artist; the business of opening a shop was beyond his abilities.
The design drafts had later been handed to Kosaka Akane, and she was the only one who knew about it.
She'd taken the drawings to a high-end tailoring atelier in the city and had several finished sets custom-made.
The day the finished pieces arrived, Kagami sat alone in his room grinning like a fool at them for a solid half hour.
As for the measurements, from the very start he'd had them made to Yukinoshita Shizuku's body data.
He knew every detail of this girl's body by heart.
This, though, was certainly not something he could bring himself to let Yukinoshita Shizuku know.
Once the clothes were finished, they'd stayed tucked away in the farthest corner of his wardrobe.
He'd assumed this secret would rot away in that wardrobe forever.
But now, Yukinoshita Shizuku stood before him wearing this very outfit.
As if it had been born to be tailored for her.
No, it had been tailored to her figure to begin with.
Every part of it sat perfectly; every detail was exactly right.
Like a tacit understanding between designer and model spanning time and space.
Under his gaze Yukinoshita Shizuku grew a little self-conscious, turning her body slightly to the side.
Her fingers pinched the edge of the skirt without her realizing.
"What is it?"
Her voice carried a trace of shyness, and a touch of uncertainty as well.
"You don't like it?"
"I like it."
Kagami answered almost at once, so fast that even he felt a little embarrassed.
"I like it a lot!"
He paused, then couldn't stop himself from asking again.
"How did you find them?"
The corners of Yukinoshita Shizuku's mouth curved upward, revealing a smile with a hint of mischief in it.
"I found them when I was putting your clothes away for you the other day."
She said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"I know exactly what's tucked into every corner of your wardrobe, you know."
Kagami's face went red all at once.
It was true that, aside from these clothes, he'd stashed away a few other things as well.
But then Kagami remembered that he was an adult manga artist.
For an adult manga artist to own a few strange and unusual costumes and props was surely a perfectly normal thing.
At that thought, Kagami forced himself to stay calm again.
In other words, when Shizuku was tidying his room and organizing his wardrobe for him.
She'd already seen all those explosively risqué outfits and props?
What had she thought at the time?
Would she think he was some kind of weirdo?
No, she'd put one on.
So at the very least she wasn't repulsed by it.
And maybe even… she liked it too?
Yukinoshita Shizuku walked up in front of him, close enough that he could catch the faint scent of body wash on her.
She reached out and took hold of Kagami's wrist.
Guiding his hand, she slowly pressed it against her own chest.
Through the single thin layer of fabric, Kagami could feel a warm, soft sensation.
And the racing heartbeat beneath the cloth, and…
She wasn't wearing anything underneath!
All right, so normally at home, after her bath, Shizuku didn't put on underwear.
She'd even often hug his arm as they watched TV together.
It was something he should have long grown used to.
So why, today, was he feeling a brand-new sensation and restlessness so completely unlike any other time?
Hearing Kagami's breathing turn ragged, feeling his palm grip involuntarily with the faintest pressure.
Yukinoshita Shizuku turned her face away, the tips of her ears tinged a faint pink.
Her voice was so soft it was as if she feared being overheard.
"In this department."
"I do have a bit of confidence."
Kagami's brain crashed completely in that instant.
He could feel the warmth beneath his palm, feel that soft, full curve of shape.
Feel the tremor of her heartbeat coming through the cloth.
He wanted to say something, but his tongue was tied in a knot; not a single word would come out.
Yukinoshita Shizuku slowly closed her eyes.
Her lashes trembled faintly, as if in nervousness and anticipation both.
She rose lightly onto the tips of her toes, her body tilting slightly forward, her lips inching closer bit by bit.
Breaths intertwining, air mingling.
The air turned scorching and thin.
Kagami gazed at that pure, lovely face growing clearer and clearer before him.
Brows and eyes like a painting, the bridge of her nose delicate and straight, her lips slightly parted.
He should have closed his eyes now, should have met her, should have let it all unfold naturally and completed this kiss.
But…!
A thought suddenly flashed through his mind!
A very, very important thought that absolutely could not be ignored!
"Wait a second!"
Kagami abruptly let go of her and pulled his body back.
Without another word, he turned at once and strode quickly toward the entryway.
His legs were a little weak, yet his steps were fast enough to look like a man fleeing.
"Where are you going?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku's voice came from behind him, clearly laced with panic and confusion.
Kagami heard hurried footsteps chasing after him, and then the hem of his clothes was pinched tight by her slender fingers.
He turned his head and saw Yukinoshita Shizuku's face.
Her eyes were already brimming with tears, like crystals about to shatter under the light.
Her lips trembled faintly, her face written all over with terror and hurt.
Those clear eyes, which a moment ago had been full of anticipation and tenderness.
Now held nothing but frightened unease.
Yukinoshita Shizuku just clutched the hem of Kagami's clothes like that, head bowed, saying nothing more.
After coming all this way, could Kagami still not accept her?
Kagami saw the redness at the tip of her nose, the sheen of tears welling in her eyes and ready to spill over at any moment.
The sight wrung his heart tight, and he hurried to explain.
"I… it's not that…"
His voice broke into fragments from sheer awkwardness, like a radio on the fritz.
"It's just, you know… the little umbrella…"
"I… I'll go buy some right now…"
Only after the words were out did he realize what he was saying, and his face flushed red enough to bleed in an instant.
The foolishness of a shy virgin laid utterly bare.
He wished he could slap himself. Was there any need to put it so bluntly?
Hearing Kagami say this, Yukinoshita Shizuku clearly hadn't expected it, and she froze.
Tears still clung to her lashes, but that expression of standing at the edge of an abyss had vanished.
In its place was a complicated look that was hard to put into words.
She lowered her head, but the fingers gripping the hem of his clothes didn't loosen.
If anything, they clutched a little tighter.
"Not using a little umbrella… is fine too."
"The first time…"
"I don't want to use that…"
"And besides…"
"I only just finished a couple of days ago…"
"So…"
"It should be fine… shouldn't it?"
Her voice was as faint as a gnat's,
but in the quiet living room, every word was clear enough to bore straight into Kagami's eardrums.
She lifted her head and glanced at him.
Then she let go and slowly stepped backward.
Her gaze stayed fixed on Kagami the whole time, as if she feared he might vanish at any moment.
She retreated to the center of the living room, and stopped.
And then.
She reached out and began to untie the apron's laces.
The bow came loose, and the apron slid to the floor.
Her fingers moved to the neckline, one button, two buttons.
The aqua fabric slid slowly down, baring exquisite collarbones and rounded shoulders.
The clothing came down to her waist.
Two full, rounded tsukimi dango were presented before Kagami's eyes for the first time from the front.
Even without the confinement of a bra, they were still so full, so pert.
Seeing the already somewhat spellbound look in Kagami's eyes.
Yukinoshita Shizuku couldn't help thrusting out her chest a little in pride.
Then she bent forward, and the two tsukimi dango, subject to the pull of gravity, dipped downward as well.
Like two great white rabbits, leaping up and then landing lightly.
Firm, holding their shape.
Her hands slid from the base of her thighs slowly down toward the cuffs of the white silk wrapped around them.
And just as her fingers hooked the edge of the stockings, about to peel them down…
"Don't!"
Kagami practically shouted it.
His voice rang through the quiet living room, abrupt and loud.
It even startled Yukino, dozing in the corner, who pricked up her ears and peered over.
Yukinoshita Shizuku's movements froze.
She raised her head to look at Kagami, and the tears finally broke the dam and spilled over.
Silently sliding from her eyes, running down her cheeks.
She bit her lip hard, her body trembling faintly.
As if desperately holding something back.
So it really… still wasn't going to work?
He really still couldn't accept her?
She really had just been too impatient after all?
She wanted to say something to cover the wretched state she was in, but her throat felt as though something were stopping it, and no sound would come out.
The tears kept welling up, blurring her vision.
She could barely make out Kagami's expression.
Kagami looked at her tears, and his chest clenched hard.
He rushed over to stand in front of Yukinoshita Shizuku, cupping her face in both hands.
His thumbs gently wiped away the tears on her cheeks.
"That's not what I mean!"
His voice came fast and urgent.
"I mean…"
"Don't take off the stockings!"
The air went suddenly quiet.
Yukinoshita Shizuku blinked, tears still clinging to her lashes.
But the sorrow in her eyes had been replaced by confusion.
"What?"
"The stockings…"
Kagami repeated it with a red face, his voice growing smaller and smaller.
"Don't take them off… I like seeing you wearing them…"
Before he'd even finished, he couldn't take it anymore himself.
And he hurriedly turned his head aside, not daring to look at Yukinoshita Shizuku's expression.
Yukinoshita Shizuku was stunned for a moment.
Then she burst out laughing.
The tears still hung on her face, but the corners of her mouth and her eyes curved into a lovely arc.
She raised a hand and lightly thumped Kagami's chest.
The force was so light it was more like a tickle.
"Idiot."
Her voice carried the catch of tears, yet was just as clearly laced with laughter.
Then she placed both hands on Kagami's body.
And slowly began to help him out of his clothes…
"Um…"
Kagami, going along with Yukinoshita Shizuku's movements, spoke up slowly.
"Mm?"
"Do you want the light on, or off?"
"Then let's try it both on and off."
Yukinoshita Shizuku gave her answer plainly and directly.
No one knows how love begins, yet once it does, it runs deep…
The next day's sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the back courtyard and into the living room of Hayase Kinue's house.
At the dining table, besides Hayase Kinue, sat Tsukuyomi Komoe and Douraku Utage as well.
All three of them had dark circles under their eyes so pronounced it looked as if someone had smeared two patches of deep eyeshadow into their sockets.
Tsukuyomi Komoe cradled a cup of hot coffee in both hands, her eyes half open, half shut.
Her head kept nodding downward, then jerking sharply back up.
Douraku Utage sat up straight enough, but her gaze was unfocused.
The focus of her eyes had landed on who-knew-what, the piece of toast in her hand chewed for a long while without ever being swallowed.
Hayase Kinue slumped over the table, chin propped on the back of her hand, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.
All three wore expressions as if confirming something.
After a long while, the three of them finally glanced at one another.
Then they all lifted their heads to look at the ceiling in unison.
And at last let out a relieved breath.
"It's finally stopped."
Tsukuyomi Komoe heaved a long sigh, her voice carrying the relief of a survivor of some ordeal.
All night long, the sounds coming from Kagami and Shizuku had never once let up.
Do you have any idea how much torment it was, lying in the next room?
It wasn't that Tsukuyomi Komoe hadn't thought of using earplugs, but she'd searched forever only to find the house didn't own any such thing.
Pressing a pillow over her head hadn't helped either; those sounds seemed to have grown legs.
Slipping into every crack, finding their way through everything.
"I was forced to listen all night too."
"Shizuku kept calling out 'stop' one minute, then 'don't stop' the next, then crying for a while."
"And then calling out 'don't stop' again."
Douraku Utage bit into her toast without any expression, her chewing mechanical and slow.
"As her homeroom teacher, I honestly didn't know whether I should go knock on the door."
Hayase Kinue sighed too, her expression a mix of worry and the wistfulness of someone who'd been there.
"Young people, their first time, they don't know any restraint."
"I was really afraid they'd wreck their bodies."
She said it in the world-weary tone of a seasoned veteran.
Tsukuyomi Komoe and Douraku Utage turned to look at her at the same time.
Tsukuyomi Komoe set down her coffee cup, the corner of her mouth twitching slightly.
"Kinue… you talk as if you have a lot of experience."
Douraku Utage jumped in fast, a rare note of teasing in her tone.
"But actually, you don't have any experience either, do you."
Hayase Kinue's face went red in an instant, as if someone had exposed some tremendous secret.
She opened her mouth to argue back, but after a long string of "you… you…" she couldn't manage a single complete sentence.
Finally she gritted her teeth and pointed at the two across from her.
"Neither do the two of you!"
Douraku Utage's hand, holding the coffee cup, went still.
The smile froze on Tsukuyomi Komoe's face.
The three of them exchanged a glance, and the air fell silent for three whole seconds.
"Haah…"
Three sighs sounded almost at once, heavy and perfectly in sync.
The dark circles under their eyes stood out all the more starkly in the morning light.
Hayase Kinue silently topped up everyone's cup with more coffee.
Tsukuyomi Komoe murmured a thanks as she took her cup, while Douraku Utage simply dragged the entire pot over to her side.
"Once I'm done eating, I'm going back to catch up on sleep."
"At least it's still the weekend today."
Douraku Utage alternated a sip of coffee with a bite of bread.
By now the caffeine was doing nothing at all against her drowsiness.
Beside her, Tsukuyomi Komoe said, eating the breakfast Hayase Kinue had prepared bright and early.
"I'm going back to sleep the moment I finish too."
"Finally I can get some sleep in peace."
Hayase Kinue nodded in agreement as well.
She waved a hand while still slumped on the table.
"Hurry up and finish and clear out, the both of you. I need to catch up on sleep too."
"I spent the whole night listening to the creak, creak of that bed rocking through the ceiling."
"It was even more torturous than it was for you two!"
The quiet didn't last long.
The two of them nodded in shared sympathy.
And picked up the pace of their eating.
But just as the two of them were nearly finished.
Sounds came from upstairs again.
Faint, there and not-quite-there.
But in the early-morning living room, with virtually no effective soundproofing through the ceiling and the wooden framework.
In the hushed living room they came through, if anything, especially clearly.
All three faces froze at once.
Tsukuyomi Komoe's eyelid twitched.
Douraku Utage's hand, lifting her coffee, stopped in midair.
Hayase Kinue slowly buried her face in the crook of her arm.
"Here we go again…"
"Aren't they even a little tired?"
"How do they have the energy for all this?!"
Tsukuyomi Komoe complained in a limp, exhausted voice.
Another long silence stretched between the three of them.
At last, Douraku Utage drained her coffee in one go, expressionless, and set down the cup.
As if she'd fully accepted the fact that there'd be no sleeping today, the corner of her mouth actually curved up.
"Young people really are something. So full of energy."
Hayase Kinue lifted her head from the crook of her arm and glanced at the ceiling.
Then she looked at her two companions, comrades in the same misery, and shook her head helplessly.
As the creaking coming from the ceiling grew more and more violent.
Yukinoshita Shizuku's cries, so familiar from the night before, rose up once more.
Now urgent, now drawn-out.
Now high and ringing, now soft and plaintive.
As the three of them listened, they found themselves pressing their own thighs together without meaning to…
On the last weekend before the spring term began, for two full days and one night.
The front door of Kagami and Yukinoshita Shizuku's home stayed firmly locked the entire time, the curtains drawn tight and never once opened.
Not once did the two of them step outside…
____
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