Ch. 75.1 - Nogami’s Invitation Pt1
Pa-pa.
Pa-pa.
The rising sun cast golden light through the slits of the curtains, spilling onto the floor like paint poured from a palette. Mixed in with it was the sound of the neighbors beating dust out of their blankets on the balcony.
Ah… so today really is a holiday…
Hearing that familiar whap-whap always stirred up an instinctive sense of peace.
“Mm…”
Chouko stretched her sore, jelly-soft limbs, letting out a catlike, contented hum.
A ceiling she didn’t recognize.
A scent that felt vaguely familiar.
And that little jolt when her leg bumped the edge of a bed that wasn’t hers…
“……”
Still half-asleep and foggy-headed, she almost screamed, only to barely hold it back as memory rushed in: she’d stayed over at Hoshikawa’s place last night.
As she peeled herself out of sleep, her mind grew clearer, and then came the flood of memories from last night’s late-night talk.
All that “as friends” nonsense, that outrageous “first person I’ll never forget” confession…
It was mortifying enough to die on the spot!
Curling into herself, she hugged her head and pressed her back to the wall. If she weren’t afraid of waking the still-sleeping Harutaki beside her, she’d be rolling all over the bed in pure shame by now.
Hoshikawa really was the devil written in scripture, the demon king of every myth.
She had no idea what possessed her last night, letting herself blurt out stories she’d never shared with anyone else, childhood memories of playing with Onii, getting scolded together… memories that belonged to just the two of them… shared with a third person.
But, Hoshikawa was her friend.
Right?
Friends share secrets, they talk about everything, right?
She repeated this self-comfort like a mantra, though her thoughts inevitably drifted to the things Hoshikawa had told her.
So the Hoshikawa who always seemed so composed, so effortlessly confident, had also struggled because of how others saw him, had been isolated, pushed out, and once sank into a really dark place.
So the cool, mature, handsome Hoshikawa she knew had actually set fire to his own backyard when he was little.
So the boy who was practically the blueprint for every parent’s “why can’t you be more like him” had once been beaten so hard with his mom’s stick for misbehaving that he couldn’t get out of bed.
Honestly… with a mother like that, no wonder he grew up to be who he was.
It was exactly like her own mother.
Exactly like her great-grandmother, whose face never once knew what “smile” meant, strict, unyielding, impossible to refute,
Because it really was for their own good.
“Pfft…”
Sitting up, she stared down at Harutaki’s sleeping face for a moment and couldn’t help laughing quietly.
What the heck?
This guy who strutted around charming people and playing the smug heartbreaker…
He was way cuter asleep.
Honestly, he was more likable like this.
His features were clean and sharply defined, long lashes trembling faintly with each REM twitch. His nose rose straight and refined, flaring slightly with his breath, and his lips, thin and soft, held a faint rosy tint…
Even his skin was annoyingly smooth and pale.
Not inferior to a girl’s at all.
Why did a boy need to put this much effort into looking good?
She sighed. If Onii could pick up even half of this guy’s grooming and social skills, maybe he wouldn’t be treated like some gloomy nerd all the time.
Well… that was also the main reason she never worried about Onii at all,
Because who else besides her would even notice him?
Still… Hoshikawa’s skin really was nice. And he slept like a baby.
Just like last night, she leaned in close again, scrutinizing him like some rare tiny creature.
With his calm breathing brushing against her cheek, a faint hint of soap mixed with the warm scent unique to boys drifted into her nose, her head filled instantly with the smell she’d fallen asleep surrounded by all night.
And then—
Warmth brushed her lips.
She froze, snapped back to reality, and jerked away, rubbing her mouth with the back of her hand.
T— That was… completely unconscious…
She slipped off the bed in a panic, grabbed her slippers, and practically fled the room.
France had la bise, didn’t they?!
It was just a friendly greeting between friends! That’s all!
Peeking back at the still-slumbering Hoshikawa, she shut the door with a guilty flutter in her chest.
Setting aside the reality of it, did he really have no blame in this?
He had to take responsibility for tempting her with that defenseless face!
Still… he didn’t know anything, so this counted as compensation.
Just this once, okay, Hoshikawa.
Heading to the third-floor terrace to pick up her uniform, Chouko grinned like a little villain who’d pulled off the perfect prank.
…
Dun-dun-dun~
Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun,
“Ugh…”
A barrage of ringtone noise yanked Harutaki out of a dream filled with soft, sweet arms around him. Barely awake, feeling like his consciousness was chained down, he groped for his phone on his desk.
Click,
“Hello…? This is… Hoshikawa…”
“It’s already this late and you’re still half-asleep? Seriously, Hoshikawa, you’re unbelievable.”
Nogami’s bright, energetic voice burst from the speaker, jolting him straight upright as he spun toward the bed.
Thank god.
Seeing the bed empty, he exhaled silently in relief.
But wait…
He hadn’t done anything with Shihou that crossed friendly boundaries, nor did he have any official relationship with Nogami…
So why was he panicking?
Right. He had nothing to be afraid of.
With that realization, confidence suddenly surged in him. Even his voice grew steadier as he spoke.
“So, what’s up? Nogami-san calling me this early, has something happened?”
“Huh? Can’t I call you for no reason?”
Is that what he meant?!
He clicked his tongue internally. What a handful of a woman. Outwardly, he chuckled it off.
“Of course you can. It’s break time, if I go a whole day without hearing Nogami-san’s voice, it feels like a bunch of cats are climbing all over me.”
“Pfft, what do you mean ‘cats climbing all over you’? Gross.”
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