My extroverted girlfriend has zero sense of boundaries — Is It really wrong to take her home right after we meet? - Episode 6
The room was filled with dim light.
Ayano’s deep, transparent indigo eyes shimmered seductively as she looked up at me.
I was kneeling with one knee on the sofa, one hand placed gently on her head.
There was something stirring from deep within my gut at the strange situation of looking down on someone I was so used to looking up at. I suppressed that dark emotion and confirmed with the calmest poker face I could muster,『Alright, I’m going in』.
“Mm.”
She gave a small nod, closing her eyelids as if surrendering everything to me.
The faint pink on her cheeks rapidly turned a deep red, and she bit her lip tightly as if to stifle the tension.
‘Don’t make that kind of face…’
Just for this moment, I missed that carefree, foolish smile of hers.
If only she had laughed, said it was just a game, just a joke—then I wouldn’t be hesitating like this. I sincerely wished she’d just grin like usual.
But I had to go through with it. Otherwise, it wouldn’t end. This was a punishment game, after all.
“…Am I being a good girl?”
“Y-Yeah.”
Taking a short, deep breath, I stroked her hair gently from top to bottom, making sure not to go against the flow.
“Am I amazing?”
“I think… you’re amazing. You’re doing your best, Sasagawa-san.”
“…Ehehe.”
The feeling of her was completely different from that of a guy, and once again I was reminded that she was a girl.
“O-One more time.”
Her moist, luscious lips trembled as she managed to form the words.
Kyousuke softly murmured『Yeah』and returned his right hand to where it had been before, tracing the same path once more.
“One more time!”
In her voice was a desperate eagerness, like a baby swallow begging for food.
Silently complying with her request, Kyousuke continued, and she promptly demanded,『One more time』.
From that point on, without any further prompting from her, Kyousuke kept stroking her on his own accord.
Slowly, but surely…
The stiffness in Ayano’s expression began to melt away bit by bit. Like snow thawing, or like a tightly closed flower blooming. Her tightly clenched lips softened, and her lowered eyelids lifted, revealing moist sapphire eyes that shimmered as they were exposed to the air.
“More… you can be rougher, if you want.”
Her slow blinking had a seductive quality that made Kyousuke gulp audibly.
He didn’t really understand what she meant by rougher, but thinking maybe it was like this, he began tousling her hair more vigorously.
Her hair became messier. Worried that he might be going too far, he started to ease up, but Ayano narrowed her eyes, tilted her chin up, and pushed her head against his palm. It felt like she was telling him not to stop.
If that’s what she wanted, then…
Kyousuke responded to her request even more fiercely.
Washa washa, washa washa.
The earring that peeked out from between the strands of her side hair caught the soft light in the room and glinted.
Combined with her slender frame, it felt almost like he was playing with a large dog. When he muttered, 『You’re like a dog』, her slightly opened eyes sparkled just a bit.
“Wan.”
She gave a small bark and let out a shy, embarrassed giggle before closing her eyes like curtains falling shut.
Crap.
Kyousuke covered his mouth with his left hand, hiding the swelling emotion within him.
Even though she was clearly more mature than most girls their age, right now she was just… adorably childish. The gap between her appearance and her atmosphere made his head spin.
‘This… this is a punishment game. Just a punishment game.’
He sternly reminded himself, trying to suppress the libido coursing through his body at breakneck speed, and let out a deep breath to release some of the heat.
This wasn’t a reward. He might be frolicking with an unbelievably cute creature right now, but this was not a reward.
The sweet scent that tickled his nose, the occasional sultry moans she let slip, everything combined into a sensory overload of heart-pounding danger. As he looked at Ayano with his eyebrows drooping, he wondered when this blissful torment would finally end.
“…Can we stop now?”
“Hmm. Just a little more.”
“We’ve been doing this for a while now though.”
“Because… it’s been so long. Since we’ve done something like this.”
She took his slowing hand and pressed it against her own head, rubbing into it.
It felt like she was marking him, and another indecent fantasy flitted across Kyousuke’s mind.
“That’s enough. We’re done.”
He brushed away Ayano’s hand and flopped heavily onto the sofa.
For Kyousuke, just touching a girl was a serious ordeal.
With every stroke, his heart leapt, and it felt like his lifespan was shortening.At this rate, even a dozen lives wouldn’t be enough.
But of course, Ayano had no way of knowing that. She puffed up her cheeks in dissatisfaction, pouting with a loud『boo boo』.
Why did it have to be him? She had said she wanted Fujimura, but Kyousuke just couldn’t understand why. There were plenty of better candidates when it came to physical affection.
“Why… someone like me…”
The words he let slip in a voice so faint it could vanish with a breath were met with Ayano suddenly raising her voice.
“No!”
She placed both hands firmly on his shoulders and stared straight into his eyes. Whenever he tried to avert his face or look away, she let out a low growl, openly showing her anger. With no way to escape, Kyousuke could only feel bewildered.
“You said it again just now, but it’s not ‘someone like me.’”
Her eyes were more serious than he had ever seen them before, and he had no choice but to freeze, holding his breath.
“You’ve been kind to me without asking for anything in return, and you’ve thought about me a lot. Fujimura, you’ve done so many things for me that no one else ever has.”
“…Th-That much, anyone could do, not just me. It’s nothing special.”
He had no power.
His face was nothing remarkable, his height was lacking, and he didn’t excel physically. Unlike Ayano, he wasn’t independent, and at the very least, he would still be leeching off his parents until he graduated high school. He was just an ordinary, average person—someone who had been and would continue to be, no different from anyone else.
The care he had shown Ayano until now was nothing that others couldn’t have done.
He didn’t know what kind of environment surrounded her now, or how it would change in the future, but at the very least, he was certain she would never live an unloved life. People kinder than him would surely continue to appear without end.
“Even if it’s something ordinary, even if it’s something anyone could do—”
She spoke each word carefully and deliberately, her slow tone ensuring he didn’t miss a single syllable.
“Isn’t it okay to think of the first person who did that for you as someone special?”
The grip on his shoulders tightened, and her eyes shone with powerful brilliance.
Kyousuke felt the heat rushing through his entire body. Perhaps it was embarrassment, perhaps joy. Either way, he couldn’t bring himself to shake his head in denial at her question.
“Ah—th-that’s not it!”
Ayano suddenly panicked, breaking away from him. Her face flushed bright red as she waved both hands frantically.
“Special doesn’t mean anything weird!”
“O-Oh.”
“I just meant I want to get along better, or hang out more! That’s all I meant!”
“Got it. I get it, so calm down.”
Being forced to listen to her explanation made Kyousuke feel unbearably awkward.
“A-Anyway!”
With a sharp motion, she pressed the tip of her index finger against Kyousuke’s lips.
Kyousuke fell silent, his gaze drawn into her eyes. Deep within the wavering indigo light was a violent allure that seemed to command him not to look at anything else.
“『Someone like me』is forbidden! If you badmouth my friend like that again, I’ll get mad, okay?”
She spoke in a tone like a parent scolding a child, then huffed exaggeratedly, her nostrils flaring.
When Kyousuke gave a small nod, Ayano bloomed into a satisfied smile and, as if giving something back, began patting and ruffling his head. He didn’t even feel like protesting with a『stop it』and simply accepted the warmth.
He had thought he was done with both being liked and being disliked. In his final year of middle school, he had decided firmly in his heart that he would never need friends again.
That he never wanted to go through that kind of pain again…
But now Kyousuke realized that such resolve was as fragile as tofu.
The word captivated was likely the best way to describe his current state of mind. His heart was not so cold that it wouldn’t stir at her sincere appeal from the depths of her being, that he was needed.
“By the way.”
“Hm?”
“What do you want me to do for you, Fujimura?”
Ayano continued tousling his hair messily.
Kyousuke lowered his gaze slightly.
“…I haven’t thought about it yet, so I’ll tell you when I come up with something.”
He murmured quietly, tucking away the thought of putting distance between them into the depths of his heart.
♥
Several hours had passed since Kyousuke returned home.
After finishing dinner, watching TV, and taking a bath, she had even completed her stretches before bed and lay down on her bed. Yet there was still no message from him on her phone.
‘It’s not like I care. It’s not like I’m waiting or anything.’
Staring at the empty chat screen with Kyousuke, Ayano rolled over onto her side.
They had exchanged message app IDs, since it would be inconvenient not to have a way to contact each other when going out in the future.
There are many ways to use such an app. Some people probably only use it for formal arrangements.
As for Ayano herself, she liked sending stamps back and forth or chatting about trivial things. But that was only her own preference. She didn’t want to bother him with unnecessary messages and make him feel annoyed.
“…”
Still, wasn’t it strange to exchange contact info and then have absolutely no conversation on the very first day?
Maybe she should just send him a stamp, she thought as she touched the screen. The time was already past 10 p.m. It wouldn’t be unnatural to say good night at this hour.
But… no, wait…
Ayano lay on her back, placing the phone on her stomach.
‘Alright, I’ll think of something funny to say!’
With a solemn expression, she frowned in concentration, humming thoughtfully as she mulled it over.
If she could hit him with something witty here, maybe his impression of her would go up, even just a little. Surely being a funny girl was better than being a boring one.
For now, she searched the internet for funny stories. The ones that came up were all decent enough, but this wasn’t what she wanted to send. She wasn’t looking for some kind of joke or gag.
What she wanted was something more surreal. A one-liner that was funny on its own.
But there was no such convenient material, and by the time she finished searching through one option after another, the clock’s short hand was already pointing at eleven. By now Kyousuke was probably asleep.
“…Haa.”
She placed her phone by her pillow and let out a sigh.
What on earth was she doing, getting worked up all on her own?
Looking back on it, today had been strange.
『I don’t have a boyfriend! I’ve never even had one!』
That too.
『I-It’s fine, isn’t it? Fujimura gets treated well enough anyway!』
That as well.
『Isn’t it okay to think of the first person who did that for you as someone special?』
Even that.
Her emotions had been far more unstable than usual. Normally, she would never say such things. And even if she did, she would carefully choose her words and phrasing. But with him, she just got strangely worked up.
‘Fujimura’s hand was so warm…’
There was no way she could have felt the warmth of his palm through her hair, yet…
When she touched the top of her head, it still felt like the warmth lingered there.
“Uuu…”
Her cheeks burned with embarrassment as she rolled restlessly across her bed.
From tomorrow onward, her schedule would be packed with work, leaving her almost no time to go to school.
That’s why she thought she should send him something after all. She picked up her phone again.
The instant she did, a notification chime startled her. When she looked, it was from Kyousuke.
【Kyou: Sorry for messaging so late at night】
Pff—Ayano let out a small laugh.
Why did he choose to write that? What kind of mood was he even in?
【Ayano: It looks like a work email】
【Kyou: It’s my first time messaging a girl, so I didn’t know the proper etiquette】
At the word『etiquette』she burst out laughing again. Then, when the follow-up came—【Kyou: I looked it up but still couldn’t figure it out】—Ayano finally laughed out loud.
Somehow, she felt relieved. Apparently, he had been feeling the same way she had.
【Ayano: Just be normal, it’s fine】
She sent those words along with a stamp of a dog lying down comfortably with the phrase『Relax』.
Without a moment’s pause, a『Roger that』came back, accompanied by a stamp of a black cat. Seeing that black cat, which somehow resembled Kyousuke, Ayano’s lips curved into a smile
♠
Kyousuke sat on his bed, tapping away at his screen. After sending a reply to Ayano, he let out a small sigh.
It was the smartphone he had gotten when he entered high school.
He had only installed the messaging app to keep in touch with his family, so he never imagined he would end up registering a classmate’s contact. And not just any classmate—a girl. It was a little easier than talking face to face, but it still made him nervous.
【Ayano: Today was fun!】
Piron—the notification sound chimed.
The words displayed on the screen made him feel blood rush to his cheeks. The smiling dog stamp she had sent alongside it reminded him of Ayano’s own cheerful smile.
【Kyou: Me too】
Should he say something more?
He tried to think, but nothing clever came to mind.
【Ayano: If Fujimura praises me, I can work hard again tomorrow!】
【Kyou: I see】
【Ayano: Me working hard… that’s amazing, right?】
【Kyou: Yeah】
【Ayano: Say I’m amazing】
【Kyou: Amazing】
【Ayano: Say it on the phone】
“Wha—!?”
The moment that message arrived, his phone started buzzing violently.
It was an incoming call from Ayano through the app.
Kyousuke was so startled that he jumped off his bed, gripping his phone tightly and staring at the screen. He had spoken on the phone with a girl before, but that had been ages ago. Now, nerves made sweat bead and drip down his face.
“…Huh?”
Just as he hesitated, the vibration stopped, and a new message appeared: 【Ayano: Never mind】
It was probably because he hadn’t answered quickly enough. Feeling guilty, he apologized silently in his heart.
【Ayano: If I hear your voice, I’ll end up wanting to see you】
“…”
His heart nearly leapt out of his throat, but he managed to swallow it back down along with his saliva.
Immediately after, that message was deleted.
【Ayano: That’s not what I meant! I meant I’ll want to hang out again!】
Along with the frantic text came a stamp of a panicked dog.
Not knowing how he was supposed to respond to that, he left it alone. Soon after, another stamp appeared on his screen—this time of a sleeping dog—accompanied by the words『Good night』.
It had been a long time since anyone other than his family had said good night to him.
【Kyou: Good night】
For some reason, the two little characters showing 『Read』beneath his message felt strangely precious to him.