Vol. 2 Chapter 53 – Summer Festival (4)

“I’ve been holding back all morning… and then you wear a yukata like that…” (Hikaru)

Hah… hah… Hikaru panted like a cat in heat.

She was even more worked up than that time she got turned on watching anime in my room.

Looking at her wide-open eyes right in front of me, I could almost visualize heart marks floating in her pupils.

“C-Calm down…! Let’s be rational…!” (Reiya)

While keeping my voice down, I tried to persuade her to calm down somehow.

“I am calm… Conversely, don’t you want to, Reiya-kun?” (Hikaru)

“Well… I mean, if you ask if I want to or not, I want to, but…” (Reiya)

To be honest, I’d been kept waiting all day too.

If asked whether I wanted to or not, I desperately wanted to.

Kissing Hikaru was just… incredibly fulfilling, and I never got tired of it, no matter how many times we did it.

I even thought I’d want to do it 24/7/365 if possible.

But this wasn’t my room; it was a fitting room in a kimono shop.

“Then it’s fine, right…? Let’s do it…?” (Hikaru)

“No… It’s still not okay…” (Reiya)

The sweet temptation almost made the restraints on my reason snap, but I shook my head and somehow managed to hold on.

“It’s okay…! There’s a curtain, and Mom isn’t here…!” (Hikaru)

“Ichiru-san and Taiju-san are right outside, and this is inside a store…!” (Reiya)

She seemed to imply there were no obstacles, but the greatest barrier of common sense still remained.

No matter how private the room was, getting frisky inside a shop went beyond being a stupid couple; it was just plain stupid.

“I can’t…! I really, really can’t hold back anymore…!” (Hikaru)

“No, no, no, no… You have to hold back somehow, mmph—!!” (Reiya)

My resistance was futile. With both hands pinned against the wall, my lips were sealed by hers.

It was a kiss pressed so hard I could feel the firmness of her teeth through our lips.

From the point of contact, bliss spread throughout my entire body.

She said she was holding back her strength to the bare minimum, but I didn’t feel like I could break free in the slightest.

Was it ten seconds, twenty seconds, or perhaps a minute?

Regardless, I think it was a long, intense time.

“…Phew,” (Hikaru)

Our lips parted, and Hikaru took a deep breath.

As if she had absorbed something from my body, her eyes glazed over dreamily, and her cheeks flushed even more.

“A-Are you satisfied with th— Mmph!!” (Reiya)

There was no way Hikaru, who had been holding back for so long, would be satisfied with just one kiss. My mouth was sealed once again.

Pressed against the wall even harder than before, deeper, more instinctively.

It was less like our lips were touching and more accurate to say mine were being devoured.

“S-Seriously, they’ll notice…! This is bad…!” (Reiya)

In the brief moment our lips parted again, I tried to persuade her in a whisper—

“If they do, they do… It can’t be helped, right? It’s your fault, Reiya-kun…” (Hikaru)

“M-My fault…?” (Reiya)

“You’ve been teasing me all day since morning… and to top it off, you tempt me with a yukata…!” (Hikaru)

I thought it was 100% false accusation, but being asserted so strongly made me start to feel like it might actually be my fault.

“But if you’re going to say that, you’re pretty bad yourself, Hikaru…?” (Reiya)

However, if we were going down that road, I had things I wanted to say too.

“What is…?” (Hikaru)

“Touching me all over while I was stretching, and on top of that, the yukata looks ridiculously good on you, you’re so cute… I’ve been holding back too, you know…” (Reiya)

“You have…?” (Hikaru)

“Yeah, I’ve been constantly thinking about how I was going to endure until next Saturday,” (Reiya)

“Is there really any need to endure?” (Hikaru)

…True.

In my head, fuzzy with euphoria, the moment I thought that, our lips came together again, initiated by who knows which one of us.

The hands pinning my arms to the wall moved to the back of my neck.

Simultaneously, my freed hands wrapped around her back.

Ah, geez… What am I doing in a place like this…

Even as I thought that, the sense of immorality had already transformed into excitement, and I couldn’t think of stopping.

We parted lips, exchanging a few words during the brief moment we separated to catch our breath.

“I really like kissing you, Reiya-kun…” (Hikaru)

Perhaps aware that what she was doing was wrong, her voice was considerably hushed.

But that voice, like the chirping of a small bird, stimulated my emotions even more.

“Mmh… chu…” (Reiya/Hikaru)

We repeatedly exchanged kisses, pecking at each other’s lips.

Outside, they might be thinking, ‘They’re taking quite a while.’

It wouldn’t be strange if the curtain were opened right this second to check on us—

“They seem to be taking quite a while—” (Ichiru)

It opened.

Over Hikaru’s tilted head, my eyes met Ichiru-san’s.

Time froze, and I felt as if my heart had been seized.

She also seemed to be struggling to process the reality, her eyes wide open, frozen solid.

But from this angle, it should only take a little thought for her to understand what Hikaru and I were doing.

“Reiya-kun… one more time… just one more time, okay…?” (Hikaru)

Unaware she was being watched from behind, Hikaru sweetly pleaded.

Perhaps lost in her own world, she hadn’t noticed the voice from behind at all.

Meanwhile, Ichiru-san was still frozen with a look on her face like it was the end of the world.

An expression showing she hadn’t even begun to consider how she should react.

Then, after several more seconds of silence, she finally grasped the situation—

‘Please, take your time…’

—and leaving that silent message, the curtain quietly closed.

“Is something wrong? Those two are taking an awfully long time,” (Taiju)

“N-No! Nothing at all! It just looks like it might take a little longer… While we wait, why don’t we go check out the obi corner over there…?” (Ichiru)

I could hear the two of them talking outside.

This is the worst…

Being shown consideration like this was even more embarrassing.

At this point, being lectured might have been somewhat better.

“Hikaru… w-we should probably get out soon…” (Reiya)

As my thoughts rapidly cooled, an intense wave of embarrassment washed over me, wondering what on earth I was doing in a place like this.

“Noooo… one more time… just one more time…” (Hikaru)

Needless to say, however, persuading the completely worked-up Hikaru from that point on took considerable effort.

――――――

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“Sorry for the wait~!” (Hikaru)

Completely satisfied, glowing and radiant, Hikaru emerged from the fitting room like the star of the show.

Following her, in contrast, I emerged, looking haggard from mental exhaustion.

Catching my reflection in a nearby mirror, combined with the yukata’s color, I looked just like a withered tree.

“Sorry we’re late… Had some trouble tying the obi…” (Hikaru)

Completely unaware she’d been seen, Hikaru offered a blatant lie as an excuse.

“I-It’s fine! Don’t worry about it! Obis are hard to tie, right!” (Ichiru)

In contrast, Ichiru-san was acting as if she hadn’t seen or known anything.

Her face was flushed bright red, as if she had a high fever.

Her eyes, which had been darting around restlessly, met mine.

After a moment of stiffness, her face turned even redder, and she quickly averted her gaze.

Later, as we were leaving the shop, when the oblivious Taiju-san asked, ‘Did something happen?’, I simply replied, ‘I just thought of an event where a male character charmed by a succubus becomes awkward around his party members.’