Episode 5: [Yuri Friends] So Wait, What Even Is This…?

“Okay. I’ve just decided the rules for the Yuri Friends game we’re starting now. Listen carefully.”

She pulled back in one easy motion and took out her phone, back to her usual languid expression.
Mechanical tap sounds — pok, pok — echoed through the discipline room.
She appeared to be checking her calendar app, and at some thought that crossed her mind, the corner of her mouth lifted.

“First, rule one. …The time limit is three months from now, Christmas Eve, December 24th.”
“…Christmas?”
“Yep. Exactly three months from today. Romantic, right? If I’m satisfied with the Yuri Friends game by Christmas Eve night, I’ll delete the video.”

Paying no attention to my blank shock, Asahina raised her index finger and pressed it to my lips.

“Rule two. During that time, my summons take absolute priority. …Whatever situation you happen to be in.”
“Absolute… I have my own things going on too…”
“Hmm? Isn’t that a bit bold, considering you’re being blackmailed? Whatever, fine. ‘Genuine prior engagements,’ I’ll let those slide. I’m not a monster.”

The unexpected concession caught me slightly off guard.
But Asahina grinned and poked a finger into my stiff cheek.

“Buuut. If you use that as an excuse to lie to me, or start avoiding me… as a friend who shares a secret with me, I’d be pretty sad about that, you know~?”
“…!”
“When I get sad, my hand might slip and hit send by accident. …So think very carefully before you act, okay?”

In other words: surrender every free moment to her.
Framed as a concession, in substance a declaration of surveillance.

“And rule three. …Never refuse my physical affection.”
“Physical affection… what exactly do you mean by—”

The violent, musk-flavoured kiss from moments ago flashed through my mind and made my voice shake.
But Asahina didn’t give a clear answer — she simply ran the tip of her red tongue slowly across her own lips.

“Who knows? Depends on my mood.”

Eyes like something appraising prey swept me from head to toe.

“…Understood.”

When I accepted in a barely audible voice, Asahina nodded, satisfied.

“And rule four. …This one’s the most important.”

Asahina drew something from her pocket.
A small atomiser, holding a pale amber liquid that glowed translucent in the evening light.
She spritzed it at her own chest, then seized my wrist with her free hand.

“Smells good, right?”

And without pausing, she aimed it at my wrist. One spritz.
In that instant, a cloying sweetness bloomed outward.
The same scent that had been stealing my breath just moments ago.

“This…”
“Mm, matching. …Wear it from tomorrow. This way, Maya belongs to me — right down to her smell.”

Those words made something clench tight in the pit of my chest. A possessive declaration, utterly point-blank.

Me — the discipline committee chair — wearing a perfume that violated school rules, and the same perfume as my arch-nemesis Asahina, at that.

“…That’s insane. It’s a school rules violation… I’m on the discipline committee, I can’t possibly…”
“Oh dear. If you don’t wear it, that’d be breaking the rules of our arrangement~…”

Asahina’s thumb traced across the send button on her phone.
My throat seized.

…I have no choice.
To protect everything I’ve built, I have no choice but to kneel at the feet of this devil.

“…Fine. I’ll wear it.”

I snatched the atomiser from her with a trembling hand and gripped it tight.

“Good girl! See you tomorrow then. …Maya.”

The moment she called my name — sweet and drawn-out — a shiver ran through me from my spine to my fingertips.
She fluttered her hand in a wave and walked off into the dusk, with a step that was almost a skip.

I watched her go and stood there, rooted to the spot.
My peaceful high school life had come to an abrupt end today.

◇◆◇◆◇

The next morning.
I stood in front of my bedroom mirror, finished tying my ribbon, and let out a long sigh.

The face looking back at me was the same as always.
But on my desk sat the atomiser she’d pressed into my hands, planted there like a foreign object.

Wearing this was now my “obligation,” starting today.

“…If I don’t wear it, it gets sent.”

I picked it up with a shaking hand.
The only place was the ankle.
Hidden under my uniform, somewhere far from sight, where no one would notice.
Like fastening on a shackle no one could see.

I steeled myself and spritzed it toward my ankle bone.

A light mist of cool liquid seeped into the fibres of my black tights.

“…Awful.”

My room, which had always smelled of clean soap, was invaded in an instant by Hiyori’s smell.
With every step, an illusion: sweet poison drifting up from the hem of my skirt.

I glared at myself in the mirror.
My appearance hadn’t changed.
But from today, Yamami Maya had become the property of Asahina Hiyori.

◇◆◇◆◇

“…Good morning.”

Dragging my sleep-deprived body, heavy as lead, I was standing at the school gate for morning greeting duty.

My feet were hot.
The perfume warming against my skin through my tights — I imagined it creeping up from inside my skirt, climbing toward my upper body.

A paranoid fantasy gripped my heart: every student passing by might be twitching their nose.

“Oh, sorry — I dropped my pen.”

Sasaki-san, the junior discipline committee member standing beside me, crouched down at my feet.

My throat made a sharp sound.
Not good. That was exactly where I’d applied the mark.

“…Hm?”

As expected.
Sasaki-san, crouched down there, stilled — nose twitching.

“Yamami-senpai. Um…”
“Wh-what…?”

She tilted her head with a puzzled look, peering up at me from below.

“Has there been a sort of… sweet smell, just now? And it’s really… not very senpai-ish.”

Sasaki-san’s guileless eyes were fixed on me.
As though she could see straight through the honour student shell to the contents beneath.

Without thinking, I had tucked the ankle I’d applied the perfume to behind the shadow of my other foot.

This way, Maya belongs to me — right down to her smell.

That devil’s sweet whisper surfaced in my mind. My body was, without any doubt, being dyed in Asahina Hiyori’s colours.
Cold sweat ran down my back. The Yuri Friends game was baring its teeth.