Episode 46: Not Pretend — Real.

“Because you were with her at the station, weren’t you. On Christmas Eve. The day of the closing ceremony.”

It was true — on the day of the second-term closing ceremony, I’d been with Sasaki-san after school, and I’d passed Hiyori on the street… but.

“…Wait. Was that at the pedestrian crossing? I thought you hadn’t looked our way at all, so I assumed you hadn’t noticed—”
“That was…! I was deliberately pretending not to look! I saw you walking along looking all happy and I was genuinely furious!”
“What? You should have called out to us then.”
“How could I?! I was the one who said ‘it’s over’ — what kind of face would I make asking ‘Merry Christmas, Maya, who’s that girl next to you?’!”
“You just confessed to it yourself. You ended it, so it’s your own fault.”

When I deliberately twisted the knife, Hiyori’s face crumpled like I’d hit a sore spot.

“Ugh… w-well, yes! But still, I absolutely couldn’t stand seeing you with someone else — ahh, I know that’s completely unreasonable! Also — you’re not denying that you had a good time.”
“…Well, I was confessed to.”
“——! I knew it…! The moment I let you go, somebody swoops right in — the nerve…!”

Watching Hiyori groan “ughh~” with that aggrieved expression, I felt a strange perverse streak rise up in myself too.

“Well, while we’re at it — I spent the entire winter break feeling genuinely guilty about leading her on without meaning to, and I’ve been tormented by the sense of responsibility over it! And on top of that, I’d just turned her down the day before yesterday, and today I had to face her at committee straight away — I was sweating cold the entire time from sheer awkwardness!”
“Hang on — the day before yesterday?!”

Hiyori’s voice cracked as she stared at me like I’d said something unthinkable.

“What, you turned her down the day before yesterday — wait. The last day of winter break…?”
“Yes, so?!”
“Don’t tell me — the kiss…”
“…Was the day before yesterday, yes?!”
“You got kissed by someone else, and then the very next day you came after me like that…?”
“What, is that wrong?!”
“I-it’s just… a bit complicated, maybe…”

Hiyori’s face twisted into an expression somewhere between several feelings at once.
At that reaction, I felt myself go helplessly red, and looked away.

“…It couldn’t be helped. Being kissed by someone else for the first time. It made it absolutely clear — that for me, there’s no one but Hiyori…”

I managed to murmur it while fighting to keep my face from combusting, and Hiyori’s whole atmosphere softened, just slightly.

“…Right. Fine, I’ll overlook the past.”
“What’s with the magnanimous tone — like I said, it was your fault to begin with.”
“But I’m overwriting it.”
“Hm?”
“I won’t be satisfied until I’ve overwritten it with my lips.”
“But yesterday we already—”
“It’s a matter of feelings!!”

My protest was cut off by being pushed down with considerable force, and the old sofa that had already been given quite a workout yesterday made its creaking complaint again.
Hiyori’s full weight pressed down over me.

My lips sealed without any say in the matter.
A little more forceful than yesterday, burning with something like jealousy — that kiss was scorchingly hot, and yet — unmistakably, perfectly right.

◇◆◇◆◇

“…Phew. Hiyori, honestly, every single day again — I-I can’t take it…”

Finally released from her lips, I propped myself up unsteadily on the sofa.
I’d said it with a hint of a joke to lighten the mood, but the Hiyori sitting beside me stared at the black ends of her own hair she’d been playing with, and for once looked down with a small, uncharacteristic uncertainty.

“Hiyori…?”
“…Hey, Maya.”
“What.”
“Actually — should I just keep my hair black like this. Going forward. Since we’re going to be walking side by side properly from now on, and if the discipline committee chair’s girlfriend has hair like that, you might get talked about…”

She looked up at me with an anxious, slightly tentative expression, and I let out a small breath.
The blouse with every button properly done. The skirt brought back to regulation length.
She’d transformed into a picture-perfect seiso girl exactly as my “blackmail” demanded, and she was undeniably adorable like this — but.

“…It’s not really you, is it.”

At my words, Hiyori’s eyes went perfectly round.

“I think I like you as you are. So you can go back.”
“Eh…? But then your reputation as discipline committee chair will take a hit…”

I let the corner of my mouth lift, just slightly mean.

“…My school record — I don’t care about that. I was never that invested in the recommendation either, I’ll just sit the general entrance exams.”
“Wha…?!”
“And if it becomes hypocritical and sets a bad example, I can just quit the discipline committee.”
“What?! Hang on, if I go back to dressing like I always did, you’d only be taking losses!”
“There isn’t a single loss.”
“To begin with! Then why did you use yesterday’s video to make me dress like this!”
“…I just wanted to see it for a moment.”
“Oh come on—!”
“My blackmail making you meekly do as you were told… it was incredibly cute.”
“Maya, for such a trivial reason—!”
“It’s not trivial. …Right now, you’re all I can see.”

I said it lightly, easily, and Hiyori went scarlet, opening and closing her mouth wordlessly.
Then she let out a deep, resigned sigh.

“…Honestly. You’ve got some personality on you, Maya.”

She murmured it — and then looked straight back at me and broke into a mischievous, slightly wicked grin.

“But actually, no. I’m keeping this look.”
“Hiyori…”
“Your video threat won’t work on me. I’ll follow the school rules of my own free will.”
“…………”
“Just until the end of your term as discipline committee chair, though. No complaints with that, right?”

Before I could gather myself, Hiyori wound her arm around my neck and pressed against me, sweet and wheedling.

“Because I — like discipline committee chair Maya too.”

At those words, now it was my turn to be struck speechless.
She was bending her own principles just to match me — this beloved, selfish, impossible girl. I quietly put my arms around her back.

“…You’ve got some personality on you too, Hiyori.”

The sweet, faintly grown-up musk that had always wrapped around us.
That smell dissolved softly into warmth, tickling the tip of my nose.

I closed my eyes gently, buried my face in Hiyori’s throat, and breathed that smell in, deep, deep into my lungs.
The uneven heartbeat coming through the blouse — whether it was mine or hers, I couldn’t tell anymore.

From sworn enemies to a bond forged through blackmail.

That day.
The day after the first time she kissed me, at the school gate, the words I’d told myself I’d said as a bluff — stay beside me.

Now — those words had become something I’d use every means at my disposal to make her keep.
Not pretend. My real, true command.