Episode 34: …Of Course I Want To.
Monday morning.
I woke to a strange, undefinable sense that something was off.
Glancing sideways, Yuno was propped on one elbow at the bedside, watching me intently.
Her large eyes caught the morning light through the window, glittering. Beautiful, I thought, hazily.
Those eyes softened, narrowing gently.
“Morning.”
“…What are you doing.”
“Watching your sleeping face.”
She said it lightly, without a trace of remorse.
“You could’ve woken me up.”
“Your sleeping face was cute.”
“…Excuse me?”
“You know, Reina, your sleeping face is really, really childlike.”
Yuno’s shoulders shook with a soft laugh.
“What’s that supposed to mean,” I shot back, gruff, and got out of bed.
Reina.
Just being called that name made my heart go absurdly ticklish, and I had to fight to hide my loosening mouth.
＊＊＊
I went in to the office.
Monday mornings are always hectic.
It starts with clearing the backlog of emails and chat messages that piled up over the weekend.
I worked through the company’s growth strategy for the coming term in my head. Ironic, really — ever since Saeko joined, our sales capability had grown by leaps and bounds. The foundation was solid now. All that was left was using it as a springboard to go after bigger clients.
Thinking that through, I kept typing.
Then, without warning, last night surfaced in my mind, and my hands stopped on the keyboard.
Heat gathered, slow and deep, somewhere inside me.
That look on Yuno’s face, rapturous.
The erotic, wet sound that had filled the room.
The moment her fingers had brought me to a place where my mind went completely white.
No good. I need to concentrate.
The instant I thought that —
Knock, knock, knock.
A knock at the door.
“Cleaning service.”
Yuno came in, pushing her cart.
The same uniform as always. And yet, somehow, I couldn’t look away.
Yuno began cleaning the president’s office with practiced ease. Wiping the shelves, sweeping the floor lightly, then slowly making her way over.
When she came to collect the bin by my feet, she dropped a quiet line.
“Told my boss at the part-time job. That I want to quit.”
“Mm. And?”
“They want me to stay another two weeks while they find someone to replace me.”
“I see.”
I kept typing without pausing, adjusted my computer glasses with a quick motion, and tried, calmly, to organize the situation in my head.
Saeko was away on a business trip for several days this week. Yuno had two more weeks left at her job.
During that window, I wanted to minimize, as much as possible, any chance of the two of them being alone together. If shifts and business trips and outside errands lined up right, the opportunities for them to cross paths could be kept fairly limited.
— I hate myself, thoroughly, for plotting something this petty.
If I just asked her directly, maybe the whole thing would resolve itself.
But I was, no matter what, too afraid. It felt like everything would come apart.
I had no confidence. Which was exactly why, right now, all I could do was spin these worthless calculations in my head.
I felt Yuno’s gaze on me.
I looked over, and she was watching me steadily from below, eyes lifted. The moment our eyes met, she looked away, quick.
But she couldn’t look away completely — her gaze kept flickering back toward me.
“What. Staring again?”
“No, nothing.”
After a small pause, Yuno smiled, soft.
“Just thinking — Reina right now is completely different from last night.”
“Excuse me?”
“Last night you were all melted and soft, weren’t you.”
She said it, narrowing her eyes with a teasing edge.
“Quiet. Hurry up and finish so you can leave.”
Even as I said it, the corner of my mouth loosened on its own.
Yuno caught sight of that, narrowed her drooping eyes, and laughed, soft. That way she laughed was so dear to me my chest ached all over again.
“Hey.”
Yuno said it, quiet, in a voice barely audible.
“Want to kiss?”
She tilted her head, looking up at me from below. She pulled the mask down from her mouth to her chin, and her full, moist lips were right there.
“…No. An employee saw us, last time. We’re not doing that kind of thing at the office anymore.”
Even as I said it, my eyes drifted, helplessly, to Yuno’s lips.
I want to kiss her. That melting, dissolving kiss. I’ve become completely captive to Yuno’s lips.
Frustrating as it was, I had no choice but to admit it.
But we were at work. Being caught by another employee again would be a real problem.
Yuno leaned in closer still, peering up at me.
Close. Far too close.
Her pink lips, drawing me in like a lure.
“Reina, your eyes are wandering, you know?”
Yuno said it, narrowing her eyes mischievously, the corner of her mouth curling into a grin.
“…Quiet.”
“Ahah, so you do want to.”
She laughed, teasing, soft.
I turned my face away, abruptly. My face was hot.
“…want.”
“Eh?”
“…Of course I want to. So — once we’re home… slowly.”
Before I’d registered it, the words had fallen out of me. A voice that slipped free as if overflowing with feeling.
No — what am I saying.
Am I an idiot.
The words I’d just released suddenly mortified me, and heat spread through my whole body. My face had to be bright red.
I forced my eyes back to the computer screen, desperate.
Stealing a sideways glance at Yuno’s face, her eyes had gone wide and round. Some kind of surprised expression. Then, slowly, her cheeks reddened too.
“…Yeah.”
Yuno gave a small, downcast nod.
Usually, at moments like this, she’d be all bewitching technique — but today, unusually, she was strangely earnest.
That, too, was dear to me. Unbearably dear.
My chest tightened, aching, with a sharp little pull.