Episode Sixty-Four
I let my fingers glide over her smooth skin.
Though hidden beneath her blouse now, Ibaras belly is truly beautiful.
So soft and supple, with a perfectly defined waist.
Smooth as a baby’s, without a trace of fine hair – clearly well-cared for.
“Mmm…”
When I press it softly, it springs back with equal elasticity.
I recall a convenience store dessert with this exact texture. I rather liked that one.
It feels wasteful to savour it with just my fingertips, so I boldly explore with my spread fingers.
There isn’t enough flesh to pinch, but it’s soft and pleasant.
The princess, however, seems to disagree.
“…No, that’s not it…”
She wriggled her body, protesting with a clear ‘no’.
Apparently, kneading wasn’t the right approach.
“Sorry, sorry,” I murmured, tracing slow circles with my palm, imbuing it with apologetic intent.
This time she didn’t refuse, so surely this must be the right way.
While being gently stroked on the belly, Ibara stared blankly into empty space.
Somehow, she really did look like a cat.
I felt like asking her if she’d forgotten human speech.
“Has your tummy started hurting again?”
“…Maybe.”
She gave an answer that could be taken as either denial or affirmation, exhaling a breath that felt feverish.
“How about it? Feeling a bit better?”
“Mm, just a little more…”
“All right.”
I rubbed and rubbed - I run my hand over her stomach.
Her cool, smooth, silky skin was a pleasure just to touch. I could keep stroking her like this forever. Never getting tired of it.
“…Mm… Just a little more, lower…”
“Understood.”
From the side of her waist, passing over her solar plexus, circling once around her navel, and tracing the edge of the stiff pleated skirt.
Just slightly, I slid the first joint of my fingers beneath the fabric.
“Ah!”
Suddenly, Ibara turned sideways.
She hunched her back sharply, exhaling raggedly like she’d just surfaced from water.
“Are you… alright?”
“…………Hmmmm.”
Ibara let out a long, damp sigh.
“So your stomach really was hurting. I’ve got painkillers. Want one?”
“I’m fine.”
“Really?”
“Hmm…”
Peering at the face that had come back to me, our eyes met.
Ibara’s dazed eyes gradually came into focus.
“──…………Ah!”
“Ibara?”
“Ah, ah, aaaah!”
Suddenly, Ibara’s face flushed bright red.
She rolled off my lap with a thud.
Oh, she hit her head on the floor. That must hurt.
“Wh-what’s wrong?”
“N-n-nothing! It’s absolutely nothing at all!”
“It doesn’t look like nothing.”
“It’s nothing!”
“O-okay then.”
It’s nothing. Well, that’s fine then.
“Bath, I’m going to take a bath first!”
With a complex expression that was somewhere between wanting to cry and being angry, Ibara began preparing her change of clothes at super speed.
She grabbed a light green bath towel and dashed straight to the bath.
What on earth just happened?
†
After her bath.
With flushed cheeks, Ibara declared abruptly.
“Shigure-san is naughty.”
“Why?”
“I think it’s Shigure-san who’s at fault, after all. Ultimately. Every single time, why are you so good at touching?”
“Well, I played with it a lot when I was living at my parents’ house…”
“What?”
“The cat.”
“Whoa.”
For some reason, Ibara froze.
“Shigure-san. Just to confirm, just to be sure. That was an animal cat, right…?”
“What’s a cat that isn’t an animal?”
“Sorry, forget it.”
Since she said it with a straight face, I made a conscious effort to forget.
Ibara sat cross-legged, pressing her soft-looking cheek against her knees.
“Haa… Somehow I’m losing confidence…”
“What’s wrong, all of a sudden?”
“Well, Shigure-san, you always seem so composed.”
She glanced at me with a sidelong look.
“Even now, you’re drinking hot milk with a completely unfazed expression.”
“Ah, yeah. Yeah?”
I put my lips to the mug and sipped the lukewarm milk.
“Only when we kiss do you look a bit desperate. But even then, you pull away straight away. It’s always just me getting excited.”
“Well, that’s because—”
I do have a sense of ethics, you know.
“You never even initiated a kiss.”
“Ugh.”
“We’re dating, but we haven’t done anything remotely romantic.”
“Like what?”
“Dates, trips, things like that.”
Trips, you say.
“But we only started seeing each other last month.”
“We haven’t done any!”
Well, strictly speaking, we haven’t.
Come to think of it, work’s been ridiculously busy lately. We haven’t even managed proper dates, let alone trips.
Just a month. Yet, a whole month.
Perhaps time flows differently for me, a working adult, and Ibara, a student.
“Shigure-san?”
“Yes?”
“You’re off this weekend, right?”
“Yes, but…”
It was busy, but the tide had finally receded enough that weekend work wasn’t necessary.
Or rather, attendance-wise, I couldn’t really take any more weekend shifts this term.
When I agreed, Ibara nodded deeply.
“Then, we’re going on a date.”
“Eh? Ah, yes.”
Not “Let’s go,” not “I want to go,” but a definitive “We’re going.”
I’d just let the momentum carry me into replying.
“Fine by me. The usual mall? Or Aeon?”
“Shigure-san, zero points.”
“That’s harsh!”
“In this vein, does Shigure-san lack romanticism? Is Saizeriya where you go for lunch on dates?”
“It’s delicious.”
Writing the order number by hand on the receipt is a bit of a faff, though.
“That’s not it. Well, it is, but that’s not it!”
“Sorry, I get it. Fine, anywhere. Wherever you want to go.”
“Shigure-san, minus 100 points.”
“Why⁉︎”
And so, my weekend plans were suddenly filled.
We’d do proper couple things. Go on a date.
But in the end, this plan fell through.
The changing seasons. Today bitterly cold, tomorrow mild and sunny – such temperature swings.
The mounting overtime piles up towards the end of term. Fatigue clinging to my core like grease.
The result of all this piling up –
“Achoo!”
Because I caught a cold.