Episode 27: There’s No Way I Can Sleep Through This
Hanamori stepped into my room.
The way she came in, hesitant and reserved, looked nothing like the cold Hanamori from earlier that morning.
The click of the door locking behind her rang out unusually loud.
Well. This cramped little hotel room only had one small single bed. The only other option for sleeping would be… a single armchair.
What to do about this?
“Um…”
Hanamori started to say something, but I spoke first.
“Hanamori-san, take the bed. I’ll sleep on the floor.”
“No, that’s a bit much.”
Hanamori shook her head.
“It’s fine, really. I actually prefer sleeping on floors.”
“What do you mean, you prefer sleeping on floors? Is that even a real thing?”
“It’s true.”
“That’s a lie. Definitely a lie.”
Hanamori stared at me with a faint glare, thoroughly unconvinced.
“Then you sleep on the floor, Hanamori-san?”
“…I don’t want to do that either.”
“Then use the bed.”
The standoff continued. Neither of us backing down, we stared at the single bed in silence.
“…This is fine, isn’t it?”
Hanamori said it, quietly.
“Eh?”
“We’ll catch a cold otherwise. Let’s just sleep together.”
My thoughts ground to a halt. What did she just say?
“N-no, but—”
“Is it really that unpleasant for you?”
Hanamori shot me a light glare, asking. Her face was a shade redder than before.
“It’s not unpleasant or anything, I just… isn’t it small?”
“It’s small, but this is fine, isn’t it?”
Hanamori said that and sat on the edge of the bed. I sat on the other side. A single bed… clearly too small for two people.
“Well, I’ll turn off the light.”
I switched off the light. In the dark, we lay down on the bed.
Small. Impossibly small.
Smaller, even, than that internet cafe couple’s seat from before.
Even keeping to our own edges, something was always touching. Shoulders, arms, thighs brushing, our hips grazing slightly. My heart was loud.
Hanamori’s body heat came through, the softness of her lingering in my awareness, impossible to shake.
Oh, this is hopeless. There’s no way I can sleep. Absolutely no way.
We ended up facing away from each other, which put a little distance between us.
But we were still touching. Backs, hips. Hanamori’s breathing rhythm came through directly against my back.
“So, um—”
Our voices overlapped.
“Hanamori-san, you go first.”
“No, no, you go first, Asami-san.”
“Okay. …About that time. I’m sorry. For the weird lie.”
I broke the ice first.
“I’m sorry too… for how I acted. I said a lot of harsh things too.”
Hanamori said it quietly. Her voice sounded, just slightly, like it was trembling.
“No, no… it was my fault. I couldn’t be honest about the thing with Asakura-san.”
“No, it’s fine. I kind of already knew you were going to dinner with Asakura-san that day, anyway.”
I heard Hanamori give a small laugh. Her voice was unusually close, the vibration carrying through my back, oddly pleasant.
“You’re pretty easy to read, Asami-san.”
“…Ugh.”
“I knew, but somehow…”
Hanamori went on.
“Seeing you talking with Asakura-san, getting along with her, it just made me mad.”
“…Why?”
I asked. My heart gave another jolt.
“…I don’t know.”
Hanamori answered quietly. Her voice sounded confused.
Silence fell. Only the sound of a heartbeat. No, this might be Hanamori’s heartbeat. A pulse coming through my back.
After a while, Hanamori spoke again.
“…That thing about not wanting to be paired with you for sales, that wasn’t how I really felt.”
Her voice was unusually honest.
“Yeah. Me too.”
“I am grateful. Just a little.”
“‘Just a little,’ huh. I’ve done a lot for you, you know.”
I laughed.
“…Well, I’m pretty grateful, actually.”
Hanamori laughed too, softly. That laugh sounded nice. Hanamori laughing like this really is cute, after all.
Silence. But different from the awkward silence of before. A warm silence.
Hanamori’s breathing settled into the rhythm of sleep. Had she fallen asleep? I closed my eyes, but I couldn’t sleep. It was hard to settle.
Probably because we were pressed together the whole time. Hanamori’s warmth, the softness against me, all of it stayed in my awareness.
That’s when I heard a rustling sound.
Hanamori seemed to be turning over in her sleep.
The next moment, something wrapped around my waist. A hand. Hanamori’s hand had come around my waist.
Wait, what!?
And then something pressed against my back. Soft. Her chest.
Hanamori’s chest was pressed flush against my back. Her body and mine, completely against each other.
Her breath grazed the back of my neck, and my body flinched. Warm.
“Eep, Hanamori-san!?”
An embarrassingly pathetic sound came out of me.
“…Mm.”
Hanamori’s voice. Half-asleep.
“It’s small… I might fall off.”
Her voice was sweet and hoarse, a little bashful-sounding.
That voice grazed my neck too, her breath drifting across my ear, my skin. A shiver ran through me.
“A-ah, um, wait…”
“…I said, I might fall off.”
Hanamori said it quietly, but she didn’t let go. The hand around my waist stayed exactly there. Her chest, pressed against my back, stayed too.
If anything, she seemed to be holding on a little tighter than before.
There’s no way I could sleep in this situation.
Hanamori’s warmth, her breath, the softness against me. All of it stimulated my senses.
My heart was loud, pounding, restless. No, this is bad. This is really bad.
But I couldn’t push her away either, and some part of me wanted to stay just like this.
Hanamori’s breath fell against my neck in a steady rhythm.
Maybe she really had fallen asleep this time.
Only I stayed there, eyes open, staring into the dark, feeling Hanamori’s warmth.
I couldn’t sleep at all. Fully wide awake.
Outside the window, the deep dark of night still lingered.