I ran my tongue over Amamiya Tōru’s body.
First, I hugged her from behind and licked her neck repeatedly.

“Hmph. …I didn’t say you could lick me yet, you know!?”
“Silence means consent, Amamiya-san.”

Holding the squirming Amamiya Tōru in place with my embrace, I licked her nape, where no sweat was visible.

“Your hair smells lovely.”

I buried my face in her hair.
Objectively speaking, I was aware I was doing something rather disgusting. Of course I was.
But her scent brought me peace.

　Given the recent barrage of mental stress, seeking solace is only natural, isn’t it? I affirm myself to protect myself.

Even so, a sigh escapes me involuntarily.

“Sigh.”
“Ah, sorry.”
“Something bothering you?”

……….

　If you ask what I’m dissatisfied with.
It’s that lately, I’ve been feeling rather out of place at school.
I was lonely to begin with, and there was never really a place for me at school, so I never felt particularly out of place before. Even so, I rarely felt uncomfortable being at school.
Loneliness, once you get used to it, is surprisingly comfortable. If someone told me to go back to how I was before, Amamiya Tōru’s presence has become so significant that I might not be able to endure the loneliness anymore.
　The old me was almost invincible because of that solitude. Except during group activities.

But what about lately?

My classmates keep…

…No, this isn’t something to dwell on now.

“Nothing at all. More importantly—”
“Hmph.”
“May I lick you from the front this time?”

I gently nibble Amamiya Tōru’s earlobe and whisper.

　Without waiting for her reply, I moved around to the front.
Just having her neck licked was enough to shatter Amamiya Tōru’s composure with alarming ease. A flush began to spread.

“That dazed look on your face… it gives me chills every single time.”

She tried desperately to cover it up, furrowing her brow and biting her lower lip.
Even so, she looked utterly adorable, seemingly unable to contain her excitement.

“You’re such a naughty girl, Mashiro.”

Ignoring her desperate protest, I first pressed my face against her stomach.
I kissed her lower abdomen, tracing upward with my tongue.

“Ahh…”

A small, girlish high-pitched sound escaped her, as if she’d tried to suppress it but couldn’t.
Looking down, I saw Amamiya Tōru desperately covering her mouth with her hand.
　Seeing her like that only made me more aroused. My perspiration increased. My body temperature rose.

“You don’t have to hold back your voice.”
“Shut up.”

As I persistently licked around her navel, Amamiya Tōru twisted her body, trying to escape me.
Despite covering her mouth, a muffled sound, almost like a moan, escaped from above.

“May I lick here too?”

I lifted my head and gazed at her.
Starting from her lower abdomen, my face was now positioned before her chest.

“Even if I say no, you’ll lick it anyway, won’t you?”
“Of course.”

I drew my face closer to the valley between Amamiya Tōru’s breasts.

◇

The following morning.
My body felt unusually heavy, sluggish, and feverish.
　I seemed to have caught a cold and stayed home from school.

◇

Then, the morning after that.
I went to school.
The journey there was perfectly ordinary. Nothing unusual happened; the peaceful time alone was even comfortable, one might say.

It happened when I arrived at school, just before entering the classroom.
In the corridor.

“Hey, hey, Kuroda-san!”
“Eh?”

My name was called. By a boy from another class whose name I didn’t know.
Even staring intently at his face, I had no memory of ever speaking to him. Honestly, outside of group activities at school, the only person I ever talked to was Amamiya Tōru.
Let alone someone from another class, and of the opposite sex. There was no way I could know him.

　Why would this unknown boy call out to me?

………Well, I vaguely understood.
It was connected to the source of my recent stress.

“Kuroda-san, let’s exchange LINE details.”
“……Er, no thanks.”
“Eh!? Why not? I’m way more appealing than some old man, right?”

Ah, I didn’t want to hear it.
　I knew baseless rumours had been circulating lately.
Still, I never imagined he’d actually come and speak to me like this.
What rumours?
Rumours I’d previously observed as if they were someone else’s business. Never thought I’d become the person at the centre of them myself.

“…What are you talking about?”

There was absolutely no truth to it.
But I knew the rumours, so I understood exactly what he was referring to. Even so, I played dumb.

“Eh?”

The boy scratched the back of his head, muttering, “That’s weird.”
And despite other students being in the corridor, he asked without lowering his voice.

“Kuroda-san, you’re like Amamiya, aren’t you? Will come to a hotel with them if they pay enough money?”

That was a rumour that always came up when people talked about Amamiya Tōru before.
It was completely baseless. An exaggerated rumour vastly different from the truth.

I, too, had become the subject of such rumours.

The boy continued speaking.
It was as if he had no malice, merely stating facts.

“You know, Kuroda-san, we often call ourselves invisible men because we’re so inconspicuous and plain. And the ones who ended up in the same group during team assignments say you’re expressionless and unfriendly. Well, I’d never spoken to Kuroda-san before, so even when the topic of invisible men came up, I didn’t really say anything behind your back? But now, talking to you like this… you really are genuinely expressionless, I mean…”

　Everything that boy said from start to finish boiled down to two words: ‘utterly despicable’.
I didn’t think it was your place to say that to me, a complete stranger.

“Um, what exactly are you trying to say?”

Even so, the strongest feeling I had towards him was ‘creepy’.
What he was saying should have been about my negative traits, yet for some reason, the boy’s expression was smirking.

“No, sorry, sorry. It’s just… seeing someone like you doing that sort of thing, it’s kinda… well? It gets me going, I suppose?”
“………!”

I felt a level of disgust towards someone I’d never felt before.
It was like something that had always been outside my sphere of interest had suddenly slithered in, coated in hatred.

The boy said.

He’d heard it from a friend yesterday, apparently.

So, it seems…

　apparently, if you pay her enough, you can crush that expressionless, transparent girl in your arms.

That’s what he said.

“That’s why you skipped yesterday, right?”

I felt sick.
Suppressing the urge to crouch down right there, I ignored the boy and entered the classroom.
Amamiya Tōru hadn’t arrived yet.
Thank goodness. Thank goodness she wasn’t here.

For the first time in ages, I felt how utterly alone and insignificant I was.

　Sitting at my desk, all I could do was keep my head down until the bell rang.

I was so preoccupied with my own thoughts that this morning, for the first time, I failed to notice and ignored Amamiya Tōru’s “Good morning”.