It was a rather presumptuous statement, one that might strike some as arrogant.
Placing a hand on her chest, she peered at my face, her cheeks flushed, delivering the statement with the certainty of a fact: “You like me, don’t you?”

“Hm? Wrong? Er—ah, I suppose I should have looked up your name before speaking to you.”

Seeing me fall silent, she furrowed her brow slightly. But looking closely, it seemed more like a troubled expression.
Even before that, I still couldn’t quite believe Amamiya Tōru’s smile. Precisely because she was so beautifully artificial, that ordinary girl-like smile seemed somehow mismatched on her.

“Hey, hey, won’t you tell me?”
“Eh?”

To her. To Amamiya Tōru. What could someone like me possibly teach her?
Thinking that, I realised from the context she was asking for my name.
We hadn’t been in the same class during our first year of high school, so it made sense she didn’t know my name. But this year we were in the same class, and half a year had already passed.
Here, I reaffirmed it.
That I really was a world apart from her.

“Kuroda Mashiro…”
“Mashiro-chan, huh? Yeah, that’s nice. I’ve got it now!”

Amamiya Tōru gazed into my eyes and took a step back. Swaying slightly.
Even that gesture was captivating. Combined with her face still flushed for some reason, the pounding in my chest accelerated.

“Nice to meet you! Mashiro-chan!”

Amamiya Tōru flashed a bright, open smile.
Even as my mind registered the incongruity, the pounding in my chest only grew stronger.

Amamiya Tōru stepped closer, her gaze locked on mine.
She leaned forward, still looking straight into my eyes. I couldn’t look away either.
　She drew her flushed face close to mine and murmured words into my ear, as if whispering to past knights.

“I want to talk to you after school today, Mashiro-chan. Wait for me in the classroom.”

Amamiya Tōru’s breath brushed my ear.
It was warm. It sent a pleasant tingle through me.

Her face pulled away.

　My heartbeat was so loud I pressed my hand to my chest. I couldn’t keep looking at Amamiya Tōru’s face. I just stared at her feet while trying to steady my breathing.

“See ya.”

With those final words, Amamiya Tōru left the science room.
Only then did I realise she hadn’t taken her fifth-period textbook or pencil case; she’d left empty-handed.

The classroom, once again empty, felt unnaturally hot.
　The high humidity combined with my own body heat sapped my ability to think. My face, in particular, felt so intensely hot it blurred my vision.
………Fifth period. I found myself forced to sit through the lesson in a state far from conducive to concentration.

During class, Amamiya Tōru looked my way just once from her distant seat. Her eyes remained expressionless, but she lifted her cheek with her hand and gave a slight smile. It only made the heat feel worse and left me feeling thoroughly fed up. It was a rather delightful reward.

My thinking really is impaired, it seems.

The bell signalling the end of school rang, marking the conclusion of our short homeroom period.
My classmates stood, bowed in unison to the command, grabbed their bags, and streamed out of the classroom – each heading towards their respective destinations: club activities, play, dates, summons.
The once-bustling classroom fell silent in less than a minute.

“Just the two of us, eh?”

Before I knew it, Amamiya Tōru was standing behind me, gently placing a hand on my shoulder where I sat.
I didn’t turn around.
If I did, her face would surely be right before my eyes. That proximity, that very closeness of Amamiya Tōru right now, was proven by the dampness of her whispered voice and the warmth of her breath against my ear.
　So I spoke without turning around.

“Ah, um↑!!”

………My voice cracked. How embarrassing.

After all, Amamiya Tōru hadn’t taken her hand off my shoulder.
Even through clothing, I had no immunity to someone continuously touching a part of my body like this.
Of course I was tense.

　My body trembled violently.
My face grew hotter by the second, though this wasn’t exactly from embarrassment. The sweet scent wafting from behind was driving me utterly mad.

“Mmmph! Kuku!”
“Eh?”
“Ahahahaha!”

What reached my ears from above was laughter.
Yes, laughter.
A high-pitched, bubbling sound. A girl’s laughter.

　Suddenly, something passed by my face. It was her arm.
Amamiya Tōru placed her chin on top of my head, wrapping her arm around me from behind as if leaning against me.

“Mashiro-chan, you’re such an amusing girl, aren’t you?”

A bouncy voice. A voice that seemed almost clingy, a voice that made you want to support her, to hug her.

“Um, you’re heavy. Er, ……… Amamiya-san?”
“You’re being rather standoffish, aren’t you? That’s a bit sad.”
“Er, well, that’s because—”
“Hmm?”
“W-wait, please move away a bit! It’s, it’s hard to talk like this!”

I stood up, forcibly peeling her away, and took a few steps back.
Only after that process did I finally manage to face Amamiya Tōru.
　And I was stunned.

Looking at her face. Looking at her expression.

“Ahaha— Did I perhaps misjudge how to close the distance a bit?”

The same bright voice I’d heard from close by just moments ago.
That cat-like purr of a voice, leaving an impression of clinginess no matter how far it went.
But the expression on Amamiya Tōru’s face as she spoke that voice…

Was expressionless.

　Not a shred of emotion. For me, it was a familiar sight. When you think of Amamiya Tōru, this is the face.
It was that kind of expression – a perfectly crafted, impassive mask, the sort you’d be used to seeing from afar.

“Ah, right. This face probably won’t work on Mashiro-chan. Hmm…”

Muttering this, she kneaded her own cheeks with both hands.
And then she fashioned a smile.

　It was the same one I’d seen during lunch break today, a broad, beaming grin.

Shuddering at the sheer abruptness of her transformation – utterly unlike her usual self – I still managed to string words together.

“Er… So, what was it you wanted to talk about?”

Of course, I had plenty I wanted to ask her.
　What did she mean just now when she said, “This face doesn’t work for me”? And that laughter rolling above my head earlier —could she really have been expressionless the whole time?
Even before that, was her lunchtime self just an act? And so on.

But there isn’t much time left after school to linger in the classroom.
So now, I press on with the main point.
The reason Amamiya Tōru called someone like me after school.

“Oh? So you’re rather impatient, aren’t you, Mashiro-chan? Well then, I suppose I’d better get straight to the point? …Right, Mashiro-chan?”

Again.

Again, just like the fake version I saw during lunch break, Amamiya Tōru blushed.

Then, placing her hand on her chest, she closed the gap of several paces I’d left open, step by step.

　Once her hand on her chest was close enough to reach mine, she took my hand and guided it towards a certain place.
I could only watch where my hand was being led, completely at her mercy. I was utterly captivated. By her seductive, alluring aura. Or perhaps it was the sweet-smelling air that had affected me.

Squish.

If I had to describe that sensation with an onomatopoeia, that’s what it felt like. I think.

“Mmm! …Ah, I made a weird sound. How embarrassing.”

As if. This reaction was fake. Artificial. In other words, a lie.
So I let it go.
Right now, all my awareness was consumed by the sensation travelling through my hand.

The destination my hand reached, guided by Amamiya Tōru, was Amamiya Tōru’s chest.

「………」

No words came out.
Though vulgar, the sound of me swallowing hard was all that reached my ears.

「Hmm? Just this isn’t quite enough of a reaction, is it? Guess girls aren’t as straightforward as boys after all—」

Though I couldn’t tell her that.
I’d made Amamiya Tōru do all sorts of things in my mind, and let her do them.
　One of them. The temptation of letting her touch her chest – something she’d also let one of the past Knights do. Now, I’d experienced it too.

Not much of a reaction? That couldn’t be right.

If the focus concentrated on my hand gradually dispersed, I was confident I could give a more innocent reaction than that past Knight.
It was simply that my concentration on her chest was higher than his.

What was I saying?

“Eii”

Such an adorable little cry.

“Eh?”

The movement was so natural, I could only stare at her again.
The warmth of Amamiya Tōru’s hand, sandwiching mine between her breast and her own palm.
It pulled away, reaching towards me.

Funi

The definite pressure on my chest.

　Pressing her hand against my clothes, kneading me as if to sink, even though it wouldn’t.

“Hey, Mashiro-chan. Won’t you treat me?”

I remained touching Amamiya Tōru’s chest.
I heard the words Amamiya Tōru spoke while kneading my chest.