Episode 30: Probing
I walked into the classroom and headed for my seat.
I set my things down on the desk and pulled out my chair without thinking much of it.
“…Morning.”
A voice, unexpected, called out to me.
I turned toward it.
Shiori.
She was standing right beside my seat, watching me steadily.
I gave a small nod. “Morning,” I said back.
I meant to leave it there — but Shiori kept looking at me, something faintly strained in her expression.
“…Yuna-chan, that.”
She said it, and pointed at my throat.
For a moment I didn’t understand what she meant, and tilted my head.
But it only took a second to realise.
— Ah. The mark.
The place Honoka had pressed her lips again and again that morning.
A faint warmth still lingering there on my skin.
I traced my fingers lightly over it and answered as though it were nothing.
Shiori’s expression tensed, just for an instant.
“That’s… from Shiraishi-san…?”
Her tone carried something probing in it.
I had no particular reason to hide it, so I just nodded. “Yeah.”
The moment she heard that answer, Shiori’s brow moved, faintly.
Her mouth pressed shut for an instant, and then her usual composed expression came back.
“…I see.”
Her reply was short, and her gaze dropped, as if she were thinking something through.
“…Yuna-chan, didn’t you say — before — that you were keeping some distance from Shiraishi-san?”
At those words, I blinked.
It was true, I’d said that. Shiori had suggested it, and I’d accepted the idea.
But that had been a choice about not being possessive toward Honoka.
Distance itself was never the goal.
“Yeah, I did say that before.”
I nodded slowly.
“…So then, what’s this?”
Shiori indicated my throat with a finger, tilting her head slightly.
Her eyes were calm, but carried something like scrutiny in them.
Unbothered, I answered simply: “It’s nothing, really.”
Shiori’s gaze sharpened, just a fraction.
“…Nothing?”
“Yeah. I just figured — stopping being possessive doesn’t mean I have to keep my distance.”
At that, Shiori’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“…Hmm.”
She let out a short breath, and studied my face closely, as if weighing something.
But I couldn’t tell what she was thinking.
I find that side of Shiori a little strange, honestly.
The way she talks to me even when I answer flatly. The way she listens to my problems. There’s something a little unusual about it.
But it’s never caused me any trouble, so I haven’t thought much about it.
“Well, I guess it’s fine if that’s how you feel about it, Yuna-chan.”
Shiori’s expression eased quickly, and she smiled the way she always does.
Seeing that, I just said, “Yeah.”
I thought that was the end of the conversation — but—
“Still, don’t you think you should give yourself a bit more room?”
The moment Shiori said it, I went still.
“Room?”
“Yeah. It seems like you’re not binding Honoka-san as much as before… but even so, isn’t this sort of thing still a kind of possessiveness, in the end?”
Her fingertip traced the air near the mark on my throat.
At the gesture, I frowned, just slightly.
“It’s not like I asked for it myself.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah.”
Thinking of Honoka, a smile rose naturally to my face.
The way she’d pressed her lips to my skin that morning, reluctant to stop.
The lonely way she’d murmured “a little longer.”
Remembering all of it, all I said was, “I’m fine.”
Shiori looked like she wanted to say something more, but she didn’t press further.
“…I see.”
She murmured it quietly, and gave a small smile.
But that smile was, somehow, ambiguous.