Morishita Ai entered the classroom as she did every morning and instinctively glanced toward a certain seat.
Empty again.
Only then did she remember that someone was still suspended.
Apparently, something serious had happened during the uninhabited island exam. Nagumo Miyabi had been expelled after the incident, while Kaoru received a three-month suspension.
Ai did not feel particularly sorry for him.
Compared with Kaoru being temporarily absent from school, she was much more interested in the ghost incident from the island exam.
Did ghosts actually exist?
Unfortunately, even after the exam ended, Ai never discovered any real trace of one.
She had nevertheless become obsessed with the subject for a while, reading ghost manga and watching horror movies late into the night. The stories were exciting enough that she had nearly scared herself out of going to the bathroom after dark, though she naturally refused to admit that to anyone.
Once she reached her seat, Ai pulled out her phone.
She did not have many friends to talk to, and besides, there was another matter occupying her attention.
Bugs.
After returning from the island, Ai had secretly bought several rhinoceros beetles and placed them in the insect enclosure she had purchased for her room.
Within a few days, all of them died.
Ai had absolutely no idea why.
Still, such a minor setback was not enough to destroy her enthusiasm. Since she had already spent money on the enclosure, she intended to find some kind of pet easy enough that even she could keep it alive.
After browsing for quite a while, Ai happened to notice Miki nearby and leaned toward her.
"Yamamura Miki, which one do you think I should buy?"
She turned her phone screen toward her.
"Eh?"
Miki looked at it.
Her face immediately went pale.
"P-please don't scare me…"
Ai had been about to explain her options, but seeing Miki look close to tears made her lose interest.
"You're way too timid. That's boring."
In reality, Miki's reaction was probably far closer to that of a normal girl.
Ai naturally assumed the problem was Miki.
Since Miki clearly wanted nothing to do with the subject, Ai sighed deeply and sprawled across her desk.
Boring.
At times like this, she inevitably thought about someone else.
If Kaoru were here, he would probably have offered some opinion, even if it was annoying.
'Honestly. Why did he have to get suspended?'
Ai became faintly irritated.
She had to keep suffering through ordinary classroom life while Kaoru was apparently free to sleep whenever he wanted, wander around wherever he pleased, and ignore school rules entirely.
She was jealous.
She also still looked down on him.
Kaoru was hopelessly unfaithful to his girlfriends, and rumor had it that he had already become involved with younger students as well. Apparently, even girls from the first year were no longer safe from him.
Ai also found Miki rather hopeless for developing feelings for a man like that.
Especially a man who was, according to increasingly widespread testimony, an incurable foot fetishist.
And Ai was not falsely accusing him.
She had caught Kaoru looking at her plenty of times before.
His gaze would occasionally linger lower than normal, moving from her legs toward her shoes in a way that made his interests rather obvious.
Girls were sensitive to where boys looked.
Ai was not some sheltered child who knew nothing about attraction. She understood perfectly well what boys tended to notice, and she had occasionally found their staring or ridiculous reactions unpleasant.
Kaoru was simply strange because his attention seemed to drift downward more often than most.
Strictly speaking, that was still suspicious.
Every time she noticed it, Ai wondered what kind of shameless thoughts were going through his head.
So when Kikyō and Ichika started openly calling him a perverted foot fetishist, Ai had accepted the label almost immediately.
'That man really is hopeless.'
Thinking about it, Ai glanced down at her own legs.
She was wearing black tights today, thin enough that the fabric still caught a little light while following the clean line of her legs. Her skirt fell naturally over her thighs, and because she was sitting with her feet drawn slightly backward beneath the chair, her posture emphasized the neat curve from knee to ankle.
Ai stared for a few seconds.
What exactly was so interesting?
Was it simply because they belonged to a girl?
She had heard that some men with foot fetishes liked being stepped on too.
Did Kaoru have that kind of preference?
Ai unconsciously moved one foot as though testing the idea.
Then an especially mischievous thought entered her head.
She turned toward Miki.
"Yamamura Miki, do you like stepping on boys?"
Miki stared at her.
"N-no."
"No wonder you're doing so badly."
Ai sounded genuinely disappointed.
"Your romantic strategy is about as weak as your presence."
Miki looked even more confused.
"Mitoma Kaoru is a foot fetishist. Apparently he likes girls stepping on him. If you refuse to do things like that, he might lose interest."
"K-Kaoru wouldn't…"
Miki's face turned red.
"You're doubting my observation skills?"
Ai spoke with absolute confidence.
"You clearly don't understand how perverts think. If a girl steps on his face, he gets to stare upward while pretending he's being punished."
As though proving her own theory, Ai lightly pinched the edge of her skirt and adjusted it before giving Miki a smug look.
"See? That's exactly the kind of thing that would make him react. You should practice."
"I-I-I am absolutely not practicing something like that!"
Miki hurriedly pressed both hands against her skirt as if Ai might somehow force her into a demonstration.
"You're incredibly ungrateful."
Ai frowned.
"I'm sharing valuable experience with you."
The fact that Ai herself possessed absolutely no experience dealing with men did not diminish her confidence in the slightest.
"If you like him, just indulge his weird preference once in a while. Don't you want to step on his face?"
Ai expected another flustered denial.
Instead, Miki stammered for several seconds before blurting out something that left her completely stunned.
"I-I… Kaoru and I… are together now."
Ai froze.
For several seconds, she simply stared.
The quiet little girl she had always thought of as a helpless pushover had somehow gone behind everyone's backs and actually started dating Kaoru?
Even knowing that Kaoru already had a ridiculous number of girlfriends had not been enough to make Miki retreat.
She had voluntarily walked straight into it.
Ai opened her mouth, intending to ridicule her.
Then she saw Miki sitting there with that foolishly embarrassed expression, and for some reason the good mood she had been enjoying vanished.
Instead, she felt irritated.
'Whatever.'
What did Miki being stupid have to do with her?
Ai lowered her head onto the desk again and turned toward the window.
She stared outside without really seeing anything.
Miki looked as though she wanted to say something, but the confession alone had already exhausted most of her courage. She quietly shrank into herself instead.
Even so, she glanced down at her legs.
Kaoru did seem to like touching them sometimes.
For that reason, Miki could not exactly argue with Ai calling him a foot fetishist.
Still…
Could a girl really step on her boyfriend?
The idea seemed wrong somehow.
Miki became increasingly worried.
What if Kaoru genuinely liked that kind of thing?
What was she supposed to do?
...
The midday sunlight was bright, but the thick trees around the artificial lake cast broad patches of shade. A light breeze stirred the leaves overhead, producing a soft rustling sound, while sunlight glittered across the water and occasional shadows of fish slipped beneath the surface.
Ai sat on a bench beneath the trees with one hand resting on her stomach.
She had just finished lunch and did not feel like returning to the classroom yet. The shade was cool and comfortable, so there was no reason not to stay outside a little longer.
After a while, she noticed several ants dragging the corpse of an insect across the ground.
That immediately captured her attention.
Ants had always seemed incredible to Ai.
How did creatures so tiny hunt things many times larger than themselves? How did they know where prey was? How did they communicate? Why did they somehow manage to navigate without constantly getting lost?
Curious, Ai leaned over the edge of the bench and watched them.
Their antennae touched briefly whenever they encountered one another, and together they hauled their prize forward with tireless determination.
Among them were several noticeably larger ants with oversized heads and powerful mandibles.
'Those must be the generals.'
Ai had heard that ant colonies revolved around the queen. Most of the ants were her offspring, and the entire colony existed around her.
She had never actually seen an ant queen before.
Still, for some reason, she imagined it probably behaved a little like Kaoru.
Before she could decide whether that comparison made any sense, drowsiness began creeping over her.
She had just eaten, her stomach was warm, and the afternoon breeze was pleasant.
Ai slowly curled up sideways on the bench and closed her eyes.
Within minutes, she drifted to sleep.
And then she dreamed about a pervert.
In the dream, Kaoru had somehow captured her legs and refused to let go, constantly pestering her no matter how many times she warned him to stay away.
When Ai angrily demanded that he stop, Dream Kaoru merely laughed and announced that she already belonged to his absurd harem anyway.
Then, like some shameless bandit, he threw her over his shoulder and carried her away while laughing.
Once he reached his room, he became even more unbearable, refusing to leave her alone no matter how much she protested.
Ai tried to escape.
Then she discovered Miki, Kei, Kikyō, Airi, Ichika, and several other girls already there.
Apparently, she was not the only victim of this idiot.
Everyone else seemed inexplicably accustomed to his behavior.
Ai became annoyed for reasons even she could not explain.
Why were all these girls letting this pervert get away with everything?
Did he have some kind of blackmail material on them?
Just as Ai began imagining increasingly terrible crimes for Dream Kaoru, a faint sound reached her ears.
Click.
Ai frowned in her sleep.
The dream had shifted.
Now she was finally getting revenge on the pervert, forcing him to look humiliated while she lectured him.
'That's what you get for bothering girls.'
'That's what you get for staring at me all the time.'
'That's what you get for having no loyalty whatsoever.'
Click.
Ai shifted irritably.
What an annoying sound.
She wanted to cover her ears.
Unfortunately, it continued.
Click. Click.
Finally, Ai woke up.
She opened her eyes angrily, fully prepared to find whoever had ruined her nap and make them regret it.
Then she froze.
The pervert from her dream was standing directly in front of her.
And he was taking pictures.
"Good afternoon, Morishita-san."
Kaoru lowered his phone slightly.
"Sorry. The shutter sound was louder than I expected. Did I wake you?"
Ai rubbed her eyes.
Maybe she was still dreaming.
She rubbed them again.
No.
The figure standing there really was the school's most notorious foot fetishist.
Once she realized that, Ai immediately sat upright and inspected herself.
Kaoru's face darkened.
"I didn't touch you."
Could she have at least a little faith in him?
Admittedly, seeing Ai asleep so defenselessly had tempted him to mess with her.
But he had resisted.
Mostly.
There was still the matter of the strange wish attached to her, and Kaoru remained interested in completing those whenever possible.
"You didn't touch me, but why are you looking at me like that?"
Ai narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
Dream Kaoru had been terrible enough.
Reality Kaoru could hardly be trusted more.
For all she knew, he had spent the entire time she was asleep doing something stupid.
"That expression is the joy of discovering someone's embarrassing history."
Kaoru solemnly put his phone away.
"Someone was drooling in her sleep. I won't say who."
Ai immediately wiped her mouth.
It actually was a little damp.
Apparently she had gotten too pleased with herself while tormenting Dream Kaoru.
"That's disgusting."
Ai glared.
"Why were you secretly photographing me anyway? Don't tell me you were taking pictures of my feet."
She pulled her legs closer together and watched his reaction.
Kaoru refused to look guilty.
"Who photographed your feet? Don't accuse people without evidence."
"I don't believe you."
Ai extended one hand.
"Show me the pictures."
Her expression made it clear that refusal would count as an admission of guilt.
Kaoru considered himself innocent enough.
Rather than act suspicious by hiding the phone, he handed it over.
Ai blinked.
She had expected him to argue.
Was he really telling the truth?
A few seconds later, her expression darkened.
This bastard really had been photographing her sleeping face.
And there she was, visibly drooling.
Ai lowered the phone.
"Mitoma Kaoru."
Her voice became ominously calm.
"I think we need to talk."
"If you're planning to delete it, I already uploaded it to the cloud."
Kaoru immediately lied.
This man really did enjoy tormenting girls.
Even while suspended, he refused to behave.
Ai seethed.
"I'll let you keep the picture."
Kaoru looked surprised.
"But I have one condition."
"A condition?"
He suddenly remembered their previous conversation.
"Don't tell me you want me to send you a copy again."
"Of course not."
Ai answered with complete dignity.
"I'm still a girl. If you preserve an embarrassing picture like that, obviously I'll get angry."
Kaoru gave her a strange look.
Did she genuinely experience embarrassment?
"What do you want?"
He had only taken the picture because he happened to encounter her sleeping there, so he decided he might as well hear her demand.
Ai answered almost immediately.
"Let me step on you once."
Kaoru froze.
His eyes instinctively dropped toward her legs before he stopped himself.
Ai saw the reaction and became smug.
"If you let me step on you and take photographic evidence, I'll forgive the sleeping picture. That's a pretty good deal for you, isn't it?"
It was obvious that Ai had no idea what kind of implication she was attaching to the proposal.
She had almost no experience dealing with boys.
The idea had simply come from her dream.
And frankly, the thought of finally putting Kaoru beneath her foot sounded extremely satisfying.
"You're serious?"
Kaoru gave her a flat look.
"For the record, I'm not a masochist."
"Stop pretending."
Ai looked delighted.
"I already figured you out. Every time you're in class, you sneak glances at me."
She lightly swung one foot.
"Normal boys stare at girls' faces. You keep looking at their legs and shoes. That's disgusting, you perverted foot fetishist."
"If I'm a pervert for liking feet, then volunteering to step on me makes you a pervert too."
"I'm collecting evidence!"
Ai glared.
"That's completely different."
Then she added, revealing her actual motivation, "You took embarrassing pictures of me, so I get embarrassing pictures of you."
There it was.
Revenge.
"I have somewhere to go."
Kaoru pretended not to hear.
"Give me my phone back. I need to head to Keyaki Mall."
"Coward."
Ai looked at him with profound contempt.
"A beautiful girl is offering you exactly the kind of thing you supposedly like, and you should be thanking me. Instead you're running away."
She clearly did not believe a word of his excuse.
Then, as if deliberately testing him, Ai lifted one foot and lightly nudged his leg several times.
Kaoru endured it at first.
Then she did it again.
Somewhere in his mind, a thread snapped.
The next time Ai extended her foot, Kaoru caught her ankle.
She startled for an instant, then immediately lifted her phone with a triumphant expression.
"Ha! There it is!"
She pointed the camera toward him.
"Critical evidence of the perverted foot fetishist attacking an innocent girl!"
Kaoru ignored the accusation and slipped off one of her shoes.
Ai suddenly became much less confident.
Her expression twitched.
"Y-you're not actually planning to do something weird, are you?"
Kaoru looked at her eager yet nervous face.
Then he smiled.
And tickled the sole of her foot.
Ai's expression froze.
A second later, her entire body twisted as helpless laughter burst out of her.
"Y-you pervert—hahaha! Stop! Stop! Hahaha!"
She tried to pull away, but Kaoru maintained a firm grip on her ankle.
Every attempt to escape merely gave him another chance to tickle her.
Ai laughed so hard that she could barely breathe.
"Stop—hahaha—seriously, stop! You idiot! Hahaha!"
She kicked wildly with her free foot.
Kaoru got hit several times.
Eventually, he caught that ankle too.
Now she had made things worse.
"No, no, no—hahaha! Both is cheating! I can't—hahaha!"
The sensitive attack was absolute torture.
Ai went from trying to fight back to collapsing sideways across the bench, laughing until tears appeared at the corners of her eyes.
"Enough! I surrender! Seriously—hahaha—let go!"
Kaoru finally stopped.
Ai lay there breathing hard, completely stripped of the dignified image she normally tried to maintain.
Kaoru looked at her for a moment.
Then he extended one hand.
"Alright. Give me my phone."
Ai immediately clutched it tighter.
"You cheated!"
She glared at him.
"That doesn't count. You still have to let me step on you."
"You don't get to make rules after losing."
"I absolutely do!"
Ai guarded the phone with both hands.
"You took the picture first!"
Kaoru knew exactly what would happen if he actually gave in.
If Honami or Fūka stepped on him as part of some private joke, they would probably treat it as nothing more than silly flirting.
Ai was different.
So was Mio.
Give either of them one victory and they would spend the rest of his life using it as evidence that he belonged beneath their heel.
Kaoru sighed dramatically.
"So if I let you step on me once, we're done?"
Ai's eyes brightened.
She tried to appear dignified.
"Yes. Hurry up. You complain too much, Mitoma Kaoru."
Kaoru sighed again and lowered himself onto one knee.
"If something embarrassing happens, don't blame me."
"It's fine, it's fine."
Ai hurriedly sat up.
"If anything embarrassing happens, consider it your reward."
Despite saying that, she carefully adjusted her skirt beforehand.
Kaoru noticed and almost laughed.
Ai raised her foot and lifted the phone.
Then Kaoru suddenly snatched it out of her hand.
"Eh?"
Ai froze.
Kaoru stood up and smiled.
"I would love to experience your generous offer, but class is starting soon. Let's save it for another day."
He raised the reclaimed phone.
"Sorry, Morishita-san."
Only then did Ai realize what had happened.
She had been tricked.
Kaoru had deliberately acted resigned until she lowered her guard, then stolen the phone back at the first opportunity.
Ai's face twisted.
"Mitoma Kaoru, you absolute—"
Before she could unleash the full extent of her vocabulary, Kaoru suddenly leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the cheek.
He was not reckless enough to aim for her lips.
Ai looked like the type who might bite.
The cheek kiss was enough.
Ai stopped mid-insult.
Her eyes widened.
"Almost forgot."
Kaoru took a step backward.
"Morishita-san has a surprisingly cute sleeping face, so I've decided I'm keeping that picture. Maybe I'll admire it every day."
If she insisted on calling him a pervert, then behaving a little shamelessly seemed perfectly appropriate.
Before Ai could recover, Kaoru turned and escaped.
She stared at his retreating back.
Then her fist slowly clenched.
That bastard had actually bullied her.
Did he think she was Yamamura Miki, someone who would quietly accept whatever happened?
Next time, she was absolutely going to make him regret it.
At minimum, she would get that picture.
Preferably while obtaining one humiliating enough to hold over his head forever.
Ai sat there fuming.
What she failed to notice was that beneath all the anger, there was no genuine disgust.
If Kikyō had known exactly what was going through her head, she probably would have sighed and shaken her head.
At this rate, Ai was only going to wander deeper into Kaoru's orbit while insisting the entire time that she was merely planning revenge.