Kuroba Akira suddenly felt a nudge against his shoulder.
Just as he was wondering what was going on and turned his head to look—
His head had barely turned thirty degrees when Shiginomiya's foot pressed against the side of his face, right up against his nose… so this time, he'd literally had a beautiful girl step on his face.
And unexpectedly, he caught the scent from her foot—just a faint trace of sweat, but more than that, the smell of silk fabric and bath soap… all three blending together into a kind of provocative fragrance.
So this is what a beautiful girl's foot smells like?
Honestly, it made him kind of want to take a taste…
Not good, this XP of his might be evolving in the wrong direction.
As she pushed his face back with her toes, Shiginomiya warned,
"Not yet—you can't turn around right now!"
"What's this about?"
"Akira-kun… do you really not know what position I'm in right now, or are you just pretending not to?"
Akira pictured her posture in his mind—it might be something like a baby getting its diaper changed. Yeah… not exactly something fit for public viewing.
"Uh… alright, my bad…"
"As long as you know. Akira-kun, just keep doing what you were doing."
What I was doing? Foot massage?
Well, if she's saying it herself… might as well keep going.
Akira caught the sole of her foot with one hand and started pressing into her arch with his thumb.
Shiginomiya clapped both hands over her mouth—she was on the verge of letting out a sound she couldn't take back.
Originally she'd only wanted to keep him from turning around, but because of one wrong choice of words, this was turning into adding bliss to bliss!
At this point, Shiginomiya was way past the "needs a diaper change" stage—there was now the faintest dark patch on the super-short gym shorts she was wearing. It wasn't visible as long as she kept her legs together, but in her current wide-open position, if he turned around, he'd see everything.
She couldn't let herself look panicked though… that would make him suspicious. She had to stay calm… calm… ah—
She managed, with everything she had, to keep any sound from escaping her lips—but the cost was a teardrop at the corner of her eye, and the dark mark on her shorts spreading just that little bit further.
"…Mm. Let's stop there for now."
Because he was holding his arm at a weird angle to press her sole from behind, it wasn't the most comfortable posture, so Akira didn't go on for long.
After using her heel to thump his shoulder a few times, Akira stood up from his seat, letting Shiginomiya lower her propped-up legs at last.
"Can I turn around now?"
"…You can…"
Why did that sound so deflated?
When Akira turned, he saw Shiginomiya had sat up, hugging her white-stockinged legs to her chest, curling into a ball with her face buried against her knees.
Uh… what, self-imposed exile now?
"If I hurt you, you could've just said so, you know."
"It's not pain… I just…"
Shiginomiya was frozen because she'd just remembered her school uniform was still in the wash, and the middle of her gym shorts had gone from light blue to deep blue. She had nothing else to change into.
She was hugging her knees and curling up because that way she could completely shield her triangle zone from view, keeping Akira from spotting anything.
When she lifted her head and saw the 'how am I supposed to know if you won't tell me?' look on his face, a wave of frustration swelled in her chest.
How am I supposed to say it!
What, tell you that I just got iku from a foot rub?!
Even she felt that was far too shameless—borderline perv—no…! She could not admit that.
It was just that her feet were… a little sensitive, that's all!
Besides, Shiginomiya knew Akira's personality—if he actually realized what had happened, he'd never give her another foot massage again…
That, she couldn't allow.
So right now, all she could do was act like she was making trouble for no reason, to keep him from prying further.
"Forget it… Akira-kun, you just don't understand anything anyway…"
Akira looked at her, baffled.
Huh? Why did her mood value drop instead?
Where did I screw up?
Wasn't she enjoying the foot massage? Why the sudden mood crash?
Was it the position? Did it embarrass her?
Damn it… give me the numbers! Or at least a dialogue box with her thoughts!
I really can't figure out girls!
Akira stood there with his hands on his hips, letting out a long sigh.
He figured from now on, he'd better not take the initiative to pamper her—he'd just wait until Shiginomiya offered her feet, and then serve her. That way, there'd be no risk of messing it up.
In truth, Shiginomiya wasn't really sulking—she just needed to wait for her shorts to air-dry enough that there'd be no visible difference in shade before she could move around normally.
So she decided to make small talk to pass the time.
"By the way… Akira-kun, when I went for my morning run today, I ran into Tomita Haruka."
"Oh? Ah— that big… uh, the morning-run girl. What about her?"
"She asked me why you haven't been coming to morning runs lately."
"Oh, then just tell her I've been busy these days and don't have the time, simple as that."
He really hadn't gone running recently—he'd been using all his mornings to rush his manuscript.
"That's what I said. Then she asked me if you were going to stop coming altogether. I told her I wasn't sure, that I'd have to ask you—so I'm asking now, what's your plan?"
"Once I get past this busy stretch, I'll get back to morning runs. Honestly, after a week without it, I feel like my body's rusting. Gotta keep training."
"I see… then I'll tell her that next time I see her."
"Mm."
Akira was a little surprised, though, that Tomita Haruka would go out of her way to ask about him.
Could it be that—just like how he looked forward to seeing her bouncing rei-rei every day—she also looked forward to seeing him?
But… what's there to see on him? It's not like… the bulge, right?
It wasn't that Akira hadn't considered the possibility that Tomita Haruka might have a crush on him, but rationally, he thought that was so unlikely it could be ignored. A person shouldn't delude themselves.
For one thing, his looks weren't so good as to make a girl fall in love at first sight— even with the boost from keeping his mouth shut, his face was maybe a 75, just barely hitting the "handsome guy" cutoff.
For another, their interactions were pitifully few—practically nonexistent.
Even their running routes were different. They only crossed paths near the bridge, and even then it was just a nodding acquaintance.
If they were running partners who saw each other every day, maybe there'd be a chance for feelings to grow… but they'd only exchanged names recently. Where's the room for romance in that?
But if he knew about the other part of Shiginomiya and Tomita Haruka's conversation, he might not think that way.
In truth, Tomita Haruka had asked Shiginomiya a third question: what her relationship with Kuroba Akira was.
At the time, Shiginomiya said they were just friends—but when she saw the radiant smile that bloomed on Haruka's face, a shadowy emotion surged up in her heart. She added, "We live together now, and we sleep in the same room."
And just like that, she watched Haruka's smile freeze, then twist into something full of bitterness, before the girl turned and walked away as if she'd lost her soul.
Watching her back retreat, Shiginomiya not only felt no guilt—she felt a refreshing sense of having swept an obstacle out of the way.
This was something Akira-kun didn't need to know. There was no need for him to know.
Akira-kun was busy right now, with no time to be distracted by such things. She was simply helping him handle "trivial matters."
Besides—when it came down to it, any woman who could look at Akira-kun with that kind of smile… having her alone was enough.
No second one needed.
---
bonus chaps
100 stones -> 1 chapter
200 stones -> 2 chapters
300 stones -> 3 chapters
and so on
discord.gg/wisetl
patreon.com/wisetl