"Hee!! Little Hide!! -☆"
Someone cheerfully called out the name of the blond-haired, pretty boy. Hide reflexively turned toward the voice, only to flinch back in surprise when he saw a beauty charging straight at him.
"W-what the h..."
As the beauty skidded to a halt just inches away, Hide couldn't hide his confusion. More than anything, she was far too close. A peerless beauty, unlike anyone he had ever seen in his life, was staring at him with sparkling violet eyes.
Hide swallowed hard. For someone like him—a gloomy "nerd" infamous at school—interaction with the opposite sex was foreign territory. He had never been looked at with such affection by a woman. Not even by his own mother.
The beauty carried a fragrance that felt somehow familiar, yet intoxicatingly pleasant.
*Somehow... this scent feels familiar...*
Before he could process it, her delicate face was right in front of his. Flustered, Hide didn't even have time to step back before her hands touched his cheeks.
She cupped the blond boy's face with both hands, tilting it this way and that as she examined him closely. Then, her eyes curved into a soft, crescent shape.
For some reason, the beauty was smiling with clear delight and satisfaction.
She was so lovely that Hide couldn't even bring himself to push away a stranger touching his face.
"You haven't changed at all, have you? (*´∪`)"
Hide blinked stupidly at her incomprehensible words. He only snapped back to reality after she finished pinching his cheeks, calling them soft, and ruffling his hair. Having never experienced a woman's affectionate touch, he finally took a hesitant step back.
"Um... who are you...?"
"Ah! So Hide still doesn't know Ai?"
The beauty said something he couldn't understand, then suddenly wore a teasing expression, letting out a playful, nasal laugh.
"Hide's future bride?"
"Huh?????!?!??! Someone like you and a nerd like me?"
Hide couldn't keep up with the conversation, which was driven entirely by the beauty's outrageous pace. He waited for her to say it was a joke, but she didn't even bother to correct herself. She only wore a confident smile, as if to confirm that yes, she really was his future bride.
Overwhelmed by her momentum, Hide actually began wondering whether his parents—who had abandoned him—might have arranged an engagement in advance. But unfortunately, that was impossible. Common sense dictated it; parents who had dumped their child on relatives because he was an inconvenience would never bother with something so troublesome for his sake.
Still, once Hide realized no such arrangement existed, he felt an odd sense of disappointment.
*Get a grip! Why would someone like that be my bride!*
To stop his thoughts from veering in a ridiculous direction, Hide smacked his own forehead with a small hand.
"Huh? Hide!! Why are you suddenly hitting your forehead? Does it hurt somewhere?? ヽ( ຶ▮ ຶ)ﾉ!!!"
Startled by his action, the beauty gently stroked his forehead. Hide's shoulders jerked at the touch.
*Why is she being so casual with someone she just met...?*
The woman who called herself Ai looked at him with a gaze full of affection, true to her name. If it had been anyone else, he would have run away in fear of being hurt, but for some reason, this beauty named Ai felt harmless.
It tickled the inside of him, like feathers brushing softly against his heart. Feeling that he couldn't let this continue, he hesitantly opened his mouth.
"I... I think you've mistaken me for someone else... I've never seen a pretty person like you before... and I don't have a fiancée..."
"Mm-hm! -☆"
"So that means we're strangers."
"Hee.... So the Hide from when you were little had a very different vibe? In another way, you're incredibly cute!! ദ്ദിˊᗜˋ)"
"Huh?"
At the beauty's blunt praise, the blond boy's face turned red as a tomato. He had steeled himself to draw a line, but the beauty showed no sign of ending her one-sided friendliness.
In fact, she was only getting more intense.
The beauty looked at him with a blissful expression, then suddenly pulled him into a tight hug. Her behavior made Hide's face go so red he worried it might burst past tomato-red and simply explode.
Her embrace was warm and comforting.
*No, wait. This isn't right.*
The woman's behavior was far too excessive. Considering they had just met, it was enough to be called rude.
*But... why...*
It was rude, and yet he didn't feel bad at all. He should have pushed her away and run like he'd learned to do, but instead, he was just flustered and helpless. He might be a nerd, but he wasn't an idiot.
Confused, Hide finally decided to escape from the beauty's arms. However, before he could act, the soft touch of lips landed on his cheek, and he froze completely.
"So cute!! I want to put you in my pocket and take you home!!! ( ˃ ⩌˂)"
The beauty declared that her husband was cute and began showering his cheeks with affectionate kisses. She doted on Hide as though he were a baby.
For someone who had never been treated this way in his life, Hide couldn't collect himself, overwhelmed by embarrassment and a feeling he couldn't put into words.
"I-I'm!! Not cute!!! I'm a punk guy!!"
Even he thought it was a stupid thing to say. Hide immediately felt pathetic. To think that a single moment of affection could make a person melt like this.
He felt as if the life he had spent clawing and struggling just to survive had, in the end, been nothing special at all. With that thought, Hide wriggled free from the beauty's embrace.
Determined not to be taken in any longer, Hide began to glare with resolve. He intended to settle the matter clearly: they were strangers.
"But Hide is still cute even when he's grown up...? You still don't get it, do you?"
Even when he spoke firmly, her affection didn't fade; it only grew stronger. Seeing the beauty keep smiling so naturally, as if his feelings were already in the palm of her hand, Hide felt his strength drain away again.
For some reason, whenever he met her eyes, he felt as if he were being pulled in, and his heart started pounding.
*Why am I like this? Because I'm startled? Because I'm flustered? Or... because I like it?*
His mind had long since stopped functioning under a stimulus he was experiencing for the first time in his life.
When the beauty took one more step toward him, Hide panicked like a rabbit spotting a predator and started running for his life. When reason couldn't handle the situation, fleeing was the only option.
Hide ran as his instincts commanded. He knew this was the kind of thing only idiots would do, but there was no other way.
"Running away too is exactly the same as when we first met??! You ran even before we started dating! ☆"
Laughter rang out behind him. When had they ever dated??! Besides, this was the first time he had ever run from a beauty who showered him with affection.
There was no way a beauty like this could exist in his world. But contrary to his denial, the heat on Hide's face showed no sign of cooling.
And so Hide kept running farther and farther away, chased by the woman called Ai.