“For this reason, today I’m going to give you a special lap pillow. How is that? Does that make you happy? Well, of course, you would be happy.”

“What For this reason? Whatever reason are you saying?”

When I had a headache from the mysterious situation where I couldn’t hold any conversation with her, Yuzu made her lips pout.

“Eh? So Yamato-kun, you don’t want to lie on my lap?”

I glanced at Yuzu’s legs when she told me. White thighs are visible through the slightly stuffed skirt of her uniform. Not too thin, not too thick—they exuded a healthy sexiness.

“…Nah, I don’t want to.”

“Oh, there was a pause.”

She was quick to point out that my heart had subtly swayed.

“Ughk…”

“Oh no, Yamato-kun, you’re an adolescent boy too, aren’t you?”

I felt awkward after carelessly exposing a weakness, so I faced away from her; Yuzu peeked at me relentlessly.

“Hey, hey, you wavered just now, didn’t you? Come on, come on, there’s no need to force yourself.”

“You’re a pest!”

Yuzu invited me by tugging on my sleeve and patting her thigh. To be honest, it was a rather appealing invitation, but when I imagine myself lying on Yuzu’s lap, it felt like mentally submitting myself to her, so I’d like to decline.

“In the first place, can a girl, whose waist gave out when we were stuck close just a bit, even offer a lap pillow?? If your waist gives out while I’m lying on your lap, you’ll make me slip down the chair along with you, surely I don’t want that.” When I mobilized all of my mental strength and spun out a rebuttal, it seemed to be surprisingly effective, and Yuzu showed a slight agitation.

“Y-you’re nitpicking me for something that happened in the past…! I’m not the same person I was back then either! Also, if it does not catch me by surprise, I should be relatively fine!”

“Well, you can say whatever you want. You don’t have to push yourself, okay? Yuzu-chan. I’m a gentleman, so I’ll just smile and let my girlfriend say all the vain things.” As I managed to regain my pace, Yuzu bit her teeth in frustration.

“Okay! If you’re so sure, why don’t you give it a try? Go ahead, dive into my thighs with all your desire! Only if you can do it, Yamato-kun, you wuss!”

“Fine! But make sure your waist doesn’t give out and crush me under you this time!” “

This was what people say giving tit-for-tat. I was supposed to avoid this lap pillow thing, yet we were both riled up into doing it. For a moment, I almost felt calm, but then I realized that I couldn’t back down.

“Al-all right. Let’s go!”

“Uh-huh!”

We both tensed slightly, but I slowly placed my own head on Yuzu’s thigh.

I could feel a just-nice softness and the raw warmth from her body. And Yuzu’s sweet scent up close.

“…”

“…”

We were both silent for a long time. Because of this, I could clearly hear the subtle fast breathing and the fact that my heartbeat was getting really loud.

It made me feel embarrassed, I mentally struggled to remain calm for a few seconds, then I slowly raised my upper body from her thighs.

“I guess this stage is still too early for us……”

“Yeah… I feel so defeated.”

The two sides split the pain, leaving only an awkward atmosphere. Or rather, why did this happen in the first place?

“We’re still at level one as a couple, after all. We need to take a few more steps to make progress.” Yuzu, her face reddened, spoke words of introspection with a mysterious ambition.

“No, on second thought, do we need to make progress? The ones who need to make progress are Sakuraba and Kotani.” When I tried to put forward a good argument, Yuzu again pouted her lips in frustration.

“That may be right, but… that matter aside, Yamato-kun, I think you should express more love or attachment towards me, you know.”

“For what?”

“Of course it’s to please me.”

I shrugged my shoulders, slightly taken aback by Yuzu’s boldness in saying this.

“No, I’ve already reached the maximum value in the love aspect, so anything more than that is impossible. Besides, the game needs more leveling up than we do.” When I changed the subject a little too forcefully, Yuzu’s eyes sparkled.

“So… that means it’s time to play  ‘Jankenpon’1to level up, right?

“The loser must raise all party members’ levels by 3 alone!”

When I declared that with a fist up, Yuzu also hit it with her fist. The previous awkward atmosphere scattered away and the room was filled instead with both of our fighting spirit.

Leveling up—the real charm of RPGs, yet the most hassling thing to do. Here began a fight to push that cumbersome task to the other.

“Bring it on! Saisho wa Gu!!”

“Jankenpon!”

2

Leaving Yuzu alone in the club room working on leveling up, I took a stroll down the hallway for a change.I didn’t hate leveling up, but Yuzu didn’t like leveling up so much, so I was pretty sure she was having a hard time now. But I wanted her to enjoy the attachment to the characters that comes from that hardship.

“I’ll buy you a drink” I would be that kind of boyfriend who bought her a drink to cheer her up as she worked hard. Yuzu surely would be moved to tears by this.

I decided to do so, and went down to the first floor where the cafeteria was located, and proceeded down the corridor.

That was when I came across an unexpected person.

“…”

It was Kotani, standing beside the vending machine, looking bored and playing with her smartphone. She took one look at me, and then dropped her eyes to the screen again, as if she had lost interest.

As for me, I had nothing to say, so I went through her and bought a drink.

“Where’s Yuzu today?” Suddenly Kotani opened her mouth.

It was so abrupt and she was still looking at her phone, I thought she was talking to herself for a moment, but that couldn’t be it.

”Who knows. With her friends, maybe?” I didn’t want to spread the word that I was taking over the club room without permission, so I lied about it on the spur of the moment.

“She’s not with you even though you two are dating.”

“She’s not the type to be tied down. But look here, you’re the one who’s unusually alone.”

“…Why would you care?” She cut off the conversation as if she had no more use for me.

However, I didn’t miss the fact that her gaze turned towards the gymnasium for a moment.

‘I see. She’s waiting for Sakuraba to finish his club activities.’

The timing of the end of club activities would make it easier for the two of them to be alone compared to other times. In her own way, she was trying to be brave enough to make progress in the relationship.

Smiling a little at that, I took a hot cup of tea from the vending machine and left Kotani.

“…… Well, what do we do now?” Muttering to myself, I came near the staff room instead of the literature club room.

There’d still be time for Yuzu to finish levelling up, so I’d best kill some time.

I slid a bottle of tea into the pocket of my jacket and waited a few minutes until a modern Japanese teacher emerged from the staff room, carrying a huge document.

“Hello, Sugawara-sensei.” When I called out to him, the middle-aged male teacher looked at me as if he was a little surprised.

“Izumi, from the first year. What are you doing here at this hour?”

“I’m here for self-study. These papers look heavy. Do you want me to help you carry it?”

When I offered, Sugawara-sensei nodded as if pleased and handed me half of his papers.

“Oh, thank you.”

“No, no, no. I’m just trying to score some points for my evaluation transcript3, so don’t worry about it.”

The teacher smiled at my frank statement.

“I see. Well, I’ll give you some extra points.”

“Thank you very much. It’s really worth it to try anything.” I was talking light-heartedly and full of concern, which didn’t suit me. Maybe it was because I was always with Yuzu that I had picked up her tricks.

And so I arrived at the Japanese language preparation room to find a jumbled pile of materials and teaching materials waiting for me.

“No matter how many times I see it… it’s still amazing, this place.” I even felt a kind of awestruck feeling at the state of the almost trashed place.

“Being a teacher makes me always busy with work.” The teacher turned his face away awkwardly.

This teacher was quite famous among his students for his inability to keep thing tidy. That was why I came here to target him.

“I can clean up for you if you’re okay with it.”

“You can?”

“Yes. Provided, of course, that you give a modicum of consideration to my evaluation score.”

When I offered him a deal, he pondered for a moment and then nodded.

“…All right. Please, Izumi.”

“Yes, please leave it to me. If you can wait for an hour or so, I’m sure I can finish the whole thing.”

“Oh. I’ll be back to check on you around that time.” The teacher left the preparation room with a smile.

“…Well, so far, so good.”

I waited until Sugawara-sensei had completely disappeared before I went out into the hallway.