Jade Feet

The long class bell echoed through the hall, but for many students in Class D, it seemed to lack its usual urgency.

At the front of the room, the teacher explained complex formulas, chalk rasping across the blackboard, while an indescribable, almost permissive atmosphere hung over the class.

After all, Class Points had been stuck at a big fat zero for nearly three months, as immovable as rusted iron.

For some students, it was like an invisible "get out of class free" card: It's been zero this whole time anyway. Who cares how I do in class? The thought quietly took root.

Still, not everyone in the classroom was slacking off.

Most students sat with their backs straight, eyes fixed on the blackboard or their textbooks, pens moving quickly across their notebooks.

What kept them going was no longer the ambition to compete for points, but a more practical and urgent rule of survival: they had to pass the upcoming finals and avoid crossing the line into expulsion.

Even if the tempting monthly points had become a fantasy, the generous conditions the school itself provided—new, comfortable dorms, high-quality teaching, and tuition-free education—were already a rare paradise for students from ordinary families.

In other words, as long as they made sure not to get expelled and could stay in this "paradise," the fact that their Class Points were already at zero did mean they could, to some extent... live a little more freely.

Hoshino Kanade, seated in the corner by the window, was one of those who took this "freedom" to heart.

Sunlight streamed through the clean glass window, scattering patches of light across her open physics textbook.

Beneath it, though, she had a hefty history book borrowed from the library.

She propped her chin on one hand and occasionally turned a page with her fingertips, her posture languid. Her mind had clearly drifted far from the lesson on Ohm's law.

And her desk mate behind her, Ayanokoji Kina, was the most enthusiastic accomplice in this "leisure"—and... its ringleader.

Most of the time, it was more like Kina's personal "show."

Noticing how relaxed Hoshino Kanade was, she would flash a sly smile, then sneak her slender fingers behind her. Through the boy's slightly thin school uniform shirt, she began to play on that warm, smooth "canvas."

Her fingertips traced gentle, crooked hearts, or wrote out, stroke by stroke, blunt and girlishly romantic phrases like "I love Kanade the most" and "Kanade is the best in the world."

The cheesy yet frank declarations came through as touches, raising goosebumps across Hoshino Kanade's back. Still, her lips curled upward despite herself, and warmth spread through her heart. She might have found it embarrassing, but she really did enjoy it.

Kina occasionally changed tactics.

She would quietly slip off her indoor shoes, then send her jade feet, wrapped in pure white cotton socks, creeping over beneath the desk.

Her little ankles had graceful lines, and her arches curved just right. Wrapped in soft socks, they seemed all the more enticing.

The tip of her sock would first brush, tentatively, against the outside of Hoshino Kanade's lower leg, which she could feel clearly even through her pants.

It was gone in an instant, a featherlight tease. When Hoshino Kanade glanced sideways or the muscles in her leg so much as twitched, the "instrument of mischief" would dart back like a startled rabbit.

Kina, meanwhile, would pretend to listen intently, eyes lowered and expression composed, with only the faintest trace of a smug smile at the corner of her lips.

After several rounds, Hoshino Kanade kept her expression neutral, all the while silently counting Kina's rhythm.

At last, when that mischievous jade foot brushed against her again with its familiar touch, Hoshino Kanade struck with reflexes far beyond those of an ordinary high school student! She seized the slender ankle in a firm grip!

Kina's whole body stiffened. She sucked in a quiet breath and tried to pull away, but the difference in strength, combined with the cramped space between the desk and chair, made it nearly impossible to get any leverage. After a few futile attempts, her ankle was still trapped in Hoshino Kanade's warm palm.

The hunt had begun.

At first, Hoshino Kanade merely kneaded the sock-covered foot in her hand, gently enough to feel like a mild punishment. She savored its supple yet bony texture, feeling through the thin cotton the minute movements of Kina's toes curling and stretching.

Kina tried to keep her composure, only biting her lower lip slightly and making no sound. A hint of amusement appeared in Hoshino Kanade's eyes.

Without changing her expression, she increased the pressure a little and shifted where she kneaded—the soft flesh of the sole? The hollow of the arch? The base of the toes? She quietly sensed the subtle shifts in the muscles beneath her palm and the instant they tensed, keenly searching for the girl's "fatal weakness."

When her fingertips pressed down gently at a spot on the inner arch, Kina's body visibly trembled. Her fingers gripped the edge of the desk so hard her knuckles turned white, and her cheeks instantly flushed as red as the evening sky.

There it is.

Without hesitation, Hoshino Kanade began a targeted "attack," rubbing circles over that sensitive patch of skin with unmistakable pressure.

"Mm..." A broken whimper, stifled to the limit, nearly escaped Kina's throat before she clamped her lips shut around it.

The intense physical sensation, combined with the overwhelming shame of being caught in class, made her whole body tremble.

She couldn't take it anymore. Twisting to evade those merciless fingers, she urgently patted Hoshino Kanade's back with her free hand—once, twice... each slap harder than the last, a silent plea for mercy.

Hoshino Kanade had made her point and didn't want to push Kina into making a sound.

So she stopped while she was ahead and let go.

Like a startled clam, Kina immediately snatched her foot back and hid it away.

Hoshino Kanade reflexively pulled back the hand that had been gripping her ankle and twitched her nostrils, as if trying to catch the lingering scent. Hmm? It was clean and fresh, with a faint, delicate fragrance unique to her.

Uh... Hoshino Kanade's body stiffened. A flicker of self-doubt rose in her mind. Smelling my fingers? Is that... kind of perverted? She gave an awkward cough and quietly placed her hand back on the desk.

But clearly, Kina's ability to recover—or rather, her knack for "asking for trouble"—was beyond anyone's expectations.

A few minutes later, once her nerves had settled, that familiar, ticklish sensation crept up the outside of Hoshino Kanade's lower leg again!

Tch. She never learns... Hoshino Kanade thought. This time she didn't act right away. Instead, she pretended not to notice, her gaze fixed straight ahead on the blackboard as the white-socked jade foot rubbed against her leg, as if there really were a tame kitten there. Sure enough, when Hoshino Kanade didn't react, Kina grew bolder, her movements increasingly daring.

Now!

The instant Kina let her guard down again and her toes nearly brushed Hoshino Kanade's knee, Hoshino Kanade struck with the precision of a leopard!

This time, her aim was clearer. She gripped the ankle with one hand and, with the other, swiftly pinched the edge of the sock at the toes. Before Kina could react, she pulled off the smooth, slightly warm ankle sock and slipped it into her school uniform pocket as naturally as could be!