My Hero

Sakura's eyes widened. Of course, she understood Hoshino's implication.

After spending so much time together, she had vaguely guessed that Hoshino came from either wealth or nobility. There had also always been rumors that his older sister, the superstar singer Sakura, was the daughter of a wealthy family. Seen that way, Hoshino's promise carried considerable weight.

Perhaps noticing her hesitation, Hoshino smiled faintly and said softly, "You don't need to give me an answer right away. No matter what you choose, I'll support you. My offer will remain valid for a long time."

"Thank you, Hoshino..."

"It's nothing. You don't have to be so polite with me." Hoshino grinned and gave her another couple of rubs. "Besides, I'm collecting my payment right now."

Ever since earlier, Hoshino's hands had only behaved themselves for a short while before starting to sneak around again.

When he said he would "push his luck," he had not merely been saying it.

Unlike the slender, petite Arisu and his two sisters, who had worked out consistently for years, Sakura was soft all over and felt exceptionally nice to touch.

After her small attempts at resistance proved futile, the usually compliant Sakura could only grit her pearly teeth and endure the soft moans threatening to escape her throat. At the same time, she kept worrying, What if Hoshino touches the fat on my stomach...? I should have worked harder to lose weight lately...

In truth, for a curvy girl like Sakura, her figure was already nearly perfect, with all the right curves in all the right places. But lacking confidence, Sakura was now busy planning to eat nothing but cucumbers and bananas for the next two weeks.

"Sakura."

Noticing that the girl in his arms had been teased into trembling all over, Hoshino stopped and called to her softly.

"...Mm?" Sakura lifted her misty eyes to look at him.

"We've finished eating. Let's go."

"Okay..."

In Sakura's current dazed state, she would probably have agreed no matter what Hoshino said.

The two left the café together. Compared to the slight sense of distance between them when they had arrived, they were now naturally much more intimate. Sakura looped both hands around Hoshino's arm, pressing it into the deep valley between her breasts as she clung tightly to his side.

This had been Hoshino's request. His reason was that Keyaki Mall was too crowded, and they might get separated if they did not hold hands.

Which was to say, the reason did not matter at all. The fact that she had agreed already said everything.

Sakura felt a little embarrassed too, but when Hoshino offered the alternative of wrapping an arm around her waist, she immediately thought that she could not let him touch the fat around her waist again. So she decisively chose their current arrangement.

Naturally, this exceptionally attractive young pair drew the attention of the passersby around them.

Hoshino faced those gazes calmly. Sakura, meanwhile, quietly buried half her face against his shoulder.

"Sakura."

"Mm? I'm here!"

Hoshino tilted his head slightly and called her name softly. Sakura reacted as though a teacher had suddenly called on her in class.

"You don't need to be so nervous."

"Yes..."

"To those people, the two of us probably look like a couple, right?"

"Eek? Then..."

Sakura managed to hold back the "What should we do?" that had reached her lips, but she could not stop the corners of her mouth from lifting.

Hoshino found it secretly amusing and continued to fan the flames. "Then come a little closer, Sakura. Don't let them recognize you."

"Ah, okay!"

In truth, with Sakura dressed as she was now, she certainly stood out. But unless someone knew her extremely well, there was basically no way they would connect her to the introverted, inconspicuous girl from Class D.

The completely unreasonable remark worked remarkably well on Sakura.

So she obediently clung even more tightly to Hoshino's arm, and the wonderful feeling of it went without saying.

The weather at the end of June was not especially hot, but Sakura's chest felt as though it were burning. In a daze, she let Hoshino lead her out of Keyaki Mall. After a while, he turned with her into a side path, where there were finally far fewer pedestrians.

Feeling the girl beside him visibly relax, Hoshino teased, "Sakura, you don't need to be this nervous. Didn't Karuizawa and the others fail to recognize you when we ran into them just now?"

It would have been better if he had not mentioned it. The moment Sakura thought of what had happened earlier, she felt even more embarrassed.

While they had been leaving Keyaki Mall, the two had happened to run into several girls from Class D. The moment Mori saw Hoshino, her eyes gleamed with gossip, but Xiaomei stopped her when she tried to come over. Beside them, Karuizawa stared coldly at Hoshino. After receiving his smiling response, she snorted and left without saying a word.

Kushida, Sato, and Matsushita, who had originally arranged to hang out together, had not been with them.

"...The way Karuizawa looked at me just now was so scary..." Sakura said timidly. "I feel like she recognized me."

Although they had interacted a little during the study group, Sakura was still somewhat afraid of the strong-willed Karuizawa. In fact, the only girls in class she was not afraid of were probably Haruka and Kushida.

"It doesn't matter even if she did recognize you." Hoshino smiled. "Karuizawa isn't someone who goes around spreading rumors. I'll talk to her about it privately afterward."

Sakura did not respond, but she thought, I'm afraid Karuizawa will come find you even if you don't go looking for her.

She could not explain why, but Sakura simply had that feeling, something she had sensed from Karuizawa's final look.

"All right, we're here."

Just as her thoughts were running wild, she heard Hoshino speak happily. She looked around and realized that they had arrived beside the school's artificial lake. This was the very place Hoshino had once followed Kushida to.

"This is somewhere I discovered a while ago. It's quiet, and hardly anyone comes here. Most importantly, even the surveillance cameras can't see this place." Hoshino led Sakura to the lakeside and sat down on a large rock.

"It's beautiful..." Sakura's eyes shone as she sighed from the bottom of her heart.

The artificial lake at dusk was like silk rumpled by the evening breeze. The setting sun poured its molten-gold afterglow over the center of the lake, shattering into countless dancing flecks of light that gently drifted with the ripples toward the stone steps along the shore. The weeping willows on the bank dipped their slender branches into the water, using the sunset glow to write winding cursive strokes across its surface, breaking apart the clouds reflected beneath.

Neither of them spoke again. A strange silence settled between them. At that moment, it seemed as if only the evening breeze existed.

Sakura pressed her lips together and forced herself to turn toward Hoshino, only to meet his gaze at exactly the same time. That moment of mutual understanding made her lips curve upward, and the thoughts in her heart naturally flowed into words.

"Hoshino... I like you."

"Mm."

Hoshino's response consisted of only that one simple sound.

"Kaka told me before... that even if Hoshino had feelings for me, he probably still wouldn't accept my confession or date me... But I still decided to say it."

The girl's deep blue eyes were as clear as water, and the shimmering light within them was tears.

"When I was being harassed by that stalker, Hoshino was the one who appeared and helped me. Then today, Hoshino helped me completely break free from all those terrible things. Hoshino is the hero who saved me."

Sakura paused, then nodded firmly and emphatically, affirming her own words. "Yes, a hero."