Tanabata Special (2)

The silver-white strands slipped through my fingers, damp yet carrying a faint, refreshing fragrance.

I picked up the hair dryer from the table and helped her dry it, just like always.

Arisu hugged my waist, grinning like an idiot with pure joy.

"Why are you grinning like that?"

"Just happy~"

She rubbed her forehead against my stomach, then wrapped her arms around me again.

Love really does turn people into fools.

"You're getting water all over my clothes."

"I just want to lean against Seisuke. Smelling his scent makes me happy."

"Is there a scent? I've never smelled anything on myself."

I pulled up my collar and sniffed, but still couldn't detect anything.

"It's that... really reassuring kind of scent!"

A reassuring scent, huh. That's a pretty strange way to describe it.

"Alright, your hair's dry."

I turned off the hair dryer and double-checked to make sure it was completely dry.

Arisu obediently lifted her head to cooperate.

"All done."

"Mmwah."

She kissed me on the cheek, then padded back to the bed with quick little steps.

"Why are you back in bed already?"

Arisu propped the pillow up as a backrest and opened her arms to me.

"It's comfortable lying in bed. Besides, there's nothing to do this morning."

"And anyway, Seisuke is usually lazier than me, so you've got no right to say anything!"

That's probably true...

With nothing planned for the morning, I decided to just kill some time however.

With nothing else to do, I opened my mobile terminal.

The mobile terminal provided by the school was basically similar to a phone from the outside world.

Of course, strictly speaking, aside from the disabled means of contacting the outside, it fully included all sorts of phone functions.

Things like a messaging app similar to Line, or news apps for keeping up with social and international headlines. After all, the school had cut off external communication, so completely isolating students from society was impossible.

Thus, the school also encouraged the development of various apps.

The Go game app we were using now was apparently made by students from the previous year. Though it wasn't perfect, the school had shown considerable approval and even paid a decent reward.

Not only that, the school had introduced many other interesting apps, but I hadn't looked into them yet.

The app's UI was clean, and you could choose to use a custom nickname, or just use your real name if you didn't think it was necessary.

Arisu's nickname was:

"Seisuke's Keeper"

By the way, this app had an in-school ranking. Every month, when the top of the monthly leaderboard was announced over the broadcast, it was always a bit embarrassingly awkward.

Since my points were a bit high, matching with an opponent took a while.

Arisu tilted her head and leaned against my chest.

I wrapped my arms around her slender waist, resting my cheek against her head.

After a while, I matched with an opponent.

The opponent's nickname was "God."

Huh, that guy's probably Koenji.

I remembered seeing on some school forum that someone had questioned whether his win rate was too exaggerated to be real, suspecting cheating. They'd teamed up with the Go Club to issue a challenge, promising to pay a hefty amount of Personal Points as an apology if this "God" proved himself.

Koenji easily won a series of matches online, just like always, but didn't take the points offered as a prize.

"I just wanted to see the look of wonder in mortals' eyes when they witness divine might. That's all."

With that, he flicked his bangs and walked off.

That was totally in character for him.

Arisu, who had been chatting with me while playing, suddenly sensed something was off.

She frowned, analyzing the board.

"I underestimated them at first. Didn't expect they'd actually be pretty skilled."

"Anyone who can match with you definitely isn't weak."

Arisu held the mobile terminal up to my face and shook my hand.

She had the look of someone who'd been picked on outside and was now tattling to her boyfriend.

"Seisuke~ Help me beat him. I feel like I'm about to lose..."

She wrinkled her nose, buried her head against my chest, and whined softly.

"Hurry, hurry, we're about to run out of time~"

Arisu waved her little fist, urging me on.

"The opponent has requested a draw."

A request popped up on the mobile terminal.

"Seisuke is really amazing!"

"Not really, it's just a draw."

"But I was at a disadvantage from the start, and you still forced them to ask for a draw. My boyfriend is definitely the best!"

"I couldn't have done it without Arisu's cheering."

I gave a light kiss on Arisu's forehead. Even though it was only a draw, she seemed happier than if she'd won herself.

Even the most ordinary, trivial things—as long as we did them together—made it easy to get lost in the moment together.

Even the smallest joys are an indispensable part of building happiness.

I'm grateful that my love is so pure and simple.