The two had more or less finished discussing things.
Uesugi Hara straightened his cuff and was just about to tell Kushida Kikyo to head back when a sudden rush of perfume swept in from behind. Before he could even turn around, someone pinned his wrist, and his back slammed hard against the bed.
"Mm." Uesugi Hara furrowed his brow, completely caught off guard. Kushida Kikyo was sprawled over him, her knee braced against the edge of the bed. She was far stronger than the girl who usually wore a gentle smile.
He stared up at the chandelier. The light outlined her blurry silhouette, while half her face was shrouded in shadow. Even those eyes that always concealed her feelings were impossible to make out.
What was she trying to do? Had all that compliance just been an act? Uesugi Hara curled his fingers against the bedsheet, rapidly weighing the possibilities.
Just then, a soft laugh drifted down from above, strangely tender.
Kushida Kikyo lowered her head slightly, and the shadows receded enough to reveal the curve of her lips—not her usual ingratiating smile, but one that seemed to shed some kind of disguise.
"Compared with those vague agreements and promises," she murmured, her fingertip tracing his collar, her voice low, like a whisper against his ear, "I trust this more. Tying myself to you is the surest way, isn't it?"
Then she leaned down. Her hair fell with the motion, brushing the side of Uesugi Hara's neck with a faintly ticklish touch.
It was a long while before Kushida Kikyo finally pushed herself up, bracing against Uesugi Hara's shoulder.
"See?" Her voice was even softer now, carrying an almost bewitching certainty. "Now you can't just cast me aside so easily, can you?" In the shadows, her eyes shone brilliantly. She looked like a gambler who had staked everything, yet smiled as if victory were already hers.
Her hair was somewhat disheveled, her cheeks an unnatural shade of red. Her breathing had yet to settle, and the ends of her words trembled faintly.
With Kushida Kikyo taking the initiative, Uesugi Hara had no reason to refuse.
And so...
They spent the night in silence. (Paid content. You know the drill.)
The next day.
Sunday mornings were always especially quiet. In the dormitory, with no need to hurry to an early class, sunlight slipped through a gap in the curtains and cast a long, narrow beam across the floor.
Perhaps the previous night had been too wild and gone on too late. Both of them slept for a long time. As the light gradually spread across the bed, Uesugi Hara opened his eyes first. The person beside him was breathing steadily, her cheek resting against his chest. She seemed to still be asleep.
But the fingers resting against his waist occasionally twitched almost imperceptibly. She had clearly been awake for a while.
"If you're awake, why haven't you gotten up?" His voice was hoarse with sleep, but otherwise calm.
In fact, they had both been awake for some time, but for certain reasons, they were pretending to sleep.
He had lazed around for a while himself, until his bladder could take it no longer and he finally broke the silence.
Kushida Kikyo, lying on top of him, stiffened almost imperceptibly, then slowly lifted her head. Her hair was tousled against her cheek, and her eyes were still a little bleary, yet she forced herself to look as if she'd just been woken. "Mm... I just woke up."
Uesugi Hara didn't call her out. He simply nodded toward the door. "Move. I need to wash up."
After putting on a jacket, Uesugi Hara gathered some clothes and headed for the bathroom. Clearly, even Master Uesugi wasn't as composed as he seemed in a situation like this.
Before long, the sounds of someone washing up came from inside.
When Kushida Kikyo emerged from the bathroom, the tips of her hair were still damp.
She had changed into her uniform and was sitting beside the desk, carefully straightening her collar. Her fingertips trembled almost imperceptibly as they brushed the neckline.
Uesugi Hara sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing his temple. As he watched Kushida straighten her collar, her fingertips trembling slightly, his eyes showed little emotion.
Uesugi Hara sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing his temple. He watched the girl in front of him try to return to her usual self, his eyes showing little emotion.
He had never been the sort to feign restraint when someone took the initiative, and he had no interest in imitating those anime protagonists who dragged out romantic tension for an entire series despite having the chance to act—and sometimes even got cuckolded.
"Now that you've done it, you should know what you'll have to give in return." His voice had returned to its usual steady tone, revealing no anger or pleasure, yet carrying an undeniable certainty. "Don't try anything funny, or you know what'll happen."
Kushida Kikyo sneaked a glance at him. At his words, she seemed to relax and curved her lips. The lingering embarrassment in her eyes gradually faded, replaced by a hint of indescribable disappointment. But it quickly vanished, and that familiar brightness returned to her eyes—only this time, there was a more obvious touch of calculation in it. "Of course I know." She turned around, her tone a little lighter.
Neither of them mentioned the previous night again. Maybe the memory of their passion had not yet fully faded, or maybe they had silently accepted this unspoken distance between them.
After only a few words, Kushida Kikyo prepared to leave. The clock on the wall already showed that it was past nine. If she waited any longer, more people would be out in the corridor, and being seen would only cause trouble.
"Then I'll be going." At the door, she looked back at Uesugi Hara. Her gaze was gentler than before, yet more carefully guarded.
When the door closed softly, the dormitory fell silent once more. Uesugi Hara's gaze settled on the bed. They had changed the sheets for clean ones last night, but the deep and shallow creases seemed to silently recount the recklessness of a few hours earlier.
He tapped the edge of the bed with his fingertips, then stood and drew back the curtains, letting the sunlight flood in completely, as if he wanted the ordinary Sunday morning light to dry away every trace that remained.
Uesugi Hara couldn't quite say what he thought of what had happened the previous night.
A deal? Compared with a purely transactional exchange of benefits, there was something more entangled between them, something hard to put into words. An accident? But neither he nor Kushida Kikyo was the sort to be swept along by accidents. From the moment she approached him of her own accord, they had both known where things would lead.
How much affection was there between them? Better not to go there. Though the previous night's intimacy had left an undeniable sense of closeness in the air—like the glance she'd cast back as she left, or the moment he now spent staring blankly at the empty dorm room—it hardly amounted to "feelings."
To be precise, they had simply found a more intimate way to make use of each other.
He needed someone who could win people over and gather information for him at school, while Kushida Kikyo needed someone who could provide her with points and help her get the better of Horikita Suzune.
Their intimacy last night had been more like a lock on their partnership—a private way of confirming their unspoken understanding that, for the time being, neither would betray the other.
Uesugi Hara bent down and folded the blanket, smoothing out each crease.
He knew what Kushida Kikyo was scheming, just as she knew he never made a deal at a loss.
As for the subtle shift born of their intimacy? It was no more than an insignificant ripple, an extra thrown in with the deal.
Perhaps this twisted relationship would change someday. Maybe Kushida Kikyo would eventually use points to win everyone over and no longer need to rely on him; or maybe his plans would no longer require this "piece on the board," and he could discard her at any time. When that day came, the bond between them, born of mutual benefit, would probably go out like a cigarette underfoot, leaving not even a trace of warmth.
But things could also go another way. Maybe, after repeatedly scheming against each other and being forced to cooperate, they would discover that some side of the other wasn't what they had expected; maybe, in some unexpected moment, one of them would instinctively put the other's interests ahead of their own.
But all of that was too far off. It was so distant that even thinking about it for another second felt unnecessary to Uesugi Hara.
He'd deal with the future when it came. When graduation day arrived, if she still hadn't found a better place to go, he wouldn't mind supporting her. His family was hardly so short of money that they couldn't spare her a meal.
But for now, Uesugi Hara unlocked his Terminal and looked at the mere one million points left in his personal account. The corner of his mouth twitched despite himself. The sum he'd casually transferred last night to put her completely at ease now made his heart ache. This "deal," founded on mutual benefit, had been far too extravagant.
He clicked his tongue and slipped the Terminal back into his pocket. He'd better figure out how to earn his next batch of points soon. He couldn't arrange his pieces on the board only to end up broke himself.