Kushida Kikyo Invades

Kushida Kikyo stood outside the door. She was not wearing her school uniform, having changed into a loose white T-shirt and dark gray lounge shorts. Her hair was down, her light brown bob falling naturally along her shoulders. The hallway light shone from behind her, laying a thin sheen of light across her shoulders.

Without waiting for him to step aside, she turned sideways and squeezed through the gap, bumping his shoulder.

After entering, she stood in the entryway and swept her gaze around—single bed, desk, lamp, several open notebooks. Her eyes lingered on the pile of miscellaneous books by the bed before returning to his face.

"Close the door."

Kiryu Yume pulled the door shut. The lock clicked.

Kushida Kikyo did not sit down or go any farther inside. Looking at him, she asked her first question in a low voice.

"Did Horikita Suzune tell you anything about me?"

Kiryu Yume leaned against the door.

"...What kind of thing?"

"Anything. About me, about my past."

Her tone was flat, but the fingers around her phone tightened, her knuckles standing out clearly beneath the light. The tendon at the base of her collarbone tensed, then relaxed.

"No," he said.

Kushida Kikyo stared into his eyes without looking away.

"You're sure?"

"I'm sure."

Kushida Kikyo did not respond. She glanced down at the phone he had left on the bed, walked over, and picked it up.

Kiryu Yume did not stop her. Letting her check it would save trouble.

She unlocked the screen with her thumb, opened the messaging app, and found his chat history with Horikita Suzune. She scrolled from the first message to the last, her thumb moving quickly, her eyes jumping from one message to another like she was sweeping for mines.

She looked for roughly half a minute, then put the phone back on the bed.

"She didn't tell you anything else?"

"Nothing else."

Kushida Kikyo's shoulders loosened slightly. She shifted the phone from her right hand to her left, scraping her fingertips back and forth along the edge of its case twice.

"If she tells you anything, you have to tell me."

"Tell me what?"

Kushida Kikyo gave him a look. She was not angry; she was judging him. Then she looked away without answering.

"Nothing. Anyway, if she tells you something, you tell me."

She took two steps forward and stopped by the desk without sitting down. She glanced at the open notebook on it, then turned and leaned against the edge of the desk.

After a few seconds of silence, she kicked off her slippers and stepped barefoot onto the floor.

Kiryu Yume's gaze drifted downward. Her lounge shorts reached the middle of her thighs, her bare legs extending from beneath the hems. Her thighs were softly rounded, her calves straight, the sharpness of her knees faintly visible beneath the light. With no stockings covering them, her skin carried a thin glow under the warm light—smooth and delicate.

Then she caught him looking.

Kushida Kikyo said nothing and did not glare at him. She merely watched him until he looked away on his own.

"Seen enough?"

"...I wasn't looking."

"Pervert."

When the word popped from her mouth, Kiryu Yume's heartbeat skipped in his chest, then quickened slightly. He swallowed and did not respond.

Kushida Kikyo looked away. After a few seconds of silence, she spoke.

"I really almost went crazy today."

Leaning against the desk, she looked down at her toes. They curled against the wooden floor, then loosened.

"That idiot Sudo came running over after the exam to ask if I could plead for him. Ike Kanji cried through an entire break, his face covered in tears and snot, while Yamauchi Haruki stood beside him without even knowing to hand him a tissue."

Her words came faster and faster as her toes curled and loosened against the floor.

"Karuizawa complained to me all through lunch, saying Horikita loved showing off too much and made the girls look bad. I smiled the entire time, going, 'Mm-hm, mm-hm, you're right,' while thinking, Can you idiots all just disappear?"

Kiryu Yume leaned against the door and waited for her to finish.

"Done?"

"...Not yet."

She went quiet for a few more seconds before raising her head to look at him.

"Why didn't you stop me from looking through your phone?"

"There was nothing I couldn't let you see."

"You trust me that much?"

"I don't. But since you were already going through it, if I stopped you, you'd only dig harder."

Kushida Kikyo stared at him for two seconds, then suddenly pushed herself off the desk and walked toward him. Her bare feet made little sound on the floor, but every step carried pressure.

Kiryu Yume did not move.

She stopped in front of him, almost pressed against him. She was a head shorter than him. When she tipped her face up to look at him, her collar dipped slightly, revealing a small patch of skin below her collarbones. A faint scent of lily of the valley drifted from her, crisp and elusive.

"Do you think that if you're a little nice to me, I'll be overflowing with gratitude?"

"I never thought that."

"Then what are you thinking?"

Kiryu Yume did not step back.

"I was thinking your T-shirt looks pretty good. But you look even better without slippers."

Kushida Kikyo froze for a moment. She looked down at the slippers she had kicked aside by the entryway, then looked back up at him.

"...Idiot."

After saying that, she did not move away. She reached out and grabbed the front of his T-shirt, clenching the fabric into a fist and tugging him toward her. He leaned forward half a step, and the space between them shrank to no more than a breath.

"Say that again."

"You look better without slippers."

"The first part."

"Your T-shirt looks pretty good."

The tips of Kushida Kikyo's ears reddened, the color spreading from the edge of her ears all the way to the side of her neck. She did not let go. Instead, her grip tightened slightly.

"Do you think you're really good with words?"

"Not really. But I know you like hearing them."

"—Pervert."

As the word fell, the tips of Kiryu Yume's ears heated up. He did not answer, afraid his voice would sound wrong if he opened his mouth.

She released his collar and shoved him lightly in the chest.

"Go sit over there."

She pointed at the edge of the bed.

Kiryu Yume walked over and sat down.

Kushida Kikyo stood where she was, watching him. Her expression changed several times, but she could not find her next words. Lowering her head, she brushed her fingertips along the outside of her thigh, sliding from an inch above her knee to the hem of her shorts.

"You're still looking."

"Weren't you given long legs so people could look at them?"

"Pervert! Idiot! Shut up!"

She fired off all three words in one breath. Listening to her, Kiryu Yume felt his heart skip faster again. He suppressed the feeling and did not let it show on his face.

Then she walked over and sat down beside him. Less than a fist's width separated them. When she sat, the skin on the outside of her thigh lightly brushed his knee, then bounced away.

"I'm really annoyed today," she said again, this time much more quietly.

"I know."

"What the hell do you know? You don't have to smile at those idiots every day."

"I can't smile when I'm looking at Mashima-sensei's face, either."

The corner of Kushida Kikyo's mouth curved, but she did not smile. She looked down at her hands folded over her thighs and stayed quiet for a while.

Kiryu Yume turned his head to look at her. The ends of her short hair had fallen over half her face, leaving only part of her ear and the curve of her neck exposed.

Her shoulders were slightly hunched. As she lowered her head, the collar of her T-shirt slipped down a little, revealing a little more of the edge of her strap.

He lowered his voice and called out, "Mama Kushida."

She did not move.

"Mama Kushida."

She lifted her eyelids slightly, pursed her lips, and only then spoke. "...What?"

"You worked hard today."

She did not answer. Her fingers interlaced and loosened over her thigh, repeating the motion twice.

"...Say it again."

"You worked hard today."

She was silent for a long time. Then she leaned a little closer to him, her shoulder touching his. Their shoulder blades pressed together through two layers of T-shirt fabric. The warmth from her shoulder reached him, slightly cooler than he had expected. The scent of lily of the valley drifted down from the ends of her hair.

"Do you think one 'you worked hard' is enough to buy me off?"

"No."

"Then why say it?"

"Because someone has to."

Kushida Kikyo did not reply. She stayed silent for a long time, then moved her hand from her thigh and rested it on his knee, patting it lightly twice.

"Fine."

She stood up and returned to the entryway to put on her slippers. When she bent over, the hem of her T-shirt lifted slightly, exposing a line of her waist and the curve leading into the hollow of her spine. It flashed beneath the light, then disappeared beneath the fabric again.

She straightened up, placed her hand on the doorknob, and glanced back at him.

She raised a hand and tugged the collar of her T-shirt down a little—not much, just enough to reveal more skin between her collarbone and shoulder. The white edge of her strap flickered in and out of sight beneath the collar, and the small mole beneath her collarbone caught the light. The gesture lasted roughly two seconds before she pulled the collar back into place.

"A reward for you. If you tell anyone about today..."

She paused.

"I'll come to your room every day and call you an idiot and a pervert until you can't take it anymore."

Kiryu Yume looked at her.

"That sounds great."

Kushida Kikyo's expression stiffened.

Her hand was still on the doorknob. Her entire body seemed frozen in place, then her eyes changed. The threat became disgust, and the disgust became utter revulsion. She tilted her head, her gaze sliding from his face to the floor and then back again, wearing the expression of someone who had spotted a cockroach crawling across the dinner table.

"...You really are sick."

"You just said you'd come every day, so every day I'd get to see you—"

"Shut up."

She pulled open the door and walked out. The door shut more heavily than before, slammed hard enough to shake the frame before it closed tight. The lock clicked back into place.

Kiryu Yume remained seated on the edge of the bed. He touched the part of his shirt she had grabbed, and the look in her eyes before she closed the door flashed through his mind again—that gaze of bone-deep disgust. His heartbeat quickened once more.

Worth it.