Meeting Sakura Airi for the First Time

His phone vibrated against the corner of the desk.

"?."

Kiryu Yume turned his phone over. He had just finished typing but had not sent the message when one from Morishita Ran came in first: "If you pass by Keyaki, bring me a bottle of that tea."

He glanced back at her. She was still sitting at her desk, books spread out before her and chin resting on the back of her hand, with no intention of packing up. She was not planning to leave yet.

He lowered his head and replied, "Mama Morishita, do you really need to text me from this close?"

Morishita Ran looked up. "What message?"

"Fine, fine. What do you want to drink?"

"That one. The one in the blue bottle."

"...Got it."

He slipped his phone into his pocket, got up, and walked out of the classroom. Evening light slanted in through the window at the end of the corridor, cutting a long orange strip across the floor. He headed toward the stairwell, and as he passed the back door, he caught sight of her shifting into another sprawled-out position from the corner of his eye.

There were not many people on the first floor of Keyaki Shopping Center at this hour. He crossed the main passageway toward the vending machines, then detoured into the stationery store to check out the newly stocked refill leads. He could not find the type he wanted and came back out empty-handed.

As he rounded the corner, a figure came around from the opposite direction.

He did not have time to stop, and the other person had not seen him either. Shoulder struck shoulder, followed by several dull thuds as something rather heavy hit the tiled floor, then the crisp clatter of a metal cap rolling away.

Kiryu Yume took a step back and steadied himself.

The other person crouched down, curling into a small ball. The hem of her hoodie dragged along the floor, making her seem a size smaller than she really was.

She was a girl in an off-white hoodie. Its loose fit concealed her figure. The collar was not especially high, but because she kept her head lowered, a section of her pale neck was exposed.

Her soft, fine hair was tied in a low ponytail that fell to her shoulder blades. A large pair of black-framed glasses sat on her face. Her eyes behind the lenses seemed fairly large, but her gaze was cast so low that their full shape could not be seen.

She moved urgently as she crouched on the floor, checking the camera that had fallen first. Her fingers ran around the lens barrel to make sure there were no scratches or dents before she began picking up the scattered items.

He crouched to help retrieve the lens cap that had rolled farther away. From the corner of his eye, he saw how gently her fingers moved as she inspected the camera, as though she were touching something that could shatter easily.

"Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going."

"...N-no, I wasn't watching where I was going either... I'm sorry..."

As she picked things up, a photograph slipped from the gap in her upside-down open bag and fell onto the tiles. Kiryu Yume picked it up and glanced at it.

The person in the photo wore a light-colored dress and stood by a window. Light shone in from the side, with a white wall and half a curtain in the background. She was smiling at the camera.

He handed the photo over. She nearly snatched it from him, then jerked back sharply when her fingertips touched his. The photograph almost fell again.

"Nothing got damaged, right?"

"N-no... Thank you..."

She stood, clutching the camera to her chest, and took half a step back. Kiryu Yume stood as well and looked down at her. He was almost a head taller than her, and from this angle he could see half her eyelashes peeking from the edge of her black frames, as well as the faint red marks the nose pads had left on her bridge.

Her gaze collided with his face, then bounced away as if she had been burned.

While he had been bending down to pick things up, he had caught a glimpse of the lit screen on her camera. It was frozen on the front camera viewfinder, and he recognized the icon in the frame.

She lowered her head and put the camera into her bag. Her hand paused halfway through pulling the zipper closed.

"...Um... Did you..."

She did not finish.

Kiryu Yume waited a moment.

"Did I what?"

"...Get hurt."

"No. What about you?"

"N-no..."

She finished zipping the bag, hugged it tightly to her chest, lowered her head, and said, "Sorry," before turning and leaving. She walked so quickly that it looked like she was running away.

Before the off-white hoodie disappeared at the end of the passageway, he saw her shoulder bump into the pillar at the corner as she turned. She clutched her shoulder in pain, then hurried away even faster.

Just as Kiryu Yume was about to turn toward the vending machines, he noticed that something else had fallen to the floor—a lens cap.

After crouching down to pick up the lens cap that had rolled away and closing it in his fist, Kiryu Yume turned toward the vending machines.

There were several flavors of tea in blue bottles. He stood before the machine, took a look, then pulled out his phone and sent Morishita Ran a photo.

"Mama Morishita, is it the second one from the left?"

Morishita Ran replied quickly: "Yes. Good boy."

He used his points to buy two bottles. Their surfaces were icy cold, and he tucked the tea under his arm as he left Keyaki Shopping Center.

After returning to the dorm, he took a shower, set the tea on the desk, sat on the edge of his bed, and began waiting.

He took the lens cap from his pocket and turned it over. A tiny white label was stuck inside, with two words written on it in permanent marker: "Shizuku."

He stared at the word for two seconds, unable to make sense of it, then flipped it over and placed it face down on the desk.

Two minutes later, someone knocked outside his door.

Kiryu Yume rose from the bed, walked to the door, and opened it.

Morishita Ran stood outside. She had changed clothes and was wearing a dark gray long-sleeved T-shirt with black lounge shorts, exposing her bare legs.

Having just showered, her skin still carried the soft warmth of lingering steam. From her thighs to her toes, there was an uninterrupted whiteness—none of the tightness or uniform matte texture of black pantyhose wrapping from ankle to upper thigh. In its place was the sheen of bare skin itself, a faint glow over the rounded points of her knees, and the soft, clean curve of her calves.

There was no longer that boundary of being "wrapped up," the way every muscle line had been defined by fabric when she wore black pantyhose.

She glanced at the bottle of tea on his desk, then withdrew her gaze and looked at him.

"My tea."

"It's right here." Kiryu Yume pointed at the tea on the desk.

The two looked at each other for a second.

Kiryu Yume stepped aside from the doorway. Morishita Ran did not stand on ceremony. She slipped past him into the room, walked to the desk, and picked up the bottle.

She looked down at the cap. It was still tightly sealed; Kiryu Yume had not taken a sip.

"It's not cold anymore."

"It's been sitting there for almost an hour."

She did not respond. Holding the bottle in her hand, she turned and leaned against the edge of his desk without hurrying to leave.

She raised her eyes to glance at him, then swept her gaze around his room. A single bed, a desk, a lamp, a pile of miscellaneous books by the bed, and clothes he had just changed out of draped over the back of the chair.

"Your room is cleaner than I expected. Shouldn't boys' rooms normally be a complete mess?"

"...You imagined it?"

"I like clean children."

She unscrewed the cap and took a sip of tea, then screwed it back on.

"Do you like looking at my legs that much?" Morishita Ran said blandly. "If you like them that much, I wouldn't mind letting you touch them."