A Soft Flick
Twenty-one years had passed since I began living this life as a woman.
By now the span of my previous life as a man was no longer so vastly longer than the years I had spent like this — and yet private meetings with women still felt anything but familiar.
I had gone to school. I had been working a proper job for nearly two years. And still…
Really, truly, genuinely — I had almost never met a woman one-on-one in a personal capacity.
A few days ago I had ended up shopping a little with the Team Leader, but that had been for other reasons entirely, so calling it a private outing would have been a stretch. Today, though…
“Ah, Saran. Good morning.”
“…Yeah.”
Today I was actually meeting a woman alone, for purely personal reasons.
Of course, calling it “purely personal” still left me with a lot to think about — but it was hardly something I could dismiss as having no private connection at all.
“The weather’s perfect for walking around today. The sun isn’t too hot, and there’s just the right amount of breeze.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you get cold easily, Saran? It doesn’t feel that chilly to me, but you’re wearing a pretty thick sweater.”
“I’m a snake beastfolk. When I get cold, I get too drowsy.”
“Ahh… that must be rough in a lot of ways. Whenever beastfolk come by the Hero Welfare Bureau, I hear about difficulties like that quite a bit.”
“Yeah.”
…Well, that aside, Saran was still as blunt as ever.
We had exchanged numbers after our last meeting, and she had come out to see me the moment Saturday arrived — and yet, just like before, keeping a conversation going for any length of time felt difficult.
Of course, that was simply her personality. It wasn’t as if she were doing it on purpose because she disliked me.
If that had been her thinking… she never would have shown up like this in the first place.
“Shall we get going, then? I don’t have a car, so we’ll have to take public transit… is that all right with you?”
Greetings seemed sufficient at this point. Figuring it would be better to leave the park sooner rather than later, I smiled and spoke up.
“I brought my car. I’ll drive.”
“Oh… then thank you. Let’s head to the car right away.”
Contrary to my expectations, Saran had a car, which meant we were spared the inconvenience of public transportation.
She spent so much of her time at home that I had naturally assumed she wouldn’t own one — but a B-Class hero had no reason to worry about something as trivial as car maintenance costs, and owning a high-end sedan would hardly have been a problem for her either…
“…Wow.”
So of course she would end up giving me a ride in a very, very famous model developed by a company famous for its stock price.
“Where to?”
“Ah, I’ll show you on my phone. I don’t have the address memorized exactly.”
Once we were in the car, Saran started driving toward the place I had mentioned, and because we weren’t on public transit we arrived far sooner than I had expected.
Honestly, I had figured the trip would take over thirty minutes. We got there in a little over ten.
And the place we arrived at… was somewhere Saran would never have sought out on her own.
“…Here?”
“You usually just spend your time at home watching TV, right? If you go out at all, it’s probably only as far as the convenience store. So I picked this.”
A shopping street. Downtown.
Something along those lines, at least.
Somewhere a genuine homebody like Saran would never wander around — which was exactly why I had chosen it.
“We’re out for once. Wouldn’t it be nice to buy some clothes, do a few things, and just spend the time?”
Extrovert. Introvert.
People often sorted others into those two black-and-white categories… but even introverts didn’t absolutely loathe going outside.
They simply had their own reasons for staying in.
“It might be a little hard on you… but I hope you’ll push yourself just a little — just a tiny bit — for today.”
“…Yeah. Okay.”
So Saran nodded and got out of the car with me.
The shopping district we had arrived at was a different sort of street from a department store.
Department stores usually packed every brand into a single building — loud, crowded, bustling places that were inevitably a little exhausting on the mind.
This area, by contrast, had wider streets, one brand to a modest building, and sat in a fairly affluent neighborhood overall.
Because of that, the atmosphere itself leaned toward the quiet side.
“It’s pretty quiet. A lot quieter than that department store last time.”
“Right?”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s take our time walking around. If you spot anything pretty through a window, we can go look as much as you want.”
Maybe she liked it more than expected?
Saran started walking with an expression that said it wasn’t bad.
At the very least, it was a little better than the look she had worn when we first met at the department store.
Back then she had gone past blunt and looked almost cold.
“You have a really nice figure, Saran. Clothes like those would look amazing on you. I’m sure of it.”
“…Yeah?”
“Yes. You’re right around average height for a woman, too. Whenever I shop, my height makes things a little inconvenient sometimes.”
“…I bet.”
“So even when I want to wear something a bit cooler, it always ends up looking a little… cute, whether I like it or not.”
“…Yeah, that’s true. Even that coat and hat right now look a bit like a kid wearing grown-up clothes.”
“Hehe.”
With a few well-placed compliments, and as we wandered in a comfortable atmosphere, Saran gradually started talking a little more.
Her slowly increasing words, the way she would speak up first and suggest we look at something as we walked — it all made me think she simply hadn’t had many chances to come outside.
Even if she took every day off, more or less.
Maybe it was because nothing had ever drawn her out — nothing that left her no choice but to leave the house and do something.
“Wow, that looks incredible on you!”
“…Yeah?”
“Yes. You’re already pretty, and with a figure like that, of course the clothes suit you. You look gorgeous.”
“…I see.”
Her blunt way of speaking was still there.
But watching the corner of her mouth lift… made me a little happy, too.
“What about clothes like these? You seem to prefer dressing warmly over anything with a lot of skin showing. Things with fur might be nice.”
“Yeah. I’ll try them on.”
And so the shopping with Saran continued.
I had been fairly worried at first… but she followed my lead better than expected, and the time really did pass without any trouble.
Once we finished shopping, we naturally moved on to a meal.
She always handled her meals with delivery at home. In this day and age there was almost nothing you couldn’t get delivered, so the place I chose was just an ordinary Western restaurant.
Truly ordinary, in every sense.
But the atmosphere was rather nice — a small place like that.
“Warm atmosphere.”
“Hmm… is it? I only really get the sense that it’s pretty. I wouldn’t know beyond that.”
“No. I just like it, that’s all.”
“Well, that’s good then.”
Even through the meal that followed, Saran responded quite positively.
The contents of the meal itself, though… were a little different from what I had expected.
Maybe it was because her whole demeanor was quiet and blunt, and because she was a beauty whose looks ran rather cold?
I had been certain she would be a light eater.
I had figured she would finish a single modest dish, dab her mouth, and sit quietly.
“…….”
Before I knew it, three plates were stacked on her side of the table.
One that had held pasta, and two that had held a T-bone steak.
She hadn’t shared any of it with me — Saran had simply polished it all off on her own — and the sight made me remember all over again that she was a snake beastfolk.
There were even rumors that snakes had such ferocious appetites they would eat their own tails.
Whether that was actually true, I didn’t know for certain.
If anything, watching her eat like that and still maintain that incredible figure made Saran seem all the more impressive.
Voluptuous — and yet without a single scrap of spare flesh. A truly fine build.
“A cave?”
“Yes — not a real cave. It’s a wine cave… they’ve installed a ton of wine-related exhibits inside, and there’s a beautifully done wine bar at the end.”
After finishing the meal, we wandered through a few park-like spots, and before long it was nearly evening.
The place I had chosen to close out the day was the wine cave.
Essentially a winery and wine bar set inside a cave.
I had considered visiting it first thing, but drinking from the morning had seemed like a bad idea.
And with Saran having brought her car, it was an even worse plan.
Hero or not, you couldn’t drink and drive, could you?
“Ah — is drinking something you can’t do, or… anything like that?”
“Not at all.”
“Heh. That’s a relief. If you couldn’t drink at all, today’s schedule probably would have ended here. I’m really glad.”
“Seems so.”
And so, to wrap up the day, we stepped into the wine cave together.
From the entrance onward, the distinctive scent of wine began to fill the air.
Sweet, with just a touch of bitterness.
Cheap wines could lean more bitter than sweet, of course.
But this was a place that professionally produced and stored wine, so the pleasant sweetness came through more strongly — and Saran seemed to like the scent as well.
She started walking with her tongue flicking out, just a little.
That snakelike habit was, honestly, kind of cute.
Watching a beauty who looked cold enough to be intimidating stroll along with the tip of her tongue peeking out was far more entertaining a sight than I would have expected.
“So. Are you going to drink wine?”
Saran, who had been looking over the various exhibits, put the question to me.
She had mentioned there was a wine bar at the end of the gallery, so she was probably asking out of curiosity about that.
“Yes. That’s why we came to a place like this, isn’t it?”
“…That’s not what I meant. I meant, is it okay for you to drink with me.”
“…Why?”
But it seemed my thoughts and Saran’s were a little different.
I truly could not understand why she was asking whether it was all right to drink with her.
Did she have a terrible drinking habit?
Or was she such a lightweight that she got drunk easily?
Any number of possibilities crossed my mind.
“This is only the second time we’ve met. I’m asking if it’s okay to drink.”
“Come on, we’re both women. What’s the problem? Besides, you’re not a bad person, Saran — and after spending the whole day walking around with you, I’ve decided you’re a really wonderful one.”
“…Yeah?”
“Yes. I thought you were incredibly pretty, and an incredibly good person.”
“…Yeah.”
I had no idea what unnecessary worry she had been nursing.
Even I, who had lived more than twenty years as a man, hadn’t thought drinking alone with a woman was any great issue.
And yet those words had come from Saran, who had lived her entire twenty-six years as a woman.
Even a beauty with a frightening face, it seemed, was bound to have her cute sides.
Looking at Saran even now, constantly flicking her tongue as she walked, I was more and more convinced of it.
That tongue of hers, though. It really was endlessly fascinating.
