52. The Problem Is Our Lips Touching, Right?
52. The Problem Is Our Lips Touching, Right?
"Hah.... haah, huuuut...!"
Her breathing grew ragged.
Yuno placed her hands on my shoulders and spoke.
"Shall we... do it again?"
Her lips drew closer.
At last, lip met lip, and a small tongue cautiously slipped inside, burrowing deeper.
"Huuup... mm... hnnng...!"
What I sensed was the taste of fabric softener.
It gradually grew damp. Stretched out precariously.
Behind that thin cloth that seemed ready to tear but wouldn't—I quietly closed my eyes.
'How did it come to this...?'
Two people sharing lips through a single layer of plastic wrap.
The whole incident began the moment we entered the room cafe.
*************
The room cafe.
A magical place that had everything you needed and nothing you didn't.
Especially for kids these days, it was perceived as somewhere in the ballpark of an ultra-low-budget hotel—
[No public displays of affection in store]
"Huh...?"
—Well, roughly that much was average.
How badly must the owners have been burned by youngsters these days?
If they vaguely write it, hoping you'll catch the hint, then that's a blessing. But the folks stuck cleaning up the aftermath every single time probably grind their bones to dust.
"This... I think we should leave."
What was our purpose for coming here in the first place?
To experience what exactly counted as a public display of affection...
...Listing out the words one by one made me feel like I'd fallen into a trap no matter how I looked at it. But anyway, it was to learn the skills to seduce the Protagonist.
But it was a place where you couldn't practice the skills to seduce the Protagonist?
"Should we just go back?"
"..........."
Yuno hesitated for a moment.
Then she carefully lowered her head and—ah, no way.
"Um... just how far... does a display of affection go, exactly...?"
"............."
Wow.
The part-timer's expression rotted in real time.
It was blatantly a face that said, 'Oh, so you two little shits came here to fuck?'
I immediately shook my head and denied it.
"I have a girlfriend."
"............."
His expression upgraded to: So this bastard's just plain trash?
Ugh, now I don't even care anymore.
Just as I was about to give up on the room cafe and everything else and turn to leave, Yuno asked the staff member.
"Holding hands is okay, right?"
"Eh...? Oh, uh, yes. So long as it doesn't get too excessive..."
"....You heard him?"
"Ah, come on."
Don't look so proud.
That's not something to be proud of, it's just something you ought to be embarrassed about.
In the first place, how many people really ask about every little thing like that? But maybe because she seemed so innocent in return, the staff member obligingly showed us to the room.
"This is Room 6, and excessively affectionate behavior is strictly prohibited."
'Yaaa...'
Such a spineless part-timer.
Did you really think that just because you told people not to do it, they wouldn't?
Just how many times do you have to get tricked, you part-time sucker...?
'...Though, a girl who asks if holding hands is okay—what comes after that is pretty obvious.'
Personally, I was hoping he'd have put his foot down a little harder.
...
..
.
There was nothing all that special about the room.
Two PCs. One box of tissues. One trash can.
A few advertisement pamphlets and a cheap leather mattress laid out on the floor.
"First, shall we order some food?"
As a matter of fact, we hadn't eaten a single thing up until now.
I grabbed the phone attached to the wall and ordered something edible.
"One ramen and one cola... what do you want to eat?"
"....Huh? Ah, I... Chrono, you choose for me!"
"............."
The menu she'd been staring at a moment ago.
I wondered what it was—turned out it was a parfait.
A rather pricey parfait at that.
'...Sure enough, she wouldn't be the main heroine for nothing.'
Such refined taste, eh!
I spoke into the phone and placed the order.
"One parfait. And something to drink?"
"Uh... coffee... please."
"One coffee."
The part-timer on the other end of the line confirmed the order and hung up.
I placed the phone back in its cradle and turned on the PC in front of me.
"...How did you know?"
"Know what?"
"That I wanted to eat parfait."
"I mean....."
When you keep stealing glances that obviously, it's harder not to know even if I wanted to.
"Ter always ordered the same thing he was eating whenever we went....."
"......Uh, yeah."
Must be hard being an NTR game Protagonist.
I fiddled with the PC and responded to Yuno's words.
"When we were ordering, you kept sneaking peeks. So I just ordered it for you."
"....Chrono. You know I have a lover, right?"
"I'm not trying to seduce you, okay?"
"But still... if you show that much interest, even I might get the wrong idea, you know?"
"Are you possessed or something?"
Are we even having a conversation right now?
Do you even realize your sentences just now are ending with a string of nothing but question marks?
I felt like if we kept chatting, I'd keel over from exhaustion first, so I cut the conversation short from my end.
"Shut your mouth before I drag Mars here and have impregnation-defeat-climax sex right in front of you."
"...Would that really be a bad thing, maybe?"
"Fuck."
It backfired.
Rather, Yuno's cheeks reddened and she slightly hunched her body inward.
A woman who only grew stronger when you came on stronger.
In that case, I had to deal with her differently too.
Right.
"Goo goo."
"...?"
"Goo goo ga ga."
"........Sorry. I was out of line."
Something like that.
Yuno apologized to me and settled back into her seat.
The effect was certainly excellent. The price I paid was receiving an incredibly icy stare, but it was a hundred times better than that bizarre atmosphere.
"Here is your order."
"Parfait..."
But there was one thing I hadn't predicted at all.
"...Chrono."
"What."
"Say ahhh~~~!"
"..........."
I didn't think she'd pull something like this on me.
'This... should I eat it?'
A completely harmless parfait.
Yet by my standards, it felt like I was staring at a witch offering a poisoned apple.
The feeling that one wrong bite could ruin my entire life.
"So... Yuno. Wouldn't it be better to do this sort of thing with your lover?"
It was a bit late to be saying this now, but it was still a struggle to pull things back.
At that, Yuno stared quietly at me and spoke.
"I... don't have any male friends besides you, Chrono...."
"Um... then I guess you'd better do it with Ter—"
"—I guess I really should make a new male friend?"
"Ahhh~~!"
NTR flag cut!
Absolutely cut! No counting toward weird routes!
I immediately opened my mouth and accepted the parfait Yuno offered.
'...Fucking sweet.'
Sweet, the fruit is sour, whatever—I had no idea what it tasted like.
A flavor profile that really didn't agree with me.
I eventually took a sip of the cola in front of me to cleanse my palate, and Yuno seemed to find the sight quite funny.
"Am I funny?"
"Heehee... was it hard to eat?"
"Don't answer a question with a question. Didn't your parents teach you that?"
"So even though it was hard to eat, you ate it anyway?"
"No, why aren't we communicating?"
Were we even the same species?
As I filled my stomach with ramen for now, Yuno grinned and propped her chin on her hand, watching me.
"You eat well... Oh, the lunchbox from before, was it good?"
"Yeah. It was good. Why?"
"Want me to make it again?"
"....That's why I'm telling you to do it for your lover?"
"If I make it, you'll eat it again, right?"
"That's why I keep telling you not to answer a question with a question....."
Besides, those were questions where the answer was practically decided anyway.
When I looked at Yuno with coldly hardening eyes, she just ignored it, told me I was cute, and tried to feed me parfait again—hehe, not eating it. I said I'm not eating it?
"Nooo. Just take it for now!"
"???"
Yuno forcibly held out the parfait spoon.
Then she brought her face close to mine and went 'ahh,' opening her mouth.
"Here you go."
"Mm... delicious!"
Hehe...
Yuno gave a peculiar smile, her mouth working slowly.
'? The corner of her mouth...'
Seems she'd handed it off a bit clumsily, because cream had smeared all around her lips.
"Hey, stay still."
"Huh? Uh... eeh...?"
I tore off a piece of the tissue from the side and wiped the corner of her mouth.
Once done, I tossed the used tissue into the trash and started eating ramen again.
"....Chrono."
"Slurrrp! Mm... hrmm?"
"....It's nothing."
"???"
So what was it?
I finished off the rest of the ramen and rinsed my mouth with cola.
"We ate everything we ordered... want to watch a movie?"
"Huh? Ah... yeah!"
Yuno's response was oddly delayed.
I didn't pay it much mind.
It wasn't like it would kill me or anything.
"Then... how about this one?"
"[John Wark, The Sword Wind Abyss War].... What kind of movie is this?"
"Dunno. It was at the very top."
"Hmm—ah, wait!"
Yuno flinched in surprise and snatched the mouse away.
....What? Did she get her period or something?
"Romance! A romance movie!"
"....I don't mind either way, but why the sudden change?"
"There's a movie I've been saving so I could watch it with Ter later!"
"Ahh......"
Come to think of it, this whole thing was framed as a preliminary date concept for the Protagonist.
'Right. You haven't lost sight of the original objective.'
I wholly commend that attitude, very worthy of the true heroine.
I let out a sigh of relief and watched the romance movie together with Yuno.
"Chrono."
"What?"
And so.
"Is it okay... if I hold your hand...?"
"............."
I had swallowed the bait.
'God dammit...!'
A disaster.
What was this? A stratagem from Zhuge Liang?
I was like a snakehead caught in a net I couldn't escape from in a single instant.
"If you say you don't want to..."
"You'll go do it with another guy."
"....With Ter, I wouldn't—"
"—That's what we're preparing for right now, right?"
".............."
Evasion was impossible.
I ended up closing my eyes.
'It's fine.'
Hands were fine.
Even opposite-sex friends can hold hands, right?
I'd never had a female friend so I wasn't totally sure of the feel of it, but it did seem like holding hands was probably allowed.
'It'll be fine.'
It's just hands.
Not anywhere in particular.
"Do whatever you want."
".....I-in...that case...."
Lightly, Yuno interlocked just our little fingers first.
....Couldn't you just grab it normally?
"It's just... because this is how they did it in the movie......"
"............"
That's an action reserved for lovers and, being a movie, exaggeration is the standard.
It was like learning soccer from watching Inazuma Eleven.
"...A little. A strange feeling... heehee!"
Little fingers.
Finger and finger overlapping.
Like how children make a promise, our fingers interlocked.
"Like... thi...s...?"
Past the little finger, through the ring finger, middle, index, to the thumb.
Gradually overlapping her hand with mine, Yuno at last laced her fingers between mine over the back of my hand, just like lovers.
"Chrono......"
".....Shit."
Yuno's voice.
I felt like I understood what it meant.
Docilely, I turned my palm in the opposite direction.
"....Mmm..."
Palm met palm, pressing tightly together.
Our fingers intertwined with one another.
A deeply close contact, with not the slightest gap.
"So this is... what it feels like....."
My heart was strangely pounding.
The atmosphere, lukewarm and tepid.
Sticky sounds kept flowing from the speakers—wait, this is a 19-Gold film.
"...Hey, Chrono."
"No."
"............"
Yuno glanced at the screen.
I had no choice but to stop.
No, I went beyond stopping and just turned the sound off entirely.
"............."
"Staring like that won't change my answer."
No matter how close we got, kissing was off-limits.
At my stubborn insistence, Yuno asked.
"Shall I do it with another guy?"
"Go ahead if you want."
"....I'll really do it."
"If that's what you honestly mean, then I have no reason to stop you."
".............."
Yuno quietly looked back at me.
Maybe because we turned off the lights to watch the movie, the focus of her pupils was hazy.
"....Why?"
"Do you ask because you really don't know?"
"..........."
The look in her eyes seemed precarious.
Nevertheless, I spoke.
"Starting with the lips, the story changes."
"....What if our lips don't touch?"
"In that case... I'll let it slide."
"...Really?"
Yuno took a step closer to me.
What was it? What was she trying to do?
Her face steadily drew near.
I raised my hand to push Yuno away.
"The problem is our lips touching, right?"
"......Hey, are you right now—mm?!"
But before I could push her away, something touched my lips.
A ribbon. She'd untied the ribbon around her neck and placed it against my lips.
"This way, there's no problem at all, right?"
".....Yuno."
No.
This wasn't okay.
I blinked my eyes at Yuno.
"Just, once. Just once... will be enough....."
"............."
Through the thin cloth, I felt Yuno's lips.
And, around that time.
In the case of Ter, who was spending time with Merk.
[Apostle of Hera—NTR Rank 1]
"....Yuno..?"
"Huh? Sudden mention of Yuno?"
Even though he didn't want to know.
Even though he wanted to pretend it was nothing and brush past it.
[Zeus expresses discomfort]
"....Wait, I'm gonna step out for a bit."
"You're going to Yuno? Boo... Weren't you supposed to be all mine today?"
"..........."
If he left, he might lose her.
With just that single thought, Ter eventually sat back down.
"Ter, are you watching me?"
"..............."
His body was on that spot, but Ultimately, Ter couldn't collect his wits.
'Why...?'
Once again, the nightmare began to surface.