The Good Old Days
"A slow draw of the breath. Soft fruit on the nose, citrus bright on the finish. A light body, and a freshness that lifts the whole thing."
"...What are you doing."
Yura's petite frame fit neatly in my arms. I held her tight from behind and breathed in at the crown of her head.
"Haaaaah. Ahh."
"God, you're annoying. Are you a pervert, oppa?"
"Want to smell mine too?"
A sharp pinch. Pain flared where she caught the meat of my thigh.
It was a weekend morning, and Yura had been locked onto her studying since the start of it. I was doing my job as her cushion, scrolling on my phone. Her reactions landed so well that I wasn't exactly bored, but still.
"Which gen-ed are you grinding through?"
"Physics is a gen-ed to you?"
"If you're studying it in pre-med, it's a gen-ed."
She was the girlfriend I'd met back in our school days. A year younger than me, she had followed me into the same pre-med program. I knew next year would bury me, so I had studied ahead and carved this time out on purpose.
"How is barely not flunking the year supposed to count as studying?"
"I'm telling you, it's fine."
Grades from a med student's pre-med years? The moment you stepped into the real program, nobody so much as looked at them.
"...I need the scholarship."
Ah. Right.
"Well, well! That's my Yura. Want me to rub your shoulders? How are you this admirable?"
"Ah—hah! That's not—that is not my shoulder...!!"
She is honestly too cute.
"If you're not going to help, then sit still."
"Excuse me? I am helping. I'm down here warming your butt. Want me to move?"
"...No. Stay like that."
Even the honest answers were pure delicious. I stayed obediently flattened beneath her and pulled my phone back out. I had been wrestling with books until yesterday myself.
"I really don't want to study."
A complaint, of all things, slipped out of Yura.
Exactly. Even the model students want to goof off sometimes.
"Same. I wish some professor with ten years on the job would possess me."
"Possess you?"
"Watch some anime. You know the thing. The protagonist slips into somebody else's body."
"What even is that. That sounds exactly like you."
"...What about me sounds like that?"
I was bored enough that even this sort of idle chatter was fun.
"Yura. If you ended up in another world, what would you do?"
"Another world?"
"Yeah. Medieval fantasy, say. Invent the flush toilet or something."
"That's what I mean by exactly like you."
Come on. Does she have any idea how important public health is?
"I'm telling you to use a little imagination. Think like that and you'll starve."
"Mm... You'd come with me, though, right?"
"Huh? Well. That wouldn't be so bad."
For once, Yura actually played along with my nonsense.
"Then I don't care. Whatever it was, I'd manage."
"Heh. Now that sounds exactly like you."
Yeah. Whatever it was, we'd manage.
So long as we were together.