My stepmother's burden is my ex-girlfriend.

Page 75

In the silence, the sound that traveled directly into my ears sent a tingling sensation deep into my brain.

In places where others are watching, places where you cannot speak, and places where you cannot have physical contact.

It is precisely because of this that we trap ourselves in this environment, causing her voice, which slams into our brains from such close range, to cause an excessively strong stimulus.

I've been patiently enduring it all along.

I desperately wanted to talk to her and have physical contact with her, but I tried so hard to banish those thoughts from my mind.

Whether out of protest or something else, I looked at the people around me with mixed feelings, and in that instant, I witnessed that scene.

Ayai pursed her lips as if she were impatient, looking at me intently with some kind of expectation.

There should be plenty of methods.

You can communicate by writing or by phone. If you just want to ask a question, there's no need to do something as uncharacteristic of Ayai as whispering in someone's ear.

With lip balm applied, her soft, pink lips with a subtle sheen remained firmly in the center of my vision.

--...Reading the textbook is a bit difficult to understand.

In short, it's inconvenient to be here. We need to leave first.

—Let's go find some reference books.

-- Hmm.

Couples are such a terrible thing.

They don't know how to read the time and place, and they get aroused anytime, anywhere. They've truly disgraced humanity, whose greatest strength is intelligence.

On this point alone, I believe that I share the same opinion as that woman.

-- Hehe.

Behind the large bookshelf, Ayai's faint breath gently brushed against my lips, which were smeared with a little lip balm. I gazed at her shy smile, as if trying to hide her embarrassment, with a sense of fascination.

—I'm so sorry! Um... I disturbed your study...

--No... I'm just surprised. I didn't know Ayai was such a pervert.

--No, no...! ...Okay, maybe yes...

As Ayai spoke, her arms remained around my neck, a slight smile playing on her lips.

Seriously, how can women be so fickle? Just four months ago, she was so innocent that she didn't even know how to have a baby.

And I'm not much better off. Just four months ago, I had absolutely no interest in girls—but now, I've succumbed to such a simple temptation.

Just as Ayai's long eyelashes drooped again...

--...Wow...!

All that could be heard was a soft, high-pitched scream.

We turned around abruptly as if struck by lightning, and saw a little girl who looked to be in the middle of elementary school.

The girl blushed and stumbled away from us.

──……………………

──……………………!

An awkward silence filled the room, and I saw Ayai's face turn increasingly red, like ripe fruit.

We parted ways with each other almost simultaneously and very quietly, as if nothing had happened.

-- Uh, this...

Ayai lowered her head, her face flushed. I didn't know what to say to her. Well, maybe we can be thankful that it was just a young girl who saw us. It's just that she might remember this for the rest of her life.

After racking my brains for a long time, as if someone had doused my head with cold water, this is all I can say:

Anyway, let's leave.

--…………Hmm…………

Of course, the grades hardly improved.

To suffer such humiliation and still not achieve anything—what else can be described besides torture?

◆

July.

The dreaded rainy season is long gone, and it's time to change uniforms. All the students have switched to open-style short-sleeved shirts, but the campus is increasingly filled with a tense atmosphere that is the exact opposite of the feeling of relief.

The reasons are self-evident.

"East Head—did you do well on your final exams?"

After school, I went to the window of the library as usual and saw Higashito Isana, wearing a short-sleeved shirt and a sleeveless school vest, engrossed in reading a light novel. So I asked her the question that had been bothering me before.

The otaku girl, who was leering at the busty girl in the cover illustration, froze as if time had stopped.

"........."

"East end?"

"...Huh? What did you say?"

"The acting is so unrealistic."

At this rate, the first half of the romantic comedy would be over.

Dongtou clutched his head with both hands and began to groan as if in great pain.

"I... I remember now!"

"Right."

"I have some errands to run today, excuse me—"

"Don't even think about escaping."

"Awooo—!"

I grabbed the neck of the underachiever who was trying to slip away and pinned her down. She even dared to flail her arms and legs and struggle desperately, so I held her from behind, pinning her head and shoulders.

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! I surrender! I surrender—!"

Only a knockout counts.

"A desperate battle! Since...that's how it is...!"

I saw Dongtou give up resisting, and then his body suddenly started to move around awkwardly. He turned his head and glanced at me as if he had something to say.

"Mizuto-kun... something hard touched my butt..."

"That's my cell phone in my pocket."

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!"

It seems that the woman and Nan have instilled some cunning and scheming skills in her, but they don't work on me.

Dongtou gradually stopped resisting, so I pressed her against the wall and placed my hands next to her face.

"So? How's your exam preparation going?"

"Um... I don't think this is the kind of question you should ask using a wall-slamming technique..."

How's your exam preparation going?

"...I...I wasn't preparing..."

I leaned closer and asked, and Dongtou answered in a voice that sounded like he was about to cry, turning his face away.

"W-Do you really have to interrogate me like this... It's not exam time yet..."

"Do you think you have enough time to study during the short exam period of just one week? Anyway, someone like you is probably secretly reading light novels during class."

"Waaah...!"

"If you keep failing exams, you might really have to repeat a year. Would you like to be my junior?"

"...Mizuto-senpai?"

"Don't act like you really want to be like me."

"Waaah! Please, please don't scare me with that low, intimidating voice! It makes my heart race, please don't do that!"

Dongtou blushed and pushed hard against my chest, so I temporarily released the wall slam and sighed.

"I'm saying this for your own good, aren't I?"

"Has Mizuto-san become my mom...?"

"If you become my junior, you won't be able to borrow my textbooks anymore if you forget to bring them."

"Waaaaah... That's...that's going to be a headache..."

The forgetful woman, Izana from the east, groaned repeatedly in utter embarrassment.

"But what am I supposed to do...? The schoolwork is so hard... When I was in junior high, I was considered one of the smarter students..."

"You're not stupid; getting into this school proves that. The rest depends on how much effort you put in."

"effort……"

"I will cram enough knowledge into your brain to improve your grades."

Dongtou immediately covered her mouth with her hand, her gaze languidly lowered, and said in a weak voice:

"Am I... going to be stuffed in by Mizuto-san...?"

"You can save yourself the trouble of saying that."

Trying to change the subject with dirty jokes won't work.

So I forced Dongtou Izana to make an appointment with me to come to my house next Saturday afternoon.

Then the next day arrived.

"...I'm doomed..."

A man with an expression that looked like the end of the world had come appeared before me.

It was Kawamura Kogure.

This man, who attends a prestigious school with strict rules, wasted his time on styling his hair, embodying an anti-establishment spirit. He lay face down on my desk and said in despair.

"I'm doomed... I'm doomed for the final exams..."

"Is he the type who can talk the talk but still get high scores? -- I don't think so."

"Of course! I barely passed my midterms by studying like crazy!"

"With your extensive network, getting your hands on one or two past exam papers shouldn't be difficult, right? Still can't grasp it?"

"...The teachers at our school are very experienced...they've already figured out what's going on in a student like me..."

He now seemed to have just gained confidence after a fierce battle, only to realize the gap in strength between himself and the newly emerged powerful enemy.

"Please save me, top student in the class! I can only rely on you!"

"No, I hate it."

"I'll pay for whatever you want to buy!"

"Oh……"

You can say whatever you want, right?

"I have a rare, out-of-print book that I really want, but the price online has skyrocketed to an outrageous level..."

"Ugh...! I-I did say I'd pay for whatever I wanted, but there's still a limit, you know? There's a limit?"

"I've searched all the nearby secondhand bookstores but can't find it..."

"The upper limit! Please, please determine the upper limit! Please!"

Okay, although it wasn't my request, this guy once bought me clothes as a gift. I'll let him off the hook this time with a price under 500 yuan.

But I've already promised to teach Dongtou to read... It's too much trouble to teach the same content twice.

Okay, let's do it that way.