The school day ended.
Today was kind of tired. It felt long. All because of someone.
“Let’s hurry home!”
People with club activities are doing club stuff. People chatting in the classroom are chatting. People going home are going home.
“Hurry home, hurry homeー!”
Noisy people are noisy.
She hits my back over and over from behind. I brush her hand away and look back at Sumire’s desk.
“So noisy. What’s the rush to go home so fast?”
“No way, you know why.”
“No, I don’t know?”
“Then I’ll make you un-der-stand.”
She twirls her fingertip right in front of my face.
That annoying mood started up again.
Rushed along, we leave the classroom. Usually, Sumire lingers around the station front, but she didn’t even do that today.
We squeezed into a train that happened to be stopped and rode it.
Without any particular hitches after that, we really ended up back at my house in no time.
“Arrival! Path cleared! Nobody’s home!”
The moment I unlock the front door, Sumire barges in ahead of everyone else.
She stomps toward my room with large strides. I grabbed her hand from behind to stop her.
“W-Wait a second, wait.”
“What? What are you panicking so much about? Is there something you’d be in trouble if someone saw it?”
There isn’t… probably.
Still, when I left the house this morning, I certainly didn’t think she’d barge in like this.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been in this room～”
Sumire opens the door on her own and marches right into my room.
There’s a bed in the room, a study desk, a small bookshelf, and mostly that’s it.
They say it’s six tatami mats, but I doubt it’s really six. It’s narrow.
Sumire looks all around the room, then turns back to me.
“As usual, there’s nothing here.”
“That’s what I said.”
“It’s kind of suspicious that it’s cleaned up so nicely though～… aren’t you hiding something? Like the desk drawer, or the bookshelf drawer.”
Sumire drops her bag on the floor, squats down in front of the bookshelf, and tries to open the bottom drawer. I push her back with the sole of my foot.
Sumire stumbles forward, stands up, and sits on the edge of the bed. She pats the spot next to her with a smile.
“Here, have a seat.”
She acts just like she’s the owner of the room.
I actually wanted to change out of my uniform right away, but since something like “Hehe, want me to help you change?” looked like it was about to start, I quietly did as she said.
When I sit on the edge of the bed, Sumire shifts her hips and closes the distance.
She looks at my face like she wants to say something. But she says nothing. She does nothing.
Sumire silently lifts one leg and starts taking off her sock.
She smoothly slips off the short navy blue sock and tosses it onto my lap.
“Hey.”
“Stop that.”
I threw it back.
Sumire puts her sock aside and takes off the other one too.
“Aoi, take off your socks too. Want me to take them off for you?”
“No, why?”
“Why don’t you take them off when you’re inside the house?”
“There are times when you don’t take them off. Why are you trying to take them off?”
“I don’t really like socks, you know.”
Sumire wiggles her toes and lets her bare feet dangle.
The tips of her white feet are tinted a faint red. While my eyes are drawn to them, Sumire reaches her hand out toward my feet.
“I’ll take them off for you.”
“I said it’s fine!”
I stretch out my legs to refuse.
What is her deal… just as I’m thinking that, Sumire’s hand slowly touches my knee.
She starts poking around the kneecap area with her fingers.
“…What? What is that hand?”
“A caress.”
I burst out laughing. I wipe my mouth with my hand.
“Huh? Did you feel it?”
“Huh? Not at all? Are you stupid?”
“I wonder about that?”
The fingertips that were stroking my knee smoothly move up toward my thigh.
They stop right before touching the hem of my skirt, then repeat going back and forth.
Even though she’s touching around my knee, the part giving me goosebumps is my spine.
“That tickles, you know?”
Even when I say it, Sumire doesn’t stop.
Instead, she pinches the flesh of my thigh hard.
“That hurts.”
When I try to grab her wrist, she dodges.
Sumire raises both hands to make a show of doing nothing at all~.
Why do I have to be the only one getting this?
I reach my hand out to Sumire’s knee. I tickle her back with my fingertips.
The hem of Sumire’s skirt is a little shorter than mine.
The area of exposed skin is also a little wider. Imitating Sumire, I stroke the surface of her thigh with my finger.
“What is that way of touching? So lewd.”
She says that, but what she’s doing is the exact same.
Sumire reaches her hand out again and touches my knee.
Without a word between us, a knee-stroking battle begins.
“Oops, my hand slipped.”
Sumire’s hand slips past the hem of my skirt and goes inside.
My spine gives a start and jumps. I grab Sumire’s wrist.