My feet got tangled, and my heel slammed against the wall as I braced myself.
I supported the weight of the body pressed against me, along with the lips, with my back. My extended arms gripped someone’s upper arms.
A sound like chewing was ringing in my head.
My lips were being eaten by other lips. It was rough. Perhaps “clumsy” is a better word for it than “rough.”
If you think about it normally, being attacked by someone who rushed in when you were about to get on the elevator is way too scary.
But I didn’t scream.
It wasn’t that I couldn’t resist, but I just let it happen.
Because I knew immediately who the culprit was.
It was the scent. My sense of smell identified it before my sight.
The door closed, and the elevator started to rise.
The light, floaty feeling in my body wasn’t just because of the elevator. The scent that stung my nose and the sensation of those lips were creating that airy feeling.
The wall shook with a jerk, and the doors began to open.
If someone was waiting outside, we might be seen. I have to move away. I have to get off.
That thought crossed my mind for a second, then vanished. My head remained floaty, as if it were still going up.
But at that moment, the lips that had been pressed against mine pulled away.
“Fa, ce.”
Sumire pointed her index finger at the tip of my nose.
With my “floaty” switch turned off, my consciousness was dragged back to the wall of the elevator.
“Wh, what…?”
“Getting you back.”
“Hu, huh?”
“If you make a face like that, you’ll get found out right away, you know?”
Even if she says “a face like that,” I don’t know what kind of face I’m making.
Just as I thought that, I caught sight of the mirror on the wall next to me. I was leaning against the wall in a pathetic, cowering posture.
“Don’t you even know? Look, your face is bright red!”
Sumire looked back into the mirror with me.
But I couldn’t bear to look at myself. I hurriedly turned my face away to the other side.
“Anyway, we’re getting off, okay? Let’s go.”
Sumire led me by the hand out of the elevator.
Luckily, there was no one outside. Before I could ask anything, Sumire kept walking quickly down the hallway.
“Come on, open it.”
Sumire urged me on in front of my front door.
It felt like I was being threatened by a robber.
Just as she told me, I unlocked the door, and Sumire barged in as if forcing her way through. She already knows her way around, that’s for sure. She also knows there’s no one home at this time.
“So? Tell me what else you’re going to do. You know what to do, right, Aoi?”
As soon as we entered the living room, Sumire tossed her bag onto the sofa and looked back at me.
Coming here confirmed it. This is a continuation of our lunch break. In Sumire’s mind, the conversation from that restroom stall is still going on.
“Hey, Aoi. Say something.”
She usually calls me Aoi-chan.
When she’s in a bad mood, she drops the suffix and just calls me Aoi. It’s easy to tell.
But she isn’t exactly in a bad mood right now. In fact, she even looks like she’s having fun.
“…Sumire, do you really like me? This whole ‘let’s date’ thing, is it for real?”
It’s repeating what I said before, but I pressed her on it persistently.
I feel like the Sumire in front of me now is different from the usual Sumire. That’s why I thought a different answer might come back.
“Hmm~~…”
Sumire placed a hand on her chin and struck a dramatic pose of deep thought.
But she didn’t look troubled or worried; she looked somewhat playful.
“That confession earlier? It was word-for-word from a movie line. Didn’t you notice?”
I flinched.
If you want to know why I flinched, you’ll have to ask my own brain that reacted on its own. Because I had noticed that a long time ago.
“I, I noticed…”
“Oh, really? Then why didn’t you call me out on it?”
If she asks me “why,” well, that’s just because…
Being told “I like you,” doesn’t make me feel bad, right? That’s normal.
I tried to say that, but stopped myself. If she’s going out of her way to say it was just a line from a movie, it means it was a lie.
A joke. The usual kind without any context.
But this time, it was definitely going too far.
“Why didn’t you say that sooner?”
“Huh? But Aoi, you said ‘okay.’ I was wondering how far you were actually planning to go.”
Sumire took my bag from my hands as I stood there dumbfounded and set it on the edge of the sofa.
“Alright, I’ve said my piece, so now it’s Aoi’s turn.”
Sumire really does look like she’s having fun.
I’m not having fun. But for some reason, I also felt a little relieved.
Because the worst-case scenario—where Sumire would never talk to me or pay attention to me ever again—was off the table.
…No, wait, it isn’t off the table. What am I thinking?
That’s what’s being decided right now, isn’t it? I was angry at Sumire for doing whatever she wanted, right? So I have to get angry properly, or it’s no good.
“That’s just because you were saying such unreasonable things all of a sudden, so I thought, ‘Oh well!’ I was just going along with you like I always do!”
“Eh? You just say ‘okay’ because ‘oh well’? Isn’t that crazy?”
“Th, that’s why! I thought it was a joke too!”
“Then tell me, why did you kiss me?”
I went silent.
No, I shouldn’t be silent.
“That was… because I was annoyed.”
“Hmm? So, I was right? You were actually sulking?”
“Th, that’s not all! Sumire, you’re unfair! You’re cute, you get spoiled by everyone, and even when you’re always being selfish, everyone around you just lets it slide!”
I didn’t intend to say things like this.
But once I started letting it out, I couldn’t stop.
“Heh, so that’s what you were thinking about me, Aoi.”
Sumire didn’t even try to argue back; she just laughed.
She usually gets angry over trivial things, but now she wasn’t.
She slowly reached out her palm toward me.
“Then, go ahead.”
“…Huh?”
“Go ahead and be selfish, Aoi-chan. Big Sister Sumire will listen to anything you want.”
Being given an unexpected reply made my head spin.
Things I want to do, things I want her to do.
I’m bad at saying those kinds of things to people. It’s the exact opposite of Sumire.
Sumire, on her part, probably thinks it’s my fault for not saying anything.
If that’s the case, I should just say it clearly. The things I want Sumire to do. The things that would make Sumire uncomfortable to hear.
I’ll throw an unreasonable demand at her and say, “See? You can’t do it anyway.” I’ll tell her that I’m always the one having a hard time.