What jumped into Souta’s view was the middle-aged man who’d been sitting there earlier and Yuka kissing.
He just happened to see the two of them locked at the lips through a small gap in the partition.
”Huh?” Souta gasped.
This kind of thing is normal at this place. Not long ago, the very guy who’s shocked right now had been kissing Eruna harder than those two are going at it. Don’t forget that.
The image Souta had of Yuka at first glance-pure, innocent, a girl who knew nothing of the dirty world-came crashing down with a sound.
Maybe at some fancy place it’d be different, but his idea of her was nothing but a fantasy here.
”SouSou, box seats are special, so kissin’ the cast is fine, meow! Wanna do it, meow?”
Back when he first sat in the box seat, Mio showered him with kisses as her way of showing affection, and in all the confusion he’d ended up kissing her too.
He’d thought it was breaking the rules, but now he learned it was allowed from the start.
They say you shouldn’t turn down a free meal, so not to be outdone by the box next door, Souta went for a fierce kiss, letting his youth take over.
Mio was thrown off for a second by Souta’s bold move, but for a girl who swaps spit with tons of people every day, it was easy to meet his expectations-she just kicked it up a gear.
A kiss like they were feeding on lust.
Tongues tangled, saliva mixed, fast then slow, never letting it get boring.
Sometimes she’d cup Souta’s cheeks with both hands and demand harder, other times she’d go passive and just take everything as he kissed her however his desire wanted, forgetting to breathe, lost in a kiss where they both wanted each other.
Right when he was about to suffocate, Souta pulled his face up from Mio’s lips to grab some air, and his eyes met a woman looking down at him.
”Uh, um..,” Tsubaki stammered softly.
She looked away right away and tried to say something in a voice that was fading out.
At the same time Souta reached out his hand, trying to grab hers so she couldn’t run, but sadly, she didn’t have a hand to grab.
”Mm!? A pest’s shown up, meow!”
Mio threw a jab at the new visitor, but the one who called her over was none other than Mio herself.
”…Just kiddin’, guess I’m the pest this time, so I’ll clear out, meow!”
She pushed Souta’s body off her, slipped free, and Mio stood up fast.
Then she stretched both hands toward the ceiling, looked at the visitor Tsubaki, and tossed a warning at Souta.
”By the way, boxes rotate every hour, so watch out, meow!”
No sooner had she said it than Mio tapped Tsubaki’s shoulder, and to swap places, she stepped out of the box seat herself and waved her in to take her spot.
”Uh, ah… ‘s me..,” Tsubaki mumbled.
Totally different from how she was on stage, just like when she first came to say hi, she looked down and stitched together words that kept breaking apart.
She was clearly more shy and inward than the other cast members, and there was no way she could take the lead, so Souta chose to take on that role himself, even though he wasn’t good at it either.
”Sit,” Souta said.
The spot where Mio had been just now.
He patted the empty right side of the sofa and pushed Tsubaki to sit.
Tsubaki responded by fidgeting, then perched herself small and neat on the seat.
But even though her body was tiny, her two wings were way bigger than he expected-big enough that even one wing could hide her whole body.
Naturally Souta touched that wing too, and the quality was so good it didn’t seem like something made by hand, and he got to the heart of the answer he’d worked out.
Not a dream… but even though this is the real world, this place is another world.
Once he concluded that, everything about every cast member made sense.
They weren’t wearing costumes-they were real half-beasts, half-humans, and somehow he’d wandered in here…
He told himself to just drown in this once-in-a-lifetime chance as long as it lasts, since who knows when it’ll end.
”Your song… was amazing,” Souta offered.
Souta gave his honest thoughts from earlier.
If he were better with words, he wanted to tell her how moved he was, but this was all he could manage right now.
”…ank you,” Tsubaki whispered back.
Tsubaki answered him too.
A short silence settled over them while the pretty sound of a harp drifted through their space.
”Sorry, for calling you over and all,” Souta admitted.
”…No, …’s me, dat talk, I’m bad at… an’, um… uh..,” Tsubaki trailed off.
To Souta’s apology, Tsubaki forced out words in broken pieces.
They could both feel each other’s nerves, and it fed on itself and cranked the tension higher.
Feeling the frustration of a conversation that wouldn’t keep going, he felt the sting of how bad he was at talking to people.
With friends he thought he wasn’t this bad, but with a girl he just met, the talk just wouldn’t flow, and he wanted to groan.
But talking wasn’t the only thing Souta wanted to do with her.
Honestly, he never thought they’d have a fun chat anyway.
”You don’t have to force yourself to talk. Um… can I use a Ticket?”
Souta picked up the three Tickets left on the table, and tried to hand them to Tsubaki.
”…But, here… you dun gotta use one, we, we, we can kiss… so…”
She looked straight at Souta’s face for just a second, and Tsubaki explained nervously.
Tsubaki seemed to know he was new to this place.
”Not just kissing, with you… I want to do lots of things to you. Touch you, it’s like love at first sight, I like you, I really do.”
Tsubaki blushed at the sudden love confession.
Trivia:
- Mio calling herself the bother right after calling the visitor a bother hints she arranged Tsubaki’s visit on purpose, a quiet setup rather than a random rotation.
- Souta notices Tsubaki has no hand to grab, which quietly confirms her wings replace arms and ties into why she cannot take the lead in anything physical.
- The harp music with no visible player is a small hint that the club’s otherworld nature runs deeper than the cast members alone.
Translation Notes:
1 ↩ A club currency item used to pay for special services like kissing or time with a cast member. Tsubaki tells Souta he does not need one here, hinting box seats already include such perks.