Chapter 27

“Hey, Ryuichi-kun.”
“What is it?”

It was after school, right before the start of the Golden Week holidays in early May.
The surroundings were already swallowed by the dark, making it obvious that night had fallen. Walking through this quiet evening air, the high school students Ryuichi and Shizuna were heading back after grabbing a bite to eat at the bar they had visited once before. Both of them were still in their school uniforms because they had gone out briefly to run a few errands.

“What are you planning to do during the holidays?”
“Ah… haven’t really thought about it.”

He hadn’t made any concrete promises to anyone yet. Makoto and Kaname had both pitched various invitations involving women over the break, but he had turned them all down. They seemed to be planning group dates and the like, but the current Ryuichi had virtually zero desire to chase after women so aggressively.
Well, that was a lie; he definitely had the urge to hold a woman. Wanting to spend time with a fine woman was, after all, a fundamental human instinct for any man.

“Shizuna.”
“Kya!?”

Placing a hand on Shizuna’s shoulder, Ryuichi pulled her close with a slightly firm tug. She let out a startled sound, but the moment she was drawn into his arms, the fondness and expectation she felt toward him became unmistakably clear in her eyes. It was absolute proof of how utterly captivated she was by him, unable to hide her desire to devote herself entirely to him.

“I’ve got you with me this year, too. How about it? Do you want to stay with me?”
“What’s with that? Asking something so obvious. What are you expecting me to say?”

Shizuna let out a soft chuckle in response to his question. Her eyes were swimming with moisture, her cheeks flushed, and her entire demeanor practically radiated eager anticipation. Pulling her close, Ryuichi leaned in near the nape of her neck to inhale her scent as he continued.

“I just wanted to hear it directly from your lips.”
“Alright… I want to stay with you. I want to stay by your side so closely we’re never apart, even for a moment. I want you to hold me in those arms of yours as tight as you possibly can.”

She didn’t wish for anything more than that, she murmured, burying her face straight into Ryuichi’s chest.
Shizuna was now completely and utterly in love with him, remaining docile enough to obey virtually anything he asked. Yet her affection for Ryuichi was undeniably a precious, genuine feeling she had nurtured entirely on her own. While Ryuichi’s influence played a part, she had amplified her feelings for him from the bottom of her heart to reach this point.

“That choker. I never see you take it off. Do you really like it that much?”
“Mn.”

As Ryuichi traced the tip of his finger along the black band secured around Shizuna’s neck, she gave a quiet nod. Not all that many days had passed since he gifted it to her, yet she practically never took the choker off. Every now and then, she would even catch herself absentmindedly stroking it with her own fingers, looking thoroughly pleased.

“Isn’t it obvious? I mean, I take it off when I’m in the bath, but… fufu, I want to constantly remind myself that I belong to Ryuichi-kun. I always want to be conscious of being a woman who devotes herself to you, a woman who is special to you.”

Those weren’t the sort of words one would ever expect to hear from a beautiful young girl like her. She wanted to feel like she belonged to Ryuichi, she wanted to feel special to him. Hearing that acted as fuel for Ryuichi’s own possessive instincts, driving home the inescapable realization that the woman before him was his and his alone.

“Shizuna.”
“Un.”

Lifting her chin with his hand, he forced her to look up.
He pressed his lips against her closed ones, parting them to slide his tongue inside and thoroughly ravage the sweet interior of her mouth. Using Shizuna’s muffled whimpers as fuel, Ryuichi deepened the kiss with a fierce intensity, hungrily demanding more of her.

“…Hey, Ryuichi-kun. I want to stay with you for the rest of today.”

Pulling back slightly, a thin silver thread of saliva stretched to connect their parting lips. Even with all the women Ryuichi had held over the years, he couldn’t help marveling at the staggering pull of Shizuna’s allure.
His apartment was closer from this spot, he reasoned, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

“Come back to my place.”
“I’m coming.”

Shizuna’s reply was instant, her voice ringing out with bright eagerness.
Seeing her so transparently thrilled, Ryuichi chuckled. Just as the two of them pressed close together, stepping out to head toward his apartment, the cruel trick of fate or perhaps simple coincidence brought the voice of a third party echoing through the quiet street.

“What… are you doing?”
“Huh?”
?“

The voice rang out from behind them, a voice both Ryuichi and Shizuna recognized instantly. Without needing to turn around, Ryuichi knew it belonged to Souhei, and the moment he heard it, Ryuichi let out a dry chuckle seeing the flash of absolute anger cross Shizuna’s face.
Perhaps refusing to even look at Souhei’s face, Shizuna made no move to turn around alongside Ryuichi. Right in Ryuichi’s line of sight stood Souhei, looking utterly dumbfounded as if staring at something impossible. Ryuichi opened his mouth in his usual nonchalant tone.

“Out for a late stroll? Or heading back from somewhere?”
“Shut up!! That’s not what I’m asking! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

Souhei clearly wasn’t operating with a calm head… though that was to be expected, Ryuichi shrugged internally at the loud, obnoxious outburst in the middle of the night.

“Just heading back after grabbing a meal with Shizuna. From here, I’m…”

Taking her back to my place, Ryuichi started to say, before cutting himself off. He harbored zero personal feelings toward Souhei. He already didn’t care that Souhei was the protagonist, that Shizuna was the heroine, or that Ryuichi himself was cast in the role of the scumbag/home-wrecker; even so, spelling it out explicitly would alter Shizuna and Souhei’s relationship in an instant… No, it wouldn’t just alter it; it was painfully easy to imagine it shattering completely.

“Ryuichi-kun. I’ve already decided to walk this path by your side. So I think this is fine.”
“…I see. Then I won’t hold back.”

Since Shizuna had stated it herself, Ryuichi saw no further reason to hide anything.

“I’m taking her back to my place right now.”
“…Haah?”
“Because this girl is my woman. When someone tells you they don’t want to go home and want to stay by your side instead, a real man’s only choice is to answer that call.”

Ryuichi stated it plainly while pulling Shizuna’s shoulder tight against him.
I’m acting like a complete villain here, Ryuichi thought to himself with quiet irony, but in a sense, this was simply one of the natural outcomes of romance. Rather than Souhei, who had dithered and taken no action, Ryuichi had won Shizuna through a messy cascade of coincidences, making this a wonderfully simple conclusion.

“That’s right, Souhei-kun. Well then, Ryuichi-kun, let’s go.”
“Yeah.”

Shizuna turned her back on him as if to say she had nothing more to say to Souhei, instead reaching out to slip her arm through Ryuichi’s. Ryuichi turned his back on Souhei as well and started walking, but Souhei, driven by some frantic impulse, rushed right up beside them.

“Don’t fuck with me! This is messed up, Shizuna! I mean, behind my back–”
“Why on earth do you need to know everything I do?”
“T-Tch… You! You did something to Shizuna, didn’t you?! You’re threatening her, aren’t you?!”
“…Well, I suppose it looks that way from where you’re standing.”

Ryuichi scratched his head roughly in acknowledgement.
To begin with, Souhei had no idea how Ryuichi and Shizuna had grown close. He knew nothing of their interactions since then, and he certainly didn’t know they had crossed physical lines. Put simply, to Souhei, who was utterly blind to the process, it looked like his precious childhood friend had somehow been led astray and manipulated by the neighborhood delinquent.

“Well, I guess to you it looks like I brainwashed her. Though I’d have a hard time denying that it’s not entirely untrue.”
“Fufu, that’s true. But I like Ryuichi-kun of my own free will. No matter what anyone says, that won’t change. I won’t deny it, and above all…”
“Tch…!”

Shizuna pinned Souhei with a fierce, unwavering glare. Perhaps unaccustomed to seeing that kind of expression from her, Souhei instinctively took a step back. Staring straight at him, Shizuna declared:

“I won’t let anyone deny it. This feeling… my love for him, my love for Ryuichi-kun, I will never let anyone write it off as a mistake.”

Her voice rang out clear and resonant.
It was no wonder Souhei looked so utterly shocked, yet conversely, Ryuichi couldn’t help thinking what a piece of trash he was. Even as she confessed her feelings with such unfiltered sincerity, Ryuichi still couldn’t wrap his head around the concept of “love” toward her. He wanted to possess her, he wanted to claim her as his own—yet whether those selfish desires actually constituted “love” was something he couldn’t answer.

“If you were never born, none of this would have happened.”

What good is believing in love? Women are all just like that filthy mother of mine… Ryuichi’s own inner voice whispered from the deepest recesses of his mind. Of course, he understood that Shizuna was nothing like that; he knew she was an astonishingly pure, wonderfully straightforward woman.

“……………”

Not just Shizuna, but Chisa and Sakie as well; they were all women Ryuichi could interact with without reservation. And yet, he couldn’t take that final step. He just couldn’t cross that last threshold.

“…Damn it.”

Overthinking things like this wasn’t his style. Figuring he should just keep acting the way he always had, he forcefully convinced himself and pulled Shizuna, who was still standing in front of Souhei, into an embrace from behind.

“Ryuichi-kun?”
“You, step away from Shizuna–”

Get away from her, Souhei never got to finish the warning.

“Mn…”
“Shizuna, that’s enough. Hurry up and let me devour you again.”

Whispering right against her ear while simultaneously pressing his fingers deep into the rich, voluptuous swells of her chest through her clothes, Ryuichi spoke those words. Shizuna offered zero resistance; instead, her expression softened into one that practically begged him to do more. Above all, this exact composition mirrored the exact scene when they had stepped out of that club.

“N-No way…”
“Yeah. The girl who was by my side that night was Shizuna. The loose, easy woman you were talking about earlier? That was her all along.”
“…Shizuna?”

At Souhei’s disbelieving question, Shizuna simply gave a quiet nod.
After that, Souhei said nothing more. Deciding that the conversation was over, Ryuichi turned and led Shizuna away. Once they had walked a fair distance, Ryuichi muttered under his breath:

“Things are gonna change a whole lot after this, you know. That guy actually cared about you, didn’t he?”
“Is that so…? But it can’t be helped. Ryuichi-kun has become far more important to me than him. So there’s no point in worrying about it, is there?”

Shizuna never brought Souhei up in conversation ever again.
No doubt she had her own complex thoughts about it all. Even so, she chose to follow her own heart, deliberately choosing to remain right by Ryuichi’s side.

The conclusion was wonderfully simple: the person who pointed their feelings with greater intensity was chosen and that was all there was to it.