The time setting of this side story is shortly after episode 362. And no lewd stuff!
*
Leaning back against the bedrest, I took a sip of cider. Enjoying the tingly sensation of the carbonation spreading in my mouth, I suddenly blurted out a thought.
“Heueng… It’s a room you can’t leave unless you have sex, huh?”
“…Wha-What?! You could have at least warned me before saying that!”
“Umm, Aco-chan… how exactly do I give a heads-up about that?”
“No, that’s not what I… I’m talking about sex! For people like you who live such a promiscuous life, it might be nothing, but it’s a big deal for ordinary students!”
“Oh, really…?”
“What do you mean ‘oh, really’? You’re the weird one, okay?!”
But you know, before I came to Kivotos, students weren’t like that. Even elementary schoolers knew a thing or two, and middle schoolers were doing their thing. Of course, it wasn’t to the extent that I’m at now…
“…Haa. So, what exactly do you want to say?”
“Listen. What if, hypothetically, we did have sex?”
“W-Well, that’s not going to happen… but let’s say we did?”
“How would they know we did to let us out?”
“…Kek, kehuk.”
“Isn’t it a bit creepy to think that someone might be watching us with a surveillance camera? A little disgusting too.”
“Ugh, ugh. I absolutely didn’t want to hear that.”
Setting aside my disgust towards Aco, the idea that someone could be watching everything I did wasn’t exactly pleasant. I felt I should check the room again, just in case there were any hidden cameras.
“…I wonder what’s happening outside right now.”
“Well, I dunno about you, but it’s probably chaotic on your end.”
“Still, it’s probably just as chaotic on your side, right?”
“Seriously… with you missing, do you really think ‘Head’ would have time to worry about me? That’s just not realistic.”
Despite speaking nonchalantly, Aco’s expression was far from pleasant.
What should I say facing those eyes filled with loneliness?
Maybe it’s better to stay quiet?
Am I also partly to blame for throwing a stone into the relationship of Hina and Aco?
Even though I was lost in thought, my mouth started moving on its own.
“If it’s Hina-chan… I believe she’d prioritize you.”
“…Huh? Are you making fun of me? You should say something that makes sense—”
“Because she’s that type. She’s not the kind of girl who wouldn’t realize what’s truly precious. Yes, if it’s Hina-chan…”
She wouldn’t easily ignore Aco’s absence. Even if she appeared cold on the outside, her heart was warm enough not to yield to anyone.
“…”
Aco, who was about to retort, fell silent again. It wasn’t a look of understanding; she seemed to think it pointless to waste her emotional energy.
“Sorry…”
I attempted an apology, but no response came back. Honestly, I feel rather chatty whenever I’m around Aco… being careful just doesn’t go as planned.
Noticing the tension, I quietly set down the snack bag I had been holding.
The bed, spacious enough for both of us because of our sizes, felt absurdly lonely, making me feel inexplicably down.
After all, an animal accustomed to being loved… seems to perish easily in indifference. Right.
*
In the silence, time passed very slowly, almost like the changes of the landscape.
Aco seemed like she didn’t even want to exchange a word with me, naturally causing me to wilt under the feeling of loneliness.
…It might not just be me, but honestly, I can’t tell. I was too unequipped to understand Aco’s complicated feelings.
Above all, this was one of those things only known through conversation, being two outsiders after all.
Still, amidst the cut-off dialogue, one thing I could definitely assert was… we needed to resolve this awkward atmosphere sooner or later, and the sooner, the better.
However, lacking the confidence to diffuse the tension through conversation, I decided to try to sleep first.
“…Can I turn off the lights?”
“…”
A response still didn’t return, but thankfully, Aco nodded without a word.
And a whole day slipped by in this disconnected state.
“…I guess she won’t come today either.”
Now, I could no longer tell if I was near the wall or if I was the only one in this space.
There was no way to check the time, but I was sure that a day had definitely passed.
Having spent a day without a cell phone, nothing to play with, and no conversation partner, I felt a desperate need for change.
Perhaps Aco felt the same way, glancing my way every now and then. Occasionally, we made eye contact, but with each time, she’d quickly turn her head away, leaving me unable to approach her properly.
Tomorrow, I thought I should forcibly initiate some dialogue… I got off the bed I had grown all too familiar with over the past day.
And then, just when I wondered how much more time had passed, it happened.
“…Where are you going?”
The previously broken conversation connected again.
Because it was completely unexpected, it felt strangely pleasant. I already knew I liked the warmth of people, but I hadn’t realized how starved I was for conversation until now.
“Uh, umm? I was going to wash up…”
“What about your clothes?”
“Um, I’ll just put them back on…?”
Since there was no other choice, I thought there wasn’t much I could do. Though I was more used to sleeping without clothes, I reminded myself again that I was with Aco right now.
I still had no idea what Aco was thinking, but I was glad she opened up, and so I began to take off my clothes in the shower booth, carefully folding them aside.
Peeking at Aco, I noticed she was intentionally turning her gaze toward the opposite wall, which lessened my burden.
As I stepped inside the booth and started letting the warm water flow over me, the confusion in my mind quickly settled down. Ah, showering really is nice. Yup.
With the sound of water dripping dripping on my skin, it felt like the fatigue and stress that had secretly built up were washing away.
The steam rising from the hot water enveloped the booth, obscuring the outside, but I figured Aco wouldn’t be paying much attention to this side.
The set-up of the shower booth, visible from the outside, was so explicit it was almost crude, but the implication only worked if both of us were somewhat conscious. In this scenario between Aco and me, it was a different story.
After finishing my shower, just when Aco threw me a bathrobe and towel with a peculiar flush on her face, I thought about these things.
“…Where did you get this?”
“It fell from the ceiling.”
“Wow—oh…?”
“What’s with that reaction?! You think I’d lie about something like this?!”
“No, it’s not that I doubted it. I was just thinking, if you’re going to give me this, wouldn’t it be better to throw in a hairdryer too…?”
“…You really have high expectations. Not that I’m saying it’s wrong.”
Truth be told, while I said that, I had my guesses about why they provided a bathrobe and towel but not a hairdryer.
If the goal was to get Aco and me to do it, preventing us from drying our hair quickly to fall asleep would be more advantageous than helping us wrap things up.
…Anyway. Following after Aco as she entered the shower booth, I was forcibly made to understand her feelings.
No matter how I turned my head away, the sound of water flowing from the shower reverberated loudly through the room. It was probably amplified even more due to the small space.
And there was an alluring quality to that sound. No matter how much I tried to ignore it while gently drying my hair with a towel, I couldn’t help but visualize the situation across from me.
Then, suddenly, confirming that Aco was telling the truth, a box dropped from the ceiling.
From what I quickly glimpsed, it had a round hole that tossed an object then closed right away… clearly, someone was monitoring us. There was no other explanation.
The time I had to endure was unimaginably long. Aco must have experienced even longer since my hair is certainly longer than hers…
More than anything, listening to the water whooshing from the showerhead made my body react involuntarily.
Like Pavlov’s dog.
Whenever I heard someone else showering, uh… I mean, once the shower was done, I almost always ended up in situations that ended in relations. So it was even more so this time.
To be brutally honest, this was incredibly… really difficult.
There was Aco, who didn’t want to have any relations with me. And I, who ideally wanted to keep my love life from getting more complicated than it was.
In that conflict, I kept suppressing the heat that was slowly building inside me until the moment Aco stepped out of the shower.
But then…
“…Let’s do it.”
“Uh, huh?”
“Yeah, I mean, let’s just do it.”
As I handed the bathrobe to Aco after she finished showering, she silently stared at it for a moment then suddenly blurted it out.
“…”
“Don’t even think about asking silly questions. I know you’re capable of thinking, so don’t pretend you aren’t.”
“If you just wait a bit longer—”
“Just close your eyes and do it once, right? If that’s what it takes to get us out of here, that must be the right choice. If, like you said, we don’t know what kind of chaos is happening outside… we shouldn’t ignore the possibility of finding our way out ourselves.”
“Yeah, that’s true, but…”
“Seriously, quit being so frustrating! Do you think saying this was easy for me?! I just don’t want to see you struggle like this. I think if we just keep sitting here, I’ll only feel more miserable, and you’ll only end up suffering more. So let’s just hurry and get out of here!”
With her face flushed bright red, Aco tossed the bathrobe aside and stepped closer to me.
“What the heck, let’s just do it already.”
“Ugh…”
“Ahhhhh! Why are you being so frustrating all of a sudden…”
Seeing Aco biting her lip in frustration, I cautiously lifted my hand. Then, I took her moist hand in mine.
“Alright, then… let’s just do it once. But we’re keeping it a secret from everyone else. This stays between us.”
“…That’s what I was hoping for.”
From now on, I’ll be mixing my body with Amau Aco to find a way out of this room.
