What Ai Hoshino had pictured was Lin Ye kissing her, holding her, doing this to her and that to her, until she was flushed and mortified and yet so drowned in the pleasure of it that she couldn't stop.
But reality turned out to be something else entirely.
Lin Ye pushed her down onto the bed, reached out, and took hold of her little foot — that foot wrapped in white stockings.
In that moment Ai Hoshino assumed Lin Ye had a particular thing for girls' feet, and she happened to have a fair amount of confidence in hers. She knew plenty of men liked feet as delicate and pale as hers.
And because Lin Ye liked them, she felt a flicker of pride. If it was something Lin Ye enjoyed, then she'd do her very best at it. From now on she'd take even better care of her feet.
Ai Hoshino made up her mind about that.
Then came the sensation from her foot, and small sounds slipped out of her.
It went on for maybe half a minute.
Then, quite abruptly, Lin Ye stopped.
Ai Hoshino, eyes half-lidded and lost in it, blinked at the sudden halt. She looked up, thoroughly confused.
What was this? Why stop?
Even if he was done with her feet, surely he could move on to something else!
"Lin-kun, is that all?"
The question carried real doubt. She couldn't work out what he was after at all. That much couldn't possibly be enough, could it?
That little bit — nowhere near enough.
If even she thought so, then surely a man like Lin Ye had to be even less satisfied.
"Next, I'm planning to get rougher. A lot more intense. But I'm worried you won't be able to handle it — that you won't be able to take it."
Lin Ye said it with complete seriousness, without a trace of a joke in his voice.
Hearing that, Ai Hoshino's nerves fluttered. He wasn't really going to, was he? He wasn't actually going to be that rough, that merciless, until she lost herself completely?
She was a little afraid. But she steadied herself quickly and gave a firm nod.
"It's fine,"
Yes.
At a moment like this, what other answer was there but yes?
She'd already decided. It was her first time, but if it was what Lin Ye wanted, she was willing. She could bear anything he gave her, and accept all of it.
That was Ai Hoshino's resolve.
"You're sure, Ai-chan? Once we take this step, there's no—"
"Mm."
Ai Hoshino nodded again, showing him she meant it.
"Come on, Lin-kun. However you treat me, I'll take it. I want this. Please. If you want to be rough and cruel, then be rough and cruel. You're the one who saved Ai-chan's life. All of this belongs to you, so do whatever you—"
And with that, Ai Hoshino let her whole body go slack and lay back.
Next — next it would be that, wouldn't it?
She found herself worrying about where she was in her cycle.
What if she got pregnant by accident?
Ai Hoshino decided she'd get up early tomorrow and take a pill first thing. If she actually ended up pregnant, that would be bad for Lin Ye too. Lin-kun definitely didn't want to be a father yet.
"All right,"
Lin Ye's fingers slid slowly upward, tracing along her calf.
Every second of it went straight through Ai Hoshino.
Her eyes squeezed shut, both hands fisted in the sheets, gripping hard enough that it looked like she might tear them apart.
Too much. It was honestly too much.
She wanted to scream.
She bit down and held it in, and only the faintest whimper escaped now and then, lending the room a warm, pink haze.
Watching her, Lin Ye judged that the moment had ripened.
Now came the part where Ai Hoshino would face the full storm.
One hand clamped around her ankle. The other went on the attack, pulling out everything he had.
Every technique he'd once used on Haruno, on Meguri Shiromeguri, he now demonstrated in full on Ai Hoshino.
The tickling that shot up from the sole of her foot made her jolt.
"Ha — hahahaha—"
Ai Hoshino burst out laughing.
"Lin — Lin-kun—"
"What — what do you think you're doing?!"
"Stop tickling me, stop tickling me—"
"I'm dying, I'm dying, I really can't take it—"
But Lin Ye didn't stop.
Ai Hoshino thrashed, both arms wrapping around her stomach, laughing until her belly ached and her muscles were on the verge of cramping.
In the end, he still didn't let her off.
He kept her in that torment for a full five minutes.
"Lin — Lin-kun…"
Flushed pink, Ai Hoshino stared up at him with nothing but reproach in her eyes.
Why would he do that to her? She genuinely had no idea.
"That's for stirring up trouble for me."
"And that's for not stopping Sayaka Maizono."
Lin Ye laid out the charges one at a time.
All of them were true. Facts Ai Hoshino couldn't dodge.
But she'd had her reasons for every one of them.
"I did all of that so you could enjoy Sayaka properly, Lin-kun! A gorgeous girl, letting you touch her and play with her — isn't that a good thing?"
"Did you ask me what I wanted first?" Lin Ye pressed.
No, she hadn't asked. She really had just done what she felt like doing.
But she'd truly been thinking of him when she did it.
"You were having plenty of fun a minute ago. You were very comfortable doing the touching. You were thoroughly enjoying that moment."
The look on his face from earlier surfaced in her mind. That had been enjoyment, no question — nothing faked about it.
"I was on the receiving end. It wasn't what I wanted."
"You touched her anyway. Isn't it a bit late to claim it wasn't what you wanted?"
Ai Hoshino laughed. She'd met shameless people before, but the sheer shamelessness of Lin Ye in this moment genuinely astonished her.
In her impression of him, Lin Ye was never a man who lost track of limits and propriety. This little speech, though, did real damage to that image.
Then again, what his hands had gotten up to at the end there had done some damage to it too.
"It's the truth. I refused, I tried to stop it. Meanwhile a certain girl did nothing at all and just sat there enjoying the show."
"I was afraid of spoiling your mood, Lin-kun! If I'd made you angry, who knows what would've happened to me," Ai Hoshino said.
Of course that wasn't the real reason. The real reason was that she wanted to see how it played out. She wanted to know what the two of them would do next.
And she'd gotten her answer — just not the answer she'd been hoping for.
"Heh. You know perfectly well what the truth is."
"No, Lin-kun doesn't know, so you can't think of me that way."
"All right."
That response startled her all over again.
Just like that, he agreed? She blinked at him.
"And since I'm agreeing with you, I'll make sure you're satisfied."
Satisfied with what?
What was there left to be satisfied about?
The next second, Ai Hoshino felt that fierce, electric sensation shoot up from her left foot again.
"No — no more—"
After five minutes of torture she was already spent.
Another round — how was she supposed to survive it?
She'd go mad. She really would. She didn't want to try it again, didn't want to feel it again.
Ai Hoshino begged.
"Let me go! Ahahaha—"
"I'm dying, I'm dying, I'm honestly going to die laughing—"
"Lin-kun, let me go! I'm begging you—"
But no matter how she pleaded, even when the laughter cracked into sobbing, Lin Ye remained unmoved, and he didn't stop until another full five minutes had passed.
Lin Ye was thoroughly content.
Watching Ai Hoshino beg had left him refreshed and clear-headed. It was only rough on Ai Hoshino.
She lay on the bed now, boneless.
She'd struggled until she had no strength left, and her stomach hurt so much from laughing that the muscles felt cramped and strained.
She worked out regularly. She considered herself in good shape.
And she'd still been bullied within an inch of her life — bullied until she had neither the will nor the urge to move.
"Lin-kun… you big meanie."
"You hate me?"
"I hate you."
"Oh. Well, since I'm hated, I'll be going, then."
Lin Ye made as if to stand, but Ai Hoshino didn't reach out to hold him back. She only watched him with a weary sort of look in her eyes.
So Lin Ye played another card. "I'll go sleep next door. Falling asleep holding Miss Maizono would surely be a wonderful thing."
"No—"
Ai Hoshino's hand shot out like lightning and seized the hem of his shirt, gripping tight enough to show exactly how she felt about it.
Where Sayaka Maizono was concerned, her guard was still very much up.
She might have spent the whole evening teasing and playing matchmaker, might even have declared herself willing to share Lin Ye with Sayaka Maizono.
But that was sharing with her present. If Lin Ye were to abandon her here and go to Sayaka Maizono's room, Ai Hoshino would be the first to object — and she'd object ten thousand times over.
"You can't go to her. Lin-kun, you can't."
"But I'm a meanie."
"I like meanies. I like it when Lin-kun is mean to me."
Lin Ye: "…"
True as that might be, wasn't this going a bit far?
Deep down, was this girl actually a masochist?
Was the daily pressure of idol work so crushing that she needed this?
"Ai-chan, shall I do it one more time, then?"
The words landed and her whole body twitched.
Two rounds, ten minutes in total, had put her through agony and left her nerves in shreds.
And yet, faced with this request of his, she found she couldn't quite bring herself to refuse outright.
With Lin Ye, she was hesitant — and yet daring.
"Mm."
Having said it, Ai Hoshino turned her face away.
Lin Ye didn't think he'd misheard, but he wanted to see how firm the girl's decision really was.
"What? I didn't catch that. You don't want to?"
The counter-question left Ai Hoshino pouting up at him.
"I said yes, Lin-kun. You big meanie. You just love picking on people."
She raised a small fist and thumped it against his chest over and over to register her displeasure — except the corners of her mouth were curved upward, happy, delighted.
She was deeply content with this back-and-forth between the two of them, pitiful as it was.
If she could, she'd want it like this every single day.
"Lin-kun."
"Mm?"
"Transfer schools to Tokyo."
The thought had just struck her. "You could do it, couldn't you?"
She believed he had the means.
Money could accomplish anything, and getting Lin Ye transferred to a school in Tokyo was hardly a challenge.
Chiba might be inside the Tokyo metropolitan area, but it was still too far. A round trip ate up half a day.
Tokyo would be a different story entirely.
Besides, Ai Hoshino knew that schoolwork, university, future employment — none of it mattered to Lin Ye in the slightest.
With his capabilities, he was never going to end up as a corporate drone.
So how well he did in school now had almost no bearing on his life. None at all, really.
"I… I'm in Tokyo."
Ai Hoshino's face reddened, her fingers rubbing against each other. "And Mai Sakurajima is… here too."
That was right.
This time, to persuade Lin Ye, Ai Hoshino had thrown Mai Sakurajima into the bargain as well.
Without Mai Sakurajima, she honestly rated her chances of convincing him as very, very slim.
Between the two of them, Ai Hoshino knew Lin Ye liked Mai Sakurajima more.
It was a sad thing to admit, but for the sake of getting him to Tokyo, she was willing to throw everything in.
As long as Lin Ye would come to Tokyo, she'd give up anything.
Meeting the expectation in her eyes, Lin Ye understood what she meant.
He understood exactly what she was hoping for.
But no. It wasn't possible.
There was a girl he liked at Sobu High.
His girlfriend was there. Transferring away was out of the question.
For the next two years at least, he wanted to stay at Sobu High, stay in Chiba.
"I'll come to Tokyo after I graduate."
That was his answer.
For now, Chiba it was.
"Lin-kun, if it's about school…"
"That's not the reason."
Even now Lin Ye hadn't told Ai Hoshino about Yukino Yukinoshita.
How was he supposed to put it? It was the truth, sure, but telling Ai Hoshino he had two girlfriends… there was always something delicate about that.
He thought it over and decided to say it. She'd find out sooner or later.
Better to say it early.
"The thing is, back in Chiba, there's a girl in my year that I like."
Ai Hoshino's eyes opened slowly.
This… wasn't impossible to understand, actually.
A High School Student like Lin Ye, liking a girl in his own year — nothing could be more normal.
Liking Mai Sakurajima had a lot to do with the screen, with distance. A girl in his own year was a completely different matter.
"Is she pretty?"
"Mm."
"What's she like?"
Lin Ye thought for a moment, took out his phone, and found a photo of Yukino Yukinoshita.
Ai Hoshino leaned over, hesitant and curious at once, and looked at the girl on the screen.
A pale, finely made face, cute to the point of being unfair. Long black hair drifting in the wind. A slender figure, and a cool, distant air about her whole person.
In an instant, Ai Hoshino felt she was looking at another Mai Sakurajima.
Yes — the girl in that picture gave her exactly the impression of a second Mai Sakurajima.
Now she saw it. Now she understood.
This was probably the type of girl Lin Ye liked best.
"She's very pretty. Very cute. It's perfectly natural that you'd like her, Lin-kun," Ai Hoshino said softly. "So — are you planning to stay at that school and keep pursuing this girl?"
The way she saw it, Lin Ye hadn't won her over yet.
That was what Ai Hoshino assumed.
…
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