Listening to the steady breathing of the girl beside him, Lin Ye knew Ai Hoshino had fallen asleep.
Watching her sleeping face, he felt a faint tangle of emotions.
Honestly, part of him had expected Ai Hoshino to do something more before bed.
But the girl was genuinely exhausted, genuinely wanted a proper night's sleep,
and Lin Ye wasn't the type to push.
Besides, in matters like this he had always been the passive one. He almost never made the first move.
"Good night."
Lin Ye murmured it softly and closed his eyes.
Not long after, he was asleep too.
In the guest room next door, though,
Sayaka Maizono tossed and turned, completely unable to sleep.
Earlier,
she had been scrolling through her phone in her room, but her mind kept drifting to what was happening on the other side of the wall, wondering whether the two of them were doing something, whether they had started up another round of that particular kind of physical communication.
Sayaka Maizono was so curious!
She had even entertained the idea of observing in person, of satisfying that burning curiosity of hers about men and women.
In the end, though, she hadn't dared. Better to behave herself, she decided, and just sleep here quietly.
If she really did go and watch, she would probably end up dragging herself into it.
And Sayaka Maizono wasn't ready to throw herself in that early!
Lin Ye was wonderful. He had real masculine appeal, and power, and influence too. Being with him wouldn't be a bad deal at all. Even so, what she wanted in love was something pure, a romance untainted by calculations of profit and loss.
That was what Sayaka Maizono hoped for, what she longed for.
Love was one thing that should never be mixed up with self-interest.
On that point, her confidence was absolute.
And just as drowsiness was creeping over her, she heard something faint.
A woman's voice. A strange sort of voice. And some laughter mixed in.
At first Sayaka Maizono thought she was imagining it, that it wasn't real, but she quickly confirmed it was coming from the room next door, from Ai Hoshino's room.
That voice belonged to Ai-senpai.
All at once she understood what was going on in there.
It had to be that. That and everything that came with it.
Sayaka Maizono lay on her bed, but the sound circled around her like a mosquito that wouldn't leave.
At last,
she gave in, got up, and crossed to the wall.
It still wasn't clear enough, so she pressed her ear to the plaster, all her attention narrowing onto the sounds spilling through from the room beyond.
The longer she listened, the more astonished Sayaka Maizono became, her expression growing more and more exaggerated.
She had never imagined the battle next door would be this fierce.
And was that sort of thing supposed to be so joyful and so agonizing at once?
Senpai was crying out so intensely!
That laughter, those little sobs, and the tangled sounds in between, sounds that were somehow miserable and blissful at the same time. She could even hear the faint creak and sway of the bed.
Too intense.
Far too ferocious.
Sayaka Maizono realized the situation next door was even wilder, even more spectacular, than she had pictured.
Her curiosity took over, and a certain scene formed in her mind.
She became aware that her own body had begun to respond, faintly. A kind of warmth was spreading through her, seeping outward in every direction, until her face went red and she came back to herself.
That was when she noticed where her hand had wandered.
"No, no, I can't do this."
Sayaka Maizono shook her head over and over in refusal.
She shoved hard against the wall, pushing herself back several steps, away from it,
and then,
Sayaka Maizono forced herself back into her own bed, yanked the blanket up over her body, and finally pulled it over her head as well.
Except the sounds kept echoing in her mind, prodding at her oversensitive nerves.
Lying there wrapped tight in her blanket, Sayaka Maizono was still being tormented, still assaulted by the images her imagination kept supplying.
She wanted it to stop. She wanted to fall asleep. She tried hard not to think about it, and none of it worked.
In the end,
after a good deal of suffering, Sayaka Maizono drifted off into a hazy sleep,
and in her dreams she was pulled right back into it all over again.
Time slipped by, minute after minute.
Finally,
several hours later, Sayaka Maizono blearily opened her eyes, dazed and at a loss.
The lingering fragments of memory, surfacing and vanishing in flashes, made her realize what she had done last night and what she had dreamed about.
Sayaka Maizono propped herself up and stood, still half asleep.
She needed the bathroom, and then a bit more sleep. That was the extent of her plan.
Thud, thud, thud…
Finished in the bathroom,
the groggy Sayaka Maizono staggered a few steps, pushed open a door, and walked in.
But before long,
she felt something odd in the gaze coming from ahead of her.
Under the sting of that stare, Sayaka Maizono lifted her eyes and saw Ai-senpai. And right now Ai-senpai seemed to be…
A jolt ran through her.
She understood immediately.
She had walked into the wrong room, and at this exact moment Ai-senpai and Lin Ye were in the middle of doing something.
That posture, that state of things. It was obviously that.
How could they still be at it this early in the morning?
Wasn't last night enough?
And they were carrying on with this first thing in the morning.
Did Lin Ye have that much energy and Stamina? Weren't men supposed to be wrung out after that sort of thing, sunk into exhaustion?
The questions piled up until Sayaka Maizono went completely blank, rooted where she stood, eyes staring vacantly, unfocused.
In that moment her mind was empty. She couldn't react at all.
Ai Hoshino, for her part, was still lost somewhere between the shock and the burning embarrassment.
She had woken up this morning and found Senpai in a rather difficult state, and she hadn't been able to just leave it, so she had helped him take care of it.
After all, that was her duty as a girlfriend-in-waiting.
Or so Ai Hoshino told herself.
What she had never anticipated was Sayaka Maizono barging in at precisely this moment.
Seeing the girl standing there in her pajamas with that fuzzy, half-awake look, she understood at once that Sayaka Maizono hadn't done it on purpose. It was pure accident.
Their eyes met and locked.
Four eyes, one long stare.
Ai Hoshino's face went red. Sayaka Maizono's cheeks flushed just as deeply.
"Sayaka…"
Ai Hoshino spoke first.
"I, I'll go right now… sorry to intrude."
And then Sayaka Maizono bowed deeply to make her sincerity clear.
A moment later, with a soft click, the door shut.
Ai Hoshino's gaze settled back on Lin Ye.
"Lin-kun, let's keep going."
Saying it out loud only made her shame flare hotter.
But this wasn't something you could abandon halfway.
If she stopped now, Lin Ye would be left miserable.
Half an hour later,
Lin Ye and Ai Hoshino rinsed off quickly and got dressed.
"Is there anything in the fridge?" he asked as he headed for the kitchen.
"Only a little. Not much."
Lin Ye opened the refrigerator and found some vegetables and eggs inside.
That was plenty for him.
"What about noodles?"
"In the cabinet below."
Lin Ye found a package of spaghetti.
"Noodles for breakfast, then."
He had an idea now.
"Mm-hmm, okay. Sorry to make you do it, Lin-kun."
"It's nothing. You worked hard this morning."
That made Ai Hoshino blush.
"It wasn't hard at all! If Lin-kun likes it, we can do it again tonight too!"
As long as Lin Ye was happy, Ai Hoshino was willing to do anything.
And Sayaka Maizono, who had just stepped out of her room, heard every word. The scene she had walked in on surfaced in her mind all over again.
This was too much, far too much!
That shameless, lurid image was simply too distracting to forget.
Ai Hoshino noticed Sayaka Maizono's reaction and guessed what was going through her head, but in the end she let it pass without comment.
She was used to reactions like that from Sayaka Maizono by now. In fact, if Sayaka ever worked up the nerve, Ai would have been glad to have her.
With Lin Ye already having two girlfriends, one of whom was practically a fiancee, if she wanted to succeed, if she wanted to claim him, she would have to gamble.
Ai Hoshino knew she had to find another edge if she was going to win herself a chance.
Otherwise she might never get one for the rest of her life.
After all, apart from this face and her status as an idol, she really had no great advantages.
Mai Sakurajima was a nationally famous star, and becoming a household name wasn't out of the question for her. And the other one, the girl with long black hair, was clearly from a privileged family, a beautiful girl raised with impeccable breeding.
Compared to girls with backgrounds and upbringings like that, she was the ugly duckling. There was no contest.
And so,
all she could do was play to the strengths she did have.
One of them being this: she knew exactly where she stood.
As things were, she would never be so greedy as to hope Lin Ye would have only her.
Not that she had ever dared hope for that.
It was only that now she hoped for even less.
She had stopped hoping altogether.
"Senpai."
Sayaka Maizono thought it over and walked to Ai Hoshino's side anyway.
"What is it?"
"Um… it's nothing. I'll keep everything from these two days a secret. Please don't worry."
Yes. Sayaka Maizono was afraid Ai Hoshino might be worried about her leaking anything, so she had come forward first to state her resolve.
"Mm. I trust that Sayaka isn't the kind of girl who leaks secrets."
Ai Hoshino did trust Sayaka. Otherwise she wouldn't have brought her along in the first place, or told her so many things last night.
The pity was that she hadn't managed to talk Sayaka into it.
"Mm-hmm. Thank you for trusting me, Senpai."
Sayaka Maizono noticed Lin Ye's figure busy in the kitchen,
and a warmth welled up in her. A man like Lin Ye, she thought, was a good man.
Men who still cooked in Japan these days were rare as phoenix feathers.
She wanted a boyfriend like that too!
It would surely be a happy life.
In that instant,
a trace of envy surfaced in Sayaka Maizono, and the glimmer of it in her eyes was unmistakable.
Ai Hoshino watched closely, her gaze traveling back and forth between Sayaka Maizono and Lin Ye, and then something occurred to her and she smiled.
"Sayaka likes this kind of life too, doesn't she?"
"Huh?"
Sayaka Maizono froze.
She did like it.
A man who loved her and took care of her daily life. How could anyone not like that?
But,
but admitting it just like that was absolutely out of the question.
She had to deny it.
"Or does Sayaka not like this kind of life?"
"Senpai, what matters more to me is the person. Being with someone I love. As long as I'm with the person I love, I can accept any kind of life. That's how I feel about it."
"I see."
That answer made Sayaka Maizono think she was off the hook, until the next sentence dragged her right back to reality.
"I understand now. Sayaka does like this kind of life."
"How does that follow?"
Where on earth had she gotten that from?
"Because Sayaka likes Lin-kun!"
Faced with Ai Hoshino's cheerful, matter-of-fact declaration, Sayaka shook her head at once.
"There's nothing of the sort. Please don't say strange things."
"How could there not be? I'm not saying anything strange, I'm stating a fact. Sayaka, think about it. Do you have feelings for Lin-kun or not? If you truly disliked him, would you have let him touch you?"
"That… that was… an accident."
"Then why weren't you repulsed?" Ai Hoshino added immediately. "When a man a girl doesn't like touches her body, she finds it repulsive and unbearable. And you clearly weren't disgusted, Sayaka."
"You never once looked disgusted or annoyed, and you didn't push him away either."
Ai Hoshino's words landed one after another, each striking somewhere inside Sayaka Maizono.
She was starting to be persuaded.
It seemed like… maybe… she really didn't dislike Lin Ye that much.
Was this… was this what liking someone felt like?
All sorts of thoughts rose up in her then,
and Sayaka Maizono remembered certain admirable things Lin Ye had done.
"I… I just…"
"There's nothing embarrassing about admitting you like someone. And I'll say it again: I'm willing to share with you, Sayaka. Sincerely, genuinely, without a shred of pretense."
At that,
Sayaka Maizono instinctively tried to argue back again, only for Ai Hoshino to raise a hand and stop her.
There was no need.
No need to explain.
"Senpai…"
"Come tell me once you're sure. And even if you like him, even if you're willing, it might not work out. Lin-kun won't necessarily accept you. You already let a perfect opportunity slip away last night."
"An opportunity like that… I, I don't want it!"
Sayaka Maizono raised her voice,
but in that same moment she noticed something unexpected: there wasn't much conviction behind her protest.
And once she noticed that, Ai Hoshino's argument came back to her. Could it be that deep down she really did have feelings for Lin Ye?
Could it be that she actually liked him?
And she had simply refused to admit it?
No, no, no, that was impossible.
This was only the second time she and Lin Ye had ever met. What was there to like or not like?
This was all Ai-senpai's fault. Ai-senpai had told her so many things last night, teasing her, toying with her, filling her head with nonsense, and that was what had set her mind running wild.
And that,
that was the source of all this trouble.
She had nearly been led astray, nearly been talked in circles until Senpai had her cornered.
So,
Sayaka Maizono held firm to her position.
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