"Haah… haah, haah, haah…"
Mai Sakurajima was gasping for breath. How long had it been since the last kiss?
Not that long, really — but to her it felt like an age had gone by.
And this kiss had gone on setting her body and mind alight the whole way through.
She'd spent every second of it afraid someone would burst in and catch her and Lin Ye kissing. If her identity got out, a media storm was unavoidable — and Lin Ye's identity might come to light along with it.
Hm?
No, that probably wouldn't happen.
Thinking it over, Mai Sakurajima decided Lin Ye's reach was more than enough to keep it from coming to that.
He'd steered public opinion and smothered a scandal once before. Surely he could control this one too.
Still — better to avoid the whole thing if she could.
The trouble was that the jerk didn't care in the slightest. Kissing her, and letting his hands roam while he was at it. It left her stifled and cross.
And yet she knew perfectly well that she was happy about it.
That eagerness of his, the way he took the lead, was proof of how much he liked her — how much he loved her.
If Lin Ye had no interest in kissing her or touching her at all, then she really would have had something to be miserable about.
"So? Do you get it now?" Lin Ye asked, turning it back on her with a grin — a grin that left Mai Sakurajima more exasperated than ever.
This jerk. He made her so angry, so very angry, and she had no idea how to show any of it.
"Don't do that again," Mai Sakurajima warned, the words coming out shy and petulant.
"Don't do what?"
He knew exactly what, and asked anyway, wearing such a look of blank innocence that her cheeks burned.
"You know what."
"I don't."
"You know."
"I really don't," Lin Ye said, keeping up the act.
"Lin Ye—"
"Then how about I try again?"
"—!" Even as the cry left her, Mai Sakurajima felt her lips stolen a second time.
She beat at him, wanting him to stop. Enough. They'd kissed more than enough for one day.
Lin Ye read her meaning and eased off, letting the kiss end so she could catch her breath.
"Understood."
"But I refuse."
Mai Sakurajima shot him a look. The man was inventing excuses to kiss her one more time, plain and simple.
Infuriating. Utterly infuriating.
And yet not a trace of real annoyance stirred in her — only warmth, only gladness.
Mai Sakurajima liked being treated with that kind of intimacy by him.
Somewhere deep down, she liked the way he reached for her.
"You could stand to think about my feelings once in a while. What I want matters too."
"Girls always say the opposite of what they mean."
The corner of Mai Sakurajima's mouth twitched.
There wasn't much wrong with the statement, which was exactly what made it so hard to swallow.
"I'm not like that."
"Oh? Then that kiss just now — did Mai like it?"
One question, and she was stumped.
Did she like it, or didn't she?
Saying she hadn't would be a lie, and she knew it. But saying she had — she was a respectable girl. How could she come out and admit she liked kissing?
Some things you simply didn't say. You could do them. You just didn't say them.
That was Mai Sakurajima's position on the matter.
She retreated into silence.
Lin Ye stroked her back. "So Mai did like it."
"…"
"Lin Ye, stop making fun of me."
"Kiss me and I'll stop."
He slid the condition in while the door was open.
She'd have to offer up the kiss herself; only then would he lay off teasing her, and only for a while.
"That's horrible of you," Mai Sakurajima said.
"Then how about I get a little more horrible?"
He hadn't done a thing, but his tone made his meaning perfectly plain.
Something worse than this?
Out of the question. Ten thousand times out of the question.
She shook her head at once, refusing. Kissing here was already her limit; anything further was unthinkable.
If they did something more intimate than this, here, in a place like this — what would that even look like?
Mai Sakurajima swallowed. The pressure was suddenly immense.
"Lin-kun, close your eyes," Mai Sakurajima said.
She had caved.
Lin Ye knew it. He shut his eyes and waited for her to move.
"Rustle, rustle…"
As she leaned in, he heard the soft friction of her clothes.
A moment later, warmth washed over his cheek — Mai Sakurajima's breath.
Looking down at him then, she felt that familiar helplessness. How many times had they kissed already? And still this man wanted it this way.
But faced with his greed, happiness welled up and overflowed in her.
The truth was that she liked it. His closeness was proof of his affection, proof of his love.
The only question was how long that love would last. She wanted it to be forever, not just this present season of passion.
As for the love and affection he gave to other women — she simply looked away from it.
Yukino Yukinoshita and Ai Hoshino would share Lin Ye, would share her boyfriend's love, and all Mai Sakurajima could do was ignore it and pour herself into the hours that belonged to the two of them alone.
The rest of her time, and there was far more of it,
she could only spend on work, throwing her energy at it so her own thoughts wouldn't eat her alive from the inside.
"Mm…"
Mai Sakurajima pecked him quickly on the cheek.
"There. That's enough, isn't it?"
"You tell me."
He pointed at his other cheek, and, resigned, she kissed that one too.
Then his finger moved to his lips.
Which left her no choice but to oblige — except that the instant their lips touched, his arms closed around her, and she was being kissed, deeply, for a full minute.
Fine.
Mai Sakurajima stopped fighting it and let Lin Ye have his way.
He could do whatever he liked.
If he liked it this much, then let him kiss until he'd had his fill.
She gave up every last bit of resistance and kissed him back.
Satisfied, Lin Ye smiled and patted the small of her back to let her know she could sit down again.
And at last,
the two of them started on the meal.
The burner under the sukiyaki pot had long since run itself dry.
Neither of them minded. They picked up their chopsticks and dug in.
Mai Sakurajima served Lin Ye a portion without being asked.
"Try this."
"You're the one who should be eating more, Mai."
"I have to keep my figure."
"Your figure's already perfect. There's no need to go on a diet today of all days."
"It's not the same."
"Personally, I think you'd look better with a little more weight on you."
Lin Ye looked at her as he said it, his smile carrying an absolute sincerity.
Mai Sakurajima understood that he meant every word — that this was genuinely his taste.
"And if you did put on weight and it didn't suit you—"
"then I'd provide for you my whole life, and admire you my whole life."
He took her slender hand as he spoke, his eyes clear, without a single flaw in them.
The words brought the color rushing to her face.
But she loved it when he talked to her like that.
Other men's sweet nothings were hollow. Lin Ye's were things he would actually do, promises he'd honor to the letter.
"Who's to say you won't lose yourself in some other woman's arms and forget all about me?"
Mai Sakurajima huffed. "That girl in Chiba — you love her deeply enough."
If she hadn't been the one to confess, hadn't punctured the ambiguity between them and dragged the two of them all the way to being lovers, she'd never have had a chance to break through with Lin Ye at all.
He would never have made the first move and confessed. Not a chance.
When it came to feelings, Lin Ye was always the passive one.
If she hadn't acted, there would have been no possibility between them whatsoever.
And the one to come out on top in the end would have been Yukino Yukinoshita — the girl who already stood with Lin Ye as Quasi-fiancés, and who by now was his lover and his fiancée both.
Thinking of that marriage arrangement, Mai Sakurajima let out a quiet sigh.
The engagement was always going to weigh on her.
It was always going to leave her feeling that, standing across from Yukino Yukinoshita, she was short a little ground to stand on.
She was Lin Ye's first girlfriend. Set against the title of fiancée, that came up badly short.
"I love Mai deeply too."
"All you know how to do is say the right thing."
Mai Sakurajima framed it as a complaint, but her words carried nothing but satisfaction and pleasure at the declaration.
Everyone likes hearing the right thing.
"I hate Mai the most."
The next line wiped the look right off her face.
"Don't say that."
She knew he was joking. The joke wasn't funny in the slightest.
She hated it.
"I like Mai the most, most, most in the whole world."
A flush bloomed across her cheeks.
The man really had no restraint at all.
"I wonder what I'd have to do to make Mai understand how much I like her."
"It's simple."
Mai Sakurajima raised a single finger as she spoke. "Break up with that girl in Chiba, and I'll feel exactly how much you like me."
If Lin Ye were willing to leave Yukino Yukinoshita for her sake, she would believe him — believe him without reservation.
The trouble was that she knew it would never happen.
Yukino Yukinoshita had made him the very same demand as proof, and he wouldn't do it for her either.
The man was greedy. He wanted both of them.
For now the three of them had settled into an unspoken truce, but when marriage actually came around a few years down the road, she suspected this triangle would buckle and break.
"Yukino told me to break up with you, and I said no."
Mai Sakurajima's eyelid twitched. That was his answer — and his way of asking for hers.
"Then break up with Ai Hoshino."
"Ai-chan and I aren't dating. How do you break up with someone you're not dating?"
That she hadn't seen coming.
Lin Ye had known Ai Hoshino for so long, and already had two girlfriends, and somehow he still hadn't made her his lover.
To Mai Sakurajima, that was flat-out unbelievable.
She was floored.
"Miss Hoshino never said anything to you?"
She refused to believe Ai Hoshino had kept quiet about it.
"I turned her down," Lin Ye answered.
"Why?"
"It isn't the right time. Not yet."
Mai Sakurajima couldn't make sense of that. How was it not the right time? "Don't tell me Miss Hoshino asked you to break things off with the both of us!"
She wasn't actually sure Ai Hoshino knew about the arrangement between herself, Yukino Yukinoshita and Lin Ye.
She wasn't certain at all.
"No, Ai never said anything like that. It's that I don't think I've sorted things out properly between the three of us yet. If I accepted Ai-chan's feelings now and officially became her boyfriend, then… you and Yukino would be unhappy, and that wouldn't do the three of us any good."
Lin Ye was speaking honestly.
That was simply how he saw it.
Mai Sakurajima had never expected him to be worrying about her feelings and Yukinoshita's.
Which raised a thought in her: as long as she kept objecting, did that mean Ai Hoshino would never become his girlfriend?
"If Mai's willing for me and Ai-chan to be lovers, I'll call her right now."
"I refuse."
Mai Sakurajima refused without a heartbeat's pause.
Who on earth wants to share her boyfriend with even more women?
She absolutely did not.
"Ai-chan likes you so much."
"The way a fan likes someone. That's different."
"She likes you all the same. And ever since she found out you're my girlfriend, she's been looking forward to the moment the two of you become sisters."
Mai Sakurajima: ???
Sisters?
That kind of sisters, obviously.
Ai Hoshino had an admirably generous outlook on it. Shouldn't she want Lin Ye all to herself? That anyone could think that way at all —
Mai Sakurajima genuinely couldn't imagine it.
People were simply built differently, she supposed.
"I'm not looking forward to it."
"Ai-chan would be hurt to hear that."
"Good. Let her be hurt."
Not a moment's hesitation, not a shred of softening.
"Ai-chan will cry."
"Then let her cry."
"Then I'll just have to go and comfort Ai-chan."
Mai Sakurajima: ???
He'd go and comfort Ai Hoshino?
That was absolutely a euphemism for something.
Angry. She was very, very angry.
But Mai Sakurajima swallowed it down. This was Lin Ye needling her, playing with her; there was no point giving him the reaction.
"And what about the other girl who's hurt?"
She meant herself.
"I'd comfort her too, obviously."
Lin Ye lifted a slice of beef with his chopsticks and held it up in front of her. "Give this a try, Mai."
Mai Sakurajima parted her red lips slightly and bit into it.
The same beef — A5 wagyu, delicious, and hardly the first time she'd eaten it. But somehow, this time, it tasted better than any beef she'd had in her life.
Was this what a dash of romance did to a meal?
Lifting the flavor of the food a whole level higher.
Mai Sakurajima was surprised — and thoroughly pleased.
More.
More of that.
As if he'd heard her thoughts,
Lin Ye lifted another slice and held it out in front of her.
She didn't hesitate for a second. Her mouth opened and the beef was gone.
"Eat more."
Lin Ye kept feeding her, and found he was starting to enjoy himself.
Feeding the superstar Mai Sakurajima.
Not many men in the world would ever get to know what that was like.
"If your fans found out I was feeding you like this, they'd be green with envy."
Mai Sakurajima blinked, then caught his meaning.
"Envy? They'd sooner kill you."
She stated the likely fact flatly.
"They'd be no match for me. Besides, Mai couldn't stand to see me killed. Mai would protect me — wouldn't she?"
Mai Sakurajima rolled her eyes.
Once fans worked themselves into a rage, they'd hardly stop to listen to her. More likely she'd get dragged into the beating alongside him.
If it came to that, Lin Ye would be the one protecting her.
On that point, Mai Sakurajima had complete confidence.
Lin Ye's strength was beyond question. She believed in it.
…
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