Liora's breathing stopped entirely. Her eyes went wide with pure panic. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out because she was completely caught.
Zenjiro felt the sudden, rigid tension in her body against his arm. The sharp shift in her physical posture pierced right through the heavy fog in his brain. Logic immediately overrode his distraction.
"It is just a study group, Mother," Zenjiro lied. His voice was perfectly flat and steady. "Liora was using a music concert as an economic case study for her group project. They need to retrieve some printed data from the library basement before their morning lecture."
Clara stared at him for a long, quiet moment. She looked at Liora resting heavily on his shoulder. She saw the total lack of personal space between them. She was entirely used to this exact scene.
She didn't press the issue of the study group and concert any further.
Clara let out a deep, heavy sigh. "Liora, Stop bothering your brother for every single little thing. You are a grown up now now. Fix your own mistakes."
Liora groaned loudly. She didn't sit up. "I'm in real trouble, Mom. My friends would hate me if I can't solve this. I need Onii-chan right now. I need his help."
Clara shook her head. She looked right at Zenjiro. "Zenjiro-kun, you are spoiling Liora too much. She will never learn to be independent if you keep fixing everything."
The sound of his step-mother's voice snapped him back to reality. The heavy, confusing fog in his head parted just enough for logic to slip through. He blinked twice. He tore his eyes away from Liora's bare leg.
"It's fine, Mother," Zenjiro said. He forced his voice to sound perfectly flat. "I have nothing to do anyway."
Liora smiled. She wrapped both of her arms tight around his left bicep. She hugged his arm hard against her chest while still resting her head on his shoulder.
"You're the best Onii-chan," she said softly.
The soft, heavy warmth of her chest pressed directly against his arm. The sensation was identical to what he felt on Saturday in the master bedroom. It was the same soft yielding of flesh.
He lost his focus again. The distraction was absolute. He stared blankly ahead.
Liora stood up quickly from the sofa. The sudden absence of her body heat left his left side feeling cold.
"Let's go, Onii-chan," Liora commanded. Her tone was sharp and eager. "Solve my problem for me."
She grabbed his right hand. She pulled him up from the soft cushions. He stood up on the tatami mat.
Then the pure adrenaline of the near-miss crashed down on her. The rigid panic broke. She stepped directly into his personal space and wrapped both of her arms securely around his neck.
It wasn't just a casual hug. It was a desperate cling of pure relief because he had just saved her from a scary interrogation. She pulled herself completely flush against him. They were exactly the same height now, so the physical alignment was perfect.
She swayed slightly and shifted her body weight back and forth against him. Her chest pressed flat against his shirt with every slow swing of her heels. He felt the rapid, terrified beating of her heart slowly calming down against his own ribs.
He smelled the sweet, floral scent of her shampoo. The sheer volume of physical contact completely overwhelmed his nervous system.
She held the swinging embrace for thirty full seconds.
Zenjiro's brain shut down. A complete short circuit. His hands hovered uselessly in the empty air behind her back. He didn't know where to put them and he forgot how to breathe.
Clara watched the long, clinging embrace. She didn't blink or tell them to separate. She was completely used to this level of physical dependence. She just let out another deep, heavy sigh.
"Zenjiro-kun," Clara said. "Just make sure you come back home not too late. You both have early classes tomorrow."
Zenjiro swallowed a dry lump in his throat. He forced his vocal cords to work.
"Yes, Mother," he managed to say.
Liora finally let go of his neck. She didn't give him a single second to recover. She slid her hand down his arm and clamped her fingers tightly around his right wrist.
She turned around and pulled him forcefully toward the hallway. She dragged him out the front door into the fading afternoon sunlight.
He solved her problem in about forty minutes. He mapped the blind spots of the library security cameras, picked the cheap brass lock on the basement sorting door, and pulled the paper tickets directly from the thick art book.
Tuesday morning arrived. Liora entirely skipped her morning classes. She and her friends stood on the wet concrete outside the concert venue for three straight hours, but she secured the premium glowing baton. The stadium was deafening. She screamed the lyrics until her vocal cords burned.
Clara asked about the missing study group. Zenjiro sat flat on the living room tatami mat. He held a glass of cold water. He looked his step-mother directly in the eyes and he lied again.
He built a boring, heavy story about printer errors and strict teachers. Clara didn't push the issue. She just let out a tired sigh and went back to washing the dishes.
The brass lock turned with a sharp, heavy snap.
Zenjiro didn't look up from his small wooden desk. He was sitting on a chair. He kept his black pen moving across the lined paper. He is writing something not important.
A shadow fell over the page.
Liora stood right beside his chair. She wore a dark pleated skirt and a thin gray sweater. She breathed incredibly fast. Her chest heaved up and down in quick, shallow gasps. She looked like she was suffocating.
She didn't walk over to her own mattress. The room fell into a heavy, absolute silence.
And then...
She just spun around and dropped her entire body weight directly onto his lap.
She sat completely sideways. The soft back of her knees hooked right over Zenjiro's right leg. Liora's hips settled firmly between Zenjiro's thighs. The heavy pleats of her short skirt spilled backward, draping over his dark sweatpants.
She leaned hard to the right. Her shoulder crashed into his chest. Her blonde hair brushed roughly against his cheek and neck. It smelled strongly of sweet floral shampoo. The scent filled his lungs instantly.
Zenjiro froze.
His pen stopped moving. The black ink bled into a dark, messy circle on the white paper.
Days ago, this exact physical intrusion meant absolutely nothing to him. It was just a normal Tuesday routine. It was just Liora demanding to be spoiled in her usual, clingy way.
Now, his brain misfired. He felt the heavy, sudden warmth radiating from her bare legs. He felt the precise weight of her body pressing his thighs down against the wooden seat of the chair. A hot rush of blood hit his chest and his throat went completely dry. He was entirely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of what he can feel.
"Onii-chan," she whispered. Her voice shook with real panic. "Help me escape."
Zenjiro swallowed hard. "Escape?"
"Dad's alumni reunion got canceled," Liora said fast. The words tumbled out of her mouth in a messy rush. "Mom just told me in the kitchen. He filed his engineering leave specifically for that overnight trip. Now that it is off, they are just staying home tonight. They aren't leaving the house at all. My friends are waiting at the train station right now. I have to go."
Zenjiro didn't answer. He couldn't force his vocal cords to work. His heart slammed violently against his ribs. He stared blankly at the dark fabric of her skirt resting on his leg.
Liora groaned loudly. She started to bounce.
She shook her entire body up and down in a sudden, violent tantrum. The metal joints of the desk chair squealed loudly under their combined weight. She rocked back and forth. The heavy friction of her bare legs sliding against his sweatpants sent sharp jolts of electricity straight up his spine.
She twisted her waist. She turned her face directly toward him. She leaned in dangerously close.
"Onii-chan," she hissed. "Did you hear me?"
Zenjiro blinked twice. The thick fog in his head parted just enough to let a single rational thought pass through. He looked at her wide, desperate blue eyes.
"I will make a dummy," Zenjiro said. His voice sounded thin and strained. "I will stuff heavy blankets under your covers so it looks exactly like you are sleeping. I will act as a lookout in the hallway. I will give you the visual signal when the front door is clear."
Liora stopped shaking the chair.
"When you come back," Zenjiro continued, "do not just walk inside. Send a message to my phone. I will unlock the side window or open the front door when they are completely asleep."
A big, blinding smile broke across her pale face.
She lunged forward and hugged him instinctively. She threw both of her arms tight around his neck. The right side of her face smashed directly against his nose. His lips hovered a fraction of an inch away from her warm cheek.
Her brain probably skipped all logical reasoning. She had spent the last ten minutes drowning in total despair because her perfect plan was ruined. Then her Onii-chan fixed her big problem in ten seconds.
The sudden, violent swing from pure panic to absolute relief flooded her system with heavy adrenaline. The impossible concert was suddenly a physical reality again. The extreme emotional high likely demanded an immediate physical release.
She turned her head slightly. She pressed her lips hard against his left cheek.
It was a fast, wet kiss. It burned hotly against his cold skin.
"You're really the best Onii-chan in the world," she whispered.
She didn't wait for his reaction. She just unhooked her arms from his neck and jumped up from his lap. She grabbed her heavy canvas bag from the floor.
Liora spent her first seven years in London. A quick kiss on the cheek was a standard display of extreme gratitude there, so her brain just reverted to that old habit purely out of heavy adrenaline.
Zenjiro forced his legs to move. He stood up from his chair to act as the actual lookout. He walked to the bedroom door and turned the brass lock.
He pulled the wooden door open just a crack and checked the dark hallway. The living room lights were completely off. He stepped out first to clear the path. Liora slipped silently out into the shadows right behind him.