Chapter 15

“Well, that was a joke.”

—A joke? But she looked serious…

“So? You’re going to take responsibility for toying with me, aren’t you, Kazu-kun?” 

“Huh…?”

Maybe it wasn’t a joke after all. Kazuhiko was suspicious.

“Oh, won’t you take responsibility? Or will I be blackmailed with the photos I sent? That might be fun too, especially since they’re in your ‘Important People’ folder, right?”

At that, Kazuhiko’s face immediately flushed hot. That was indeed true. And Kazuhiko had saved them in a folder even before she told him to. Though, he only named it “Important People” under Reika’s command.

“…Um, what kind of responsibility…?”

Cold sweat was running down Kazuhiko’s back.

“Putting the marriage registration aside for now, I suppose we should start with dating.”

—Is my life already over…?

Ring-gong, ring-gong. The wedding bells rang a blessing. However, they carried a resonance of transience and the sound of a small rin bell from a Buddhist altar.

But even after being told that, Kazuhiko was still misunderstanding the situation.

“Uh, um… you don’t have to force yourself to do that… Take care of yourself…”

When Kazuhiko said this, Reika looked momentarily stunned, then immediately nodded as if she understood. It seemed she knew what Kazuhiko was thinking.

“Kazu-kun, don’t tell me you think I don’t have romantic feelings for you.” 

“—Fweh?” 

“Kazu-kun, why do you think I did all this?” 

“Um, that was to release your pent-up sexual stress…” 

“Release sexual stress… Yes. Then why do you think I chose you as the target?” 

“Because I was a convenient childhood friend…” 

“Yes, a convenient childhood friend. …Hoo.”

Reika shook her head, as if to say, Good grief. Then she stared at Kazuhiko, her sharp eyes piercing him.

“You’re wrong. That wasn’t a release of a fetish. It was courting behavior!” 

“Courting behavior!?”

When she put it that way, it somehow felt right. She had constantly marked him while checking his scent and touch.

She had repeatedly appealed to Kazuhiko, knowing he was feigning hypnosis. If all that was not sexual relief but an action aimed at making Kazuhiko hers…

Gulp, Kazuhiko swallowed hard.

“Takane-sa—Rei-chan—Rei-chan, do you like me?” 

“Yes, of course. I want to date you, I want to marry you, and in my fantasies, I’ve already given birth to enough children to populate a village.” 

“Hyoh!?”

A strange sound escaped Kazuhiko’s throat at the excessively heavy declaration. He had always told himself that dating his childhood friend, the unobtainable flower, was impossible, and he should harbor no illusions about childhood friends.

And she liked him? With such intense feelings?

His childhood friend had just shattered the illusion that childhood friends don’t date.

“…”

But instead of feeling happy, Kazuhiko first felt a sense of danger. He subtly backed away from Reika while sitting on the floor in seiza (formal kneeling). 

She was not oblivious to his movement. She stood up from the bed, approached Kazuhiko, and pushed him down.

“Whoa, ehh!?”

Her long black hair flowed down, surrounding him like a cage, with her pale, beautiful face floating within it.

—Uh, what kind of horror is this?

Fear came before any sense of lust.

“I like you, Kazu-kun. What do you think of me?”

“W-what do I think…”

He thought it would be nice to date her, but she was the unobtainable childhood friend he couldn’t possibly date. 

It would be a lie to say he had no romantic feelings, but it was just admiration for a mountain flower he couldn’t reach.

Now he thought of her as a vicious, cunning pervert. Knowledge and perversion combined seemed like the worst combination!

But still, she was beautiful. And when she hugged him, she smelled good, and her soft, voluptuous body had been taken care of every night recently.

And he found it difficult to pull away from her. Kazuhiko was thoroughly hypnotized (trained).

A heavy and terrifying, yet beautiful and voluptuous childhood friend who loved him. Kazuhiko steeled his resolve and…

“Honestly, I don’t know if I like Taka—Rei-chan. But I don’t want to leave you.” 

“I see. So, you want to keep me on reserve, then.” 

“N-no, that’s not it!”

It wasn’t it, but maybe it wasn’t not it either.

“No, I didn’t mean it like that…” 

“Fufu.”

As Kazuhiko flustered, she smiled with her beautiful face. Kazuhiko involuntarily stared, mesmerized.

“It’s alright, I understand you, Kazu-kun. In that case, I’ll make you fall in love with me. Then it’s fine for us to date, right?” 

“Hmm?”

Didn’t that sound odd? Dating someone without liking them?

As Kazuhiko was confused, Reika brought her face closer. Her sweet breath reached Kazuhiko’s nose.

“Simply put, I’m keeping you, Kazu-kun. So no one can steal you away. And I will never let go.”

Her black hair surrounded Kazuhiko like a cage, and her beautiful face kept getting closer.

“Uah, ah…”

He was scared. But the feeling that he wanted her to confine him like this was rooted deep within Kazuhiko, who was nearly trained even without actual hypnosis.

Reika correctly read his feelings.

“Fufu, you don’t seem to hate it. Let’s start with a trial run… Nn, fu, …Chukuh.”

Kazuhiko’s lips were stolen, and her tongue ravaged the inside of his mouth. He was made to swallow her saliva, and she sucked his. It was as if he had been caught by a carnivorous plant. 

Breaking News! The unobtainable flower is a carnivorous plant!

“Chupaah… Hehe, Kazu-kun, you taste good… I won’t ever let you escape, okay?”

A bridge of silvery saliva stretched between their tongues before snapping.

Reika then loosened Kazuhiko’s collar and began tracing her tongue over the mark she had inscribed there. 

She pressed her lips to it, deepening its color once more. 

Feeling the slick sensation, Kazuhiko resigned himself to whatever might happen. A certain part of him was rock-hard.

“Fufu, fufufufufufufufufu… Kazu-kun, I loooove you!”

It seemed Kazuhiko had acquired a girlfriend who has extremely heavy feelings for him.

Chapter 16

When people fall in love, the world supposedly looks brilliant. If so, what was Kazuhiko, whose world currently looked sepia-toned, feeling?

“Hey, Tomo. What is dating, anyway?” 

“Oh, Kazuhiko’s finally getting romantic. But your topic and your face don’t match. Isn’t that the face of someone tired of romance, if anything?”

He wasn’t wrong. Kazuhiko was tired of romance, or rather, haunted by it. 

It seemed the unobtainable flower was not only a carnivorous plant with toxic nectar but also a parasitic plant. Kazuhiko imagined Reika clinging to him like mistletoe and felt a profound sense of aptness and dejection.

He liked her—he thought. If asked whether he liked or disliked her, the scale would tip toward like. But if asked if he was happy to be dating her, while he was glad to be with the unobtainable flower, the feeling of danger outweighed the happiness.

After that incident, Kazuhiko and Reika had tentatively started dating. 

When Kazuhiko hesitated, she said:

“Aren’t you going to take responsibility? Then I’ll tell your mother that we kissed but you won’t date me. And also that you took pictures of me in my underwear—”

“I’ll date you!”

Kazuhiko had acquired a girlfriend with very heavy feelings. Afterward, Reika informed Kazuhiko’s mother that they were dating, going full force to fill in the outer moats. It was done with a speed that made one wonder where she dug up all that soil. 

If she had also mentioned the kissing, it would have been equivalent to setting the foundation in concrete.

—This is bad, bad, bad. I can’t imagine escaping anymore…

If only he hadn’t pretended to be hypnotized on that rooftop… No, he suspected this situation would have happened even if he hadn’t feigned hypnosis… That woman was just that kind of woman.

The Promised Straight Path to the Grave Wedding Road

Deviating from the path was not permitted.

—Hehe, Tomo, you absolutely have to come to the wedding…

Kazuhiko thought with distant eyes, but didn’t that sound like he was actually enthusiastic? 

Kazuhiko had been swept along and ended up in this situation, but he hadn’t yet realized that he wasn’t actually unhappy about it.

Then, as usual, the classroom stirred.

“Oh, she’s arrived.”

Following Tomo’s voice, Kazuhiko saw Reika enter with a graceful, flower-like gait. Her lustrous black hair, reaching her waist, swayed. Her face was refined and her eyes sharp. Her posture was perfectly straight, and she truly was a picture-perfect beautiful girl.

Should he be proud to be dating such a girl, or should he feel unfortunate that he knew she was actually a carnivorous plant disguised as the unobtainable flower, brimming with toxic nectar, and a parasitic plant to boot? 

Kazuhiko, whose emotions were shattered, no longer knew what expression to wear.

“I wonder what kind of guy gets to date Takane-san.”

—This type of guy!

He couldn’t possibly reply to Tomo’s murmur. Despite dating her—or being made to date her—Kazuhiko still kept his view of her to his peripheral vision.

—She really is beautiful when I look at her like this…

Night, distance, and inside an umbrella. Maybe it was better when the unobtainable flower was just the unobtainable flower. Up close, she was a carnivorous and parasitic plant…

—Huh?

In Kazuhiko’s field of vision, the unobtainable flower was rapidly approaching. Every single one of her movements was elegant. But…

—Huh, what? W-wait, wait, you!

“Huh? Isn’t Takane-san coming over here? And isn’t she looking at you?” 

“Hahaha, no way that’s happening…” 

“Kazu-kun, good morning.” 

“…” 

“Oh, didn’t you hear me say good morning, Kazu-kun? …I’ll push you down.” 

“Good morning, Takane-sa—Rei-chan—Good morning, Rei-chan.” 

“Good.”

The classroom erupted in surprise at the exchange.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Kazu-kun and Rei-chan?! I’m dead, dying of jealousy.” 

“…Phew, did the school store sell fruit knives?” 

“Wait, first we need to find out their relationship. We can reserve the funeral home later.”

—This is bad, bad, bad. What I feared is happening. And Tomo, don’t just slink away! Is this the end of our friendship!

Kazuhiko was trembling, his eyes rolled back in his head. Ignoring him, Reika sat on Kazuhiko’s lap and leaned against him.

The girls’ squeals and the boys’ murderous intent swelled.

“Rei-chan, what is the meaning of this?” 

“I wanted to show everyone our relationship.” 

“Didn’t we agree to keep it a secret?” 

“I never consented to that. And now that it’s out, it’s fine for us to go to school together, right?” 

“————”

So that’s what it was, this woman.

She was the type of girl who secured the outer defenses. However, in this case, it felt less like securing the outer defenses and more like the main fortress itself had been swallowed by a landslide.

“I told you, Kazu-kun. I won’t let you go. I will show everyone that you belong to me.” 

“————”

Kazuhiko’s peaceful school life had met its demise right here. Reika then rubbed her cheek against Kazuhiko’s, as if marking her territory.

“Wow…”

The classmates murmured in various ways. The stares directed at Kazuhiko were truly like sitting on a cushion of needles.