Chapter 5 

—What in hell? What on earth just happened to me?

The shock of the events made his inner monologue slip into a fake Kansai dialect. 

In the morning, he received a letter like a threat. Terrified, he went to the rooftop after school, where his estranged childhood friend, the unobtainable flower, was waiting, and she tried to hypnotize him using a suspicious app straight out of an erotic manga.

He should have stopped there—that must have been the fork in the road of fate. (Though if he had said, “What are you doing…?” he would surely have his memory physically forgotten.) 

But by pretending to be hypnotized, she hugged him, made him press his crotch against her, licked him, and even left a hickey.

—Wait, what? What actually happened to me?

He had been given a taste of the unobtainable flower-pervert.

—What kind of face am I supposed to make when I see her tomorrow…?

If he tried to smile, he felt only a strained, awkward laugh would come out. 

…Fuhehe, like that.

Kazuhiko absently traced the spot on his neck that she had just licked and sucked. It was still slightly damp.

—That wasn’t a dream, was it…?

Would a dream have been better, or was he glad it happened in reality? Honestly, the confusion was overwhelming; he truly didn’t know what expression to wear right now. Should he just revert to the blank, vacant expression of his feigned hypnosis and contemplate the cosmos…?

“…”

Kazuhiko tried to escape reality, but the softness, warmth, and scent of her body lingered on his skin. Of course, the sensation of her sucking and licking his neck, and the feeling of his hardened crotch pressing against her lower abdomen…

—Alright, first, I need to go to the restroom. I need to calm down and think this through again.

Who knows what he intended to do in the restroom. Kazuhiko forced himself to snap out of it and, for the time being, left the rooftop.

So, what happened? After going to the school restroom and feeling refreshed—for the record, this was the first time Kazuhiko had done such a thing at school. It was outrageous to commit an indecent act in the sacred halls of learning—he retrieved his phone containing his last will, which he had hid in his friend’s locker, grabbed his bag, and headed home.

—But seriously, what was Takane-san thinking?

Even with a clear, refreshed head, he couldn’t figure it out. Kazuhiko, who commuted by bicycle, agonized over it while cycling.

① It was a prank, and a third party was watching and laughing at the panicking Kazuhiko.

—Non. It was too much effort for a prank, and that level of perversion would cause more damage to Takane-san.

Then was she being threatened by someone?

—Non. She’s the kind of girl who checks for hypnosis by stopping two fingers just short of your eyeball! If anyone tried to threaten her, she would retaliate three times over, not just twice… No, she’d probably completely destroy them socially…

② She was actually in love with Kazuhiko, which is why she called him “Kazu-kun.”

—Non (lol). One must not hold illusions about a childhood friend.

Because he had always told himself this, Kazuhiko assumed it must be true, even without evidence.

So what else could be considered? Hmm, Kazuhiko thought while riding his bicycle. Then, a revelation flashed like a bolt of heavenly inspiration.

③ It was her sexual fetish.

—That’s right, that makes sense. That kind of perverted behavior could only be a fetish.

She, being the type often found among the highly successful—and in this case, a beautiful woman—was struggling with a complicated sexual fetish. Now, as she matured through adolescence, she was having trouble handling the overflow of her kinks.

But she couldn’t just relieve it with any random guy. That’s where Kazuhiko came in as the chosen one.

Ah, wait, he was my childhood friend, wasn’t he?

Calling him the nostalgic “Kazu-kun” would make it even easier to unleash her complicated fetish. In other words, it would make it more fulfilling.

That’s why she summoned Kazuhiko to the rooftop with a letter that looked like a threat, and tried hypnotizing him just to see what would happen. 

If he hadn’t been hypnotized, she would definitely have forced him to physically lose his memory. Like an old-school (Showa era) TV, thwack from a 45-degree angle.

Her miscalculation was likely that Kazuhiko pretended to be hypnotized. And that she believed it.

If she learned the truth, she would definitely insert a fruit knife, held horizontally to the ground, into the gaps between his ribs, rather than hitting him from a 45-degree angle. It was easy to imagine. 

She was the kind of girl who would check for hypnosis by stopping just shy of his eyeball. —That girl is capable of it.

Returning to the main point.

In any case, she must have targeted Kazuhiko, thinking, Hey, wasn’t that guy my childhood friend?, for the purpose of conveniently letting off her sexual steam. And that’s how that incident happened.

Therefore, it was definitely not scenario ②—that she had secretly harbored feelings for Kazuhiko all this time and finally cracked, resorting to a violent act. That was simply not the case.

Do not harbor illusions about a childhood friend (lol). You’ll drown in your ideals (lol).

That’s the explanation. Answer: ③.

Q.E.D.

—Phew, I’m satisfied.

Kazuhiko let out a sigh of contentment. However, even though he understood the reason for her outrageous act—and he would call the incident that destroyed over a billion precious possibilities in the restroom an outrageous act—what should he do now?

First, he should act as if the rooftop incident never happened and maintain a poker face.

If she tries something again, he’ll have no choice but to deal with it then. 

But she, the unobtainable flower, the perfect superhuman, would surely make sure that if she were to resort to a violent hypnotic act again, it wouldn’t be discovered.

So, he could assume that no third party would ever know. And as long as only Kazuhiko took the brunt—of her sexual fetish—it would be fine. A violent fetish even worse than today’s… Blood began to rush to Kazuhiko’s groin—what terrifying self-sacrificial spirit he possessed.

…Although, he did feel a little guilty, but fundamentally, it was she who used an inhumane and unrealistic method like hypnosis. And he was the one helping her relieve her fetish. He didn’t need to feel guilty.

Kazuhiko decided to convince himself of this. However.

—I wonder if she’ll try something again?

Perhaps she was somewhat satisfied with today’s events. If so, there would probably be a period of time before the next incident.

—That’s a bit disappointing.

The day’s events were intense enough to make him think that, and they delivered a tremendous impact to a healthy young man. He couldn’t help but be intensely interested in that girl.

Was this the same as how ‘I’ comes after ‘H’ in the alphabet? —I don’t know.

For now, it might just be pure lust. But from this point on, their relationship had definitely begun to change.

“I’m home.”

Kazuhiko set down his bicycle and opened the door to his house.