Chapter 62: Special Supplementary Lesson

Of course, it makes sense, but I never really noticed—you can hear the school bell from the rooftop.

Homeroom starts right after this… Will I even make it? More importantly, what the hell am I gonna say to the teacher and Kaede’s crew?

The teachers have mostly given up on me, so they probably won’t press too hard.

But Kaede and the others?

Their instincts and sense of smell might rat me out for being with a girl.

And my phone notifications are going crazy. Yeah, it’s definitely them.

“H-Hahaha… Finally… Finally, a guy has wrapped his arm around my waist… I’m really living my youth…”

If there’s one thing that saved me, it’s that despite spending an entire class period together, things didn’t progress all that much.

I never expected Ryu-san to be this innocent.

Still, something’s off.

This yandere curse is supposed to mess up one’s ethics and sexual values beyond repair…

“Getting pressed up against a guy outside of a packed train… If my dad knew, he’d probably pass out…”

Is she really cursed?

The fact that she started chanting earlier proves she is, but she’s way too pure.

A shiro gyaru is supposed to only have fashion and f*cking on the brain.

Aren’t they supposed to be the glue that bonds the school’s delinquents and jocks into one big family (of Eskimo brothers)?

Aren’t they supposed to be all about polyandry?

“H-Hey, Saka-chan.”

“What is it? We really need to get back, or we’ll miss homeroom.”

“…Do I smell okay?”

“Smell…? Did you put on perfume or something?”

My nose isn’t great, but I don’t smell anything.

Though if it’s Kaede and the others, they’ll probably pick up on it right away.

How do they do that, anyway?

Sure, if you sniff someone directly, maybe you’d recognize their scent (not that I could), but how the hell do they detect a lingering scent on someone else?

It’s not like it transfers that strongly, right?

“No, not that… Look, I’m soaked right now…”

“…I don’t smell anything, though.”

I don’t know much about female biology, but can you really produce that much just from getting excited?

I thought it’d just be a little damp at most.

I mean, “soaked” can mean different things depending on the person, but still…

“For real? I could literally use my panties as a grappling hook right now.”

…For a second, I didn’t understand what she meant.

Then it hit me.

She’s talking about that prison break trick—where inmates use wet fabric to latch onto something.

Yeah, no, she’s beyond soaked—she’s basically leaking.

“Got any spare underwear? I need to change now.”

“Who the hell carries extra underwear around? And even if I did, it’d be men’s.”

“Seriously? You don’t even have a spare diaper or something?”

“…I wear regular boxers, for the record.”

This is just sad.

She actually thinks I’m the kind of freak who wears diapers to school.

I mean, yeah, normal people never do that, but still.

“Why not contact one of your friends? One of your clubmates, maybe?”

“Y-You idiot!”

I made a completely reasonable suggestion, and she immediately shot me down, face red as a tomato.

I get that it’s embarrassing, but what other option is there?

How am I the idiot here?

“I finally stopped leaking, and then you go and call me that… Ahh… ngh…!”

Wait… still at that stage!?

Just from being called by name, she starts dripping again!?

And those random shivers she’s been having this whole time…

Were those from—oh god.

“Haa… Haa… Look at this…”

Ryu-san pulled a slip of paper from under her skirt and held it out.

Caught up in the moment, I took it without thinking… but should I have?

Is there… anything on this?

Wait… I’ve seen this before.

It’s a small blue strip, like a sticky note, but the tip is stained red.

Not a clean color split like a lottery ticket—more like how a puddle stains paper…

Oh, no way.

“…Litmus paper?”

“Oh, you actually know what it is!”

Why the hell is she carrying something like that?

Where do you even buy those?

“Uh… never mind why I have it. If blue turns red, that means it’s acidic, right? Pretty sure that’s right. I remember ‘Blue = Walk’ as a mnemonic for alkaline, so the opposite must be acidic.”

“Hahaha, you’re actually pretty smart, huh?”

Was that an insult? I’m a high school student in Japan, you know?

“Alright, then, how about this? They use it a lot in urine tests.”

…What the hell is this?

A strip with colored squares attached to it, each labeled with numbers.

I’ve never seen this before.

“This is a pH test strip.”

“…pH? The thing that measures… acidity and alkalinity? Like, how strong something is?”

“More or less, yeah.”

I guess you match the color to the ones on the strip to check the result.

Lower numbers mean more acidic, right?

…Yeah, this is pretty damn acidic.

“…So, I get that this is measuring something acidic, but what exactly?”

“Don’t make me say it. Lubricant. My lubricant.”

…I had a hunch.

Considering where she pulled it from, there was no doubt.

And I just touched the tip of it.

I need to wash my hands.

Like, right now.

I need to empty an entire bottle of soap and scrub my hands raw.

“Okay, and? So what if it’s acidic? I mean, it’s normal for that area to be acidic to prevent bacteria and infections, right?”

I’m not exactly an expert on biology, but that much makes sense.

Wait, what are we even talking about?

I ditched class, so is this some kind of supplementary lesson?

I skipped Japanese, but it feels like I should be in morality class right now.

“It’s about the value. The value.”

…Did she just say Atai?

Oh, atai—she meant value.

For a second, I thought she was doing some weird first-person pronoun shift.

“Listen up. The more sexual experience a woman has, the closer her pH gets to alkaline. Aging does that too, but experience speeds it up.”

“…Aging I can understand. Probably something about bodily functions slowing down.”

“My lubricant is very strongly acidic. You know what that means?”

She says it like a battle manga boss, but all she’s doing is flexing her virginity.

Or maybe her youth.

Wait.

Did she seriously go through all this just to prove she’s a virgin?

She actually prepared a test strip just for this?

For something that’s completely useless in real life?

“Ryu-san, I could tell from your behavior that you’re a virgin.”

“Ng… S-So you could tell… Guess a womanizer would notice these things…”

Can you stop leaking!?

I just said your name!

And for the record, I’m not a womanizer.

Even if I were, being a womanizer is still better than being a walking fountain.

“You get what I’m saying?”

Nope.

The only thing I got is that your risk of STDs is basically zero.

“Uh, can we go back to class now? It’s way past dismissal time.”

“Why are you running away at this point?

No, wait… That’s it, isn’t it?

This exact point is why you’re trying to escape.

There are two kinds of gamblers:

The kind who thrives on high-risk, high-reward scenarios, and the kind who won’t bet unless the reward far outweighs the risk.

You’re definitely the latter, Saka-chan.

Even with a guaranteed virgin on the table, you’re scared of the risk—the risk that you’ll have to keep going until my pH levels shift all the way to alkaline.

That terrifies you.

And yeah, it should.

From your perspective, it’s way easier to cycle through different women at a pace that won’t wreck your precious manhood instead of going all-in on a girl you’re bound to get bored of.

But don’t you dare screw with me.

If you’re gonna drink poison, you drink the whole damn cup.

If you’re gonna take a virginity, you do it knowing it could kill you in bed!

You do understand how serious this is, don’t you?

No, you do understand—you’re just running anyway.

It doesn’t matter how much a girl bets on you—you’re under no obligation to call.

Or no… That’s not it, huh?

To guys like you, the chips don’t hold the same value.

You know the story of the Tortoise and the Hare, right?

Most people think it’s about how effort and perseverance can beat raw talent.

But in reality, the hare wasn’t even racing.

The tortoise was just running by itself.