For Meguri Shiromeguri, every time she thought back on that afternoon, her body reacted on its own.
The stimulation had simply been too much.
It had left her unable to hold herself together.
And whenever she remembered that Sis Haruno's punishment had lasted longer and gone deeper, worry and concern welled up in her all over again.
"Sis Haruno, yesterday, how long did that jerk Student Lin punish you for?"
Meguri Shiromeguri desperately wanted the answer to that question.
Judging from the marks still left on Sis Haruno's body, she was certain Haruno's ordeal had been far, far more brutal than her own.
"No idea," Haruno said.
"Huh?"
How could she not know?
"He kept at me the whole time. Tormented me, and when I passed out and woke up again he just kept going. Tormented me until I fainted, over and over, until I was ready to go mad and lose my reason entirely."
That one simple answer made Meguri Shiromeguri swallow hard.
Was that for real?
Could it really have been that bad?
"Is Student Lin honestly that cruel?"
"Of course. When a man turns cruel, that's exactly how ruthless he gets. Not a shred of tenderness, no consideration at all for a girl's body, only for satisfying his own desires and needs. Haah, haah."
Haruno sighed and sighed again.
Meguri Shiromeguri thought back to her own experience that afternoon.
Faced with her pleading and her hysterical begging, Lin Ye hadn't softened for a second and let her off. Instead he'd made her keep tasting what Sis Haruno had gone through.
She sympathized deeply.
"So you've had a taste of it too now, Meguri."
"Mm."
"Be careful from now on. Don't give Lin Ye another excuse to torment you."
"Mm-hm."
Meguri Shiromeguri nodded hard.
She never wanted to go through that afternoon again.
She was absolutely determined never to experience it again. She even felt she ought to keep her distance from Lin Ye altogether, to keep anything similar from happening a second time.
"Oh, right. That kind of bullying is fine, though."
The suggestive remark didn't register with Meguri Shiromeguri at first. Only when she noticed the smile curling at the corner of Haruno's mouth did it click, and she understood what Sis Haruno meant.
"That's not okay either."
Meguri Shiromeguri answered at once.
"Oh? Isn't Meguri willing, though?"
"I'm not willing."
Meguri Shiromeguri made her position clear.
She wasn't willing. Even if she genuinely didn't refuse whatever Lin Ye did to her, that was only ever built on the condition that Lin Ye agreed to a certain term of hers.
"Really not willing? Lin-kun told me Meguri was quite happy to warm his bed."
"But inside I hated it. I didn't want to."
Meguri Shiromeguri held her ground.
For her, everything with Lin Ye was a transaction, a compromise, a helpless decision made under threat. None of it came from her own heart. If she'd had a choice, she would never have offered up her body as the price.
"Ah, so that's how it is. Lin-kun will be crushed when he finds out."
Good, let him be crushed.
"And when Lin-kun gets crushed, he goes looking for something to vent on. He starts hunting for an outlet."
Just then Haruno's fingers grazed across Meguri Shiromeguri's stomach.
The faint touch sent a jolt through her, and her legs tensed before she could stop them.
She realized she'd become far more sensitive. Yes, Meguri Shiromeguri could feel it now.
Ever since that afternoon, her body's sensitivity had shot through the roof.
She'd always responded to touch, but never this intensely.
This was bad.
Meguri Shiromeguri knew something in her had changed.
"And then he'll come looking for me again."
"No!"
The cry burst out of Meguri Shiromeguri before she could think, and she threw her arms around Haruno, clutching her tight, the force of it saying everything about how strongly she objected.
Honestly.
After everything that had happened, after realizing Sis Haruno had endured that kind of torment from Lin Ye for her sake, her gratitude toward Haruno had climbed to a whole new level.
Even though Yukino Yukinoshita insisted this whole mess was Sis Haruno's own doing, deep down she still believed Sis Haruno was the Goddess who protected her.
She wanted to protect her back, to shield her, to put a smile on the face of the woman in front of her.
"So Meguri isn't willing."
"Mm-hm."
"Then all we can do is have Meguri take my place."
Meguri Shiromeguri gritted her teeth, but in the end she nodded. "If he ever does something like that again, Sis Haruno, contact me. I'll be the one to satisfy his twisted demands."
Between Sis Haruno and herself, she'd made her choice.
She would rather sacrifice herself than let Sis Haruno be tormented and punished again.
"Thank you."
Haruno meant that thank-you sincerely.
She knew that even though Lin-kun hadn't used Hypnosis on Meguri Shiromeguri to heighten her body's sensitivity, Meguri had still suffered plenty as the one being punished.
Those screams had carried right through the bedroom door.
At the time she'd been enjoying herself, pleased and satisfied, but she also knew how brutal it had been for Meguri.
"It's fine. For Sis Haruno's sake, I'm willing."
"Well then, before Lin Ye left he asked me to pass something along to you, Meguri."
That sentence made Meguri Shiromeguri's chest tighten with a thread of nerves.
Whatever demand Lin Ye was about to make, it made her anxious.
"What is it?"
"Lin-kun is formally notifying you that you're broken up."
Broken up again?
They'd broken up before too, and then hadn't he just turned around and used it as leverage to torment her, to threaten her, until she was forced back into being Lin Ye's girlfriend?
"This time Lin-kun means it."
Mainly, Haruno meant it.
The game had run its course, and it could end here.
Enough was enough.
An underclassman who thought about her like this, who worried about her like this, she truly couldn't bear to keep tormenting.
Let it end here.
"But..."
"Lin-kun means it. Set your mind at ease, Meguri."
"He meant it last time too."
"This time you have my guarantee."
But those words made Meguri Shiromeguri think Sis Haruno had promised Lin Ye even more on her behalf.
It hurt.
It hurt terribly.
It shouldn't be like this.
She didn't think Haruno needed to sacrifice herself for her all over again.
"Sis Haruno."
Meguri Shiromeguri gripped Haruno's arm, her eyes serious. "Did you agree to some outrageous condition for him again? Something like this, agreeing to satisfy some unreasonable demand of his?"
"No."
"Really?"
"What would I gain by lying to you?"
But Meguri Shiromeguri wasn't convinced.
"I don't believe a man who'd threaten me would let us off this easily."
That was the conclusion she'd drawn from her dealings with Lin Ye. She really couldn't see him letting go.
"Trust him this once. Or at least trust me. Meguri, don't tell me you don't trust me."
Faced with Haruno's counter-question and the look on her face, Meguri Shiromeguri gave a small "mm" to show she accepted it, for now.
Yukino Yukinoshita had said the same thing, and now even Sis Haruno was saying it, so she chose to take it at face value for the time being.
As long as Lin Ye never pulled anything like that again, she'd let it stand.
Of course, on the matter of Sis Haruno agreeing to Lin Ye's unreasonable demands, she still had her reservations. She was sure Sis Haruno simply wouldn't say, that she didn't want to add to her burden, and that was why she was talking like this.
Meguri Shiromeguri decided she'd get the real answer out of Lin Ye herself.
She would take Sis Haruno's place in fulfilling that condition, whatever the condition turned out to be. She was already resolved.
Sacrificing herself for Sis Haruno's sake, she was willing.
The only pity was that she had no better way to punish Lin Ye.
The methods she'd come up with before, she was already backing away from now. She didn't want to resort to anything too extreme.
If she actually went through with something like that, there'd be no cleaning up the aftermath.
"That's more like it. Meguri belongs to me, not to Lin-kun."
"Huh?"
A second later Sis Haruno's hands went wandering, and Meguri Shiromeguri yelped and started struggling.
But the two of them were in the same bed, both young women of roughly the same age.
In terms of raw strength there really wasn't much between them.
Haruno had the advantage. Even after a night of torment that had left her body aching, Meguri Shiromeguri had gone through her own ordeal today and her body was in no better shape.
So they tangled again.
And in the end, Haruno came out on top.
"Nnh..."
Meguri Shiromeguri ended up on the losing side.
Haruno thoroughly enjoyed tormenting her.
But compared with doing it while wearing Lin Ye's body, she felt like something was missing.
Yes.
Something about it just didn't hit the same way.
This... had to be down to the difference between a man's body and a woman's.
Right now she really, really wanted to use Lin Ye's body again.
If there was ever a next time, she'd have to make absolutely sure she enjoyed herself to the fullest.
But she also knew that was essentially impossible.
Lin Ye would never give her that chance again.
If the chance somehow did come around again,
she figured she wouldn't go after someone Lin Ye already knew. She'd find one of those girls instead, and let her experience what a man's body felt like and how it responded.
Hahahaha.
Haruno's imagination painted a lovely picture.
As for how it would actually turn out in the end, even she didn't know.
The night deepened.
Drowsiness caught up with both of them, one after the other.
At last.
Not long after,
worn out, Meguri Shiromeguri was the first to close her eyes.
She was exhausted. Even though she'd already slept for a stretch earlier, a deep weariness still dragged at her.
Tonight,
she could finally rest properly.
And tomorrow,
since it was Saturday, she could sleep in.
Sharing a bed with Sis Haruno and sleeping in together was a rare treat in itself.
As for anything more, she wasn't greedy enough to ask.
Haruno stopped her teasing and looked at Meguri Shiromeguri's sleeping face, a faint smile at the corner of her lips.
"Good night, Meguri."
And finally, silently,
she offered Meguri Shiromeguri an apology as well.
In the room next door,
Yukino had returned to her own bedroom early,
but she hadn't gone to bed right away. She sat at her desk reading instead.
Partway through, the occasional noise drifting through the wall from the next room left her at a loss, and she finally put on headphones to block it out.
"Lin Ye should be in Tokyo by now."
This weekend,
Lin Ye would be in Tokyo, spending the whole weekend with Mai Sakurajima.
And then...
Yukino Yukinoshita shook her head.
That kind of intimacy was perfectly normal for a couple like Lin Ye and Mai Sakurajima. It was a natural human need.
Besides, the two of them had already slept together.
Once, twice, three times, there was no real difference.
Whereas she and Lin Ye...
"Haah."
The condition she'd set for Lin Ye restrained him, yes, but hadn't it restrained her just as much?
There was no way she could ever say the other thing: that he could do whatever he wanted with her without cutting things off cleanly with every other woman first.
Words like that would never leave her mouth.
She had boxed herself in just as tightly.
"Hoo..."
Brushing her fingers lightly across her stomach, Yukino let out a slow breath.
Enough overthinking.
These things had to happen in their own time.
She could hardly go throwing herself at him.
Yukino Yukinoshita hadn't sunk that low.
Her thoughts drifted anyway, her heart already fixed on those two figures far away in Tokyo.
She couldn't settle enough to keep reading.
Snap.
She shut the book, and her hand found its way to her phone without her meaning it to.
Should she contact Lin Ye?
Should she ask how things were going?
She hesitated.
There was no need, she told herself. Even if she found out, nothing good would come of it.
But, but...
In the end,
Yukino Yukinoshita gave in and sent Lin Ye a message.
No voice call tonight. That way Mai Sakurajima couldn't unload on her, and she wouldn't have to hear certain words and certain sounds she'd rather not hear.
But,
no reply came from Lin Ye's end. None at all.
That made it worse. More miserable, more humiliating.
What... what on earth was going on over there?
Surely they weren't so caught up in it, so lost in each other, that he didn't even have time to glance at his phone?
Tonight,
the girl with long black hair, in her loose black pajamas, was destined not to sleep.
...
As for Lin Ye,
he'd left John at the pet shop and then boarded a train for Tokyo.
He was going to see Mai Sakurajima this weekend, to spend it with Mai.
But,
tonight, this Friday night, he wasn't heading straight to Mai at all.
He was going to see Ai-chan.
It had been several days since he'd last seen her.
The girl had daily training and concerts on and off.
Whenever she had a spare moment she'd message him, or call him with voice notes.
Because they lived so far apart,
he and Ai Hoshino rarely got the chance to meet.
It wasn't that Ai Hoshino had never thought about rushing out to Chiba just to see Lin Ye, but between her schedule and Lin Ye talking her out of it, she'd never made the trip to Chiba for the sake of a few minutes together.
This time,
since Lin Ye was heading to Tokyo himself, he'd decided to drop in on Ai Hoshino on Friday night and surprise Ai-chan.
After arriving in Tokyo,
Lin Ye transferred to a local train, then walked the rest of the way to his destination.
Tonight,
Ai Hoshino had no concert.
She was in the middle of training with her groupmates.
Lin Ye stepped inside and followed the familiar corridor to the practice space.
On the stage, girls in form-fitting outfits moved through their routine.
There was no backing track, no accompaniment.
The girls danced beneath the spotlights.
Lin Ye picked her out instantly, the radiant girl with long purple hair: Ai Hoshino.
A clear, bright voice rose with the faint movement of her red lips.
The whole silent hall, which held nothing but the sound of footsteps, filled with that lovely sound.
Clap, clap...
Their manager clapped out the rhythm now and then.
Before long, Lin Ye's gaze shifted to another girl.
A fresh, bright girl, her face lit with a youthful smile.
Sayaka Maizono.
Seeing her again,
Lin Ye's eyes lingered a moment longer.
That swaying, dancing figure was a genuine pleasure to watch.
...
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