Hozuki Nozomi looked up at Kirisu Mafuyu, whose face was flushed and hazy with drink, and couldn't help but smile gently.
"Mafuyu-sensei is beautiful too — a truly charming beauty."
At the compliment, Kirisu Mafuyu couldn't stop the smile that curled her lips.
"Really?"
"Then do you like it?"
Hozuki Nozomi nodded firmly. "I like it a lot."
Her breath drifted over him — orchid-sweet, threaded with the sharp bite of alcohol.
She sat astride his waist and straightened up, hair spilling loose over her shoulders.
"Nnh… Nozomi, I'm so hot."
With that, she casually raised her fair arms above her head.
Her blouse came unbuttoned.
As the jacket slipped down her sides, the fullness caged inside her pink bra quivered twice — soft, weighty flesh straining against thin lace. Her pale skin, the deep valley between her breasts, drew a low sound of admiration from him.
"So beautiful."
Kirisu Mafuyu smiled foolishly, eyes half-lidded.
"Nozomi, you were a very good boy today. Sensei will give you a reward."
With that, she grabbed his wrist and boldly guided his hand to her bared skin — the warmth of her stomach, the give of her side, the swell just beneath her ribs. At the same time, she leaned slowly down.
Her soft red lips pressed against his as naturally as breath.
Hozuki Nozomi was undone by her.
At that moment, he no longer cared whether she was drunk or hazy — he raised his arms, crushed her against his chest, and rolled her beneath him onto the bed. The sheets Mashiro and the others had smoothed only hours earlier tangled at once, kicked into knots as she gasped a wet, muffled "mmh—" into his mouth. His hand slid up her ribs, thumb dragging over the lace of her bra until the cup gave way, and her breast spilled hot and heavy into his palm.
"Ahh… Nozomi, slow d—nnh—"
He didn't slow down.
The night passed without another word between them, only the soft, drawn-out cries she tried and failed to muffle into the pillow.
—
The next morning, Kirisu Mafuyu opened her eyes to a fog.
She instinctively reached down to rub her waist, feeling sore all through her hips, thighs weak and trembling every time she shifted.
"Hmm…?"
Then she noticed the man's arm looped around her middle, and she went rigid.
"Ah—!"
She shoved him off, dragged the blanket up over her chest, and glared with tear-glossed eyes, her face burning crimson.
Hozuki Nozomi opened his eyes and looked at her helplessly. "Sensei, what exactly are you trying to do?"
"Y-y-you… you scumbag, what did you do to me?! I'm your teacher!"
He was almost speechless. "So what if you're my teacher? I'll graduate sooner or later, right? Then we can just get married. Isn't that fine?"
"That's true—" Kirisu Mafuyu nodded before she caught herself, then flushed all the way to her ears and glared at him again. "Don't change the subject! You… you bastard, how could you — h-how — !"
Hozuki Nozomi pulled her into his arms and kissed her, unhurried and possessive.
He didn't let her go until her eyes went wide and glassy, as though she might suffocate against his mouth.
Grabbing his phone off the nightstand, he opened a video and turned the screen toward her. He'd known she wouldn't own up to any of it sober, so he'd recorded it in advance.
"Sensei, see for yourself. Was I the one who started it?"
Kirisu Mafuyu's eyes flew open as she watched herself on the screen.
She saw herself — the one clinging to his sleeve, the one who wouldn't let him leave, the one who leaned in first, mouth already open…
"Nn-nnh—!"
"Me?! How shameless is this? That isn't me!"
She sagged back against his chest, hands flying up to cover her eyes, a look of pure mortification on her face, as though she couldn't stand to be seen.
Hozuki Nozomi laughed softly, gently pried her hands away, and held her gaze. "Actually, I'm pretty bad too. Even knowing you were drunk, I still went along with it."
"Mafuyu, I like you."
Kirisu Mafuyu immediately turned her head aside. "Hmph. You like so many girls — can you really like them all?"
That was what she kept catching on, what she circled around every time in her head: his philandering nature.
Even as she said it, though, she made no move to pull away, still curled against his chest.
Hozuki Nozomi's heart stirred, and he slowly leaned down to kiss her again.
Kirisu Mafuyu struggled twice for form's sake, then let him have it.
She might still be dodging what the two of them were, but her body was disgracefully, thoroughly honest.
After a long while, Kirisu Mafuyu pinched Hozuki Nozomi's waist hard and hissed, "Delete that embarrassing video from last night. Now."
Hozuki Nozomi simply handed her the phone.
"Here. Do it yourself. I'm afraid I'd regret it."
"Hmph, of course you'd want to keep my dark history."
Saying that, she first forwarded the video to her own phone — then deleted it from his.
Hozuki Nozomi noticed but said nothing.
"It's late. I have to get up…"
Having erased the evidence, Kirisu Mafuyu shyly pushed at his chest, signaling him to release her.
"Are you really going in to teach today? Why not just rest at home?"
"Hmph. I'm not that fragile. Besides, I'm a responsible teacher — I'm going to class."
"Alright. But if anything feels off, tell me right away, okay?"
"Mn."
Hozuki Nozomi reluctantly let her go, then extended a hand to her.
"Mafuyu. From now on — please take care of me."
Kirisu Mafuyu shot him a look of studied composure, then raised her hand and took his.
"Please take care of me too, you bad man."
Hozuki Nozomi only smiled.
She might have scolded him with her mouth, but in truth, didn't she quite like being treated this way? Before, when he'd been well-behaved and hands-off, she'd been the one visibly displeased — even flicking her hair into his face on purpose.
—
At breakfast, Kirisu Mafuyu surveyed the girls around the table and couldn't help pursing her lips.
This Sakurasou dorm was startlingly spacious inside. From the outside it didn't look like much, but somehow it had all these rooms — and worse, all these residents.
What made her most envious was how many pretty girls were living here.
And that Frieren — with those ears — was that really not cosplay?
She looked exactly like an elf.
"Mafuyu-sensei, please take care of us from now on."
"Mafuyu-sensei, try this, it's really good."
Shiina Mashiro and Ogiwara Sayu spoke to her warmly, and Kirisu Mafuyu nodded quickly around a mouthful of rice.
She glanced sideways at the others with a flicker of guilt, and her cheeks flushed all the way to her earlobes.
Certain oddities in Sakurasou made Kirisu Mafuyu feel that Hozuki Nozomi carried a mysterious air about him.
She felt the sudden urge to pry his secrets open.
She turned on the television.
The news was reporting that the culprit behind the string of home-invasion robberies had been apprehended. Kosaka Daisuke made a brief, composed appearance on screen, answering a reporter's question.
Kirisu Mafuyu, however, couldn't help stealing a glance at Hozuki Nozomi, and her chest warmed all over again.
No matter what else — he had saved her.
Though she hadn't decided what came next, she didn't regret giving herself to him.
And, truthfully… he had been quite gentle.
After breakfast, Kirisu Mafuyu was going to drive to school.
So she gathered up Mashiro, Sayu, and Asada Shino to pile into the car with her. As for Hozuki Nozomi, she coolly told him he could take the train on his own.
Well — really, she was still shy, and being close to him made her guilty and too flustered to meet his eyes.
While she drove, Kirisu Mafuyu glanced at Shiina Mashiro and Ogiwara Sayu in the rearview mirror — both still wearing their soft, contented smiles — and couldn't help but ask,
"Um. Shiina, Ogiwara… don't the two of you mind? At all? About that certain someone being such a playboy?"
Shiina Mashiro smiled faintly, and together with Ogiwara Sayu, quietly walked Kirisu Mafuyu through the shape of their families, the small histories that had brought them to Sakurasou.
To help Mafuyu-sensei empathize, to help her slowly accept this place as home, they first needed her to feel for them — for Sayu, for themselves.
By the time Ogiwara Sayu and Shiina Mashiro had finished their stories, Kirisu Mafuyu's feelings toward Hozuki Nozomi had knotted several times over.
She tightened her hands on the wheel, exhaled slowly through her nose, and let the words slip out.
"That guy really isn't so bad after all. Aside from being a playboy — he's actually kind of wonderful."