Crushed by the weight of her own foolishness, Alisa was left drowning in shame and regret. All she wanted now was to quietly move their hands back to where they had been a moment before and pretend none of it had ever happened. Doing that, however, would be far too unnatural, and it would ruin the whole casual act she had been working so hard to perform. And so…she had no choice but to add another page to her ever-growing anthology of humiliation.
Ugh. I want to disappear… Can this bus go any slower? Hurry up already…
Behind a blank expression, Alisa silently prayed to disappear, fighting back welling tears. Meanwhile, Masachika…
I need to face my past…then what? What do I even want to do? He pondered. I’m sure Yuki’s—thigh… I’m sure she’s in bed with the flu and—so soft. So soft…! Th-thigh! Skirt! Knee-high socks! Thigh!
Alisa’s efforts had been far more effective than she could have ever imagined. The sensation alone was enough to scramble his brain as he fought to keep a straight face. He tried desperately to pull his attention away from his left hand, but no matter what, his eyes kept drifting back, inevitably drawn to the spot where his hand rested.
…!!
Catching a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye, Masachika quietly gasped as he recalled something he had seen online. It was a video of a self-proclaimed connoisseur of knee-high socks fervently rambling about his obsession.
“The real focus is right above the knee-high socks! Do you see this? I’m talking about the soft, somewhat squishy, part of the thigh right here! The part that spills over the edge of the tight socks! This! This is what it’s all about!”
And that spot was exactly where his hand was resting: the sacred land between the hem of her skirt and her sock.
Gaaah!
His index finger brushed against the rough texture of the skirt’s fabric, and his pinky touched the silky smoothness of her socks. But underneath his middle and ring finger was her soft, supple, bare skin. Ah, if only it was his palm and not the back of his hand resting on her thigh—
What is wrong with you?! Get out of the gutter, stupid filthy brain! Just end yourself! I don’t have time for these dirty thoughts right now!
Just moments ago, he had been seriously pondering his next steps, yet after one fleeting moment of luck, his mind was back to being depraved. He couldn’t help but despise how shameless he could be.
See?! Look at Alya! She’s acting completely normal! It was clearly an accident. She’s not grinning or whispering in Russian either! She probably just didn’t want her hand to get crushed, so she put it somewhere safe… Ugh! Begone, lewd thoughts!
Masachika clenched his teeth, struggling to appear unaffected. Meanwhile…
Maybe he’s just not interested in me that way…?
Though she felt like curling up in a ball of despair, Alisa desperately fought to maintain her composure; there were still seven more stops until they reached their destination.