Letting out a small cry, Haruka suddenly grabbed my shoulders. She had lost her balance.
“A-are you all right?”
“S-sorry… I can’t stay on my feet…,” she said softly.
After repositioning herself, she looked me in the face.
“…I’m…so happy you’re touching me like this…”
“—?!”
She was…?!
So it wasn’t just me but Haruka as well who was happy I was fondling her breasts…?!
I was so delighted that I moved my fingers around, and Haruka let out a moan, a sexy look on her face. She was so unbelievably cute that I… I…
“—What do you two think you’re doing?”
Kamiji’s voice cut through the air like a knife.
My whole body stiffened up, and I looked fearfully toward the door. There she was, standing in the doorway with a disgusted look on her face.
I quickly pulled my hands out of Haruka’s shirt and got to my feet.
“…Um, Haruka said her stomach was itchy, so I was scratching it for her.”
“Yeah, there’s no way I’m gonna believe that. You might scratch someone else’s back for them, but you were clearly touching her breasts.”
“You’ve got me there…”
There was no denying it. Kamiji had seen me sticking my hands up Haruka’s shirt and rubbing her boobs over her bra.
I was stunned into silence.
“So you’re cheating on Tsukishiro?” murmured Kamiji.
“……”
Haruka would feel bad if I said I was cheating with her, but at this point, I had to go along with the story Kamiji believed…
“—Let me handle this,” Haruka said in a low voice that only I could hear. Then she walked up to Kamiji and loudly declared, “That’s right! He was cheating on Tsukishiro behind her back!”
She put everything into admitting it…!!
“Be careful, Kamiji. Yuuma’s a scumbag who’s quick to cheat on his girlfriend! He’s kind and dependable, and you may end up falling for him, but I suggest you find someone else!”
“……”
Both Kamiji and I were rendered speechless.
Wasn’t it weird for the girl you were two-timing with to issue a warning like that…?
“You, the girl he’s been cheating with, are telling me that?”
Kamiji seemed to feel the same way—but that didn’t bother Haruka.
“Let me tell you how it all began between us. We first met when I was in fifth grade. Back then, we often used to play hide-and-seek and other games together—”
“Huh? Hey, wait a minute. What kind of story is this you’re about to tell me?”
“It’s the story of the bond between me and Yuuma.”
“The ‘story of your bond’…?”
“Haruka, stop. Don’t get into it.”
“Why not? I want to tell her about our history.”
“Don’t you see the look on Kamiji’s face? You’ve gotten her all confused.”
“Of course I’m confused. I’ve just come across a high school kid I met today cheating on his girlfriend, and now the girl he’s cheating with says she wants to tell me about your history.”
“S-sorry…”
I was sure by now that Kamiji must think I’m a piece of shit. Just how had it come to this…?
It was impossible to talk my way out of it, so instead I changed the subject.
“By the way, what are you doing here on the rooftop?” I asked Kamiji.
“What am I doing here…? Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten that I might turn into a zombie.”
“—Oh!”
“So you did forget.”
Kamiji stared at us with contempt in her eyes.
My mind had been occupied with calming Haruka down and rubbing her breasts…
“You have to restrain me if I become a zombie, so you can’t go missing for too long.”
“I know. Again, I’m sorry…”
“Anyway, are you finished cheating on your girlfriend?”
“Of course I am. I’ll head back to the dining room right away… And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell Tsukishiro about this…”
“…All right. I won’t,” Kamiji said with a bitter look on her face as she left.
Once we’d finished eating all the crab and cleaning up the dishes, we decided to take our bathing suits and go to the riverbank again. It was already past three in the afternoon, so it would get dark if we didn’t leave now.
We took both cars again, since we wanted to load up on supplies on our way back. Considering the possibility of Kamiji turning into a zombie, she, Amano, and I got in the sedan, while Haruka and the other three girls hopped in the minivan.
The moment we pulled out of the dorm, Amano spoke up from the driver’s seat.
“…Hey, Kousaka, can I ask you about something?” she said, making eye contact with me in the rearview mirror. “Saya told me you’re having an affair with Hyuuga.”
“Hey, why are you spreading the word?” I protested to Kamiji sitting next to me, but she just continued to look out the window, her expression unchanged.
“You asked me not to tell Tsukishiro, but you didn’t mention anything about talking to Amano about it,” Kamiji countered.
“Well, no, but…”
“Kousaka, I think it’s wrong to cheat!” Amano said, raising her voice and clutching the steering wheel tightly.
She was absolutely right…
“Think of poor Tsukishiro. You should break up with Hyuuga right away.”
“……”
What was going on here…? The situation was getting more and more complicated…
Naturally, it would be easy to declare right here and now that I’d stop cheating on Tsukishiro with Haruka. But if Haruka let me touch her breasts in the dorm again, someone might see us.
Could I resist the temptation to touch her boobs?
—No. It was impossible.
I wanted to play with them. Several times a day if I could.
That left me with only one option: I had to make Amano tolerate my cheating…!!
“…Don’t you think our old ideas of right and wrong may not apply in the zombie world we’re living in now?”
“Huh…?!” Amano blinked in surprise, but I ignored her and went on.
“The same can be said about Haruka driving the minivan. We wouldn’t have been able to survive if we’d been worrying about her driving without a license. Me dating two women is the same thing.”
“Kousaka, what are you saying?”
“Come on—that’s a huge stretch.”
“It really isn’t.” I decided to try repeating Tsukishiro’s theory from this morning. “We don’t know what the situation is like in other countries or regions, but it’s clear that zombies have greatly reduced the number of human beings. Sooner or later, we have to consider population recovery and propagating our lineage. However, our current community consists of one guy—me—and six women. If we can’t find any other survivors, then monogamy would be a poor use of the gender balance we have, so we may have no other choice but to consider polygamy.”
A complicated expression crossed Amano’s face.
“…Population recovery, huh…? Maybe you have a point…”
She seemed to be giving serious thought to the issue.
That was easy.
But Kamiji narrowed her eyes and turned to look at me.
“Wait a minute. Kousaka, are you saying you’ll eventually try to form that sort of a relationship with Amano and me, too?”
I wished she wouldn’t jump to a conclusion like that. Honestly, I didn’t even agree with polygamy in the first place…
But I had to respond accordingly or I’d be contradicting myself.
“…That’s completely up to you. Let me put it this way: I’ll respond if someone wants me…”
What a thing to say.
“Hmm… Okay then, maybe I’ll throw my hat into the ring,” Amano said, casting a meaningful glance at me through the rearview mirror.
“…Huh?!”
“Ha-ha-ha. Just kidding.”
“Amano, don’t joke around about something like that. That’s about the only thing high school guys think about.”
“That’s a bit harsh,” I said.
“But, Kousaka,” continued Amano, “you were supercool when you fought off those zombies to save us.”
“…Thanks.”
“Amano, you’ve always been obsessed with love. But I thought you only ever got crushes on movie heroes.”
“What can I say? They’re cool.”
“Come to think of it, Kousaka might be the first real guy you’ve fallen for.”
“Oh, you’re right.” Amano’s reflection in the rearview mirror smiled dangerously. “So maybe polygamy is actually a good opportunity for me.”