“Ichika, wait up!” Riku drawled behind me, his voice echoing through the school hallway. It reminded me of the way he spoke when he dressed up, so my gut reaction was to twist my head back in his direction.
I’d been assigned to the group in charge of the café menu, and when we drew lots to decide the group leader, I’d ended up with the short straw. My first task was to attend a workshop in the school kitchen right after school. When I left, Riku was busy chatting with some female students while they tidied the classroom, but he must’ve chased after me when he realized I was gone.
He was calling me in a low voice, and there was nothing graceful about his movements. I would’ve panicked if he’d been running girlishly, but everything about him looked masculine enough. His tone was perhaps slightly wheedling, but still at a level acceptable in the type of guy who tickled girls’ maternal instincts.
“Why’d you leave without me?” he asked.
“It’s not like we’re even in the same group, Riku.”
“No, but we’ll probably be working together. It’d be good for me to listen in too.”
Riku’s group would work on the café interior—specifically, the decor. We’d need to ensure the decorations complemented the menu, so we probably would need to work closely for quite a bit of the prep period.
“It looked like you were having a real blast with Iguchi-san and her friends. Too bad you didn’t end up in their group.” I realized a few seconds too late how harsh those words sounded.
“Are you jealous, Ichika?” Riku responded with a little giggle.
“Absolutely not!”
Riku shrugged casually at my vehement denial. That shrug was undeniably sensual whenever he dressed as a girl, but under the current circumstances it just made him seem like an innocent little boy.
The workshop was being held in a kitchen in a separate building away from the classrooms. As we made our way over, the number of students around us dwindled. We were now right by the first-year students’ fountains and bathrooms, and no one else appeared to be in the hallway.
Riku kept glancing around as if confirming that we truly were the only ones there. He twitched his finger as if checking something off an invisible list, then grabbed my arm and dragged me toward the fountains. I wondered if he was trying to pull me into one of the nearby bathrooms, but that didn’t seem to be his plan—although he appeared to consider whether the boy’s or girl’s bathroom was a better hiding spot. He settled on pulling me next to the corner water fountain on the girls’ side.
“Uh, Riku?”
The only response I got was, “Be quiet.”
He snatched the notebook and pen I’d been holding and placed them on the windowsill under the blinds. The bewitching smile playing across his lips made it clear that I was in the presence of Riku’s secret-garden personality.
“Did you see anything you liked today?” I sighed. In all honesty, it was less out of exasperation than relief that he’d chosen to be with me over the other girls.
“That brand-new gloss Iguchi had. It was just released yesterday!”
It was obvious from the excitement in his voice that he was going to buy himself one.
“Hey, Ichika, can I touch you?”
“Don’t even think about it! What if someone comes by?”
He placed his hands against the wall on either side of me, preventing my escape. Then he stood directly in front of me, his tall frame completely blocking me from view.
“I got out of there because I thought the costume group was going to try taking my measurements,” he explained.
The girls primping and preening earlier were in the group that would handle dressing the boys. Not only were they going to apply the guys’ makeup, they also planned to put together their outfits from scratch. They hadn’t decided who’d be cross-dressing yet, but Riku was likely at the top of their lists.
“You should do it, you know. Cross-dress for the festival.”
“No way. It’s not happening,” Riku scowled as he attempted to unbutton my blouse. He was probably even better at undoing my tie than I was.
“Hey! I said—”
Before I finished speaking, a large hand covered my mouth and part of my nose. I squirmed in protest as his lips ran along my neck, but no lipstick left a trail on my exposed skin this time. Riku’s short hair tickled as it brushed against me. This was nothing like the forbidden world we delved into while hidden away in my room. We were just like the couples who made out on the staircase landing by the school roof.
He usually whispered how cute or pretty I was, but this time, there was none of that. The silence around us was so heavy it was almost stifling.
Riku was about to slide his hand into my blouse when we heard excited chatter from the hallway. Two girls were approaching. Judging by their conversation, they seemed to be in a hurry—possibly rushing to the same kitchen workshop I was supposed to attend. I assumed they’d walk right by us, but the footsteps suddenly stopped.
We froze as one girl said, “Sorry. I need to use the bathroom. I’ll be quick.”
When the girl noticed us, she gasped. “Oh!” She turned back to her friend, whispering frantically, “Oh my gosh! We gotta go!”
They were probably first-years. As they ran off, I heard them squeal excitedly, chattering about what they’d just witnessed.
Riku obviously heard them too. Only when they were completely out of earshot did he finally mouth, “Are they gone?”
“Yeah, they’re gone,” I replied. Riku was still covering my mouth, muffling my voice. “I don’t think they saw either of our faces.”
“Good. Now let’s get back to where we were,” he said. His lips brushed against my hair.
I wasn’t going down without putting up a proper fight. “Riku! Take your hand off my mouth!”
“You’ll make a scene if I do that.”
“I’ll be late if I don’t go now,” I mumbled into his hand. He just grinned, continuing to ignore me. Even when I pushed against his chest, he wouldn’t let go. He just pulled my hand away like it was no big deal, sending home that he really was a boy and much stronger than me. I could smell him—not the perfume we shared, but the smell of his sweat, the scent of a man. It made me lightheaded.
With no hesitation whatsoever, he showered me with little kisses the exact way a mother would kiss a baby, proving yet again that he wasn’t at all sexually attracted to me.
“It’s time to go, Riku.”
“Fine. I guess this is enough for now.”
He kissed the hand that was still placed right over my lips, but never kissed me directly on the mouth.