W-Was I really... about to be kissed...?
Rui pinned me down on the bed and peered into my face, slowly closing her eyes as she drew her lips toward mine.
I was about to kiss the Rui Kuroki...
(W-We’re at zero distance...!)
"…………Hm?"
Wait. Something was wrong.
Nothing touched my lips.
Even so, I caught her scent from point-blank range.
(W-What happened...?)
I instinctively shifted my gaze toward my neck.
To my astonishment, Kuroki’s lips were pressed against the side of my neck.
I could feel the sensation of her soft lips against my skin. It was a different kind of softness compared to Yuria’s, and the feeling nearly short-circuited my brain.
In a single day, I’d experienced the sensation of two different girls' lips.
"……Phew…… Ryouta-kun," Kuroki whispered immediately after pulling back. "Your next line... it's: 'Thank you, my Prince. Your kiss has awakened me.'"
She was feeding me the line that had completely vanished from my head.
(Of course! She used the chaos of a second 'failed' kiss as a smokescreen to tell me my lines!)
The ingenuity to come up with that the moment she sensed my lapse, and the boldness to act on it instantly...
(Good grief, the girl is... absolutely perfect.)
Saved by Kuroki, I sat up once again.
The audience was a whirlwind of confusion, but as I rose, all eyes converged on me and the gymnasium gradually fell silent.
"……T-Thank you, my Prince. Your kiss has awakened me."
My mind had gone blank and I'd wondered what would happen for a moment, but I was saved thanks to Kuroki.
"I am grateful for this fateful encounter... and I swear to love you for all eternity."
As I uttered the final line, a sudden sense of liberation washed over me.
With Kuroki's help, I had somehow managed to get through the afternoon performance without further incident.
"Izumiya-kun, great job!"
"Snow White was so, so good!"
"Maybe choosing Izumiya was the right call after all."
The moment I exited to the wings of the stage after the play ended, my classmates were there to greet me with appreciation.
Hino and the rest of the extroverts crowded around, slapping my back and shoulders as they showered me with praise. As a loner, I almost never received this kind of acclaim from the people around me. It felt strange, but it wasn't exactly a bad feeling.
"Good work, Ryouta! You did your best!"
"Honestly, when you stopped speaking, I didn't know what was going to happen."
Miyama and Yuria, who had been waiting backstage, called out to me as well.
"Rui fed you those lines, didn't she?"
"Y-Yeah. She pretended to kiss me again and whispered them then."
I explained while stealing a glance at Kuroki, who was currently surrounded by other classmates.
If not for her quick-witted response, the play would have been a total disaster. As expected of the perfectionist Rui Kuroki... I really owed her one this time.
(I have to make sure to thank her properly.)
With that thought, I walked over to her.
"K-Kuroki."
"Ah! Ryouta-kun. Perfect timing. Everyone wants to have a photo session with me behind the gymnasium, and they want you to come too."
"Huh?"
"Kyaa! Look, a photo of Snow White and the Prince!"
"Smile for us, Snow White!"
"Reenact the kiss scene! Pretty please!"
I’d been dragged behind the gymnasium by the female students for a photo session. Why was a loner otaku like me stuck in the middle of something like this?
Just when I thought the play was finally over and I could relax, I never expected things to turn out this way. Damn you, Kuroki, for dragging me into this...!
"I'd like to change out of my costume soon, so can we wrap this up?"
"Y-Yes!"
"Thank you very much!"
With those few words from Kuroki, the female fans stopped their photography and dispersed immediately. Much like Yuria's fans, I sensed a weirdly high level of etiquette from them.
"Phew... Good work today, Ryouta-kun."
Before I knew it, we were alone behind the gymnasium.
"U-Um... thank you for saving me when I forgot my lines."
I voiced my gratitude honestly. I really had been saved by her today; without her intervention, I might have ruined the entire play.
"Fufu... Actually, I suspected from the start that your lines might slip there, Ryouta-kun."
"Eh? How could you know that?"
"Because you seemed particularly lacking in confidence about that specific line since our first rehearsal."
She was right. I hadn't been confident about that line at all. In that scene, Snow White’s world is pitch black until the stage lights and other stimuli suddenly hit your eyes. I’d been worried for a long time that the sudden sensory input would make me forget my place.
(To think she noticed even that... Hah. Does the Perfect Superhuman really see through everything?)
"B-But still, staging another kiss to distract the audience so you could talk to me... wasn't that a bit too bold?"
"Was it? It wasn't mouth-to-mouth, so I don't think it was bold at all."
"No, being bold isn't about that... well, the fact remains that you saved me, so I’m grateful."
Good grief. It’s not bold because it wasn't mouth-to-mouth, huh?
"During that second kiss, why did you kiss my neck?"
"Did you want it to be on your lips instead?"
"No! That's not what I meant!"
"……Fufu, just kidding. It was a split-second judgment, so I just did it instinctively. There's no deep meaning behind it. Probably... right?"
Kuroki gave me her usual smile.
"Probably," she said... which meant there was definitely something more to it. I’d have to look up the meaning of a neck kiss later. As usual, I couldn't read her true intentions.
"Besides, I'm the one who felt most relieved that I could help you. Saving you just now was meant to be a way of repaying an old favor."
"Repay a favor to me? For what?"
"……This is perfect. We're alone right now."
In a total reversal from her usual perfect smile, Kuroki turned a serious gaze toward me.
"I... promised, didn't I? That I would tell you everything once the Cultural Festival was over. Is it okay if I tell you now?"
"Everything...?"