I was going to take a bath.
When was the last time a simple act like this had filled me with such a sense of elation?
No—it was a first.
In all seventeen years of my life, this was the first time I had ever felt genuine excitement about getting into a tub.
Back during our junior high school field trip, the guys in my class used to spout some ridiculous theory about how the water from the girls' bath circulated into the boys' bath, meaning we were practically bathing with the girls. At the time, I had scoffed at them with my more "mature" mindset... but things were different now.
"So this is... the bath... Airi was in."
After thoroughly scrubbing myself clean with the shower, I stood naked before the small bathtub.
Right there in front of me was the water a girl from my class had just finished soaking in.
Any red-blooded adolescent boy would gladly dive face-first into this.
What? You’re telling me a "normal" guy would be too polite to get in?
Heh, sorry to disappoint, but I’m getting in. It’s only natural for a perverted gentleman like myself.
"Well then... here goes."
Suppressing the urge to perform a Lupin-style dive, I slowly lowered myself into the water, starting with my toes.
"Ah... it’s so warm. It feels like Airi is wrapping her body around me from behind."
Such was the terrifying power of an adolescent boy’s imagination.
But since this was Airi’s leftover bathwater, the idea of being "wrapped by Airi" wasn’t exactly a stretch.
"After all... everything in here is Airi."
After savoring the bath for nearly an hour, I returned to the attic room with a satisfied smile on my face.
"Oh, welcome back, Ryouta."
"Yeah. Thanks for the bath... wait, what's this?"
In the attic, two futons had been laid out side-by-side.
It seemed that while I was gone, Airi had taken the liberty of setting them up.
"S-Sorry, Airi. You didn't have to do the futons for me."
"Geez, don't worry about stuff like that. Not between Airi and Ryouta."
Airi gave my shoulder a playful pat and smiled.
"R-Right. Thanks, Airi."
"Well, Airi was the one who insisted you stay over tonight, so this is the least Airi can do. More importantly, how was the bath?"
"The bath? It was incredible... without a doubt, the best one I've ever had."
"Oh, stop! You're exaggerating just because it's a bath. But was the water too hot? Airi didn't actually get in the tub, so Airi wasn't sure what the temperature was like."
".........Eh?"
The moment those words slipped out, I dropped the clothes I was holding.
W-w-w-wait a second!
"Hmm? What's wrong, Ryouta? Your mouth is hanging open."
"Hold on! What did you just say? You didn't get in the bathtub?"
"Yeah. Airi just used the shower. Airi didn't soak in the tub."
"Wh—! Why not?!"
"Well, Airi thought Ryouta might be grossed out if he had to use the bath after Airi."
"Gah!"
Wha... what?! Airi didn't get in the bath?!
Then that warm, feminine embrace I felt in the tub... was that just a total hallucination?!
"Besides, you know? Airi thought if her long hair was floating in the water, it might surprise Ryouta, and it was a little embarrassing. Ehehe..."
Airi gave me a bashful, adorable smile.
Even though she usually seemed like she didn't have a care in the world, she had been being so incredibly considerate of me...
Ugh! And look at me! Grinning like an idiot over Airi’s "leftover water"—which was actually just plain hot water—and thinking nothing but filthy thoughts! Haven't you any shame?! As a human being?!
I was overcome with self-loathing, caught between my own embarrassment and the guilt I felt toward her.
"Ryouta? Why are you biting your lip?"
"I-It's nothing, Airi. It's just... I've failed as a man."
"Failed? Airi doesn't really get it, but look, Ryouta. Sit down on the futon and... let's do it together?"
Huh? On the futon... together...?
My lower body responded at the speed of light.
"Does that mean, by any chance, s—"
"Ta-da! Airi brought playing cards and... Bttle Dme! Let’s play!"
My excitement died instantly.
With a beaming smile, Airi pulled a massive, pointlessly bulky Bttle Dme set out of her suitcase.
I was so dejected that I couldn't even manage to ask why she’d bothered to pack such a giant fortress in her luggage.
"Sigh... Airi is Airi, after all."
"What’s that supposed to mean?! Come on, let’s get super Exci-ting! right now."
"Yeah, yeah."
Having harbored a momentary hope for some carnal activity, I ended up keeping Airi company with Bttle Dme until she was satisfied.
Midnight.
Airi and I were lying side-by-side in our futons.
There was no air conditioning, of course, but the countryside nights were relatively cool. With a wind chime hanging by the window and the electric fan set to "High," we could just barely tolerate the heat.
However, because some of the fan's blades were broken, it made a rhythmic, noisy rattling sound.
It was about as loud as the buzzing of the bee that had led to my lucky pervert encounter earlier.
"I'm turning off the light, okay?"
"O-Oh, sure."
When Airi switched off the light, only the pale moonlight streaming through the window provided any illumination.
Well... it’s been a long day. I should probably get some sleep.
"Hey, Ryouta, are you awake?"
"Of course I am. It hasn't even been two minutes since you turned off the light."
"T-True."
Airi's voice drifted over from the futon on my left.
"This kind of feels like a school trip, doesn't it?"
"...I guess. But normally on a school trip, the boys and girls sleep in separate rooms. Honestly, the fact that you and I are sleeping right next to each other like this is probably a bad idea, don't you think?"
"It's okay! Because Ryouta isn't the kind of boy who would ever do anything to hurt Airi."
As she spoke, Airi gently turned her body toward me, looking at me from her pillow.
She was wearing a T-shirt and hot pants—I wasn't sure if they were officially pajamas—but the cow printed on her shirt was stretched so far across her chest that it looked as long as a dachshund.
She was incredibly hot.
"Um, Ryouta."
"Wh-what is it? All of a sudden."
"Airi has something she wants to tell Ryouta. Something Airi couldn't say back during the Cultural Festival."
"E-Eh...?"
Something she couldn't say during the festival...?
Could this be... a-a confession?!
"Airi thinks... that the boy who gave Airi wafers a long time ago was actually Ryouta."
The revelation was, in its own way, a total shock.
"...Huh? Wafers?"
"Airi told you before, remember? About when Airi was poor and sitting on a bench at a candy store, and a boy gave her some wafers."
Ah, right... Now that she mentioned it, I think she did say something like that when we were at the candy store recently.
"And you think that was me?"
"Yeah! That blue bag the boy had was definitely the same as the one Ryouta had at his house, and Ryouta used to buy those wafers all the time back then, right? When the two of us went to the candy store the other day, Airi thought Ryouta and that boy looked a lot alike."
"R-Really?"
"Yeah. Well, it's not like Airi has proof, and Ryouta doesn't actually remember it, right?"
"I... I'm sorry."
It was the same as my memories with Rui; I couldn't exactly recall every single random day of my childhood.
The person being helped usually remembers forever, but for the person doing the helping, the memory tends to fade into the background.
Maybe if I were a light novel protagonist, I’d have a convenient flashback like, "It was you all along!"... but reality is a lot more heartless.
"But you know, it's okay even if it's not you! Airi wants the boy who gave her those wafers to be Ryouta. Airi wishes it was Ryouta, and Airi wants to believe it was..."
Her cheeks flushed a faint red as she spoke with a look of pure sincerity, before quickly turning her back to me.
"A-Airi?"
"E-Ehehe... That sounded a bit like a confession, didn't it?"
"Eh! A-Ah, I-I suppose it did!"
"Just kidding! Sorry for talking so long. We have to wake up early tomorrow, so let's sleep, Ryouta."
"O-Oh! Right!"
My heart was racing from the sudden turn the conversation had taken.
What did she mean, "sounded like a confession"?! That was as sweet as a scene straight out of a romance manga!
C-Could it be that she actually was confessing to me...?
The more I thought about it, the more my head became filled with images of Airi.
Just as I was clutching my head in a state of terminal excitement, my phone buzzed with a LIME notification... and oh boy.
My eyes nearly bulged out of my sockets the moment I saw the screen.
『Kuroki: Hey, Ryouta-kun? I stopped by your house after track and field club practice today, and your mother told me you weren't coming home tonight. Is everything okay? Are you staying over at Airi's family home, by any chance?』
This... was extremely bad.
I had just gotten out of the bath, but I was already drenched in a cold sweat.
The one person I absolutely did not want finding out about this had just caught me red-handed!