← The Studious Boy and the Secret Account Girl
Volume 2
Chapter 17: The Secret Relationship - Part 2
Chapter 17: The Secret Relationship – Part 2
“Let’s exchange IDs. Or rather, we’re doing it!”
During the break, as Tsutomu sipped his cocoa, Matsurika planted herself in front of him and declared such a thing.
A corner of the courtyard, away from the classroom. Despite the clear weather of the lunch break, there was no one around.
Hence, the only one who heard her abrupt declaration was Tsutomu.
Glossy black hair swaying in the pleasant breeze, a fragrance that tickled the nose.
His gaze climbed up from the tightly drawn waist, past a chest that overwhelmed the beholder, higher and higher.
On the face of the over-refined Matsurika he met there was an emotion close to anger.
Tsutomu, pulling his mouth from the straw, said a single thing.
“Why?”
He voiced the welling curiosity as it was.
At once, Matsurika’s brows rose even higher.
‘I can’t believe you’—she was saying it with her whole body.
—You’re way too confident.
He sighed through his nose, mouth shut.
While exasperated, he didn’t think she was overconfident.
‘Tachibana Matsurika’ was, for better or worse, that kind of existence.
If anything, it was almost oddly convincing.
Out of patience at Tsutomu, silently searching for words, the school idol bent at the waist at a neat angle, intruding with just her upper body.
From her short skirt, slender legs stretched down, firmly planted on the ground.
Despite her appearance, her lower body seemed quite well trained.
“Because, all the back-and-forth is tedious, no?”
Matsurika took a notebook from the bag she’d lowered.
A ‘Gariben Notebook’ of Tsutomu’s making, by now such a familiar sight.
When he’d handed over the first one, he’d assumed it was for the upcoming midterms… but then the talk had taken a sudden turn.
Having been moved by the quality of the notebook she’d verified with her own eyes for the first time, Matsurika had said ‘I want to see the ones up until now too.’
The impressions attached to the returned notebook showed off her skill abundantly, and were of use to Tsutomu as well.
It was a win-win relationship.
However, presumably due to her position as the school’s charismatic idol, Matsurika didn’t want to be seen too much.
That subtle concern was beyond Tsutomu’s ken, but it wasn’t something worth nitpicking, so he’d consented.
Since then, the transaction had continued in such out-of-the-way places, and now Matsurika had snapped. Unfathomable.
“Is that so?”
“That’s right. If we exchange IDs, you could teach me even when we’re not at school.”
“…I gain nothing from that.”
He groaned. It wasn’t a lie.
Tsutomu wasn’t that idle.
Living on his own away from his family home.
Besides school studies, there were daily chores and a part-time job.
He couldn’t be at Matsurika’s beck and call.
“Eh? Hmm… any other boy would answer in two shakes, though.”
“But it’s Kariya-kun, so it can’t be helped.”
Matsurika’s grumble-like murmur, her gaze wandering into the air, struck Tsutomu’s ears all the more.
—‘Can’t be helped,’ what an insult. As if I’m some oddball.
Even he was put out by that.
Just as he opened his mouth to lodge a complaint——
“Then, I’ll think of something for the thanks.”
“Hearing from you often would be a nuisance.”
“‘Nuisance’… I’ve never been told that before!?”
“Is that so? I’d always pictured you glued to your phone.”
“That’s a prejudice. I’m fine! I’ll be careful not to bother Kariya-kun.”
Watching Matsurika clasp her two hands together and begin to plead, he was seized by the illusion that his own standoffishness was somehow the wrong in the wrong.
After deliberating and deliberating and deliberating, he found an answer.
“Fine, let’s exchange.”
Tsutomu was very weak to being pressed by Matsurika.
No need to state the reason.
“That reluctant attitude, I’ll absolutely make you regret it!”
“Haven’t you been saying the same thing all along, Tachibana?”
“You’re imagining it. Just remember it, will you!”
Borrowing the notebook he’d brought, Matsurika drew away, her black hair trailing.
Since being seen together would likely be a source of trouble, he remained seated a while, following her back with his eyes.
“…That’s a completely villain’s line, you know.”
★
‘I’ve prepared your thanks.’
On the night of the day they’d exchanged contact info, a single message arrived on Tsutomu’s smartphone.
The plain wording, stripped of all unnecessary ornament, gave off an ominous air all the more.
Had he not checked the sender, he’d have flagged it as spam.
“I can’t well just pretend not to see it, I suppose.”
Tsutomu, who’d finished his part-time job, chores, and review, and was wrapped in a pleasant fatigue, pressed his forehead on his bed in his room.
Systematically, he could ignore it. But Matsurika was a classmate.
Today was a weekday, not a Friday. Tomorrow wasn’t a holiday, either. He had no intention of skipping school.
Imagining facing the next day having ignored it, an invisible weight pressed down on his whole body.
‘It’s something special, so a comment would be appreciated too.’
‘Comment’ was emphasized.
She must be poking at him, the fact he gathered impressions from those he lent his notebook to.
Lying on the bed, he adjusted his glasses and steeled himself not to be surprised by anything that came.
He opened SNS, opened Matsurika’s message——
“O-oh!?”
He was shocked by the attached ‘thanks.’
What Matsurika called her ‘thanks’ was a photo. A selfie.
Were she anyone else, he could have barked ‘self-consciousness, have some sense!’
But she was the school idol ‘Tachibana Matsurika’, and at the same time the popular erotic-image-posting secret account owner ‘RIKA.’
Her flawless, pure white skin and a perfect figure discernible even through clothing, all laid bare without reservation.
What she wore was a scarlet-red bikini with little fabric. A frightening match, its seductiveness level dangerous.
But, but. Up to this point, it wasn’t worth being startled by.
Among the images ‘RIKA’ had posted, there were more erotic ones.
What startled Tsutomu the most was that—Matsurika’s face wasn’t hidden.
A charming, erotic expression she never showed at school.
At the fact that a girl his age, in his class, who studied beside him, was making such a face, a shiver ran down his spine.
Since learning that ‘RIKA’ and ‘Tachibana Matsurika’ were the same person, whenever Tsutomu looked at ’RIKA’s photos, Matsurika’s face had been automatically fitted in his mind.
Even that alone had raised the eroticism and immediacy of the images considerably… but he’d been shown just how poor his own imagination was.
The original was on another level. He was seized by the illusion that the smartphone in his hand had abruptly transformed into something like a bomb.
“Th-th-this is bad, right!?”
A strange voice escaped.
Were he living with his family, a voice he couldn’t have fended off from their interrogation.
He did live in an apartment that was supposedly soundproof, but he couldn’t help glancing around.
The sterility of his room, which he usually fretted over as too barren, now, conversely, gave him a sense of relief.
‘How about it?’
‘Kariya-kun, your thoughts, please.’
The messages Matsurika added one after another were, at any rate, bad for his heart.
Tsutomu’s heart was now beating at an irregular, violent rhythm. His throat was bone-dry and the air thin.
His reason had been burned away by a single photo. He could no longer do anything with his own power.
About to delete the image straightaway and shove the phone far away, dive into the bathroom and pour cold water over his head——
‘…So bad you can’t say anything? It was no good?’
‘No, it was the best.’
Even as he’d thought ‘bad, bad’, his body was honest.
His fingers sent words of praise of their own accord, and saved the image without hesitation.
‘Praised so directly, I get shy, you know.’
‘Since it’s a chance, let me take one more and send it.’
—Hm?
He felt a wrongness to Matsurika’s message.
Glancing at the clock, it was already late into the night.
But if he were to trust the characters displayed on the smartphone——
‘Are you taking this photo right now?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Oh, wait, did you imagine it?’
‘That’s lewd.’
‘Sorry, I imagined it.’
There was no reply.
Tsutomu stared at the display for a while.
His body was hot. His head was boiling.
Strange sweat gushed out and wouldn’t stop.
‘That’s lewd.’
The exact same message was sent once more.
Attached with a photo of her, wrapped as before in her scarlet bikini.
The top’s string had been taken off, but the important part wasn’t visible.
A pose emphasizing her chest, as though peering in, with a full smile. It was perfect.
He saved it on the spot.
‘From now on, I’ll send you a photo every day.’
‘Much appreciated, but it’ll leave me unable to do anything. Make it once a week.’
With heart-rending resolve, he sent the message.
To be honest, he wanted them every day.
But if it came to that, truly no exaggeration, he’d lose the ability to focus on his studies.
It was a pathetic tale, but he was confident. No, certain.
‘That’s so like you, too honest, Kariya-kun! Lewd!’
He thought it was unreasonable. But it was a fact, so he had no complaint. If he closed his eyes, Matsurika’s smile would come to mind.
Despite having been so reluctant to exchange IDs, what filled Tsutomu’s chest was a sense of satisfaction: ‘it’s good.’
After rolling around on the bed in near-agony, he stared at his phone and laughed, self-mockingly: ‘Even I go down easy.’