← The Studious Boy and the Secret Account Girl
Volume 2
Chapter 23: After School, on the Way Home
Chapter 23: After School, on the Way Home
The days of Tsutomu and Matsurika being treated like a sore spot after the classroom incident—they didn’t last all that long.
The pairing of the grade-topper and the school idol was conspicuous, yes, but to the other students, the upcoming exam mattered more than gossip.
As the midterms approached, Tsutomu and the others became buried into the ordinary, a commonplace school scene.
And today, too, the two sat facing each other, working on their exam studies in the library, in truth.
“…”
Tsutomu lifted his gaze from his notebook, trying not to be noticed.
Gently. As gently as possible. So no one would notice.
Matsurika, seated across from him, was groaning as she worked through a problem.
Just because she was stuck, leaping in to help at once wouldn’t do her any good.
She thinks and thinks and thinks, and only when she’s truly at a loss does she call out.
Since he needs to time it right, watching her progress is correct.
While admiring Matsurika, he organized his theory-building inwardly.
—She’s beautiful, no question.
Studying together in the library had made him realize it anew.
‘Tachibana Matsurika’ was, without exaggeration, a beautiful girl.
Not merely ‘as good as the rumors’, but a special beauty that ‘the rumors didn’t even do justice to.’
It wouldn’t feel off to call her, not a school idol, but a genuine idol.
In his first year they’d been in different classes, so there was no connection to begin with.
In his second year they’d assembled into the same class, but still there was no connection betwenn them.
Though the chances of seeing her had shot up dramatically, Matsurika was always surrounded by a crowd, and there’d been no opportunity to look at her directly.
He’d learned that she was the same person as the favored secret account ‘RIKA’ he’d followed since last year. He’d been struck by an inexpressible surprise.
In the photos posted on SNS, he could look over her body at leisure, but he couldn’t see her hidden face.
Through all manner of things, now that he was in a position to look her in the face up close, he had no choice but to let out a renewed admiring sigh.
Matsurika’s beauty wasn’t artlike. It was the beauty of a woman. She always evoked the sexualities of adolescence.
—Not good.
He tended to have his attention stolen away by Matsurika.
These past few days, there was a self-awareness he’d been less focused than usual.
Tsutomu, who didn’t study for exams to begin with, wouldn’t drop in grades over something like this.
There was some delay in prep, but once he got home and sat at his desk alone, it’d be fine.
It was that level of hindrance, so no problem.
But—
“What’s the matter, Kariya-kun?”
“No, nothing.”
“You’ve been glancing this way for a while now.”
—Busted!
His whole body flushed, and strange sweat burst out.
At the same time his head went blank, obstructing his logical thinking.
It was an experience he’d never had before getting involved with Matsurika.
With no chance to prepare a counter, his thoughts spilled out of his mouth.
“A-ah. It’s just… you see… seeing you so up close and complete, I happened to—”
“I’m glad to be praised, but I also know you’re not just looking at my face, but blatantly at my chest.”
“R-right.”
His attempt to blur it on the spot was caught frontally, leaving him wide-eyed.
Adjusting his slipping glasses, he searched for his next words.
His gaze, wandering into the air through his lenses, was oddly unsettled.
Matsurika, watching the flustered Tsutomu with half-lidded eyes, was no different from usual.
She had a faint smile at her lips, and even a sense of composure.
“Well, fine, though.”
“You’re fine with it!?”
Matsurika’s words raced past the far corner of Tsutomu’s imagination.
He’d heard she was used to being looked at, but he’d never imagined she’d grant permission to look so openly.
At his startled, voice-cracking words, a coughing sound from far away overlapped.
“Quiet in the library. Right, Kariya-kun.”
“U, ngh…”
Even knowing it was spite, he couldn’t find a retort.
He let out a big breath and turned back to the problem on his desk. A fresh start.
At this rate, riding along with the pace of the beauty before him, who knew how many holes he’d dig.
The textbook, reference book, and his own notebook—none of the words written in them entered his head at all. A problem.
He didn’t notice that, beyond the head of the downcast, troubled Tsutomu, Matsurika had softly smiled.
★
“Boy, today went well, didn’t it.”
“Yeah.”
Urged on by the closing bell, Tsutomu and Matsurika left the school building.
Around them were students who, like the two of them, had studied until the last minute… but everyone kept themselves at a distance.
It looked plainly like they were being avoided. Even Tsutomu, dull to people’s hearts, was at the level of noticing, to his credit.
“Somehow, they’re keeping their distance.”
“A bit past the point of concern.”
Matsurika’s voice carried a good deal of exasperation.
The gossip about Tsutomu and Matsurika was making the rounds of the school.
To the other students, they were as curious-exciting as ever.
Only, with the exams near, everyone had lost the leeway to prick up their ears.
It was also well known that recklessly provoking Tsutomu’s displeasure didn’t end well.
The current sense of distance was built on top of that delicate balance.
“…Well, if they’re not in the way, I guess it’s fine.”
Tsutomu lost interest in the students and looked up at the sky.
The summer was still far off, but the time the sun set was gradually later.
It was the time of day one might call too bright to be called the border between day and night.
If the club activities hadn’t been suspended, the school would surely be more lively.
“Tonight, look forward to it.”
“Hm?”
The abruptly murmured words struck his ear.
Casting his eyes sideways, Matsurika was holding her smartphone in her white hand, wagging it up and down.
Her off-key humming and good-humored smile were charming… but the expression on her face wasn’t the charismatic one she showed on campus.
The girl, her black hair swaying at Tsutomu’s side, wore a mood that was more underground, more bewitching and wanton.
“It’s been a while, after all.”
Seeing the corners of her mouth drawn up in a smirk, he understood what she meant.
The school idol ‘Tachibana Matsurika’, reigning as a queen of the school, had another face.
As the popular erotic-image-posting secret account ‘RIKA’, she seemed intent on uploading photos to SNS.
“Wouldn’t it be better to wait until after the exams at least?”
Tsutomu said what he didn’t mean.
Now that he knew ’RIKA’s identity, he’d been holding back the urge to press the studying Matsurika with ‘there haven’t been any posts lately, have there?’
With the head of the line herself eager, there was no strength to be put into a negative.
“Gotta refresh myself too, you know.”
“Refresh…”
“And there are followers looking forward to it, too. Like someone I know.”
“Mmm.”
Since his blatantly staring at her chest during study had been caught, he was left speechless.
No matter how he looked at it, when a new image was posted, he was sure to bow in reverence and save it.
Matsurika, laughing at the sulking, deliberating Tsutomu, suddenly turned her head.
‘U-hm, well, fine’ she seemed to satisfy herself, and with little white fingers, tried to draw Tsutomu closer.
There seemed to be something she didn’t want the others to hear. Looking around, some odd student could be seen.
Given the possibility that someone was watching, as when their relationship had been exposed, her caution was only natural.
“What?”
As he leaned his ear in, Matsurika brought her lips close.
As the two’s distance narrowed, a sweet air tickled his nostrils.
Though they weren’t touching, he felt—or was it his imagination—Matsurika’s body heat.
—My head’s going to spin…
“Since I started that, I realized… it seems I have that kind of taste.”
“That taste?”
“I mean, the feeling that being seen by everyone is good.”
“For real!?”
“S-H-U-S-H!”
He’d gone high-pitched again.
Matsurika hurriedly pressed her index finger to her lips to hush him.
Closing his mouth, he swept his gaze over the surroundings. No one had noticed his change.
He looked back at Matsurika. Up and down, from head to toe, he stared.
This girl had startled him often, but this, again, was a bomb of a remark.
—Exhibitionism… Matsurika…
His moving gaze was finally pinned by her jet-black pupils.
In the evening sunlight, he felt almost drawn into the glittering darkness.
“…Would you be happy if I said that?”
“Happy, is it… no, it’s true I’m happy, but how should I put it… it’s a joke, right?”
“Well, who’s to say?”
The girl beside him walked on, giggling.
Enraptured by her swaying glossy black hair and white legs, he realized he’d suddenly been mocked.
Matsurika turned back and said a word.
“Kariya-kun, you’re lewd.”
“Tachibana!”
“Hehe, getting mad isn’t scary, you know.”
“Ugh…”
He, who feared neither teacher nor student, was forever being led around by Matsurika.
He’d had a pathetic fact held right before his eyes… but it wasn’t so unpleasant.