“Ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh!”
At the sink in the game center restroom, Mei was bent over, rinsing her mouth over and over.
She kept spitting, over and over, along with the saliva.
“Ugh... bad breath...! A man’s smell! It’s nothing like Rika’s sweet, fragrant saliva...”
Mei’s face fell into a miserable frown.
After wiping her mouth with a handkerchief, she stepped out of the restroom.
Just remembering Eiji’s greedy kiss sent a chill through her.
“T-This... to think I was toyed with by a man... This is humiliating...”
But what made me angriest was myself, because that kiss had left me feeling strangely dazed.
Men should be nothing more than puppets dancing on the palm of my hand.
I have to... I have to get him back twice over.
Just as Mei, having made up her mind, was about to return to Eiji’s side.
A figure appeared in front of her.
“Mei, Mei-chan...”
“What is it?... Guh!”
Looking up, she saw the boy who had spoken to her after school today.
He looked heartbroken, his face twisted in pain.
Her instincts told her trouble was coming, and Mei’s expression turned openly wary too.
“W-What is it, Tanaka?”
Still, Mei answered with a smile.
“Why... why are you with another man...?”
“Why? Because that guy is the one I’m going home with today.”
“Th-that gorilla, is he Mei-chan’s, yo-your, y-y-your boyfriend!”
The pale-faced male student, Tanaka, asked her that.
Mei’s ears twitched in response, and her smile stiffened into something almost demonic.
“Of course not.”
“Eek...”
Seeing Mei, who was always playing cute, suddenly show such a rough expression and voice, Tanaka let out a tiny cry.
Normally she would have handled this smoothly, but she had just gotten beaten badly in the game and had her lips stolen from her, so she was boiling with humiliation and irritation right now.
But Mei quickly switched her expression again with a snap, putting on a smile.
“R-Right, of course not! If he were a gorilla like that, I’d never agree to it. Never!”
“R-Really...?”
Even so, she couldn’t quite suppress her frustration, and the end of her sentence came out a little sharp.
Hearing Mei’s answer, Tanaka looked relieved for a moment.
But soon his face tightened back up with urgency.
“B-But if Mei-chan is going out with another man, th-then you’d go on a date with me too, right?”
“Th-That...”
No, I don’t want to...
She was thinking of a way to refuse, but perhaps because Eiji had seen through her and brought out her real face, a flicker of disgust showed on Mei’s expression.
“...Why? Why are you hesitating? Isn’t this something you can answer right away?”
Tanaka muttered darkly, and a chill ran down Mei’s spine.
This might be bad.
Mei had already decided she should run, but Tanaka was one step faster.
“Tanaka-kun?... Ouch!?”
“If that’s how it is, then let’s go play right now! Okay?”
He grabbed her arm with such force it felt like he was about to crush it, and Mei screamed.
Tanaka leaned close, inviting her with almost desperate heat.
“No, so... it hurts...!”
“Come on! Come on! Let’s go out with me! What do you want to do? A movie!? Shopping!? I’ll go with you no matter what! So... so...”
He was frantic.
The person he liked... his idol, with another man. Tanaka couldn’t accept that fact.
So he had to move fast... before Mei was fully under that man’s claws, he had to claim her first.
“No, don’t...!”
“Why are you being so unhappy!? Mei-chan would never say that!! Mei-chan... Mei-chan belongs to me alone!!”
“Eek...!”
He was whispering his love to Mei, but instead of accepting it, she only looked terrified.
Tanaka had reached his limit, so he lifted a hand.
And Mei, looking up at him, was filled with fear.
Men were supposed to be in her control.
They were supposed to exist only to spoil her and satisfy her.
And yet... in this situation, Mei was helpless, pinned down by the force of the man looming over her.
When it came to the difference in power between men and women, women were not necessarily always weaker.
A trained woman would be stronger than an untrained man.
But compared with a trained man, the man would come out ahead. Likewise, if neither side had trained, the man would still come out ahead.
That was an inborn biological fact that could not be changed.
Feeling that violence up close and personal, she was overwhelmed by it now.
The difference in muscle strength between men and women.
So all she could do was tremble slightly, clamp her eyes shut, and wait for the man... for Tanaka to let her go.
Just when she felt utterly helpless, a savior appeared at Mei’s side.
An untrained woman could never beat an untrained man.
But... what if it was man against man?
“-----Hey.”
At that low voice, both of them froze in place.
Mei opened her eyes and looked up at the man, and Tanaka, whose head was completely filled with Mei, turned toward him too late.
There was a wall of muscle standing there.
“Don’t you think your way of hitting on people is awful?”
“Uhh, ah...”
“Ah...”
The difference in build was overwhelming. Build mattered enormously in a fight.
Most of the time, a scrawny man who had never trained stood no chance against a strong, trained man.
This was one of those times.
The person who appeared in the scene where Tanaka was pressuring Mei was a massively built man with a body full of muscle: Eiji Ogiwara.
He looked down at Tanaka and let out a deep sigh.
The sigh was louder than the sounds both Tanaka and Mei had made combined, and it made both of them shudder.
“Listen. At that rate, no matter how far you go, getting a double date is impossible. Learn how to do it first, then come back.”
With a soft thump, Eiji placed a hand on Tanaka’s shoulder.
But to Tanaka, it felt more like a heavy smack, a warning.
It was as if he were saying: You know what happens if you lay a hand on Mei, don’t you?
“U-ugh... I-I’m sorryyyyyyy!!”
“...Why are you running?”
Tanaka threw Mei out of his mind and bolted from the scene.
Eiji watched him go. He had no intention of threatening or warning him, so he only stared after him in mild confusion.
“And? Are you okay?”
He checked on Mei’s safety for the moment.
Since she was clinging to his arm, he assumed she was fine.
But strangely, Mei’s cheeks were faintly red, and she was staring up at Eiji in a daze.
A man stronger than me drove off a man stronger than me, and he saved me.
After being forcefully kissed, though she hadn’t wanted it, Mei had still started to see Eiji as a man.
With that premise in place, seeing a strong man drive off a man stronger than a woman made something stir in Mei’s lower abdomen.
It wasn’t because she was depraved; it was animal instinct.
Mei looked at Eiji like a girl in love.
No, that wasn’t something so pure and pretty.
——I want a child.
I want to be made slick as a female and have the children of a powerful male....
“...Hah! This is a big deal! Look at these marks! That filthy shut-in... if he leaves marks on my jewel-like skin, I’m never forgiving him...”
She managed to recover from the overheated state and shouted, trying to return to her usual self.
In fact, there were still red handprints on Mei’s slender arms.
If someone hurt cute me... I’m furious. No, I’m already furious.
“By the way, gorilla, you were way too late!”
“Oh, sorry.”
You apologized so bluntly that I can’t even stay angry.
Mei’s lips moved rapidly... she had things she wanted to say before she started scolding him.
“B-But... you saved me. Thank you.”
She forced down her embarrassment and thanked him, her face bright red.
She had thanked him honestly... well, she had thanked people before, but never a man who looked down on her like that.
After being thanked by Mei, Tendo Academy’s idol and the king of male popularity, Eiji...
“Oh, then bye.”
He accepted it simply and then turned to leave.
That left Mei staring after him, mouth and eyes wide open.
“H-Hey, hey, hey, hey! What do you mean by that?”
“Hm? Well, that’s enough for today, so let’s each head home.”
Mei grabbed his thick arm desperately and demanded an explanation, but he only gave that one reply.
For a moment, Mei felt her heart skip at the sight of that muscular arm, so different from a woman’s... but once she heard Eiji’s answer, her jaw nearly dropped.
“H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-HUH!?”
Mei let out a shriek.
No, has this guy lost his mind?
He’s giving up on the chance to spend time together with me alone---basically a date---just like that?
Normally, anyone would do everything they could to make it last longer.
And yet, Eiji was trying to go home cleanly and without fuss.
For some reason, even though Mei was supposed to be the one being kept from leaving, she was the one desperately trying to keep Eiji there now.
“Am I not getting my charm across?”
“No, no, it got across. Yeah, really strongly.”
“Don’t brush me off like that!”
The way he handled her like she was some huge nuisance made Mei want to cry.
“Because if I keep playing games, it’ll cost money. So, bye.”
“Aaaaaaaah!! Fine, fine! I get it! I’ll invite you to my house!!”
Eiji started walking off quickly, and Mei, on the verge of tears, threw out her trump card.
That was inviting him to her house.
I kept thinking that if I invited a gorilla like that into my room, what would he do to me... but since he saved me from Tanaka, I can’t just think of him as a gorilla.
...Well, since he forced a kiss on me, I should be as careful as possible around him.
But I’ve already started wanting to be with Eiji more and more.
“No thanks.”
Eiji refused flatly.
Mei was already close to tears.
“I-I’ll tell Rika-chan that you forced a kiss on me when I get back, okay!?”
“Do whatever you want.”
Blackmail failed too.
Now Mei only had one move left.
“Waaaaah... please...”
Mei leaned against Eiji’s thick arm and started crying.
Her full chest was warped by the pressure, but Mei didn’t seem to have the spare attention to care about that.
“...Sigh.”
Seeing that Mei wasn’t pretending, but was really crying, Eiji let out a sigh and finally stopped walking.