Chapter 519: Hold Tight
Chapter 519: Hold Tight
“That Himekoji is really not a good guy!”
“Huh?!”
What’s with this guy? Insulting someone for no reason? Making sure he didn’t mishear, Himekoji wasn’t one to tolerate offenses either, so he shot back:
“You’re the one who’s not a good guy!”
“Eh? What?”
“Ah, never mind.”
Himekoji gave a faint smile, pretending he had said nothing.
Wakugi Tetsuya had swallowed quite some liquor after all. Words half-heard usually drifted out the other ear. He let out a drunken burp and resumed the earlier topic, bursting with fury:
“Your sister’s lifelong happiness… you, as her little brother, really need to watch out for her! That guy named Himekoji… I just heard from your sister… a heartless scoundrel! Dumped her after having his fun! Fickle! Worse than an animal!”
“Huh? Hah? What?!”
The more Himekoji heard, the stranger it sounded. His lips started twitching uncontrollably.
Yet Wakugi Tetsuya was only getting more fired up, the alcohol fueling him. His face flushed crimson, and flecks of spit nearly flew from his mouth onto Himekoji’s cheeks:
“Even if your sister cares for him wholeheartedly… he’s no good man! No worth trusting! Must not trust! Absolutely shouldn’t trust! After your sister wakes from this drunken stupor… I hope you seriously talk some sense into her.”
Wakugi patted Himekoji’s arm, earnest and solemn. Himekoji wore an odd expression… he thought he almost understood what was happening…
“Ahem… you… you’ve drank too much. There must be… a huge misunderstanding here. That Himekoji you mentioned… I know him too. Handsome looks… gentle character… top-notch personality…”
Himekoji racked his brain, scraping for every scrap of praise to paint himself glowing. But halfway through, Wakugi carelessly waved him off:
“That’s exactly what makes that Himekoji so dangerous! There’s a saying—you can know a person’s face, but not their heart!”
Himekoji froze briefly… he almost believed it.
Wait… was he really… that impressive?
“You probably don’t know, huh?”
Wakugi shot him a mysterious glance.
Himekoji blinked rapidly, almost nodding: true, he truly didn’t know!
Wakugi paused… then dropped a bombshell:
“Your sister has already privately pledged her lifelong commitment!”
“Privately pledged?! To who?!”
Just seconds earlier utterly bewildered, Himekoji was now shocked all over again. Instinctively, he turned his head, peering through the car window at the drunken woman slumped in the passenger seat.
Unbelievable, utterly unbelievable! What happened to the lifelong commitment to remain unmarried, that aging leftover woman?!
Himekoji felt strangely irritated… without quite knowing why.
“To who? Dummy! To that Himekoji, of course!”
“Ehhh???”
The anger blazed up fast… and vanished even faster. Himekoji’s mouth gaped wide, his expression indescribably peculiar:
“Bro… you can’t just spout such nonsense!”
Without realizing it himself, Himekoji even used a much more intimate term for Wakugi.
“How could I be spouting nonsense?!”
Wakugi seemed more frantic on Himekoji’s behalf than himself! He clapped, stomped in place:
“Your sister said so herself! She said she and Himekoji… have already had their wedding!”
“Impossible!”
It sounded wilder the more he heard. He was unmarried… Teacher was unwed… What wedding rubbish?! Himekoji flatly denied it.
“Appears to have been a secret private thing… so even you, her little brother, got left in the dark! Don’t give me that skeptical look! Think! He’s her lover! You… you’re just a little brother! How’d she tell you everything?”
“It truly never happened!”
“Shut up! Just a little brother! Listen obediently! Otherwise why would I say that Himekoji dumped her after having his fun? All spoken personally by your sister! The wedding genuinely happened! But afterwards… that Himekoji refused to admit any of it!”
“Really?”
“Absolutely true!”
“This…”
Just as Himekoji planned to retort… his mind suddenly spun… recalling that absurd farce the night of the School Trip… If that childish play-acting counted as a wedding…
“Sigh! I tell you… your sister… she’s way too deep in now. Matchmaking party? Matchmaking party? Who attends such things only to guzzle booze? I was there tonight! Saw it all! Guys coming up to chat her up? Plenty dashing… plenty wealthy… Your sister brushed off every single one! Only found out later over drinks together… when she confessed liking Himekoji—her heart had no room for anyone else! Honestly…”
“They say she likes Himekoji?” The instant that hit his ears… Himekoji’s brain seemed to buzz. Suddenly, the stream of nagging beside him seemed distant… then near… drifting.
Himekoji shook his head hard. Abruptly, he seized Wakugi’s wrist with a white-knuckled grip:
“She said she likes Himekoji?”
He glared intensely straight into Wakugi’s eyes, his voice heavy.
“Yeah.”
“She really said that? You heard right?”
“Of course! Didn’t you claim you know Himekoji? Her own little brother… didn’t you figure it out?”
“Eh? Ahh…”
Himekoji numbly released his grip, brows furrowed, eyes lowered… entirely lost in thought.
Wakugi assumed Himekoji was pondering how to talk sense later into his “sister” after hearing all this. Understandingly, he shook his head and patted Himekoji’s shoulder.
He’d said his piece now. An outsider could only help him so far. Wakugi drifted off quietly, relieved of a burden, his task seemingly done. Who knew… the moment he turned… the final alcohol wave slammed into him. Wakugi’s eyelids fluttered… Plop! Down he crashed to the ground… unconscious… completely drunk.
Lost in a chaotic trance… Himekoji noticed nothing of the collapse behind him.
…………
Teacher Hiratsuka… liked him? Learning this from a stranger’s mouth… stirred complicated moods.
Because of the student-teacher bond… and that hefty age gap… he’d deliberately avoided overthinking many things… never dared dwell too deep. Utterly unprepared… his thoughts tangled wildly. Night wind whipped his face… a slight clearing… a flicker of sobriety.
Perhaps pretending not to know would be better? He hadn’t decided whether it was right… hadn’t decided at all. But… standing here stupidly helped nothing.
He opened the car door… got in.
He glanced beside him… the female teacher slumped slumped drunkenly on the passenger seat, eyelids heavy.
Most times… she’d put on this elder’s air of dignity around him. Yet “most times” utterly excluded… these drunken hours.
Crimson cheeks, flushed by liquor… dark lashes like flickering fireflies… gazing suddenly… she seemed more some lively, vivid young maiden. Perhaps Time merely hesitated staining her delicate beauty… Or perhaps… only his privately wished hope… glimpsed within this dim car lamplight.
Always… Himekoji remembered… that star-pricked moonlight night… that empty Park… what he’d told her:
“I… only wish I was born several years sooner.”
Sincere. Honest.
Born earlier… perhaps met earlier… then liked… so much earlier.
Under such silent gazing… Hiratsuka’s lashes fluttered slightly. Her eyes opened… seeming faintly clearer from the wine. She saw… those complicated yet soft eyes were… her student. Himekoji Akito.
“……Akito? Are you… here for me?”
She thought she was still trying to hail a cab roadside.
“Yes, Teacher. Going home.”
Got an affirmative answer.
Pausing for a moment, her student added afterward, “Fasten your seatbelt.”
Perhaps because she hadn’t moved for a while, her student’s body slowly leaned in. He reached out his hand and wrapped it around her.
Was it a hug?
No, it wasn’t. It was only to help her fasten the seatbelt.
She thought it would be fixed in just a moment, and the distance would grow again, but that wasn’t how it happened.
“Huh? Uh…”
Since they were stuck close together, she could clearly see that face getting more grown-up over time. She could even catch any small change in his expression.
He blushed deeply, almost like he was about to burst.
Was it awkward?
What? Why be awkward?
That confusion flashed through Hiratsuka Shizuka’s mind. Then she saw the reason: because her student stretched his arm out all the way but still couldn’t reach the seatbelt by her right hand. Almost there, just a little bit short…
Wouldn’t it be better if you moved your body over a bit more here?
Thinking this, Hiratsuka Shizuka quickly glanced at Himekoji’s upper body leaning to the side. Finally, she knew, Himekoji wasn’t unwilling—he couldn’t do it. His upper body was stuck tight in that small space by the seatbelt, pulling him back hard. Leaning over this much was his limit…
First undo your own seatbelt, then help me with mine!
Why couldn’t her student, Himekoji, think of such an easy idea? So dumb!
She wanted to tell him this. When she lifted her head, their eyes met.
Quiet time, tight space, with faint scents of alcohol and perfume. Everything seemed to stop.
That guy, with his girlfriend, he forgot about his Sensei. He showed favor to one gender and forgot humanity. He was right in front of her.
Should she tell him that a Female Teacher also belongs to the other gender?
Liquor gives boldness. Things you wouldn’t dare to think or do when sober only stayed that way when sober.
The worries were no longer worries, the hesitations—what to hesitate about?
Suddenly, Hiratsuka Shizuka lifted her hand and grabbed the back of Himekoji’s head. Her lips, painted fine and bright red, were only used for drinking at tonight’s party—such a waste—but now, finally, they did their much more special and precious job.
She kissed him, all the passion and shyness poured out for him to know.
Himekoji’s eyes opened wide in shock! On instinct, he tried to pull away but couldn’t, held firm by the Female Teacher.
His lips felt hot like fire, but the hands holding him were cold as ice. Himekoji’s back stiffened, then loosened, and he gave up struggling.
After a while, who knew how long, the Female Teacher let go of him.
He nearly choked to death and panted hard for air.
“This is a reward.”
The Female Teacher said that, but Himekoji didn’t understand. His head felt dizzy.
“You still have a bit of conscience to know to pick me up, so next came…”
“Punishment!”
Saying this, the Female Teacher reached out and pushed Himekoji’s leaning body back. Then, flipping over, she hopped from the passenger seat to the driver’s seat, sat right across Himekoji’s legs, held his face, and pressed him hard with force.
An educator must be fair with rewards and punishments.
In the hot rush of kissing, Himekoji’s lip skin got bitten and bled a little bit.
He was held tight.
…
…