Sendai-san’s slender and beautiful fingers picked up one of the truffles and brought them to my lips. The thought of biting her fingers crosses my mind, and I opened my mouth a bit wider than necessary to let them in. However, as soon as the chocolate brushed the tip of my tongue, I was distracted by the sweetness of the powdered sugar. I inadvertently sank my teeth into the truffle as I grabbed Sendai-san by the wrist.

       「Are you not going to eat it?」

       Her question seemed like it was more of a formality than anything. Meanwhile, the truffle had managed to throw a wrench in my plans. As I let go of her wrist, the sweetness of the powdered sugar spread in my mouth, even though I wasn’t finished chewing it yet.

       There were five more pieces of chocolate left.

       I put my idea of pulling a prank on her fingers off for now as I continued to chew on the remaining bits of the chocolate.

       It was delicious.

       It was sweet, but the taste didn’t linger very long in my mouth. Considering how smoothly the truffle seemed to melt away on my tongue, I felt like I could eat as many of them as I wanted.

       「Your lips turned white.」

       Sendai-san said with a smile as she extended her hand.

       She tried to use her long and slender fingers to wipe my lips, but I brushed her hand away.

       「Was it too sweet?」

       I found it irritating that she was asking me about the taste instead of getting annoyed at me for rudely swatting her fingers away.

       Sendai-san was acting exactly like how she would at school.

       She was always wearing a smile on her face and never seemed to get mad at anything.

       Even though we weren’t at school, Sendai-san was putting up a wall between us – she was acting like I was the only one in this room, and I wanted to drag her through that wall, and down to where I was.

       「We’re not at school, you know.」

       I raised the temperature on my space heater and then took a sip of my soda.

       「What are you trying to say?」

       「You don’t have to pretend to be nice.」

       「I’m not pretending to be nice, I am nice.」

       Sendai-san replied without a hint of shame in her voice while smiling.

       「You’re not very nice when you’re here. If you really were that nice, you’d be sweet to me – sweet like this chocolate.」

       「Whaat? I think I’m pretty kind and sweet to you. I mean, I even brought you friendship chocolate, didn’t I?」    

       「Friendship chocolate, you say. Even though we’re not actually――」

       “Not actually friends.”

       Those were the words on my mind, but I held them back.

       It wasn’t the type of thing I needed to go out of my way to say. It didn’t really matter whether we were friends or not, and just because she brought me friendship chocolate didn’t mean we were actually friends.

       Right, it wasn’t a big deal.

      「What is it? What were you about to say?」

      「Feed me another piece.」

       I changed the subject and then opened my mouth. Without probing further into what I was about to say earlier, Sendai-san picked up a pink truffle this time.

       「Is this one okay?」

       「That’s fine.」

       I stared at her fingers.

       On those days where I’d ask Sendai-san to lick my feet, she would always bite my toes too.

       Then, she would start licking my toes as if searching for any bite marks she may have left behind.

       It’d hurt and send shivers down my spine.

       But even though I found it disgusting, I didn’t dislike it as much as I thought I would.

       In any case, she would always make me feel things that I didn’t want to feel, so I wanted to do the same thing back to her, though I would never lick someone else’s feet like she does. That’s why I settled for her fingers. I was fine with it since it was her hand.

       Technically, I could’ve just given her an order to accomplish that directly without needing to use chocolate as a medium, but I found that rather boring.

       Such inexplicable feelings must come unexpectedly, after all.

      「Here you go.」

       As if I was lured by the sound of her soft voice, I opened my mouth wide. Then, I bit down on Sendai-san’s fingers along with the truffle.

       I chewed, harder than I usually would for things like chocolate.

       The tenderness of the meat elicited a similar kind of joy I got whenever I used a knife to cut through a thick slice of steak. Not that I had any steak with my father recently.

       「Miyagi, that hurts.」

       Sendai-san raised her voice in protest.

       But I didn’t let go.

       I bit down hard enough to feel her bone against my teeth.

       「Seriously, Miyagi. That really hurts.」

       The sound of her low, strong voice – which was different from what I’d hear at school – was exciting to listen to.

       My warm room was rapidly starting to get hotter. Intoxicated by the sweetness of the chocolate and the hardness of her bone, I could hear a voice in my head begging for more.

       I applied more force on her fingers with my teeth.

       Right as I was about to break the skin, Sendai-san’s fingers trembled slightly.

       「Miyagi!」

       When she shouted at me, I released my hold on her fingers and savored the rest of the chocolate in my mouth.

       「……. Was that supposed to be payback?」

       Sendai-san asked while examining her hand.

       There wasn’t a trace of anger on her face.

       But at least she looked like she was in pain.

       「Who knows? Give me your hand.」

       The truffle that was in my mouth had completely melted away by now and was making its way to my stomach. Upon hearing my demand, a slight frown appeared on Sendai-san’s face, as if she knew what was coming next. However, she doesn’t go against my word. Even though I hadn’t gone into the specifics of my order, she wordlessly extended her hand to my lips.

       Then, I brushed her fingers with the tip of my tongue.

       As I slowly traced over the shape of the bite marks I left behind on her fingers, Sendai-san pulled on my front bangs.

       「You cut your hair?」

       Earlier, I may have said that I cut it too short, but it was only by a little bit.

       At least, I didn’t cut it so short that Sendai-san – whom I’ve never spoken to at school before – could’ve noticed it.

       The distance between us was as wide as the Ganges River. ―― Not that I remember how big the Ganges River is, but there was a clear divide between us.

       Even though we were supposed to be about that distant from each other, it stirred my heart knowing that Sendai-san noticed that I’d cut my bangs.

       Instead of replying to her, I tried to bite down on her finger again.

       But before I could do so, her finger was pushed further into my mouth.

       The finger in my mouth was pushed in to the second joint, and it moved as if it was exploring the inside. When her fingertip brushed against the inside of my cheek, it sent tingles down my spine.

       I could feel uncontrollable emotions start to well up in me.

       Even though I found this disgusting, I didn’t want it to stop. The strange feeling in my chest began to grow by the second.

       I hated this.

       I gently bit the finger that was moving around in my mouth. When I pressed my tongue against the finger and started licking it, she forcibly pulled it out.

       「Did that taste good?」

       I stared at Sendai-san, who asked that question as if nothing even happened.

       I wondered if I was able to inflict the same amount of pain and discomfort as she did to me whenever she bit on my toes.

       I had no idea.

       Sendai-san was always hiding her emotions behind her smile, after all.

       Since I didn’t get the reaction I wanted out of her, I gave her a curt reply.

      「The chocolates tasted better.」

      「I’ll bet. Do you want any more?」

       Sendai-san asked without breaking her smile.

      I hated that look on her face, that made it seem like nothing had happened just now.

       I bit down on her fingers so hard that she needed to raise her voice at me, and there was no way she wasn’t repulsed by having her fingers licked so much. That’s why, I had to rip off the mask that allowed her to gloss over everything so easily.

       「Give me that one.」

       I pointed at the brown-colored truffle, which seemed to be dusted with cocoa powder.

       「Open your mouth.」

       Sendai-san said as she picked up the third piece of chocolate that I requested from her.

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Credits to himi for proofreading and editing this part!

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