I examined my own uniform, which consisted of a blazer, skirt and a blouse.

       No matter how you looked at it, the only place where I could hide an eraser was inside a pocket. Technically, my socks would’ve worked as well, but then it’d stand out like a sore thumb. It’d be impossible to hide it somewhere on my necktie, and I didn’t have any tape to stick it to the back of my collar either.

       My hiding spots were extremely limited.

       Miyagi was undoubtedly aware that the winner had already been decided even before the game started. Most likely, her goal was to use the game as an excuse to touch me in various places just to get a kick out of seeing my reactions.

       To begin with, something like this could hardly even be called a game. There was no penalty game¹ for the loser either.

       Whatever. I’m just going to hide it someplace simple so Miyagi can’t get any satisfaction from this.

       I slipped the eraser into the right pocket of my blazer.

       The pocket was the most obvious hiding place, and I wanted her to be able to find it right away.

       「Okay, I hid it. You can turn around now.」

       I said, prompting Miyagi to turn and face me.

       There was a small bump in my pocket, so there was no way she wouldn’t be able to find it. I even caught Miyagi stealing a quick glance at my pocket. However, for some reason, she decided to stay quiet about it and instead came closer. She started examining my body like an investigator on a TV show, beginning with my blazer.

       Right…

       Of course it was going to turn out like this.

       Miyagi patted my shoulders down as if she was following a procedure.

       I didn’t think it was particularly unpleasant or anything, but I also wasn’t open-minded enough to say that I found this amusing. But since she was only touching me over my blazer, I wasn’t that bothered by it.

       Miyagi’s hands unnaturally avoided checking my pockets as she shifted her focus towards my skirt.

       She briefly stroked my hipbones and gently tapped my thighs in search of the eraser. However, because it was impossible to hide an eraser in those places, she quickly moved on and examined my skirt’s pockets.

       After giving my pockets a light pat, Miyagi moved behind me.

       Just as I was about to ask what she was doing, she slipped her hand into my pocket.

       Was it because it was more difficult doing it from the front?

       I see.

       Right as I convinced myself what Miyagi doing was normal, her hands started moving around all of a sudden, causing me to immediately grab her wrist out of reflex.

       「Stop moving your hands around like that.」

       The fabric inside of my pocket was a lot thinner compared to the rest of the skirt.

       Despite being well aware that the eraser wasn’t there, the way she moved her hands around made it feel as if she was touching my leg directly, which I found rather uncomfortable.

       「I won’t know if it’s there or not unless I check thoroughly, right?」

       「Don’t you think most people can normally tell the second they put their hand in?」

       「No.」

       Miyagi answered with something completely unreasonable as I felt her fingers begin to move again. This time however, I forcefully pulled her hand out of my pocket.

       I knew something like this was going to happen.

       This was probably her idea of payback, likely because I’d called her by her first name and licked her fingers without her permission. I wasn’t sure what else she had in store for me, but I didn’t find any of this particularly amusing.

       「Can we stop with this?」

       「No.」

       Miyagi said as she got up in front of me and started unbuttoning my blazer.

       I knew she wasn’t going to stop, and I expected her to take my blazer off as well. Even so, my body couldn’t help but stiffen.

       Miyagi opened my blazer up and stared at my blouse, despite knowing the eraser obviously wouldn’t be in a place like that. She scanned up and down with her eyes. Then, with her right hand, she began touching the side of my stomach.

       I gripped Miyagi’s arm as she searched me.

       It felt ticklish.

       I could withstand her patting me down when I was still wearing my blazer, but the fabric on my blouse was a lot thinner. Each movement of her hand sent shivers down my spine, making it an uncomfortable place to be touched. However, instead of stopping Miyagi, I found myself simply holding onto her arm.

       She pinched my side as if she were tearing a piece of bread, causing me to flinch. Then, before I knew it, her left hand had started caressing the area just above my hipbone.

       「So your waist is your weak spot, huh?」

       Miyagi said, sounding clearly amused.

       「It’s not a weak spot. I’m just ticklish there.」

       「Isn’t that exactly what a weak spot is?」

       Miyagi slowly stroked my waist with her fingers.

       The sensation of my blouse lightly rubbing against my skin made me shiver.

       Her fingertips started making their way towards my back, her nails tracing a path on my blouse as if she were writing letters on it.

       I grabbed Miyagi by the arm.

       The way she was touching me felt different from before.

       She was wearing the same bored expression on her face, but her touch felt strangely inappropriate and completely unlike how friends typically behaved. It was way different from how Umina and the others casually touched each other.

       Her touch up until now felt cold and emotionless. That was something I was fine with.

       It let me believe we were only playing a silly game.

       But what we were doing now just wasn’t right.

       「Stop, that seriously tickles.」

       I applied more pressure to the hand I was grabbing her arm with.

       「Fine. I’ll look somewhere else if you let go.」

       「Okay, but if you try something like that again, I’ll actually slap you.」

       「Isn’t violence supposed to be against the rules?」

       Miyagi mumbled under her breath.

       Of course, I knew that much, and I really didn’t want to hit her either.

       「Continue your search somewhere else, got it?」

       I gave her another stern warning.

       When I let go of Miyagi’s arm, she did exactly as she was told.

       Instead, Miyagi used her other hand to slip into my blouse’s breast pocket.

       I was instantly reminded of what she had done inside the pocket of my skirt.

       「Come on, you already know it’s not there.」

       I kicked Miyagi’s leg out of protest.

       I wasn’t comfortable with her touching me so much through the thin fabric of my blouse.

       「Sendai-san, that’s against the rules. Also, I won’t know unless I check, right?」

       「You’re so annoying…」

       Hearing the delight in Miyagi’s voice was really starting to get on my nerves.

       「Look, it’s fine. Now that I’ve made sure that it’s not here, I can search somewhere else.」

       I wasn’t exactly sure what was “fine” about all of this, but at the very least, she took her hand out of my pocket.

       「Just finish this already. You already know where it is, don’t you? It was so obvious from the start.」

       I wanted the game to end already.

       She knew where the eraser was, so there was no point in dragging this out.

       「Bear with me for a little longer.」

       「Is there anywhere you haven’t checked by now?」

       「Take off your necktie.」

       「… Huh?」

       I said out of reflex as Miyagi began taking off my necktie. Then, without any hesitation, she placed her hand on the side of my neck.

       Her palm clung to my skin as if there was no gap between them.

       Miyagi’s hand felt surprisingly warm, though I couldn’t be entirely sure if that was her heat or mine. The boundary between us seemed to be blurring into something more indistinct, but that was likely because she had placed her lips on the same area not too long ago.

       「Shiori.」

       I called Miyagi by the name she hadn’t given me permission to use and then gently placed my hand on top of hers.

       「Don’t call me that.」

       Miyagi peeled away the hand that was glued to my neck as she furrowed her brows and glared at me.

       Somehow, seeing her with that bitter look on her face made all my heavy feelings from earlier a bit lighter.

       I wanted Miyagi to look at least a little troubled.

       「Can I say it one more time?」

       I asked softly, but my question seemed to cause the wrinkles between Miyagi’s eyebrows to deepen.

       I wasn’t sure why, but for some reason, she found it incredibly unpleasant whenever I called her by her first name.

       「Shut up.」

       Miyagi sounded disgruntled as she moved her hand towards a button on my blouse.

       「What are you planning to do?」

       She didn’t respond.

       Instead, she silently started unbuttoning my blouse.

       I kept the top two buttons of my blouse undone today, so the one she ended up unfastening was the third. Right as she was about to go for the fourth, I pushed her away by the shoulders.

       「Hey!」

       「What?」

       「Keep your hands off. There’s no reason for you take my blouse off, right?」

       I tore Miyagi’s hand away from my blouse and buttoned myself back up.

       She probably didn’t intend to take it off anyway.

       Around halfway through our game, it felt like this whole thing turned into a test of endurance. At this point, we were just playing a game of chicken. We both knew that there were certain lines we couldn’t cross, after all.

       「I thought there was a chance you hid the eraser there.」

       「That’s impossible. Plus, doing something like this is against the rules.」

       「Well, we agreed that having sex was against the rules, but we never said anything about taking off your clothes, right?」

       「Fine, in that case, let’s make it a rule right now.」

       「Look, it was just a joke. I never actually intended to take it off.」

       I know.

       I understood all of this was supposed to be a joke.

       Whatever she did just now was all part of the game, and she was simply pushing my limits until I forced her to stop.

       But still, this sort of joke wasn’t very funny.

       「You already know where I hid it, don’t you?」

       I asked as I stepped on Miyagi’s foot.

       She placed her hand over the right pocket of my blazer.

       「Here?」

       「Wow, you got it. Okay, the game’s over now.」

       I emphasized the last part before Miyagi could even get the chance to suggest playing a second round.

       「You’re so lewd, Miyagi.」

       I lobbed a complaint at her as I fixed up my necktie and took a seat on her bed.

       「Alright, any more orders?」

       「No.」

       Miyagi said with a bored tone in her voice as she brought a cup of soda to her mouth.

       She placed her empty glass back on the table as she leaned against the bed like a backrest.

       I couldn’t see her face from here.

       I wasn’t sure what was going through her mind right now either.

       Miyagi’s uniform brushed against my leg.

       Feeling a bit tickled by her blazer, I started tapping her on the shoulder with my foot. 

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1. Sendai uses the term batsu gēmu (罰ゲーム) here, which literally translates to “punishment game”. Usually, it’s something that takes place after a game or a bet, where the winner can make the loser do their bidding (within reason, of course). You might’ve seen some examples of punishment games in some anime romcoms for the sake of progressing the romance (e.g. someone loses in a card game? The loser must kiss so-and-so), or a simpler example would be making the loser buy the winner a drink or something. ↩︎

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