“… Huh?”

     For a few seconds, they stared at each other, completely naked.

     Then, Shinomiya’s gaze dropped to Hatano’s lower abdomen. Her face immediately turned bright red. She hastily pulled the comforter over herself, glaring at Hatano as she burst out in outraged protest.

     “Why am I naked?!”

     “… Uhh, well, about that…”

     Hatano found herself at a loss for words. She honestly had no idea how this had happened. In fact, she wanted answers herself. But to anyone looking at the situation, it was painfully obvious who appeared to be at fault.

     She broke out into a cold sweat as she desperately searched for an explanation. In the end, however, she decided it was better to tell the truth—even if it made her look suspicious—than to try and cover things up with a clumsy lie.

     “… Honestly, I don’t know. I was naked when I woke up too.”

     “Uwah… gross.”

     Even Hatano knew it sounded like a pathetic explanation. The look of speechless disbelief on Shinomiya’s face only drove that fact home. But no matter what anyone said, she genuinely had no memory of what had happened.

     She remembered going to sleep while thoroughly drunk. Even if she’d been drunk, would she really have made a move on Shinomiya?

     — No.

     It wasn’t as though she had any pent-up desires she needed to get out of her system. She knew perfectly well how to take care of that herself, so that idea seemed out of the question.

     And yet, for some reason, when she tried to retrace her memories, fragments of Shinomiya’s voice surfaced in Hatano’s mind.

     The same voice that so often hurled sharp-tongued remarks at her—she felt as though she could recall hearing that same voice making sweet and tender sounds.

     As Hatano desperately forced her hungover, throbbing brain to work, Shinomiya unleashed a torrent of abuse at her.

     “I can’t say I’m exactly surprised, but you’re the worst. You acted so indifferent, like you weren’t interested in me at all, and then the moment I let my guard down, you dragged your drunk underclassman home and took advantage of her. I’m not going to report you or anything, but you do realize that makes you a criminal, right?”

     “N-Nonono, hold on. I mean, I have no choice but to admit that something happened, but there’s no proof that everything was one-sided!”

     As Hatano desperately tried to defend herself, Shinomiya shot her a glare full of contempt, seemingly unimpressed by her refusal to back down.

     But no matter how drunk Hatano was, she prided herself on not being the type of person who’d ever do something like that without the other person’s consent.

     There had to be some kind of evidence that could prove her innocence.

     Hatano racked her brain for an answer. Then, as if an idea suddenly struck her, she began searching around the bed and soon found the clothes Shinomiya had discarded. It was an absurdly complicated outfit, covered in strings, zippers, buttons, and all sorts of other fastenings.

     “Your clothes! They look like such a hassle to take off. There’s no way you wouldn’t have woken up if someone tried to remove them, right?!”

     “Hmm…”

     Perhaps finding some logic in that argument, Shinomiya tapped a finger against her chin and gave it some thought. But apparently unconvinced, she quickly offered a rebuttal.

     “But I was really drunk, you know. I might not have noticed something like that.”

     “That’s not the only thing that doesn’t add up. If I was the only one doing something to you, why would we both need to be naked?”

     “… Maybe that’s what you’re into.”

     “Besides, if I’d really taken advantage of you in your sleep, I would’ve gotten rid of the evidence. There’s no reason for us to both still be naked.”

     “That’s exactly the kind of logic you’d use if you had assaulted me! And besides, my body feels weird all over. You definitely did something to me!”

     She said, pouting as she pulled the comforter up over her chest.

     “I’m not saying nothing happened. I was just trying to explain that it probably wasn’t one-sided.”

     “That’s exactly the kind of thing a sex offender would say.”

     “Okay, but in the incredibly unlikely event that I did assault you, I probably would’ve taken pictures while you were naked. You know, for blackmail or something. The fact that I didn’t should prove I didn’t do it,” Hatano refuted, knowing full well that what she was saying was awful.

     “You’re the worst,” Shinomiya spat out, glaring at her with utter contempt.

     At the same time, however, she seemed to have decided there was at least some logic to Hatano’s claims, and eased up on her interrogation.

     “Okay, so why are we undressed then?”

     It was a fairly straightforward question. The circumstantial evidence certainly suggested that something intimate had happened between Hatano and Shinomiya, but it didn’t appear that either of them had forced themselves on the other.

     Which meant there was only one logical conclusion left.

     “M-Maybe… it was mutual…?” Hatano forced the words out of her mouth, causing one of Shinomiya’s eyes to twitch.

     “… Are you stupid?”

     She was right. It was a stupid thing to suggest.

     There was no way Hatano would ever want to sleep with someone she openly declared to be the person she hated most in the world, and judging from what Shinomiya had said the night before, the feeling seemed to be mutual.

     Shaking her head at her own foolishness, Hatano apologized.

     “Sorry.”

     Shinomiya let out a sigh of utter disbelief before shooting her a skeptical sideways glance.

     “Are you sure you didn’t secretly record us having sex or something? Let me see your phone.”

     “U-Umm…”

     For a moment, Hatano considered refusing. It wasn’t like she had anything in particular to hide, but the mere possibility that she might find something on her phone was enough to scare her. Considering she could barely remember anything from the night before, she couldn’t say with complete certainty that nothing like that had happened.

     Still, refusing to hand over her phone would only make Shinomiya more anxious. Hatano might have hated her, but that wasn’t a reason to make things worse for her.

     “Only if you show me yours too,” Hatano said, pulling out her phone.

     “Okay, when we go through our phones, no hiding anything. We both keep our screens visible to each other the whole time.”

     “Yeah, of course.”

     “Alright, I’ll show you mine first.”

     They placed their phones on the bed and began their investigation.

     Shinomiya went first. After unlocking her phone—which displayed a cute anime character on the lock screen—she opened her photo gallery. There was a surprisingly wide variety of images: stray cats, beautiful scenery, and all sorts of other photos Hatano wouldn’t have expected. At the very least, though, there was nothing showing the two of them engaged in any sexual acts.

     Of course, it was possible she had hidden something, but Hatano didn’t really suspect her.

     “Alright, everything looks good. My turn,” Hatano said before unlocking her own phone with slightly trembling fingers. Unlike Shinomiya’s, it still had the default wallpaper.

     Of course, there shouldn’t have been anything there.

     But for Hatano, who genuinely had no memory of what had happened the night before, her phone felt like a black box.

     No—Pandora’s box was probably the more accurate comparison.

     If, by some horrifying chance, she really had assaulted Shinomiya and then gone so far as to record it, Hatano felt like she should just turn herself in without protest.

     Right before tapping the icon to open her photo gallery—an app she rarely used—Hatano took a few shallow breaths. In her mind, she was already bracing herself for the worst-case scenario and trying to figure out the best way to apologize if it came to that.

     But ignoring Hatano’s anxiety, Shinomiya impatiently urged her on.

     “Hurry up and open it already.”

     Before Hatano could react, Shinomiya grabbed her finger and tapped the icon for her.

     The photo gallery was filled with boring, unremarkable screenshots.

     But mixed in among them was a single video, marked with a small play icon.

     A dimly lit room. Smooth, pale skin. The thumbnail was too small to make out any facial features, but there was no mistaking it—a naked woman was on the screen.

     “… Well, that proves it then.”

     There was no mistaking it. The woman in the video and the person behind the camera were definitely engaged in sexual acts.

     The color drained from Hatano’s face, leaving her speechless. It felt as though every bit of trust she’d built up in herself was crumbling away. Was she really such a terrible person? The thought filled her with despair.

     As cold sweat poured down her face, Shinomiya looked at her with utter contempt.

     There was no room left for excuses.

     Resigning herself to her fate, Hatano prepared to turn herself in. Before that, though, she at least wanted to offer Shinomiya a sincere apology from the bottom of her heart.

     However, before she could get a word out, Shinomiya let out an exasperated sigh and opened the video.

     “Well, let’s take a look and see what you did.”

     She had every right to know. Without objecting as Shinomiya took her phone as though it were her own, Hatano simply watched as she played the video. The two of them stared at the screen in silence as Hatano’s old phone took a moment to load the video.

     Instantly, Shinomiya’s voice echoed from the phone’s speaker, calling out for Hatano.

     “Senpai, senpa—right there…! Keep going, I’m about to—”

     Just as her sweet, breathless, high-pitched voice seemed to be on the verge of conveying something, Shinomiya paused the video.

     “…”

     Shinomiya immediately broke out into a cold sweat, just as Hatano had moments earlier. She had clearly been conscious during the act, considering she had been calling out for Hatano.

     Meanwhile, Hatano fell silent, her face caught somewhere between relief and horror. Her innocence had been proven, but at the same time, it was undeniable proof that the two of them had slept together.

     Without thinking, they briefly looked at each other, then immediately averted their eyes.

     What on earth had possessed them a few hours earlier to sleep with each other? And what had possessed them to record it?

     Alcohol was a terrifying thing. Hatano was sure Shinomiya was thinking the exact same thing.

     Quietly deleting the video, Hatano spoke without looking at her.

     “Nothing happened between us. Agreed?”

     “Agreed. For both our sakes.”

     Shinomiya nodded with a troubled expression, as though she couldn’t make sense of her own actions.

     In the end, why the two of them had slept together remained a mystery.

---

Thank you to an anonymous reader for commissioning me for the second chapter of this series!

If you wish to support me, feel free to throw a few dollars my way by clicking here (this takes you to my Ko-Fi). For now, I’ve set an ambiguous goal on my Ko-Fi if you’re interested to contributing to a crowdfund to ensure the rest gets translated (so that one person doesn’t have to shoulder all the costs). ALL donations, regardless of intention, will contribute towards it.

---

< Previous Part | Next Part >