Outsider Syndrome: Everlasting (Bonus Content)

Chapter 2 - "Intimacy"

"I know." I connected our foreheads, mimicking her smile. "I have the best little sister in the world."

It took me over a year before I had the courage to explicitly mention Mom to others again. I hadn't the slightest clue about Kamakiri's relationship with his parents, but obviously, he was uncomfortable about openly discussing them. Generally, Kamakiri didn't 'bare his thoughts and feelings' with anyone. That said, he wasn't the type to withhold his misgivings either.

If it was worth mentioning, he'd have done it with as grand of malice as whenever his brother entered the conversation.

Chie poked her head into the kitchen, crinkling her nose. "Is it me or is something burning?"

I leaped from Mao.

Oh no!

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"Kamakiri, Kamakiri!" I burst through the doors to his private room in the library. "I'm here!"

The darkness that encased the room stopped me in my tracks. It'd become a daily occurrence, me barrelling inside to reconnect with him here come lunch. Every time, I found him with his nose buried in a book. Which was precisely why this situation—this unnatural, foreboding darkness—issued my caution.

Had he not arrived? If he was late, that wouldn't explain why the door was unlocked. He was adamant absolutely nobody—not even the librarian—step foot inside, especially without his supervision. He also regularly skipped class; attended solely for important examinations and to keep his attendance at the bare minimum necessary to graduate.

My left foot inched backwards.

I could always come back—

Right as I spun around to book it back into the light, the door slammed. Goosebumps coated my skin. My breath hitched at the back of my throat. Since my eyesight hadn't quite adjusted, the blackness coated everything—even the door.

"I-If you were in here, you should've said something."

His arms swung around me from behind, over my abdomen, and enveloping me in sufficient heat to melt my nerves and stiff limbs. "You're late," he murmured into my shoulder blade.

My skin flamed like a wildfire. "My homeroom teacher dragged his lesson past the bell. U-um, Kamakiri?"

"I have something for you. Don't move."

I resisted a shiver at his soft breath that tickled my ear. Gnawing my bottom lip, I did as instructed. He withdrew and strolled towards the adjacent bookshelf. What was going on? Was I dreaming?

I swallowed.

No, this was reality. In that case, how do I decipher this? He had a surprise for me? Seeing as he went so far as to shut the lights and close the door. . .

The hairs at the back of my neck rose. My heartbeat spiked. Was it that perfume I sprayed after gym class, the one I borrowed from Kiharu?

"Believe me!" she'd insisted. "It was sold to me as a seduction magnet. One spritz and you'll have men putting hands all over you!"

It was yet another one of her jokes, and I wasn't idiotic enough to believe such heresy. Perfume aside. . . maybe it wasn't a stretch to say that my beauty itself was to blame. I was irresistible.

I clapped my cheeks and whipped my head left and right.

"B-but we're still at school. Just because we're in private doesn't mean we can get away with anything—"