Absolute Choice Ayanokoji

10. Class Points

At last, before my internal alarm rang, the girl sprang on top of me, trying to wrench away my blanket once more. One could argue that to repeat the same action and expect different results was insanity, but this girl was a lumberjack, chopping away at the tree that was my blanket until her goal was met.

It appeared that God (a disciplined non-hipster) had smiled on the girl, because by some accident Chocolat had pulled off my blanket, exposing my tousled brown hair. Accidents could be freaky.

"Ayanokoji-kun, may I kiss you?"

"No."

"Oh...okay..."

The blonde girl turned away, seeming disappointed for some reason. It was rare to see someone who always lit up the room (albeit a plain one with hardly any furniture in this case) act like this. Chocolat's began to turn away. And at that moment, her first kiss was stolen away.

"MMMH! Mmmh. Mmmh..."

Did she think herself capable of speaking with her mouth closed?

The girl sunk into my arms, and it felt as though her life force was draining into me. Bacteria were not the only thing the kiss had transferred. Little by little, I would gain mental and emotional control over her as well.

When I was in middle school, I was very isolated. I knew very little about fashion, video games, movies, and so on, things that my current classmates seemed to really value. A part of me wonders where my old classmates are. Did their education really put them above others? What does it even mean to be "above" someone else? For example, there are many examples of highly successful people who loathe themselves but would appear to almost be on a different, superior plane of existence to commoners. This was a question I wanted to answer at the school.

After coming to high school, I researched extensively on the things I didn't know, the aforementioned fashion, video games, etc. I learned that people closed their eyes while kissing, allegedly to savor the feeling, and based on my newly acquired knowledge, I could ascertain that the optimal duration of the kiss would be 6 seconds. But just because I had this knowledge, did it mean that I understood it? Was I capable of genuinely ascertaining the changes in Chocolat's mental state, or was I merely using the figure like a machine?

Humans are creatures of convenience, so these questions were quickly sidelined and forgotten.

After exactly 6 seconds, I pulled out. Of the kiss, of course.

Chocolat lingered in my arms for a few more seconds, but I decided to gently back out of her personal space. It was similar to the idea of eating a little less food than what one wants. These activities were best done in moderation.

Strangely, Chocolat was not smiling. The girl stood next to a wall, wistfully staring out of the window, occasionally sneaking a glance at me when I pretended to be in a similar state of introspection. Her usual childish expressions were completely gone.

10.2

Over the past month, I had become comfortable with my classmates. I couldn't safely say that I would trust them with my life, as Ike had been eyeing my relationship with Kushida with thinly-concealed envy. It was a relief that he had not met Horikita, my neighbor, or he would have produced some kind of official document bearing my forged signature, along with brandishing a restraining order from Kushida.

Horikita had started to open up to me slightly, now that we officially bore the label of "friends". She had still retained her acerbic tongue, but it was now used on the poor souls who interrupted our conversations as well.