“I think those days will do you good, too”, Mizuki whispered, poking a spot on my shoulder. I hissed. Most of the scratches he had left weren’t that deep, hurting only the moment he made them, but that last one had left quite the mark over my shoulder.

“Well, let’s say I’d appreciate you cutting your fingernails shorter…”

He held his fingers in front of his face, then nodded. “Yeah, I should. They’re a bit too long, anyway.”

I had a habit of biting my fingernails when I was learning under stress, so I didn’t really need to cut them. They weren’t overly short, since I didn’t bite them too regularly, but rarely grew long enough that cutting would be needed.

It was a bad habit that had carried over since elementary school and that I couldn’t get rid off no matter what I did, even though I knew it was unhygienic and not very pretty.

“Don’t worry too much”, I quietly said, thinking that I could accept this pain as sharing his. If he had to endure the pain and discomfort at the start, then I wanted to share it.

This treasure I had obtained by some twist of fate, how could I stomach seeing it like this?

He poked my side, causing me to jolt as it tickled.

“What, you’re not the one who likes pain. You getting scratched is just unnecessary.”

...Ah, he loudly admitted to liking it. Why does it feel like this turned so much more kinky with him saying it out loud? I mean, I know that you enjoy being bitten and treated a bit roughly, but I didn’t expect you to say it…

“Alright, thanks.” I embraced him tighter and he grunted, still uncomfortable in his own body.

In that quiet moment, I opened up my menu.

[95/100. Only time can fill in the rest, but with honesty and love, this bond won’t be broken.]

Awww… I bit on the inside of my lip to keep myself from starting to cry.

Our dialogue playback had stopped showing comments, and even the hints just said ‘Currently not necessary’. I looked over his information, then switched to the date tab.

It had a huge, red message in an overlay.

[Don’t you think you’re switching order? Go on more dates with him already!]

Oh. Uh, yeah. I should do that.

Off to the last, embarrassing tab…

As expected, it mentioned that he had sensitive ears and a sensitive throat, but also that he didn’t like being touched on his nipples or being given a blowjob.

The preferences bluntly said [Enjoys rougher treatment, excluding during sex (currently).]

...Currently, eh. I won’t comment on that.

I pulled my nose up in a sudden wave of emotionality.

“Mizuki”, I whined. “I love you.”

“I know”, he grunted back, though his voice was amused and soft.

“Even though I’m a guy and not very special, you can’t break up with me, okay? I’ll always listen when you have something to complain about…”
“I’m complaining about the fact that you’re way too insecure.”

...Fair enough. I sniffled nonetheless, wishing I could hug him tighter but holding back since it hurt him.

“Do you want to go watch a movie tomorrow?”

He laughed in response. “We aren’t getting far with learning, are we? But yeah, let’s go.”

If there’s one thing I couldn’t care less about right now, then it was my grades. I wanted to spend time with my boyfriend, catch up on those missed dates and not worry about the future for a moment. I was even happy that we had decided to stop hiding our relationship at school, since that meant I could cling to him a bit.

The course I wanted to take on game design didn’t care too much about grades, anyway. It gave you a test you were expected to complete in a few hours, in a separate room. A tiny project, so to speak. 

Make your own game in a few hours - the only parts that were graded were those that you did yourself. I had already asked Haru to help me with the graphics, the concept and programming would be done by me.

Mizuki needed to watch his grades, but he was generally better in all subjects than me, even if he didn’t learn too much. I wasn’t worried that he’d fail.

If finals went as the midterm exams did, then I didn’t need to worry.

“I feel a bit bad that your family was thrown out and we don’t even learn.” The thought came to me suddenly, but Mizuki rejected it.

“My whole family will be more than happy if we strengthen our relationship. My dad sees you as his son-in-law already. They wouldn’t mind, but we really don’t need to rub it in their faces, do we?”

...Yeah, I wasn’t planning on telling them what we had done here. Really no need for that.

“Shall we watch a movie right now? I can reach your laptop.”
“Yeah. Help me turn around. I feel like a ragdoll.”

I flipped him around and tugged him into my arm, reaching for his laptop with my other hand.

“Anything you want to watch?”
“Just not horror.”
“You getting scared is cute, though…”
“I don’t care if that’s your opinion, keep it to yourself. No horror.”

I scrolled through the streaming site. Sappy romances, stupid comedy…
And the newest horror movie I really wanted to watch.

“...”

Mizuki glared. “No.”

“Horror films are great for couples, though!”

He didn’t believe my argument, glaring at me. 

“I mean, if you’re scared then you can hide in my arms, right?”

He rubbed his forehead. “Don’t you think that kinda strategy makes more sense for when you’re still in the early dating phase? What are you using it now for? I’m in your arms, anyway?”

I let my eyes wander over his curled-up figure in my arms, completely leaning on me to relax his tired muscles.

...I guess, but…

“It’s kinda different when you do it cause you’re scared?”

He pinched my cheek, pulling at it painfully. 

The desire to hide was strong, but I persevered.

Since Mizuki wasn’t holding himself back, it was very obvious to see that we weren’t just friends. Especially since, due to the rain, the whole school was eating in the cafeteria and could watch everything.

Ah, as to what I mean by obvious…

Exchanging food from our plates, drinking from my bottle, leaning on me, playing with my fingers.

The union of all these little things were just too conspicuous, since they were both natural and loving. Mizuki wasn’t really close to the other students and even with my friends and Prez, with whom he got along well with, he had almost zero physical contact.

We were really, really obvious. 

“You look like you want to cry”, Yuji commented dryly. “It’s only been a minute since we sat down, though. Can you endure the meal?”

“I think”, I whined, lowering my head between my shoulders.

“If it helps distract you, Prez is coming over.”

Indeed, out student council president was walking towards our table, unceremoniously sitting down with us. Our relationship had turned quite amicable, after all.

“Hey”, he greeted. “Are you two aware that the whole school just found out you’re dating? As in, is now completely certain of it. And I really mean the whole school, everyone is writing to those not around.”

With curious eyes, he watched Mizuki steal some food from my plate. My boyfriend looked up to give Akihito a greeting hum, then returned his attention to his meal.

I laughed awkwardly. “Hehe… Am I in trouble?”

Prez snorted. “Are you kidding me? The girls are gathering pictures already.”

“Prez, can you give Riku a status update? He’s going mad with panic about how others see him right now.” Kaoru rolled his eyes.

“Sure? It’s a bit of a surprise, but Taizou looks so comfortable right now that you actually don’t look bad together. The fujoshis are satisfied, they already switched from shipping me with him to the canon ship.”

My jaw dropped. “...You… Uh, know…” I gestured wildly. Prez laughed.

“Uruya is in a fujoshi club. It’s hard to not learn some things when she reads doujinshis in front of me during the breaks.”

That was a bit surprising. So, serious Uruya actually was a fujoshi, huh...

Mizuki poked me with his fork. “Canon ship?”

“You remember shipping, right? The canon ship is the couple that is actually together, and not just two people that the fans would like to be together.”
“Oh.”

So basically, it seems the powerful fujoshi faction is satisfied with me and Mizuki. My tense shoulders relaxed a bit.

Owl

I will have to go through the whole story and fix the way I deal with formating, lol.
Small note: Over this time, since the earring, people were suspicious but not overly sure about their relationship. After the happenings of the last chapters, Mizuki turned a good bit cuddlier, though, so everyone is certain now