Blood covered Ayane’s right eye like she’d just been disqualified from a boxing match. It made me worry that she’d damaged her eyes, but thankfully, the scrape was located just above her eyebrow.

“It’s really annoying how cuts on your face just end up spurting,” she said. “Like calm the fuck down, it’s just a scratch.”

“Y-yeah.”

She made it sound like she got beaten up a lot. I couldn’t decide if I found that hot or absolutely terrifying.

At first, I’d been amateurishly pressing a ball of tissues against her face with shaky hands, but Ayane eventually got impatient and asked to administer her own first aid. I couldn’t tell her no. With nothing left for me to do or say, I simply stared dumbly at her and watched as tissues absorbed blood over and over again.

It was disturbing to watch. Enough so that I shifted my focus to cleaning up the mess left by the bully’s nose. Once I got everything in order, including the shifted tables and chairs, I decided to say something to cut through the awkward silence.

“Doesn’t it hurt?” I asked.

“Nah. Period cramps hurt way more.”

“R-right. Of course.”

“What about you, though? Doesn’t it hurt?”

“…Does what hurt?”

“Your conscience, mostly. For doing nothing but stare as a poor, defenseless girl gets bullied.”

“That’s not true…”

 I’d been trying to defend her, just indirectly. Of course, I could have walked in and defused the situation earlier, but bailing someone out like that would be the equivalent of taunting the bullies. They’d simply come another time you weren’t around, and with an even greater vengeance. The only way to properly end drama like this was to confront the other and hit them so hard they’d never dare to touch you again.

Hence the recording.

But, you know, it was my mistake to assume Ayane couldn’t handle herself..

“I was joking,” she smiled. “Don’t take that seriously. I’m neither poor nor defenseless.”

“Haha…”

“What, not funny enough?”

“Maybe if you weren’t bleeding so much.”

“Tch.” She puffed her cheeks out exaggeratedly.

Right as she did, I heard a group of students shuffling in from the entrance. They were probably returning from break early. Just as I had because Nanako was starting to get feisty on the roof, even for her standards.

It would’ve been troublesome if they saw Ayane in her injured state, so I shifted my body to block their view from the door. I imagined it looked like I was grinding my crotch into her face. Then, once I was sure they’d lost interest, I grabbed Ayane’s wrist and pulled her to her feet. She could’ve easily popped all my joints there if she wanted to, but she didn’t resist.

“Taking me on an adventure?” she whispered.

“It’ll be the infirmary if you don’t shut up.”

“Ooh. Scary, scary.”

The infirmary was a no-go, since an investigation into her wounds would’ve implicated her as a fight participant. In the best case scenario, that was a 2-week suspension—in the worst case, expulsion and a transfer to a different school.

Yeah, no thanks.

That being the case, I took her to the only place in school where no one would disturb us… well, except for a certain blue-haired girl named Mari. If everything went perfect, though, she wouldn’t be relevant to this story anymore.

“Here we are,” I said. “Shiba-Tsujimoto cave.”

We arrived at a corner of the school where a small maintenance shaft existed. It was dark, permanently deserted, and could only fit in three people at most width-wise due to how narrow it was. Its length was actually pretty surprising, though. At least 5 or 6 metres. Frankly speaking, I didn’t understand what it’s real purpose was, but at the moment it was serving as the perfect hideout spot.

“People have definitely had sex here before,” Ayane said.

“Definitely not. We can be the first two if you want, though.”

I stepped into the shaft, sat down, then gestured for Ayane to do the same. Once she was done gawking, she settled in a platonic distance on my right.

When I first discovered this place with Mari, there were cobwebs, dust, and insects everywhere. Not even the horniest of horndogs would be able to copulate in that environment. I thought it must’ve had a function I wasn’t aware of, so I began to ask teachers and seniors about the empty maintenance shaft on the school’s East Wing. No one came remotely close to understanding what I was talking about. Finally, after two months of asking around and seeing contractors completely ignore the place, Mari and I decided to clean it up and call it our own hideout. It still hasn’t been found since.

“Before winter break, there was a mattress where you’re sitting and an electric kettle there.” I pointed to a power socket at the very end of the shaft. “But I got scared the school would find it, so I brought them home. I was probably being too paranoid, though.”

“Yeah, judging by the dust on the floor.”

I traced my index finger along the concrete then brought it up to my eyes to see. Definitely had some cleaning to do.

“By the way, Shiba-kun.”

“Mm?”

“Who’s Tsujimoto? Is it a boy?”

“Ah… Not exactly.”

I felt stupid for letting that kind of response slip through, but Ayane seemed to read my mind. She just giggled, then gently said, “Got it. Won’t ask.”

We sat in silence for a bit.

“Um, Oga—”

“Naoko is fine.”

“Alright. Aya… I mean, Naoko… what exactly were you doing on Christmas Eve?”

“You’re kinda rude, aren’t you? Asking about that and not my cut?”

“But that’s—”

She cut me off by flashing a bunch of tissues in front of my face. They weren’t bloody at all. “I was joking,” she smiled. She seemed to do that a lot. “On the 24th, I was working as a hostess at a karaoke lounge. The usual.”

“The… usual?”

“Yep.” She went through the motions of cracking her neck and joints as she spoke. “I started my shift at eight, saw my boyfriend walk in at ten with another girl, argued, got my age exposed, and then got fired on the spot at eleven-thirty. At twelve, I saw a cute boy try to get run over by a car. I’d probably have done the same if I hadn’t seen how pathetic he looked trying to do it.”

“That sounds like a heavy day.”

“It was.”

I could feel my heart racing a little. “…Naoko-chan.”

“Just Naoko is fine.”

“R-right. Naoko. Can I call you Ayane?”

“Is that a kink?”

“N-no, it’s just… nevermind.”

“Call me whatever you want, Shiba Makoto-kun.”

I heard Ayane undoing her school ribbon. The felt rustled as it rubbed against the insides of her collar, and then it hit the floor with a satisfying thud. 

I blinked. In the next moment, the same dreamy eyes I saw on Christmas were in front of my face.

Crying slightly like I remembered.

“Ayane..?”

“We should kiss, Shiba-kun.”