Thanks for all the votes for the cover images guys.
The image with the most votes has been finalized as the cover.
I'll be removing the poll chapter now.
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Everyone partied like actual college students would've partied and got abso-fucking-lutely hammered.
By the end, Kazuya was left thinking, 'I hope they don't blame me. It wasn't me who decided on a Sunday to party. I just made it a real party.'
"Hey man. I love you to death…" Kibe was at his side, hanging on to him for dear life.
"All right, buddy. You'll be fine." Kazuya finally dragged Kibe to the cab and put him in it.
He'd already set the destination for Kibe's home when he booked the cab so it wasn't an issue for him.
Finally, the only one close enough to him who was hammered was Mami.
He wasn't going to send a cute drunk girl home in a cab. Who knows what would happen?
"Mami."
"Kazu-kun." In a cute girly voice, she opened her arms and jumped at him.
"All right, hold back a little. We're in public. Let's go, I'll take you home." He held Mami's hand and put it over his shoulder and brought his hand to her waist.
He almost dragged her off as she kept clinging to him.
"Hey, Mami. Don't you have a boyfriend? You could call him up. I'm sure he'd drop you home.
"Why would you think that I have a boyfriend Kazu-kun?" Her curious expression with a little pout made her look unbelievably cute.
"Cause that's what you told me."
"Oh that… Yeah, that's right Kazu-kun. I have a boyfriend. Are you sad?" She looked at him with a pout on her face.
"Yeah, I'm heartbroken." He said in a flat tone.
'Aren't I also drunk? How did I end up babysitting everyone?'
"That's right. You should be sad. Why are you going after someone else? You should be more hung up on me. Make the effort to get me back. Maybe I just did what I did to make you jealous. Did you think of that?"
"That's a dangerous line that you're treading Mami. I'm also drunk right now, I don't know if I'll be able to hold myself back."
"Oh yeah?" She put a finger to her lips and said cutely, "I don't believe you. You don't have the balls."
At this point, Kazuya was sure that Mami was seducing the fuck out of him.
"Well, you asked for it." He leads her to an alley and pushes her against the wall before she has a chance to react.
When she gets her bearings back she realizes that she's trapped between the wall and Kazuya's chest. His leg is between her legs dangerously close to her sweet spot. He's holding her hands above her head and his face is no more than an inch away from her face.
She can feel his hot breath mixed with the scent of whiskey as he speaks, "Tell me Mami. Should I go further?" His lips are almost brushing against hers.
"Kazu-kun…" Mami looks down since she's a little overwhelmed by the whole situation.
Kazuya uses one of his hands to keep her hands help up and brings the other down to her chin.
Pinching her chin between his forefinger and thumb he pulls her face up.
"Look at me Mami… Tell me. What do you want from me?"
As if she doesn't want to reply to his words, she pouts her lips lightly in anticipation of a kiss and closes her eyes.
Kazuya looks at her alluring face that's tempting him to make the devil's mistake.
'Somehow… This feels extremely cheap. If I kiss her now it would be like I took advantage of her drunk state. Huh… I don't know if I'm a good guy or a pussy.'
He pulls back from her face and frees her hands. while walking a step back, freeing her.
"Kazu-kun…?" She opens her eyes with a flutter.
"Come on. I'll take you to your home." He grabs her hand to put it around her shoulder.
She yanks it away and get's a mischievous expression on her face.
"No~" She pouts and extends both her hands at him, "I want a piggyback ride."
Kazuya is left blinking his eyes in utter bewilderment.
'I was wrong. This chick isn't a sadistic yandere. She's just found a new toy in me that she wants to play with.'
He sighs and says, "Fine…"
As he squats in front of Mami, she hugs him from the back tightly, pressing her modest breasts to his back.
As he gets up she wraps her legs around his torso and he puts his hands on her supple thighs.
'So soft…' He enjoys feeling her thighs and starts walking as she puts her chin on his shoulder.
"Hey, Kazu-kun~" She whispers right into his ear, making him shiver a little.
'I swear to god she will be the death of me.'
"What is it Mami," His tone is exasperated, to say the least at this point.
"How about we both go to your place? I live with my parents and they're sort of strict. I don't think that I'd be able to go home in this state."
"That's not possible Mami. My apartment is utterly run-down with a single futon. I don't think that we can cuddle together to sleep."
'I feel like I'd get further with her in one night than this virgin beta fuck got in months.'
"I don't mind Kazu-kun. We're boyfriend and girlfriend after all. I don't think it would be a problem to stay over at your place."
"We broke up Mami. Don't you remember?"
"That was just something I made up. I still consider you as my own Kazu-kun."
'Yep. She thinks I'm her toy.'
"I don't think that's how things work Mami."
There's no reply.
"Mami?"
He looks over his shoulder, sees her closed eyes, and feels her steady breathing near his ear.
'Un-fucking-believable… She fell asleep before telling me where she lives. Should I just dump her off at the train station? Or maybe a hotel?'
Kazuya seriously considers it for a few seconds but then rejects the thought.
'Chizuru? No, I don't think she'd take too kindly to me dumping my ex-girlfriend at her place. Especially after all the chemistry that's going on between us. Her finding out that I was out drinking with my ex will completely ruin all chances I have with her.'
'What else…? God how I wish I could just dump her at a hotel but it's the same thing with a taxi. I can't just drop her there and leave.'
'Fine Mami. You win. I'll take you home with me. Hope you don't freak out when you wake up with my morning wood pressing on your pussy.' He chuckles evilly at his last thought.
He walks home while holding the girl's thighs tightly so she doesn't end up falling. He's also had to fix her arms to stay wrapped around his neck numerous times.
'Is it me? I guess it is me, isn't it? I like troublesome girls. Someone else would've put her in a taxi and washed his hands with her.'
He fumbles around his pockets and tries to open his apartment door with the girl still wrapped around him.
'Thankfully it's late in the night and Chizuru's asleep. I don't know how I'd deal with the kind of situation where she realized that there was a girl with me and my ex at that.'
Finally opening the door to his apartment he is glad that he's cleaned the place up. There are no more used ramen cups around, there are especially no more used tissues just fallen around the whole apartment.
The original had a special trashcan specially dedicated to his cum tissues. The guy was a weird fucking fetishist. The fact that he'd had more than one fantasy of someone else fucking his girl was concerning enough.
Entering his apartment he closed the door with his foot and sighed.
He looked over his shoulder to see the cute and peaceful face of the innocent-looking Mami.
'Looking at her angelic appearance, no one would be able to tell that she's probably a devil at her core. Or at the very least went through something that shaped her personality that way.'
"Whatever." He walks to his futon and kneels in front of it.
He turns around, gently dropping Mami on the futon, and lays a blanket over her.
'I need a drink.' He goes to the kitchen and brings out a cheap bottle of whiskey that he'd brought recently.
Pouring it into a glass with a few ice cubes he adds equal parts soda to it and goes to the balcony to get some fucking peace.
His apartment is on the first floor so there's nothing much going for a view there but at least it's peaceful.
"Kazuya-kun?" Kazuya hears someone call out his name and turns left only to see Chizuru, who's wearing her pajamas and a baggy t-shirt, looking at him.
"Hey, Chizuru." His tone is a little tired.
"Everything all right? You seem like you're about to die of exhaustion."
"It's nothing. Why're you out so late at night?"
"It's… nothing." She chuckles at the similarity of both of their answers.
"Since neither of us wants to talk about it, let's just enjoy the night sky. You want a drink?" Kazuya raises his glass to show her his drink.
"What is that?"
"Cheap whiskey and soda."
"Count me in."
"Here." He hands her his class which she eyes for a few seconds but then takes with a shrug of her shoulders.
Kazuya goes back in to make another glass and returns in less than a minute.
"Hey, Kazuya. Kazuya-kun." She corrects herself after she forgets to address him without the honorific.
"Just call me Kazuya, and let me call you Chizuru. It's easier that way. I don't like using honorifics that much anyway."
He doesn't give her a choice and just states that he'll be calling her Chizuru. That's the best way to deal with this Tsundere.
"I'm coming to your side. I hope you have two chairs." Drunk Kazuya is spontaneous Kazuya. He decided to jump over the separation between their balconies.
He hands her his drink first, "Here, hold on."
Chizuru is stunned but grabs his glass nonetheless.
He climbs over the wall and jumps onto her side.
"Hi! Chizuru." He smiles at her.
She's feeling awkward at his actions and smiles a forced smile at him while handing him back his glass.
Thankfully there's an extra chair that she has and she brings it to the balcony to let Kazuya sit on it.
They both sit in silence for a while as they admire they lose themselves in the night sky while taking light sips of the drink.
"Do you like whiskey Chizuru?"
"Yeah. As fucked up as it sounds it reminds me of my grandpa."
"And your grandpa…" Kazuya trails off.
"He's gone. I only have my grandma."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Don't be… Just… don't be sorry."
They spend almost half an hour staring at the night sky in mostly silence, finishing both their whiskeys.
"I'll leave the glasses here. Give 'em to me tomorrow."
"Asshole. He left the glasses here so that I would wash them for him." She mumbles under her breath as Kazuya jumps over the separation back to his apartment.
He went back into his apartment and looked at Mami who was drooling on his pillow.
'That's my pillow she's drooling on…' He realizes when he sees the pillow that he set her head on fallen to the side.
'How am I even supposed to sleep here?'
Somehow with a lot of gentle and tiring effort, Kazuya was able to push Mami toward the bookshelf side of the futon, without waking her up.
He then lies down on the other side, 'What other side? There's no other side.'
He's lying with half his body on the floor trying to sleep on the 'other side.
'Fuck it. You wanted to seduce me right Mami?'
He turns onto the bed and takes the necessary amount of space for him to sleep and pulls Mami to lie halfway on his chest.
'Might as well cuddle with her.' Drunk Kazuya is also Dumb Kazuya who didn't have the idea of sleeping on the carpet.
He hugs her with his hands on her lower waist and closes his eyes, feeling the soft breathing of the cute blonde on his chest.
'I wanted to play some games after I got back home…' He isn't able to sleep that easily. Hell, no one's got the ability to sleep that easily.
'Thankfully she didn't vomit all over me. Or god forbid all over my apartment. It would be an unbelievable pain to clean.' He looks at the innocent-looking girl sleeping peacefully on his chest.
Sort of agree about the system removal thing. You have the skill to write and create an MC without one in my opinion (that’s a compliment). Anyways, just want to say I’m really enjoying this so far.
I agree. It's good that the mc is not a dumbass and the story is not reliant on the system. Honestly, it's a breath of fresh air.
So far, it's just decent for what it is.
Although if you're really trying to improve your romance writing capabilities I suggest trying to write something without incorporating 'systems' of any kind. Instead, just try living and contemplating real life a little more.
Not just romance, but anything that has to do with emotions in general.
Basically, anything that is valued based on how genuine it is. Things like romance, trust, relationships, sense of self, and other existential stuff.
If you're really looking to get better at writing about those kinds of stuff I suggest trying to write stuff without 'systems.'
The thing about having systems is it makes things like that feel artificial.
When an author introduces a character with a system that helps that character evolve as a person, develop relationships with other characters, and achieve a plethora of other great feats through out a story— on the surface, the character seems cool, yes, but underneath it all is the question: what a loser would this character really be without his system?
Think a bit more about the reality of a character with a system.
His sense of self worth, all his achievements, whatever business he's created, fortune's he's amassed, all the relationships he develops with other characters, all the reactions he gets from all the other characters whether it be their love for him or their hatred for him or their casual disregard for him, all of that just ends up feeling disingenuous and unfulfilling because it wasn't really that character's genuine self that achieved and garnered all that. It all ends up being the system.
Even if it's just a system giving the character missions to do things like exercising and working out and stuff—
The thing is, there's a difference between a character that decided to workout because a system gave it to him as a mission and promised him a reward if he did so, and a character that decided to work out because he understood the reality of working out, and understood that exercising in itself was the reward with how it maintains health, resolves tension in his body, gets him to focus, whatever.
I agree.
Well damn. I actually agree with your words about the system thing.
I've already committed to this book for now but if I ever end up writing another one of these slice-of-life books then I'll remember your words.
For now, I've made it such that the system's involvement in the story is almost null with it being more of an auxiliary thing than an actual thing.
The mc himself doesn't really care much about the system beyond the tracking progress parts.
While the quests might add an extra element to the story, they are there for the same purpose, to give the mc rewards based on certain actions. Which are going to be limited to certain types of things. I am not planning to go haywire with the rewards either.
The mc will not be making any actions that are influenced by the quest system. But most of the quests will be based on his inner intents than some kind of plot-driven thing.
Yeah the mc doesn't need the system but maybe works as a good recordatory? 🤔
ugh. Why is this whole thing with the ex? She doesnt have a single likeable quality and she is so disgusting that it doesnt even matter how physically atractive she may be.
I do hope this trash in human form is not a love interest.