“Home run!” Chizuru cheered as she hit the ball.

“All right!” Kazuya didn’t forget to praise her. The girl was having a whole lot of fun, having played three rounds in the cage already.

She hit two more balls and walked out of the cage in stride.

Kazuya had an idea of what she was expecting when he saw her walking out as if she owned the place.

He raised his hand and stood in his spot, letting her come up to him and high-five him.

*Clap*

Her face had a pretty bright smile as she came up to him and clapped his hand.

“You done?” He asked her since they’d collectively played four rounds, her playing three and him one since he was bored after just watching two of her rounds without being able to play.

“Last one? Please?” Her face has the kind of expression that children have when they ask their parents for something.

“Switch play?”

“Hm?” She’s confused about what he’s suggesting.

“We’ll set the wait time for each ball to be launched after a longer interval and take turns. We’ll compete with a point system and at the end of the round whoever wins, gets a kiss from the loser.”

“Wait doesn’t that-“ He doesn’t let her finish and pulls her by her arm into the batting cage.

“I’m setting it to have a ten-second interval between each shot so stay ready. There’s a big chance of missing. I’ll go first, you act as the catcher if I miss.”

“…There’s no glove.”

“Of course there is.” Kazuya pulled out the glove from the box at the side that held the various equipment like the helmet that Chizuru was wearing.

“What’s the point system?”

“1 for first base and so on, and 4 for the home run, typical baseball format.”

“Can I go first?” She asked.

“Sure.” Kazuya puts on the glove loosely since he’d be handing it to her in the interval when they switch.

The launcher shot 18 balls, both of them hitting 9 each, with the score being a close tie of 25 each for both of them.

“Last ball Chizuru, may the best man win.”

“I’m a woman.” Her words are unfeeling as she was completely focused on the ball that was about to be shot from the launcher.

*Clunk*

“Third base! Let’s see you get a home run.” She taunted him as they changed places.

*Clunk*

The ball hit a bit below the third base line and he ended up hitting the second base.

“Yes! I win.” She jumped up with her hands in the air.

“Guess, I lost.” Kazuya shrugged his shoulders and turned around

Chizuru saw a slight smile on his face.

“Guess I got to honor the bet.” He didn’t give her time to react and pulled her in close to him, giving her a deep kiss.

She’d already dropped her helmet after her last shot so it wasn’t in the way.

He wasn’t going to pull back like usual and was planning to go a little further this time.

‘You’re scared of defining the relationship, right? Then don’t.’

He pushed her into one of the walls of the cage. He slipped his tongue into her mouth naturally and stuck his body close to hers.

She stiffened when he did that but then she started actively responding with her tongue a few seconds later. That was the power of being a good kisser. 

In the case that his kiss didn’t make her feel overwhelmingly good, Chizuru would’ve likely pushed him off. Or so he thought.

He spent a few minutes in a full-on make-out with Chizuru in that batting cage. When he pulled back from her face, it was flushed.

“Haah~ hah~” She was breathing stressed with an erotic expression on her face.

’That expression makes me want to defile her right here in this batting cage…’

Her expression was too sexy for him to not go in for seconds. He moved his lips back on top of hers and started a second make-out session.

Ten minutes later he pulled away from her.

“That was fun.” Kazuya smiled at her.

“It was supposed to be just a kiss.”

“That was a kiss. Albeit an intense one.” He cheekily smiled.

“There’s another place I’d like to go. You up?” She smiled, not wanting to talk about the kiss that still made her feel extremely tingly.

…

“I expected a romantic dinner. But a hospital was the last place that I thought you’d bring us.”

‘I think that a sex in the morgue joke would be too dark for her innocent mind…’

“Keep dreaming. I brought you here to meet my grandma. She’s been insisting that I bring you over. I thought that I’d keep it short so we were killing time at the batting rings until 15 minutes before the end of the visiting hours.”

“I think we were doing more than just killing time, don’t you think.”

“Shut up…” She started walking faster.

Kazuya followed her to the ward where her grandma was admitted.

“Oh my, Kazuya! Come on in!” Noticing Kazuya, her grandma called him in, completely ignoring the presence of her granddaughter.

“Hi there. How’ve you been grandma?”

“I’m doing just fine, come here, sit. Have you had dinner yet?” She pulled his arm and forced him to sit on the bed.

“Not yet, Chizuru and I were just planning on getting some after we met you.”

“Ah. It’s good that you youngsters are having fun.”

“Grandma, did you forget to change the water?” Chizuru noticed the dead flowers by her grandma’s bed and admonishes her.

“Sorry, dearie…” Her grandma apologized with a fond smile when she looked at her.

“So, how’s the university, Kazuya-chan?”

“It’s going pretty well.” Kazuya is a little amused and smiled at how her grandma seems to be pampering him right in front of her granddaughter.

“Well, isn’t that just wonderful? University isn’t easy, you know?”

“I’ve been enjoying my time at the university.”

“Grandma, don’t you think that you’re being a little too familiar with my friend?”

‘I guess her grandma planned to make her act like a jealous girlfriend…’

“Oh, he doesn’t mind. I’m just talking about what’s going on with you youngsters.”

“Really…?” She walked out with the dead flowers, intending to replace them later.

Her grandma’s enthusiastic personality does a complete makeover and she looks at Kazuya calmly with a fond smile.

“Kazuya-chan… There’s something that I would like to ask you.”

Kazuya is a little stunned at this development, ‘Old people are scary. Was she an actress too? I guess that would explain why Chizuru’s dream is so… innocent and childlike.’

“What is it, grandma?”

“Come to think of it. Did you see her play?”

“Mhm, I did go.”

“What did you think of it.”

“The play was… Well, I guess she showed you the script. But her acting on the other hand…” Kazuya got a fond reminiscing look on his face.

“She was phenomenal. It’s not easy to get the audience to be so invested in a character, especially a secondary character… But she pulled it off. She got the best reactions from the audience, her acting was top-notch. She was just… the best part of the play. There were times that she’d improvised on the script, I could tell from the reaction of the other cast members there. Mostly, it was her dialogue lines but it was there. She’d made the character her own and embodied them. It was amazing.”

Hearing his words, Grandma Sayuri’s smile got brighter and she said, “And did you tell her that?”

“I did. A lot more than that, kinda enthusiastically, since she wasn’t letting me speak.” Kazuya trailed off.

“I hope it delighted her. Ever since she was a little girl, she’s loved the theatre and being praised by people.”

“She’s amazing.”

“You know Kazuya-chan. When she was little, she was quite clingy and a bit of a crybaby. So many times she’d come home crying because of some little thing that the older kids in the neighborhood did or said. She’d often crawl into my bed because she was scared to sleep alone at night.”

“Hehe… I can imagine.” Kazuya already has two instances of Chizuru being a clingy crybaby with him.

“Oh? Both of your relationship with each other seems to be a little ambiguous Kazuya-chan.” She easily identifies the expression that Kazuya is making.

“It’s complicated, grandma. But I can tell you that she’s someone very dear to me.”

“You seem like a plenty strong person yourself Kazuya. You seem to be hiding your true self behind a sort of thin curtain with only certain aspects being visible. But from what I’ve gleaned from you and what Chizuru has told me about you. I can tell that you have very high ambitions in life, and you have the mentality to live up to those ambitions… My only advice to you is that you don’t need to burn yourself out over your ambition. Spend some time with your friends, maybe go out on a little date with Chizuru… Don’t forget to enjoy your life while you work on your goals.”

He grabbed her hand with both his hands, “You don’t have to worry grandma. I know my priorities. I don’t plan to neglect my personal life for my goals. I promise.”