Back on the fourth floor.
On his way to the abandoned art room, Sasaki carefully observed every girl he passed, and only relaxed after confirming that none of their actions or expressions seemed unnatural.
Looks like that eavesdropper still hadn't left.
He had already known there was someone inside even before entering the art room.
Though there were two doors and a wall between them, he clearly heard someone inside mumbling quietly.
After he spoke up, confirming someone was in there, he wanted to suggest to Natsuha that they go somewhere else.
But before he could say anything, that girl opened the door.
And then...
Well....if it weren't for the fact that he could tell the voice inside belonged to a girl, no matter how eager Natsuha was, Sasaki wouldn't have gone along with it.
He liked excitement, sure, but not that kind of excitement.
He didn't have any strange fetishes to let any man see his girl naked.
Quickly returning, Sasaki now stood in front of the abandoned art room, hearing faint moaning sounds from inside.
Thinking that person had recorded something, he yanked the door open.
Clatter—
The door slid along the metal track as he pulled it to the end.
And just like a scroll unfurling, the scene inside the room opened before his eyes.
As Sasaki's pupils suddenly widened, the startled, panicked, and beautiful face of Hyoudou Tomoe also came into view.
Her gently arched brows, fox-like eyes shimmering with watery light, her round, delicate face as soft and flawless as jade, just like how she appeared during the mid-morning break.
But this time, those watery pupils were sharpened like needles, her lashes trembled from tension and helplessness, and her chest had stopped rising and falling.
The dazed beauty still wore her professional attire.
Her whole body leaned tightly against the window.
Because she had reclined so far back, her slender right arm was propped against the windowsill, her long, shapely left leg wrapped in black stockings curled up on the desk, while the other leg naturally dangled down from the desk to the floor.
Due to this strange posture, her high-quality skirt hadn't torn but had instead slid up to her waist.
As for her left hand… it slithered along her slim waist like a little snake, the soft palm pressed to her lower abdomen.
On the fair back of her hand lay a small, silky piece of fabric adorned with a black chiffon flower—quite pretty.
The art room had only one window, positioned directly across from the entrance.
From where Sasaki stood at the doorway, everything inside the room was fully visible, except for the small side room that remained hidden.
So...
He was stunned for a moment, never expecting such a scene.
However, once he processed it, he calmly shifted his gaze aside:
"My wallet isn't here. Looks like I'll have to search somewhere else. I'll be going now..."
As he said this, he was about to turn to leave.
But the moment he lifted his foot, Hyoudou Tomoe grabbed his shirt and pulled him into the room.
Clack—
The door shut behind Sasaki the instant he stepped in.
Bang!
A pale, smooth hand slapped the door panel behind his head as Hyoudou Tomoe, who's cheeks flushed to the point of bleeding, leaned in close, her voice flustered but pretending to stay calm. "Don't... go just yet."
"You're... planning to go tell someone about this, aren't you?"
"Huh?"
Leaning against the door, Sasaki blinked, caught off guard by her question.
However, quickly realising that she was worried he might spread this around, he quickly shook his head.
"No, of course not—I wouldn't talk about this."
Hyoudou Tomoe had always been especially sensitive to the way men looked at her, so, she knew just how filthy and perverse their thoughts could be.
Having someone see her in such a state... there was no way she could trust a simple verbal promise.
She was much shorter than Sasaki, so to increase her sense of pressure, she stood on tiptoe and put on a stern face.
"How can I believe you won't say anything?"
"…"
Stumped for a second, Sasaki thought for a bit and asked. "So what kind of assurance do you want?"
If someone catches your weakness and you don't want to be threatened, then your only choices are to seize that leverage back, or gain leverage of your own.
So, Hyoudou Tomoe said.
"You saw mine... so I want to see yours too."
"Huh?"
Sasaki wasn't slow, so, he immediately understood what she meant.
But... seriously?
She got seen in an embarrassing situation and, afraid of being threatened, now wanted to see him in an equally embarrassing state—to protect herself.
It... made sense, logically. But, why?
He didn't even threaten her.
That should've already been kindness enough.
Now she wanted him to "generate electricity"? To hand over leverage?
Isn't this a little too much?
To make her realize her place, Sasaki yanked her over and presswd her against the door.
Imitating her earlier posture, he placed one hand beside her head, leaning in to look down at her:
"Hyoudou.. you seem to be misunderstanding the situation."
Dropping the honorific and with that stance, Sasaki was being nothing short of blunt.
Before Tomoe could even arch her brows and put on a tough front, he pinched her smooth, delicate chin, lifting her blushing, finely-featured face:
"If you don't want me to talk... shouldn't you be begging me?"
Sasaki was a whole head taller than Hyoudou Tomoe.
So, when standing close together, his condescending gaze and the shadow that enveloped her gave the woman an overwhelming sense of pressure.
On top of that, he had a hold on her now.
At every level, she was at a complete disadvantage.
So, in the end, Hyoudou Tomoe bit her lower lip in frustration and helplessness, looking exactly like a young woman about to be bullied by a thug, resigned and powerless, on the verge of giving in.
Of course, the main reason for her resignation was that she had a fondness for the person in front of her, which made it easier to accept.
Not to mention, she'd been eavesdropping for so long… if she claimed she had no other thoughts in her heart, even she wouldn't believe it.
With feelings of fondness and the thought of going along with the flow, Hyoudou Tomoe slowly raised her white teeth from her lightly bitten lower lip and pleaded in a voice as soft as a mosquito's. "Please… don't tell anyone."
Sasaki originally intended to let her off with just a show of submission.
After all, she was going to be his… so, being too harsh wasn't good either.
But seeing her pitifully furrowing her willow-shaped brows, the teary glimmer in her fox-like eyes, her blushing cheeks showing both shyness and shame, he was no longer satisfied with that.
Recalling how she treated him completely differently compared to others, he lifted her chin with his fingers gently, bringing her charming, beautiful face a little closer, and smiling, then locked eyes with her watery gaze and said:
"Your voice is too quiet. That's not a sincere way to beg~"
"Could it be… that you're expecting me to do something?"
"Who…"
Before she could deny it, Sasaki slowly lowered his head and spoke.
"If you weren't expecting it, you could've dodged~"
"…"
Looking into his slowly approaching face with trembling eyes, Hyoudou Tomoe fell into hesitation.
Should she refuse?
As she looked at him, she suddenly remembered the dream where the two of them were being intimate every night, remembered the warmth when he hugged her during break time, remembered the torment of hiding in the room next door just now, and now, the breath suppressing her.
At that moment, her violently beating heart and her quickening breath told her—don't refuse.
With her heart made up, Hyoudou Tomoe's long, trembling lashes, like curtains drawn closed at night, slowly fell shut.
Having received her answer, Sasaki loosened the fingers holding her chin and slid them along her alluring curves, wrapping around her slender, soft waist.
Holding her tightly in his arms, feeling her plump figure, unlike a young girl's, made his mind go blank for a moment.
And the next thought that surfaced in his mind was to possess her, to mark her as his.
So, he didn't waste anytime, holding her in his arms, he looked at her seductive lips in front of him and being forward.
His lips brushed against her cherry pink, tentative at first, as if still questioning whether he had the right.
But when she didn't pull away, when her body melted ever so slightly into his embrace, he deepened the kiss.
After so much practice, Sasaki was quite experienced at kisses which was completely contrast to the woman, he was kissing.
Her hands, which had hung frozen at her sides, now clutched the fabric of his shirt. Her tongue, awkward and hesitant, tried to entangle with his, attempting to meet his passion with her own.
That innocent, yet passionate effort, completely different from the impression of her he had in mind, made Sasaki realize, he had struck gold.
When the kiss finally broke, he looked at the beauty in his arms and couldn't help but let out a soft sigh.
The overwhelming softness of her body pressed to his chest, the intoxicating look on her flushed face, so different from her usual expression, at this moment, there was nothing as charming as her.
"You.."
"I like you, Tomoe."
Going with the flow, the moment her mist filled eyes stared at him, Sasaki spoke the words, she most wanted to hear.
His confession suddenly caught Hyoudou Tomoe off guard and the words she had meant to speak vanished from her lips.
Her heartbeat sped up, she wanted to speak coldly...to say that his so-called feelings were nothing more than lust.. his desires to fuck her.
Because what else could they be?
He just wanted to spread her legs and fuck her as every man she'd met wants to do.
She had just seen him have sex with two of his classmates, which should be his girlfriends, and now he was confessing his love to her?
How could she take him seriously?
She kept telling herself that, but looking into his eyes, she couldn't calm down her heartbeat,
Smelling his masculine scent, feeling the strength of his arms, her thighs ached with a pulse she couldn't control. Her body trembled against his chest, too weak to push him away.
Just a few words of confession, which she didn't even know were sincere of not made her like this, how cheap she was?
The thought made her eyes wet,
Though Sasaki didn't fully grasp the storm of emotion inside her, he knew he had to speak more.
After all, his confession was a bit abrupt so, it was hard not to feel that he was a scumbag just coaxing an innocent woman to have sex.
Of course, judging by the way her body was trembling in his arms, hearing up constantly, he knew that, he could just take her without any words and she would not refuse but he didn't just want her body.
He wanted everything of her for himself.
He knew she liked him, if his confession could make it easier, why not?
And he wasn't lying at all.
After all, he did like her.
Even if it wasn't to the point of liking Otome, Kyouka and his other girlfriends..it was still to the point that he could look into her eyes and say that he liked her
"I know Tomoe might think this is just about physical attraction. And… well, to some extent, she's not wrong."
"After all, Tomoe is so beautiful, with such a sexy body—it's impossible not to want her."
"From the moment I first saw you, I've wanted you to be mine."
If he said he had loved her for a long time..or he liked her heart and so on, Hyoudou Tomoe, would've scoffed off, but he was speaking truth.
So explicitly, without hiding anything, speaking words that made her heart beat uncontrollably.
"And judging from the way how Tomoe treats every other man and me, I knew you have a good impression of me too."
"Who would..."
She'd never felt so flustered in her life.
She desperately wanted to deny that she treated him differently than anyone else, but looking into the eyes that seemed to peer into his very soul, she knew she could not lie.
I like your face, I like your body, I like the way you treat me differently than the others, I have a crush on you and I want you to be mine.'
That's all he said.
"I want you...Tomoe.."
He whispered, brushing a strand of hair from her cheek.
"May I..?"
And she couldn't refuse.