Meanwhile, on the other side of town, the mid-morning break bell rang across the high school campus.
Haruto strolled down the polished corridor toward the Service Club room as promised.
Just as he approached the isolated staircase corner near the second-floor landing, a sharp, panicked shriek pierced the air.
"Waaahhh!!"
Eriri's shrill, panicked shriek bounced off the bare concrete walls of the stairwell as she lost her footing, tumbling backward down the steps.
Her school bag split open, showering the landing with a chaotic storm of textbooks, writing utensils, and thick sketchpads.
Before she could suffer a bone-crushing fall, Haruto closed the distance in a blur, his strong hand shooting out to grab her firmly by the collar of her uniform.
With effortless strength, he yanked her upward, hauling her against his hard chest just as her momentum gave out.
"Gotcha."
Eriri squeezed her eyes shut, her entire petite body trembling violently as she braced for impact, completely rigid with absolute terror.
Recognizing her instantly, Haruto's lips curved into a small amused smile.
It was none other than Eriri Spencer Sawamura, the school's untouchable blonde idol—and secret, prolific adult dōjinshi artist.
"You're safe now, Sawamura-san. You can open your eyes," Haruto murmured smoothly, his breath brushing against her flushed ear.
"S-safe...?"
Eriri's twin-tailed head twitched.
Slowly, hesitantly, she cracked open one terrified eye.
Instantly, her breath hitched in her throat. She found herself paralyzed, staring directly into a pair of piercing, predatory blue eyes.
For a split second, her racing heart skipped a beat, her body going weak as she was hit by a heavy wave of raw, unexpected heat from how intimately close he was holding her.
Haruto's smile turned devious.
"Careful, Sawamura-san. If you keep daydreaming and cuddled with me, your precious little secret is going to be put on full display."
He subtly tipped his chin downward toward the floor.
Eriri followed his gaze—and her blood instantly turned to ice.
Scattered across the landing, wide open for the world to see, were her private sketchpads.
The covers and open pages were plastered with intensely explicit, unadulterated erotic manga illustrations.
A muscular men pinning down screaming maidens, graphic close-ups of dripping genitalia, and shameless, uncensored acts of raw, animalistic breeding.
"Yikes—NOOO!!"
Eriri's brain short-circuited entirely.
Those were her deeply guarded, highly illegal adult commissions—her most depraved fantasies sketched out in explicit detail while she was supposed to be paying attention in class!
Panic overriding all logic, she scrambled frantically across the floor grabbing handfuls of paper and shoving them into her bag with frantic, clumsy speed.
Her head whipped back and forth, darting paranoid glances down the empty corridor to ensure no teacher or student was witnessing her total social execution.
Once every last lewd page was stuffed away, she collapsed backward against the wall, letting out a long, ragged shudder of breath as she frantically patted her modest, nearly flat chest to calm her hammering heart.
"Thank goodness... nobody else saw that..." she whimpered, her voice shaking.
"Wait. I'm hardly a 'nobody,' am I?" Haruto noted casually, leaning his weight against the wall with a slow, predatory grin.
"Eh?!"
Eriri's neck whipped around so fast it practically cracked.
The horrifying, crushing reality slammed into her chest like a freight train—she had completely forgotten about the boy who had just caught her!
Slowly, agonizingly, she tilted her pale, tear-streaked face up toward him, her voice cracking into a pathetic, desperate squeak.
"Y-you... you didn't actually look at them... right? Tell me you were looking away!"
Haruto's eyes narrowed into a dark, teasing gleam as he slowly stepped closer, crowding her against the wall until she had nowhere to run.
"Oh, I'm afraid I saw everything quite clearly, Sawamura-san. Not just your delightfully Lewd artwork... but also the way your skirt flew up, giving me a nice view of your lace panties."
"!!!"
It felt as though a bolt of pure lightning had lanced straight through her skull.
Eriri's entire universe imploded in a single, agonizing second, her face flushing a brilliant, burning crimson that spread all the way down her neck.
He saw my lewd drawings... and he saw right up my skirt...
"I'm completely finished... my life is over..."
Her chaotic mind raced in overdrive, flashing through a hundred horrific, humiliating scenarios: being blackmailed, forced to strip in the clubroom, and being used as a helpless, crying sex toy to satisfy his insatiable, dominant urges whenever he pleased.
The sheer, overwhelming degradation broke her completely.
Her knees buckled under her weight, unable to support her trembling frame any longer, and she collapsed like a helpless doll onto the floorboards, hot tears of utter mortification spilling over her eyelashes as she let out a muffled, desperate sob.
Seeing Eriri's pathetic, tearful meltdown, Haruto couldn't help but let out an exasperated sigh, shaking his head at her wildly active imagination.
"You're drastically overreacting, Sawamura-san. I never said I was going to expose your little hobbies to the school."
He chuckled, thoroughly amused by her panic, and offered his word that her secret was safe with him.
But Eriri, violently shaking her head as her blonde twin-tails whipped back and forth, flat-out refused to believe a single word.
"You're just saying that! You're going to blackmail me, aren't you?! And then... and then you'll force me to strip, make me submit to your perverted demands, and use me however you want—wahhh!"
Haruto let out a rich, booming laugh.
"Sawamura-san, it's painfully obvious you've spent way too much time reading your own dōjinshi. I just caught you from breaking your neck, and this is how you repay your savior?"
He gave a dismissive wave of his hand, turning his back to her.
"Anyway, I've told you I won't say a word. Whether you choose to believe me or not is entirely up to you. I've got places to be. See you around."
With that, he stepped past her and began casually walking down the stairs without looking back once.
Eriri froze on the spot, completely stunned as she watched his retreating figure vanish around the bend.
Only then did the frantic adrenaline fade enough for her brain to catch up to reality.
She slowly processed the sheer height of the flight of stairs, the bone-breaking fall down the concrete steps, and he had caught her mid-air.
He... he literally saved me...
She cast her gaze back up toward the staircase, her cheeks flushing a deep pink.
Though she couldn't comprehend how he had moved so fast, the undeniable fact remained: he had saved her.
Reflecting on her explosive, accusatory hysterics, a wave of crushing guilt washed over her.
She had shrieked at him, cried, and treated him like a villain, purely because she was paranoid about her secret pornographic sketches getting out.
I was so rude to him... I need to properly apologize and thank him for saving me!
She sucked in a sharp breath, desperately wanting to call out to his retreating back, but her eyes darted down the empty corridor only to realize he had already completely disappeared from sight.
"..."
Slowly pushing herself up from the floor, brushing down her pleated skirt, Eriri swallowed hard.
A heavy knot of regret twisted in her stomach—not only had she acted like a complete fool, but she suddenly realized a glaring, fatal problem: she didn't even know what class he was in.
"Ugh... I guess I'm going to have to go around and find out which classroom he's in..." she groaned softly, biting her lip as a flush of nervous heat spread across her face.
•
[Eriri Spencer Sawamura]
•
*******
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