"So, all of the places you were choosing were warehouses? I assumed you were not confessing anything romantic, but telling me something so important that you don't even want your friends to know about it?" Takashi said, his voice flat and analytical as he picked up a lone chair in the empty warehouse.
The metal legs scraped harshly against the concrete floor, the sound echoing in the hollow space.
He sat down, the casual act feeling deliberate and controlled, and crossed his arms over his chest, his gaze fixed on her.
"Sorry, Ichinose-kun..." She looked down, her entire posture radiating guilt.
After all, her hesitant way of speaking and her nervous body language back in the classroom had been screaming that she wanted to confess her love to him, only for her to brutally crush that expectation by dragging him to this desolate place for a completely different matter.
"I figured." Takashi shrugged, his expression remaining utterly nonchalant, as if he had seen this coming from the very beginning. "You should know, everyone in that class, hell, everyone in this entire school, is acting. Including myself. What you see on the surface is rarely the truth. We're all just playing our parts."
"That's..." Kei stammered, her mind going blank.
She didn't know how to respond or even how to continue the topic, fumbling to coherently string the right words together into a proper sentence that could explain her situation.
Takashi waited for her with a patience that felt both intimidating and merciful, deliberately closing his eyes so she wouldn't feel pressured by his direct stare or his overwhelming presence.
He gave her the space to find her words without the weight of his judgment.
"Ichinose-kun..." she began again after a long moment of hesitant silence, peeking up at him to gauge his reaction to her next question. "Can I... can I really trust you?"
He let out a low, dry chuckle, as if she had just told the funniest and most naive joke he'd ever heard. "Even if you wanted to, you don't actually trust me, Kei Karuizawa. Your own words betray you. You didn't even call me by my first name. In your mind, I am not a 'close one', just the most convenient person you could unload this on. The safest bet."
He leaned forward slightly, his voice dropping into a softer, yet more piercing tone. "So let me be clear with you, Karuizawa. Instead of asking me, 'Can I trust you?' you should be asking me, 'Can I ask for your help?' I've already figured it out. Trust isn't what you're truly seeking right now. What you desperately need is help."
She physically shrank back, a full-body flinch as the most vulnerable truth of her situation was ruthlessly laid bare.
The fact that her deepest need for assistance, for protection was so easily seen through by him made her stammer helplessly, her facade of confidence completely shattered.
"Ichinose-san... I... I just..." she tried, but the words wouldn't come.
"Hush..." Takashi signaled for her to be silent with a single, raised finger, and she obeyed immediately, her sobs catching in her throat. "If you are this nervous, if you are so terrified of anyone discovering this secret that makes you feel weak, then you should just leave. Walk out that door right now. No one will ever know your secret, and you can go back to playing the flawless, untouchable queen bee until this whole school experience is over. It's the easier path."
Kei gritted her teeth, a flash of defiance and raw fear in her eyes.
The facade finally crumbled completely.
"It's impossible, Ichinose-san!" she confessed, her voice cracking under the strain. "I can't do it anymore! Just the thought of surviving alone in this place is terrifying... I can't... I don't want that incident to ever happen again. I can't go back to that!"
She began to sob openly then, her shoulders shaking as she finally allowed herself to feel the full, crushing weight of her vulnerability, the memory of her past trauma rising up to choke her.
He didn't interrupt her. He didn't offer empty platitudes or try to shush her. He simply let her cry, allowing her to vent the torrent of fear and pain until she was completely spent, her tears painting wet tracks down her cheeks.
When her sobs finally subsided into ragged, exhausted breaths, he stood up and closed the distance between them.
With a surprising gentleness, he used his thumbs to wipe the tears from her eyes, his touch firm yet careful.
"I understand now," he said, his voice soft but devoid of pity. "You have a past that you find deeply shameful. For most people, being a victim of bullying is not a proud moment to remember. It's a wound they prefer to keep hidden."
She looked up at him, her eyes red-rimmed and puffy from crying and sheer embarrassment, her vision blurred by a fresh wave of tears.
"Sorry, Ichinose-san..." she whispered, her voice thick with self-loathing. "I shouldn't have wasted your time with this... this pathetic story of mine."
He shook his head slowly, meticulously playing the part of the good listener and the perfect gentleman as he leaned in close, his voice dropping to a soft, intimate whisper that ghosted across her skin. "Kei-chan, you're a bad girl, you know that? Any other person would be drowning in sympathy for you right now, they'd even be ready to dance to your tune the moment they saw those pretty tears of yours... But, well..."
Her heartbeat stuttered to a halt for a terrifying second as she stared at him, her eyes wide with pure disbelief. "What... what do you mean by that, Ichinose-san...?"
"You are trying to manipulate me," Takashi stated, his voice utterly flat and devoid of emotion as he pulled back, retreating to his chair and settling into it with an air of finality.
"I'm not!" Kei defended herself fiercely, a spark of genuine panic igniting in her chest.
"You are," Takashi countered, his gaze locking onto hers with an unnerving intensity that pinned her in place. "Let me guess what comes next. You were going to ask me to become your fake boyfriend. You were going to rely on my pity and any softness you perceived in my heart to protect you, to use me as a shield until the very end. But you would never give anything in return. Not your heart, not your body, not a single shred of genuine loyalty. You only want to take, never to give. So, tell me, Kei... am I wrong?"
She couldn't hold his gaze any longer. Her eyes dropped to the floor, a soft, defeated murmur escaping her lips. "You're right, Ichinose-san... I can't bring myself to trust my entire self to you... I don't even know who you really are as a person."
Then, summoning a flicker of defiance, she looked back up to meet his penetrating stare. "But I'm really not trying to manipulate you... It's just... isn't that how men usually act? Don't they feel compelled to protect weaker women?"
"Well, beautiful women, to be more precise," Takashi joked, a deliberate, calculated shift in his tone designed to fracture the tension.
Instinctively, a small, choked laugh escaped her.
She didn't even know what was funny, the sound a strange, wet mixture of lingering tears and bewildered amusement that shouldn't have been possible in her state.
But Takashi had made it happen.
Even while she was crying and drowning in sadness, he had somehow pulled a laugh from her.
The previous tense and suffocatingly depressive atmosphere instantly dissolved, the air in the warehouse feeling several degrees lighter.
As a master manipulator himself, Takashi possessed the refined skill to shift the emotional tone of any conversation on a dime, cracking open the heaviest of moods with a single, well-placed word, a talent that was now overwhelmingly evident.
A large part of her guard against him came down right then and there because of it.
And now, it was time for his strike.
"Alright," he began, his voice shifting into a deeper, more resonant tone that commanded absolute attention.
"Since your ultimate goal is survival, don't you feel your current ambition is too small, Kei Karuizawa? What are you truly after? Just being the queen of this little academy? Amassing a large number of superficial friends? Or is it that you desperately want to feel what it's like to have real control and wield genuine power for the first time in your life?"
Kei was visibly taken aback, her breath catching as she looked at him with renewed confusion, her hand pausing as she wiped the last of the tears from her eyes. "I... Maybe you're right again... I guess I can't deceive you about this either, Ichinose-san. Yes, I've come to like the feeling of being in control. And I am utterly terrified of losing it... I never, ever want to be that powerless, pathetic figure again."
She confessed the truth helplessly, the admission feeling like a physical weight being lifted and crushing her at the same time.
"Do you... do you want me to show you?" she sighed, her fingers moving to the hem of her blue dress with a trembling intention to lift it, to reveal the physical proof of her past powerlessness.
But Takashi's stern, commanding words halted her immediately.
"That won't be necessary. I trust that you're telling me the truth. The evidence is already clear. Even when you appear strong on the outside, it can't completely hide the fragile, broken girl you are underneath it all, Kei-chan."
"Am I really that bad at hiding it?" Kei asked, her voice dripping with a fresh wave of self-deprecation, laying her deepest insecurity bare before him.
"Anyone with a shred of perception can see right through it. I'd guess Hirata, Kushida, Ryueen from the other class, Arisu… and plenty of others have already figured you out. You're too tense, too rigid, you try so hard to appear natural that it ends up looking anything but." He said this to her softly, yet each word landed with the force of a physical blow.
Her eyes dimmed, the last flicker of fight draining from her as she slumped heavily into the chair.
She no longer had the energy to stand after Takashi listed that roster of individuals who had likely seen through her fragile facade all along.
"So it was all pointless from the very beginning, huh?" She let out a sad, hollow laugh, the sound bitter in the empty space.
The realization that her entire performance had just been a clown act in the eyes of others was a devastating blow.
Takashi offered a casual shrug. "Like I told you from the start, Kei Karuizawa, everyone in this place is acting. And they'll happily play along with your act, so long as you don't prevent them from hiding their own true selves in the process."
Her eyes flickered with a faint, new light at that. "Do… do they all have dark pasts too, then?"
"Who knows…" Takashi replied, his tone deliberately ambiguous, leaving the question hanging in the air between them.
She rolled her eyes, a flicker of familiar exasperation cutting through her despair. She was already getting used to Takashi's riddles; she'd noticed he always seemed to speak in half-truths and incomplete sentences, forcing her to piece together his meaning.
"So…" she prompted, looking at him expectantly, waiting for the real point of all this.
"Well, like I said at the beginning, if your only goal is survival, then my honest suggestion is for you to drop out of this school," Takashi stated, his expression and tone completely serious. "Sooner or later, someone will find out, and they will exploit this weakness of yours. It's inevitable."
"I don't want to run away!" The protest burst from her with surprising force. "I don't want to be weak again, Ichinose-san… I… I know it sounds horrible, but I don't think power and control are really what I want. I have no intention of ruling the class or the school."
Takashi clicked his tongue in clear disapproval. "Even now, you're still calling me Ichinose-san…"
A faint blush colored her cheeks.
"…Takashi-kun," she corrected, her voice barely above a whisper. "Please…"
"Okay," he finally nodded, accepting the shift in address.
Then, he laid it out for her with brutal straightforwardness. "I've guessed it now. What you want isn't necessarily power or control. You just want peace. A life where you don't have to think, don't have to scheme, where everything you need is handed to you on a silver platter. That's why you seek protection from others instead of training yourself to become strong."
Kei pouted, a flash of genuine irritation crossing her features. "I'm not as bad as you think, Takashi-kun… That's a horrible way to talk to a woman."
A moment of silence stretched between them, thick with unspoken negotiation.
"I will protect you," Takashi finally said, the words simple and direct.
But just as a wave of relief and happiness began to wash over Kei, he added his terms, his voice dropping into a low, unequivocal tone that brooked no argument.
"In return," he stated, his gaze locking onto hers, ensuring she understood this was non-negotiable, "you will fulfill every duty of being my girlfriend. All of them."
"That's easy. I can date you and…" Kei muttered, trying to downplay the weight of his demand.
Takashi cut her off, his voice leaving no room for misinterpretation. "You know exactly what I mean. I'm not interested in the title of a fake boyfriend. I want the real thing, with all the benefits that status entails."
Then, a slow, predatory grin spread across his face as he leaned in close, his breath hot against her ear.
His fingers tangled possessively in her blonde hair, not pulling, but claiming.
She stiffened instantly, a tremor running through her body, but he didn't pull back.
"Tell me your decision tomorrow," he continued, his voice a low, commanding whisper. "The moment you agree to become my girlfriend, you won't just earn my protection within these school walls. You will live as my princess, and my protection will extend far beyond this place. Your life, your future, will be secured."
He then turned to leave, the conversation seemingly concluded on his terms.
But before he could take a full step, Kei's hand shot out, her fingers clutching desperately at the edge of his red blazer, stopping him in his tracks.
"And what if you just take me as your plaything?" she demanded, her voice trembling with a mix of fear and defiance.
Her eyes, when they met his, were oppressively dark, filled with a deep-seated dread of being used and discarded. "What if you use me and throw me away the moment you get bored?"
Takashi didn't offer reassurance or sweet promises.
Instead, he let out a low, dark chuckle that was more of a challenge than an answer. "Then entertain me, Kei Karuizawa. Make yourself indispensable."
Those words, cold and brutally honest, were more than enough for her.
Because deep down, she didn't need sweet lies or hollow vows.
She needed a raw, transactional truth she could understand and weaponize.
In a sudden, aggressive surge of motion, she shoved him backward, sending him stumbling into the lone chair in the center of the empty warehouse.
Before he could even register the impact, she was already moving, lowering herself onto his lap with a hard, deliberate grind.
His cock, already painfully stiff inside his pants, pressed right between her ass cheeks, trapped and throbbing, demanding release with every shift of her hips. She pushed back even harder, rubbing herself against his erection like she wanted to burn the shape of it into her body.
Then her mouth slammed onto his.
This was not a kiss of tenderness or affection; it was a raw, violent claiming.
Her lips were brutal, her tongue forcing its way past his teeth in a wet, aggressive invasion.
There was no gentleness, no soft exploration, only the frantic, desperate friction of her mouth moving against his, her teeth occasionally scraping his lower lip with a sharp sting.
It was pure venting, a chaotic transfer of all her frustration and fear into a physical act no normal, well-adjusted girl would offer so readily.
This was her idea of entertainment, a performance of raw, unfiltered need.
Then, as abruptly as it began, it was over.
She tore her mouth from his, a string of saliva briefly connecting their swollen lips before snapping.
She rose from his lap, a low, breathless chuckle escaping her. "I guess that should be enough to leave you entertained for now, Takashi-kun..."
Without a single backward glance, she turned and walked away, her shoes clicking decisively on the concrete floor, her hips swaying just enough to mock the throbbing ache she left him with.
Takashi watched her go.
Her back still near enough to grab.
Her body still close enough to pin.
He wondered about his next move.
His cock pulsed, urging him to stand, grab her wrist, spin her around, slam her down onto the concrete, rip her clothes open, and fuck her senseless right here, claiming the body she had just teased him with and finishing the game she started.
But another thought crept in.
She was volatile.
Wounded.
Running on instinct and adrenaline.
Should he grant her this small victory, this moment of control, and give her the breathing room to come to him on her own terms tomorrow?
Only time will tell, my friends. Only time will tell which path he will choose.
...
Alright, everyone, I'm going to hold another vote. The choice for Kei Karuizawa will be divided into two routes.
The first choice will be the MC pouncing on her in an empty warehouse and having rough, semi-rape sex with her.
The second choice is more vanilla; as I said in previous votes, it gives Kei time to adjust to the relationship rather than focusing on pinning her to the ground.
Think of it like the adult Ren'Py games you usually play on R-18 websites. The choice matters based on whether you want the MC to take a dominant route or a romantic route with Kei Karuizawa.
Now, let's vote.
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