Tearing up, slouching over, and looking up at me won’t do you any good. What’s impossible is impossible. I slowly shook my head. Then, Isshiki quietly stood up.
“Senpai… I’d like some advice…” Isshiki stood up, quietly walking towards me. She stopped in front of me and looked down at me while I was sitting. She was right in front of me, yet she was hesitantly looking away.
“For…?” I asked.
Isshiki, however, didn’t say anything. Yukinoshita and Yuigahama gave us a puzzled look.
In complete disregard to the three of us who were perplexed, Isshiki began unbuttoning her blazer one by one. Whoa, what the heck is this girl doing?
I was in shock, but so were Yukinoshita and Yuigahama. No seriously, what the heck is she doing? Oh, gosh, wait, wait, are you undressing!? Help!
Isshiki wriggled her body to take off her blazer and groaned as if holding something in. Next, she shoved her hand inside her pink cardigan and began rummaging at the chest area of her blouse.
“Umm…” Isshiki let out a dull voice as she continued fiddling with her blouse. While she was doing that, her front collars would openly flap around, showing glimpses of her collarbones. I redirected my gaze since I was concerned with seeing that directly, but it only made the rustling noises of her clothes and her breathing all the more real.
“I have no idea what you’re trying to pull, but seriously, do that over there.” I looked down and shooed her away with the wave of my hand, trying to make some distance.
Isshiki then gasped loudly. “Oh, here it is.”
The hand she withdrew from inside her clothes was gripping several scraps of paper. Using her other hand, she slowly took my hand and closed it with those scraps inside.
The sudden contact of Isshiki’s hand. Her thin and supple fingers and the sensation of a girl’s skin that was so mysteriously soft caused me to grow stiff in place. Isshiki immediately let go and what remained within my hands were the warm pieces of scrap paper.
When it hit me that this miniscule warmth was from her, my hands were on the verge of sweating. I timidly opened up my fist.
There were several pieces of paper. As I sifted through them, I was met with familiar, printed words. The word “receipt” was lettered at the top and listed below were the names of the bowling alley and the cafe. There was even the meal ticket from the ramen shop.
Don’t tell me, these receipts are…
The thought suddenly ran through my mind. When I lifted my face, Isshiki was smiling and met my eyes.
Did you see it? You saw it, right? Then, you know where I’m going with this, right? Having her smile fire all those questions at me made having a spoken explanation unnecessary.
Isshiki jerked her hand at me, asking for the receipts back. I gave them back and she respectfully accepted them, quietly putting the receipts back in the breast pocket of her blouse.
“So, senpai, about my advice…” Isshiki said the same thing from earlier, only this time with a cutesy and coaxing voice.
For the most part, I understood what it is that Isshiki wanted to say. She’s essentially telling me that I was an accomplice.
But I should’ve been innocent. I mean, I paid for my own bills and it’s not like I was in her debt or anything. Yet, why was I feeling so guilty…? I had some fun and if anything, she was the one who should’ve been in debt for my expenses, you know? No, but still… Buuuuut…
It must’ve been because Isshiki was so confident when she presented the receipts to me that I was starting to feel like I had done something wrong. Now I know what it feels like to be an unrelated bystander in an incident and later forced into attesting…
I coughed once and turned to Isshiki. Alright, this is where I show off my bargaining skills!
“…A-Anyway, why don’t we hear you out first?”
“It’s like she threatened him, didn’t she!?”
“Jeez…”
Yuigahama’s shocking voice and Yukinoshita’s sigh of disbelief compounded.