Stealing Spree

Once the PE class ended, Eguchi-sensei called me again to her side and this time, she gave me a more detailed explanation of that trip. Her goal for those visits, when will it be as well as that concern I have earlier; about what will happen to the classes that I am going to miss.

Anyway, because I already accepted, it was easy to pick up her elation as I listened to her every word. Her expression was also as bright as it could be that even if it rains, she’d remain in a good mood.

Somehow, I found that really adorable of her. If before there was only a little fondness because I always helped her with the activities, now, that fondness had grown to undeniable affection. Nonetheless, she probably wouldn’t voice it out again and let it remain a little ambiguous.

Anyway, given that she hadn’t changed even after that meeting, it looked like the content wasn’t what I predicted or she just straight up ignored it, thinking that what she was showing to me wasn’t out of boundary.

I guess that’s a lot better than seeing her get depressed.

After accompanying Eguchi-sensei back to her room at the Administration Building, I found myself blocked by one of my girls on my way to the abandoned clubroom for the Mentor Program.

The girl waited right outside the Building and immediately jumped at me as soon as I showed up.

There’s no one around or even if there was, no one’s looking in our direction. That’s why apart from the initial surprise because I didn’t expect her to be here, I automatically switched to a doting boyfriend, giving in to the whims of my girl.

“Alright, Rae, should I guess the reason for this or are you going to tell me?”

After bringing her to one of those spots that we previously used; the one with the broken vending machine, I raised the girl’s head that was buried in my chest.

While letting my thumb run along her lower lip, I caressed that soft part of her ear hidden behind her hair. I carefully did that without nudging the temples of her eyeglasses.

“Let me think of a reason…” With her lips stretching from side to side, the girl mischievously answered, stressing out the word ‘think’.

So basically, there’s no reason. She’s just longing for alone time with me.

In any case, I played along and placed a kiss on her cheek before moving to nibble her earlobe. While she was being tickled by it, I blew air into her ear and replied, “Sure, it’s always a delight whenever I hear that word from you. You’ve come a long way.”

Since she couldn’t escape from me and she probably didn’t want to just jump out of my embrace, Rae endured being tickled by biting my thumb on her lips.

The slight pain made me pause, giving her the window to reply while bearing a proud smile. “Not your knowledge girl anymore, am I?”

“Nope. You'll always be my adorable knowledge girl. The way you started thinking before consulting that bank of knowledge of yours was just an improvement. A buff, if you may. It made you become even more impressive.”

Well, she's a smart girl with or without it. She’s actually ranked high in the midterms as well. Beating Itou on the rankings. Nonetheless, she didn’t want to celebrate it. For her, it’s just the same as any other exam results.

“Hmm… I think I realized just now that the reason I thrived on being able to step away from only using my knowledge is to hear your endless praise. I love it a lot, Ruki. Praise me more.”

“Sure, sure. My Rae is amazing. When it comes to a lot of things that I’m not good at, I always look at you to see how impressive you are at it.”

“More…” Like a drunkard who wanted to down more shots of alcohol, Rae urged me to praise her more by recounting her amazing feats while giggling in satisfaction.

And at the same time as that, the girl turned into a comfy cat as she purred and lovingly rubbed her cheek on my palm.

I snapped a photo of her which I would surely stare at a few times a day.

In this way, time quickly passed. The two of us remained at that spot. I eventually sat down on the old bench and put her on my lap. Naturally, to protect our identity if someone passed by, I faced the wall rather than the open area.

Once she got satisfied from hearing praises, Rae talked about her family in detail for the first time.

Actually, our planned date was never realized because of that family. Every time we would be able to see a window of opportunity for it, something would happen in her family. A few weeks have already passed since the time I walked her home.

Although I’m curious about her situation, I didn’t press her to tell me everything. I waited until she was ready.

Surprisingly, that’s today. It’s actually the reason why she waited for me.

“I think you can already guess, Ruki. I’m kind of hungry for praise. It might not be the reason why I fell in love with you but you’re certainly my main source of praise.”

Yeah. I noticed that. Especially earlier when she asked me to continue praising her even when I had already run out of her impressive feats.

“I see. They’re not praising you. Or is it because they already got used to you being so great that they found it pointless to continue uttering words of praise?”

“I’ll score that 50%.” Rae giggled and kissed me again before continuing, “Yes, they stopped praising me. However, the reason for it is because of their absence and their lack of motivation to contact or check on me.”

When Rae finished speaking, I instantly noticed the slight bitterness in her voice.

“My parents are always busy. And my siblings, even more so. The maid you saw that day you sent me home? She’s the one who’s taking care of me. Most of my needs are prepared by her.”

“I see. But you said they’re aware of me.”

“Yes, they are. My father knows your parents. When I got a little too excited to tell my mom about how I got myself a boyfriend, I mentioned your name. And she’s like, ‘Onoda? Is the boy’s name Ruki?’.”

“She straight-up brought up my name, huh?”

Most likely, my parents are acquainted with her mother. And she’s aware of their identity.

“Un. And then, when I answered yes, she laughed and praised me. After years of not hearing any praise from her, I got praised because I got you as my boyfriend. No, maybe it’s not even because of that, it’s the weight of your surname that made her that elated.”

“I see… It must be frustrating.”

“Very. Yet, I love you so much that it doesn’t really affect me. However, it made me want to know more about it first before telling you. I don’t want you to suddenly worry about me. I took my time to find out the reason why she reacted like that and why my father who I have never spoken to for years suddenly called and asked me questions about you.”

“What did you find out?”

Rae took a breath first before answering, “That your parents or your lineage, in particular, is special. Special enough that it outclassed the whole Fujii Family.”

Now that’s something I’m hearing for the first time as well. If her Fujii Family is really that family of politicians, how does it compare to the ‘normal’ Onoda Household? But how did we arrive here? I thought we were talking about her hunger for being praised.