COTE : Oh No, I've Become the Substitute

When the two emerged from Keyaki Mall, the September moon had already quietly climbed the branches. Its clear radiance streamed down like white silk, silently coating the tranquil campus in a layer of soft silver frost.

By now, dusk had fully folded in. The Advanced Nurturing High campus, so clamorous during the day, had sunk into a deep indigo. The street lamps along the school path lit up one after another, casting down pillars of light. Countless tiny insects swarmed and danced near the bulbs.

Having already changed back into their casual clothes, the two walked aimlessly along the school path.

Up ahead, Kiryuin Fuka strolled forward at an unhurried pace, her ladies' shoulder bag slung over her arm, her long black-stocking-clad legs swinging leisurely along the gravel path. She seemed to be waiting for someone to catch up.

Meanwhile, Fuyuji Mikage, following behind, grimaced with bared teeth as he clutched at his back, as if checking whether he'd sustained any hidden injuries. Soon after, he began heaving long, plaintive sighs.

Then, the gallant figure up ahead came to an abrupt halt.

Kiryuin spun around and crossed her arms over her chest. Those wine-red eyes of hers, which always carried a hint of scrutiny, now—for an exceptionally rare moment—dodged Fuyuji's gaze, turning instead toward the distant, swaying shadows of the cherry trees. Her tone carried a trace of mortified irritation, mixed with a "damn it all" resignation.

"Alright, alright. So your Senpai ambushed you one time. I didn't land a single hit in over an hour. Senpai still needs to save some reputation, you know."

"Well, you could at least be a little gentler about it, Senpai!" Fuyuji spoke with considerable grievance. "I feel like my whole back is red."

To slap him right on the back the instant he was changing clothes—this woman was a sore loser and a shameless cheat...

"Fine, fine."

Standing in place and quietly watching Fuyuji struggle to reach his own back for a moment, Kiryuin eventually found it all rather amusing. She reached out and seized Fuyuji's wrist, and with the air of someone completely giving up, declared:

"It's Senpai's fault, alright? I shouldn't have ambushed you."

With that, she swept a cursory glance around, turned, and strode off in another direction. Her silver hair traced a clean, sharp arc through the air.

"Hey, hey, Senpai! Slow down, slow down! Where are we going?" Fuyuji stumbled forward as she yanked him along, hurrying to keep up.

"The vending machine. As an apology, whatever you want to drink is Senpai's treat."

The September night air had shed the sticky mugginess of high summer, now carrying a just-right trace of coolness and moisture, as if it could seep straight into the skin.

A few minutes later, each holding a can of still-frosty drink, the two returned to the quiet bench from before.

They sat down side by side, a delicate distance between them—just enough for the night breeze to slip through.

The air was saturated with the clean scent of post-exercise sweat, the crisp coolness of ice-cold drinks, and that faint, familiar fragrance drifting from Kiryuin's hair.

With a sharp hiss, Fuyuji cracked open the ice-cold barley tea that had just tumbled out of the vending machine. He tilted his head back and downed a huge gulp, then leaned back comfortably against the bench.

"Senpai."

Cradling the cold can in both hands, his gaze resting on the moonlit school path before him, Fuyuji suddenly spoke in a soft voice, breaking the brief silence between them.

"Mm?"

Kiryuin didn't turn her head immediately, merely responding with a lazy hum. She opened her own drink and took small, delicate sips, savoring the coolness that seeped into her heart. Her long legs were crossed, the lines of her calves, wrapped in sheer black stockings, faintly visible and invisible under the moonlight. The tips of her dainty feet tapped lightly against the ground.

"Thank you." Gazing at the bright, pure moon floating in the indigo night sky, Fuyuji kept it brief.

"Don't mention it. You're my adorable kouhai, after all. Senpai helping her kouhai is only natural."

Kiryuin tilted her head slightly. The post-exercise flush had not yet fully faded from her fair cheeks. The tip of her nose still seemed to glisten with tiny beads of sweat, reflecting faint pinpricks of light under the moon.

Glancing at Fuyuji, who was still rubbing his shoulder, the corner of her lips curved into an almost imperceptible arc. She lifted her elegant chin. "Turn around. Let Senpai have a look."

"Uh... that's really not necessary. It's nothing serious. Just normal muscle soreness from intense exercise." At this, Fuyuji suddenly grew bashful and fidgety.

"You speak too much."

Growing impatient, Kiryuin simply forced Fuyuji's body around and, without further ado, lifted the back of his shirt herself.

"As my kouhai, you need to be a bit more straightforward. It's not like Senpai hasn't seen it just earlier."

"Ah! Senpai, Senpai, wait a second!"

Feeling a sudden chill on his back as a current of air swept past, Fuyuji clutched the front of his shirt with considerable embarrassment. After all, who knew if some student might suddenly pop out from the side at any moment?

Kiryuin, on the other hand, was utterly unconcerned with any potential onlookers. With one hand holding her drink and the other lifting the back of his shirt, she scrutinized Fuyuji's back from top to bottom.

The way her eyes swept back and forth like searchlights made Fuyuji increasingly uncomfortable, as if he were a slab of pork being inspected.

"Senpai, hurry it up." Fuyuji lowered his head in embarrassment, quietly urging her on.

"What's the rush?" A soft chuckle drifted from behind him. Kiryuin teased, "Who told you to cry out like that earlier? Hm... your skin's pretty nice. Smooth and moisturized. What body wash do you normally use?"

"..." Senpai, you're acting like some kind of female thug.

And then, a hand with distinct knuckles gently pressed down on the area below his shoulder blade where he'd been slapped. Slender fingers began kneading delicately across his back, slowly working away the red marks inch by inch. The touch carried a style completely at odds with its owner's usual willful, headstrong nature—clumsy and focused in equal measure.

White clouds drifted lazily across the sky, veiling the moonlight for a moment before idly floating off into the distance with the breeze.

"Done."

Kiryuin withdrew her hands and dusted her palms together, letting the back of Fuyuji's shirt fall back into place. She offered her assessment.

"Your body's not bad at all. You only felt so exhausted because you never exercise normally."

"That's what I was trying to say. There was no need for this."

"Weren't you putting on that act just now precisely because you wanted Senpai to take a look?"

"Well... maybe there was just a tiny, tiny bit of that idea."

"Oblivious kouhai. Senpai is this beautiful, and you only had that tiny little bit of an idea?"

"..."

Kiryuin had, once again, using her unparalleled linguistic talents, rendered Fuyuji utterly speechless.

Just then, a cool night breeze swept through the tree-lined path at the perfect moment, gently brushing across the skin of the two of them—still cooling from their sweat-drenched exercise.

After the tension of the entire evening, under the cool comfort and brief respite, the exhaustion that had been held at bay came surging up like a tide.

Kiryuin raised a hand to cover her mouth and involuntarily let out a tiny yawn. The corners of her eyes instantly glistened with a faint sheen of moisture. At the same time, it extinguished whatever desire she'd had to continue teasing her kouhai.

A peculiar atmosphere—warm, yet delicately subtle—once again enveloped the two as they sat side by side.

Each picked up the drink can resting on the bench, took a sip, and then, by unspoken agreement, fixed their gazes on the distant grove of trees, speaking no further.

Crickets sang tirelessly in the grass. Vague bird calls sounded occasionally from the forest. The characteristic ambient sounds of a summer night were magnified infinitely at this moment, filling the brief silence between them.

After draining the last of his drink in one go, Fuyuji finally couldn't resist opening his mouth once more.

"Senpai."

"What is it?" She responded lazily, her gaze still resting on the swaying tree shadows up ahead.

"Nothing." Fuyuji swallowed the words that had been on the tip of his tongue. Instead, he shook the empty can in his hand. "I just... wanted to call you."

"It's fine. Senpai permits it..." Kiryuin's voice was softer than before, like a feather brushing the tip of the heart. "This is a privilege belonging to my kouhai."

"I see..." After gathering himself for a moment, his fingers unconsciously tracing the cold aluminum can, Fuyuji cautiously asked in a soft voice, "Um, Senpai... what do you plan to do in the future? Didn't you tell me before that you wanted to cast off the Kiryuin name and live an unfettered, ordinary life?"

Kiryuin didn't reply.

The crickets in the grass continued to sing tirelessly, their sound especially crisp in the silence.

A few more seconds passed.

"So, Senpai." He tightened his grip on the aluminum can, drew a deep breath, and—clenching his teeth—abruptly wrenched his head around. His burning gaze fixed on the young woman beside him as he spoke at an extremely rapid, earnest clip. "If you don't mind... from now on, how about using Fuyu—"

His voice stopped short.

Clatter!

The empty can slipped from his hand and struck the concrete ground with a crisp, jarring clang, echoing through the silent night.

At the same moment, an exceedingly faint yet utterly real weight—accompanied by a sensation of warmth—landed upon his left shoulder without the slightest warning.

Fuyuji's pupils abruptly dilated. His entire body went rigid in an instant.

Kiryuin's body, having lost its support in sleep, had tilted ever so slightly toward his side. That head of hers, always held so high, had come to rest against his shoulder as naturally as could be...

A night breeze swept past. The cherry leaves overhead rustled with a faint, sigh-like whisper.

The whole world had suddenly become so quiet. Time itself seemed to have ceased flowing at this very moment.

Fuyuji held his breath, his pupils swiveling gently. Even the rise and fall of his chest became cautious and careful, as if afraid of disturbing this sudden, unexpected peace.

A few strands of silver hair had slipped loose, clinging softly to the skin of his neck and bringing with them a faint, cool tickle. Her long lashes fluttered faintly with each steady, unhurried breath, like the wings of a butterfly resting on flower petals.

Her cheeks still bore the post-exercise flush that had not yet fully receded, appearing exceptionally soft beneath the cold, clear moonlight. Her nose was petite and delicate, her lips gently pursed. She had shed her usual forcefulness and edge, revealing a tranquility that was completely defenseless—one might even call it... fragile.

All sounds around them—the distant, muffled chirp of insects, the soft rustle of leaves in the night breeze, even the pounding of his own heart like a drum—seemed to be shut away by an invisible barrier, growing distant and indistinct...

In the entire world, all that remained was that heavy yet impossibly light sensation on his shoulder, and before his eyes, this sleeping face—so close at hand, so utterly unguarded.

[I am cute. It's just that no one has ever discovered this!]

With extreme slowness, Fuyuji tilted his head ever so slightly, allowing his cheek to feel more closely the faint coolness of her hair and the warmth of her breath.

So... what Senpai said was true after all...

A few early-fallen leaves came spinning down. One of them lightly grazed Kiryuin's cascading hair before finally landing beside the drink can Fuyuji had left on the bench.

...

On the school path of Advanced Nurturing High, the moon hung high in the center of the sky, shedding its cold, clear radiance.

The time had already passed ten o'clock. The path was largely devoid of pedestrians. A shadow moved steadily from the direction of Keyaki Mall toward the dormitory, stretched very long by the lamplight along the roadside. Looking closely, another shadow—tall and slender—overlapped with it, resting upon its back.

"Nn..."

Kiryuin, on his back, let out a sound like someone stirring from a dream. Consciousness returned to her body.

'I'm... being carried by someone...'

In a mere instant, Kiryuin had sorted out all the threads of thought in her mind. The corner of her lips curved upward. She turned her cheek slightly, pressing it close against Fuyuji's back.

'What an outrageously unfair boy...'

As if sensing the subtle shift behind him, a slightly breathless voice drifted from up ahead.

"Senpai? Are you awake?"

Kiryuin didn't reply. She silently tightened her arms around Fuyuji's neck, pressing her body even closer. Her wine-red eyes closed in response, letting the boy beneath her continue carrying her.

"..."

Seeing no reply come back, Fuyuji paid it no mind. He simply launched into his rambling, muttering mode on his own.

"Actually... Senpai, that book from before—'How to Be a Gentle and Domestic Wife'—I did send that one on purpose. Can't help it. Senpai is normally way too formidable. Even though you're very beautiful, and your figure is top-tier... I always felt a little intimidated. Originally, I wanted to find a book called 'How to Be the Perfect Senpai in Your Kouhai's Heart,' but unfortunately, I couldn't track it down. So I had to make do with that one."

"Kouhai." Kiryuin, who had been resting her cheek quietly against his back with her eyes closed, feeling Fuyuji's warmth, abruptly spoke up.

"Mm?"

"Shut up."

"Oh." Fuyuji responded flatly.

Having forcefully cut off his rambling, Kiryuin turned her head and buried her face against his broad back. Unconsciously, she deepened her breaths, greedily listening to the boy's heartbeat.

This feeling... it's so unfamiliar. Yet strangely, wonderfully comfortable.

If the students in her class were to see her—the great Kiryuin Fuka—like this, acting like some little girl, being carried on the back of a first-year kouhai, clinging to him with such reluctance to let go... they'd probably wear expressions as if they'd seen a ghost, wouldn't they?

Still... the gazes of that lot—she didn't care about them in the slightest. She didn't even deign to notice.

To be carried by another person, to be borne forward—this was an unprecedented experience that nothing else could compare to.

After walking a stretch further.

Sensing those restless, mischievous hands pressing against her rear, Kiryuin let out a quiet laugh in the depths of her heart.

A kouhai with plenty of lecherous thoughts, but no courage to act on them...

"Kouhai." An abrupt voice rang out once again.

The hands that had just been up to no good were startled into a jolt, instantly freezing in place. "Mm?"

Kiryuin opened her eyes. Once again tightening her arms around his neck, she slowly lifted her head, her cheek drawing close to Fuyuji's head. Quietly nestling against his hair, she spoke.

"From now on... do your best, okay."

His steady footsteps paused for a single beat, then continued forward. A few short seconds later, a parched voice scraped out of his throat.

"Okay."

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