Haruka looks at him glumly. The dampness of the day soaked her shirt, and her breasts were completely visible, although Haruka didn’t seem to care. She was dressed in a T-shirt and a shorter skirt now. 

"I have a life outside of work you know… Not like somebody like you would know much about that..."

“How did you change out of your work clothes so fast?” Kousuke asks, still surprised.

“Because I changed when I got home weirdo.” She bluntly responded, “I haven’t figured out my laundry machine yet. Sorry, it’s not rain-appropriate. That’s why I got my umbrella,” She reveals her umbrella in her other hand. 

She looks away blankly, but her eyes soon shift over to his basket. A look of recognition and mild annoyance comes over her face.

"Ah… You were the one who took the last of the Ramune.”

Kousuke, still taken aback by her sudden appearance, replies awkwardly,

"Ah... umm… well... You can have them if you want. I sorta just picked them up because I… uhh... wanted to give them to a ramune-less girl on the way home... yeah." 

He laughs awkwardly at his joke, trying to ease the tension in the air.

Haruka continues to stare at him blankly and annoyedly.

He looks back at her, feeling a single bead of sweat run down the side of his face.

Haruka sighs. "...Sure… I don't want your charity, but since you decided to be selfish and take all of them, I suppose I'll treat myself to one.”

She grabs a blue ramune from his bag and cracks it open on the spot. 

The drink wets her luscious lips as she takes a swig, accenting their softness. Her eyes fall closed as she unapologetically enjoys the soda.

After watching her take a sip, Kousuke notices her bright eyes grow watery due to the carbonation of the Ramune. 

Kousuke continues to stare, noticing her bag. He sees there’s not much in it: just sauce, rice, and fish.

Haruka, noticing he’s been staring at her the whole time, gives him a judging look.

"I wish this encounter wasn't so awkward, but I'm going to go walk home and drink this. Bye, weird guy." 

Kousuke nods sheepishly, chuckling even more awkwardly now. 

"Ah, sure.”

She crosses the street, and Kousuke does the same but tries to avoid her route. 

I hope she doesn’t think I'm following her…

Despite trying to avoid seeming creepy by taking a different route, he continues to watch her from afar until she disappears behind a familiar building he sees quite often. 

Somehow after that disaster of a conversation, she still manages to be adorable. What a mysterious woman...

He thinks fondly but then snaps back into end-of-the-day plan mode. 

He excites himself at the thought of Sayuri coming over again.

I wonder what she'll think of these snacks…

Kousuke arrives at his apartment complex and walks up the steps to his floor. 

Arriving at his door, he shifts his grocery bag to one hand as he fiddles around with the lock. 

"This damn key." 

A familiar voice replies unexpectedly to him yet again,

"Are you some kind of stalker or something?" 

He turns around to see Haruka standing behind him, looking disturbed. 

As he makes eye contact with her, her expression darkens further into a scowl. "If you leave now and never come back I won't call the police."

Kousuke jumps back towards his door at the threat but falls to the ground unexpectedly as it conveniently pushes open upon him backing into it.

He sits up and returns her angry expression.

"What the hell is your issue? Me, a stalker?? I live here!" 

Her expression changed to one of recognition before returning to its neutral state.

"Oh… my apologies then. I live next door starting today." 

She bows.

"Nice to make your acquaintance, weird guy." 

She offers a hand to help him up.

Kousuke takes her hand, still a little frustrated at the whole encounter.

"First of all, that's not my name-"

He grabs her hand and tries to pull himself up, but he’s stronger than she is and accidentally pulls her down with him. 

Haruka falls to land right on Kousuke, her chest landing on his face. Despite his frustration, he gets a face-first experience of her breasts through the fabric.

She looks up at his face and quickly climbs off of him, dusting her skirt off. Kousuke, with some degree of relief, notices she looks more inconvenienced than angry.

“My bad…” he mutters, just wanting to enter his apartment already.

She looks at him. 

"Whatever. Let us never speak of this again.”

She turns to enter her room, but hesitates and turns to face him again.

“...Thank you for breaking my fall.” 

She bows quickly.

And with that, Haruka ran to her room and slammed the door shut. 

Kousuke pulls himself up and reaches for the doorknob.

What a weird girl.

Closing the door, Kousuke takes one last look at the showers bombarding his city.

All I know is one thing, my life just got more complicated.

He flops on his bed and places one of his recent reads onto his face to shield his eyes from the world.

Kousuke brings out his phone, hesitantly, before setting it down once again. 

The rain hitting the building needed some distraction.

Resting for a few seconds, he removes the book from his face and places it cover down on the bed next to him.

He sluggishly gets off of his bed and rolls out his computer chair to his desk.

Booting up his computer, he ponders a thought or two.

I wonder if Miss Sayuri has a social media page?
He launches his social media application on his computer, and begins to search for her by name, nervously clicking on the search bar.

She won’t know… I hope this doesn’t make me a stalker… He reassuringly thought to himself. 

Kousuke typed in her name one key at a time. 

S
H

I

M

A

B

U

K

U

R

O

Kousuke took a deep breath, excited at the thought of being able to find out more about her 

He continued, the sound of his keyboard seemed to drown out the noise of the rainstorm outside.

S

A

Y

U

R

I

He pressed search.

Alright let’s see if she’s on here.

Kousuke eagerly scrolls past the first couple of profile pictures that are clearly not his new neighbor.
A profile picture catches his eye. Clicking on it, he finds a public profile filled with images.

Kousuke finds a sea of posts regarding her personal life, and some which seem to be on the playful side, but some on the mature side.

Kousuke, nervously opens a post of hers in which she is at a manga cafe, reading a volume of Chihayafuru.

In excitement, Kousuke jumps out of his seat.

“She’s a Manga Fan?!” He exclaims.

Realizing his outburst, Kousuke slides back into his seat and steers his attention to another post where Sayuri appeared to have made Donburi.

She can cook too. He thinks to himself. 

The next post he scrolls to is her lying on the beach adjusting a swimsuit.

Kousuke nearly faints at the sight of her in a bikini.

Kousuke stared at his screen, forever seemingly entranced by the photo of her sprawled on the beach. She was lying back on the sand, her body relaxed yet drawing every ounce of focus to her pose. 

The micro bikini barely covered her curves, each strap stretching over the natural yet plush lines of her body. Her hand was captured mid-adjustment, delicately tugging at a strap on her hip, as if unconsciously emphasizing the effortless allure she owns.

The sunlight illuminated her in such a way that made the entire scene feel almost dreamlike, highlighting the warmth of her skin against the pale sand. Even through the screen, the image was intimate.

Kousuke could feel the warmth and invitation through the screen. 

It didn’t seem like she was posing for anyone—she seemed more absorbed in the moment than aware of any audience, adding a layer of intrigue. 

Her eyes looked off to the side as if she was watching something on the shoreline, while her tousled hair spilled over her shoulders, framing her soft, relaxed expression.

Kousuke found himself studying her face, noticing that beneath the captivating allure, there was something else—a kind of quiet self-assurance, an openness, however playful. It wasn't a carefully curated, performative photo; it was natural, unguarded, and somehow only deepened his fascination. Her expression is like a Mother cat watching over her young. 

 As Kousuke began to scroll to see even more swimsuit photos, in an almost slow-motion action, he misclicked and clicked the thumbs-up button.

Oh... No...

What have I done?

ED CH 3