CINDERELLA’S AMBUSH
“Nothing beats a good sea breeze ……”
A midsummer night in Kobe.
Osaka in summer is pretty much a sauna at night, but the ocean breeze makes Kobe very comfortable.
The two of us leave the chapel and descend a long, long staircase with the breeze in our faces …… When I hear Ai Yashajin’s voice on the wind.
“Say, Sensei.”
“Yeah?”
“About Ginko Sora. If the two of you start officially dating …… will you tell Ai?”
“Part of me knows I have to say something.”
I sigh and look up at the sparkling night cityscape.
“But I wonder? How do you think she’ll react if I tell her?”
“That it would be traumatic for her, obviously.”
“R-Really?”
“Yes,” Ai says matter-of-factly. Then she adds, “Even children fall in love. Girls, especially.”
“Are you sure?”
“…… Yes.”
Of course, I realize that Ai Hinatsuru has special feelings for me.
But, young as she is, can they really be called love?
Then again, if that’s what she thinks she’s feeling, then …… My telling her could be traumatic.
Just as those thoughts are running through my head …… Ai Yashajin stares up at me and says out of the blue.
“Sensei.”
“Hm?”
“Your necktie is crooked.”
With that, she reaches up to fix it.
“Hm? Oh, sorry.”
Just like before, I bend over so Ai can do her thing.
Except, her hands go passed my tie and clamp down on my cheeks, sandwiching my face together.
…… Huh?
It already happened.
Ai swiftly presses her lips against my defenseless and completely exposed mouth.
It all happened so fast––––––a perfect ambush.
“I love you, Yaichi,” she whispers the moment her lips leave mine ……
But every word is clear as can be.
“……?!”
Her second ambush hits before I can get over the shock of the first one.
Like a devastating haymaker, she hits me with enough power to knock me out cold.
Ai ………… is kissing …… me?
And …… she said she loves me?!
Is this her idea of joke? A prank, maybe?
This sequence is so unexpected I don’t know what to think. But…
My tingling lips wash all those thoughts away.
“O-Oh ………… Uh ……”
I was that close to throwing in the towel when our lips separated.
But I hang on by the skin of my teeth and try to resist.
“Were you listening to anything I just said?!”
“Ginko Sora is the title holder. I am the challenger. That’s what it comes down to, right?”
“That’s not what …………… Wait, is it?”
Nearly convinced, I change course right away.
“No, this isn’t okay!”
“Is it the age difference?”
“Age difference? More like your actual age! You’re ten!”
“How old were you when you started having feelings for Ginko Sora?”
“……!”
“See? Love and age are unrelated.”
No good.
Ai’s preparation is flawless …… Looking back, her ambush was already underway at dinner.
Hold up! Even before that …… When she gave me the necktie, she ……
I-If that’s true, then–––.
“Wh-When did …… you start feeling that way about me ……?”
“I wonder? When do you think it was?” says Ai with a shady grin.
There’s no choice but to take a trip down memory lane after being asked a question like that.
–––When? When was it?
The moment we met? Or when I held her hand and asked her to be a member of my family?
What about when she said she was playing for me on her birthday last year?
The time we visited her parent’s grave together, did she already ……?
Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.
Right now Ai Yashajin is literally the only thing I can think about.
This ten-year-old girl is manipulating my mind like putty in her hand.
Th-This has to stop!! Any longer on this topic and I’ll never be able to get Ai out of my mind ……!
“I ………… with Big Sis. We already …… did the same thing ……”
“Do you think saying so will make me give up?”
She grabs my necktie and yanks me down to her height. Leaning in so close her cheek nearly brushes against mine, she says with a fierce look in her eyes.
“Well, too bad! My stubbornness and inability to take a hint come directly from my sensei. If you must blame someone, blame yourself for raising me this way!”
With that, she suddenly releases my tie.
“Wh-Whoa ……?!”
Totally off balance, I fall down the stairs and land on my butt in the most pathetic way possible.
“I don’t care if you have feelings for Ginko Sora right now. It would be far too boring if I didn’t give her a handicap,” Ai Yashajin declares as she lords it over me …… and the world itself.
Watching her go down the stairs one by one, each click of her high heels ringing like bells in my ears, she looks so much taller than the average ten-year-old …… and more stunning.
“I’ll take every last thing that girl has.”
Akira pulls up in a black luxury car right in front of Ai without a sound just as she finishes that sentence.
“First, I’ll become the Women’s Throne Challenger and claim my first title. Then I’ll avenge my loss last time and become Queen.”
The challenger flips her long, black hair over her shoulder like a dark wing and looks back up at me with bewitching eyes as she says, “And finally, I’ll take you. Prepare yourself, Yaichi.”
Once Cinderella climbs into the backseat of the car, she leaves the castle-like wedding chapel and disappears into the night.
Instead of a glass slipper …… this Cinderella only leaves a soft tingle on my lips.
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