Only then did Kuroba Akira finally let a faint smile show. He lifted the orange soda in his hand and tipped it toward her.
"Thanks for the drink. But even if you're trying to bribe me, if it doesn't cut it, I'll still reject you, you know?"
"Th-that's not a bribe… I just wanted to show you my gratitude, Kuroba-kun…"
"Is that so? Then let's toast. To us working smoothly together from here on out."
"Ah—o-okay!"
Aizono Momo hurriedly bought another can of orange soda, popped it open, and clinked it against his.
"Cheers!"
"Oh."
Like a brand-new college freshman who couldn't refuse a drinking game, Momo gripped the can with both hands, put on a look of grim resolve, tipped her head back, and—glug, glug—downed the whole thing in one go.
To her, Kuroba Akira giving her another chance was already an enormous honor. If he suggested a toast, then she had to carry it out with everything she had, to show her sincerity!
So even though it felt awful, she still forced down an entire can.
Kuroba Akira stared, dumbfounded, at her "dragon-sucks-water" performance. For once, he genuinely wanted to say, Isn't that a bit much?
Sure, it wasn't as unhinged as those streamers in his previous life chugging giant bottles of soda for content—but it was still a can of carbonated drink. Slam it all at once and your stomach bloats like crazy. "Miserable" didn't even begin to cover it.
And Momo was miserable—so miserable she was nearly in tears.
Her belly was full of gas. And with her chest already on the larger side, the way her ribcage puffed up made it look even more… pronounced.
Momo desperately wanted to burp and let the air out, but as a current JK who cared deeply about her image, she couldn't bring herself to burp in front of a boy. So she swallowed it down—hard.
After finishing, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and forced out a smile that looked like it might collapse into tears at any second.
"Um… I-I finished it… Kuroba-kun…"
"Uh, yeah. Beautifully done."
Kuroba Akira offered a stiff, dry compliment, baffled all the while.
He'd only meant a celebratory toast. How had it turned into a punishment game? It almost felt like he'd bullied her…
Was it because he'd said "cheers," so she took it literally and "cleared" the can? Was she really that strict about it?
Kuroba Akira decided right then that he absolutely could not egg her on to do anything in the future. She had a very real chance of taking it way too far.
And you had the nerve to say your besties' brakes were broken—looks like yours are completely shot too, Momo.
After thinking it over, Kuroba Akira also chugged most of his can in one go, then belched right in front of her—making it clear, purely through action, that burping around him was no big deal.
But Momo's problem wasn't burping anymore. The gas she'd swallowed sank into her abdomen and sparked a fierce urge to pee.
Honestly, after she'd finished that cup of tea in the clubroom earlier, she'd already kind of needed the bathroom. It just hadn't been urgent, and she'd been waiting for Kuroba Akira, so she'd held it, planning to go later.
Then while talking to him, she'd been wound tight with nerves—really nervous.
Some people needed to pee the moment they got anxious. Stress kicked their nervous system into gear and, reflexively, their bladder started screaming for attention…
Momo was exactly that type. And now she'd added an entire can of soda on top of it—plus the bloating—making everything ten times worse. She was just about at her limit.
Her legs unconsciously pressed closer together. She leaned forward slightly. Fine beads of sweat broke out on her forehead, and her eyes couldn't hide the urgency anymore.
The need surged like a tide, battering at her sanity over and over, making her want to find a bathroom right now and get rid of that unbearable pressure.
If I don't go, I'm seriously going to leak…
At that point, Momo couldn't care less about "image." She blurted it out in a rush.
"Um, Kuroba-kun, I-I'm going to… go to the bathroom. You should head back first. You don't need to wait for me…"
Kuroba Akira could tell at a glance how desperate she was, so he nodded.
"Oh, sure. I'll go on ahead. Hurry up and go."
"M-mm! When I get back, I'll work hard and do the coloring again!"
With that, Aizono Momo hurried into the school building, her steps fast and frantic, like every second was torture.
But panic made you sloppy. As she climbed the steps by the side entrance, her toe caught on the edge. Her balance snapped, and she pitched forward.
Shiroi Shiori had always known Momo could be a little careless—especially when she was flustered. She'd miss hazards right under her feet and trip over stairs and things like that, which was why Shiroi was always reminding her to watch her step.
And she'd done it again.
Normally, falling and getting a little hurt would've been whatever. But this time, the killer combo was: she was about to pee herself, and there was also the meddlesome Kuroba Akira.
The moment he saw her about to go down, Kuroba Akira stepped in on reflex and reached out to catch her.
But since Momo was falling forward with her arms thrown out to brace herself, the part he could stop was her upper body.
And because she was a girl, he instinctively avoided her chest—no "lucky pervert" moment.
So his palm landed squarely on her stomach.
Soft and squishy, with a satisfyingly kneadable feel—better than Class Rep's calves, even. It felt like his whole hand could sink right in, like squeezing a water balloon… Figures. Big-chested girls usually had a bit of extra padding on the belly, too.
Not fat, exactly. More like… softly, pleasantly plush.
The type where, if she wore knee-high stockings, the squeeze marks would show up extra clearly.
Girls like that were less for "admiring from a distance" and more for… "messing with."
Picking her up would probably feel even better than a body pillow.
While Kuroba Akira's mind spun out those vulgar judgments, he kept a gentlemanly face and asked with concern,
"Are you okay, Momo?"
"…"
She was, in fact, very much not okay.
She hadn't fallen, but unfortunately, Kuroba Akira's hand was the last straw.
The pressure hit her bladder right as it teetered on the brink—and she broke. The dam gave way on the spot.
"Guh… nh!!"
After fighting for a few desperate seconds, that moment finally arrived.
A sensation she couldn't control swept through Aizono Momo's entire body, draining the color from her face in an instant.
She had never experienced anything this humiliating in her life. Her brain blue-screened, and she froze in place.
But her expression had already lived through social death in advance. Tears spilled out, stringing off her lashes like pearls on a snapped thread, rolling down her cheeks.
And then came the scene everyone "loved" to see.
Kuroba Akira watched her die of embarrassment and thought: no wonder the human body's water content was roughly 60%–70% of body weight, and no wonder using the bathroom was one of the main ways the body "drained" water—usually around 50%–60% of total output.
Generally speaking, after you drank water, it took one to two hours to process before you felt the need to pee.
But if you drank a lot in a short time—and your body wasn't actually lacking water—your kidneys sped up to maintain balance.
That had to be the key reason Aizono Momo hadn't been able to hold it…
No, wait, why am I doing a science lecture right now?!
This is bad… This is all bad!
He'd finally managed to rekindle her motivation—and now it was about to get flushed out along with everything else.
---
T/N: hueheuhe plush and soft
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