Kaoru Hoshitani had recently been feeling, quite vaguely but persistently, that his girlfriend Aina Saiten seemed off—as if she were shrouded by a thin, impenetrable mist.
Tracing this subtle change carefully, it appeared to have begun precisely on the day he had mustered the courage to propose going out to work.
Before that day, he had never seen Aina Saiten so adamant, even almost overbearing, in opposing something he wanted to do.
Her tightly furrowed brows, raised voice, and the flicker of an anxious restlessness in her eyes—something Kaoru couldn’t quite understand—pricked at his heart with an uncomfortable sting, leaving him feeling completely denied and wronged.
He simply couldn’t comprehend it. He cared deeply for Aina, who left early and returned late every day, working tirelessly under pressure at the company to support the home they shared.
He had only wanted to do his part, to shoulder even the slightest bit of that burden for her.
Yet Aina Saiten didn’t show the slightest hint of being moved by his concern.
Instead, as if some sensitive nerve had been touched, her tone turned harsh and commanding, almost dictating that he just stay quietly at home and that he needn’t worry about things outside.
This made Kaoru feel wronged but also stirred his stubborn temper. Why did he have to stay home? He wanted to go out and work.
The result was the fiercest argument they’d ever had since they’d met, maybe ever in their entire relationship.
Though in the end, it was Aina who relented, and their feelings remained intact, Kaoru keenly sensed that something about his girlfriend had changed.
The most tangible shift appeared during their intimate moments at night.
Their love life, which had long settled into a steady and gentle rhythm like many stable couples’, had recently taken on a strange, anxious passion.
Almost every night, Aina would cling to him, pressing kisses and touches onto him with a kind of urgent, almost greedy intensity, as if trying to confirm something or fill an invisible void.
Truthfully, Kaoru didn’t mind this.
He had never forced such things before, worried that his girlfriend’s constant exhaustion and overwork might be harmful to her health.
Besides, he was only nineteen, his body still in its prime.
The shivers and pleasures brought by skin-to-skin contact were like the sweetest honey, and though shy by nature and never saying so aloud, deep down, he instinctively craved and longed for this ultimate union of body and soul.
Yet Kaoru wasn’t sure if it was because Aina’s body was no longer at its peak, or because he had become harder to satisfy.
Now, unless Aina bit down and gave it her all, the whole process felt like scratching an itch through a boot—never quite reaching that elusive spot deep inside him, unable to bring him to the dizzying climax.
That sensation of hanging halfway, unable to fully release, was extremely unpleasant, leaving behind endless emptiness and a vague irritation each time.
But Kaoru always forced himself to suppress this little disappointment.
After all, he understood how hard Aina worked during the day, saw the faint bluish shadows under her eyes, and didn’t want to push her any further.
He would always snuggle into her arms afterward, lifting his misty, slightly reddened eyes to say in a soft, nasal tone, “I’m comfortable, already satisfied”—a comforting lie.
He would even lean in to gently kiss the corner of her lips, trying to dispel the faint trace of frustration etched between her brows.
He told these kind lies to soothe Aina during their quiet moments.
Yet when midnight fell and his girlfriend, exhausted, slipped into a deep, even breathing sleep beside him, Kaoru often lay awake in the darkness, eyes wide open, staring blankly at the blurry outlines of the ceiling.
He felt as if countless tiny feathers were lightly tickling the depths of his heart, stirring secret, nagging emptiness and restlessness, tossing and turning in vain.
In solitude, he had secretly searched online and found some items that seemed to alleviate this loneliness.
Though he had a girlfriend, buying such things felt like a guilty secret, but another, quieter, more aggrieved voice argued inside him:
After all, he only had these thoughts because Aina couldn’t completely satisfy him, right?
So… it shouldn’t be a problem…
With a face burning bright with shame, he carefully retrieved the cool, softly wrapped object hidden deep in his wardrobe.
Like a sneaky cat, he tiptoed into the silent bathroom, gently locked the door behind him.
Over half an hour later, the bathroom door opened silently once more.
Kaoru’s cheeks still flushed unnaturally, his hair slightly disheveled, eyes glazed with a mixture of indulgence and deeper emptiness.
He swiftly cleaned and tucked the item back into the wardrobe’s depths.
Only after all this did he lie back down, curling under the covers with his back to his sleeping girlfriend, closing his eyes gently and trying to calm his still-racing heart.
Of course, what troubled Kaoru most was what had happened a couple of days ago, when Aina came to pick him up from work at the izakaya.
Her expression when she saw Rika Kawasaki, the granddaughter of the Kawasaki Couple, was terrifying.
That almost feral look was something Kaoru had never seen on Aina’s face—so unfamiliar it made his heart race.
What scared him even more was the unusual silence from Aina on the way home.
And just as they stepped inside the house, before the lights were even switched on, Aina, as if losing all reason in the darkness, seized him with a force bordering on brutality.
During it, she clung tightly to him, her nails digging almost painfully into his back, her lips leaving bruising marks on his neck.
It was as if she were trying to confirm his existence—or fend off some unseen terror.
That time truly frightened Kaoru—not just physically, but because his girlfriend seemed utterly out of control, as if she were someone else.
Later, although Aina casually asked about Rika Kawasaki, lying beside him in bed before they parted, Kaoru could clearly sense his girlfriend’s nervousness whenever she lied. The feeling was unmistakable…