Time remaining until your boyfriend Kaoru Hoshitani is NTR’ed:
Sixty-eight days
The Saturday morning sunlight cut several long, narrow spots of light on the wooden floor through the gaps in the off-white curtains.
In the living room outside the bedroom, the hands of the clock silently slid to the eleven o’clock position.
“Kaoru, are you ready? The time we agreed on with Chika is coming up.”
Aina Saiten walked to the bedroom door for the third time, raising her hand to knock gently on the heavy solid wood panel with her knuckles, her voice carrying a trace of helpless gentleness.
She turned her ear to listen for movement inside, her other hand unconsciously rubbing the cuff of her cotton loungewear.
They say it takes at least two hours for a man to get ready to go out.
Aina Saiten never believed this saying before, until today.
This Saturday, they slept until nine in the morning before waking up lazily.
The first thing Kaoru Hoshitani did after opening his eyes was to look at her for a few seconds with those hazy, sleepy eyes, and then, as if suddenly remembering something important, he bolted up from the covers.
His soft black hair was sticking up in a few tufts due to his sleeping posture, appearing fluffy in the morning light filtering through the curtains.
“Aina, could you go out for a moment, please?”
Kaoru Hoshitani’s voice still held the huskiness of just waking up, but his tone was unusually firm.
Before Aina Saiten could ask for the reason, she was gently pushed out of the bedroom.
Kaoru Hoshitani’s usually docile eyes were flickering with a certain urgency she couldn’t read.
When the bedroom door closed in front of her, she heard her boyfriend add in a low voice from behind the door:
“I need to put on makeup and change clothes, it will take a little time.”
‘Makeup?’
Aina Saiten stood outside the door, stunned for a good while.
Kaoru indeed occasionally wore light makeup, but that was usually just simple foundation and brow grooming; she had never seen him shut himself in the room so solemnly for it.
She thought it was because today was the first time he was accompanying her to meet her colleague Chika, so he wanted to prepare with extra care.
But she didn’t expect the bedroom door to remain shut for a full two hours.
During this time, Aina Saiten tidied the living room and even watered the plants on the balcony.
Every time she walked to the bedroom door to softly ask about his progress, Kaoru Hoshitani’s somewhat flustered answer would come from inside:
“Wait a little longer, it will be done soon!”
Accompanying this were the slight clicks of cosmetics opening and closing, as well as the rustling sound of clothes friction.
“Almost… almost done!”
At this moment, Kaoru Hoshitani’s response came from inside, clearly lacking confidence.
His voice was a few degrees higher than usual, carrying a tightness Aina Saiten was unfamiliar with.
Inside the bedroom, Kaoru Hoshitani was sitting in front of the dressing table, doing a final check in the round vanity mirror.
A ring of warm yellow LED lights was embedded in the edge of the mirror, illuminating his face clearly.
His fingers were trembling slightly as he held a soft powder puff and patted it gently again on the side of his neck, which had already been covered with concealer.
There, beneath the foundation and concealer products, hid a small, lavender love bite, left from yesterday.
Kaoru Hoshitani’s gaze met his own in the mirror; those usually clear eyes were now filled with complex emotions: nervousness, guilt, and a trace of imperceptible panic.
He took a deep breath and pressed his thin lips together, which were painted with coral lipstick; the lip glaze shimmered with a faint watery sheen under the light.
Finally, he stood up and tugged at the hem of his light gray knit sweater.
This was carefully selected by him; it wasn’t too formal to appear deliberate, yet it was sufficient to complement his carefully groomed face.
He hesitated for a second the moment he gripped the door handle, his knuckles turning slightly white, and then, as if making up his mind, he turned the handle and pulled the bedroom door open.
Aina Saiten was originally leaning against the side of the bedroom door, scrolling through social media updates on her mobile phone screen while waiting for her boyfriend.
When the subway APP popped up a notification saying “Estimated arrival at the nearest station at eleven twenty,” she was just about to knock on the door again to remind him of the time.
At that exact instant, the bedroom door opened inward.
Aina Saiten subconsciously turned her head.
Then she froze; the mobile phone she was holding slipped from her palm, fortunately caught by the lanyard, swaying in the air a few times before bumping against the side of her thigh.
She saw a face that was incredibly familiar yet different in every way.
Kaoru Hoshitani stood in the center of the frame formed by the door, with the soft light of the bedroom behind him.
The makeup on his face was so exquisite that Aina Saiten couldn’t move her eyes away for a moment—it was definitely not the light makeup he occasionally did casually.
His originally delicate eyebrows had been carefully trimmed, the peaks gently outlined with an eyebrow pencil to present a soft curve.
Eyeliner was meticulously drawn along the roots of his eyelashes, slightly upturned at the corners of his eyes, making those already beautiful eyes appear more spirited, and even… carrying a hint of faint allure.
What shocked Aina Saiten the most was the change in Kaoru Hoshitani’s overall temperament.
His facial features were born pure; his skin was fair and delicate, the bridge of his nose straight but not overly abrupt, and his lips always maintained a natural pale pink.
This natural boyishness meant that even at twenty years old, he was often mistaken for a high school student by convenience store or restaurant staff, sometimes even being asked to show proof of age.
But now, the cosmetics had subtly changed all of this.
Foundation evened out the minute differences in his skin tone, blush swept a faint flush across his cheekbones, and the layers of eyeshadow made his eye sockets appear deep.
Under the exquisite modification, that face’s boyishness was cleverly transformed into a unique charm hovering between greenness and maturity.
Aina Saiten even felt that the current Kaoru exuded an air of… charm she had never seen before.
It was an indescribable attraction, a mixture of purity and deliberately created maturity, like a peach that had just ripened—the skin still possessing the tenderness of fuzz, but the inside already oozing sweet juice.
Time solidified between the two for a few seconds. The air in the corridor seemed to become viscous; only the occasional sound of car horns from the street in the distance reminded them that the world was still turning.
“Does it look… weird?”
Kaoru Hoshitani was the first to break the silence.
His voice was soft, carrying obvious uncertainty.
As he spoke, he raised his right hand and wound the hair at his temple around his index finger, round and round; this small action exposed his inner nervousness.
His eyes were dodging, daring not to look directly at Aina Saiten for too long; his long and dense eyelashes drooped down, casting a small fan-shaped shadow under his eyes.
Only then did Aina Saiten realize she had been holding her breath.
She swallowed with some difficulty, her Adam’s apple rolling up and down, feeling her mouth inexplicably dry.
She forced herself to move her gaze away from Kaoru Hoshitani’s face, yet it drifted back involuntarily, like iron filings attracted to a magnet.
“It… it’s good…”
Her voice sounded somewhat strange, as if coming from far away.
“Kaoru, why did you suddenly think of wearing this kind of makeup?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Aina Saiten sensed that her tone was unnatural, overly deliberate in maintaining calm.
She subconsciously licked her lips; the tip of her tongue touched dry skin.
“Just wanted to try it out suddenly…”
Kaoru Hoshitani’s answer was quick and airy, like a line prepared long in advance.
His gaze wandered to the wall behind Aina Saiten, where a group photo they took at the seaside last summer hung.
In the photograph, he was bare-faced, his cheeks slightly red from the sun, smiling without any defensiveness.
Aina Saiten keenly caught that momentary dodge, but she didn’t dig deeper, suppressing the strange feeling in her heart.
“Alright, we should get going.”
She finally found her usual tone, bending down to pick up the mobile phone that had slipped earlier; the time displayed on the screen made her let out a slight “Ah.”
“We’re really going to be late… By the way…”
Aina Saiten stood up and looked at Kaoru Hoshitani again.
Her gaze was like a fine net, sliding all the way from her boyfriend’s brows and eyes to his lips coated with lipstick, and then down to his slender neck—which was covered perfectly flawlessly by foundation, showing no abnormalities.
An unprecedented impulse suddenly surged in her heart, a mixture of novelty, possessiveness, and a certain excitement she didn’t want to examine too deeply.
She took a small step forward, shortening the distance between the two, close enough to smell the faint scent of cosmetics coming from Kaoru Hoshitani, mixed with his own unique fresh scent, like cotton dried in the sun.
“Later when we get home, Kaoru, could you not rush to remove your makeup…”
Aina Saiten’s voice was pressed very low, carrying a trace of imperceptible huskiness.
Her eyes became deep, her pupils dilating in the relatively dim light of the corridor, like two bottomless whirlpools.
‘Even delicacies might feel a bit cloying if eaten every day for a long time.’
Aina Saiten once thought she knew every side of Kaoru Hoshitani like the back of her hand—him with sleepy eyes, him cooking seriously, him lazy while curled up on the living room sofa watching a movie.
But the Kaoru Hoshitani standing in front of her at this moment was like a familiar stranger, exuding an attraction like never before.
The pure yet temperamental Kaoru exuded by the makeup not only made Aina Saiten feel a sense of novelty but also awakened some primal, possessive impulse inside her.
She wanted to see what Kaoru would be like in a more private situation with this look, wanted to use her fingers to smudge that exquisite makeup, wanted to leave her own marks on the skin covered by those cosmetics.
“Hmph…”
Kaoru Hoshitani naturally knew what his girlfriend was thinking.
He let out a soft snort from his nasal cavity, the ending note carrying a bit of trembling.
His cheeks turned red at a speed visible to the naked eye; that flush even penetrated the coverage of the foundation, revealing itself from deep within the skin, like rouge spreading on white porcelain.
He lowered his head, staring at the toes of his white canvas shoes, his right foot unconsciously drawing small circles on the floor.
The air was filled with subtle tension, like a string gently pulled tight, ready to vibrate and make a sound at any moment.
But because the agreed time was approaching, neither of them continued this topic.
Aina Saiten turned and walked toward the foyer, taking out outdoor shoes for both of them from the shoe cabinet.
Kaoru Hoshitani followed behind her, his steps somewhat hesitant, as if he wasn’t used to appearing in front of his girlfriend—or rather, in front of anyone—with such an appearance yet.
The subway station was a ten-minute walk from their apartment.
Along the way, Aina Saiten couldn’t help but frequently glance sideways at Kaoru Hoshitani beside her.
There were not many pedestrians on the street on a Saturday morning, but everyone who passed by cast glances at Kaoru Hoshitani more or less—some were pure appreciation, some carried curiosity, and some were unconcealed amazement.
Kaoru Hoshitani clearly sensed these gazes; he shrank his shoulders slightly, trying to make himself appear less conspicuous.
He raised his hand to pull the collar of his knit sweater up; this action made Aina Saiten narrow her eyes.
“Is it cold?”
She asked, reaching out to hold Kaoru Hoshitani’s hand. His fingers were a bit cold, trembling slightly in her warm palm.
“A little…”
Kaoru Hoshitani answered vaguely, but he did not pull his hand back.
They walked to the subway station holding hands like this.
When swiping his card to enter the station, Kaoru Hoshitani suddenly touched his face nervously and turned to Aina Saiten:
“Is the makeup okay? Is it smudged?”
Aina Saiten examined his face carefully and shook her head:
“It’s perfect.”
Her words made Kaoru Hoshitani clearly breathe a sigh of relief, but that relaxation only lasted for a moment; when the roar of the train entering the station came from deep within the tunnel, he tensed his body again.
It was currently close to the small peak hour at noon, plus this subway was heading to the city center, so there were already quite a few people standing in the carriage.
Although it wasn’t person-against-person breathing difficulties like the morning and evening rush hours, the empty seats were long gone, and even the space at the carriage connections had three or five people standing.
The moment the car doors opened, a heatwave mixed with various smells rushed toward them.
Aina Saiten instinctively shielded Kaoru Hoshitani behind her and walked into the carriage first.
“This way.”
She looked around and found there was still a little space next to the thin pole in the center of the carriage, so she pulled Kaoru Hoshitani to squeeze over.
In this situation, as the girlfriend, Aina Saiten naturally needed to protect her boyfriend.
Her left arm firmly encircled that cold metal pole, her body turning toward Kaoru Hoshitani, using her relatively solid frame to build a barrier between him and the surrounding passengers.
This posture allowed her to almost completely shroud Kaoru Hoshitani in her shadow, the distance between the two so close they could feel each other’s body temperature.
Kaoru Hoshitani obediently buried his face in his girlfriend’s neck, his nasal cavity filling with the scent of the shampoo Aina Saiten usually used—it was a fresh citrus scent, mixed with the warm aura of her skin itself.
He closed his eyes, trying to draw some sense of security from this familiar embrace in this crowded, chaotic space.
Aina Saiten’s right arm gently encircled his waist; it was a gesture full of protection.
The train started, slowly at first, then gradually accelerating.
The carriage swayed slightly with the tracks, and the passengers’ bodies involuntarily swayed along with it.
Aina Saiten tightened her arms, fixing Kaoru Hoshitani more firmly between herself and the pole.
She could feel her boyfriend’s breath through the thin knit sweater, warm as it sprinkled on her clavicle.
The subway entered the tunnel, and the light outside the window suddenly vanished, replaced by the stable and pale artificial lighting inside the car.
Amidst the rhythmic swaying of the carriage and the low hum of the crowd, Kaoru Hoshitani was almost about to relax.
But just then—
He felt something touch his buttocks…