[NTR Countdown until your Boyfriend Kaoru Hoshitani is stolen: 60 Days]
The Saturday morning sunlight filtered through the gaps in the off-white curtains, carving long, narrow spots of light onto the wooden floor.
In the living room outside the bedroom, the clock’s hands silently swung toward 11:00 AM.
“Kaoru, are you ready? The time we agreed on with Chika is almost here.”
Aina Saiten walked to the bedroom door for the third time.
She raised her hand and lightly knocked on the solid wood with her knuckles, her voice carrying a hint of helpless tenderness.
She leaned in to listen for any movement inside, her other hand unconsciously fidgeting with the cuff of her cotton loungewear.
They say it takes a man at least two hours to get ready to leave the house. Aina Saiten never believed that saying—until today.
This Saturday, they had lazily woken up at 9:00 AM.
The first thing Kaoru Hoshitani did after opening his eyes was stare at her for a few seconds with those dark, sleepy eyes.
Then, as if suddenly remembering something important, he bolted upright in bed.
His soft black hair stood up in several tufts from his sleeping position, looking fluffy in the morning light filtering through the curtains.
“Aina, can you step out for a moment?”
Kaoru’s voice was still raspy from sleep, but his tone was unusually firm.
Before Aina Saiten could ask why, she was gently pushed out of the bedroom.
Kaoru Hoshitani’s usually gentle eyes flashed with an urgency she couldn’t quite decipher.
As the bedroom door closed in front of her, she heard her boyfriend add in a low voice from behind the door, “I’m putting on makeup and changing… I need a bit of time.”
‘Makeup?’
Aina Saiten stood outside the door, stunned for a long while.
Kaoru did occasionally wear light makeup, but it was usually just a simple base and eyebrow pencil.
She had never seen him lock himself away so seriously.
She assumed it was because today was the first time he was accompanying her to meet her junior, Chika, so he wanted to prepare with extra care.
But she hadn’t expected the bedroom door to stay closed for two whole hours.
During that time, Aina Saiten straightened up 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, a flustered reply would come from inside:
“Just a moment, almost ready!”
The words were accompanied by the faint clicks of makeup containers opening and closing and the rustle of clothes.
“Almost… I’m almost ready!”
At that moment, Kaoru Hoshitani’s response from behind the door was clearly lacking confidence.
His voice was a few pitches higher than usual, carrying a sense of tension that Aina Saiten didn’t recognize.
Inside the bedroom, Kaoru Hoshitani sat before the vanity, doing a final check in the circular makeup mirror.
A ring of warm yellow LED light strips lined the edge of the mirror, illuminating his face clearly.
His fingers trembled slightly as he held a soft powder puff, lightly dabbing the side of his neck where he had already applied concealer.
There, hidden beneath the foundation and concealer, was a small, light-purple love bite left from yesterday.
Kaoru’s eyes met his own in the mirror. Those usually clear eyes were now filled with complex emotions: tension, guilt, and a faint, hard-to-detect resentment.
He took a deep breath and pursed his thin lips, which were coated in coral lipstick.
The lip glaze shimmered slightly under the lights.
Finally, he stood up and tugged at the hem of his light-gray knit sweater.
This was an outfit he had carefully selected; it wasn’t so formal that it looked forced, but it was enough to complement his meticulously prepared face.
He hesitated for a second as he gripped the doorknob, his knuckles turning slightly white.
Then, as if making a final decision, he turned the handle and pulled the bedroom door open.
Aina Saiten had been leaning against the wall by the door, scrolling through social media on her phone while waiting.
When the Metro APP popped up with a notification—’Estimated arrival at the nearest station: 11:20 AM’—she was just about to knock again.
At that exact moment, the bedroom door opened inward.
Aina instinctively turned her head. Then, she froze.
The phone slipped from her palm, luckily caught by its strap, swinging in the air before hitting 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 doorway, framed by the soft light of the bedroom.
The makeup on his face was so exquisite that Aina couldn’t look away—it was definitely not the light makeup he occasionally wore.
His clean, handsome eyebrows had been carefully groomed, with the arches lightly defined by a pencil to create a soft curve.
Eyeliner had been meticulously drawn along the roots of his lashes, turning up slightly at the corners.
It made those already bright eyes look even more spirited… even carrying a faint hint of coquettishness.
What shocked Aina Saiten the most was the change in Kaoru’s overall temperament.
His facial features were naturally pure, his skin was fair and delicate, and his nose was straight but not overly prominent.
His lips were usually a natural pale pink.
This innate youthful quality meant that even at twenty years old, he was often mistaken for a high school student by convenience store or restaurant staff, who would even ask him for ID.
But now, the makeup had subtly changed everything.
The foundation evened out the slight variations in his skin tone, blush swept a faint glow across his cheekbones, and the layers of eyeshadow gave his eyes depth.
Under this exquisite refinement, his boyishness had been skillfully transformed into a unique charm between innocence and maturity.
Aina even felt that the current Kaoru exuded a kind of flirtatiousness she had never seen before.
It was an indescribable attraction, a mix of purity and deliberate maturity.
He was like a freshly ripened peach; the skin still held the innocence of fine fuzz, but the inside was already oozing sweet juice.
Time seemed to freeze between them for a few seconds.
The air in the corridor felt thick, with only the occasional honk of a car from the street below reminding them that the world was still turning.
“Does it… look weird?”
Kaoru broke the silence first. His voice was soft, carrying obvious uncertainty.
As he spoke, he raised his right hand, twirling a lock of hair by his ear with his index finger—over and over.
This small movement betrayed his internal nervousness.
His gaze shifted, not daring to meet Aina Saiten’s eyes for too long, as his long, thick lashes cast a small, fan-shaped shadow beneath his eyes.
Aina Saiten realized she had been holding her breath.
She swallowed with some difficulty, her throat tightening as she felt an inexplicable dryness in her mouth.
She forced herself to look away from Kaoru’s face, only for her eyes to drift back involuntarily, like iron filings drawn to a magnet.
“It’s… it’s quite good…”
Her voice sounded a bit foreign to her, as if coming from far away. “Kaoru, what made you suddenly want to wear this kind of makeup?”
As soon as she said it, Aina noticed her tone was unnatural, as she was trying too hard to remain calm.
She instinctively licked her lips, her tongue meeting only dry skin.
“I just wanted to try something new…”
Kaoru’s answer was quick and airy, like a pre-prepared line.
His gaze drifted to the wall behind Aina Saiten, where a photo of them at the beach from last summer hung.
In the photograph, his face was bare, his cheeks slightly flushed from the sun, smiling without any defenses.
Aina keenly caught that momentary evasion, but she didn’t press him, pushing down the slight sense of oddness in her heart.
“Alright, we should head out.”
She finally found her normal voice and bent over to pick up her dangling phone.
The time displayed on the screen made her let out a small gasp.
“We’re really going to be late… Oh, also…”
Aina Saiten stood up and looked at Kaoru again.
Her gaze was like a fine net, sliding from her boyfriend’s eyes down to his lipstick-coated lips, then further down to his slender neck—where the foundation covered everything perfectly, showing no sign of anything unusual.
An unprecedented impulse suddenly surged in her heart, a mix of novelty, possessiveness, and an excitement she didn’t want to examine too deeply.
She took a small step forward, closing the distance between them until she could smell the faint scent of makeup coming from Kaoru, mixed with his own unique, fresh scent—like sun-dried cotton.
“When we get home later, Kaoru, could you please not be in such a hurry to wash off your makeup…?”
Aina Saiten’s voice was very low, carrying an undetectable huskiness.
Her eyes grew dark, her pupils dilating in the relatively dim light of the corridor like two bottomless whirlpools.
Even with delicacies, a person might grow a bit tired of them after eating them every day for a long time.
Aina Saiten once thought she knew every version of Kaoru Hoshitani—the sleepy-eyed version, the one who cooked seriously, and the one who sprawled lazily on the living room sofa to watch movies.
But the Kaoru Hoshitani standing before her now felt like a familiar stranger, radiating an unprecedented attraction.
This version of Kaoru, radiating such purity and elegance through his makeup, didn’t just feel novel to Aina; it awakened a primal, possessive urge within her.
She wanted to see what he would look like in a more private setting, she wanted to use her fingers to mess up that exquisite makeup, and she wanted to leave her own marks on the skin beneath those products.
“Ah…”
Kaoru Hoshitani obviously knew what his girlfriend was thinking.
He let out a soft huff from his nose, the end of the sound trembling slightly.
His cheeks flushed red at a visible speed, the crimson glow even piercing through the foundation, blooming from deep within his skin like rouge on white porcelain.
He lowered his head, staring at the tips of his white canvas shoes, his right foot unconsciously tracing small circles on the floor.
A subtle tension filled the air, like a tightly pulled string ready to vibrate at any moment.
But because the time for their appointment was approaching, neither of them continued the topic.
Aina Saiten turned and walked to the foyer, taking their shoes out from the cabinet.
Kaoru Hoshitani followed behind her, his steps a bit hesitant, as if he wasn’t yet used to appearing before his girlfriend—or anyone else—with this appearance.
The subway station was a ten-minute walk from their apartment.
Along the way, Aina Saiten couldn’t help but frequently glance at Kaoru by her side.
There weren’t many pedestrians on the street on a Saturday morning, but almost every person who passed them cast a glance at Kaoru—some with simple admiration, some with curiosity, and some with unmistakable amazement.
Kaoru Hoshitani clearly noticed these looks. He hunched his shoulders slightly, trying to make himself less conspicuous.
He raised his hand to pull up the collar of his knit sweater, a movement that made Aina narrow her eyes.
“Are you cold?” she asked, reaching out to take Kaoru’s hand. His fingers were a bit cool and trembled slightly in her warm palm.
“A little…” Kaoru answered vaguely, but he didn’t pull his hand away.
They walked to the subway station hand in hand.
As they swiped their cards to enter, Kaoru suddenly touched his face nervously and turned to Aina. “Is my makeup okay? Did it smudge?”
Aina Saiten scrutinized his face and shook her head. “It’s perfect.”
Her words made Kaoru let out an obvious sigh of relief, but that relaxation only lasted a moment.
When the roar of the train entering the station echoed from the tunnel, his body tensed up again.
It was close to the midday peak, and since this train was heading to the city center, the car was already quite crowded.
While it wasn’t quite as packed as the morning or evening rushes where people were pressed together and struggling to breathe, there wasn’t a single empty seat left.
Even the space near the connections between cars was occupied by three or five people.
The moment the doors opened, a wave of heat mixed with various scents hit them.
Aina Saiten instinctively shielded Kaoru Hoshitani behind her and was the first to enter the car.
“Over here.”
She scanned the area and noticed a small space near the thin pole in the center of the car, so she pulled Kaoru over.
In this situation, as the girlfriend, Aina Saiten naturally felt the need to protect her boyfriend.
She gripped the cold metal pole firmly with her left hand and turned her body toward Kaoru, using her relatively sturdy frame to build a barrier between him and the surrounding passengers.
This posture almost completely enveloped Kaoru in her shadow, and they were so close they could feel each other’s body heat.
Kaoru submissively buried his face in his girlfriend’s neck.
His nose was filled with the citrus scent of the shampoo Aina always used, mixed with the warm aroma of her skin.
He closed his eyes, trying to draw some sense of security from this familiar embrace in the crowded, chaotic space.
Aina Saiten’s right arm lightly circled his waist in a protective gesture.
The train started, slowly at first, then gradually accelerating.
The car swayed slightly along the tracks, and the passengers’ bodies moved along with it.
Aina tightened her arm, securing Kaoru more firmly between herself and the pole.
She could feel her boyfriend’s warm breath through her thin sweater, spilling over her clavicle.
The subway entered a tunnel, and the light outside the windows vanished, replaced by the steady, pale artificial lighting of the interior.
Amidst the rhythmic swaying of the car and the low hum of the crowd, Kaoru Hoshitani almost began to relax.
But just then—he felt something touch his buttocks…