We Hate Each Other, But It Started With a One-Night Stand - Chapter 12

By the time I sent Shinomiya back home, the night had grown quite late.

When Hatano arrived at the small apartment she rented, he sighed softly upon seeing her home for the first time. His breath wavered under the fluorescent light.

He had invited her to his room several times, but this was his first experience visiting her own room. As Hatano pondered this deeply, he watched her blankly as she unlocked the door, noticing Shinomiya’s somewhat tense movements.

After confirming she had turned the key with a click and placed her hand on the doorknob, Hatano tried to bid her farewell. But just before he could, she turned around and looked at him with eyes filled with tension, cautiously opening her mouth.

“Um, if you have time… If it’s okay, would you like to rest for a bit?”

Her words, spun with anxiety and tension, made Hatano widen his eyes involuntarily.

Shinomiya showed a glimpse of fear at Hatano’s reaction and continued with impatience.

“I can make coffee. It’s really good beans, so even your cheap palate wouldn’t know the difference! So, um, just a little…”

Her cheeks flushed slightly, perhaps due to the early winter. Observing herself objectively, she thought it seemed almost like a lover’s gesture. However, when facing the environment surrounding her and the problems she carried, that immersion narrowed her perspective. Hatano, nearly succumbing to temptation, stopped just short and shook his head with a bitter smile.

“The last train is about to stop running, so I’ll decline this time.”

To avoid misunderstanding, he declined clearly, causing Shinomiya’s eyes to waver intensely.

“If there’s another chance, I’ll take it then. At that time, make sure to prepare not just coffee but plenty of snacks too. Sadly, I have a cheap palate.”

Hatano added a light remark to keep the atmosphere from becoming heavy, and Shinomiya nodded while forcing a smile, her expression showing agitation and loneliness. “…Can’t be helped,” she said with a tone of resignation, then looked down and bit her lip.

He wasn’t unaware of what her actions were based on. Hatano reached out to her and even considered retracting his words. But if he spent more time with her by her side, he felt he might drown in her. He already recognized his growing attraction to her. What would happen from now on was uncertain.

For now, as her friend, he wanted to face everything she carried from a step back.

If he fell for her, it would be when she faced forward and took a step.

“Well then, good night. Make sure to lock up properly.”

Hatano firmly reminded her, then turned toward the station with a feeling of reluctance. As he left, the image of her looking down etched in his mind made his heart ache, but he lightly tapped his chest and told himself to accept it. That was when it happened.

—Suddenly, he felt an impact on his back. Something had bumped into him.

He instinctively stumbled and stopped, and a moment later, he realized someone had wrapped their arms around him from behind. Without needing to think about whose soft, white hands those were, Hatano understood and turned to ask why Shinomiya had hugged him.

But before Hatano could ask anything, her small, raspy voice brushed his ear.

“…I don’t want to.”

What didn’t she want? Of course, he understood without asking.

Hatano desperately calmed his wildly shaking heart and placed his hand over hers wrapped around him. Her hand was very warm, and as if that heat transferred, Hatano felt his own temperature rise slightly.

“What’s wrong, suddenly?”

Trying to remain calm, he asked her about something he already knew. Was it too obvious? Were his words stumbling? Worrying if his pounding heart could be heard, Hatano asked, while Shinomiya clung tightly and said:

“…Please understand.”

Something inside him that had been holding back snapped with a sound.

Hatano closed his eyes with a small sigh and savored those words. She, who wasn’t understood by her family and yearned for someone’s recognition. The girl he was growing attracted to, hoping he would understand her. He couldn’t refuse that.

She really was a bewitching woman.

The last train would definitely be gone. Even if he tried to take a taxi home, the fare would be hefty. He could ask Rokai for the money, but since he had already accepted her invitation to come inside, he couldn’t force himself to go home, so Hatano chose to stay.

The apartment had a 1LDK layout, and his first impression was that it was unexpectedly spacious. At the same time, the interior was plain and bland, unimaginable from her lifestyle so far. The furniture and bedding were all unadorned, devoid of flashiness or style.

“I’ll prepare the bath! Please use any hanger for your clothes.”

After returning home and placing her belongings and outerwear, she hurried off to the bathroom with quick steps.

The full winter chill was still a bit away, and though his body wasn’t unbearably cold, it was a welcome thought. Hatano hung his removed coat on a hanger in what seemed to be the bedroom corner and put it back. Then, he noticed a closet left half-open.

Behind piled reference materials. A wooden board and papers placed haphazardly. Nearby, tubes of paint, bottles, and various art supplies. They seemed used long ago, with no recent signs of use.

After gazing at those items gathering dust in obscurity for a while, Hatano closed his eyes and pondered that fact. Then, pretending not to have noticed, he returned to the living room.

Shinomiya, who had returned from the bathroom, was looking at the mirror in the dressing area and fiddling with her hair. When he glanced to see what she was doing, she noticed Hatano and jerked her shoulders, then returned to the living room with an embarrassed smile.

“Ah, I’ll make coffee. Please sit anywhere.”

“Ah, yeah. Sorry.”

He sat on the two-person sofa placed near the TV and long desk. From the neatly placed blanket and small pillow, he guessed she sometimes slept here. Then, in the warm room where the heater had started working, he resisted drowsiness and surrendered to the deep aroma of coffee. As his eyelids began to droop, she came to the sofa with a mug.

As he thanked her and tried to drink, she sat beside him and watched restlessly. Feeling a slight awkwardness, he drank to meet her expectations, and upon the first sip, Hatano widened his eyes.

As an amateur with a cheap palate who couldn’t distinguish between high-quality, low-quality, or even instant coffee, this was indeed delicious and easy to drink. “It’s delicious,” he honestly said, and after a second sip, Shinomiya, unable to hide her relaxed cheeks from joy, happily drank from her mug. Hatano relaxed with the warm coffee, thinking she had unexpected tastes.

After that, in a silence without awkwardness, they spent time idly, faintly hearing the sound of bathwater filling in the distance. Others’ homes have unique scents, but amid the deep coffee aroma, Hatano recalled Shinomiya’s faint citrus scent and reaffirmed he was at her place. Feeling slightly alert to her presence beside him, she looked at him.

“Um… will you stay tonight?”

That was quite a question, Hatano thought with a bitter smile.

“Because someone made me stay and there’s no last train. Even if you say no, I’ll stay.”

Answering with a light remark, she didn’t hide her happy face and appealed it was a reluctant decision: “Can’t be helped.” If he had the obliviousness of a manga protagonist, it might have been easier, but unfortunately, he wasn’t so insensitive to others’ goodwill. Recognizing she was genuinely pleased, Hatano felt a bit happy too.

“…You’re really a strange person, Senpai.”

Since she suddenly insulted him, he truly didn’t understand her emotions. When he glanced to ask what she meant, it seemed not entirely negative, as she smiled faintly at Hatano.

“Strange, huh? Someone I recently met said the same, but am I that much?”

“You’re a strange person unlike any other. I’ve never seen one in twenty years of life, probably an endangered species. In ten years, your name might be on the Environment Ministry’s website.”

Hatano laughed, shaking his shoulders at such remarks, and drank his coffee.

“I don’t remember acting so eccentric.”

“That’s why. You’re overly serious and kind, so you’re strange.”

“‘Kind’?”

Hatano laughed involuntarily at such a foolish word. “Kind” was such a clean, distant term. Smiling cheerfully and crossing his legs, he bluntly dismissed it: “I’m not that noble.” Being praised didn’t feel bad, but Hatano prided himself as an ordinary person embracing both purity and impurity. He wasn’t so carefree to be elated by excessive praise.

When Hatano denied it, Shinomiya pursed her lips and persisted.

“When Shindo called saying I seemed unwell, you came, didn’t you? And when I stopped you, you ended up staying like this. Even with the aquarium incident, a cold person wouldn’t have done that.”

Shinomiya grasped her mug with both hands and passionately explained Hatano’s appeal to him. Observing that scene objectively, Hatano felt slightly amused and pondered a bit. Listening to her words with a sigh, he slightly revised his self-perception and evaluation, thinking he might indeed be considered kind in general society. But.

“…I get it. Maybe I’m a bit kinder than others. But if that’s your basis, I need to correct it a bit. Sorry, but I’m not someone who can be kind to everyone equally.”

As Hatano said this, Shinomiya made a “hmph” expression and braced herself. Watching her show a stance of total resistance amusedly, Hatano expressed his feelings.

“If someone I just know stopped me, I wouldn’t stay at their home like this. I understand that interpreting such actions as equivalent to leisure or socializing is unreasonable. So—accepting to stay like this isn’t because I’m kind. It’s because I thought it’s okay if it’s with you.”

When he brought her home drunk and missed the last train. When she persuaded him and invited him home.

Those two times were clearly different. This time, they both desired each other.

When Hatano spoke his true intentions face-to-face, Shinomiya stared at him with a stunned expression, as if struggling to digest the words. But gradually, understanding seemed to catch up, and Shinomiya’s eyes wavered intensely with agitation. “Ah, eh,” a raspy, confused voice leaked out.

Now feeling slightly embarrassed, Hatano waved his hand to cool his flushed face. Shinomiya, who seemed to finally understand everything he meant, widened her eyes and blushed to her ears as if boiling.

“Um, that…”

Opening up like this—was it friendship or love? He didn’t know what emotion it was, but this heating feeling was surely one he couldn’t contain. As if expecting something, Shinomiya stared at Hatano with a bright red face, and Hatano avoided her gaze to look at the wall.

Not knowing how to answer the question, he borrowed her words.

“…Please understand.”

At those words that could be interpreted in any way, Shinomiya showed agitation in her expression. Right after saying it, Hatano regretted his words, covering his mouth. Words that seemed to ask for understanding felt like confessing his feelings, and Hatano wanted to retract them. It wasn’t false or misunderstood, but that’s why he wanted to correct it.

But he heard Shinomiya’s gulping sound.

She stared at Hatano with an intensely tense expression, then, as if deciding, moved closer to Hatano and sat back on the sofa. When she came close enough for their knees to touch, her face still tinged red, she placed her hand over Hatano’s hand on his lap with a heated breath.

Instantly, Hatano felt that heat spread throughout his body.

His heart started pounding loudly. Their shoulders touched, their fingertips entwined.

His heart wavered. Hatano thought he should remain a detached third party until Shinomiya’s problems were resolved at least. And until now, he hadn’t thought he held special feelings for her. But surely, this heart throbbing denied that and affirmed the feelings beginning to sprout in his heart.

Shinomiya peered at Hatano’s face with a tense expression. Keeping their entwined fingers, she placed her free hand behind her ear, then placed that hand on Hatano’s knee.

“If it’s not okay, please say so.”

Whispering that, Shinomiya leaned closer to overlap her lips with Hatano’ s.

There was hesitation and doubt. But apart from feelings of sympathy, pity, or friendship wanting to help her, Hatano recognized special feelings for her within himself. And considering he had stirred her desires this much, refusing now would be quite unfair.

Just once. Only that. It wouldn’t develop the relationship.

Telling himself that, Hatano wrapped his free hand around her neck to draw her closer, intending to overlap his lips with Shinomiya’s.

—At that moment. Cheerful music resounded through the living room.

They both jerked their bodies and instinctively distanced.

What’s that sound? As Hatano searched for the source of the silly “piro-riro” sound, he noticed Shinomiya’s eyes turned toward the bathroom. A moment later, he heard the voice saying, “The bath is ready,” and slumped. When Hatano sighed involuntarily, Shinomiya beside him also looked tired.

With slightly flushed cheeks, she regulated her breath and coughed as if regaining composure.

Then, as if realizing something, she touched her inner thigh over her skirt and checked something. Looking up at Hatano with an awkward face, she stood up apologetically.

“S-sorry. I’ll take the bath first!”

“Ah, yeah. Enjoy.”

Watching her back as she hurried to the dressing area, Hatano confirmed the dressing area door closed, then looked up at the ceiling deeply and sighed deeply. Regretfully tracing his lips that hadn’t touched hers, he laughed at himself for being so shaken and tense over just a kiss.

Then, staring at her as she began to shower, she muttered.

“We’ve even had sex, though.”

The order was completely backwards.

After hanging the clothes and soiled underwear in the bathroom and turning on the bathroom dryer, she slipped into the nightwear her junior had kindly lent her. It would have been incredibly awkward if she’d been handed something like a cute pink pajama set or a frilly negligee, but fortunately, it was a safe choice—an oversized shirt and shorts—and she couldn’t have been more grateful. Suppressing the strange desire that arose from the fact that she was wearing the underwear of the junior she had just tried to kiss, Hatano dried her hair at the sink and left the changing area.

Shinomiya, now changed into pajamas, was sitting on the sofa, nodding off with a sleepy face. She didn’t remember taking a particularly long bath, but she had been drinking, and fatigue had likely built up. Watching her fondly, Hatano noticed Shinomiya open her eyes with a blink upon realizing she had come out.

The time was midnight. Outside the curtains, the lights of the houses were gradually going out.

Hatano smiled and gestured with her eyes toward the bedroom.

“Shall we sleep soon? You’re tired, right?”

“…Y-yeah. That’s right.”

Answering while rubbing the corner of her eye, her words slightly slurred, she let out a small yawn.

Then, as if remembering something, she murmured “Ah” and looked at Hatano.

“Where will you sleep, Senpai? If you don’t mind, would you like to use the bed? I change the sheets properly every day, so it’s clean.”

“I can’t sleep in the bed if it means kicking out the owner. I’ll borrow the sofa—there’s a blanket, and I’m fine with this, so you go to bed early.”

Saying this while patting the sofa, Shinomiya made a reluctant expression.

“Muu… That feels a bit wrong.”

“Even if you say that, I won’t let you do the opposite.”

She often fell asleep while writing novels. Having grown accustomed to sleeping in poor conditions, the sofa was practically a luxury bed to Hatano. At the very least, there was no reason to use the bed if it meant depriving Shinomiya of a comfortable sleep. Yawning, Hatano spread out the blanket.

But then, someone though “someone” was pointless since only she and Shinomiya were in the house grabbed the hem of Hatano’s shirt. With a dissatisfied expression, like a child who wants to say something to their mother but can’t find the right words, she tugged at it to voice her discontent.

Staring at Shinomiya, who was holding the hem of her shirt with slightly flushed cheeks and a dissatisfied look, Hatano let out a small sigh before giving her a half-lidded glare.

“…What is it?”

“The bed is pretty spacious.”

As expected, hearing this proposal from her, Hatano frowned but couldn’t help glancing at the bed.

Indeed, it seemed a bit wider than the average one. It wasn’t quite a double bed, but it would likely be enough for her and Shinomiya to sleep together. After roughly estimating this, Hatano shook her head slightly.

“If you feel guilty about making me sleep on the sofa, you don’t need to worry about it. It’s not out of politeness—I really can sleep anywhere. Besides, I might not look it, but I sleep pretty poorly and might wake you up. So don’t worry and sleep alone.”

Waving her hand toward the bed as if shooing her away, Shinomiya acted oblivious. Instead, she gripped the hem of Hatano’s shirt even tighter, refusing to let go.

Hatano placed a hand on her forehead and groaned. If she firmly refused, Shinomiya would probably give up, but the more she thought about refusing firmly, the less she actually wanted to reject her. After all, it wasn’t that she disliked the idea of sleeping with her.

The problem was whether she could keep her rationality if she slept in the same bed as her. It wasn’t as if she lived a life free of sexual or romantic desires, and Shinomiya was someone she was already quite conscious of, making it even harder. Moreover, the fact that Shinomiya would likely accept it was also an issue.

Hatano thought for a while but reconsidered, realizing that stubbornly refusing might upset Shinomiya. This clingy invitation likely stemmed from Shinomiya’s lack of exposure to others’ affection until now, and since she herself didn’t dislike the idea, maybe it was okay to accept it a little. She just had to endure it herself.

“…Don’t blame me if I wake you up with my sleep-talking.”

In the bedroom, illuminated only by moonlight. On the slightly wider single bed.

Hatano lay on her back, using Shinomiya’s usual pillow, while Shinomiya lay on her side with a small sofa pillow, watching Hatano. Feeling uncomfortable under Shinomiya’s gaze, Hatano struggled to ignore it and sleep, but she could constantly feel someone’s eyes on her from the right.

Hatano let out a deep sigh and turned her body toward Shinomiya.

“Usually, people sleep back-to-back in situations like this.”

“I usually sleep facing this way. It’s a habit.”

“Then let’s switch places.”

“Pointless, so let’s not. I’ve also developed a habit of sleeping facing the other way.”

“What’s with you?”

Unable to hold back a laugh, Hatano poked Shinomiya’s nose. Shinomiya scrunched her face with a “Ugh” and pouted sulkily, pleading, “I can’t sleep, so please talk to me.” Even though she had been nodding off like a boatman earlier, she had the nerve to say that. Hatano smiled wryly and scolded her, “Talking will only make it harder to sleep.”

Shinomiya turned away sulkily. After a while, noticing Hatano’s hand placed between them, she reached out from under the covers and placed her hand over Hatano’s. Feeling the soft, warm sensation of her hand, Hatano sensed her heartbeat quicken ever so slightly.

As if watching events unfold on a screen, she observed her own hand overlapping with Shinomiya’s with a somewhat detached feeling. After watching for a while, Shinomiya’s hand seemed to grasp Hatano’s, then brought it to her own mouth, holding it as if raising the index finger.

Then, she took Hatano’s index finger into her mouth. Rolling it around with the tip of her tongue, she peered into Hatano’s eyes with a seductive sidelong glance. Hatano continued to watch, feeling a throbbing sensation in her lower abdomen, until Shinomiya seemed satisfied and released her lips.

Shinomiya wiped the saliva from Hatano’s fingertip with her pajama sleeve, then took Hatano’s pinky finger and began to nibble on it. Feeling a sweet, throbbing pain, Hatano asked.

“So that’s how you’ve been seducing all sorts of people.”

“Won’t you let me seduce you, Senpai?”

Shinomiya stared at Hatano with an expression caught between sleepiness and desire, using her free hand to undo the second button of her pajamas. Even in the moonlit bedroom, her beautiful skin and the swell of her breasts were visible. Under Hatano’s gaze, she hooked her finger on the third button, undid it, and revealed the protrusion beneath.

Hatano answered without looking away from the desire welling up from the depths of her heart.

“I’m being seduced so much I feel like I’m going crazy. I want to ravage Shinomiya right now.”

Conveying her thoughts with such honesty that she almost laughed, Shinomiya also smiled slightly, amused. Giggling quietly, Shinomiya stared straight at Hatano. Her beautiful black eyes, reminiscent of a night sky dotted with the moon and stars, seemed to peer into the very depths of Hatano’s heart.

With a hot breath, Shinomiya placed her hand over Hatano’s and whispered in a sweet voice.

“It’s fine. Go crazy.”

Thump—her heart beat strongly. She was driven by the impulse to strip Shinomiya’s clothes off right then and savor every inch of her body. Her lower abdomen throbbed faintly, stirring. She’d probably have to apologize later for soiling the borrowed underwear. So, this was how others had been seduced by her, satisfying her need for approval in the way she desired.

But—she couldn’t give in to this temptation and act on it, not when she had always denied being satisfied in such a way. At least until Shinomiya’s underlying issues were resolved, she wanted to face her with emotions that weren’t just lust or negative feelings.

Hatano closed her eyes, steadied her breathing, and gently reached out to Shinomiya’s face.

Then, she brushed aside the hair falling over Shinomiya’s cheek and softly stroked her soft cheek.

“Good night.”

Saying this while looking back at her, Shinomiya immediately puffed out her cheeks sulkily. Ending with this childishly adorable reaction, Hatano gently closed her eyes.