w33hong: Thank you! Our Souma is downright helpless when it comes to those kinds of things.
Galp: Thank you for your suggestion! Yep, the idea's been bugging me for some time, but I still couldn't quite shape them into reality. I guess only time (and my fish of a brain) will tell :)
ChikaG: Glad you liked it! That idea came almost spontaneously, though.
JeGosu: Thank you! But I don't think I have the heart to put Megumi like that :(
So as you may have noticed, I couldn't bring myself to write the the movie date chapter like I mentioned in the last chapter. And I'm terribly sorry. But here's an even better one—in my opinion, that is.
THIS CHAPTER IS RATED EXTREME T. You have been warned ;)
~Adored~
It's July 6th, international kissing day, and the day Souma comes home from his onsen town mission. There's no better way to celebrate the occasion.
If there's anything better than a good day, it's a good day that came utterly close to being a bad one.
Well, at least that's what she assured herself (she read it on the internet a few weeks ago). After all, she knew that Souma and Tadokoro were on their way home from their assigned mission a little bit earlier than expected. She had granted the Elite Ten—who were on their respective missions to apprehend noir chefs around Japan—a two-weeks reprieval from all their classes, forms, and their usual meetings.
Thus, with Souma and Tadokoro finishing up rather early, the best friend duo had the chance to enjoy their dispensation without caring about their responsibilities, much to the redhead's enjoyment.
Oh, and the curious case of the main culprit named Saiba? They're going to have to wait for the others to return, in order to bring up all pieces to the puzzle. Until then, the lead is stuck on going nowhere.
To be precise, it had been six nights since they all departed on their referred errands.
And that six nights were already taking their toll on a certain blonde director.
The first two or three were easy-breezy for her. Sure, she had missed him. But she was too preoccupied with the enormous amount of forms, meetings, and whatnot that she didn't even have the time to worry about such farce. At one point or another, she actually had to spend the night at her office just because the paperwork was too grueling to complete in one night.
Also, the Totsuki shareholders—who, metaphorically, kept breathing down her neck—weren't helping at all. Internally, she had managed to convince herself that she wouldn't miss him because of said reasons. She even denied it when Souma texted her "are you going to miss me?".
The nights after that, though, she found herself eating her own words.
Three nights without his conventional chipper banters, and without his soft yet resolute touches. It was slowly driving her crazy.
Of course, being the woman with the pride of a lion, she'd rather die than to admit this. But then, after those three nights, her change of attitude and her mood swings became apparent to almost everyone in the Totsuki body. She would get frustratingly irritated at the slightest obstructions. She would slam the door literally every time she walks into a class to teach—and with her being sour-faced, it was the perfect definition of scary for the students. Oh, did I mention that she had almost snapped in front of Totsuki board members when they were holding their weekly conference? Yeah, that's how on edge she was.
Probably her constant vexation was caused by her lack of sleep. How could she not? She secretly had waited by her cellphone every night for Souma to call or text her—well, aside from the usual reports that she gets from him whenever there's a significant progress regarding the 'dark chefs'.
But deep down, she really wanted to talk to him. Talk about how their day was, and talk about the most insignificant things. Like they always did before he went away.
Occasionally, he would drop by her office at after-hours to see how she was doing. Sometimes, one thing would lead to another, and moments later they would be battling their tongues for dominance by the sofa of her office.
Alright, fine. She thought. She missed him. She missed him bad.
And on the seventh day? It started off pretty shitty to her.
First thing in the morning. She spilled her coffee (she wasn't a coffee person to begin with) on her white blouse. Then, her cousin Alice decided it was a good idea to startle her while she was carrying mountains of paperwork, resulting on them both picking it all up again which took almost half an hour.
After that, by some sheer luck, one teacher had an accident while preparing a flambé-styled dish. Almost the whole kitchen turned black in an instant—luckily the sprinklers worked, or else. She couldn't blame him, though. But she could vent her anger towards rearranging this week's budget on safety measures. And yep, she did. What a pain.
When she thought things couldn't be worse, her fountain pen leaked when she was signing the verification papers for her office expansion—the only paperwork she'd been waiting all week!
She slammed her head to the desk. Please don't let it be any worse than this.
It was around two in the afternoon that her agitation went through the roof.
She couldn't quite make of this feeling. Okay, she misses him. She's agreed to that—much to her dismay. But does she miss him to the point that literally everything starts to get infuriating? Like that clock in her office! It's been hung up there for as long as one could remember, but she's recognized on how annoying its sound was until only recently.
Like…the ticking of the clock…it was mocking her!
Mocking on how she couldn't vent on him, on how she couldn't hear his comforting words, and how she's not on his side now that he was away.
She sighed.
When she did that, her desk phone rang.
"Erina-sama? Someone is here to see you," Hisako stated, at the other end of the line.
"Tell them to come another time, please. I'm in no mood."
"But they said it's important and it'll only take a while?"
"…alright, fine," was all she said.
The secretary went silent for a moment, before continuing, "I'll send him in now, Erina-sama."
"—Thank you, Hisako."
Sluggishly, she put back the telephone while half-heartedly anticipating for her guest. Probably the expected sponsor offers or the typical partnership programs. Either way, she didn't think she was going to accept them anyway. Totsuki was already a superbly independent company—why would she agree to sign such acts?
And when the door opened—.
"Yo, Erina!"
The man she's been yearning to see all week, now propped up lazily in front of her! She could've sworn if only he knew how much she'd been missing him, he wouldn't be able to act so nonchalantly.
Erina stood up, eyes wide in disbelief.
Saying nothing at all, she hastily rushed to him. The main cause of her cloudy days and hopeful nights, her legs begging to give in at any moment.
"Eh, what's with the face? Did you—mmph!"
And with that, she kissed him. Cutting his speech short.
As though she was an unflinching predator and he was her helpless prey, Erina didn't even waste a single breath when she decided to push him against the cold, hard wall. The blonde, whose heart was now in a frenzied state, gripped Souma's collar and dragged his face unbearably closer to her flushed one.
In mere seconds after they only had reunited since Souma went away, she was exploring his mouth, licking all his insides as if she's never did before. And soon after, she let out these soft, yet seemingly-magnified moans in such a way that she almost wanted Hisako to hear from the front desk.
I've had enough of these wretched distances, she supposed. Souma was sure as hell going to make up for it.
Moments after, she was the one to pull away. Though their hands were still on each other, a thin string of saliva went unnoticed between them as they parted their tongues, panting and evidently wanting more.
"…greeting me the right way, I presume?" he grinned. Both were perilously flushed due to their heated French, and it hit Erina like a train that she was the one who initiated such indecent act. But then, he didn't look like he wasn't enjoying it either, so she deemed it was a win-win situation.
"…h-huh?"
"Today is July 6th. International kissing day. You really know how to celebrate such event."
"…wait, what? Where did that even come from?" she said, still regaining her breath.
"See, I followed this fact account on Twitter, and I came across a tweet saying it's today—but never mind that. I should go on missions more often," he smirked mischievously.
"…why should you?" she frowned.
"I could get used to being welcomed like this."
Immediately, she reddened.
There was a ton of questions on her mind she wanted to ask regarding his last mission. What happened to the dark chef? Did they at least take him to the authorities? And what of Windvane Baths and Low Cull Hotel? Did they recover any leads concerning those countless mafia families and their connection to the underground world? Most importantly, why wasn't Tadokoro with him?
But she resolved that it'll have to wait. Her raw wanton desire comes first.
And she leaned forward again, their fingers intertwined and with her pinning him mercilessly against the wall, she ever blazingly slammed her lips onto his. Her sensual moaning continued—not only because she was cherishing every moment of it, but she wanted him to know how hot and bothered she was.
Figuring her tenacity was practically all over the floor now, he might as well go all the way—Souma boldened himself and switched their places in the blink of an eye. Now he was pinning her to the wall, and inadvertently, her hands snuck behind his neck, before her fingers found themselves tangled in his red hair.
"…you miss me that much, huh?" he broke the kiss, despite their noses were still touching—she could still hint his minty breath.
"Y-Your fault!"
"Wait, how come is it my fault?"
"…w-well, you never even texted me…"
"Oh," he paused, a glint of guilt flashed in his eyes, "I used all my phone credit to buy this mobile game item. That's why I haven't been able to text you—hey, but I did call, right?"
"Yeah, only for telling me your improvements. And speaking of improvements, why did you even let Tadokoro do all the work back there?"
"Eh, I figured it was a good chance to show the fruit of her training," he shrugged, brushing his swollen lips with hers softly, before continuing, "and before you ask, I've missed you too."
"Liar," was her pouted reply.
"I'm not lying."
"You would've called me if you did."
"I did call you, remember?"
"…you're really full of shit, Souma," she remarked, before pulling him in closer for their umpteenth kiss.
Before they even realized it, they were ravishing each other.
It was totally different—how one would say it—from their familiar vanillas. Probably it was because they both genuinely yearned for each other (despite only being six nights without physical contact) that his tenacious touches and her muffled hisses accentuated their insatiable craving even more than it normally did.
She, now eagerly sitting on her desk, legs straddling his waist and one arm around his neck, brought her other free hand to grab his wrist, and guided the clueless to her left chest, falteringly giving it a light squeeze—.
"…ahn—Souma…" her face was as red as tomato when his satisfying touch connected.
"E-Erina…if we're going to…you know…we shouldn't be doing it here…"
"H-Huh? Why not?" she asked between her out-of-control breaths.
"…I don't know…Hishoko might hear us."
"Even if she does, she won't tell a soul anyway," her smirk convinced him.
"…fine," he paused. "Just remember this is your choice," before starting to unbutton her blouse. He could've sworn he wanted everyday to be International Kissing Day.
Nevertheless, the two overlooked the fact that Hisako could still see them from the security camera inside the office—matter of fact, it was no surprise that she did.
She won't tell a soul, right?
Three things basically motivated me to write this chapter in one go.
1. The manga's newest chapter, chapter 270;
2. Years & Years' new album Palo Santo which is an absolute gold;
3. You, dearest readers.
As always, please review and tell me what you think of this chapter. Until then, cheers!