"Katsura?"

She looked up. "Oh, hey, Saionji-san."

"Mind if I sit next to you?"

"Not at all." She gestured to the grass beside her. "Are you feeling sick?"

"It's uhm… that time of the month." Sekai sat down next to her.

"Oh. Sorry."

"Not your fault. Are you not participating in PE?"

"I'm anemic. Didn't Itou-kun tell you?"

"No. He was too busy with his own heroic tales I guess." Sekai added a little smile.

"He did help me out a lot." She didn't want to imagine what would have happened if she had passed out in the middle of the street. Or if someone with less noble ideas had found her.

"I guess," Sekai said, unconvinced.

"I really should do something back for him."

"Well if you really want to, I have an idea."

"You do?" Kotonoha looked at her.

"You could let him touch your chest."

"I…" Kotonoha turned away and covered her ample chest with her arms.

Sekai chuckled. "I'm joking, don't worry. I actually wanted to suggest to eat lunch tomorrow as well. On the roof again."

"Oh. But…"

"You could prepare lunch for him," she suggested. "I'm sure he'd like that."

"Yeah. That's a great idea, Saionji-san." She had never made lunch before, but it couldn't be that hard, could it?

"You can drop the 'san'."

"Okay, Saionji."

"Still…" Sekai looked in the distance.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing. I'm a bit worried about Makoto-kun."

"How so?"

"He's a nice guy, but…"

"But what?"

Sekai played with her fingers, still avoiding eye contact.

"He could really use a girlfriend. Or even just a date. But everyone keeps rejecting him."

"They do?" That's strange. Itou-kun seemed like a nice guy.

"Oh yes, you didn't know? He has confessed to lots of girls, but they all turned him down. They didn't even want to go on a single date."

"That's horrible."

"Oh well. He'll survive, I guess."

"Did you…"

"No, no," Sekai quickly said. "We're just friends, he didn't confess to me. But as my friend, he does call me a lot. When a girl rejects him, he can be down for days or even weeks. Yet for some reason, he keeps falling for girls that don't like him back."

"I see." She wondered where Sekai was going with this. It was interesting, but there really wasn't much they could do about it, right?

"I uhm…" Sekai said. "I shouldn't be telling you this. Never mind."

"Tell me, please," Kotonoha pressed her.

"Alright then." Sekai finally looked at her. "You are totally his type."

Kotonoha turned red. "I-"

"Ah, please don't worry about it," Sekai assured her. "I just mean, he saved the damsel in distress and he got to know you a bit, so I'm certain he'll misunderstand and ask you out. So, just… please don't hurt him too much when you reject him. Be gentle with him."

"I… maybe I…"

"You like him?" Sekai's eyes lit up. "You do, right?"

"I… I suppose one date wouldn't hurt," Kotonoha said. "But you don't know if he will confess."
Sekai chuckled. "Wanna bet? I give him 24 hours, tops."

"What are we betting for?"

"Uhm, I don't know. If I win I get your phone number and if you win you get mine?"

"Isn't that the same thing? We might as well exchange numbers now."

"Great idea, Katsura." Sekai pulled out her phone.

"You have your phone with you during PE?"

"You don't?"

Kotonoha threw a look over her shoulder. No one was looking at them.

She took out her own phone and they exchanged numbers.

When they were done, the bell rang. The girls quickly hid their phones again.

They went back inside to change. Normally, Otome would pick on her, but Sekai sat down next to her and that made Otome reconsider.

"I'll see you around then, Katsura," Sekai said when they were done.

"Yeah, see you around."

Sekai went back to her class.

"Making friends are we?" a voice behind her said.

Someone jammed their shoulder against her.

"Watch where you're going."

Kotonoha sighed inwardly.

"Just don't think your little friend is gonna be there all the time to protect you, Katsura," Otome warned her.

Luckily, they didn't have much time to do other thing since a teacher passed them at that point and their next class would start soon.

After school, Otome and her trio of friends went off to their basketball practice, so she was safe for today.

Kotonoha decided to go to the library today.

As expected, there was hardly anyone there. Reading wasn't that popular at this school.

She asked the boy on duty if the book she was looking for was in.

He muttered a response that could be interpreted as 'yes' with some imagination.

Ashikaga-kun was a very shy boy, especially against females. You'd think looking like a girl himself would make things easier for him, but apparently not.

Kotonoha walked through the shelves.

She found what she was looking for rather quickly. However, the book was on the top shelf, too high for her to reach.

Stupid shelves.

Kotonoha stood on her tiptoes and reached out as far as she could, but it remained out of her reach.

A different hand reached out and picked the book of the shelf.

Katsura spun around.

"Itou-kun." She backed away and hit the shelves with her elbow. A jolt of pain ran through her body

"Calm down, Katsura-san," he said. "I just wanted to help you."

He held out the book. She accepted it.

"You startled me," she said.

"Sorry."

She put the book in her bag to avoid his eyes. "A-Anyway, what are you doing here?"

"This is the school library, am I not allowed to be here?"

"Well…"

"And why are people in libraries in general?"

She felt her cheeks getting hot. "I, I didn't mean it like that," she mumbled.

"I wanted to see you," he said.

"Oh."

"Yeah uhm, I have a question for you."

Twenty-four hours huh? This wasn't even six hours.

"Uhm," Itou said. "How to put this, you see I-"

"Yes," she interrupted him.

"Huh?"

"If the question is 'will you go out with me?', the answer is yes."

After Saionji had told her about it, she had thought about it, and actually, she did like this boy. He was kind and caring and one date really wouldn't hurt her. Her mom constantly said she had to go out more instead of sitting around in her room. Besides, she had technically already said she'd accept against Saionji, so if she turned him down now, Saionji would hear and she'd be very angry. And Kotonoha was not about to give up her only potential friend over a little date with Itou-kun. Even if she was a bit scared to go on dates.

Itou-kun was at a loss for words for a moment.

"How did you know?" he asked eventually.

"Saionji kinda warned me."

"Oh. Right. It's fine, don't wo-... wait, did you say yes?"

She smiled. "Yes, Itou-kun. I'd love to go out with you."

"Oh, okay. Hey hold on, I had a whole confession prepared."
"Save it for our date," she said.

"Is Sunday okay?"

"Sunday is fine. Where are we going?"

"Uhm. Well I didn't think this that far through. I kinda anticipated another rejection. How about a movie?"

"Classic."

He smiled apologetically. "Sorry for not being as cool as you'd like. You're free to give me suggestions."

"Isn't the guy supposed to arrange the date?"

"Oh, sorry," he said, sarcasm slipping into his tone. "I assumed you were a modern girl. I better ask your parents for permission to take you out then."

She smiled. "Point taken. A movie is fine to me. I like movies."

"What kind of movies do you like?"

"Well, uhm… you know." She looked away, embarrassed.

"I don't. Unless you tell me."

How would he respond to that? It wasn't very girly of her to like those kind of movies.

"It's not something… you know, age restricted, right?" he asked.

"Well uhm… most of them are."

"Oh. Wow. I really didn't expect that from you."

"Do you like horror movies too?"

"Horror movies?... oh, okay, now I get it."

She frowned. "What did you think I was talking about?"

"Nothing." He avoided her gaze.

"You didn't think I was talking about… you know, the other type of age restricted movies, right?"

"I wouldn't judge you for that. To each their own."

She sighed. "Boys. Always thinking about lecherous things."

"Well being in your company certainly doesn't make it easier."

"Itou-kun." She blushed.

"It was a compliment. You are a very attractive girl, Katsura."

She blushed even harder. "Thanks. A-Anyway, so, there is a horror movie this weekend I think." As if she didn't know exactly when it came out.

"Indeed. I was gonna watch it with Taisuke actually."

"Oh, well I don't want to-"

"Please do. You're much better company than Taisuke."

"I am?"

"Oh you've never seen him eating popcorn, have you?"

She chuckled. "Is it that bad?"

"You have no idea."

"But I like popcorn too," she confessed.

He chuckled. "I'll remember that."

"Okay. I'm really looking forward to it, Itou-kun."

"Me too."

She checked the time on her phone. "I should be going now."

"Yeah, me too."

She hesitated. "Maybe we should exchange numbers. Just so we don't miss each other."

"Yeah, good idea." He took out his own phone.

When they were done, they both put away their phones and went to the station together.

"I have to admit, you surprise me," Itou said.
"How so?"

"You're a lot more confident than I thought."

"I'm really not."

"And I was really surprised you are into horror movies. You didn't say that was a hobby of yours the other day."

"Well, that's not something you say when you've just met someone."

"Why not?"

"You might have laughed at me."

"What? Of course not, horror movies are cool."

She smiled. "Thanks."

Their train arrived. Both of them got on it.

"Oh," Kotonoha said, suddenly remembering something. "Would you like to… uhm…"

"Probably yes, but maybe you should ask first."

She chuckled. "I was just thinking it would be fun to eat lunch together again. On the roof."

"Oh, yeah, sure. Sounds fun. Do you want Sekai to come as well?"

"Yeah, sure. I'll ask her tonight if she wants to."

"You already got her number?"
She avoided his gaze. "Sort of."

"Knowing her she's probably saying all kinds of embarrassing things about me."

"Maybe."

"What did she say?"

"Girl secrets, Itou-kun, I can't tell you."

He sighed. "Girls."

Kotonoha usually wasn't very confident, but being with Itou-kun somehow made it much easier. He made her feel comfortable when usually she felt scared in the company of males. Actually, just in company of people in general, except for maybe Kokoro-chan.

The train arrived at her stop.

"See you tomorrow then," she said.

"Yeah. See you, Katsura."

She got off the train and went home. It was only a short walk from the station, and luckily, she did not faint since Itou wasn't here to save her.

When she arrived home, she went to her room and called Saionji.

[Hey, Katsura.]

"Hey."

[So, already?]

Kotonoha sighed. "Yes, you win. He asked me out today."

[I knew it.]

"Hey, wait a sec. You didn't win. We bet whether he would confess. But he just asked me out."

[That's practically the same thing,] Sekai argued.

"Not really. He said he had a confession planned, but he didn't actually do it, so I still win."

[The 24 hours aren't over yet.]

"We'll see."

[So you're going on a date?]

"Yeah."

[Where are you going?]

"To a movie." Kotonoha laid down on her bed.

[Cliche. Is it a romance movie?]

"No. It's a horror movie."
[Horror? Ye, what is that idiot thinking?]

"Actually, he asked me what I liked and I said horror movies."

[Oh, I get it. So when you get scared you'll hold his hand and-]

"No. I'm not scared. I actually like horror movies."

[But you are gonna holds hands, right?]

She shifted the phone to her other ear. "I-I guess?… it is a date, so it's to be expected." Holding hands wasn't so bad, right?

[So,] Saionji changed the subject. [What are you gonna wear?]

"Uhm… that's a very good question, Saionji."

[I think you should show of your assets.]

"Assets?"

[Oh, you know…]

"I don't want him to get bad ideas," Kotonoha quickly said.

[But you do want to look good, right?]

"Well, yes, I suppose I do."

[So you should highlight your best traits, right?]

"Yeah, that does make sense. But what are my best traits?"

[Oh, you know. Your hair is long and smooth and your eyes are beautiful. And you have an uhm… busty figure.]

"Sekai!"

[What? I'm just stating the truth. Wait, did you call me…]

"Sorry, I-"

[No, it's fine. You can call me by my first name. Anyway, I'll leave you to it, Kotonoha. Good luck on your date.]

Sekai hung up.

Kotonoha sighed.

Sekai had some point. She didn't like it when she pointed it out, but it was hard to deny she had quite a big chest. But that didn't mean she wanted to show it off or anything. She didn't like how everyone only looked at her chest. The boys with lecherous looks, and the girls with jealous looks.

But if it was Itou-kun…

No, him too. Itou wasn't any different from anyone else. If he wanted to date her, he should love her for her personality, not the size of her boobs. If anything, she should date him flat-chested first to make sure he actually liked her for her personality and not her body.

But…

She sighed again. Obviously, that wasn't possible. She could not hide her own body shape. So maybe Sekai had a point somewhere. If she couldn't hide it, she might as well play it to her advantage. It's not like she could show off her personality. She did want this date to go well, right? And she wanted to show her best side.

But then again, wouldn't that give him the wrong ideas?

Why was this so difficult?

She got up.

A relaxing bad would probably help her.

Kotonoha went to the bathroom.

There was no-one in.

She opened the tap and then stripped down.

Her eyes caught herself in the mirror.

Yeah, it was hard to deny she had a busty figure.

And it wasn't just her chest. She had quite wide hips as well.

She sighed once again. There really was no getting around it. Even if Itou had initially gotten attracted to her personality, he would inevitably desire her body as well. And if anything, she had agreed to that already. If she didn't want that, she should have said she just wanted to be friends. Going on a date obviously implied she would eventually have to hold hands and… kiss.

She wanted to date him, right? So that meant both mentally and physically. She couldn't just pick out the parts she liked.

Kotonoha decided she had to get more comfortable with her own body. If she wasn't comfortable herself, how could she ever expect to go on a real date?

She put her hair up in a quick dot to make sure it didn't get wet. Then, she got into the large bath.

The water was pleasantly warm on her skin.

She hesitantly reached up and touched her chest.

I have a big chest, and that's okay, she told herself. There is nothing to be ashamed about. This is my body and there is nothing I can do to change it.

And if she could, would she really want to? Wouldn't her future boyfriend enjoy that? Boys were perverted after all. If you had a boyfriend, wouldn't you want to look attractive to him? So…

She yawned.

The water was very warm. Maybe a bit too warm. It was making her drowsy.

She wasn't gonna faint again, was she? Maybe she'd faint and drown and then they would find her like this.

Somehow, the thought didn't cause her to panic. Rather, she drifted further away.

Her head rested on the edge of the bath.

…

"Onee-chan? Hey, Onee-chan." Someone splashed water in her face.

"Huh?" He eyes fluttered open. Her hands immediately covered her chest. She faintly registered the water had gotten a lot colder. "Kokoro-chan?"

"Ye, Onee-chan, did you fall asleep in the bath?"

"No," she lied, unconvincingly.

"Mom says it's long past my bedtime. And you have school tomorrow as well, don't you?"

"Yeah. Turn around, I'm gonna get out."

Reluctantly, her sister did as she asked.

"You can't keep hogging the bathroom," she complained. "I have to brush my teeth. Mom will be very mad if I'm not in bed in five minutes."

Kotonoha wrapped a towel around her body.

"Go ahead then."

The older sister went back to her room to dry off and change into her pyjamas.

She had definitely fallen asleep in the bath. And she had dreamed, but about what?

Kotonoha thought of it as she dried off, but nothing came to mind.

She got dressed into her pyjamas. It had been difficult to find something in her size. The buttons of the long sleeved top were under a lot of pressure and the bottoms were yoga pants since the others didn't fit anymore.

Her blue top piece and black pants didn't really match, but it's not like many people saw her like that. In fact, basically no one did since she changed when she went to bed and changed back into her school uniform first thing in the morning.

When she was done, she returned to the bathroom to brush her teeth and put up her hair in a loose braid. Given how long her hair was, she had to do this or it would be a huge mess in the morning. She would have to make sure she washed it tomorrow or it would stop behaving nicely.

Kotonoha returned to her room, turned off the light and got into her large bed.

When she laid down, she drifted off to sleep very fast.

Her dream was waiting for her. She had put it on pause in the bath and forgotten what it was about, but after only a few minutes, it played again.

"You look gorgeous, Katsura-san," Itou-kun said.

They were sitting in what appeared to be an expensive restaurant. Except there was nothing around them. There was only their own table, which somehow floated on some kind of lake without sinking.

The plates and cutlery shined brightly with gold and silver and the glasses were crystal goblets. Between them was a candle holder in silver.

Itou-kun wore a three-piece suit in black and white with a tie. His hair was neatly combed back and glistened with oil. He looked good. Very good.

Kotonoha looked down at herself. She was wearing a red dress with a very deep V-cut. No bra. It looked a bit like her red summer dress, only much more seductive.

"Thanks, Itou-kun," she heard herself say. "But please, call me Kotonoha."

She stole a glance at her reflection in the water. She did look quite good. Her hair was put up in elaborate braids with white flowers, some makeup highlighted her eyes and lips and there were silver earrings and a pendant dangling down from her ears and neck. She looked like a sort of princess version of herself. More mature and infinitely more seductive.

"Well, Kotonoha, I really like your dress. It really shows off your assets."

She looked back. "Thanks. Can I call you Makoto-kun?"

"Of course, princess."

"Would you… like to see more, Makoto-kun?" She felt herself biting her lip.

"Yes, yes I would." He leaned back on his chair.

Her hands took the straps of her dress. She pulled them over her shoulders. Since the top was cut so deeply, this caused the dress to fall down and completely expose her bare chest.

Her hands folded on her lap. Normally, she would instinctively cover her chest, but now, she was pushing it out so he could see it well.

"What do you think?" her voice asked.

"Not bad," he replied. "Do you mind if I…"

"Be my guest, Makoto-kun." She smiled.
He reached out and touched her breasts.

An electrifying sensation ran through her body. It felt good. Really good.

Kotonoha stirred in her sleep.

Her hand slipped inside her panties.

"Such a naughty girl," Makoto-kun said.

"Yes," her voice replied. "I'm a naughty girl."

He pinched her nipples.

She let out a moan. Her hands stayed on her lap.

"Please," she said. "Suck on them."

He gladly reached down and put her nipple in his mouth.

Kotonoha jumped upright, her eyes wide open.

She retracted her hand. There was a sticky mess on her fingers.

By reaching beneath her pants and touching them, she could confirm it. Her panties were wet.

What a strange dream.

Her fingers had gotten sticky, so she got up to wash them in the bathroom.

Back in her room, she changed into a new pair of panties.

She got back in bed.

It had to be those strange things Sekai had said. 'Show off your assets', honestly. That must have caused this weird dream.

Kotonoha turned on her side.

She closed her eyes, hoping the weird dream would not return.

Idle hope it turned out.