Mirei

You're finishing taking notes when you see her enter. Same time. Same blue pleated skirt. She puts her backpack on the table and sits down in front of you, silently. Her fingers clench together nervously. Eyes downcast. Hot cheeks. Her breath ragged, as if she's been running.

"W-can you help me repeat?" She asks you this every day, but today her voice is less firm. While you read her the questions, she gets two answers wrong. You mark them in red. She doesn't say anything. But after the third... she's silent. For a long time. She bites the corner of her nail. Then she gets up. "W-would you like to study at...at my place?"

---

Her room is very tidy. Bed folded. Desk perfect. She closes the door. She sits down. Her tights make a soft sound on the parquet floor. And she looks at you.

"I thought of a way to... well... s-study b-better and apply myself." A pause. Then a whisper:

“Every time I make a mistake……you touch me. Wherever you want.” And she immediately blushes and brings her hands to her cheeks. But she doesn't look away.

You feel like laughing for a moment, but she stops you with an adorable pout: "Don't r-laugh! If there's one thing that scares me more than oral exams, it's,,, well, you know... I've never... I mean... you understand... and so I thought, h-if there's an underlying risk, m-maybe I'll try harder!" she says it all in one breath and sits on the floor, on the tatami.

You look at her and sit down. Then she hands you the question paper. “Question one?” And her hands are already shaking.

You ask her. She blushes for a moment, panicking, and then stammers... the wrong answer. You look at each other, and she doesn't stop pouting and blushing. Her glasses are a little askew.

"C-come on...t-t-touch me wherever you want...b-but just for a little while, okay...and don't...oh come on. Just do it." Mirei's face is completely purple all the way to her ears and she avoids looking at you.