NOVEL NEXT Chapter 23.
Chapter 23. ~Rewards for Her Efforts~ (1/7)
When I woke up today, it was far from my usual routine. I wasn’t met by my barren desolate room. Rather I was wrapped up in a warm blanket. There was a hand on my back and the sound of steady breaths from behind. If this was a horror movie I might be a bit concerned right now, but the sweet scent I smelled made it all but too clear the identity of the person behind me. My precious girlfriend, Rosa.
I picked up my phone from the ground beside the bed and confirmed the time. It was 8:00 AM. I turned around and stared at my girlfriend’s sleeping face for a minute while I began to wake up.
I raised my right hand under the sheets, placed it over her left cheek, and whispered to her softly to wake her from her slumber.
“Rosa. It’s time to wake up. We’ve got to get ready to leave soon.”
Her eyes scrunched up a bit for a moment, seeming to have heard my words. Her eyes cracked open slightly, somewhat glazed over. She raised her left arm under the sheets and placed it on top of my right hand on her cheek.
“Mmm~ Do we have to? Can’t we just skip or call out sick?”
“Who’s grades is it that’s suffering right now?”
“Kkh. Fine… I get it. I get it.” She grumbled with her eyes shut.
I leaned in closer while her eyes were closed and took the opportunity to give her a light kiss.
That sensation seemed to be enough to get her to open them fully.
“You awake now?”
“Mmm~ I am.” She nodded curtly in response.
“Good then, let’s hurry up and get ready. I’ve got to take a shower. It’d be a slight inconvenience if people smell me right now.”
“What do you mean? You smell fine to me.”
“I smell like you. It’d become obvious to people at school I slept over at your place if the scent that comes off of me is this strong.”
“Oh, you’re right… but I don’t really mind if they know though. Is it really that big a deal? In fact, I’d rather everyone know you’re mine.”
“I’d rather not incur the ire of every guy in the class. If it was just dating, sure, but sleeping over in the same bed, they would burn me at the stake.”
“The guys aren’t that perceptive, are they?”
“No… they aren’t… but the girls are. You think gossip and rumors wouldn’t spread among the girls and eventually enter the guys’ ears?”
“Oh, good point. I didn’t consider that fact.”
“Uh, then I guess you probably shouldn’t use my towel either. I think I have a washed one that I haven’t used yet, let me check real quick.”
She hopped off the bed and exited the room. A minute later she returned with a towel in hand.
She then led me to the shower and handed the towel over. On the way out of her room, I picked my bag from the living room and retrieved my school uniform. When she saw how crumpled up my uniform was she frowned and snatched them away from me and said she’d iron them out. If I was asked, I honestly couldn’t recall the last time I’d ironed them so I took her up on her offer before I got into the shower.
Inside the bathtub, after I stripped off my casual clothes, I remained on my feet and turned the hot water on. Looking around I discovered a variety of different hair care products, many of which I had no idea what they were for, but there was no way I would ever touch them.
It was scary to see firsthand just how many different products girls required. Just adding up the potential costs in my head left me light-headed.
After a quick shower to remove her scent from my body I took the towel she lent me and wiped my face to dry it off.
When I took a breath in I was slightly troubled. Though it’s true her scent wasn’t very strong on it, it still had a trace amount that lingered. Well, I didn’t have much of a choice on the matter either way. It shouldn’t come off nearly as strong as a full night sleeping on the girl’s bed in question directly beside her while she slept.
I didn’t really think anyone would notice if it was this faint. With that thought in mind, I finished drying myself off and wrapped the towel around my waist, and exited the bathroom.
I found Rosa back in her room by her closet open with an ironing board taken out. It seemed she’d finished ironing my uniform… but… she was currently holding my white collared dress shirt up in front of her, eyeing it closely.
I wasn’t quite sure why she was inspecting it in such detail. It was just a normal part of every student's uniform at school. It was the core piece under our white hemmed black school blazers.
“Uh, Rosa, are you... done ironing my uniform?” I asked her quizzically.
She redirected her gaze toward me and nodded while her eyes scanned me from the bottom up as she calmly evaluated my current appearance. She wasn’t the type to blush and avert her gaze, I knew that much. She was perfectly fine with seeing a guy's body.
I decided to crack a joke, “Uh…if you stare at me so intently, I’ll begin to blush.”
“Then please do, I’d love to see a crack in that overly calm expressionless face of yours.”
I breathed out a small sigh and said monotonously while looking to the side with squinted half-dead eyes, “Kyaa, so embarrassing.” I didn’t dare add in a ‘kyun’ sound effect at the end in fear I might face divine retribution from the gods of cringe. Please spare me, gods of cringe, I’m not ready to die yet.
Rosa’s shoulders trembled as she tried to hold back her laughter.
“Pfff-fff. W-What the heck was that supposed to be?”
“Don’t ask. It’s... complicated.” I couldn’t help but think of some of my embarrassing stories from the early days that had a similar line. I felt somewhat depressed by my inability to replicate it.
“A-Anyway, here’s your uniform back. I’ll take my shower while you get dressed.”
“Sure.”
She handed my shirt, black tie, pants, and blazer over to me on her way out of her room. With her shoulders still trembling, our arms lightly brushed by each other when she passed by. When she closed the bathroom door behind her, I entered the living room and quickly got dressed. While I waited, I flattened my hair down with the towel a second time and made sure it was fully dry.
Unlike my ten-minute shower, Rosa took double the time, a full twenty minutes. I was a bit worried about the time, but Rosa lived closer to the school than I did so it wouldn’t take as long to get there.
We had about thirty minutes left by the time she stepped out wrapped in a bath towel. When she passed by the living room on her way to her bedroom I saw her from the corner of my eye. I couldn’t help but feel a bit antsy from the sight of her let-down red wet hair draping down behind her back and how the wet towel clung to her fair white unblemished skin.
She spent fifteen minutes both with a towel and a hairdryer blowing on high to dry her hair and get it just how she liked it. I couldn’t help but wonder whether we’d be okay on time at this rate.
“Rosa, we only have fifteen minutes left, you know.”
“It should be fine, as long as we have five minutes we should make it on time as long as we run.”
“Even with the elevator?”
“We’ll just take the stairs.”
Saying that, she exited her room, came over to my side, and looked down at me. I didn’t know when she changed into her clothes, but she had. I suppose she’d been multitasking while drying her hair.
“You’re ready?” I asked.
“I am… but… stand up for a second.”
I obliged to her request and asked, “What is it?”
She stretched her arms out and said, “It's always been bugging me, but since I wasn’t your girlfriend at the time, it wasn’t really my business. BUT, that being said, now that I am your girlfriend, I’m free to do what I want.”
She stretched her arm out and started patting me down and fiddling around with my clothes. For the final touch, she messed with my tie a bit before she took a step back and examined me up and down with a somewhat satisfied look before her gaze landed on my hair.
“That’s better, but… it could really use a finishing touch.”
She left for a second then returned with a small black container. She opened it up and just as she was about to dip her fingers in it I extended my arm and grabbed her wrist to stop her.
“What are you doing?”
“That’s styling paste, right?”
“Yeah, is there a problem?”
“I appreciate your concern and care, but for certain reasons, I can’t style my hair.”
“What? How come?”
“Work-related concerns.” It was half true at least.
“They don’t let you style your hair?”
“Well, it’s because we also handle food items and these types of hair products can flake and get into a customer’s food. So for hygiene reasons they’re not allowed.”
“Oh, I see. That does make sense. But… it’s a bit of a shame. With your black eyes matching your hair, I feel like you’d look really good if you styled your hair up a little bit instead of just letting it hang down and fully cover your forehead and partially obstructing your eyes with the way you keep it all the time.”
Honestly, the real reason I don’t want her to do so is actually the complete opposite. The owner makes an exception for me where I work. She’s the one who came up with my disguise to begin with and taught me how to style my hair in the first place. She even got me the blue decorative colored contacts. She’s quite particular about appearances after all. Her motto is ‘looks sell.’
If I start showing up to school with my hair styled similar to how it is at work, the chances I’m recognized by someone from school would increase. Though not frequent to the point it’s suffocating, we do get students and teachers from the school that visit during my shift. Even Mr. Oz, my homeroom teacher occasionally shops there. Thankfully, as far as I’m aware, Rosa has never shopped there yet.
“I appreciate your well-minded thoughts.” I leaned in and kissed her to get her mind off it.
“We really need to get going or we’ll be late.”
There were about 7 minutes left.
“Hmm… you go on ahead of me and start taking the stairs, I’ll catch up. I’ve got to tie my hair up and eat a little something real quick.” She actually had thoughts of eating something with so little time left? I could hardly understand how she had enough leisure to do so.
“Sure. I’m not waiting for you at the bottom if you’re too slow though.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll definitely catch up.”
“Don’t blame me if you end up late.”
“Hmph. It seems I’m being greatly underestimated.”