The light turned green. Yumo sprinted across the street, out of breath. The Japanese girl ran beside him, following with lively interest.
“You… huff… why’re you following me… huff…”
“Kore wa watashi no— ahem, this is my morning running… morning… ‘morning run,’ mm, my morning route desu.”
“Then let’s… huff… run our own… huff… huff…”
“If you run like this, you’ll… die.”
“Just think… huff… I’m being… stupid… huff… but… men sometimes… huff… do stupid things… huff… right…”
“Ohh~~ men’s training? So hot-blooded! Run together, how about it?”
“…why?”
“It’s fun!”
“???”
Yumo was at a loss.
Not far behind the Japanese girl, Yusuozaai was grinning weirdly, giving him a thumbs-up. She mouthed, Don’t miss the chance.
(What’s that damn Demon mean? Did she foresee I’d go out for a run now and have a meet-cute? Is she actually helping me?)
Forget it. No time to overthink. Just run!
...
...
...
So, with a mess of doubt and mixed feelings, Yumo forced himself through a full twenty kilometers, crossing half of Linhai District.
The Japanese girl actually ran the whole thing with him. She was a seasoned runner, but following Yumo at full speed for ten kilometers still wrecked her. She ended up panting like in some amateur video. Thanks to her coaching him on how to adjust his breathing at the limit, he barely held on.
When they reached the finish at Zhongmin Park, he’d hit a state… close to transcendence.
His whole body went numb. Everything went a chalk-white blur. His ears rang. He threw up until there was nothing left. He didn’t dare stop cold; he shuffled in circles like sleepwalking. Only when feeling crept back into his limbs did he let out a long breath and flop onto the lawn, almost unable to move.
“Good job. Here, have a drink.”
The girl, panting hard, plopped down beside him and peeled off her shoes and socks, rubbing her sore legs and feet… They were close. Close enough for him to catch her sweat. Same sweat, but why is a guy’s rank and a pretty girl’s kind of sour-sweet? He’d heard it had to do with estradiol reacting with diet and mixing with sweat gland secretions to make a specific scent. Nope. He couldn’t keep sniffing. Any more and he’d out his kink.
“Aha… I also haven’t… run this… hard in a while… Doing this once in a while feels very… hmm? In Chinese? ‘Shuang’? Yeah, it feels great! You’re sugoi too. Twenty kilometers in one go. Interested in joining the track team?”
“No need… for that… by the way… I haven’t asked, your name—”
“Orihara Chie. In Chinese it should be ‘Harusaki Chie.’ In Chinese, call me Qianhui, or, with the Fusang reading, Chie. Either is fine.”
“Mm… Harusaki-san… thanks for… pacing me… mm…”
His oxygen-starved, sugar-starved brain finally ground back to life. His blurry vision cleared. With his head tilted on the grass, he saw the girl’s pale thighs.
A beauty…
A beautiful girl…
In that case, to stay alive, I can’t let her slip away.
Fine. I’ll be the scumbag.
“Can we exchange… contact… info…”
“…Exchange contacts? Why?”
A hint of hesitation crossed Chie’s face. A trace of wariness flickered in her eyes. She might look carefree, but she had fine-tuned defenses.
“Because… I might… do dumb stuff… like this again… If I collapse… you could… call me an ambulance.”
“……Pfft! Hahahaha! Aaah, seriously, that’s the first time I’ve heard… that kind of reason… for asking a contact! Mmm~~~ okay then? I’ve got a good impression of you! You all use ‘MicroCore,’ right? Here, scan me… there, ‘ChieChie’— that’s me! Bye now, I’m already late for school, gotta grab a car! Don’t forget your jacket, or you’ll catch a cold!”
Chie recovered fast, waved, and bounced away.
Yumo lay there a long time before he barely got his breath back. He stared at the new friend in MicroCore, feeling all sorts of ways.
Just got a girlfriend, and he’d rushed to ask another girl for her MicroCore— and a foreign beauty at that. Does this…
“Looks like you’ve developed a healthy sense of crisis. Casting a wide net early. Good.”
Yusuozaai was sprawled beside him like a drunken monk, taking a big swig from the sports drink Chie had given him.
“Don’t steal my drink, you stinky Demon…”
“Don’t be so stingy. Hoo— mmm, this lawn is comfy.”
It was winter, and the park grass had gone yellow, but it was still soft. She stretched in a long lazy arc, extended her slender legs, flexed her long toes… Noticing Yumo’s gaze, she deliberately flicked her pale feet and opened and closed her toes. Yumo snapped his eyes away at once.
“A foot kink is perfectly normal. No need to be shy. Go on, look a little more. I don’t mind, not with you.”
“I (sneak-glance)… totally wouldn’t (sneak-glance)… care (sneak-glance)… about your stinky feet (sneak-glance)… or anything (sneak-glance)…”
“Mm, but compared to feet, scent kinks are rarer… Tell me, watching that Japanese girl finish her run, gasping, reeking of sweat— did that turn you on?”
“No. I just thought it was dirty.”
“Stare—”
“…”
“Staaare———”
“Argh, stop looking at me! Let me rest a bit! My arms and legs feel like balloons!”
“You’ve rested enough, haven’t you? Life is finite. Not that much time to slack off~~ Go squeeze into the morning rush. Your good mom and good girlfriend are still waiting at the gym. As a good son and good boyfriend, you’ll work out with them, right?”
“Spare me—!!!”
————————————
————————————
“Hmm~ hmm-hmm~~”
Chie sat in a rideshare to school, humming while burning her gacha game’s stamina.
She was definitely late, but she felt great. Not only did she get a solid workout, she also met a slightly weird but fun male friend. Maybe she could finally widen her circle in this foreign country?
Strange, though.
Chie liked making friends, but she was sharp at sensing malice. Her intuition filtered out guys with bad intentions. But this Yumo— his motives weren’t pure, yet he didn’t trigger her aversion. Maybe because sprinting twenty kilometers straight was just… impactful?
Could this be the so-called fate?
(Plain at first glance, but kinda handsome if you look closely? Ugh, what am I thinking. Grandpa, that stubborn old fossil, would never let me date a foreigner… Huh?)
A message popped up from her mom.
“Your brother stayed out all night again and didn’t come home. Do you know where that silly kid is? Help me get in touch with him?”
“Uh…”
Chie let out a helpless, wry smile.
