"Hanabi, why is your face so red again?"
Ayaka Rie sat in front of Hanamaru Hanabi, grabbing her delicate wrist that was holding her face and asked.
——Pin down the paw pads, pull back the back, shift the body’s center of gravity towards the tail——
Hanamaru Hanabi shook her head repeatedly, her sparkling purple eyes shifted downward, her mind filled with the image of his kiss.
——He lifted her chin with his index finger, her fair neck slightly raised, her small hands nervously clutching the collar of her shirt.
Her eyebrows were delicately arched, lips lightly pressed together, eyes tightly closed in fear but wanting to peek, her small face unknowingly flushed a soft pink.
Then... waiting for his breath to approach her...
So, so embarrassing...!
Hanamaru Hanabi was lost in a girl’s fantasy, not hearing the series of questions from Ayaka Rie in front of her.
Her cheeks suddenly turned beet red, and with a "woo" sound, she buried her head in her hands.
Her small hands tightly covered her cheeks, continuously making a whining sound like a small animal.
"Are you really okay?"
Just as Ayaka Rie was imagining what Uesugi might have done to her, an orange cat suddenly jumped onto the table between them.
She was startled by the cat.
The orange cat elegantly strutted on the table, its tail swaying leisurely, the fur gently tugged by the movement of its forelimbs and hindlimbs.
"Why is there an orange cat here?"
Ayaka Rie saw it rubbing its head against Hanamaru Hanabi’s arm that was propping her head up, tickling the girl’s delicate skin with its whiskers, its throat vibrating with a faint mewing sound.
Hanamaru Hanabi, hearing the cat’s purring sound, released her hands from her face.
"Is this cat yours, Hanabi?" Ayaka Rie noticed this cat being inexplicably close to Hanamaru Hanabi, "How did it come to school? And it doesn’t seem wet from the rain."
She turned her head to look out the window, where the rain washed over the trees with a sound as thin and soft as stretched cheese.
Two female high school students in black sailor uniforms, holding books to their chests, passed by outside while chatting and laughing.
Hanamaru Hanabi’s sparkling purple eyes were fixed on the orange cat’s lazy eyes, her hands slid down flatly, her face leaning sideways on the desk padded with a "Comprehensive Language" textbook, constantly observing it.
It let out a cat’s yawn, then stretched in a comfortable lazy fashion, its tail standing very straight.
It turned its head, looking at Hanamaru Hanabi who had been curiously watching it, its lazy expression almost obscuring its slit-shaped eyes.
One person and one cat quietly looked at each other .
"Its eyes... look so familiar..."
Hanamaru Hanabi felt a strange yearning, reached out her hand to touch the cat’s head, and gently stroked its fur with her small hand.
The orange cat seemed to enjoy the girl’s touch, rubbing its head against her palm, purring intimately.
Ayaka Rie had intended to pick up the orange cat and shoo it away, but seeing its gentle demeanor, she refrained.
"Its fur is quite clean, not like a stray cat."
The orange cat lay down sideways on the desk, revealing its white belly, enjoying the girl’s gentle caress in an extremely comfortable posture.
Its squinting eyes wore a very human-like lazy expression.
The normal body temperature of a cat is between 38° to 39°, slightly higher than that of a human, so the cat’s belly feels warm to the touch.
"Does it have an owner?" Hanamaru Hanabi rubbed its belly, her gaze never leaving it, and slightly developed a fondness for this lazy cat.
Mainly because it looked very much like the orange cat, Potato, that used to belong to grandma Chino next door when she was a child.
Potato liked to lie on the roof tiles, curled up resting, looking plump just like an oval potato.
Little Hanabi always called it that.
Unfortunately, Grandma Chino passed away a long time ago, the house has been abandoned ever since, and the fat cat Potato, after that, became depressed and quietly passed away on the eaves it loved to lie on.
Little Hanabi was sad about this for a long time.
Hanamaru Hanabi continued to scratch its belly, its lazy squinting look and rumbling sound evoking her memories.
"Do you want to keep it?" Ayaka asked.
"Hmm..." Hanamaru Hanabi nodded, "But, it must have an owner, right?"
"Not necessarily, let me see."
Ayaka Rie lifted the orange cat high, examining it carefully, "Hmm... no identity tag, nor a collar."
The orange cat’s body barely stabilized in her palm, looking at her with a pair of lifeless slit eyes.
Its attitude was vastly different from the one towards Hanabi.
"Let me check if it’s sterilized."
"Do cats... also need that?" Hanamaru Hanabi asked curiously, knowing Ayaka’s family had several cats.
"Of course," Ayaka Rie replied, probing the cat’s legs, "it helps keep them calm and can, to some extent, extend their lifespan. If you don’t want kittens, it’s best to have it sterilized."
She handed the lifeless-looking orange cat back to Hanamaru Hanabi.
"It’s a girl, and it’s so lazy and plump, it should be sterilized."
"So it has an owner?"
Hanamarу Hanabi held it in her arms, a little disappointed.
"Mostly likely does."
"Then there’s nothing we can do..."
The class bell rang, Ayaka Rie glanced at the orange cat in the girl’s arms before returning to her seat.
Hanamaru Hanabi continued to stroke the cat’s fur, the orange cat once again began to indulge, rubbing its head against the girl’s chest.
Hanamaru Hanabi’s cheeks blushed slightly, she placed the orange cat on her lap, leaned her head down and whispered to it: "No way, even Sakura hasn’t...."
Before finishing her words, the girl quickly shook her head and patted her cheeks.
The orange cat’s paw pads stepped on the girl’s lap, its tail stretched back as it sat, tilting its head at her head-shaking gesture.
The class was Comprehensive Language, Haneda Kimu walked up to the podium.
"Why isn’t Uesugi here?"
Tsubokawa Takahiro raised his hand and said: "He wasn’t feeling well and went to the infirmary."
"Not serious, right?"
After a moment of concern, Haneda Kimu began teaching.
Class president Kyujuu Rika: "Stand up!"
"Good afternoon, teacher." Everyone shouted together, bowing to the teacher.
Class president: "Please sit."
As Hanamaru Hanabi sat down, she glanced at Uesugi Sakura’s seat at the other end, secretly pulled out her phone and sent a line message:
’Are you alright, Sakura-kun? (Cute Shark · Concerned)’
After waiting for a long time, the absent-minded Hanamaru Hanabi could only put her phone back in the drawer.
In the classroom, she occasionally glanced at the vacant chair, the pen in her hand drawing several circles on the notebook, softly saying:
"Sakura-kun... are you okay... why aren’t you responding to Hanabi’s message..."
The Uesugi cat, tucked into the drawer, could hear Haneda-sensei teaching.
Although he didn’t know why a cat’s mind could understand human language, since he had turned into a cat, there was no need to grasp such logic.
He raised his head from lying down, the light obliquely shining into the drawer highlighted his white whiskers.
The Uesugi cat intently stared at the white shirt tucked between the girl’s and the pleated skirt, narrowing his vertical pupils at that clean white belly.
His tail swayed behind him, stepping out elegantly in a cat walk.