Chapter 399.

Chapter 399.

Chapter 399. A Heart-Pounding Day Together with My Girlfriend: Things Get Steamy Down by the Stream. (5/5)

“Ssssss... ssssss... kkkkk...” I hissed through my gritted teeth every time the wet cotton cue tip touched the cuts on my back.

It’d been a very long time since I’d experienced this sort of thing. Somehow my thoughts wandered back to my elementary school days. I used to get scrapes on my elbows and knees all the time, practically on a daily basis.

I used to play basketball with some other kids during recess. I was always picked last when making teams though since I wasn’t exactly friends with anyone. I was just there to equal out the numbers on the teams.

There was a lot of roughhousing and we played on concrete with small rocks and gravel littered about the ground. The surface wasn’t even that flat, it was unleveled, filled with a few bumps here and there, which made things even worse if you fell.

We didn’t have basketball hoops, rather, we shot it into a wide funnel-shaped apparatus. The opening to the funnel at the top was probably about ten feet tall and it had three tube-shaped exits, or entrances depending on how you looked at it. If you slammed it directly into one of those three tubular openings pointed slightly downward at the bottom it counted as a dunk.

I suppose it was more appropriate to call this funnel ball than basketball despite how we used a basketball to play. As a child, I never really made that distinction. It was only now when I thought back to it did I realize this.

Anyway, pushing people and fouling were pretty common. Nobody cared about stuff like fouls. It was every man for themselves. But I definitely got targeted a lot.

But as a stupid kid, I didn’t think much about it. It was fun even though I got injured a lot. I’d ruined a lot of jeans this way though. I’d go home with my knees and elbows bleeding a lot. Whenever my mother noticed those scrapes, she’d disinfect them with hydrogen peroxide, then slap some bandaids over them while giving me an earful about being more careful.

She naturally didn’t notice them all since she was often very busy with her jobs. I also did my best to hide them because I dreaded the stinging sensation that came with the hydrogen peroxide. Thinking about it now, it’s a miracle I never got an infection even once back then.

“There, all done.” Rosa interrupted my little trip down memory lane and patted down on the two large square-shaped bandages she’d stuck on my back.

“Thanks.”

“You took that better than I expected,” Rosa complimented.

“I used to get scrapes that had to be disinfected pretty frequently so I’m sort of used to it. Though it’s still been quite a while since the last time.”

“When was this?”

“Back in elementary school.”

“You never really talk about your old schools much.”

“There really isn’t much to talk about after all. I didn’t really do anything much during those days.”

“You really didn’t make any friends back then?”

“Of course not. I never have.”

“Were you bullied a lot or something?”

“What makes you think that?”

“Your antisocial personality.”

“I was born antisocial.”

“There’s no way that’s true.”

“Even as a child I didn’t cry or make a lot of noise like other kids. I typically just kept quiet and to myself. I was genetically programmed to be the way I am.”

“That’s a load of shit. You were definitely bullied. Tell the truth or I’ll dump the entire bottle of hydrogen peroxide on the cuts on your back.”

“Okay, I get it. I guess I was sort of bullied.”

“When you rushed off... without your sandals on top of it, the wind must have blown them away.”

“Haaaaah. This sucks.”

“Yeah. It’s pretty dark too, we might not find it even if we look for it.”

“Just forget it. It’s not like I didn’t bring some extra clothes with me.”

“We only brought two sets with us to travel light though.”

I pulled out my phone from my pants pocket, turned on the flashlight, and held it up to Rosa.

“Hold the flashlight steady for me.”

“Just put me down if you plan to look for it. It’s not like I can’t walk.”

“It’s fine. I’ll just walk a bit along the stream. If we get lucky we might find it.”

“Oh? Are you actually enjoying this and don’t want to put me down?”

“Yeah, I’m enjoying it. Is there a problem if I enjoy it? You’re the one who wanted me to enjoy it in the first place, aren’t you?”

“...”

“Nothing to say?”

She grabbed her right forearm with her left hand in front of my chest and said, “Just shut up and walk.”

“Yeah, yeah. As you wish, your highnass.” She wriggled a bit when I squeezed her bottom with my hands beneath her.

I walked a short distance whIle Rosa shone the flashlight from left to right along the ground between the thicket of trees and the stream.

“Ran, look! Look! Over there! Over there! My top snagged on a rock in the stream!” Rosa exclaimed as soon as she spotted it. As she pointed out, it really was there. Along our side of the stream, partially submerged in the water. The flow of water had kept it stuck to the rock. She was in luck.

I approached the rock, thankfully it was close enough that I didn’t need to take off my shoes and step in the water.

I squatted down in front of the rock, reached out over the water, and retrieved it. Unfortunately, it seems her bra wasn’t here. I handed it over to her before I rose to my feet with her still on my back.

“Haaaah. My bra... I doubt we’ll find it. Let’s just head back. It’s already pretty chilly out and you’ve got to dry your hair off or you’ll catch a cold.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah...” the way she said that told me otherwise.

“Let’s search a little more.”

“It’s really fine, you don’t need to worry about it. We can search for it in the morning when the sun is out.”

I didn’t bother listening and continued down the stream.

“What’re you being stubborn for?”

“I’m not being stubborn. I’ll turn back in a few minutes if we don’t see it.”

“Fine. Just a few minutes.”

Sadly, we didn’t come across it and had to head back. It was best to cut our losses at that and not push it. Retrieving one out of two was better than nothing.