Chapter 208: The 3rd Attempt

"N-nothing happened."

Mori answered without looking at me. She was still slightly trembling.

"I see. That's the problem. Nothing is happening. I'm shooting my foot for saying this but, we're still in high school, don't lose hope, Mori."

Of course, I still want her to myself but through encouraging her like this, it will be converted to my points for her. Sooner or later, it will build up enough that she will give up on Ogawa by herself.

"What if after high school he still only sees me as a childhood friend?"

If he didn't break, that's more than possible. But people can change. Even me has changed within a short span of time.

I could use this chance to reel this girl in and claim her for myself but I can't seem to find the motivation to do that.

"Then you have to rethink your circumstances, do you want to be a martyr and wait for him until you grow old?"

She's not as strong as Akane to do that.

Well, there's still a lot of time for her. If a miracle really happened and Ogawa turned his head towards her then she'll win this waiting game that only she plays.

"… No."

Mori thought for a while, maybe imagining herself in that kind of situation. Her shoulders had already stopped trembling and she seemed to have calmed down already.

"See. You should open your eyes. Even if it's not me since I clearly couldn't get in your eyes, you'll probably find someone that can accept your feelings and reciprocate it in kind."

If I can change her mindset here, then I will. Letting her think of another possibility for her.

"… It's not that you can't get in my eyes. I won't be here if that's the case."

"You wanted to torture me by asking me about your problem, right? You know I will answer you honestly."

The first sentence was surely not what she's thinking, I only added that to shake her. She knew me. I've been honest to her since the start. That's one of the reasons she approached me this time. But yeah, if it was any other guy, advising the girl she likes about her feelings for another guy? That's martyrdom.

However, I've already done this many times before. It's just a means to an end. I'm doing this with the goal of stealing her in the future.

"No... That's not--"

Her hand unconsciously grabbed my wrist as she hurriedly tried to explain herself but I cut her off with my next words.

"No. That's what you're doing. You know I like you and you wanted me to comfort you and complain to me why Ogawa's still not looking at you. You also seem to want to use me by distancing yourself to Ogawa and letting him see you're now closer to me than him."

"… Is that how you see this?"

"If that's not it then tell me where I'm wrong."

"I... I don't know."

She turned her eyes towards me but in the end, she couldn't answer it honestly.

"Mori. Can I kiss you?"

This is the 3rd time that I asked her of this and maybe the 3rd time that she will reject as well. But yeah, she's already conflicted.

I'm sure even if what I said isn't completely right, part of it is.

And with that, I'm guessing that she's also trying to get me for herself. Shower her with the attention I've given her before.

If she accepted then all my other guesses are right and if she rejected then my earlier words are correct.

Either way, I could confirm everything through this question.

"There you go again..."

Mori averted her eyes but I used my hand to turn her head back to me. She told me she wanted to give Ogawa her first kiss, has he already claimed it or not? Probably not. And her resistance this time compared to our previous encounters was minuscule.

Her hand that was grabbing my wrist loosened up. When I felt that, I lifted my arm to have her hold my hand instead.

When she felt my hand on hers, she tensed up but she didn't pull it out.

"Can I? You can answer by nodding or shaking your head. I told you before, I won't do anything without your permission."

Mori closed her eyes before answering and it's not just a nod. She also voiced it out albeit in a soft voice. Afraid that someone might be listening in.

"Y-you can."

Being in this close proximity to her, her pinkish lips parted as if it's waiting for me.

Upon seeing that, I traversed the remaining distance between our lips. As soon as my lips were pushed against hers, my hand pulled her head towards me to deepen it.

From just touching our lips, I started moving. She's clearly inexperienced as this is probably her first kiss but she tried to follow what I'm doing.  When I sucked her lips, she also did the same.

I held off from using my tongue, there would surely be more chances in the future

In a span of two minutes, we continued on our long kiss, whenever our lips will separate for a bit, she will open her eyes to stare at me and I'll do the same. Afterwards, our lips will overlap against each other again, from a normal kiss to sucking our lips, Mori started to gain experience.

When we finished, her face was already too red as if she got drunk from it.

"You're beautiful, Mori."

I whispered before pulling my head back from her.

With this kiss, it proved my guesses from before. This girl is more than just conscious of me.

"You took my first kiss..."

Mori's fingers traced her still wet lips as she looked at me in a daze. What happened hasn't sunk in completely to her.

"You gave it to me. There's a difference. Do you regret it?"

"… Do I look regretful?"

"No, not really. As I said, you look beautiful. I might kiss you again if you kept staring at me like that."

Even after I pulled back, her eyes never left me. That orange eyes of hers were probably trying to record my face in her memory.

"You're still this shameless."

"I'm always this shameless. Why didn't you reject me this time?"

"You know why. Don't play dumb."

"Right. You're proving that what I said earlier was wrong."

"Not only that... Please, you're not dense, Onoda-kun."

"I know. But you're still not mine, right? You still like him. No. You like both of us at the same time."

"… Yes."

That's it. I might've managed to sway her towards me but she's still hoping for him. Her difference with Nami is that she admitted that she now likes both of us. And it was on equal standing.

The way she acted yesterday was not just her acting close to me. I guess that's also why she kept talking to Aya with me as the topic.

"Then I'll just have to steal you completely from him and show you the difference between us."

After saying that, I pulled her into a kiss again and this time, I didn't stop for only 2 minutes. It went on for long that her pinkish lips turned red from how hard I sucked on it. But even with that, Mori accepted it all without any resistance.

"… You didn't ask for my permission this time."

Mori softly grumbled but her words were in contrast to what kind of expression she had on her face.

"Then as compensation, you can also kiss me without my permission."

Upon hearing my words, Mori became lost in her thoughts, maybe thinking whether she should use that compensation or not and after a while, her face reddened further.

"Shameless Onoda..."

"You know, I'm wondering why you're not telling him about Nami and me? That way he will be heartbroken, that's a good chance for you to enter his sights."

I was worried about this before but knowing her, she probably wanted to make him look at her without snitching out my real relationship with Nami.

Even the plan we devised back then was just her having some time with him but that still amounted to nothing. That guy only has eyes for Nami.

"… He'll just be depressed if I did that and you're already planning to tell him, right?"

"Yes. Nami only needed to prepare herself. She's mine now and not his. It's your chance. Will you take it?"

Of course, she will make use of that chance. She's not mine yet, I can't just forbid her from doing that. 

"If I did take that chance. What will you do?"

Whether she will succeed or not, it won't change the fact that I like her and she likes me.

"I will make you fall for me completely that you'll forget about him."

"Greedy guy. You already have Nanami and the others. Why can't I do the same?"

Ah. I see. So that's what she's thinking, she wanted us both to herself. However, that won't work for me.

"Like you said. I'm greedy, I don't want to share you with him."

If Ogawa actually started liking her after we revealed Nami's relationship with me to him and Mori chose him between the two of us, I'll just steal her from him. That simple.

Mori was about to reply from what I said when a familiar voice called out to me coming from the direction of the entrance to the School Building.

"Oi. Onoda-kun, so here you are. Huh? Why is Hina with you?"

I turned my head to look at that direction and saw Izumi-senpai, still looking like a delinquent. Her eyebrows were lifted,  clearly interested why I'm with Mori.

But why is she looking for me? Could it be? Is she my mentor?