Sex is the Best Way to Learn About Other Cultures. - Chapter 1

In a word, she was a cool and stylish woman.

Taller than most girls her age, with an excellent figure.

Her short, silky hair was a lustrous dark blue, and her dignified presence reminded me of a silver screen star.

She had fair skin and a slightly melancholic appearance. She was a beautiful and stylish woman to men, but I’m sure that even girls would look up to her.

Nishizono Kaede, a third-year student in the Literature Department.

She was the winner of last year’s beauty pageant and is one of the most beautiful women in the school.

Also known as the Literature Department’s Madonna. The university’s epitome of cool beauty, she looked genuinely surprised to see me suddenly appear before her.

She widened her eyes a little, which I thought was unexpected and cute. She had a faint, pleasant scent of perfume. Her beautiful features were emphasized even more when I saw her up close. Her br3asts were surprisingly voluminous.

She was truly a flower beyond my reach.

Someone like me could never hope to speak to her.

My heart raced wildly.

My mouth was dry even though I had just drunk water.

But I’d made up my mind. Today, I would confess to her.

“Nishizono Kaede!!”

“Huh?”

My sudden outburst left her visibly flustered. Most girls might fear being blocked by a Bigfoot-like figure (or at least someone resembling one).

But I believed Nishizono possessed the composure to handle even this.

“Please! Will you be my girlfriend?!”

I bowed deeply, pouring every ounce of sincerity into the gesture.

This public confession might make me seem crazy, but with no chance of ever being alone with her otherwise, I had to force the issue somehow.

A long silence flowed between us.

What must she be thinking, being suddenly confessed to by a guy like me?

Does it feel disgusting?

Is she thinking, “Spare me”?

But this woman was surely a generous woman.

Even if she doesn’t harbor good feelings toward me, she would never voice that sentiment.

Clutching at that belief, I slowly raise my head.

Before me lies her smile.

A beautiful smile that was unique to her, and never wavered too much.

If I must compare it to something, not the sun, but the moon shining in the night sky.

The words that such a goddess uttered with her shapely lips were,

“Are you saying that while looking in the mirror?”

The cruel and merciless harshness of reality.

◆　◇　◆

Half a year has passed since then.

After returning from my overseas travels and settling the disputes with Katherine and the others, I’ve resumed my university studies.

Until then, Takuma had been covering for me, but catching up on my studies now was proving to be an arduous task. There were many days when I had to stay overnight in the lab just to finish the accumulated reports and assignments.

That particular day, I was returning to the sixth floor where the lab was located after buying some late-night snacks from a convenience store.

To get to the sixth floor, I naturally took the elevator. It was already past ten o’clock at night. Normally, I wouldn’t share the elevator with anyone, but that day, just as the doors were about to close, a girl managed to squeeze in.

The scent of perfume I remembered touched my nostrils.

When I saw the owner of that fragrance, my heart skipped a beat.

It was the Literature Department’s Madonna, Nishizono Kaede

Half a year ago, I’d been cruelly rejected by this very person, and now here we were alone in an elevator together.

This was beyond awkward. To make matters worse, she seemed to have noticed me too, wearing an unmistakable “Oh no!” expression.

Perhaps she hadn’t expected there to be anyone in the elevator when she ran into it in the first place.

She was shocked to see someone other than herself in the elevator, and even more so when she realized it was Bigfoot, who she’d confessed to six months ago.

Her art studies lab was also on the sixth floor. Normally, we’d have the same destination, but she casually pressed the button for the second floor.

She wanted to get out of this confined space as soon as possible.

Naturally, I was shocked by those actions that conveyed that, but then something happened that made that shock feel trivial.

“Huh?”

Suddenly, the entire elevator shook violently, and the lights switched to a dim, eerie glow.

The faint hum of the elevator’s motor had disappeared. Even the button lights were extinguished.

Emergency stop.

A breakdown.

We were trapped inside a broken elevator.

(What should I do…?)

This was an unexpected situation.

Alone with Nishizono Kaede in a malfunctioning elevator.

Of course, I never for a moment thought anything convenient would happen.

I was being watched like a hawk, and anyway, I’m fatally unattractive to Japanese girls.

There was no doubt that she disliked me, too.

That much was clear from the incident with the second-floor button earlier.

But at the time, I never imagined for a second that it would turn out like that.