[Book of Eros] Chapter 25: Reiko wants to set things straight. (Patreon)

“I’m tired of eating alone while everyone stares at me,” Angela told them as they went up the stairs to the rooftop. “Today is especially bad.”

“How so?” Leo asked.

“I don’t know! I don’t understand what everyone’s saying!” Angela told him.

They crossed the door to the rooftop and went to the side of the fence overlooking the school gates when Leo noticed another group of students looking at them. Did they seem… afraid? They were looking at Angela as they whispered something to each other. They then grabbed their stuff and hastily left the rooftop.

“Ah,” Leo and Reiko exclaimed at the same time. He gestured for her to explain.

“I think people know that you beat up some of the school bullies already,” Reiko told her as they sat down.

“Oooh,” she nodded in understanding. “Yeah, that’d do it.”

“Did people fear you in your old school?” Leo asked.

“Yeah,” Angela shrugged. “Which was good, honestly. It was a shitty public school where a lot of the student’s parents had some kind of criminal background. This one is a palace by comparison.” She grinned. “The only thing they could do was write ‘mean’ stuff about me on the school walls since even ten of them together couldn’t take me on.”

“And it didn’t bother you?” Reiko asked her, worried.

“Nope,” Angela grinned. “To this day there’s nothing that has made me laugh harder than seeing ‘ANGELA IS A SLUT’ in all capitals painted on the front walls of the school.”

Leo couldn’t help the snicker.

“Leonardo-san! That’s rude!” Reiko chided him.

“It’s not,” Angela assured her easily. “We can’t feel shit, remember? Even if I wanted to be the biggest slut in the world, I wouldn’t be able to.”

“O-Oh. T-That’s right.” Reiko’s face suddenly turned very red and she went quiet. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. It’s relieving that you know because we might as well laugh about it together,” Angela told her.

“B-But…”

“We can talk about it some other time,” Leo intervened. “Don’t worry about it too much.”

“I can’t NOT worry about it…” Reiko insisted. “It must feel terrible.”

“It’s just extremely irritating,” Angela sighed. “Mrs. Wisler put it well. It’s like trying to scratch a phantom limb. You know you SHOULD feel something, but you don’t. And it never stops itching.”

“Hitting puberty was the worst,” Leo added with a nod. “But after that, you kind of get used to it.”

“B-But… you have a chance to recover, right?” Reiko asked. She tried to meet their eyes, but turned them away every so often out of shyness.

“It’s all in this guy’s hands,” Angela gestured to Leo with her head, leaning back against the fence. “If the occult really does turn out to be real, that is.”

“We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Leo told Reiko.

“But we need to, don’t we?” Reiko asked, not denying the topic made her uncomfortable. “I’m not blind, okay? I know there’s some… tension between you two.” Both Leo and Angela winced. “It’s why I was so pushy yesterday. I…” she swallowed. “I really like Leonardo-san,” she said as she looked at Angela. “But I don’t feel right stealing your chance to feel something, either.”

Angela bashfully rubbed the back of her head, as if to give herself something to do. “I want to say I don’t care,” she said. “But I’d be lying. I like him too, alright? There, I said it.”

“T-T-Then…” with a flushed face, Reiko pushed forward. “L-Let’s j-just s-s-share?” she half-said, half-asked.

Leo felt like his chest was too small for his heart. Reiko had said last night that she understood what she was getting into, but this was how she decided to go about it?  Angela chortled incredulously. “Are you sure of what you’re saying, girl?” she asked her carefully. “You only just started dating Leo and you’re offering something like this?”

“I don’t understand it well myself,” Reiko pursed her lips and put a hand on her chest, grabbing her shirt tightly, indicating it hurt her inside. “I could barely sleep last night. Everything Wisler-san told me, everything Leonardo-san told me… I just thought of what you must be going through, and I couldn’t bring myself to selfishly demand you two stay away from each other. I told Leonardo-san that I’d accept whatever came from this r-r-relationship,” she said, swallowing nervously, “and I’m going to make good on my word.”

“…” Angela scratched her head, trying to look exasperated but still obviously looking embarrassed by Reiko’s earnestness. “Tell you what,” she said. “Come back after you’ve done it a few times, then tell me if you feel the same way.”

“W-W-When I’ve done… it?” Reiko asked, face flushed and lips quivering.

“Sex,” Angela clarified, getting some amusement out of the innocent girl’s flustered reactions.

“T-That’s right…” Reiko swallowed. “We need to…”

“I’m not going to push you,” Leo said after keeping quiet during most of the conversation. “We can try when you’re ready.”

“I AM ready though…” she said in a quiet, barely audible voice.

“Leo,” Angela said, “You’re underestimating how horny girls get. Men aren’t the only ones.”

“Ah? Then…” he swallowed as he turned to Reiko. “Y-You want to…?”

Slowly, with her neck stiff from the nerves, Reiko nodded wordlessly.

“I guess I’m going out for a walk today after school…” Angela sighed and gave the couple a teasing grin. “Still,” her smile turned sincere as she looked at Reiko. “Thanks for worrying about us, but worry about yourself, too, okay?”

Leonardo blinked. Angela was surprisingly empathetic. He knew she wanted to be with him just as much as he wanted her. They’d been clear about it several times. But even so, she’d put Reiko over herself? A girl she only just met? He guessed the same could be said for Reiko, worrying so much about their situation. It made him feel inadequate. Like he wasn’t doing enough for either of them. But what could he do? What could even compare to the level of self-sacrifice these two were showing? He didn’t know, but he’d have to come up with something.

“And with that in mind,” Angela said, setting her bento box down after having finished her food without Leo even noticing. “I’ll leave you two alone for now. You need to talk things out.”

“E-Eh!?” Reiko blinked, her head following Angela as she walked away from them, waving.

“I thought I was starting to understand her a little better, but it seems I have a long way to go,” Leonardo laughed softly before turning to Reiko with a calm expression. “But she’s right. Reiko-san, I really don’t want you to push yourself into anything just because you think I’m in a hurry.”

Reiko pursed her lips, took several deep breaths before reaching for her school bag and taking a folder from it. She held it to her chest before looking at Leo with some apprehension. “I’m going to show you something,” she said. “I’m only going to do it because I had a feeling you were going to say that, and I want you to understand me a little better. Just like you didn’t hide things from me, I won’t hide things from you.”

“I doubt anything you tell me will be worse than what I said, but okay,” he nodded.

With another deep breath, Reiko handed the folder to Leonardo with shaking hands. He took it and opened it, and the first thing he saw made his heart violently skip a beat.

“W-What is this…?”

There was a sheet of white paper. A page with a drawing. A page with the drawing of a naked man and a naked woman holding each other as they looked at the viewer. It was in black and white and drawn in ink. Leonardo wasn’t an expert, but he could tell it was a good drawing, if mostly meant for female viewers due to the man being the focus of the picture. He started flipping through the other pages and realized that first picture was the cover of an… erotic comic depicting the two characters have very passionate, very explicit sex.

“Did you… draw this?” he asked.

“Y-Yes,” she nodded. “To put it bluntly, I draw porn as a hobby.”

Leo swallowed. “Leaving content aside for a second, this is amazing,” he praised.

“No, I’m still not good enough,” she sighed. “Proportions and consistency are off, backgrounds are lacking and dialogue is stiff as a board.”

“Well… I wouldn’t know,” he admitted. “This is manga, right?”

“K-Kind of. Mine’s a parody of an existing series. I just… wanted to see those characters together.” Again, Reiko breathed in. Her face was red, but her eyes looked serious. Leonardo thought he should watch his words. This seemed important to her, regardless of it being about porn. “I’m a normal girl, okay? I… I have to behave all proper and keep people at a distance because of my family, but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in sex. No, in fact, I’m very, very interested!” she nodded fervently. “So much so that I learned to draw just so I could put my thoughts into picture! A-And I have lots of them!” Reiko started to sound more aggressive, as if trying to leave no room for Leo to argue or criticize. “I-I’ve been drawing for two years already. W-Women have a sex drive too, okay? And m-m-mine is especially strong! D-Do you think guys are the only ones who’ll jump at the chance of actually doing it? Well… y-you’re wrong!”

She was getting more and more flustered with very word, and Leo couldn’t help but find it extremely amusing and endearing. Besides, she had a point. He had friends back in high school who were more than eager to throw their chastity away at the drop of a hat, and there had to be a reason for so many teen pregnancies, regretful as they were. Why was he treating this as if he was forcing Reiko into it? Probably because they knew each other for barely over a week. But if he looked at it from her perspective, the one of a girl with a high sex drive and a general lack of deep social relationships due to family issues, it wasn’t surprising that she’d want sex as much as him, especially when she more than likely already knew what an orgasm felt like.

He chuckled. “Okay, okay. I get it,” he told her with a reassuring smile. He looked down at the comic in his hands again. “Thank you for showing me this. With how embarrassed you are, I’ll take it as a sign of you trusting me.”

Reiko started fidgeting in place and stroking with her ponytail. Her voice became quieter, too. “…I just wanted you to understand how serious I am. That’s all.”

“And now I do. I guess I’ve been too focused on my own issues. Sorry,” Leo said, rubbing the back of his head.

“No, I understand,” Reiko chuckled.

“However…” Leo started, once more looking down at Reiko’s comic. “You do realize you brought porn to school, right?” he asked with a teasing grin.

The poor girl looked so ashamed, she probably could’ve fainted right then and there.