June Story - Dagashi Kashi: Sugar-Free Love (Chapter 2) (Patreon)

After Hotaru Shidare fell into his office, she rambled on about proper customer service and how Kokonotsu should always allow at least one late customer into the store. None of what she said stuck to his head, because he remained on the floor dumbfounded by her sudden appearance as she stood up.

Like Kokonotsu, she had matured. She was barely taller than him this time. She still had the same fashion sense with her skirt and black stockings, which made Kokonotsu blush the more he kept glancing at them. She smelled of sweet honey, having put on an intoxicating perfume. Her hair was maybe a little longer. Her breasts were…well, larger, as were her thighs and butt. And her enthusiasm and energy were still the same. She had not really changed much in the past five years.

“Well?” Hotaru then pressed. “Aren’t you going to show me what you did to the store?”

“H-Hotaru…” was all Kokonotsu could say. “I—uh—you—we—everyone—”

“Huh?”

“I haven’t seen you in forever! Where have you been?!” Kokonotsu practically shrieked.

“The city. Obviously!”

“You never said goodbye. You just got up and left.”

Hotaru avoided eye contact and mumbled a bit. She scratched the back of her head nervously. “Well. I’m not really one for goodbyes. You know how I am.”

“What have you been doing with your life?”

Kokonotsu finally stood up. Hotaru paced the room dramatizing her life story in her usual melodramatic way. Even thought it had been a while, Kokonotsu knew by now what was exaggeration and what wasn’t.

Hotaru had graduated college and successfully took over her father’s business as CEO of Shidare Enterprises – one of the biggest creators of candy in all of Japan. She did it all in one fell swoop, rising to the top in the blink of an eye. She did it only because she dared to cut off her entire social life – her friendships with Saya, Tō, and Kokonotsu. She apologized for how cold it might have come off, but Kokonotsu frankly admired her. He never imagined getting up and leaving everyone behind to pursue his dreams of being a manga artist. He couldn’t bear to see Pops so disheartened about his only-son.

“But you’ve done good with this place!” she said, clasping her hands. “I can tell! I remember this office being a dump. It doesn’t smell like mothballs anymore! Come, show me!”

“Uh, yeah. Okay.”

Kokonotsu showed her the shop. In the past five years, Kokonotsu had given it an entire facelift. The floors were clean with an attractive colorful geometric pattern, the shelves were no longer musty old shelves, toy planes dangled from the ceiling, a toy train circled the entire ceiling, mascots from various candy companies stood at the windowsill, and every candy was neatly organized in their place.

Kokonotsu became nervous at Hotaru’s silence.

“Uhhhh. Is…is something wrong?”

Hotaru quivered. When she turned around to face him, she had tears in her eyes. Kokonotsu braced himself for her melodramatic outburst. She gripped him by the shoulders and screamed with joy.

“IT’S BEAUTIFUL! I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT! OH, KOKONOTSU IT’S JUST SO WONDERFUL. IT’S SIMPLE YET SO PROFOUND! IT HEARKENS BACK TO THE OLD MOM AND POP CANDY STORES! THIS IS A MICROCOSM OF A BYGONE ERA! I SHOULDN’T EVEN SOIL THIS PLACE WITH MY PRIVELIGED UPBRINGING! THIS IS TRULY A SACRED PLACE FOR THE EVERYDAY CONSUMER!”

Years ago, Kokonotsu would have freaked out at her outbursts. Today, he just stood still smiling at her. When she calmed down, he said, “Hotaru…I missed you.”

He realized how that sounded, and immediately flushed. “I mean. I missed hanging out with you. You know? Heh.”

Hotaru was completely on another level. She ignored his comment and browsed the aisles talking about rocky cady, Pocky, and why some brands of gum lose flavor quickly while others don’t—

Kokonotsu began feeling disheartened. On one hand, he was so attracted to her, and bustled with excitement whenever she was around. But on the other, she was so difficult to reach. She could be right there and yet so far away at the same time. The idea of being intimate with her was a laugh. Could Hotaru even be intimate with anybody? Her entire life was focused on candy and the production of it. Being with someone may only hinder her life’s passion.

“WAIT!” Hotaru yelled, making Kokonotsu jump. She swerved to face him, raising a finger and standing very still, as if waiting for something or listening for something.

“W-what? What is it?”

“Sssh! Sssh!”

Kokonotsu darted his attention to every corner of the room. Was it the air conditioning? He just had that fixed the other day for the second time this summer.

Hotaru whipped out her phone and started texting something. She murmured aloud to herself. “Grumblings started at 18:05. Inaudible to someone standing over six feet away. Pain is gradually worsening.”

“Pain? What are you talking about? Are you okay?”

Hotaru shushed him again. Whatever she was talking about, she was taking it very seriously, like a scientist taking notes on a sudden occurrence.

“I ate one bag which is precisely 300mg of sorbitol.”

“Hotaru. What on Earth are you talking about?”

Suddenly, Kokonotsu heard a very loud growl that turned into a gurgle. Hotaru stood straight as an arrow. When he realized that sound came from her stomach, he blushed and avoided eye contact. He said, “A-are you hungry?”

“No. The opposite! I am bloated!”

Kokonotsu blushed even harder. “W-what? Why?”

Hotaru continued taking notes. “Exactly one minute and fifty-three seconds from the start of the sensation.”

“Hotaru, what--”

He didn’t finish his sentence, because a massive fart tore through the air and interrupted him.

PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!

Kokonotsu was beside himself. He couldn’t believe what he had heard and seen. This couldn’t be happening. Maybe he had fallen asleep at his office daydreaming about his manga. Any moment he would wake up. No, wait, he didn’t want to wake up! Hotaru Shidare just ripped ass in front of him!

Not only that, but she had ripped the loudest, longest, and most obscene trumpet blast of a fart that he had ever heard. It was something he had expected to hear from his dad, not a girl like her. Nobody would believe Kokonotsu if he recorded it and said that was Hotaru farting. To surely wouldn’t. That loud, wet, slapping fart that sounded like it came out of a 60-year-old, beer-bellied man?

But that’s exactly what he saw and heard.

Hotaru sighed at the end, a sweet little ecstatic sigh that was the cherry on top for Kokonotsu.

“Whewww,” Hotaru said. She then looked at her phone. “That fart lasted fifteen seconds. Hmmmm. Six seconds less than the longest one yesterday.”

“W-WHAT?” Kokonotsu screamed. Did he hear her correctly? She ripped a 21-second-long fart yesterday?

“No gas sensation right now. Probably will occur later tonight.”

Hotaru finally looked up and then said, “Oh! That’s right. I’m testing my company’s newest candy.” She whipped out a bag of gummy bears from her pocket and struck a pose. “SHIDARE SUGAR-FREE SWEETS! Do you like the alliteration? I came up with it myself.”

Kokonotsu was still in shock. Hotaru of course continued talking.

“With a growing world of food allergies, I figured that my first task as CEO of Shidare Enterprises was to accommodate for the entire market of people with food allergies. Gluten sensitivity, sugar sensitivity, everything! Did you know that there are already sugar-free candies out there? They replace the sugar with a compound called sorbitol. Here’s the catch though – sorbitol doesn’t digest easily in your stomach. It produces a lot of gas, and creates what companies call a ‘laxative effect’. Companies have to put warning labels on the back about that. But imagine a sugar-free candy that doesn’t give you ANY gas. None whatsoever. People would pay for that! Obviously, someone has to test the effectiveness of the compound. My scientists have been hard at work trying to formulate a gas-free substitute for sugar. I’ve agreed to test it myself, FOR THE COMPANY! I have been farting non-stop as they test compound after compound, each giving me a very EXPLOSIVE result. They’ve gotten slightly better, but it’s still very difficult to figure out. I have to keep track of how many times I fart each day, and how many gummies I eat and how long it was and the time it took to get me to fart. Science is ALL ABOUT recording EVERYTHING.”

Kokonotsu shivered and placed his hands over his crotch. He was sweating and freaking the hell out.

Hotaru just farted. Hotaru just farted. Hotaru just farted.

It was the only thing going through his head.

Hotaru gave him a sideways look. “Something wrong?”

“Mmmmm.”

She gasped, putting her hands on her mouth. “Oh! Are you grossed out by farts? I’m so sorry! Gosh. Where are my manners? Hahaha. Ever since I started testing these compounds, I’ve completely forgotten that it’s socially unacceptable to just fart out loud in front of people. Is your bathroom still in the same spot?”

“N-no!”

“Hm?”

“No. I mean. Not no about the bathroom. It’s still there. But no meaning – I…I don’t mind your farts.” Kokonotsu’s voice cracked. He cursed himself for saying that.

You idiot. That sounded so weird! She’s going to think you’re weird!

“Oh. Really? Are you suuuureeee?”

“We’re friends,” he said. He shrugged innocently. “You don’t have to hide it in the bathroom.”

“Wellll. As long as you’re okay with it. I’m just warning you! I have really grossed people out in public with my sorbitol farts.”

Kokonotsu only laughed nervously.

Hotaru then stared right into Kokonotsu’s eyes. He kept darting his eyes away to break eye contact, but found her still staring.

“I’ve missed you too, by the way,” she said. “I’d be happy to catch up with you, but I shouldn’t take up more of your time. You meant to close up shop almost thirty minutes ago.”

“Heh. Er, yeah. I would love to catch up with you too. How long are you staying here?”

Hotaru shrugged. “However long I feel like it. I still have to see Saya and the others. Is she still at her cafe?”

Kokonotsu was touched. That implied that he was the first person she went to visit upon arriving in town. He then frowned. He started to feel that emptiness in the pit of his stomach. He looked down. “Ah. Yeah. Saya. About her…”

Hotaru immediately picked up on his grave tone. She let out a little gasp and said, “Oh no. Wait. Did something happen? Is the cafe not there anymore?”

“Well…she moved it to the city.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. She runs her own cafe now in the city.”

“Ohhhh. So Master Saya has really become the master now. How wonderful!” Hotaru then shook her head. “Wait a minute. If she’s in the city how come she didn’t visit me?”

Kokonotsu mumbled something incoherently. The pressure to say something gripped him. There was so much that Hotaru missed out on. He really didn’t feel like revisiting all that drama again. “Ah. I dunno. That’s a good question.”

“I’ll go see Tō then. He’s still here, right? Maybe he can fill me in on everything that I missed!”

“Y-yeah.”

“You wanna come? It’ll be like old times.”

“Nah, I’m good. I’m really tired. Valentine’s Day had a lot of customers.”

“Are you suuuure?”

Kokonotsu grew worried. Hotaru and Saya were friends. If she found out that Kokonotsu broke Saya’s heart, Hotaru would probably hate him forever. She always treated Saya with respect, and anyone who would disrespect Master Saya would be treated poorly.

“Oh, alright,” Hotaru said, taking Kokonotsu’s hesitance as an answer. “Tomorrow though! Definitely! It’s a Saturday anyway, so we should all do something!

Kokonotsu chuckled nervously. “Heh. Eh. Yeah.”

“I’ll see you when I see you!”

“B-bye.”

Kokonotsu waved weakly. After she bolted off, he poked his head outside to watch her leave. She was still the same willful girl from years ago, running off like she hadn’t a care in the world. The sunset was approaching, and Kokonotsu stood there taking it in, watching it until it disappeared.

He sighed heavily before going back inside.