My Japanese Childhood Friend Is Too Flirty

64. s*xy Maid Aki (1)

After school.

I was going to head straight home after dismissal to wait for Aki, but right before boarding the bus, I turned around and came back to school.

It wasn’t because I’d left something behind, or forgotten anything.

I just wanted to see Aki even a little sooner.

She said she’d prepare things and come to my house at 7 PM, but I couldn’t patiently wait that long.

The thing is, my childhood friend Aki said she’d wear a maid outfit for me, you know?

If I take her away right now and get her ready, I can see her even a little sooner. How could I just wait around doing nothing?

I practically ran back to classroom 1. I was worried she might have gone home before me, but thankfully I could see Aki still inside through the window. There were also a few girl classmates, who appeared to be her friends, around her.

“……?”

But what are they all gathered around doing?

They’d pushed all the desks to the back, so I thought they were cleaning or something, but that wasn’t it. Aki and her friends were huddled together, looking at something on a phone, then suddenly playing rock-paper-scissors and giggling amongst themselves.

“Okay, Aki’s the winner!”

“Ah, why me…?!”

“Why, you ask? Because you lost at rock-paper-scissors. Now, get up, get up!”

“Ugh, I don’t want to….”

“Does the loser dare talk back? Get up, or you won’t…?!”

I couldn’t quite grasp what was happening, but the situation was unfolding rather…intriguingly.

I, who had intended to open the door and retrieve Aki, halted, instead crouching down, doing my utmost to remain unseen. I peered through the window into the heart of classroom 1.

“Ah, heehee! Okay, okay! I’ll get up, I’ll get up, alright…!”

“Heh, should’ve done that from the start…. Alright, Aki, keep your eye on the camera! Pretend your boyfriend is watching from the sidelines as you dance!”

“After I dance, you’re all doing it too, one by one…!”

“Yeah, say that after you win rock-paper-scissors~”

“Okay, filming~?”

“Ugh….”

Muttering, Aki shuffled to the center of the classroom and stood there, bashful.

She seemed a little embarrassed, but her gaze towards her friends held a hint of enjoyment, a subtle cuteness radiating from her.

“Begin.”

“Where did that grim voice come from, are you going to war somewhere?”

“Just, start…!”

Aki, with a resolute face, closed her eyes, then opened them.

At that moment, a foreign pop song began to play from somewhere.

For some reason, it was a song that felt familiar. Where had I heard it before…? But then, Aki started to move, to dance.

“……Pfft!”

“Pff, heh heh…. Heh, cough….!”

The girls burst out laughing.

“Ah, I think I’m gonna die…….”

“Pff, sniff…. Hic, heh, cough…. Sniff, sniff….”

“……Don’t laugh!”

Aki, dancing before everyone, glared at one of the girls who was laughing so hard she sounded like she was crying, covering her mouth while making strange noises.

Aki’s eyes widened at her friend.

“…….”

I, observing all of this from afar, parted my lips slightly.

Our Aki.

So this is how she plays with her friends when I’m not around.

I’m not quite sure what they’re doing, but watching her dance is kind of cute…….

“Aki dancing is definitely going on Reels. Minimum one hundred thousand, no, one million views for this…!”

“Ah, my stomach hurts… I laughed so hard, I think it’s going to split. Ah…. *Sniffle, sniffle*….”

“Sheesh, I told you not to laugh…!”

“……*Pfft*.”

It was cute, the way she got all worked up over the teasing, and before I knew it, I was laughing too.

But, it seems my laugh was a bit too loud.

One of the friends, the one filming Aki with her phone, must have noticed me, because she turned around sharply, and our eyes met in mid-air.

“Huh?”

“Uh…”

“──It’s Aki’s boyfriend!”

“……?!”

Seriously, why announce it so loudly?

Caught off guard for a moment, I scrambled to hide. But I’m not exactly petite; at over 180 centimeters, it’s not like I could actually disappear.

I froze, stuck in that awkward, half-crouched position, and Aki, along with the rest of the Class 1 girls, spotted me.

“Oh, what? It’s real?”

“Did you come to pick up Aki?”

“Ah, well….”

I hadn’t imagined this scenario, so my answer was delayed.

I trailed off, hesitating, and in the meantime, my gaze locked with someone’s.

“…….”

“…….”

It was Aki I was looking at.

“…….”

“…….”

Aki asked me with just her eyes.

‘You saw…?’

‘……Yeah.’

“…….”

“…….”

A moment of silence.

……And then, finally.

“…Agh, agh! Ahhh… Ahhh!”

Aki dissolved into screams, a terrible keening sound.

* * *

“Idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot…”

“…”

“I told you to go home and wait, that would have been fine. You just had to come, you just had to come here…”

“…”

*From the start, you didn’t see everything, so calm down…* No point in saying that now.

The walk home from school. I listened silently, enduring the torrent of vitriol spilling from Aki, a torrent born of unbearable mortification.

Well, it wasn’t intentional, but it was true I’d stumbled upon her and her friends letting loose.

Of course, if we were assigning blame, Aki’s mistake was dancing in such a public place. But pointing that out right now would only backfire.

“Uju-chan, you big idiot, sea cucumber, anemone, sea squirt, pervert, voyeur…!”

“…”

*That last one’s a bit much, isn’t it?*

Why am I the voyeur here?

Truthfully, if you thought about it, Aki was the one at fault for cavorting like that where anyone could see.

It was fun seeing that side of cute Aki, but that’s that, and this is this. Listening quietly up till then, I glanced at Aki and said one word.

“Aki, your dancing’s gotten good, hasn’t it?”

“…Agh, don’t mention it!”

“Wow, I was admiring you from afar. Aki’s dance moves have been something else since kindergarten talent shows, and now she can do that ultra-difficult cocaine dance so easy…”

“Yaa, you big dummy!”

Aki’s face flushed crimson, and she latched onto me.

It wasn’t the usual sweet, cozy embrace, but a grapple – a tackle with intent – Aki’s will to slam me into the ground right then and there was almost palpable, like a football player.

“Don’t say it, I said don’t say it…”

However, this tackle was unlikely to be effective – Aki was just too light.

Clinging to me, weighing perhaps half what I do, she meant nothing.

*I’ve been on the receiving end lately… perfect.*

Now that I had ammunition, I’d wring it dry and tease her endlessly.

Having decided that, I patted Aki’s back and waist as if she was cute, simultaneously snickering under my breath.

“Our Aki, where’d you learn to dance like that? Don’t tell me you’re self-taught? Wow, if that’s the case, Aki’s got real dancing talent…”

“Ugh, agh! aaagh, aaagh!”

“It’s something special. Say, could you maybe teach me sometime? They’re saying we might dance at next year’s festival…”

“…Hey, Ju-Uju! I said stop itttttt!”

“Ah, how about you just show me again later? It’d look so good if you danced in the maid outfit, since you said you’d seduce me, if you danced in that, I’d be even more aggressive…”

“Stopppp it, I said tooo…!”

“Ah, ah! Okay, okay! Sorry, sorry, my bad, ah, ack…!”

“…Eek, eek! Eeeek!”

* * *

“……Hmph.”

Maybe I teased her a bit too much, because Aki’s glancing at me and cutely snorting, ‘hmph hmph’.

A little while ago, she was saying she’d forget the whole maid thing and just go home, but after I begged for thirty minutes (I’m sorry, I messed up. Just forgive me, huh? I won’t tease you again, I absolutely won’t, so just forgive me this once, okay?) she decided not to leave, and is now broadcasting ‘I’m sulking~’ with her whole body.

So basically, she’s saying with her body and expression that if I don’t diligently appease her even more, she’s going to sulk something fierce, see?

Anyway, if I leave it like this, I might never get to see Aki in the maid outfit she bothered to bring from home. I edged closer to Aki.

“Hey, Aki?”

“……What.”

“Is there anything you want to eat? Like tanghulu, or something sweet?”

“…….”

Twitch.

Aki’s ear twitched.

Being the kind of girl who can’t resist sweet snacks, it seemed she reacted without even realizing it when I mentioned sugary treats.

Seeing my chance, I gently took Aki’s hand and continued.

“Later’s fine, tomorrow’s fine too. Or we could go whenever Aki wants to… Want to go get something delicious together?”

“……Hmph.”

Oh, is it not working?

I didn’t expect her to ‘hmph’ even at that…

I was a little taken aback by the slightly different-than-expected reaction, when Aki slapped the back of my hand that was holding hers.

“I’m not a kid, you think saying we’ll go get something delicious will make me forgive you?”

“Ah, sorry. I just….”

“……Tteokbokki and sundae.”

“Huh?”

“If you buy me tteokbokki and sundae… I might forgive you.”

“……”

I stared at Aki quietly.

Aki fidgeted with our clasped hands, then subtly avoided my gaze, feigning interest in something else.

“…Are you gonna buy them, or not?”

Ah.

She’s so damn cute I could die…

My heart fluttered a little, so I calmed it down slightly, chuckled softly, and nodded.

“I’ll buy them. When should I buy them for you?”

“Not right now, a little later. Buy them tomorrow or the day after. I have things to do today….”

“Okay, I’ll clear my schedule, so tell me when you want to go. I’ll be waiting.”

“……Ahem.”

Her anger seemed to be subsiding, as Aki cleared her throat and let go of my hand.

“Then…. wait here for a bit. …I’ll go change.”

“Ah, yeah. Got it.”

There was no need to ask what she was going to change into.

I already knew.

Aki, who had been rummaging through her closet for the maid outfit even while she was mad, would of course come out wearing it.

And her purpose, well, it was obviously to seduce me…

“……”

Just a moment ago, my heart was pounding because Aki was cute, but this time, my heart began to race for a different reason.

The maid outfit.

Not just any maid outfit, but Aki’s maid outfit…!

The thought that I would be able to see it with my own two eyes in just a little while made it impossible to keep my hands and feet still. But if I acted too fl*stered, Aki inside the room would notice, and she would surely come out later and say something like, ‘You like the maid outfit *that* much…?’ while mildly scolding me.

Such a thing could not happen, so I calmly sat down on the living room sofa.

And while desperately calming my racing heart, I waited impatiently for Aki to come out.

…And then.

*Kkiiiek-*

After about fifteen minutes, the door to the master bedroom, into which Aki had disappeared, slowly opened.

Her attire, of course, was the cat-eared maid outfit we’d previously searched for together online.

No, it was hardly worthy to be called a maid outfit, the getup was so incredibly thin.

Though delicate frills veiled her skin, the length of the garment itself was so short that it barely covered what needed to be covered, leaving the rest bare and exposed.

Collarbone leading to shoulder, armpits, navel, thighs, calves, ankles.

Her fair skin, just, so plainly…

“…How is it?”

“…Huh?”

“How does it look, this… thing?”

As if ashamed of the short skirt, Aki tugged lightly downwards at the hem, asking me.

It was then that I finally snapped back to reality, scratching my cheek as I spoke.

“Uh, you look cute…?”

“The outfit, or me?”

“Both, I guess… But Aki looks a bit cuter.”

“…Heh.”

As if satisfied with my answer, Aki chuckled softly.

She hadn’t said anything of substance, only laughed, and yet I couldn’t understand why she looked so adorable.

It was probably because of the precarious outfit, exposing eighty percent of her skin.

“Well then, Master…?”

“…Master?”

“Yes, because I’m a maid now…”

A faint trace of makeup on her face.

It had taken her longer than one might expect to simply change clothes, and I supposed it was because she’d taken the time to apply makeup as well.

“From now on, the maid will be at your service…”

Perhaps due to the light makeup, her impression was also slightly different than usual.

If Aki before donning the maid outfit had the feeling of a fresh-faced teenage girl, now she could be described as a beautiful woman in her early twenties with an air of purity…?

“How, where should I begin…?”

“Uh, what do you mean by that…?”

“What does it mean? Just what I said…”

Aki, speaking shyly, gathered her hands over her navel and took a few steps closer, looking up at me.

“Just name it.”

“……Anything?”

“Yes, anything at all.”

“…….”

Anything, she says.

Could it really be… anything?

I slowly parted my lips.

“……Then.”