All Beautiful Girls Want to Stick with Me

Looking out the car window at Ayani Kika standing not far away, Kotomi Izumi opened her mouth as if to say something.

But in the next second, the jeep suddenly roared forward with a burst of acceleration. By the time the vehicle settled into a steady pace, the street across from the hotel was already out of sight.

”Whoa... this jeep really packs a punch. That acceleration’s way stronger than my little sedan. Ugh, if I didn’t still have a loan on that car, I’d seriously consider saving up for a jeep. Gotta do my part for Kyoto’s auto economy. Huh? Kotomi, what’s with that expression?”

Eiren Kanagawa was still marveling at the jeep’s horsepower, but as she got used to the handling and smoothly cruised down the road toward the station, she glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Kotomi sitting in the backseat looking glum.

Did I do something wrong? Eiren wondered.

Kotomi, clutching a bottle of mineral water, drank as if it were a bitter brew, pain flickering across her face. She muttered in a resentful whisper:

”With that one stomp on the gas, you sent my love away. Not peacefully, either.”

Eiren stared, dumbfounded. She didn’t get it!

Ding-ling—

A text notification chimed.

Kotomi looked at her phone and saw a message from Ayani Kika. They hadn’t contacted each other since exchanging numbers.

The message was brief:

[Safe travels.]

Just one simple sentence.

[Thank you.]

Kotomi replied with a similarly short message. She didn’t ask why Ayani had been standing across the street watching her just now.

She had only told Ayani that she would be leaving Kyoto today, but never mentioned the specific time.

Ayani’s perfectly timed appearance, standing across from the hotel, made it feel like she had known the exact moment Kotomi would leave.

Kotomi was curious—but she wouldn’t ask.

Unless Ayani said so herself.

[I came early today, no special reason—just wanted to see you off. But I didn’t know when you’d leave, so I came to the café across the street at 5 a.m. and sat by the window where I could see the hotel entrance. Kinda weird, huh? I forgot to tell you: that café, Bright Moon, it’s open 24 hours. I really like that about it.]

After reading the message, Kotomi looked at the time on her phone—10:00 a.m. sharp. She was speechless. She didn’t even know how to reply—maybe she couldn’t.

They had only met a few times. And yet Ayani Kika had waited nearly five hours, just to watch her from afar.

Kotomi had once taken a five-hour bus ride, phone out of battery the whole time. It was absolute torture.

Thinking about it from that perspective, Kotomi scratched her head, overwhelmed. Waited five hours—just to catch a glimpse of her?

Right now, Kotomi really wanted to run back, grab Ayani by the shoulders, and demand to know what she truly felt in her heart.

Ayani Kika was like a drifting feather that had floated into Kotomi’s world without warning. When Kotomi tried to reach out and catch it, it slipped through her fingers. The feather’s soft bristles tickled her skin—then kept circling, hovering nearby, waiting for her to try again.

Next time, would the feather slip away once more, or would she finally hold it in her hand?

Kotomi’s feelings toward Ayani were unclear, muddled.

After a moment of silence, as the car approached the final intersection before the station, Kotomi took a deep breath and quickly typed a message:

[Next time I come to Kyoto, will you spend the whole day with me? When that time comes, I’ll ask you properly—what it is you really feel when you look at me.]

[I hope you won’t say no.]

After sending the two texts, Kotomi looked out the window and let out a long, silent sigh.

To be honest, she felt an inexplicable impatience toward Ayani Kika. She was desperate to understand—what did Ayani really mean by all of this?

Kotomi even had the impulse to kidnap Ayani and drag her somewhere deserted just to force the answers out of her.

She quickly snapped out of it and shook that thought from her mind.

Another malicious thought again...

After the string of serial murders ended, she thought everything had settled. But ever since she nearly beat Shika to death, Kotomi had fully experienced what it felt like to crush a person to the brink of death with her own hands. It was like some twisted switch had been flipped.

The malice that had always slumbered deep inside her had started to stir.