Stealing Spree

1247 Former Coach

A kiss has the power to make someone stumped or speechless. I mean, it’s literally covering someone else’s lips with yours. If the one you kissed could still talk after that, he or she would have a great future as a ventriloquist.

Anyway, while it is that powerful, what happens next depends on who you kissed. Is it a loved one? A friend? Or a stranger? From those three, every outcome is possible.

Your loved one will definitely accept it unless you upset him or her prior to it. Or the kiss will write off whatever you did to make that loved one upset.

A friend will also accept it If he or she was hiding feelings for you. If there’s none, maybe you should prepare for a slap, breaking off your friendship or leveling up from that.

Uh… Actually, I’m not sure. I’m inexperienced in that regard.

As for a stranger, that’s fixed fifty-fifty. And it won’t be because a stranger will either accept it or not. It actually depends on your appearance.

If you’re not good-looking, prepare to be sued for sexual harassment. If you are, then congrats, the rate of being slapped, rejected, or sued is probably high enough that it can be categorized as low risk.

Well, enough going way too off the path.

With Ayu taking up my suggestion, the kiss we shared that started a little stiff gradually became more intimate to the point that I almost pulled her up to bring her onto my lap.

Right after that, everything returned to normal. The woman stopped apologizing and I relaxed my expression, giving her a gentle and genuine smile.

I’m already past the part of deliberating whether to take her in or not. It’s only a matter of whether Ayu will accept me and my complexities.

If someone’s going to be worried about this date, it should be me.

Anyway, because I told Yua that I would be at their doorstep at eight o’clock, we’re down to three hours or maybe less.

It’s more than fine. Even if we selected today for our date, the two of us didn’t extensively plan out every minute or hour.

Because it’s a getting-to-know-each-other date, Ayu and I decided to just go wherever her car would bring us or whatever came up in our minds while traveling like this.

With that, as soon as I noticed that she already calmed down, I helped Ayu fix herself out of her rather exhausted state like a doting and attentive boyfriend.

Perhaps, if I also knew how to drive, I would probably get the wheels from her to make her more relaxed.

A while later, the car started moving again. Ayu turned around and set the destination close to the boxing gym. If we’re not constrained by time, I would probably call her out to drive in another direction; somewhere we could be ourselves outside of the gym.

To make sure that we wouldn’t get bored inside the car, I brought up a topic for us to talk about.

And that topic was… that unreasonable former coach of hers.

With a wry smile on her lips, Ayu answered my questions truthfully. Furthermore, as the questioning progressed, Ayu simply turned it into a story centered around her and that coach.

If I recall correctly, Hisa-jii trained her since she was just a child, stepping into the world of boxing for the first time. But that other coach was the one who made the most impact on her abilities to rise to the Olympic-level.

Unfortunately, the accident happened and Ayu retired early on.

That coach, having lost the student who she poured all of her energy into shaping as a world-class athlete, returned to the professional scene and started raking up consecutive wins which propelled her to the international stage and eventually a World title.

With that, she fully switched from an Olympic Instructor to a world-class boxer.

“I see. You also feel bad that she lost her top student when you injured your knee. But that’s not your fault, is it?” I commented after noticing Ayu pausing at that part.

Well, she probably thought that I might have questions regarding it and… she didn’t want me to feel bored by listening to her past story.

Ayu looked a little tongue-tied before forcing an answer, “Uh. You’re right, Ru-kun. But—”

“Oh. I understand, Ayu. You don’t need to complete it. In other words, you’re blaming yourself for the injury that robbed you and her of the opportunity for the honor of getting a gold medal in the Olympics. You felt responsible for it.” I cut her off and continued her sentence, presenting what I guessed.

Knowing her personality, I’m fairly certain that’s the case.

And I wasn’t disappointed.

Ayu pursed her lips and weakly nodded her head. She then looked me in the eye through the rearview mirror before moving on from that topic. She sensed that if we focused on it again, the mood might become spoiled once again.

“Uh. Ru-kun, I introduced Sena to her. Hopefully, even if she can’t train her like she trained me years ago, she can bestow Sena a bit of her guidance. I’m sure you don’t want to see her becoming a punching bag to others with a higher skill level.”

Certainly. If that happened, I might act irrationally and ambush whoever hurt my Sena.

Well, in any case, Sena also informed me about that introduction to a world-class boxer. The girl also told me the name of that coach. It’s unfamiliar but I probably heard about her on the news once or twice before.

The Flaming Tigress, Kamino Hitora.

She even got her title, huh? I wonder. Will she punch harder than Ayu?

Uh. Obviously, the answer was obvious. Ayu’s power was already stagnant and remained at the same level as before. She couldn’t strain her injured knee again, after all. That’s sad but when it comes to boxing, Ayu was always enthusiastic, regardless of her standing.

“That’s great. It’s really a great choice to send her there. I can’t wait to be beaten up by my Sena.”

Eh… That sounded bad.

“Ru-kun! Word that properly! You’re not an M, are you?”

“Yeah, of course not. But I can act as one,” Without correcting myself, I put on a smirk, teasing the girl.

Ayu rolled her eyes before focusing back on the road.

Even though our topic continued revolving around boxing, I didn’t have the heart to steer it away. Seeing Ayu being really passionate about it was probably what I wanted to see the most.

It’s true that to know each other better, we should veer off of it. However, at this very moment, I found myself tireless hearing Ayu talk about her passion.

Soon enough, the sky darkened and the orange hue of the setting sun started being replaced by the dark violet sky.

At this point, the car had already entered that part of the city, close to the gym.

However, instead of stopping right in front of it, Ayu drove further inside the neighborhood before stopping at a small house next to an apartment complex.

Obviously, I don’t need to guess whose house it is. Ayu turned off the engine and got out of the car.

I followed after her and while holding my hand tightly, she guided me inside.

Upon entering the front door, Ayu went up the elevated area before turning around to give me a warm welcome, “Ru-kun, let’s have our date here. What do you think?”