Dropping the pretense, the restraint I put on myself had, more or less, disappeared. I answered her payback by linking our chairs together and pulling her close to me. My hand swiftly hooked around her back to hold her by her waist.

Given that I was currently naked on top, Juri fumbled a bit about where her hand should land on my body. Her eyes kept on darting around, alternating between my chest, waist, and shoulder.

Seeing the dilemma that she was facing, I made the decision for her by bringing her hand to my shoulder after I pinched her cheek to have her focus her eyes on me.

In this way, it looked like she was holding onto me. However, she’s still trying her hardest not to lean closer where she’d be pressing on me. Not that she hated it but it’s probably the case of not being used to direct body contact – even if I was the only one naked between the two of us.

With this, I waited for a few minutes until she calmed down and eased up to our situation before restarting our conversation.

“So… shall we start? I know it will still be hard to talk about the obvious but… I’ll just say this in advance. Juri, I’ve grown to love being this close to you.”

We’re both aware of the obvious, anyway. And even if we discussed it, I doubt we’d reach a conclusion on what to do about it. That’s why for now, I decided to thread around its edges and tell her my honest thoughts.

Juri moved her head slightly, her little response to my words. Then, when I thought she was going to keep her mouth shut, Juri’s hand tightened its grip on my shoulder.

I glanced down and saw her troubled expression gradually shifting to that of someone accepting her fate.

“I can’t lie, right? I feel the same way, Ruki. This feels natural. I’ve never been this close to another guy. You know my best friend and how she’s too distrustful of men in general…”

Ah. Of course, as someone really close to Setsuna-nee, I could imagine how every guy trying to get close to either of them got shot down before they could even try.

But what about before she met Setsuna-nee? I guess that’s something I need to ask some other time or separate it from this. Knowing her, as long as there’s nothing problematic in it, she wouldn’t turn down my curiosity about her past. Besides, from her own words, she must also be aloof back in grade school and middle school. Hence, she didn’t have any close interaction with any guy.

Most likely, her only experience was those dates that were being pushed to her by her agency. Luckily, she had yet to meet a real douchebag who would try to bed her right from the start. I had no other reference but maybe, the man from last week would have been the worst experience for her if I wasn’t there to help her.

“…In a way, Setsu protected me from those trying to court me. But if we looked at this in another way, she blocked off any chances for me to get a boyfriend, right?” Juri continued while giggling bitterly at the end.

I guess it’s normal. She’s a girl who also dreamt of romance at one point. I had no idea where she stands now but… if this situation with me wasn’t a clue yet, I’d be an idiot.

“I suppose that’s true. But have you ever been attracted to someone before?”

“I do.”

“Oh. What a lucky guy…”

“Pfft. Don’t look disappointed quickly and let me finish. It’s normal to be attracted, right? Even to someone who wasn’t physically nearby.”

While giggling pleasantly, Juri poked my nose, making fun of the expression that unknowingly crept up to my face.

“Ah… So that’s it.”

Struck by the realization of what she was trying to say, I couldn’t help but wryly smile and let myself be subjected to her pokes.

“Got it? I was attracted to some actors from some of the shows and movies I watched. Uh. Maybe it’s not really attraction but admiration. But back then, I thought if ever one of them showed up in front of me to ask me out, I'd say yes and date them.”

Juri moved her head, looking as though she was staring into the distance and trying to recall that embarrassing memory for her.

“Back then so… what about now?”

“I’ve grown past that stage. Maybe if I ever got into a relationship, it would be with someone I truly fell in love with. Someone who will cherish me and everything about me… Do you know someone like that?”

“Let’s see. if you say it should be someone you fell in love with, it’s impossible for me to know who or if you ever found one already.”

“Un. Exactly. You’ll never know…” With another poke to my nose, Juri soon found it not enough. Her eyes returned their focus to my face as her playful smile widened.

Slowly, she leaned closer to me, enough for her chest to be pressed on my arm. But that’s not intentional on her part. It’s necessary because the next one she wanted to target was my exposed ear.

She reached for my earlobe and pinched it lightly before eventually caressing it.

With her eyes closely watching my changing expression as played with my ear, she continued,

“Anyhow, my focus isn’t entirely on it. I decided just to wait for it to come naturally. Besides, you know my dream, Ruki. Apart from my career in modeling, I’m all in pursuing that dream.”

“To be a professional photographer, huh.”

Right. Even if she didn’t directly tell me about that dream of hers, it’s easy to infer how much attention she’s giving it. She even wanted a break from modeling to focus on it.

“Yes. Maybe in the future, I’ll stop being a model entirely and put all of my focus on photography. I want to capture a lot but if you ask me what I enjoyed snapping through the lenses of my camera… I’ll say, "precious moments.”

“I see. For example?”

At this point, rather than our initial topic, my interest started leaning towards knowing more about this woman. There’s still a lot that I don’t know about her and this moment was one where I could find out more… I didn’t want to miss this chance.

Leaving my ear alone, Juri reached for her bag on the table and pulled out something from it. It’s a small photo album. There’s no fancy design on its cover but the title she put on it was… ‘Precious Moments’.

Just based on that, it’s most likely the collection of photographs she deemed to be in that category.

“Here…”

She brought it in front of us and opened it to the latest page. Well, I also had to take out my flashlight to see it clearly.

There, I got a glimpse of her first entries but it’s more of photos of scenery like a house basked in the orange glow of the setting sun or an ocean wave about to reach the shore.

However, her latest entry wasn’t close to those two. In fact, there’s a person in that photo.

“This…”

“Surprised? I found that a precious moment so… it counts.” Juri explained as her hand returned to my face. This time, the way she held my head was so intimate that I could feel her pulse racing and her hand heating up to warm me. While gently caressing my cheek, she continued, “Thanks to you… My life has become easier in the past week. I don’t know how you’ve done it but know that I will always be grateful for it.”

Upon saying that, Juri leaned even closer as she seemingly tried to bring our faces together. However, as though chickening out at the possibility of kissing me, she lowered her head and chose to snuggle to my neck instead. Her hand on my cheek slid down to join up with her other hand to lock me in her embrace.

Ah. Right. Who was in that photo?

Well, it’s already understandable.

It’s me. And it was taken last week. When I asked her to return to the building first, she probably retracted her steps and took a photo of me, standing there beneath the moonlight.

Despite being a stolen shot, she captured it so beautifully that I couldn’t even recognize myself at first…

Really, this girl…

Without any other words to say, my only response to what she just revealed to me and her subsequent actions was to reciprocate her embrace. Dropping the flashlight on the table, I wrapped my arms around her, enough for us to hear each other’s heartbeats…