I didn't have a shift at my part-time job today.

After school. After school ends, while watching my classmates head out to clubs, part-time jobs, or hang out, I quickly leave the classroom alone.

I had no money to stop by somewhere and have fun, no one to go with, and I wasn't interested either. So, after browsing through the books in the library, I honestly went home.

When I leave the school building, I can hear the baseball team's cheers coming from the field. From the school building, the sound of the brass band performance echoed just as fiercely.

Lively commotion. The sound of youth.

I feel uncomfortable. Alienation. It's not a place where I belong. As I passed through the tree-lined path leading from the school building, I went through the school gate.

I distance myself from the noise. Today, I didn't talk to anyone, just like always.

After walking through the quiet residential area for a while, I saw the apartment. When I finally reached the vicinity, a familiar face was walking towards me.

"Hello. Is school over?"

She was Twenty-five.

"Yes. Is it the same for you?"

"I'm also coming back from university. Ah, thank you for taking out the trash the other day."

"Not at all. When the day before the collection day comes around again, please just toss it onto the balcony. I will take it out together when I go to school."

"That's a big help."

She said that, as if remembering.

"By the way, have you thought about it?"

"What do you mean?"

"What's a good way to thank someone for taking out the trash?"

"Ah. Is that what you mean?"

I said.

"Excuse me. Just a little more."

It wasn't that I had forgotten. I had been thinking about it. I just couldn't come up with an answer. I couldn't come up with the right balance because my self-consciousness was getting in the way.

"Just in time. Well then, could I thank you now?"

"Huh?"

"Coffee. I will treat you."

☆

I was taken to a café about a ten-minute walk away.

The exterior of the shop is covered in ivy, and the cozy interior has a calm atmosphere.

The old shopkeeper was managing the store alone, and there were no other customers besides us. The quiet shop seemed to refuse to prosper.

We sat down in the back seat. She sits in the back seat, and I sit in the seat near the entrance. After a while, the old shopkeeper comes to take our order.

"One blended coffee, please. How about you, clerk-san?"

"I'll have the same."

"Then, two blended coffees, please."

After the old shopkeeper left, I looked around the store and said,

"I didn't know there was a café in a place like this."

"The atmosphere here is nice, and I can smoke, so I find it very convenient."

After saying that, she placed the pack of cigarettes and the lighter on the table.

"Is it okay if I smoke?"

"Please, don't mind me."

"Thank you. Well then, I will take you up on your offer."

Taking a cigarette out of the box, she put it in her mouth and lit it with a lighter. She languidly exhaled the smoke she had drawn into her lungs into the void.

It was the first time I saw her smoking a cigarette from the front.

When she notices my gaze, she breaks into a smile.

"What's wrong? Is there something on my face?"

"Yeah, it's the first time I have seen you smoking from the front."

"Ah. Speaking of which, you usually stay on the balcony, right?"

Night. I thought her profile as she smoked a cigarette on the balcony was beautiful. But seeing her from the front like this was by no means inferior.

I could watch it forever.

"By the way, when the old shopkeeper came to take our order earlier, they seemed a bit confused. You called me clerk-san."

"Hehe. It might have indeed been confusing. Maybe I should have called you Kouhai-kun instead of clerk-san."

"It might be."

"Which do you prefer, being called clerk-san or Kouhai-kun? Or do you have any other preferences?"

"I'm fine with either. How about we decide on a name for us instead? When I think about it calmly, calling someone Twenty-five is quite strange."

"I quite like my current name, though. Being called by a number is pretty cool, like an android."

"An android?"

"Have you ever read Dragon Ball? I really like Android 18. Even after getting married, her husband still calls her Android 18. Isn't that funny? She actually has a real name, though."

"Indeed."

"Androids, I'm envious of her. She doesn't age, and her appearance doesn't change. Because she can be forever."

"But if her husband is human, won't she end up being left behind? Everyone around her will eventually disappear."

"It's nice that she can be there to see them off. The dead will eventually be idealized. She forgot the unpleasant memories and the dirty parts. She can live her life holding onto only the beautiful memories that have been bleached and won't deteriorate. Don't you think it's wonderful?"

Maybe. At least in my heart, I can still love the other person. Even if that is not their true self.

"Ah, the coffee isn't coming."

"Here, the owner manages everything by themself. In this shop, time flows more slowly than outside."

"Oh, I didn't say it because I was dissatisfied or anything. To fill the gap, I could say. If they can't come, that's totally fine."

"Hehe. Let's just wait while chatting."

Twenty-five-san said that, then stubbed out her short, caterpillar-like cigarette in the ashtray. After the fire went out, she suddenly asked.

"By the way, how's school going for you, clerk-san?"

"How so?"

"Are you having fun?"

"When it comes to whether it's fun or not, it's not fun."

I answered honestly, and Twenty-five-san smiled somewhat happily.

"Oh, I see. Isn't it fun? Do you have a lot of friends?"

"Does it look like there are a lot of them?"

"I heard that there are more s*x offenders who are married with children than those who are single."

"You might be trying to say that a person's appearance and inner self don't match, but the analogy is so sharp that it draws my attention away."

Well, I don't have a sociable appearance. The inner self is reflected in the outer self. There are no two sides, but the front side is as soot-covered as the back side.

"I don't have any friends."

"Not even one?"

"Not even one. At school, it's not uncommon to spend a whole day without talking to anyone."

"Are you into that kind of bondage play?"

"I didn't mean it that way. I think it's better to have friends than to have none. I think having too many friends is a hassle, though. It's just that I can't keep up with everyone's vibe. It's like I can't see the good in things that everyone else thinks are good. I don't find what the people at the center of the class are saying interesting, but I also can't keep up with the vibe of the people at the edges. They say that friendships don't last unless you can give something to the other person, right? I don't have anything to give. I don't have any charm, and I'm not good at making conversation either. I can't even take an interest in the things that everyone else likes. That said, watching things like SNS or anime just to fit in feels somehow insincere."

"I see. In other words, clerk-san has a very troublesome personality, no?"

"That, yes. In a word. I think that's how it will be. But, when I think about it calmly, having no friends at all is pretty crazy, right?"

"Is that so? I think it's fine."

"Isn't it?"

"Yes. Because that way, it's easier for me to invite you to hang out."

"...It's Twenty-five-san's convenience, isn't it?"

"Hehe. Is that not allowed?"

"It's not that it's not allowed, but..."

At that moment, the shopkeeper bought two cups of blended coffee.

Cups are placed in front of each other. Steam is rising from the black surface of the water. Normally, I would add sugar, but today I didn't.

She was drinking it black without adding any sugar.

Twenty-five-san tilted her cup and took a sip of the steaming blend of coffee. Seeing that scene, I couldn't help but ask the question that came to mind.

"Um, isn't that hot?"

"I'm completely indifferent to hot food."

"No, not that way."

"Hmm?"

"The tongue..."

"Oh, the one with the piercings?"

Her tongue was pierced right in the center.

That silvery shine looks metallic.

It seems like drinking something hot would make it hot.

"It's not hot at all. Would you like to touch it?"

"Eh."

"Look."

She said that, then stuck out her tongue, which had been hidden in her mouth, and showed it to me.

Pale pink tongue.

It glistened lewdly, like a peeled organ.

A silver sphere was shining on the tip of her tongue.

It feels like I'm looking at something I shouldn't be seeing. I feel such a sense of guilt. Yet, I can't look away from it.

Before I knew it, I had become oblivious to everything around me. My gaze is solely directed at her red tongue.

"...Is that okay?"

She nodded slightly with her tongue sticking out.

I made sure the old shopkeeper wasn't watching, then cautiously touched her tongue with the pad of my finger.

It wasn't hot.

It was inorganic.

Her tongue was much warmer.

A slimy, lukewarm tongue. Among them, the artificial and inorganic feel of the silver earring radiated a clear presence as a foreign object.

"Right? It wasn't hot, was it?"

Indeed, it wasn't hot.

But my whole body was burning with heat when I touched it.

Touching the tongue piercing felt like touching something I shouldn't be touching. It felt like I was touching her genitals.

The inorganic feel of the piercing and the warm, slimy texture of the tongue. It remained stuck in my fingertips and mind for a long time, refusing to leave.

Chapter 4: Tongue Piercing