Volume 5 - CH 19

The first semester ended and the summer vacation began.

Moreover…

“Eleven… twelve… thirteen… Yuzuru-san, you’re almost there!”

“Ugh…”

“Fourteen… fifteen!”

“Hah…”

Yuzuru collapsed to the floor in a heap.

In the meantime, Arisa was clapping her hands.

“This is the end of the quota for today.”

Fifteen times on the abdominal roller, two sets a day.

That was the goal that Yuzuru had set.

The diet was still in progress.

“…I guess it’s Arisa’s turn next.”

“Y-yeah, I know, okay? Even without telling me…”

As Arisa said this, she grabbed the abdominal roller that Yuzuru had been using just a moment ago.

“Ugh…”

“One.. .two… three… three.”

“He-hey!　Count properly…”

“It’s a rule not to count the lax ones… 3… 4… 5…”

“Ugh..!”

Arisa managed to finish her target of eight times… with her face turning scarlet.

She targeted to do two sets, eight times a day.

With her face bright red, Arisa lay down on her side.

Her large breasts move up and down with her breathing.

Yuzuru lightly poked Arisa’s stomach with his finger.

“Hey, stop… Hya.!”

She lets out a strange sound that could be described as a scream or a laugh, probably from the tickle, pain, and fatigue of her abdominal muscles.

Yuzuru got a little amused and further poked and prodded the side of Arisa’s body…

“G-geez!　Yuzuru-san!”

Smack, his hands were pushed away by a strong blow, and Arisa slowly got up, glaring at Yuzuru.

“Geez…”

“No, sorry, sorry… it was just too fun.”

“…You’re prepared to get yourself done in, aren’t you?”

“I am, but I’m not going down without a fight, okay?”

Yuzuru braced himself as he said this.

But Arisa shook her head.

“I will settle this grudge tomorrow… against the weakened Yuzuru-san.”

Since it was summer vacation, Arisa spent most of her free time in Yuzuru’s room.

Recently, she has been spending more time in Yuzuru’s room than in her own house.

Naturally, she would come back the next day to use the abdominal roller with Yuzuru.

At that time, she was going to take advantage of his exhaustion.

“I’m so happy that you’re coming back tomorrow.”

“I’m not stupid enough to be fooled by that.”

She glared at him with cold eyes.

As for Yuzuru, he just hoped that Arisa would forget about it by tomorrow.

“Now then… what’s next, running?”

“You can’t lose weight through strength training alone.”

Aerobic exercise and anaerobic exercise.

Both were essential for weight loss.

“But …this is hard…”

Yuzuru muttered involuntarily.

Arisa said in an indifferent tone of voice.

“You have to finish it by mid-August. Geez… Yuzuru-san is surprisingly gutless.”

“No… Well, I’ve never been on a diet before.”

There were two reasons.

The first was that he had never genuinely been fat.

Yuzuru eats about as much as most people, but he was not a big eater.

He also exercised.

He might have grown vertically, but never horizontally.

Another reason was that he had never cared about his weight in the first place.

The reason why Yuzuru was concerned about his weight and body shape this time was that he wanted to look cool in front of Arisa.

In the past, he didn’t have such a partner, so he didn’t have much motivation to lose weight or gain muscle.

“I-is that so… Heh, first time…”

“Does Arisa diet… err, to a reasonable extent?”

“If I answer ‘yes, I do’ to that, doesn’t it sound like I’m constantly struggling with my weight? …basically, I just do it before summer.”

“That’s true, too.”

He had never felt Arisa being fat.

Sometimes he thought that she consumed too much sugar, but for what it’s worth, she maintained a very thin figure.

“That’s right. I’m always thinking about calories and stuff.”

“What about holiday cakes?”

“That’s… well, a separate account.”　

The holiday cake referred to the sweets that Yuzuru prepared for Arisa whenever she came to visit.

Not only the sweets… but also the sugar and milk for the coffee must be on a separate account.

“To be honest, they aren’t really all that fine. Those things …are high in calories, too…”

“Then, from next time, I’ll stop…”

“I’m not telling you to stop… I’m just saying you have to balance it somewhere!”

Embezzling the company’s money on the grounds that there would be no problem if they could make it up later.

For some reason, such a scene popped into Yuzuru’s mind.

“But… the problem is that the motivation is waning, right?”

“It’s not like it has waned that much, though?” 

“Maybe now, but if you let it be now, it will become worse later.”

“…Is that from your experience?”

“Yes.”

According to Arisa, the feeling of “I don’t like it” accumulates day by day.

Then, at some point, you decide, “Today this much is enough”.

It becomes a trigger for a breakdown.

“And the rebound afterward can be huge.”

The more painful and uncomfortable you feel, the greater the sense of release you will feel after finishing.

Conversely, you might find yourself doing things that could lead to rebounding – like eating a lot of your favorite foods.

“Let’s find something to look forward to. Or a reward.”

“Reward huh…”

After running, it was time for dinner.

Naturally, it was Arisa’s home-cooked meal, which was supposed to be a reward…

“It’s just shredded cabbage these days…”

“I’m doing this for Yuzuru-san’s sake.”

He was currently eating a bowl of shredded cabbage instead of white rice.

It was a bit filling and could be substituted for rice, but… white rice is better.

And not only the cabbage, but the other side dishes were healthy as well.

Of course, it was delicious, as it was Arisa’s cooking …but Yuzuru, who was an avid eater, felt that it was not enough.

“Reward huh… for example, what do you think would be good?”

“Eh? Let’s…see …Like a massage? We’ve done that a few times before, haven’t we?”

“Yeah, I guess so…”

The messages were comforting.

However, whether the massage alone would be enough to get him through the upcoming diet was a delicate question.

To begin with, for Yuzuru, 80% of the pleasure of a massage with Arisa was to touch her.

If he wanted to get a normal massage, he would go to a normal store.

…and then Yuzuru came up with an idea.

“Y, you know…”

“…What’s that?”

“Um… N-no, it’s nothing.”

Yuzuru was about to say what he had in mind, but then he calmed down and held his tongue.

“It bothers me more when you act like that. What is it?”

“N-no… It’s really nothing…”

“…I won’t get mad at you, okay?”

As she said this, Arisa looked into Yuzuru’s face.

Her jade green eyes fluttered and her flaxen hair swayed.

“R-really…?”

“Really.”

“…well, I mean, it’s just a suggestion, or more like an idea.”

Yuzuru scratched his cheek a little and then said…

“The reward… um, can’t it be you?”

Yuzuru then looked fearfully at Arisa’s expression.

And…

“…eh?”

Her face turned bright red and she froze.