54 - Lover's Practice (Advanced)①

RAW

Haruto walks lightly down the narrow roads of a residential area under the merciless heat of the midsummer sun.

"Damn, I made a bad choice about lunch."

Haruto mutters in the alleyway.

After eating ramen with Shizuku, Haruto is about to head straight to the Tojo house.

There, he realizes his fatal mistake.

His breath after eating ramen is terrible.

Well, since he'd bought Shizuku lunch, Haruto had no choice.

Haruto rushes back home, strips off his clothes that reek of pork bones, brushes his teeth so hard his gums might bleed, buys a breath care tablet at a convenience store on the way, and munches on it as he rushes to the Tojo house.

On the days when he works part-time as a house helper, he practices and studies with Ayaka from the afternoon onwards.

Although he doesn't have a specific time set, Haruto tries to arrive at the Tojo house around 1pm.

"Will I make it just in time?"

Haruto takes out his smartphone from his pocket, checks the time, and slows down his fast pace.

When he arrives in front of the Tojo house, Haruto blows into the palm of his hand to check for bad breath, then presses the intercom button.

"Haruto...Haruto?"

"Yes, I'm here."

Haruto replies to Ayaka's voice over the intercom.

Soon the front door opens and Ayaka appears.

"I've been waiting for you, Haruto."

Seeing her greet him with a big smile, Haruto's mind replays the words Shizuku had said earlier.

"Girls don't say 'I love you' to people they don't have feelings for."

Haruto couldn't help but feel his face turning red at Ayaka's smile, which made him almost fall in love with her.

"Can I come in?"

"Yes, of course."

Ayaka opens the door wide and invites Haruto into the house.

"Oh, can I check the fridge first to decide what to have for dinner?"

Haruto says as he takes off his shoes and steps into the entrance.

"It's okay."

Haruto enters the living room with Ayaka, who nods cheerfully.

Suddenly, Ikue, who has spread out her laptop on the living room/dining table, calls out to Haruto.

"Come in, Otsuki."

"Thank you for inviting me to the barbecue yesterday. It was delicious and fun."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it."

"Big bro! Let's do some fireworks again!!"

Ryota, who was watching a Sentai show on the TV in the living room, says with sparkling eyes.

Haruto replies to him with a smile.

"Yeah, let's do it again. Oh, Ikue. Can I take a look inside the refrigerator?"

"Yes, of course."

Ikue, who is working remotely, smiles and agrees.

Haruto opens the refrigerator door and checks the ingredients.

"Hey, Haruto. What are you planning for dinner tonight?"

"Hmm, oh, you have pork loin, so how about ginger pork?"

Ryota seems to have heard Haruto say that, and comes running over with a cry of joy.

"Ginger pork!! I love ginger pork!!"

"Okay. Then I'll make some delicious ginger pork for you today."

"Yay!!"

Ryota is running around with joy, but Ikue warns him, "Calm down."

"Is that okay with you, Ayaka and Ikue?"

Haruto checks with them just to be sure.

In response, Ikue replied "Of course," but Ayaka's face looked a little frowned upon.

"Did you not like the ginger pork?"

"Eh? No, it's not that I don't like it at all..."

Haruto tilted his head at her, as she looked away slightly, and Ikue said to him with a smile.

"Otsuki-kun, there's no problem with having ginger pork for dinner tonight."

"Really?"

"Yeah, right, Ayaka?"

"Yeah, it's fine..."

The daughter gave a slightly hesitant reply to her mother's plea for approval.

Haruto felt a little hesitant, but decided that if the two of them said it was fine, then there shouldn't be a problem, and decided that ginger pork would be the menu for tonight's dinner.

"Well, Mom, I'm going to study with Haruto in my room. Come on, Haruto."

"Oh, okay. See you in the evening."

"Yes, okay. Study hard."

Ikue smiles and waves to the two of them.

When he enters Ayaka's room on the second floor, Haruto asks her to confirm.

"Are you sure you want ginger pork, Ayaka? If you don't like it, I can just make a different menu for yourself."

"No! It's fine. I love ginger pork. In fact, the problem is that I love it so much..."

Ayaka waves both hands to decline Haruto's suggestion to make a different dinner.

After Ayaka's words trail off, she looks at Haruto with a determined look.

"Haruto."

"Y-Yes."

Haruto's name is suddenly called in a powerful voice, and he instinctively straightens his back. "I won the sparkler contest yesterday, right?"

"...I guess so."

"Then you'll listen to what I have to say, right?"

"Y--as long as it's within the bounds of common sense..."

Haruto is intimidated as he answers Ayaka, who seems somewhat menacing.

Having heard his reply, Ayaka nods with satisfaction, takes out her smartphone and starts looking something up.

Haruto waits anxiously to see what she'll ask him to do, when Ayaka declares, pointing the smartphone screen straight at him.

"Haruto, I want you to do this with me!!"

"What? ...Couple yoga?"

Looking at the phone screen she pointed at him, Haruto reads out the words on the phone.

"That's right! Couple yoga! I think this is the perfect practice for lovers!"

"Really?"

Haruto feels that her standards for lovers are quite questionable.

He looks at Ayaka with suspicion, but she begins to explain to him with a look that somehow conveys a very strong will.

"In couple yoga, you work together to do poses that you can't do alone. That's why it's more stretchy than regular yoga."

"I see."

"Also, it has many benefits, like relieving stress, improving sleep, and increasing concentration!"

Seeing Ayaka's enthusiasm, Haruto is also curious about what couple yoga is, so he takes Ayaka's phone and slides the screen to read the explanation about couple yoga.

"I see, so it's easy and recommended even for beginners to yoga."

"Yes, yes!"

"You can keep it up longer if you do it together than if you do it alone."

"Really!"

"So it's effective for dieting too."

"That's right!!"

Ayaka reacted strongly to the word "diet" that Haruto said.

Seeing that, Haruto somehow understood why she was so enthusiastic about couple yoga.

Well, she ate quite a lot at the barbecue yesterday, after all...

Remembering how Ayaka ate yesterday, Haruto's smile turned faintly.

From Haruto's point of view, Ayaka was very thin, and he even thought that she would be healthier if she was a little fatter. However, it would be rude to say that to her.

Thinking about this, Haruto was skimming through a website explaining couple yoga, when his hand stopped at a photo of example poses.

"Huh? Are we doing this?"

Haruto couldn't help but mutter this.

What he saw was the man on the bottom, with his arms and legs raised upwards to form a base, and the woman on top of him, stretching her arms and legs as if flying in the air.

The couple yoga poses were so acrobatic that they went way beyond Haruto's imagination.

"Oh, I think that's for advanced people. Let's start with this one."

Ayaka took her phone back from Haruto, looked at it a bit, and showed it to him again.

"We can do this, right?"

"Yeah, well..."

The pose Ayaka was trying to do.

The man and woman sat cross-legged with their backs to each other, twisting their bodies and placing their hands on each other's thighs to stretch their sides.

It certainly looked easy to do, and it seemed like it would also stretch the waist.

However, what interested Haruto was the sense of distance.

Couple yoga is literally yoga done with lovers, spouses, partners, etc., and is done by two people who trust each other completely.

As a result, all of the poses involve a high degree of intimacy.

"Um... Ayaka doesn't mind... right?"

"Yes! It's not a diet... it's just practice for my lover!"

Ayaka lets it slip.

Haruto already knows that she is enthusiastic about this couple yoga for the sake of losing weight.

However, Ayaka, who is passionate about her womanly destiny, has no way of noticing this and is determined to do couple yoga without caring about the closeness of the bond.

"Let's start with some light stretching as preparation."

With that, Ayaka lays a yoga mat on the floor of her room.

The fact that there is a mat here means that she has tried yoga before and probably gave up without continuing.

While Haruto was thinking about this, Ayaka tells him to sit on the mat.

"Okay, Haruto, sit here with your legs stretched out. I'll push your back for you."

"Okay."

Haruto sat obediently on the yoga mat and stretched his arms and legs out in front of him, bending forward.

"Okay, I'll push your back. Tell me if it hurts."

Saying this, Ayaka gently pushed Haruto's back.

Haruto gradually leaned his upper body forward. He continued to lean forward without stopping, and the more Ayaka pushed, the more his upper body leaned.

"Eh? Eh? Haruto, aren't you too flexible?"

Seeing that Haruto's forehead was about to hit her knee, Ayaka cried out in surprise.

"I've been doing flexibility training at the karate dojo since I was little."

"Really? Hey, can I push you some more?"

"Yeah, it's fine."

Perhaps Ayaka was enjoying pushing Haruto, who was flexible, so she pushed his back with a little more force.

"Does it hurt?"

"No problem at all."

Even as he completely folded his body, Haruto replied without showing any sign of pain.

"Is it okay if I push with all my strength?"

"Yes, it's fine...wait!?"

"Haha, that's amazing! You can put your whole body weight on it and it's fine."

Ayaka pressed against Haruto's back, letting out an excited cry at how unconcerned he seemed.

Haruto, on the other hand, felt an incredibly soft and attractive sensation coming from his back as he was being pushed, and was nervous.

Of course, Ayaka wasn't pressing her body against him obviously, but rather was pushing against his back mainly with her arms, but when she leaned forward to put her whole body weight on him, whether it was because of her attractive figure or because it worked to Haruto's advantage, she ended up sticking closely to his back.

"Um... isn't it about time?"

Haruto, who is folded up neatly with Ayaka half on him, can no longer bear it and raises his voice.

"Oh, I agree. Sorry, I was having fun."

Ayaka says as she leaves.

Haruto is relieved that the sensation on his back has finally disappeared, but he also realizes that he is a little disappointed and falls into a slight state of self-loathing.

"Then let's switch and Haruto, can you give me a push?"

"Um, can I finish my stretching first?"

Haruto says a little awkwardly as he sits on the yoga mat.

Haruto would have a lot of problems if he stood up now, so he wants to continue stretching while sitting.

"I see, that's more efficient."

Ayaka nods at Haruto's suggestion.

While he was relieved that he didn't have to stand up for the time being, he simultaneously felt excited and a little anxious about the couples yoga that was to follow.