Redo of a Romanceless Author’s Life Devoid of Love; Another Chance at Youth

Chapter 11.

Chapter 11. Fitness test. (4/6)

We were finally at the last fitness test.

She laid down on her back with her fully exposed legs facing me. Her hair was scattered across the ground in all directions but she didn’t particularly mind it. She looked at me from the gap between her thighs and asked, “Well? What are you doing? Shouldn’t you be holding my legs down properly?”

I glanced around and confirmed the guys were holding the girls down by their shoes so I did the same. I placed my hand down on her shoes but she raised an eyebrow at me.

“What?”

“A bit more weight would be helpful. Can you just hold my feet down with your knees?”

“Uh… sure.” I complied with her request, but then she suddenly sat up and grabbed my hands.

“What now?”

“Securely hold my knees in place as well.” She placed my hands on top of her knees and then in place with hers on top of mine.

“Hmm, well, that should do.”

This girl is trying to drive me insane.

Nevertheless, I utilized all the willpower contained within my mortal body to maintain the stone-cold poker face I wore. She was truly testing the limits of the kinds of bullshit I could keep a straight face for. She looked like she was even having fun.

If I look away from her, I lose. That was how I felt. She hadn’t stopped making eye contact with me the entire time. This girl is the worst! The absolute worst type of person I tell you!

I will NEVER again refuse to give up my seat to someone if they ask me for it. No stupid seat is worth this kind of hellish twisted form of harassment.

Once she started doing sit-ups her body rose and fell off the ground repeatedly. Every time she reached out she intentionally made sure to touch her hands to her knees. More specifically she placed them on top of mine and let them slide off as she leaned back.

She was absolutely teasing me. Her objective was to tease me to death, but I would not allow myself to be teased. I would not succumb to this level of… ugh, it’s so fucking embarrassing, I want to die.

I’m dead. I’m seriously dead. Just kill me now woman. I can’t put up with this.

How much more time is there until this unusual form of torture is over? The muscles in my face were aching from how tense they were while trying to keep my face encased in a block of stone.

God, why do you torture me so? All I ever wanted was peace and quiet, but ever since this storm arrived it’s been nothing but endless hardships for me. What did I do to deserve this?

It ended up being the longest 60 seconds of my life. I never knew how dangerous sit-ups were until I met this particular girl.

“Well, it appears you somehow made it through in one piece. It seems I shouldn’t have held back and I should have used my full power after all.”

“Full… power? You mean that wasn’t even your final form? Just what sort of monster are you? No, you’re just bluffing, there’s nothing that could possibly have made this any worse.”

With a smile that wanted to laugh at my nativity, she sat all the way up and moved her mouth close to my ear, and whispered, “What if I’d placed your hands a bit further and sat all the way up every time?”

I pictured it in my head and immediately understood the secret weapon she was referring to. She wasn’t kidding when she said she held back a lot of her strength. I felt ashamed that I couldn’t even see through her true might. She’d looked down upon me with nothing but pity for being a mere frog sitting at the bottom of a well. I did not know of the sky, oh how high it was.

I nearly broke down on the spot and despaired about how weak I truly was. But no doubt, she had shown me mercy. The methods women had to play around with a man’s emotions were truly limitless, that was what I was taught by her today. It seemed I still had a long way to go.

“Pfthahaha!” As if she could see through every thought that flashed through my mind just by looking into my eyes, she abruptly burst out into an uncontrollable fit of laughter that she did her best to stifle to not draw everyone’s attention toward us.

Had she observed me so much to the point that she could tell everything on my mind just through eye contact? Isn’t that even scarier? If that’s the case, I won’t be able to keep any secret from her no matter how I try to hide it.

Even that particular secret I’ve hidden for so long could potentially be in jeopardy.

With such worries on my mind, I laid down with my back to the ground in a sit-up position. Without me asking her to hold my feet down she did it of her own volition.

“You don’t need to hold my feet down. I can do sit-ups just fine without the need for that.”

I felt like she was up to something so I tried to immediately refuse her assistance.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

“I’m asking you to not help because I’m worried about you helping.”

“Oh? What’s there to worry about?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t trust you at all.”

“How cruel, saying you don’t trust me after everything we’ve been through together.”

“Despite your words, you sure don’t look hurt by me not trusting you.”

“I am, I’m actually very hurt you know. So hurt I can hardly keep myself from falling down to the ground.”

She pinned my feet down with her knees and slumped forward over my knees. She wrapped her arms around my knees and rested her chin on the back of her overlapping hands. I could feel two soft sensations pressing up against my shins and could easily tell exactly what they were. Her body was rather hot and my legs had been fully enveloped by that warmth.

Haaaaah. There really was nothing I could do against her. It’s not that I was weak, it was just that she was too strong an opponent. I resigned myself and accepted my fate for the next sixty seconds. For these sixty seconds, I was nothing more than a pitiful mouse being stared down by a playful cat. I was at the mercy of her whimsical nature.

Every time I sat up, her face was so close I could feel her breath on my face. I could feel her heartbeat transmit to me through her chest. When it sped up, and when it slowed down, it was all but too obvious.

So even she got excited…

And she was intentionally letting me know that without the slightest hint of shame.

I was already certain she’d use the same trick when I did push-ups if I didn’t at least do a few sit-ups. As such, I quickly racked up 31 sit-ups with her staring intently at me the entire time. As if she’d anticipated my stopping point where I wouldn’t do any further sit-ups in the time remaining, her hand stretched out and grabbed the collar of my shirt preventing me from lying down to rest.

“What is it?”

“Well you’re not planning to do any more sit-ups, right? So why not just stay like this?”

Her heart through her chest beat faster whenever I was close to her like this. Looking into her eyes at such a short distance, I confirmed her pupils were dilated. We were so close I could see myself and the surroundings behind us reflected within them. I couldn’t help but wonder what I looked like right now. Just what was it she saw when she looked at me this closely? It was impossible to distinctly make out all my details such as whether my own pupils were dilated just through the reflection of her eyes. I’d need a mirror to confirm it which left me rather troubled.

Having lost track of time, I didn’t even notice when the teacher said time was up. That being the case, I was unsure how to get out of this situation. If we stayed like this for too long it would no doubt attract the wandering eyes of our peers. We were more or less out of sight with a pillar obstructing their sight and a good distance away from them. But as soon as people started moving about they’d easily discover what sort of position the two of us were in which would no doubt raise some eyebrows as being rather precarious.

As if seeing through my worries Rosa released my collar with a satisfied smile and finally stood up. I was thankful she didn’t take things too far. It would be troubling, to say the least, if she had.

I raised my hand to my neck and pressed down two fingers to check my pulse. It was elevated. Whether it was because of Rosa or because my body hadn’t returned to a resting state after the strenuous workout today, I had no way to be certain. I didn’t have a control measurement from before and after making this result inconclusive.

Perhaps Rosa was the only one who knew the answer to that question. She was the only one who could see the state of my eyes after all. Whether they were dilated or not at that moment in time, only she knew.