Exhibitionists Can Always Find Loopholes

We made it back to the college without needing GPS. Correction, it was more accurate to say that Mamie didn’t let me use it. None of my excuses had worked.

“I’ll see if there is an even faster route for us.”

“I’ll see if there’s anywhere we can grab a quick bite.”

“Wow, I wonder what the satellite view of this place looks like…”

In my defense, I was getting desperate. Every street looked the same, and Mamie kept declaring that her sense of direction would be more than enough to get us back. She was right, but that didn’t discount the dread I had experienced throughout the journey.

I breathed a sigh of relief when we safely crossed the threshold into my dorm room, dropping the duffel bag to a random spot on the carpeted floor. Kicking off my shoes, I heard the door click shut. Mamie had closed it behind her. It was just the two of us in a room, once again.

This time, my heart reacted and thumped more quickly. Maybe it was a lingering effect from the involuntary exercise session that Mamie dragged me through. Or, more likely, it was because this room was my private space, somewhere no one except me would normally enter.

“It’s getting late. You should go back to your room,” I suggested, trying my hardest not to let my nerves shuffle my feet.

“Before anything else, answer this. Did Mom ask you to get me elected as representative?” She crossed her arms, but her expression and tone communicated no trace of anger.

“Sorry for not telling you.”

“It’s fine. Nakaya-san must have asked you not to.”

“How do you know…”

“She’s scarier than she looks.” Mamie wandered towards the giant windows without asking whether I welcomed her to stay, but at least she had the courtesy to take off her sneakers. “What do you think?”

“About what? Nakaya-san?”

“No, about the chance of me being elected.”

“It depends on who the competitors are.”

“Only one so far. It’s someone you know.” She glanced at me, obviously gauging my reaction.

“Don’t tell me…”

“It’s Hanawa-san.”

“Of course.” This revelation was somewhat unexpected, but it also made sense. She seemed like the type of person who would participate in this sort of thing. And I wasn’t talking about the backstabbing, but her social nature. Not many people would approach a stranger, offer sexual advances, and ruin that person’s social life in the same day. Not many women, at least.

I strode towards the windows too, taking in the view of the setting sun with Mamie.

“My chances?”

Oh right, I didn’t answer her question.

“Why do you think they made the glass near the bed opaque?” This sounded more profound in my head. And I didn’t mean to dodge the question. I was just… procrastinating.

“You could have said that you didn’t know.”

“I don’t know. Also, I’m serious about the glass question.”

“If only you put this inquisitive mind into lecture contents…” Mamie muttered, but a grin was on her face.

“And you’ll be more popular if you smile more. I’m serious.”

She glared at me, but then gave up the forced hostility in mere seconds, swapping it with a wistful look out of the window. A perfect expression to be immortalized as a Sinstagram profile picture. “I know,” she muttered again.

“Why didn’t you? Smiling doesn’t cost money.”

“But it costs sanity. And for the record, I smile a lot. I only frown around you and Hanawa-san.”

“What did I do?”

“Other than stalking me on the first day we met until I confronted you? Nothing much.”

“Don’t remind me…”

“But you asked me.” A cute chuckle graced my ears, giving me the strange urge to pinch her cheeks, or my own cheeks to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. Doing the former would turn this friendly atmosphere into another Taekwondo session. Doing the latter would just brand me as a weirdo, even though I suspected that she already thought of me as one.

I opted instead to direct the topic away from my mistake. “Why do you want to be the college representative? I’m not sure what it entails, but it has to mean an even higher workload.”

“Do you know that all the current Union executive members were student representatives of this college in the past?”

I began to understand what she was getting at. “Are you trying to join the Union?”

“Not particularly. But my point was that becoming a representative will help you achieve great things in the industry. You get what I mean, right? Isn’t that why you want to cancel the expulsion? To stay in this school?”

Her direct questions stirred up my thoughts again. My fingers brushed against the mattress, as if the gesture would guide me to the truth. Do I want to go down this path? What do I expect to find in the end? The images of Mamie beating up Norihisa flickered in my head, and an involuntary grin curved on my face. “Do you remember my high school friends? The ones you beat up?”

“Nope. Not at all.” And a pout. I didn’t know that she was even capable of pouting, but that might be why the sages say that human life is a learning experience.

“Fine. Do you remember the pieces of shit that you beat up?”

“Right! I remember!” Her lips morphed into a winning smile. I wrote myself a mental note warning my future self to not piss her off.

“They reminded me of how I was in high school. And I didn’t want to be that person anymore. I want to be better. I want to…” And here was where I stopped myself before I said the words ‘get laid’, but not because it would be inappropriate and shallow to state this as part of my motivations. It was something else. I didn’t know whether horniness was the reason I wanted to stay in the college, or whether it had ever been the main reason.

“I want to spend more time with you.” Wait, did I just say that out loud? I turned my head from the darkening scenery to Mamie.

Good, her attention was still on the view outside. The smile had disappeared at some point, and her face harbored a neutral expression, though nothing concerning.

It would still be safer to elaborate to shoo away misunderstandings. “What I meant was that I enjoy your company, and if I get kicked out, I don’t think we will see each other as much, or even at all. Sure, we can talk through text or something. But that wouldn’t be the same.”

“You are wasting your youth, so we can talk face-to-face?” She was still gazing outside as she asked this.

“There are other useful skills, like how to read people, how to adapt to social situations, how to be passive-aggressive. Not every graduate from this college becomes a sex worker.”

She said nothing in response. Is she thinking about what to say? Is she that absorbed in the great nothing outside? Is she mad?

“I’ll leave you to your… city watching.” I turned to go somewhere else, not that my room was large enough for that ‘somewhere’ to be more than three meters away.

Before I could think about where exactly that ‘somewhere’ would be, Mamie grabbed my wrist.

“Um… senpai?”

“They put stained glass next to the bed in case couples got too heated and forgot to pull down the blinds.”

“But that doesn’t work at night. Because it’s brighter inside the building-”

“You don’t have to explain the physics to me. And remember that every measure means additional costs. There’s no way to prevent every scenario. Exhibitionists can always find loopholes.” Mamie released my hand from her grasp and started drawing the blinds down to cover the windows.

“What are you doing?”

“Do you know why I said we should be fake friends with benefits?”

“Because you don’t have any real friends with benefits?”

“Ouch. You don’t have to repeat that to me. That’s not what I’m asking. I’m asking… Whatever. Forget that I asked that. Instead…” She finished getting all the blinds shut. “Instead, do you want us to be real friends with benefits?”

I narrowed my eyes, remembering the times before when I had gotten the wrong idea. “Real friends with fake benefits?”

“No, I’m talking about real friends with real benefits.”

“And the benefits you are talking about-”

“Holy shit! Just tell me if you want me to stop.” And she took off her T-shirt.