Cherry blossom and strawberries.

That was what Saiki's lips tasted like.

And as I sat at the bench that was tucked away at the back of the desolate park, holding onto the sides of Saiki's soft cheeks with my lips planted firmly on top of hers, I stopped for a moment to question my life choices, my eyes staring pointedly downwards in terror at the knife lying behind the bench.

Had I really just attempt a stealth steal on a yandere's knife?

At first, the original plan in my mind was to figure out where Saiki was hiding her knife, but when I couldn't feel it whilst touching the back of her jumper, things suddenly got carried away, rapidly deteriorating from bad to worst like a plummeting jet on fire. If this was a manga, then I would probably be one of those dumbass romcom MCs that I loved to laugh at, thinking no way a human could possibly be that dumb.

Except it really was me and this wasn't a romcom and the girl wasn't going to let out a high-pitched cry and uppercut me into the moon and back harmlessly, but to stab me in the gut with a kitchen knife.

"N, Naosuke..."

I heard Saiki's voice whispering into my mouth and my eyes slowly moved up from the knife on the ground to look at Saiki's eyes.

Her eyes were closed, her cheeks were flushed, and she wrapped her arms around my back, kissing my rigid lips back with small kisses.

If I wasn't sweating bullets at the knife lying in plain view on the ground, then I would probably be completely hypnotised by Saiki right now.

But the adrenaline pumping in my blood mixed with my state of absolute fear allowed my brain to continue to push on with semi-rational thoughts, although who knows how long I would be able to stay lucid and hold out.

"S, Saiki..." I murmured, then I grabbed Saiki's shoulders with trembling hands and pushed her gently down onto the bench so that she was lying face up into the afternoon sky.

Then, I broke out of her kiss, moving my face away from hers and down to the side of her delicate neck. Her skin was so smooth and supple, appearing to have an alluring glow to it.

What I had really done was position her somewhere where she wouldn't be able to see the knife, while at the same time giving myself a clear view of where the knife was.

"N, Naosuke...!" Saiki stammered, her eyes closed tightly in anxiousness and her body stiffly held together, "Y, you can do anything you want to me! I, I'm okay if it's you...!"

I pushed my lips nervously down onto Saiki's neck, trying to distract her, but in truth I really had no idea what I was doing. Prior to confessing to Saiki, the furthest I had ever gone with a girl was being able to hold a friendly conversation without coming off as a weirdo. This was like going from learning how to walk to competing in the 100 metres sprint at the Olympics.

The knife was so close!

Dammit, but I had no where to hide it even if I did reach it. Then I glanced further to the side, seeing some bushes near the edge of the park. Maybe if I could kick the knife into those bushes...

I climbed on top of Saiki on the bench, still kissing her weakly on the neck. Raising one leg over to the other side of the bench, I gave the handle of the knife a solid kick, watching with suspended breath as it slid across the dirt ground and straight into the bushes that I had been aiming for.

I did it! For the first time during all this madness, I was finally successful at something. The knife was completely hidden under the bushes, and it appeared Saiki was completely oblivious. My internal self clenched a victorious fist, pumping it into the air.

"N, Naosuke..." Saiki moaned, and I felt her hands grabbing onto the side of my head, pulling my face up from her neck and into her soft lips with a passionate kiss. "Mm..."

All of a sudden, I was acutely aware of the dangerous position I was in, lying on top of Saiki on the bench in the vacant park surrounded by tall trees. The afternoon sunlight was fading and night was slowly setting in.

"S, Saiki...!" I managed to utter in between her kisses, but she promptly pushed her lips into mine again, cutting me off, with her hand grabbing onto the back of my head.

Quickly, I could feel my willpower sapping away from me with each and every kiss, alongst with my voice of reason, and I used my little remaining willpower to pull myself up from Saiki to no avail as she held my body down firmly on top of hers on the bench.

It was like being swept away by a tidal wave, and the more I fought, the weaker I got, until the only option seemed to be the relief of giving in to Saiki's kisses. She smelled so good, her body was so soft and delicate, why was I even fighting this?

My eyes gradually closed, I kissed Saiki back, and I felt bliss enveloping me.

"Oi bastard, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

A rough male voice came out of nowhere and I shot up on the bench from on top of Saiki.

~x~

Standing near us at the park entrance were five guys dressed in the same school uniform as us except with darker maroon shades, indicating that they were 3rd year seniors. They looked like delinquents, all sporting bleached hair, piercings, and carrying a cigarrette to their mouths, blowing smoke into the air.

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"You mute?" One of the seniors in the middle said to me. He was the same guy that had called out to me earlier. "I'm talking to you, fuckface."

"Yeah, I heard you loud and clear..." I replied, gradually getting over being surprised, "I'm just not sure what your deal is."

Next to me, Saiki pulled herself back up to a sitting position on the bench, glancing with a blank face at the seniors. Her head was probably still floating out there somewhere in the air from our kiss.

"Kawano's my girl, I claimed her first." The senior snarled, his face dark as he stabbed a thumb into his chest, "Ain't nobody at school that doesn't know I, Masu Takamitsu, am gunning for her. You must have a death wish going after my property."

"Hah?" I crossed my eyebrows in disbelief, before scrowling at the ridiculousness of his words, "If you're 'gunning' for her, that doesn't make her yours. Also, she's a girl, not a house, dumbass."

The other four seniors chortled sharply before chuckling amongst themselves at my comment.

"This guy must had swapped all his brains for balls."

"Does he not see that there's five of us and one of him?"

They started crackling in laughter, and I glanced over at them with a grim smirk, "You think just cause you jackoffs outnumber me, that's gonna stop me from breaking a few of your noses in before I go down?"

That made them stop laughing.

I already knew that this was probably going to end up in a fight, seeing their appearances at the start, and that running wasn't an option since they were standing directly in front of the park's only entrance and exit.

Might as well try to inflict as much pain to these assholes as I can before they take me down.

Seeing the senior that had called himself Masu start to approach me, I stood up from the bench, stepping forward to get ready to throw fists.

The only problem was Saiki.

I glanced behind me at Saiki who was still sitting on the bench with an airy look on her face, her scarlet eyes gazing down at the ground.

"Hey, Saiki! What the hell are you doing?" I hissed at her, "Hurry up and get out of here already! I'll distract them...!"

"Nah, Kawano stays here with us." Masu said, and I turned back to face him.

"Since she let you have a go with her, then it's only fair that we get to have a go too, don't cha' think?" Masu grinned darkly at me, "Quite a perfect place to do it too with no one around! Thanks for setting this up man, I had actually been thinking about doing something like this for a while now!"

"You bastard..." I said, clenching my teeth. "I thought you said you liked her."

"Like her? Psst--!" Masu snorted, then howled in laughter like a hyena, "Girls are just property, something you play around with and move on to the next! Their only purpose in life is to serve my needs like a dog! Besides I already tried to play nice before and that bitch turned me down without a second thought!"

His friends started laughing behind him, their faces twisted in sinister glee.

"Hey, I bags second with Kawano!"

"No fair! But the three of us can share last, right!"

I glanced around at the seniors with a grim smile, cracking my knuckles together, "At least now I know for sure I won't lose any sleep at night over beating you sick sonsofabitches up."

Despite my keen avoidance of anything sports related, I still had a medium sized body and experiences with being in fights before alongside Koichi. As outsiders at school, we had our fair share of people that despised and started fights with us simply for being the odd ones out. It was a natural tendency for people to hate on those that were different to them.

In spite of saying all that, there was still no way that I would be able to take on these five seniors on my own, all of them being individually bigger than me.

Dammit, if only Koichi was here, then maybe I would stand a chance even though it would still be slim.

"Come on, dude, no need for the tough guy act. I know you're pissing your pants inside." Masu said, stepping up to me. He blew a cloud of smoke into my face from the cigarrette he was smoking then placed a hand down on my shoulder, "Don't worry man, I promise we will give her back to you when we're don--"

His words were interrupted when I hurled a fist into his face, slamming the cigarrette inside his mouth and sending him staggering backwards.

The rest of the seniors went quiet in stunned silence, shocked that I had actually threw a punch.

"F... fucker...!" Masu spat his cigarrette out to the ground, holding onto his nose that was dripping with blood.

"If you're trying to intimidate someone with violence," I chuckled grimly, raising my fists up into a fighting stance, "You should probably snub your cigarrette out first, in case it actually gets violent."

"Kick his fuckin' ass!" Masu screamed, and the other four seniors quickly tossed their cigarrettes aside, before running at me with raised fists.

I ducked under the punch of the first guy that charged at me, then threw a punch across the jaw of the second guy as I rose up, stunning him. The third guy kicked me in the stomach and I stumbled backwards, feeling pain aching across my stomach, before the fourth guy punched me in the face and my vision went blurry. I threw a fist back reactively at where the fourth guy's face had been, and felt my knuckles colliding into target, sending him reeling backwards.

Then I felt two of them charging into me, grabbing a hold of my arms, and a fist flying into my face, causing me to spit blood out the other way.

My vision came back and there were two seniors pinning my arms at the side, whilst the other two were standing in front of me, glaring at me with seething faces. Masu pushed the two aside, as he walked up to me, one hand holding his bleeding nose.

I glanced around and saw that the fourth guy that I had punched blindly was also dripping blood from the nose.

Dammit. I had only managed to break two noses.

"You crazy fucker...!" Masu spat out, throwing a fist into my stomach with all his strength when he got to me, and I gasped in pain, my legs weakening. I would had fallen down to the ground if the two seniors were not holding me up by the arms. "Keep him up!"

"Hehehe," Masu smirked, leaning down to look at the pain on my face, "How about we play a game? We will take turns punching your stomach to see which of us can break the most ribs until your entire ribcage is broken. Winner gets to go first on Kawano."

I was still reeling from his punch, my breath completely gone and unable to reply.

"Ready? Hereee weee gooo--"

Masu stopped, the fist that he had pulled back to punch me had another hand holding it, one that was delicate and small, preventing his entire body from moving forward.

I glanced up weakly and saw Saiki standing behind Masu, holding his fist back.

"S, Saiki...?!" I exhaled painfully, each breath hurt, but I didn't care, "Wh, what are you doing?! G, get the hell out of here, idiot...!!"

Shit, it felt so long ago that I didn't even remember but I had taken away Saiki's knife. Without her knife, Saiki wouldn't even be able to do anything to the seniors. She was just an ordinary girl going up against five guys that were easily more than twice her size. This was literally the worst case scenario.

I struggled desperately to get out of the seniors' grasp but my stomach was still aching painfully, preventing me from even drawing a breath to recover my strength. The two seniors held my arms firmly, refusing to let go.

Masu had froze for a few seconds in surprise, before chuckling darkly, "Oh, Kawano? You want us to start with you first so bad? Then we--"

Masu never had the chance to finish his sentence.

Instead, he started screaming at the top of his lungs in bloodcurdling pain as Saiki wrenched Masu's fist back, snapping his entire arm to an inhumane angle, then in one swift motion, lifted Masu up across her back, hurled him across the air like a ragdoll and slammed him straight into the hard ground on the opposite side of her, neck-first.

A spine-chilling crack resonated inside the desolate park, and the seniors stared with absolute horror at their friend who was now lying lifelessly on the cracked dirt ground with his neck bent 360 degrees backwards and dark red blood leaking from his mouth, ears and eyes.