Attraction

Sometimes when he was bored or lonely at the university, he would take his car and go home, not the apartment he had lived in since he had started his higher education but the house he had grown up in. There at least he could entertain himself with his younger sister who was always happy to see him.

That semester he didn't have classes on Fridays, so it was quite usual that on Thursday afternoons, after organizing what he had to do for the following week, he would go and spend the whole weekend with his family. Her mother was a stern and very strict woman, so keeping good grades was mandatory if he didn't want to have her on the phone lecturing him about responsibility and not to make him feel bad when he went to see her and her sister.

When he arrived he parked his car in one of the available spaces and went to a nearby bakery to buy something to snack, he walked around the neighborhood thinking that although he was not exactly a lone wolf, the truth is that he did not always fully enjoy the company of his classmates.

That's why he didn't share so much with them, to talk about his future and the direction the family's business would take he already had his own mother.

Did they have nothing else on their minds but to think about money or ways to make more? Yes sure, they all studied finance and were sort of heirs to big companies not only in the country, but that didn't mean that was the only topic available.

He clicked his tongue and wanted to think of something else, like the fact that the place was more secluded than he remembered but he was closer to getting there than turning around just to go back in the car. The smell of chocolate and other desserts invaded his nose as soon as he walked in, so he ordered some chocolate muffins for himself, some cinnamon rolls for his sister, and for his mother a couple of éclairs.

He was trying to hold back his urge to eat one of the pastries as he resumed heading home when he saw that young woman looking everywhere with tears in her eyes.

He approached her and it was then that he knew she was lost, recognizing she studied at the same school as his sister and from which he was a graduate, and surprising him by leaving him with his hand outstretched after saying his name. He shrugged, the world was full of crazy people.

When he got home, he left the box on the hall table and knew something was wrong when he heard the loud banging on one of the doors as well as his mother shouting. It was rare for his mother and sister to argue, more so in that way, yelling was usually reserved for him exclusively so he went upstairs at once ready to intervene on Hana's behalf.

"You're being ridiculous!" Shouted their mother and gave another couple of knocks on the door of his sister's room. "Open the door at once!" more knocking. "Hana I'm telling you to open the door!"

"NO! Why won't you let me have that friend?!"

"What's going on?" the woman's hand stopped just before knocked again.

"Good," was the greeting, "you are going to convince your sister to stop this nonsense she is involved in."

"IT'S NOT NONSENSE! YOU ARE BEING IRRATIONAL!" Shouted the younger one from the other side.

"What did she do?"

"Do you remember what the principal Ōnoki did?"

"The scholarships he offered to underprivileged students and for which you were ranting for almost a month at all the dinners threatening to change Hana to another school?" He asked with irony. "No, I don't remember."

"Yes, that situation." Said the woman ignoring the sarcasm.

"What about it?"

"Your sister not only befriended one of the beggars, but also had the crazy idea of bringing one home." She emphasized her words. "She brought a lousy girl into the house!"

"They're not lousy, mom."

"Imagine what kind of filth she brings! Besides she could have stolen from us!" He put his hand to the bridge of his nose.

"I TOLD YOU SHE'S NOT A THIEF!"

"It's not like you're going to be poor because someone steals a chandelier, besides, you heard Hana."

"Are you going to side with her? Be useful and take your sister out of the room, so we can talk like civilized people," she ordered him.

"Hey little-flea," he had advanced to the door and gave two light knocks. "I brought you some cinnamon rolls."

"I DON'T WANT THEM."

"Really? Because if you don't want them I'll eat them all by myself... they're from the bakery we like and are still warm."

"For real?" He smiled victoriously as he saw the door open a little and his sister peeked out, she had been crying.

"Come on, they're downstairs." Hana always looked like a little girl when it came to food. "I brought you some éclairs," they both went downstairs to the dining room, he went to the kitchen to get the 3 glasses of milk as their mother had also taken a seat. "How are the school going, little-flea?

"Same as usual, although I have two projects in pairs and now mom kicked out my partner."

"She's a lousy girl who doesn't..." Said the woman after biting into her dessert

"People usually don't have lice, mom."

"She wouldn't even let me go out to pick her up to take her home, Tenten mustn't know the neighborhood and she could be wandering around."

"Brunette, two buns and she was in uniform?" His sister nodded. "I saw her near the bakery."

"How did she get so far?" He shrugged

"I told her where the bus stop was. Do you know it is in front of the new molecular vegan food place?"

"The one you didn't like?"

"Everything had the texture of mud," he reminisced, he didn't like things that couldn't be bitten. "But yes, that one."

"Well, now you know she's not lost out there. Will you stop the show?"

"No, I'm telling you she's my friend."

"And I'm your mother, I'm not going to approve that friendship."

"She's also my study partner, the project is in pairs and I can't do it alone."

"I'll go to the school and talk to the teacher, they can't force my daughter to pair up with a..."

"Please change your adjective," his mother frowned, "besides, what's the problem? The little-flea likes her and she needs friends."

"Why do you always take your sister's side?"

"Because there are no sides mom, the little-flea said it, she can't do the project alone and she likes..." he tried to remember. "I forget her name already."

"Tenten."

"That's it, her."

"Fine," she reluctantly agreed. "But you can only invite her to study, nothing else. I don't want to see her here unless it's strictly necessary."

"Thank you," Hana had hugged him as soon as the conversation was over and their mother left the dining room.

.

He had almost completely forgotten the encounter with that brunette, until that afternoon of the following semester when stressed-by-studying-for-his-final-exams he decided to disconnect and go home, it was close to snack time when he arrived so he went to look for his sister to see if they would go together to eat something, and when he opened the study he found the young woman standing in front of a blackboard.

She was embarrassed to see him there, but it was good to see that his mother had indeed allowed her to continue studying with his sister. He invited them to eat and Hana asked to go to the restaurant that sold her favorite food. They had discovered it one day when they had gone out alone, as at first glance their mother wouldn't approve of them going into a place that looked like that, but the smell had made them approach and it had definitely been worth it.

Seeing that the brunette refused, he asked if she was a vegetarian, thinking maybe they could stop by and buy her something at the mud-place and with that she would accompany them, also offering to take her home.

At her vehement refusal he remembered about the scholarship, and that probably she would live in one of the slums, satisfied to see that when he offered to drop her off at the bus stop she did accept. At first he thought she was very shy and that was why she got along with Hana, who could sometimes be a bit introverted, but as they talked he realized that she wasn't so shy, in fact she would talk and answer his questions, laughing with his anecdotes of his teenage years.

He admitted that she was cute and had a nice laugh so he purposely told more funny stories or talked about meaningless topics just to hear her laugh again while they were eating.

In any other similar situation, he would have kicked or stomped on the third person present to be able to talk at least a few minutes alone with the woman he was interested in and exchange numbers. The problem was that the third person was his sister and she wouldn't understand him stepping on her all of a sudden, when he heard her say she would go wash her hands he thought it would be his chance, but Tenten also went with her and he cursed under his breath.

As he went to the bathroom he had a silly idea but it was the only thing he could think of, he reached into his pocket for the little notebook he usually kept there and wrote down his own number, he folded the paper and as they had their drinks he managed with one hand to open her backpack and slide the note in before zipping it back up.

They had accompanied Tenten to the bus stop and after seeing her get on the bus they returned home. Had it been rash or idiotic to do something like that? Probably, but despite knowing that she was her sister's age there was something about her that had been extremely attractive to him and for a second it seemed to him that it was mutual.

He dropped Hana off at the house and after greeting his mother who reminded him to study and not waste time, he drove back to his own home. It was about an hour's drive and he should be grateful that the traffic cooperated, he left the phone on the bed while he put on his pajamas, got under the blanket and when he was about to open one of the digital books on his cell phone he saw that he had had no signal before and several messages were just starting to come in.

But the one that caught his attention all at once was the one from an unknown number. He opened it and saw the small photo in the corner showing the smiling brunette behind a small cake with two candles forming the number 16.

He clarified who he was and the reason for the note, reading her in what he could assume was an attempt to push him away, managing to make her laugh even in writing. Beginning to talk to her about anything, sometimes just some directionless idea that passed through his mind that any of his companions would have ignored, but she would answer him and even resolve his hypothetical doubts about existence.

He wanted to ask her out but for some reason he didn't have the courage, maybe because of the age difference and thinking that she saw him only as her friend's brother, not that he was shy, in fact if he wanted to he could pass for a playboy and had managed to succeed in front of other classmates in taking to his bed some of the university girls who had more suitors, but with Tenten he felt a little inhibited. That's why he only talked to her with no other intentions.

Until that afternoon when finally he crossed again in the house with Tenten, he had gone a few times but he had not seen her and he didn't want to ask his sister directly. He had laid down in his room and his heart skipped a beat when he heard the two voices, he didn't peek out, if he did Hana would see him and he would lose any chance to talk alone with the brunette. So, he waited until he saw that Hana was leaving her alone and he slipped into the study. She had been staring at him and almost frozen in place, so he decided to approach and kiss her, glad to see that he was indeed reciprocated.

They had continued to sneak around the property until that day when her mother showed her classist side and treated her badly, yelling about the statutory rape. He admitted that it was something he hadn't really considered, but he still didn't want to stop seeing her.

His progenitor officially exiled him from the house for the rest of the year, as Tenten was helping Hana improve her grades and so it was usual to see her so often. So they had passed to see each other some afternoons and just fooling around the city, he was aware that she was usually in uniform and that anyone could see them.

He knew she loved spring, so in May he had invited her to a picnic in a clearing in the countryside where flowers were everywhere. It was the first time they had been completely alone and perhaps that was why the kiss was a little out of control, especially because of how pleasantly she reacted to his touch.

If it had been any other woman who had passed by his bed before, he wouldn't have hesitated to open his pants and taking advantage of the facilities that gave him the fact that she was wearing a skirt, he would have put aside the cumbersome underwear to penetrate her right there. But a voice in his head reminded him of her age, and that she had probably never had sex before, only for that reason he was able to stop.

When he asked her, he wasn't surprised to learn that she was a virgin, so he stepped back. She didn't deserve a first time in the middle of a field and with no more foreplay than a kiss, he had to be patient, they had to go slowly and maybe in a couple of months they would get to the act. Only when he had made sure that she was in complete agreement and really wanted to do it.

They continued to see each other sometimes during the week and on weekends they would go somewhere usually secluded, like a viewpoint he knew and where she had smiled excitedly when they arrived. He liked to see how she would do little hops when she was happy and how it was she who sought his lips, who slid her hands shyly over his t-shirt and pushed his patience practically over the edge.

It was good to go to lonely places because of the absence of any curious viewers, but it was also bad for the same reason. A couple of times he had caressed her bottom over her skirt and that day he had dared to massage her breasts a little, listening to her gasps and the complete absence of rejection to his actions, but it was still too soon.

Before going back to the city, they stopped at an exclusive restaurant nearby because she needed to go to the bathroom and they ate a dessert together. He listened to her on the way in the car talking about the summer vacation and that when she returned to school it would be the last time she would do so, because at the end of the year she would graduate.

He watched her get on the bus and then his phone vibrated, it was a message from Hana telling him that their mother was angry but she didn't know why. He rolled his eyes, their mother was an explosive and bad-tempered woman so he wasn't surprised, he asked his sister if she wanted him to pick her up and she denied, the anger was with him and she was warning him not to show his face in the house.

Now what had made her angry? His grades for the semester that had just ended, if he didn't count the geopolitics one that he had passed with difficulty, had been good. He waited a couple of days for a call from his mother to complain about something and nothing happened, so the next Saturday after his appointment with Tenten he went to visit his sister.

They went together to tsukune's place and when they entered the house his mother from the top of the stairs saw him in a bad way and told him that they had to talk very seriously. That woman was scary when she put her mind to it, and she was definitely putting her mind to it at that moment.

"Leave us alone Hana," the younger girl saw the two of them and nodded, his mother pointed to the dining room and he went there, taking a seat at once.

"Does it amuse you to contradict me?" Her voice had a gloomy gelidness in it

"Now what did I do?"

"You know very well what you've been doing. Did you think I wouldn't find out?" An image taken from a security camera was placed in front of him, it clearly showed Tenten by his side the previous weekend as they entered the restaurant. He clicked his tongue in response. "You're going to end this nonsense for good."

"Mother..."

"No, I'm not asking if you feel like doing it. I'm ordering you to do it."

"I'm not going to do it."

"As stubborn as your father was, he spoiled you and your sister by letting you think you can do whatever you want."

"Leave the little-flea out of it, she barely remembers him." His father passed away when he was 10 years old.

"Whatever, the point is this whatever you have with that beggar ends right now," she raised a hand to prevent him from replying. "You will leave the country, I have already spoken to the university authorities and it has been approved that you will study next semester in London."

"What?" So that's why she was upset before and had solved everything before talking to him.

"As I said," she handed him a brochure of a university and the copy of the travel itinerary. "This nonsense ends here, you'll see it will be for the best son." She placed her hand on his and sweetened her voice. "I do everything possible for the welfare of my family, she isn't only a beggar, she is still an underage girl and this time away will restore your perspective."

"And if I refuse?"

"Don't make things more difficult darling," something wrong, the word 'darling' in her progenitor's mouth was never a sign of affection or appreciation. "There are many women in the world, don't ruin your life and your bright future for so little thing."

She said nothing more, squeezed his hand one more time before getting up and leaving him there. The mention of his future made it clear that if he refused his mother's next threat would go that way, or despite going to great lengths to avoid any scandal involving the family, her expression said she would be capable of herself accusing him because of the brunette's age.

He fixed his eyes on the dates, he would be leaving in two weeks, so his plan to spend part of his birthday the following weekend with Tenten stood.

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Hope you like it!