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After returning from brushing my teeth and settling back into my seat, something brushed against my left hand with a rustling sound.

Ah, right. The green grape flavored candy.

In the middle of eating and tidying up afterward, I had completely forgotten about the bag of candy.

I had requested it because of the words Kang Juha mumbled like sleep-talking at dawn, but seeing it after such a long time made me feel just as glad. It was something I had eaten often since I was a child, so I used to buy it frequently even after going to the Esper Military Academy, but I had all but forgotten about it since I started working.

Looking at it now, I wondered why I had lived having forgotten it.

When I tore open the bag, the individually wrapped hard candies tumbled clatter-clatter onto the table. While I was feeling unexpectedly sentimental, Kang Juha approached.

“Did you brush your teeth?”

“Yes.”

He must have dried his hair thoroughly, as the dry strands fell flutter over his forehead.

“That’s a shame. I was going to give you this if you hadn’t.”

“…Candy? How…”

Kang Juha’s eyes widened as he finally saw the candy scattered across the table. As expected, he didn’t seem to remember what happened at dawn.

“Eat them later. It’ll taste astringent if you eat them right after brushing your teeth.”

When I held out a fistful of candy, Kang Juha opened his palm and took them with a slightly dazed expression. Even after looking at the candy, he stood there blankly for a long time.

“Did you… remember? Everything?”

Kang Juha’s voice trembled minutely.

What is it? Does he remember the dawn?

“Yes. I remember it.”

“…No way.”

“You’re the one who said it at dawn, Mr. Kang Juha.”

He might have been intoxicated by sleep, but I was perfectly lucid at the time. There was nothing to even talk about regarding remembering it or not. It hadn’t even been half a day yet.

“…At dawn?”

“You said you wanted to eat candy at dawn, Mr. Kang Juha. You even specifically pointed out that it was green grape flavored candy.”

He didn’t exactly say he “wanted to eat it” in those words, but since his nuance suggested he wanted green grape candy anyway, it wasn’t exactly wrong.

“Ah.”

For some reason, Kang Juha’s eyes sank darkly along with a small exclamation.

“Do you dislike green grape flavored candy? Was it just sleep-talking?”

The response was beyond lukewarm—he looked like someone who actually disliked green grape candy—so I felt awkward, as if my effort had gone to waste. It felt like I had made a fuss all by myself while Kang Juha didn’t think much of it.

“I like it. A lot.”

For someone who says that, his expression isn’t very bright.

Kang Juha gave a faint smile. Exactly like someone thinking of a dear memory left behind in the very distant past.

Well, I suppose it’s candy with a story?

If we’re talking about stories, I have one too. It was the candy that the person who was the only one on my side during middle school—my father figure, close friend, and teacher—always carried in his pants pocket.

Even before I entered the Military Academy, he wiped his tears with a handkerchief, telling me to stay healthy, and emptied out all the remaining candies in his pocket to give to me.

…It was strange. Why had I forgotten this?

The fading of memories like this, which I would never have cut out voluntarily, was a kind of side effect. A byproduct.

By nature, human memory cannot be sliced as cleanly as a radish. Therefore, if you forcibly cut something out, the existing memories related to the vanished memory are affected as a side effect.

Conversely, if you recall a memory associated with the vanished one, some memories you thought were cut out might return.

To prevent this problem from occurring, the only way is to bleach the brain, and then one would have to relearn everything one by one from the start. In severe cases, starting from infancy. Humans are beings who can never be free from the past.

My head feels clouded. I don’t know what it is, but it felt as if my brain was struggling to recall forgotten memories.

I took a deep breath as a heavy headache set in.

“I’m glad you like it, then.”

“Then, Teacher, you don’t remember anything, do you?”

I mean, exactly what memory? What is it that I’m not remembering? What on earth is Kang Juha to me…

“…”

I chose silence instead of answering.

“And yet, just because I said something stupid in the dawn about wanting to eat green grape candy, you actually brought this? To give to me?”

“It wasn’t stupid. …But why are you suddenly sitting next to me?”

Kang Juha sat down right next to me, his body pressed close. If it had ended there, I would have just let it be, but he brought his face right up to mine, ignoring any sense of personal space, and stared intensely.

“Why, why…?”

My body shrank back involuntarily at the unidentifiable atmosphere. I had forgotten because he’s been smiling almost every time I see him lately, but Kang Juha is quite scary when his expression hardens.

His psychic wavelength, which usually didn’t bother me, weighed down like pressure, and because of that, my own wavelength rose up reactively.

Just as the thought “this isn’t good” flashed through my mind.

Smooch.

An alien sound I hadn’t heard once since graduating from kindergarten echoed in my ears. It was only after that that I felt the sensation of something touching my lips. And it was even later that I realized the thing touching them was Kang Juha’s lips.

Outside, lightning struck, followed by the rumble of thunder. I couldn’t tell if that thunderous sound was ringing inside my head or truly outside the window.

Kang Juha didn’t take his eyes off me for a single second.

“Just now, what…”

My words broke off like a fool. A strange sensation surged up from my core. I couldn’t tell if my stomach was ticklish or aching, and I couldn’t tell why my lips, which Kang Juha’s lips had left long ago, were belatedly burning.

In a word, I felt like I’d become stupid. This might be the stupidest moment of my life since I gave up my pacifier.

I looked at Kang Juha with my mouth hanging open involuntarily. I felt his gaze lingering persistently on my lips, and then.

“…!”

Our lips met once again.

The previous one might have been settled as some kind of accidental mishap. But this is just a kiss.

No, why his tongue.

His tongue…

“Mmph!”

Although I’ve lived a monk-like life roughly several hundred million light-years away from romance, that didn’t mean I didn’t know what a kiss was. At the very least, I knew for certain that this act does not occur in a normal, general relationship.

Setting aside that Kang Juha’s lips were excessively soft, supple, and warm.

“Phew…”

Taking advantage of the slight gap between my lips to hurriedly inhale, he instantly entangled his tongue with mine. By this point, I felt like I was truly going to lose my mind.

With the intention of having a conversation about how this situation came about, I tried to push Kang Juha’s shoulders. However, his solid body didn’t budge an inch; moreover, both of my cheeks ended up caught in Kang Juha’s hands. In the midst of this, why are his hands so warm—no, hot?

And there’s one new fact I’ve learned. Kang Juha’s hands are trembling right now. That means he’s nervous.

To be nervous despite being the one who ambushed my lips as he pleased.

I looked into his eyes as if demanding an explanation, but Kang Juha’s eyes were already half-unfocused and hazy.

I hadn’t understood why people who love each other entwine their tongues, but having experienced it myself, I couldn’t help but understand the reason. How provocative it is for the softest parts of each other to touch.

I didn’t know a kiss would be such a graphic and erotic act. It felt like every nerve in my mouth was on edge. The wet sound echoing in my ears was embarrassing enough to make my face turn bright red. As soon as I regained my senses, I jerked my head back like a bolt of lightning.

As I turned my head sharply to the side and gasped for breath, I could clearly hear the sound Kang Juha let out—I couldn’t tell if it was a groan or a moan. And why were the tips of my neck and ears turning hot again?

It felt as if Kang Juha’s tongue was still moving inside my mouth. Feeling strange, I scraped the top of my tongue with the tips of my front teeth to get rid of the lingering sensation. Not that it changed anything.

I couldn’t even yell at Kang Juha, asking him what he thought he was doing. I could only blink my eyes like someone who had been rendered speechless.

And the strangest thing was…

I wasn’t angry at Kang Juha for acting as he pleased.

“I’m sorry. It was a bit hard to hold back.”

Despite having audaciously entwined his tongue with mine, he offered a plain apology. He said it was hard to hold back.

“…”

“And since Teacher didn’t avoid it… I just did it without realizing…”

If he says it like that, I have nothing to say, but to me, Kang Juha’s kiss was a kind of raid. A raid suffered while in a defenseless state.

Who could have imagined it? This current situation.

“Did you hate it?”

Kang Juha acted like a puppy that had immediately tucked its tail, and since I had already missed the timing to raise my voice, I couldn’t even argue.

“…I was surprised.”

It was an irrelevant answer, but that was the only response I could give Kang Juha right now. Because the moment I heard the question of whether I hated it, I involuntarily thought that wasn’t the case.

That was an absolute secret from Kang Juha.