Book Girl and the Corrupted Angel Read Online Free PDF Page B

want.”
    “Nah, I’ve got tons of girls who do that for me already. Nothing like that. Konoha, do you have any plans for Christmas Eve?”
    I was thrown off by his unexpected question.
    “Christmas Eve? No…”
    “Awesome! Can you keep it that way, then?”
    “Please don’t ask me to go to D—land with a boy on Christmas Eve and hold hands and watch the Electrical Parade.”
    “Ha-ha, that’d be great. Anyhow, just keep Christmas Eve open. Even if a girl with a way better chest than Tohko asks you out, you gotta shut her down.”
    “So you mean any girl over ten years old?”
    “Oh, wow, harsh, Konoha. Tohko’s super-self-conscious about that, and she does these exercises to make her breasts grow every day, so don’t tease her about it, please.”
    “What kind of exercises…make her breasts grow?”
    “Like, she puts her hands together in front of her chest then goes right, left, reeeal slooow. When I peek into her room, I see her doin’ ’em with a real serious look on her face.”
    Picturing it made me feel dizzy. Could it be yoga?
    “Anyhow, I’ll text you once I get hold of my contact for that Shirafuji thing. So can you remember Tohko’s snack? She’s seriously lookin’ forward to it. This is her little brother askin’,” he finished in a joking tone, then hung up. It was fifty minutes later when I got a message from him—just as I had finished up the improv story for Tohko’s snack.
    Tomorrow at 4, wait at the main gate to the Shirafuji high school. A crazy good-looking girl’s gonna come meet ya.
    And so the next day after school, Kotobuki and I waited with a touch of nerves in front of the impressive stone gate for Ryuto’s friend to appear.
    Ever since the beginning of December, the sun had been going down earlier and earlier, so the school building was painted in the burgundy light of the setting sun. A sharp north wind was blowing, making Kotobuki’s shoulders tremble.
    “Are you cold?” I asked.
    “I…I’m fine!” she answered awkwardly, shifting her gaze all over the place. I guess she was embarrassed about sobbing in front of me yesterday. She hadn’t gotten a text from Mito today, either, so that made three days’ interruption. That must have been making her frantic, too.
    It was already ten minutes past the time we were supposed to meet this person. Any number of girls passed by us wearing coats over uniforms styled like ladylike dresses, but no one who looked right appeared. Ryuto had said she’d be “crazy good-looking” in his message, but I was starting to regret not asking her name when—
    “Are you Inoue?”
    Out of nowhere, a sensuous voice tickled down my spine, and I spun around.
    “Looks like that’s a yes. Sorry I’m late. I’m Ryu’s friend, Shoko Kagami.”
    Her bright red lips lifted into a smile—a beautiful woman dressed in a close-fitting blouse, pants, and a long coat.
     
    “Mind if I smoke?” she asked as soon as we’d gone into a nearby café and settled on a sofa.
    “Uh…”
    I looked over at Kotobuki, and she nodded.
    “Go ahead.”
    Shoko’s eyes crinkled indulgently when she saw that exchange.
    “Thanks. I know they’re bad for your throat, but I can’t quit.”
    She put a slim, light-brand cigarette in her mouth and lit it with a silver lighter. Her movements were practiced, like a model’s. She was absolutely an amazing beauty. Where had Ryuto met her?
    Shoko was a voice teacher, and she knew Mito. She told us, frowning, how Mito had been out of school for a long time.
    “It’ll be ten days soon. Apparently she hasn’t been back to the dorms, either. I’ve been worried about her, too.”
    “Yuka’s staying in the dorms?” Kotobuki asked, her jaw tightening.
    “Yes. Her parents moved this fall.”
    She told us with pain evident in her voice about how Mito’s father had cosigned a loan for a friend, how the collectors had even barged into his office so he could no longer work.
    The whole time, Kotobuki’s face was