“You’ve had a hard day. Rest. Tomorrow……”

“I want to come in tomorrow.”

“Alright, then. If you want to take the day off, you can call in the morning.”

“Yes.”

Today really she felt like being a child who caused trouble at school and had her parent summoned.

Hyde came home in low spirits and found herself glaring at the wardrobe, the source of all this.

That night, Hyde turned the wardrobe inside out again.

From the next day on, she was back to her usual shapeless, oversized casual clothes that hid every curve.

Carbon, as always, made no comment about the change. But just before she left for the day, he said in passing,

“Is that new? It suits you.”

Hyde pressed her lips together.

‘You could have said something nice when I actually put in the effort……’

Then she reconsidered.

‘No, if he had, I’d have been so happy I’d have worn things like that every single day. I’d probably still be wearing them now. And I’d have caused another incident in those uncomfortable, annoying clothes, and Carbon wouldn’t have been able to cover for me, and I’d have gotten the disciplinary action after all.’

Thinking about it that way, she decided it was probably better that Carbon hadn’t reacted to her old outfits.

But there was something Hyde didn’t know.

From the day she launched her first plan, Carbon’s thick dark brows had been furrowed in constant displeasure. The moment she went back to dressing the way she always had, they smoothed back to their usual calm.

* * *

Her first attempt had ended in spectacular failure, but Hyde didn’t give up.

If she had been the type to give up over something like this, she would have given up long ago. Fourteen years ago, after Carbon saved her from death’s door, she fell for him on the spot. She had grown to love him more with each passing day as he kept coming back to visit a nobody orphan and treated her with such warmth, but those years had not been filled with simple, uncomplicated happiness.

There had been plenty of painful stretches too. Hearing that Carbon had a new girlfriend and crying alone into her pillow at night, or sinking into a low mood when she was forced to accept that he would probably never see her as a woman, muttering to herself that she needed to let go.

But she never could. As she grew up she accepted confessions from boys her age, went along with light, casual relationships, but with each one her feelings for Carbon only grew stronger. What had started as simple admiration and hero-worship had deepened, and the more she came to know him, the more she loved everything about him.

So she couldn’t give up over a small failure like this. Though she was, admittedly, a tiny bit discouraged……

“Nothing fixes your mood faster than something sweet.”

Hyde finished off the second sugar-glazed donut Carbon had left out and rallied herself to review the second plan.

‘If sight alone isn’t enough, I need to stimulate multiple senses at once.’

Hyde decided to apply what she had learned from her failure immediately.

Knowing Carbon’s schedule inside and out, she thought about when to put the new plan into action. Something suitable came to mind right away.

After arresting a rampaging villain and handing him over to the police, Carbon would have stopped by the massage room attached to the office to rest.

Hyde went straight to the massage room, where Carbon’s personal masseuse was preparing.

“Hello, Billy.”

A man in his forties, a full head taller than Hyde, looked up.

“Oh, hello, Hyde.”

He looked at her with a questioning expression. Hyde drifted closer and opened with a casual tone.

“Actually, I have a favor to ask.”

“A favor? What is it.”

“Well……”

Hyde smiled brightly, and Billy smiled back without thinking. Hyde’s cute face with its dimples had a way of making people feel warm just by looking at it.

But what came next put him in a difficult position.

“You’re about to give Carbon a massage, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. I’m almost ready. I just need to pick the oil and go in.”

“Would it be alright if I went in today instead?”

“Pardon?”

“I’ve learned enough theory, so I’d like to get some hands-on practice.”

Hyde had actually been learning massage from Billy lately. He had been impressed by her eager reasoning that she wanted to learn anything that could help Carbon and become a better sidekick, and he had taken her on as a student. He had been teaching her mostly theory, and it was true that she had reached the stage where she needed real practice to properly absorb what she had learned.

“Even so……”

While Billy hesitated, Hyde pressed gently.

“I learned massage for Mr. Carbon’s sake. So wouldn’t it make the most sense to practice on him? I’m sure Mr. Carbon would be fine with it.”

That last line was what ended Billy’s deliberation. He knew how much Carbon cared for Hyde.

‘Even so, I didn’t think he’d allow hands-on oil massage practice.’

Billy didn’t catch that Hyde’s statement was hypothetical, and he nodded.

“Alright. Give it a try.”

“Thank you, Billy.”

“Not at all. Shall we go in together, then.”

“No, I’ll go in alone.”

“Pardon?”

Billy took great professional pride in his work and could not send in someone who was not yet a professional as his substitute.

No matter how quickly Hyde’s skills had grown and how firmly she had claimed the top spot among his students, she still had plenty of room to improve, and above all, this would be her first time in a real session.

Normally she would have started by observing, building up her skills gradually before moving to actual practice, and since that process had been skipped, he needed to be there beside her for the hands-on portion at least.

Billy was about to refuse, when Hyde lowered her voice and explained.

“This is a secret, but I actually have something I need to pass along to Carbon quietly.”

“Ahh. So that’s why just now!”

Billy’s eyes lit up as though he had figured out why Hyde had been so insistent on doing the practice today. Hyde smiled awkwardly.

“That part…… yes, I do genuinely need the practice, so it wasn’t a lie.”

“Of course not. Heh. Alright. Have a good talk.”

Billy gave an encouraging fist pump and handed her the tray with the oil.

Hyde took it and stepped into the massage room, where a cozy space with only a soft, low light welcomed her.

She walked slowly toward the bed in the center. Carbon was lying on it with a dry towel over his eyes, waiting for the masseuse to come in.

‘Wow.’

For the oil massage, Carbon was wearing nothing but a pair of short boxer-style shorts. Which meant he was essentially undressed, nearly bare.

The warm amber light only lit the edges of the room softly, so his bare body wasn’t sharply visible, but the knowledge that she would soon be seeing and touching and feeling him up close made Hyde’s heart race. She was almost afraid the quiet room would carry the sound of her own heartbeat.

Hyde held even her breathing still and thought,

‘If Carbon realizes it’s me who came in, he’ll tell me to leave immediately. I need to stay quiet for a while so he thinks I’m Billy.’

But contrary to her plan, Carbon had sensed something was off from the moment Hyde walked in.

A veteran hero did not fully let his guard down even when relaxing and releasing tension. With his vision blocked, his other senses sharpened all the more, and he naturally registered what was happening around him without needing to open his eyes.

The click of the door handle turning, the door swinging open, the sound of footsteps drawing closer. Under the towel, Carbon’s eyes narrowed.

‘……Light footsteps.’

Billy, Carbon’s personal masseuse, was a man in his forties with the kind of powerful build needed to properly work through the dense muscle armoring Carbon’s thick frame. His physique was larger than the average man’s, and his footsteps were naturally heavy. Not this faint, barely-there lightness.

Someone else had come in instead. He hadn’t been told to expect a substitute. Or perhaps Billy was deliberately quieting his steps for some reason. But why would he need to do that. Besides, even if it wasn’t Billy’s, it was a familiar sound he recognized.