Chapter 200 | Just Kumiko [GT BONUS]
Chapter 200: 200 | Just Kumiko [GT BONUS]
His loft bedroom looked the same as always. Dark grey sheets that Chloe had picked out for him. A nightstand with a charger and a glass of water. The window above the bed showing a rectangle of Newport Beach sky, starless and amber from the light pollution.
Kumiko stood at the top of the stairs and stared at his bed like it was the final boss of a dungeon she’d been grinding toward for weeks.
"I need to borrow somethin one girl at a time. He held it out to Kumiko.
She took it with both hands. Held it against her chest. Buried her nose in the fabric and inhaled deeply.
"Oh," she said.
"What?"
"Nothing. It smells like you. I’m having a moment."
"Take your moment in the bathroom. First door on the left downstairs."
Kumiko clutched the henley like a sacred artifact and descended the stairs with rapid, pattering footsteps. Jordan heard the bathroom door close, followed by what sounded like a muffled scream into a towel.
He sat on the edge of his bed and pulled out his phone.
A golden notification blinked at the top of the screen.
He swiped it open.
💝 CASHBACK ∞
ACTIVE CONNECTIONS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Chloe Kim 📍
Chemistry: 77% ▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱
Return Rate: 1.54x
Last interaction: Today
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Kumiko Yamanaka 📍
Chemistry: 33% ▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱
Return Rate: 0.66x
Last interaction: Today
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Jordan stared at the numbers on his phone screen and did the mental math he’d been avoiding all night.
Thirty-three percent.
Up eleven points from the moment he’d registered her at the aquarium entrance. The jellyfish date had done serious work. The soft kiss under the blue lights had moved the needle harder than anything since. And now Kumiko was in his apartment after midnight, wearing nothing but his henley, about to climb into his bed.
The old Jordan would’ve been calculating projected returns at fifty percent. At seventy-five. At the moment the third slot unlocked.
New Jordan locked his phone and set it face-down on the nightstand.
Whatever happened tonight would happen because both of them wanted it. Not because a golden interface on his phone screen approved of the transaction or promised future profitability on emotional investment.
The System could grade this in the morning.
Right now, he was just Jordan, and she was just Kumiko, and the bathroom door was opening downstairs.
Kumiko’s footsteps came up the stairs. Slow this time. Deliberate.
She appeared at the top of the landing, and Jordan forgot every single thought in his head.
The grey henley hung past mid-thigh on her. Just the henley. Her legs were bare from the hem down, pale and smooth, her thigh-high socks discarded somewhere downstairs along with her skirt and hoodie. The neckline was too wide for her small frame and had slipped off one shoulder, exposing her collarbone and the delicate line where her neck met her shoulder. She’d taken her hair out of its twin tails, and her black hair fell loose past her shoulders for the first time Jordan had ever seen, framing her heart-shaped face in dark waves.
She looked like a completely different person.
Not the bouncing, hyperactive cosplayer. Not the anime-obsessed girl who drew stick figures and squealed at headpats.
Just Kumiko.
Bare legs. Borrowed shirt. Dark hair loose around her shoulders.
"H-hi," she said.
Jordan swallowed.
"Hi."
She padded across the floor on bare feet. Each step made a soft sound on the hardwood. She stopped at the foot of the bed, her fingers twisting the hem of the henley.
"Which side?" she asked.
"Left."
Kumiko circled to the left side and climbed onto the mattress. The sheets rustled under her weight, which was barely anything at all. She pulled the grey comforter up to her chin and lay perfectly rigid, staring at the ceiling with eyes the size of dinner plates.
Jordan killed the overhead light and lay down beside her.
Darkness.
Just the glow of the city through the window and the green light from his phone charger on the nightstand.
Kumiko was three inches away. He could feel the heat radiating from her body, could hear her breathing, quick and shallow.
"Jordan-kun."
"Yeah?"
"My heart is beating really fast."
"Mine too."
"Really?" A pause. "You don’t seem nervous."
"I’m very good at hiding it."
Another pause. Longer this time.
"Can I..." Kumiko’s voice dropped to something barely above air. "Can I come closer?"
"Yeah."
She moved across the three inches like she was crossing an ocean. Her body made contact with his side, her head finding the hollow between his shoulder and his chest. Her arm draped across his stomach, tentative at first, then more firmly as she settled into the shape of him.
She was so small.
That was the thing that hit Jordan the hardest. Chloe was five-six and fit against him like a matching puzzle piece, all curves and warmth and confident ownership. Kumiko was five-four in shoes, and without the platforms she was even shorter, this fragile little creature whose entire body weight barely registered against his torso.
"You’re really warm," she murmured into his chest.
"Mmhm."
"And big."
"Thanks."
"That wasn’t—I didn’t mean—" She buried her face in his shirt. "I meant tall. And wide. In the shoulder area. Which is normal for boys. I mean men. I mean you."
Jordan wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer. His hand found the small of her back where the henley had ridden up, and his palm pressed flat against her bare skin.
Kumiko inhaled sharply.
"Ahh..."
"Too much?"
"Nn-nn." She shook her head against his chest. "Don’t stop."
His thumb traced a slow line along the curve of her spine. Each vertebra was a tiny bump beneath soft skin. Kumiko’s fingers curled into his shirt, bunching the fabric at his stomach.
"Jordan-kun."
"Mm."
"Nobody’s ever held me like this before."
The words were so quiet he almost missed them. Said into his sternum with the weight of a girl who had dated seven people and been left by all of them.
Jordan’s hand stilled on her back.
Then he turned onto his side, facing her.
Kumiko’s eyes found his in the low light. Wide and dark and terrified and hopeful in equal measure.
He cupped her face with one hand. His thumb brushed her cheekbone. Her skin was impossibly soft, warm from the blood rushing to her cheeks.
"Hi," he said again.
"Hi," she breathed.
He kissed her.