My eyes widened as I, for the first time, fully looked at Maria’s face.

It looked sort of the same, but her cheeks were slightly flushed and her eyes were full of determination.

For some reason, due to the darkened ambiance of the room, she was looking far more mature than I initially thought.

‘I guess she wants to confess.’

Was this good or bad? I wasn’t sure.

But, if she was to confess at this moment, wouldn’t it be easier for me to reject her? I mean, she was only sending signals before. It wasn’t concrete enough to warrant a ‘No’.

But now? If she expressed her feelings, I could just tell her the truth about mine.

‘Alright. I’ll let her go first.’

“Maria, you can—”

Before I finished, her hands slightly landed on my cheeks, caressing them slowly.

“You’re hot…”

‘Eh?’ I initially didn’t understand what she meant by that—or why she was touching me so intimately.

‘Her hands are cold… and she’s shivering a bit. Is she alright?’

I raised my hands to hold hers, definitely to remove them from my body before it was too late.

However—

“Your cheeks are so hot…” Maria moved closer to me.

“… Are you alright?”

Her face was too close, causing me to turn away, sharply causing her hands to fly away from me.

‘Oh crap! Why does she have to go this far? Does she not realize what she’s doing? As the adult here, I should put an end to this.’

“Actually, Maria, I—”

As gently as the breeze, yet as swift as lightning, Maria’s lips landed on mine. It was too fast, and truly… I couldn’t explain how I was unable to react to someone slower than me by every standard.

‘W-wha—?!’

Maria kissed me, returning her hands to my cheeks as she pulled closer.

‘N-no… I can’t. This is wrong. I can’t!’

My body was weakened for some reason, and I slowly throbbed as I raised my hand to push her away.

But, Maria must have seen this coming since the next thing she did was push me backward, causing my stiffened body to fall on the bed.

‘N-no!’

Even though our lips detached, I felt in even more danger because of my new position. My eyes widened once they witnessed what came after my descent.

Swiftly, Maria positioned herself atop me and looked at me from her higher angle.

To be honest, she looked so attractive, and I could feel something rise from within and beneath me, but I focused squarely on what I had to do.

‘You’re terrible, Jared. What’s wrong with you!’

“The truth is…” Her whisper was cool, and her wide eyes watched me without blinking even once.

“… I’m sixteen now. My birthday was a few days ago.”

>THUMP!<

>THUMP!<

>THUMP!<

“That means I’m a legal adult…”

>THUMP!<

>THUMP!<

>THUMP!<

“So, even though going any further with you would be considered a sexual assault on my part, I…”

>THUMP!<

>THUMP!<

>THUMP!<

She drew her face closer and kissed me once more. At this point, my body didn’t even offer any resistance, and I closed my eyes.

Her lips were warm, unlike her hands, and it would be the first intimate kiss I had in this new body.

Oh wait, my mom stole my first kiss. And second. And third.

That woman really went overboard.

But, when considering things romantically… Maria was my first.

“I like you, Jared,” Maria whispered, detaching her lips from me, but she was still atop me on the bed.

“I know you don’t feel the same about me now, but that’s okay.” She smiled, causing my heart to ache.

So, she knew! She knew about it, so why was she doing this?

“I don’t plan on letting that stop me.”

What was this? The look in her eyes was dangerous. I gulped and felt perspiration slowly surface on my glowing skin.

“I won’t give up, Jared. I want us to be together… a-and w-we can get mari—I mean, together. So we can get together.” It seemed like she stuttered at some point, but her confident expression told me she wasn’t feeling the least bit anxious.

‘But this… isn’t it going too far?’

I was sweating at this point, and so was Maria.

Things were getting too steamy, but, for some reason… I didn’t hate it.

“I won’t force you to accept my feelings now, Jared. But, I’ll be waiting. At least, when you complete what you have to do… I’ll get your answer then.”

Once again she smiled, and I felt her body rest on me.

“So, please… just remember this…”

Her face returned to a calm expression, making my heart beat faster, considering she could have such a reaction despite the situation.

“I have dibs.”

Dibs? What? I didn’t understand half of it, but it still made my body tingle.

“Understand?” Her soft voice danced in my ears.

I truly did not know when I nodded in response.

“Great.” She finally let me go, returning to her side of the bed.

“Haaa… haaa…” My breathing was coarse, and I thought my mind would be driven to the edge of insanity.

‘Crazy… Maria is crazy!’ As I remained laid on the bed, those were the only thoughts that manifested in my mind.

“You said you wanted to say something. What’s the matter, Jared?”

My body jumped when I heard her voice. Slowly glancing in her direction, I found her looking stoic, staring at me blankly.

It was almost as if nothing ever happened. If not for the sweat trickling down her body and mine, one would think we were just waiting in awkward silence.

“I… uh… I’ll tell you next time.”

“Oh, okay.”

Logically speaking, I was supposed to outrightly reject her now.

But, after she had gone so far to express her feelings… there was no way I could do anything at this point.

Maybe it was bias, or simple nostalgia. After all, Emilia was the same with her forward approach.

I had a weakness for that sort of thing, and it didn’t help matters that Maria was now a legal adult.