Chapter Text
Shiemi catches herself staring at Rin’s tail during and after cram school. Especially during lunch break, Shiemi notices the difference his tail makes to his personality since he hides it when they sit by the fountain. During those lunch periods, he is still as boisterous as ever but it seems more withdrawn than during periods in the classroom or when she visits his dorm. One day, Shiemi suggests they take lunch in the classroom. Rin is rightfully confused but he accepts her request readily. Shiemi, shaking with nervous energy, blurts out that she wants to touch Rin’s tail. He is caught off-guard and flinches, then immediately starts blushing. He stammers something and flails his hands around him before resting one behind his head with the other clenching his knee. Shiemi glances at Rin’s tail during his scrambling for an answer and his tail is reflecting his anxiety by waving sporadically. Now that he is more composed, the tip is twitching intermittently with the rest of the length still.
Rin takes a breath then, with a nervous smile, lets Shiemi touch his tail. He swivels in his chair so that his back is facing Shiemi. She watches Rin’s tail a bit before lightly brushing the tuft of fur at the tip with her fingers. It twitches away from her at the contact before relaxing and she hears Rin’s breath hitch quietly. She asks softly if it hurt when she touched it. Rin replies that it didn’t, only surprised him a little. Shiemi, now confident she was not hurting him, combs her fingers through the longer fur on the tip before running her fingers over the finer fur from the tail tip to the base connecting to Rin’s back. His body stiffens a bit when she does this and Rin sheepishly asks Shiemi not to stroke his tail in that direction. Shiemi makes a small noise of surprise before running her hand over his tail the other way; from the base to the tip. Rin’s body relaxes as Shiemi follows the direction of his fur with her fingers. She experimentally scratches close to the base of his tail and Rin sighs. Shiemi smiles softly to herself as she scratches and pets Rin’s tail. It slowly goes limp on her lap from her menstruations so she holds it there and pets the tuft, straightening any tangles she made.
A soft rumbling noise catches her attention and she finds the source from Rin himself. His head is drooping a bit but the rumbling that she is hearing is definitely purring. She giggles softly to herself that she made Rin purr, which overall means she made him happy. Shiemi stealthily removes the ribbon she was wearing atop her head and ties it to Rin’s tail tip right where the tuft begins and gently rouses Rin from his drowsy purring. He looks at her hazily before wondering frantically how much time has passed aloud to himself. Rin then quickly scarfs down his lunch before the lunch period ends, not noticing the pink bow attached to his tail. He then turns to Shiemi and shyly thanks her for petting his tail. She blushes and thanks Rin in return for heeding her wishes. The other ExWires trickle back into the classroom to which Shima points at Rin’s tail and laughs at the pink bow tied to it. Rin exclaims in the form of a rather shrill scream when Shima brings attention to it, his tail stalk straight up and his fur bristling. Despite this dramatic reaction, he makes no moves to remove it and no one comments on Shiemi’s fond expression.