Rewinding the clock one minute, while Zhou Tai'an was chatting with Silent Suzuka, he was completely unaware that Oguri Cap and Brand New Shine were peeking at him from outside the hot spring pool.
"Are we really doing this?" Although it was Brand New Shine who had first proposed "thanking the trainer," she had never imagined that the clueless Oguri Cap would suggest this method.
"I saw it in the manga Northan Ace was reading," Oguri Cap replied. "I think it should be right."
"No... but... that..." Brand New Shine stammered, about to retort "Don't bring manga into reality," when she saw her friend had already walked in.
"Wait for me!" she gritted her teeth and followed her in.
Because it had been raining all day, the temperature was quite low. The water droplets that condensed on Oguri Cap's eyelashes as the steam met the cold air made her involuntarily squint as she stepped from the living room into the hot spring.
But even so, the gray-coated horse girl could easily make out her trainer's position in the mist—he was muttering something to himself.
Following the direction of the voice, she waded through the hot spring and slowly walked over, with Brand New Shine close behind.
Unlike the standing Oguri Cap and her, Zhou Tai'an, who was sitting in the hot spring, had an unobstructed view of their towel-clad figures—after all, it took time for the steam and cold air to condense and form mist.
But even so, the sudden appearance of his horse girls in the hot spring still gave the young man a fright.
"I'm taking a bath," he cleared his throat and lowered his voice. He thought they had come in because they thought he wasn't there, and intended to remind them to leave for a moment.
But things didn't go as planned. As soon as he finished speaking, Oguri Cap, having confirmed his position, walked straight towards him.
"Huh?!" he was genuinely scared this time and quickly took the towel from his head to cover his vital parts.
"Shine and I are here to help you, Trainer..." Oguri Cap, having reached him, forgot what the line from the manga was halfway through.
"Oguri and I are here to express our gratitude to you, Trainer," Brand New Shine, peeking out from behind her, took over—the embarrassment in her tone was quite clear.
"Then can you two please get out?" he pressed his forehead, quite helpless. If it were any other time, it would be fine, but now, with the "Carrot" from Central just on the other side of the wall, the young trainer absolutely did not want his image to be ruined in front of an "outsider."
However, Oguri Cap replied blankly, "I'm already prepared."
He really didn't know if she was as clueless as usual at this moment, or if she was just pretending.
He turned his gaze to Brand New Shine, who was hiding behind her. In his opinion, this was most likely her idea, and Oguri Cap had just taken things in a wrong direction.
"When there is work to be done, the disciples should do it," Brand New Shine, noticing his gaze, peeked out again and retorted. "You said you would teach me some training knowledge after we get back to Kasamatsu."
"The Analects do say that, but it doesn't teach you two to come over when I'm taking a bath, does it?" he pouted. "Anyway—"
He was halfway through his sentence when Oguri Cap had already sat down to his right and was holding his arm. "You just need to be quiet, Trainer."
He had heard this line before—including, but not limited to, outside his parents' bedroom door, and passing by certain activity rooms at work on the West Coast. Each time, as a bystander, he would leave without being noticed.
But this time, it was his turn.
He tried his best not to feel the delicacy and warmth of Oguri Cap, to keep his thoughts as normal as possible.
But seeing that she had already made a move, Brand New Shine also came over, sat down on his other side, and, just as she had in the supporters' section today, also held his free arm.
"I'll do my best too!" she whispered in his ear, stating her intention.
Although he was sandwiched between them, his mind was racing, and he first confirmed one thing—Miss Carrot next door would not be treated to any X-rated show today.
Even if they wanted to, he would firmly refuse.
On one hand, as horse girls, both of them were in the 'honkaku-ka' (full-fledged) stage, and trying the forbidden fruit now would affect their bodies—this was scientifically proven.
On the other hand—"I don't have a single 0.02mm adult-use rubber product on me." [0.01mm was only available in the 90s]
Of course, the most important point for him was that he didn't want the premise of their relationship to be "gratitude." Intimate contact under such a premise would have a "transactional" feel to it, which he disliked.
Therefore, after confirming his thoughts, he slowly spoke, "If you really want to do something to thank me, a back massage is enough. As for anything else, that's not something I, as a trainer, should be doing with you."
He added in his heart, "At least not now."
"This is just winning one national local exchange Graded Race," he looked back and forth between Oguri Cap and Brand New Shine, who were very close to him. "In the future, we will go to a higher stage. If you continue with this kind of thinking, how will you thank me then?"
Although Oguri Cap was usually slow on the uptake, in this environment, she became quite sharp—"It's not something a trainer and a horse girl should do... does that mean if our relationship is more than just that of a trainer and a horse girl, then it's okay?"
Silent Suzuka on the other side of the wall also thought of this. The chestnut-haired horse girl, who had heard similar rumors at the academy, blushed, wanting to get up and flee, but had lost the strength to do so, as if she were stuck to the bamboo wall, and obediently continued to lean against it, listening to the conversation on the other side.
Brand New Shine also realized, "But I'm not a horse girl anymore."
Not wanting to be pushed out, the chestnut-haired logistics horse girl held on even tighter.
In the end, he still managed to calm them down, and just let them give him a back massage.
But due to uncontrollable forces, during the massage, the number of times other parts of their bodies touched was probably more than all the "pillow fights" of the past month combined.
This also meant that he went to sleep much later than usual that night, and the consumption of tissues also increased by 100%.
The next day, he also got up a little later than usual.
Just as he had changed into his tracksuit and was about to go out for his morning run, he ran into Oguri Cap talking to Silent Suzuka.
-------
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