Mousetrap
Mio caught Sora’s hand right before he could slide it under her jeans.
“Too fast?” He unlatched his lips from hers and sat on the edge of the bed.
She joined his side, her head lowered enough to make her bangs hide her eyes. “That’s not the problem.”
“It’s an ‘unsafe’ day? Don’t worry, I have condoms in the drawer.”
“It’s not that.”
“It’s a ‘red’ day? Don’t worry, I don’t mind blood. We can just use a towel.”
“It’s not that.”
He blinked his narrow eyes at her. “So you don’t want to have sex?”
She leaned toward him. “I want to … It’s just — ”
“Just relax then.” He rested his hands on her shoulders and lowered her onto the bed. “I’ll be gentle, I promise.”
He was talking as if it were her first time. She wished that were the case — because the last time …
Her worry evaporated as Sora’s dewy kisses caressed her cheek, neck, mouth. Then her naked back, her naked thighs. Her naked heart.
Maybe that wouldn’t happen this time. Maybe she should relax as Sora had suggested.
“I’m going in,” he said, tearing the silver square in his hand. “Are you ready?”
“Should we use lubricant?”
“You’re wet enough. More than enough.”
Mio gasped as he entered her. Not only because of pain and pleasure but also because of her lingering worry. The latter quickly dissipated. The deeper Sora thrust inside her, the tighter he held her, the calmer she became. Soon this calm turned into excitement. And this excitement into elation.
This cocktail of bliss and lust made her lose command of her body. Especially her mouth, which kept letting out moans into Sora’s ear. Especially her hands, which wouldn’t stop digging into his back. In a desperate attempt to gain control, she hugged him so tightly that he gasped. So tightly that their bodies almost merged. So tightly that …
“Hey, what are you doing?” he mumbled.
Panting and perspiring, Mio said, “I’m about to come. Please keep going.”
“I can’t.”
“You came?”
“No, I’m trapped.”
Her arousal was washed away by tension. Terror. God, this couldn’t be happening again.
“Let me pull out for a moment,” Sora said, lifting himself from her.
“No, no, wait — ”
“Aghh!”
“Aghh!”
“What’s going on?” he yelled, collapsing on top of her.
She faced to the side. “I’m not very sure. All I know is that I contract very tightly at some point during sex … and that the man will get stuck. This has happened to me a few times before.”
“You’re like a mousetrap!”
“I’m sorry,” she whimpered.
Sora let out a long sigh. “I’m the one who should apologize. I shouldn’t have called you that. This isn’t your fault … Anyway, how did you finally get free?”
“We just waited for a couple of minutes.”
“Let’s do that then. Or I should say, let’s not do anything.”
They waited in awkward silence. For one, two … five minutes.
“You haven’t loosened up a bit,” Sora said.
Mio bit her lower lip. “Let’s wait some more.”
One, two … ten minutes passed.
“Have you ever had to wait this long?” Sora asked in a loud but quivering voice.
“No, this is the first time,” Mio replied, an onset of tears in her eyes.
“So we don’t know how long we’ll be stuck. Maybe for hours. Or God forbid, days — unless we call 119.”
“Please no! It’ll be too embarrassing if we’re found like this. By police, paramedics … We might even appear in the news.”
“You have a point there. Let’s stick to the original plan then.”
They waited until their stomachs became growling beasts.
“We should eat,” Sora said. “Or we’ll starve to death in the most ridiculous way in history.”
Mio gaped at him. “But we’ll have to go to the kitchen.”
He stroked his stubble. “It’ll be very hard to walk like this — harder than a three-legged race. And if we manage, we’ll probably faint from pain before reaching the kitchen.”
“Then what should we do?” Mio whimpered.
After a prolonged silence, Sora said, “We have no other choice but to roll there.”
“Wouldn’t that be as painful as walking?”
“Not if we roll slowly. Very slowly.”
Mio nodded. They didn’t have another choice.
“First, we have to get off the bed,” Sora said. “Let’s do that by rolling too. One turn at a time. Hugging each other tightly.” He took a deep breath. “Okay, at the count of one, two … three!”
Mio turned on her shoulder, then on her back. The feat hurt. But just like a bee sting.
Now she was on top of Sora, her small breasts pressing against his sturdy chest.
“One more time,” he said. “And we’re there.”
Mio craned her neck to peer at the floor. “It’ll hurt this time.”
“It’s okay. Your bed isn’t that high.” Sora sucked in some air. “Okay, at the count of one, two … three!”
They rolled off the bed.
“Aghhh!”
“Aghhh!”
“Are we bleeding?” Mio asked, wincing.
“It’s hard to tell,” Sora replied, scowling. “But even if we are, we have to keep going.”
After resting for a minute, they rolled toward the kitchen. One roll. Two rolls. Three rolls. It took them twenty rolls to reach it.
“We did it,” Mio said, sprawled under Sora, panting as if she’d run a marathon. “What should we eat?”
He wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Cooking is off the table. Let’s check the refrigerator.”
It took them three rolls to get there.
Since Mio was on top this time, she extended her arm and yanked open the refrigerator. “There are only cucumbers.”
“I don’t cook often. So I don’t shop often. Anyway, cucumbers have plenty of water. They’ll keep us hydrated.”
For the next few minutes, they munched cucumbers wordlessly. If only they had salt, vinegar, or miso … but they might not be able to reach for them.
“I think I ingested too much water,” Mio said after finishing two cucumbers.
Sora frowned. “Don’t tell me you have to …?”
Mio nodded, her eyes averted, her cheeks scorching.
“Hold it in!”
They rolled into the bathroom, then to the toilet — but not on time.
“Sorry,” Mio said, squeezing her eyes shut underneath Sora.
“Don’t worry. At least you didn’t go number two.” He let out a long sigh. “Worse than being stuck together is being stuck together and wet with piss.”
Mio apologized again.
“It’s okay,” Sora said. “Let’s just take a bath. Oh, right! Hot water might soften our bodies. And let us free.”
“Good idea!” Mio peered to the front. “But I don’t think we can make it into the bathtub.”
“Let’s just shower on the floor.”
They rolled to the handheld shower. On top of Mio, Sora groped along the wall until he managed to turn on the shower.
As they lay side by side, water like summer rain drizzled on them, washing away their stains and stench, filling them with soothing warmth. A warmth that increased with the sauna-like steam enveloping them. At last, they were relaxed.
But they were still stuck.
“I think we should give up,” Sora said, unmoving, “and accept our imminent deaths.”
Mio nodded, her hair caressing his chin. “Before we die, I want to ask you something … were you serious with me? Or was I just your plaything?”
“Of course I was serious,” he blurted. “Why are you doubting me?”
“I felt like — you couldn’t wait to have sex with me.”
“That was because I couldn’t wait to have you.”
Mio smirked, her eyebrows lowered at the tails. “In the end, I’m the one who got you.”
Sora’s lips mirrored hers. Then, as if a revelation had struck him, he said, “No, we shouldn’t give up.”
“What do you suggest we do?”
“We should pull away with all our might.”
Mio gaped at him. “But that’d be dangerous … We could die in the attempt.”
“We’ll die anyway if we don’t try.”
“I’m scared.”
“Don’t worry, this can’t be more painful than getting circumcised or giving birth.”
She sighed with her eyes shut. “I guess we don’t have another choice.”
“Okay, at the count of one …”
“Two …”
“Three!”
They pulled away.
And everything went black.
The first thing that Mio’s felt upon regaining consciousness was pain between her legs. A sharp, localized pain. Had she undergone female genital mutilation?
The second thing she felt was apprehension. Where was Sora? More important, how was he? Was he alive?
The answer — at least a partial one — came to her when she turned to the side. Sora was being rushed down the hallway on a stretcher, red bandages between his legs, moaning like a revived mummy.
As his supine figure slowly retreated at the end of the hallway, Mio mustered enough energy to lift herself on the hospital bed and mumble, “Goodbye.” Then she lay down and clamped her eyes shut.
