Eventually recovering from the shock of being kicked, Hiro stumbled to his feet dreadfully bracing himself for what was to come. Ryuuki’s shadow draped over the poor guy and before he could even begin trying to convince her, she continued to go on the offensive. Staring up into the heavens, Hiro saw her tattered and stained socked foot quickly descend onto him. Before long, with a deafening crash, he was buried under her smelly foot as she began grinding him into the padded floor. Sweat slowly drenched his entire body, eventually creeping its way into his mouth. The smell was almost bad enough to knock him out and before he passed out from suffocation, Ryuuki had lifted her foot.
"Please wait." Hiro coughed. "Can I just say something before you—" Barred from finishing his sentence, Hiro was subjected to underfoot hell as Ryuuki brought the toe of her other foot down onto his helpless body. Proceeding to grind his body into the ground like a burnt-out cigarette, Hiro was starting to get real familiar with the underside of Ryuuki's socks. Every piece of sock lint, thin loose thread or tear, and most of all, the horribly intense odor. Hiro could've been halfway across the room, or heck, even in the next room over, and he could still smell them. Even the "sportiest" of past customers couldn't compare, and if she kept trying to suffocate him with the smell of her socks, Hiro feared that he'd no longer be able to remember those past customers.
Banging and struggling under her toe like a worm, Hiro desperately tried not to faint hoping that he could somehow find an opportunity to actually put his skills to use. While he did consider licking as a last resort option, there was no way she'd feel it through her heavily worn gym socks. As his vision began to fade, a sudden flood of light blinded Hiro. Waiting for his eyes to readjust, he was sad to learn that it wasn't the after-life but instead it was Ryuuki. Standing over him with a slightly less angry look of annoyance. Sighing, she fell back onto the padded floor and placed her legs on either side of the durable tiny. Trying to recover fast so he could get a word in, Hiro was, yet again, interrupted.
“How much do you get paid?" She asked, poking and prodding at his exhausted body with her index finger. Before Hiro could respond, his voice was drowned out as Ryuuki started to talk again. "What dumb question. I bet you do it for free!" At first, Hiro thought that she was finally winding down but it became very evident that this was undoubtedly the start of a rant. And the poor guy was not looking forward to how it would escalate.
"Silently getting off as unsuspecting girls use you to 'relieve stress?' What a load of bullshit. Why the hell would anyone but a masochistic little bug like you take such a shitty job anyway? And that shady middle-aged scam artist of a boss of yours has the gall to charge Uehara just to satisfy some little perverts fetish.” With every sentence, her voice became angrier and her body language became more and more intense. "In fact, you should be the one paying me because… whatever hogwash ‘stress relief’ crap you're trying to pull has not helped in the slightest!!!" She shouted, her breathing got heavier and her eyes began to water. In a fit of rage or some other outburst of emotion, Ryuuki slammed her fist down mere centimeters away from Hiro, nearly smashing him. It was almost like an explosion. He could've sworn he had felt a shock wave and the deafening slam was enough to make his ears ring for a few moments.
Gathering up all his courage, he stared back at the furious girl. A cold sweat ran down his spine and his legs quivered in fear. However scared he may have been, Ryuuki’s outburst had confirmed all his suspicions. This was the perfect moment for him and he couldn’t afford to waste it. Taking a deep breath, he hastily composed himself and poured his heart out to Ryuuki.
“Because you aren’t stressed.” He said, still shivering in fear.
“Huh?!” Raising her voice, she leaned in closer. Hiro probably should’ve led with a more precise statement but he was happy to actually be heard for once. That is until he tried to go into more detail about things.
“And you know how? Look jackass, if you think I’m listening to some shrimp tell me about my feelings.”
“Look I get it. Break-ups are really messy and your emotions are probably all over the place but, despite how angry you may be feeling, blowing off steam isn’t always the best option.l—” Slowly realizing his mistake, Hiro turned the other way around and started running for his life. From behind, he could hear how angry Ryuuki had gotten and in front of him, he could see her feet begin to close in on him. Before long he was tightly sandwiched between both her heels as she attempted to turn him into a fine paste. Applying more and more pressure, sweat began oozing from the tattered socks, and thanks to Hiro struggling to breathe all that sweat fell right into his mouth. Once again, the intense salty liquid coated every “micro-inch” of his mouth, He gagged, and almost threw up but he knew full well it was his fault. As he mulled it over in his head, it occurred to him that it was probably best that she found out now rather than later.
"So, who told you?! You better tell me before I rip your shrimp body to shreds— oh wait…" Face palming, she split her heels apart allowing Hiro to fall onto the ground. Coughing and catching his breath, he was happy knowing things were unfolding relatively well. "Tch, that blabbermouth. Uehara really set this whole thing up, huh? Tell me everything she said… or else." She threatened, hovering her foot over him. Whilst cowering under the shadow of Ryuuki’s toes, Hiro decided it was time to go on the offensive. He stood his ground, hoping that she wouldn’t stand him. It was yet another stupid decision. Even if he couldn’t care less about ratting Uehara out to Ryuuki, Hiro was dead set on helping her.
“It doesn’t matter what she told me. I know enough. You already acknowledged that the stress relief treatment isn’t for you, so how about we get down to the source.” Preemptively bracing himself, Hiro was very pleased to know that he wasn’t plastered to the bottom of her sock again. Pleased enough to keep on trucking along. “You’re allowed to be sad, you know.” He said trying to get a good look at her face, only to be caught off guard as Ryuuki finally put her foot down… literally.
“Am I really?!” She said, her voice quivering. “Have you seen me? Do you know what I am to other people?! To my team?!! I am not someone who’s supposed to start acting like a wimp over getting dumped by my first crush.”
Aside from being stuck under her foot, Hiro was a temporary loss for words. He figured this was how she’d react and was happy that he at least made some progress, but this was the first time someone had “opened up to him” in person. He’s read notes about behaviors, seen testimonies, and offered his help to people over text or phone, but hearing the pain in her voice made him all the more motivated to help her.
“I am a leader. When all else fails, I'm the person people depend on. I can't afford to be so… vulnerable." She sighed, pulling up a chair. "But here I am now, ranting about all this shit to some guy stuck to the bottom of my foot." Lifting her foot onto her lap, she pried him off her sock and placed Hiro on the top of her foot.
"Carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders is admirable, but as a leader are you sure that weight isn't holding your team back? Your teammates know about the breakup, I assume, have they been trying to cheer you up?" Hiro needed to get a feel of her whole situation before he could go further. Despite reading the room surprisingly well, taking things on the safer side couldn't hurt.
"Yeah, obviously. That's literally the reason I'm here, genius." She snarked, holding her head in her hands. "Aside from that, they've been giving me the usual stuff. They keep telling me 'there's plenty of fish in the sea' and 'that I'll find someone else soon' but it's all bullcrap!" She slammed her fist onto her lap, almost knocking Hiro off her foot.
"You need to be honest…" Hiro said.
"What? Do you think I'm lying—"
"Honest to yourself and your teammates. They're your friends, right? Why do you have to hide how you feel? Are you afraid that they'll take advantage of you?" Placing his hand on her big toe, he tried his best to simulate someone putting their hand on someone's shoulder.
"Of course not, the girls aren't like that, not in the slightest. It's just… I'm scared. I'm supposed to be strong and cool-headed, but that's not who I am, at least not now. They look up to me and I'm scared." Tears welled up in her eyes, dripping down her face and nearly hitting Hiro as they fell down to the floor.
"It's ok to be scared. I mean, look at me." He said, looking down at his nervous hands. "If you can express your emotions 'to some guy stuck to the bottom of your foot' then you should have no problems doing the same with the people who care about you the most. It's ok if you cry, or get mad because no one should suffer through pain alone." Giving her big toe a hug, he was so glad he was able to get through all that without gagging. And before he could stop hugging, he felt the massive force of her finger push him harder and deeper into the fabric of her sock. While it was disgusting, Hiro believed it was her way of hugging him back. When she finally lifted her finger, Ryuuki placed him back on the floor.
"You're a real weirdo, uh…"
"Hiro. Masumi Hiro."
"Thank you so much for talking, and sorry for being so rough, Hiro." She smiled, walking towards the door. Taking a moment to feel proud of himself, Hiro collapsed onto the floor and stared up at the ceiling. He felt so accomplished, a rush of happiness was coursing through him and nothing could bring him down… that is until he heard the boss's voice.
"You know you still have an hour left, right?" She said, sending a chill down Hiro's spine. Whenever a customer would want to leave early, he knew exactly what the boss would suggest.
"Oh no, I'm pretty satisfied with—"
"Even so, the station is quite a long walk from here. You should take advantage of the extra time and kick those socks off so the little guy can give you a massage. Everyone says he's super good at them so it'd be a shame not to try it, right?" She chuckled, before leaning in to whisper something. "And plus…"
"Ohhh, I see. That actually makes a lot of sense. Well, I guess it couldn't hurt." Going back into the room, she closed the door behind her and plopped herself down onto the padded floor. Peeling off her socks, Hiro was hit with what was essentially a heatwave. Sweat and loose sock lint covered every inch of her giant feet. "Get to it, Hiro. Oh and sorry about the smell… though I'm sure it doesn't bother you that much, right?" She winked.