I woke up the next morning in a daze. The events of last night felt like a fevered dream, one that I wished was just that.
It wasn't, of course.
The increased points in my app was proof of my sin— adultery, with none other than Mr. Tanaka.
Deep down, I wanted to confess to Souji. Admit my mistake and hopefully preserved our marriage before my actions ate a deep hole in my heart. The other side of me was scared Souji would leave me right then and there.
I was cooking over the stove when Souji embraced me from behind.
"Oh. Tamagoyaki with a hint of condensed milk? Reminds me of when you used to come over to my apartment all the time to make me breakfast," he said, resting his chin on my shoulder.
The sensation made me think back to my neighbor doing the same when he had mistaken me for his wife. The rest of the memories came flooding back. Mr. Tanaka's penis in my mouth, the thick cum that flowed down my throat, the odor of sweat and tobacco in the air, these thoughts made my heart race again. Thoughts that were soiling my peaceful moment with my husband.
"Souji, you know I can't cook properly if you're holding me like this," I scolded him.
"Sorry! Just needed to recharge my Yuina gauge." He released his hug and took a seat to wait for his meal patiently.
The morning news was playing on the television. Souji turned the volume up so both of us could hear it.
A news anchor was speaking to a marriage counselor about rising infidelity between married couples in Japan. The expert believed that while adultery in marriage— largely due to emotional and physical disconnect between two partners— and is exasperated by overemphasizing work over domestic life, that reason has since changed in recent times.
There was reason to believe that in recent years, even if spouses were happily married, the act of adultery had become a social rite of passage. An anonymous survey taken of 10,000 married couples in Osaka, a whopping 60% admitted to cheating on their spouses. Of that same percentage, 50% of couples mutually agreed to committing adultery.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. How could people treat adultery as such a normal part of their lives? And then to have gone as far as mutually agreeing to it?
"People have their kinks," Souji said, sipping on his coffee. "But another couples' life isn't our life. You're really all that matters to me, Yuina."
The butterflies in my stomach fluttered, and it felt like I was in college again.
"You're certainly a flatterer," I teased, handing him a plate of tamagoyaki with a side of grilled fish and natto.
"Of course, when we have a child then he will be just as important!" Souji exclaimed.
I sat down across from him, resting my chin on my palm. Then surprise struck. "What? You want a son?"
Souji looked up with a mouthful like a chipmunk stuffing his face. "Did you want a daughter?"
"I'll settle in the middle and have both. You just need to put it in me," I answered, winking.
I saw Souji to the door again and leaned against the doorframe. There was an apologetic expression on his face.
"I know we promised to talk about the whole child thing yesterday morning. It's my fault for falling asleep early, I was just so tired." His eyes were cast down to the floor, so I grabbed his face.
I hesitated to kiss him. My lips had touched another man's thing. It felt wrong, but I brought him to my lips nonetheless. "No need to be sorry. It's not just about if I'm ready. It has to be when you're ready, too. Okay?"
Before he could say anything in response, I kissed him again. Thrice. Then a fourth time until he was red in the face.
"Y-You're making this hard for me to think clearly about. Can't say I don't like aggressive Yuina though," he grinned.
As always I had to push to get him going to work.
I swear, if that husband of mine didn't need to work like Jun, we would be going at it like rabbits. Kanako and Jun were going about their marriage all wrong in my mind.
As soon as Souji left, I ran to the bedroom and locked myself inside. The game app, NTL, stared back at me. Even though I regretted what I'd done, it was hard not to explore the game. It was like licking ice cream and letting the flavor linger in my mouth, teasing me to taste it again.
Kanako said she purchased a bullet vibrator using the points in the shop menu. The way she made it out sounded like it didn't cost her a single yen. It boggled my mind that this app would send you free stuff using digital currency.
Most game apps these days were unethically monetized in such that it drained your wealth through gambling. That was how they made money— but how did NTL make money?
The more I thought about the app, the more mysterious it became. If I wanted to learn more about it, I needed to explore its other functions. Namely, the shop.
A dropdown menu opened up when I clicked on the shopping cart icon. There was a long list of purchasable items. Scrolling through it barely made a dent to the scroll bar. A search box was provided at the top of the list, but I didn't really know what to buy.
The cheapest item was a single condom worth [50pts].
Next item was a box of 12 condoms priced at [500pts].
I couldn't help but laugh. Even in apps like these, purchasing in bulk was always the better option.
Condoms weren't the only things listed. Dildos, vibrators, lingerie, everything kept getting more and more expensive. There were even anti-contraceptives like the morning after pill and birth control pills. My thumb started getting tired, and I stopped at a sybian machine priced at [300,000pts].
A part of me was curious how much more expensive things got. The maximum amount of points that can be stored was 5,000,000. The scroll bar was only 1/3rds of the way through, so there must be more to buy.
Curiosity ended up getting the better of me, and I used the scroll bar to bring me all the way down to the most expensive item priced at [5,000,000pts]. There was nothing. Instead, the item icon was that of a black square with a question mark inside it.
Looking at all these sex toys and lingerie was getting me horny. My free hand instinctively moved down to my already damp crotch. Using my credit card wasn't an option, it would show up on our statement for Souji to see.
If what Kanako said was true, and these points could actually be spent...
"What can I buy with 6,500 points?" I mused to myself.
A red silicone dildo priced at [5,000pts] caught my attention. I'd never purchased a sex toy before. Not even a simple dildo. Until recently, my fingers and Souji were sufficient to get the job down.
It was five inches in length, of modest girth, and shaped with a curvature. Souji was a solid seven, so this wasn't an upgrade to him. If I buy this, I could pleasure myself while he wasn't home. Using my hands was an option, but I was curious how the shop function worked.
Would it be sent discreetly?
I pressed the big green buy button and was surprised to see it didn't ask me for a mailing address. Instead, it just said 'Purchase Complete' in the middle of the screen. The window blinked for a few seconds longer, and then disappeared.
"Was… that it?" I asked myself, and perhaps even to the app out of confusion.
Suddenly, the doorbell rang. I nearly jumped off my bed from a heart attack.
"It couldn't be… could it?"
A screen panel by the bedroom's light switch provided access to the front door's camera. When I turned it on, no one was there. Just blue skies and skyscrapers shown in the distance. There was, however, a brown box at the bottom of the screen.
I made my way to the front door and took a few deep breaths to calm my nerves.
On top of knowing who I interacted with, the app also knew where I lived. Fear didn't begin to describe what I was feeling. I almost wanted to call Kanako or Souji, but I wasn't ready to reveal that I'd been playing the game to my best friend, and it wasn't a good idea to disturb my husband while he was at work.
I opened the door just a crack. Warm summer air sucked into my cool, air-conditioned home. There was no one up and down the hallway. Someone delivered this to me, almost right after I purchased it. Even if I wanted to find out who it was, the person must be long gone now.
The box was incredibly lightweight. It had neither a mailing address nor return address, only a taped note written with my name on it.