Author's Note: I hope you like the story.


Living abroad can be a liberating experience, and Akiko had finally built up the courage to make one of her dreams come true. The exchange student would never have considered actually doing such a thing in her native Japan, but here in America, somehow everything seemed possible. Even those dark secrets you never share with anyone.

She left her apartment wearing only a denim halter dress and sandals. The dress had a built-in bra so her small but pert breasts didn't need any extra support. In her hand bag, she had only a chain, a padlock, and some duct tape acquired from a local hardware store. Around her wrist was an elastic band with the key to her apartment. Locking the door, she made off to the park.

It was a warm summer night, and though it was late, there was still some sunlight left. All the children were home, asleep or getting ready for it, of course. So as she made her way towards the playground, she was not surprised to find it empty. At only 5'2", the jungle gym towered over her, but she lithely scaled it, betraying the agility of a member of the gymnastics team from her high school.

At the top of the gym, she took out the key to the padlock, and taped it to the center top bar, wrapping around and around with the duct tape, so as to require a minute or two later on when it was time to take the key off. She also mused that it would make it less likely for the key to fall off or discovered and removed by some unsuspecting passer by.

Descending from the jungle gym, she proceeded along a path through the woods for around ten minutes to a clearing which had a park bench, which she then sat down upon. Her heart was pounding as she pulled the chain out of her purse, but she calmed herself by remembering that she wasn't locking the padlock, so she could easily back out of her plan still. She threaded the chain through the straps on her sandals, the strap on her purse, then down the neck of her dress out the bottom, and finally through the arm of the bench. She took the last item out of her purse, the padlock, and hooked it onto the two ends of the chain, without closing it.

Then the battle began. I don't need to close the lock, this is exciting enough just coming this far. But you know you want to. It's too dangerous, somebody might see. It's night time, nobody is around. I can't, I'm a good girl. You went to all this trouble to buy your special underwear and set up the scenario, and you're just going to give up? What if someone I knew was watching? You're not in Japan, you don't even know anybody. You can just run away. No I can't do it. How about you close it half way?

She squeezed on the padlock half way, her heart leapt into her mouth and a thrill ran through her loins. But then she stopped. Her breathing was ragged as the internal battle raged on. She squeezed it again, and stopped. Catching her breath her fist contracted again, closing the lock half way. Then a bit more. No, no, I can't her boring side said. It's just a lock, it's not even like you're going to be tied up or naked or anything, her exciting side tried to convince her. Still the battle raged on without conclusion until finally, okay, okay, I'll do it. She closed her eyes and click!

Then just as suddenly, wait! No no no no no not a good idea. Her stomach sank as she realized she'd really done it. She pulled at the chain, examining every link, but her plan was too good. The only way back home was to take off her dress and run, all but naked, to where the padlock key was. The road back home was far too well lit and well travelled.

Even though she had to take off her dress now, she was afraid to. She huddled herself on the bench hoping another plan would present itself. She pulled futilely at the padlock, at the bench arm, at the chain. Why did I have to do this, she wondered. But no answer came to her. After a while, she started to feel a chill and reluctantly decided it was time to get going. It was starting to get dark now, but the moon was out and it was still possible to see the trees and some ways down the path. She peered hard down the left side to make sure nobody was there, and though sure there was nobody there, she peered just as hard down the right side as well. Then slowly, carefully, she slid the dress over her head, leapt up and hid behind a tree.

All she had on now was her specially ordered white thong. Too embarrassed to go to a store, she'd ordered it off the internet. And now here it was, the briefest of white fabric, even in the darkness contrasting sharply with her olive skin. She tried not to think about the small white triangle of satin at the front, the thin wet spot slightly below it, nor the thin wisp of white sneaking scandalously out of sight between her cheeks only to reappear at the top to meet the also-way-too-small waist band.

Now she started off down the path back towards the playground, bounding in embarrassment from tree to tree although there was no one to be seen, nor to see. The path was hard under her bare feet, and the night air caressed all parts of her body normally under wraps. She was almost able to forget her self-imposed predicament when she was surprised at the edge of the woods by the playground.

The first surprise was that there was a streetlight shining on the playground and the jungle gym was all lit up. She would have been able, after some hesitation, to make a run for her key, except a group of people had set up a barbecue at the picnic tables by the playground, and their party was in full swing. As she was realizing this meant she was stuck out here until the party was over, she heard a rustling behind her, and a voice said, "Whoa!"

She turned around to see a young man, probably college age, who looked a bit drunk and unsteady, who had just come out of the woods by the path. He seemed a bit surprised to see her, but Akiko, with a quick "Kya!" sped off down the path back towards the bench with her clothes.

She made it back to her bench and slid back into her dress, hoping nobody would find her here. Seemingly nobody did, since the man hadn't chased her and she didn't hear anything. All she had to do now was wait for a few hours, out here in the dark, effectively chained to a bench, with nothing to do. After a while, she dozed off.

It was still dark out when she woke up. She could tell several hours had passed by the location of the moon and the still in the air. Once again our heroine removed her immobile dress and stood in front of the bench in the flesh. It was very cool now and she took a moment to stretch her limbs from the awkward position she'd slept in and to warm up a bit. Imagining the party was long over now and that she was surely the only person in the park now, she set off toward the playground again, perhaps less shyly than before.

She hadn't made it very far when she heard a sound behind her. She turned around in alarm to look, but didn't see anything, of course. Except, peering back down the dark path, she thought she made out a small, pinpoint red light in the distance. Temporarily forgetting her predicament, she returned back down the path toward the light, curious as to what it might be. When she got closer, she could just make out of the shadows a person holding what looked to be a handycam. One pointing right at her, bare breasts, skimpy panties, and all!

With a "kya!" of alarm, she turned tail and ran down the path back towards the playground, and after a bit, stepping off the side of the path, hiding behind a tree, and turning around to look. To her dismay, the person with the camera was running up the path himself still filming in her direction. As he got close, he stopped perhaps 30 feet away, the camera never wavering from its female target.

Now self-consciously covering breasts with one arm, she shooed him away with her other arm, yelling "Go away!" But he made no move to leave. She waited a minute, two, maybe five, and looked again. She then scurried a bit more around the tree as she realized he had come around to get a better angle from his camera.

Seeing as he wasn't going to leave on his own, and she had no way to make him leave, she resolved to lose him in the woods. Further from the path, darting from tree to tree she went, the sharp undergrowth stinging the soles of her feet. It was hard to know whether to use her hands to cover her small but exposed breasts or to help push aside twigs and branches that got in the way. But no matter how far she went or how trickily she wove through the trees, the camera man followed along stubbornly.

Still, she was having some success avoiding the prying lens of the camera, but still leaving tantalizing glimpses now and again. But she realized this was never going to get her back safely home and was hurting her feet. So she resorted to another tactic. She made her way back to the paved foot path, and then using her athletic speed, raced toward the playground hoping she could somehow peel off the tape and recover her key before the man could catch up.

The bars of the jungle gym were cold against her body but what froze her most of all was the sight that greeted her at the top. A rectangular piece of the tape – the part over where the key had been – had been cut out and the key was gone!

Huffing and puffing the man with the camera finally caught up and this time got a good view of the naked Japanese girl on tape. The girl, for her part, forgot about modesty and went into a rage. She jumped down from the jungle gym and started swinging her fists at him. She was not much of a fighter, but she was fit, and he kept backing up to avoid the worst of the blows. She then started taking aim at the camera, trying to knock it out of his hands or to grab it, but he realized what was happening. Figuring he had enough footage, he turned fully around and ran off down the path.

She shivered as the adrenaline wore off, and planned her next move. Really there was no choice but to walk back down the brightly lit streets towards her home, because her other option was chained to a bench. The good news was it was really late now, and hopefully nobody was about.

So she walked down the road leading out of the park, and stood behind a telephone pole and looked out over the big boulevard. It had two lanes in each direction and streetlights every hundred feet. Worse, there was a couple hundred meter stretch where the road was bordered by a steep bank providing no cover whatsoever. After that, though, there was a copse of trees and then the residential streets with her apartment. Still, there was nobody on the road and nothing else for it, so with a big gulp, left arm covering both breasts, she took off in a sprint down the sidewalk. With only a few meters left she heard a car behind her, but she quickly slipped behind a tree and the car sped past. She had made it, safely, perhaps.

She edged towards the edge of the copse by the side road back to her apartment, and noted with dismay a police car was parked down the street with its lights flashing. Nothing seemed to be happening, but she couldn't risk going down there, so she had to take a detour down the boulevard to another street and a long way around.

Darting behind hedges, cars, and trees as much as possible, she made it through the long way around without incident, except for some barking dogs. She forgot about the automatic light outside the door of her apartment and gave the neighbors one more flash, if any had been awake to see the sight. But she made it home, relieved that the ordeal was over, thankful she'd had the foresight to keep the apartment key on her wrist, and resolving never to try a stunt like that again.