Seeing Lin Ye's astonished reaction, Haruno secretly congratulated herself on her cleverness in not having directly informed him of Yukino's decision. This could be counted as recovering a tiny bit of goodwill.
"Lin-kun, look, all of this was done by me in order to test Yukino's goodwill and feelings toward you."
Yes, this was all for the sake of the test.
"You saw how I even told Yukino we should break up, how I said I'd go find other girls to be my girlfriend—including Yui Yuigahama, Isshiki Iroha, Meguri Shiromeguri, and myself,"
"And even under such circumstances, Yukino still didn't agree to break up,"
"She still wants to maintain a lovers' relationship with you—which shows how much goodwill she holds for you."
As she talked on and on, Haruno's confidence came surging back. She lifted her head and threw out her chest. "For your sake, I went all in and risked everything. And now the result is good—Yukino's feelings and goodwill toward you run deeper than any of us imagined,"
"Yukino is unwilling to break up with you,"
"And you, my dear Lin-kun,"
"can now openly and brazenly court other girls and whisper sweet nothings to them, and Yukino can only silently watch, unable to stop you in the capacity of girlfriend or fiancée,"
"Be happy! Be glad! Be delighted!"
As she spoke, Haruno raised her hand and cheered aloud.
Watching Haruno in his field of vision use his own body to make such gestures, Lin Ye felt a wave of discomfort inside.
"Stand still for me,"
"Eh,"
"Don't think I'll believe this load of nonsense of yours."
"But it's the truth!"
she said as if it were perfectly natural.
"I'd be damned if I believed you,"
"That Yukino refused to break up is true—truer than purest gold,"
The credibility of that one sentence was still very high.
But why would Yukino do this?
Lin Ye had an explanation.
And that was that Yukino Yukinoshita had already discovered the problem—she had already realized that his body was occupied by someone else. As for whether she had realized it was Haruno, he couldn't be entirely certain.
"Haruno, Yukino has already realized you aren't me,"
Lin Ye voiced his conjecture.
"This… is impossible."
Haruno reflexively denied it. "I imitated your way of speaking as much as I possibly could, and besides, who could ever imagine that another person's consciousness would occupy your body?"
"Yukino knows. This new ability of mine—I told her. And I even ran tests with her."
Things having come to this, there was no longer any need to keep concealing it from Haruno.
Haruno was stunned.
He'd even told Yukino about something like this? Compared to Yukino, surely she was the one he shouldn't have told—wouldn't it have been better to test it with her?
In this moment,
Haruno had the feeling of having lost to her little sister, and that sense of defeat made her miserable, her heart all stopped up.
From childhood to adulthood, she had always been more outstanding than her sister, yet in this man's eyes she seemed not to measure up to her sister at all.
They had even gone to the Macau City Casino together, had even shared a bed, even shared a common secret—but why, why was Lin Ye still unable to trust her more?
Could it be because of her foot-dragging on the matter of searching for 'Asuna Yuuki'?
For a moment,
Haruno thought of many things.
Her rational thinking sharply diminished at this time, and all that remained were instinctive, emotional thoughts.
"You aren't deliberately deceiving me, are you!"
"What would I deceive you for? Is there any point?"
True enough.
Haruno's last shred of wishful thinking vanished as well.
She and Yukino held completely different positions in Lin Ye's heart.
Thinking it over carefully, there was nothing wrong with that, either.
Yukino was a girl Lin Ye genuinely liked, whereas her own acquaintance with Lin Ye had been destined from the start to be entangled with interests and gain.
There was an essential difference between the two—who would love a girl mixed up with interests and gain!?
Haruno smiled bitterly.
From the very beginning, she had chosen the wrong path. She felt a little regret, but after calming down and analyzing rationally, she also accepted it with composure.
There was nothing to say about it.
She, Haruno Yukinoshita, was absolutely not the kind of woman to drown in feelings of regret.
"So, has Yukino already guessed it's me?"
Haruno recalled the whole thing once more.
"I think the likelihood is small. She probably hasn't guessed it's me, and I think I'm right—if she knew the person inside your body was me, she should have said so outright; and if it were someone else, she should have promptly kept her distance from me."
But,
Haruno also thought of another possibility: that Yukino, for the sake of safety, was deliberately pretending not to have recognized her.
Without knowing whether the consciousness occupying Lin Ye's body was good or bad, for Yukino to actively expose and point it out would only plunge herself into a dangerous situation.
Therefore,
Haruno leaned more toward Yukino not knowing the truth.
Lin Ye wasn't entirely certain either, but no matter what, Yukino had firmly rejected Haruno's break-up overtures, and that was a good thing too.
"Get inside, come with me to explain."
"..."
Haruno hesitated. "How about I wait outside, and come in once you call me?"
Lin Ye didn't refuse.
Afterward, Haruno successfully opened the entry door lock using the passcode, and the two of them successfully entered.
Lin Ye stood before Yukino's bedroom.
'Knock knock knock…' the sound of knocking rang out,
but there was no answer.
"Yukino, open the door, I want to explain things to you."
But there was still not a sound from inside the room.
"Yukino, if you won't open the door, then I'm going to force my way in."
The door lock was already locked.
But very soon, Lin Ye saw Haruno retrieve a key from some corner of the living room.
Sure enough—this woman, how could she possibly not have hidden away a key to Yukino's bedroom!?
'Click…'
After inserting the key, Lin Ye successfully opened the bedroom door.
"You're not allowed in."
The girl with long black hair stood coldly at the doorway, her navy-blue eyes brimming with frost.
She was angry, angry to the extreme, not sparing even a shred of a pleasant expression for the two people before her.
Her elder sister, and her boyfriend-cum-fiancé.
"Yukino, listen to my explanation,"
"There's nothing to explain. Did I really misjudge? Sister, since you're interested in Lin Ye, then go right ahead—it has nothing to do with me,"
In this moment,
Lin Ye was certain that Yukino truly had not realized the consciousness inside his body was not him.
It seemed Haruno's acting was passable.
"It's me, Yukino, I'm Lin Ye."
Lin Ye spoke using Haruno's body,
and that single sentence left Yukino Yukinoshita momentarily stunned.
With a helpless expression, Lin Ye continued speaking,
but before the words could leave his mouth, a strong sense of dissonance suddenly arose.
A brief dizziness, and when consciousness grew clear once more and his eyes regained their focus, Lin Ye abruptly saw, ahead in his field of vision, the backs of Yukino and Haruno.
He had successfully returned to his own body.
Why would the superpower's passive effect end at this very moment—was the time up? Or had some key condition been triggered?
Lin Ye didn't think any further about this question; right now he first needed to resolve the problem in front of him.
"You're Lin Ye?"
Yukino seemed to half believe it, but thinking of how she and Lin Ye had successfully swapped bodies, she found she wasn't unable to accept it.
"I'm… your sister now."
Yukino Yukinoshita: ???
The next second, she took a step back and pulled the door, intending to shut it.
This bastard, playing her for a fool.
With quick strides, Lin Ye successfully stopped her before Yukino could close the door.
"Yukino, give me ten minutes and I'll give you an explanation."
"Refused,"
"I don't want it to be like this either."
"Hm?"
In the blink of an eye,
Yukino felt herself pulled into an embrace by some force, and the next moment her red lips were stolen away.
She was being kissed.
This time, Yukino was not about to let Lin Ye kiss her as he pleased; instead she struggled with all her might.
But Lin Ye wouldn't let go either, and before such absolute strength, Yukino was utterly unable to break free.
"Bastard, let go of me, wuwuwu…"
In the end, she failed.
She gave up and let Lin Ye do as he pleased, like a delicate doll, with only the tears at the corners of her eyes telling of the sorrow in her heart at that moment.
Haruno witnessed the entire process, her mood complicated.
Her own little sister, right before her eyes, was being fiercely kissed by the man who had occupied her body.
What on earth was this situation supposed to be called!?
A few minutes later,
Lin Ye released Yukino.
"Done?"
Yukino asked coldly.
"Mm,"
"You can leave now."
she said indifferently.
"I can leave, but please finish listening to my explanation first."
"..."
Yukino didn't answer.
"If you won't listen, then I'll keep kissing you, until you're willing."
Under this threat, Yukino nodded.
However unwilling, she could only agree for now.
Lin Ye began to explain.
From falling asleep, to waking up to find himself inside Haruno's body, to the subsequent phone contact and rushing over to the scene, all the way up to now.
He briefly recounted everything he'd experienced this morning.
"Remember our mutual perspective from before? It was actually a drawback too."
He exposed more information to Yukino,
"And there was that one where touching your body took away your… panties—that was a drawback too."
"With this test, I just wanted to find the drawbacks of this new ability, and now I think I know—randomly swapping bodies with someone,"
Lin Ye glanced at Haruno.
How should he put it!?
Swapping with Haruno was acceptable enough, not something he couldn't accept—although Haruno had stirred up trouble, the consequences of this matter were something he could bear.
But if it had been someone else,
the consequences—Lin Ye couldn't imagine them.
He even felt a lingering fear.
Upon hearing the explanation, Yukino's expression eased considerably.
It wasn't that she immediately believed what Lin Ye said, but his explanation did indeed carry a high degree of truth, and it also conveyed his attitude.
This also explained why, just now, 'he' had been thinking of breaking up.
Because her sister truly wanted her to break up with Lin Ye.
"I'll confirm with you one last time—everything you said is true? You're willing to swear it?"
"Yes, it's all true."
Yukino nodded. From beginning to end she had never once asked her sister, never sought verification from her sister Haruno, because she didn't believe what her sister said—she didn't want to believe it at all.
"So heartbreaking. Yukino didn't even come ask me, didn't seek verification from me—maybe I only reluctantly went along with him under Lin-kun's coercion!"
"Hmph,"
All that was returned to Haruno was a cold snort.
"Heartbreaking, truly… too heartbreaking."
Haruno even raised a hand and wiped away her tears.
"So, Yukino… for what happened earlier, I bear responsibility. Whatever compensation you want, I can try my best to satisfy it."
There was no help for it—things having come to this, Lin Ye thought of compensating the girl, to lift her mood a little.
He couldn't very well do nothing at all and just leave it like this!?
No matter what, this matter had had a certain impact on the girl.
"You're sure?"
Yukino's counter-question showed that the girl did not intend to refuse his compensation.
"I'm sure."
"Fine,"
And immediately after came the girl's terms of compensation, "Let's break up!"
She proposed breaking up.
"Lin Ye. Being with you, I'm too exhausted, exhausted in my heart. Let's break up! That's the compensation I want from you."
Having said this, Yukino Yukinoshita let out a long breath, easing the pressure and negative emotions in her heart.
Lin Ye fell silent.
It wasn't that he hadn't considered the possibility, but for Yukino to actually propose it caught him truly off guard.
And the most delighted one was Haruno Yukinoshita.
She had racked her brains hoping Yukino would agree to break up, yet Yukino had never agreed—and now Yukino was proactively proposing a break-up herself.
She truly understood now that she had not found the correct way to deal with Yukino; her understanding of the current Yukino was still far too little.
Haruno decided she ought to interact and spend more time with her little sister, to understand more of her sister's affairs and thoughts.
"Your answer? Don't tell me you can't do it."
Yukino countered, pressing him.
Lin Ye gazed at the girl before him. "I don't agree."
Once again, he refused.
This made Yukino Yukinoshita's first reaction that the man before her was Lin Ye, and could not be her sister.
"I refuse. I can do it, but I won't."
Yukino: ???
Lin Ye looked at the girl and continued, "Pick a different condition!"
"That works too,"
Yukino unexpectedly accepted Lin Ye's request. "Then instead of breaking up with me, break up with Mai Sakurajima."
Isn't that the same thing?
"Yukino, you said it yourself—you wouldn't pressure me anymore, that you accepted the relationship between the three of us."
"I did say that, but today's incident—I'm very displeased, I'm very unhappy, my heart was fiercely provoked."
Among her words and phrases drifted a trace of anger.
Having been toyed with like this, having very nearly lost her chastity—how could Yukino accept it.
Yukino was filled with lingering dread. At the thought of her own sister using Lin Ye's body to do who-knew-what to her, she felt utterly awful, cold sweat still ceaselessly breaking out down her back.
"Let's go on a date!"
Lin Ye suddenly said.
"Let's go on a date!"
There was no way he'd agree to this compensation demand of Yukino's. Having finally come this far with Yukino, how could he let the relationship between the three of them revert to its former state.
"I refuse,"
"Then I'll go find Mai,"
Yukino slowly typed out several question marks.
Are you trying to compensate me, or trying to infuriate me to death?
"I, I really will go find Mai, since Yukino isn't willing to go on a date with me."
"..."
Faced with Lin Ye's pressing interrogation and further urging, Yukino Yukinoshita hesitated immensely.
If she agreed, that would mean she had already accepted Lin Ye's apology; but if she refused, Lin Ye really might go find Mai Sakurajima.
Neither of these was something she was willing to accept.
"Sigh, since Yukino won't forgive me, there's nothing I can do—it'll just have to be this way."
"Hm?"
But the instant Lin Ye drew near once more, the girl reflexively shifted back a step, opening the distance—she'd realized what Lin Ye was about to do.
But how could her reaction be as fast as Lin Ye's?
The girl with long black hair was yanked into Lin Ye's embrace in one motion, and immediately after, her red lips were stolen away in a fierce kiss.
The familiar sensation, the familiar taste.
She shoved at him several times, and even raised her little fist to pound at his back, signaling for Lin Ye to let go.
But Lin Ye had not the slightest thought of stopping.
Compared to her resistance and struggling earlier, the girl's strength now was clearly far weaker.
Haruno took it all in, and her heart was bitter.
She extended a slender index finger to touch her own red lips.
The faint sensation stimulated her nerves, but in the end it was a sensation caused by her own hand, completely different from the kiss between the two people now in her field of vision.
Her body faintly had some reaction; she even felt this was because of the period she had spent using Lin Ye's body.
"Whew…"
Throughout it all, she watched, but made no sound, silently observing the two of them kissing.
It was only after roughly five minutes had passed that she saw the two of them separate.
Listening to her little sister's panting breaths, Haruno's mood grew ever more complicated.
Her most treasured little sister was, right before her, being kissed by a man once again.
From now on, from now on it would probably be…
Haruno shook her head and didn't let her thoughts go further.
Yukino's breathing was rapid, her cheeks flushed. She clenched her fist and, unable to hold back, pounded a few times on Lin Ye's chest, but her dainty fist did no damage at all—on the contrary, it came across as a cute, affectionate gesture.
"Bastard,"
"This bastard's going to kiss you again."
"You dare?"
"I dare."
Yukino's expression changed, deeply afraid Lin Ye really would come kiss her once more.
Just now, at the thought of her sister watching right beside her, the sense of stimulation in her body had grown all the more intense; she'd been nervous to the very limit, terrified she might show some unseemly reaction.
If Lin Ye kissed her again, and engaged in even more intimate behavior, she really might be unable to hold back.
"So, Yukino, do you want to test whether I dare or not?"
"Don't bully me anymore,"
Helpless, she didn't dare keep being stubborn, and could only relent.
Much of the time, this fellow Lin Ye yielded to softness rather than force.
She had no choice but to soften, otherwise she really might be kissed once more—this fellow was unexpectedly greedy for her lips.
Yukino felt a little worried about the future. If he kissed her twice every day like this, how was she supposed to go on living?
"What? Yukino, what did you just say?"
Lin Ye's deliberate tone earned a roll of the eyes from Yukino.
She wouldn't say it.
"Looks like one more kiss really is needed."
"Don't bully me anymore,"
she said with a touch of resentment.
Lin Ye pointed at his own cheek. "You know what to do."
I don't know, and I don't want to know at all.
Especially with her sister present, she even less wanted to perform such a proactive cheek-kissing act.
Yukino quickly stole a glance, only to see Haruno's expression was calm, as though she had no reaction whatsoever, which made Yukino gradually steel her resolve, and she quickly planted a kiss on Lin Ye's cheek.
Right after, she immediately turned her cheek away, no longer daring to look at Lin Ye, and toward her sister Haruno's direction she was even more unwilling to look.
Lin Ye was thoroughly satisfied.
Haruno's composure was about to crumble.
Her little sister had even done this, dared to do it right in front of her—what was there left that her sister wouldn't dare to do next?
Haruno realized that Lin Ye had gradually been changing her little sister's way of doing things.
In the future, her little sister would probably truly be molded into Lin Ye's shape.
How miserable!
She wanted to stop it, yet was powerless to stop it.
All of this seemed to have already been settled, and she, powerless to resist, could only silently accept everything that was happening.
"So then, the date!"
"..."
Seeing Lin Ye's smiling gaze, Yukino could only give an answer. "Do as you please."
This counted as agreeing.
Haruno's heart ached even more.
Lin Ye wore a triumphant smile—dealing with Yukino was still quite easy.
"Lin-kun, a date is such a wonderful thing—take your big sister along."
Haruno spoke up directly without any reserve, preparing to join in.
"Refused,"
"Don't be so cold! After all, big sister had her body occupied by you, freely toyed with, seen all over, touched all over, played with all over—if you're this cold to me, I'll be very, very heartbroken."
Haruno leaned in close, both hands shaking Lin Ye's arm.
Yukino was very composed; if she didn't know the reason, she really might be unable to stop her thoughts from straying.
This woman, her sister, was indeed full of traps everywhere, misleading people—one careless slip and you'd be bewitched and led astray.
"When Miss Haruno is heartbroken, I'm happy."
"Don't be like that—how can Lin-kun's happiness be built on the foundation of my heartbreak?"
"Isn't that wonderful?"
Haruno was angry. She pouted, and finally went over to Yukino's side, shaking her dear little sister's arm. "Yukino, Yukino, take me along too! Your big sister will be very obedient, very quiet,"
"Sister, please return to the place that belongs to you,"
"Uh,"
"and stop coming to pester my boyfriend."
"Wuwah,"
Haruno nearly failed to hold it together—Yukino was now speaking so cruelly.
Her composure really did very nearly fail to hold.
"So once she has a lover, she doesn't even want her most, most, most beloved big sister anymore. Heartbreaking, too heartbreaking."
Haruno wiped at her tears, only no one had any reaction to it.
Whether it was Lin Ye or Yukino, both knew this was Haruno's acting—this woman's acting was already perfected to consummate mastery, to the point where she could perform vividly anytime, anywhere.
Seeing that neither of the two had any reaction, Haruno didn't continue her performance; there was no point in continuing anyway.
"Lin-kun, may I trouble you to rest a while in the living room? I'd like to talk with Yukino alone."
Things having come to this, Haruno wanted to have a heart-to-heart with her little sister.
"That's fine,"
"No eavesdropping allowed."
Haruno said with a smile.
"I won't,"
Having said this,
Lin Ye walked over to the sofa and sat straight down.
He also sent a message requesting leave; he wouldn't be going to school today either.
'Click…'
The bedroom door closed.
Lin Ye quietly leaned his back against the sofa, savoring the tranquility of this moment.
What would Haruno and Yukino talk about?
He had a rough idea.
Since he had already promised not to eavesdrop, he wouldn't do anything more.
Now, he had already come to understand Yukino's mind too—Yukino was not one to be so easily persuaded by Haruno.
And as for Yukino's parents' side, even if they knew he was on intimate terms with Mai Sakurajima, what objection would they—the ones holding power in the Yukinoshita family—have?
Strength is what forms the foundation.
Even if he were to find several more women, Father Yukinoshita and Mother Yukinoshita would not object; they'd even be afraid he might cast Yukino aside.
"Sigh!"
"At least the feelings between me and Yukino are pure,"
Unmixed with interests and gain.
This girl was also not the kind who used herself as a bargaining chip to exchange for benefits.
She was completely different from Haruno.
All of Haruno's hints and temptations all along were nothing more than an attempt to bind him completely to the Yukinoshita ship,
but he wouldn't fall for the trap.
And now, this could count as having one foot bound.
It was just that,
Haruno was unwilling.
...
...
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