Iroha Isshiki arrived at Sobu High just as she always did.
This time, at the same hour as usual, if nothing went wrong, she should have been able to run into her senior Lin Ye. A little extra waiting on the road and he would show up.
But the usual time came and went, and still she hadn't caught him, so she gave up waiting and went into Sobu High.
Generally speaking, if he hadn't appeared on the street by this point, there was basically no reason to keep waiting. That was the pattern she'd worked out.
Except, this time, she hadn't expected to spot Lin Ye so soon after entering the campus.
Yes. Iroha Isshiki was surprised, even a little stunned.
When had Lin Ye gotten to school? And having arrived, why hadn't he gone to the classroom, staying out on the grounds instead?
And that was…
Iroha Isshiki watched Lin Ye and the blonde senior Miura Yumiko come together, the two of them walking one behind the other toward some direction well away from the school building.
In that instant her curiosity flared.
Those two heading off to a corner—there had to be something going on!
The memory from last time began to surface.
On instinct, Iroha Isshiki followed, quietly trailing after them, coming to the same hidden corner as before to observe.
And then…
She couldn't make out what the two of them were saying, but what they did afterward left her stunned.
Yes. Even though she'd witnessed it once already, Iroha Isshiki was still stunned.
The blonde senior was tangled up with Lin Ye again, wrapped around him, holding him close, not an inch of space between them.
This time, Iroha Isshiki pulled out her phone, aimed the lens, and snapped photos—not just photos, video too.
Several seconds later, though she lingered, wanting a few more looks, in the end she put the phone away and slipped off first.
She knew all too well how terrifying her senior's Hypnosis ability was.
If he really caught her, one bout of Hypnosis and all this hard-won 'evidence' would be gone.
This stuff was her precious proof, her leverage.
Iroha Isshiki set off, and once she was back in the classroom she uploaded the phone's photos and video to her own storage email as fast as she could.
Then she deleted the photos and video from the phone.
"There, perfect."
"When I get home I'll make a few more copies, heh heh heh."
"This is evidence of Senpai's crimes."
…
Iroha Isshiki chuckled to herself.
Of course, she knew this couldn't actually threaten Lin Ye—after all, Lin Ye would never yield to a threat, and one Hypnosis from her senior could turn her into a puppet.
But if she couldn't threaten her senior, she could still threaten the blonde, Senpai Miura Yumiko!
The senior surely wouldn't want this video getting out, wouldn't want these photos getting out!
True, the senior and her senior were lovers, but intimate photos like these—most women wouldn't want them spread around, and she herself certainly wouldn't.
Iroha Isshiki tried putting herself in her shoes.
Ring-a-ling.
The bell rang out.
Iroha Isshiki took out her materials for the first period, Japanese literature, and fell into her scheming.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Miura Yumiko returned to her seat.
Right now she was hollow inside, silent, even a little forlorn.
This time, the sacrifice had been even greater than the last.
That bastard of a man—he'd actually dared to… to… put it in!
A shudder ran through Miura Yumiko, but the moment she thought of how, thanks to her, Yukino Yukinoshita could be freed from Lin Ye's harassment, she felt at ease.
Sacrificing herself for a friend—Miura Yumiko thought it was worth it.
Hang in there, you can do this.
Miura Yumiko told herself silently.
Not far from her seat, the pink-bunned dumpling-haired girl had noticed the shift in Miura Yumiko's mood and aura quite early on.
When Miura Yumiko came into the classroom, the girl had instinctively wanted to greet her, but seeing that Miura Yumiko's mood was off, she'd held back without thinking, which now left the pink-bunned dumpling-haired girl torn: what should she do?
Class began, and she gave up on greeting her or asking, yet the worry for Miura Yumiko in her chest never eased.
When the period finally ended, Yui Yuigahama gathered her patience and walked over to Miura Yumiko's side and spoke. "Yumiko, you don't look so good today."
Yui Yuigahama's words came out timid, a little cautious.
This was a question she'd worked up her courage to ask.
But Miura Yumiko showed no reaction at all, as if she hadn't heard.
Puzzled, Yui Yuigahama reached out and gave her a pat.
"Eek—"
Miura Yumiko jumped up in fright.
Her face went pale in an instant.
That startled reaction immediately drew the attention of the whole class.
Yui Yuigahama got a fright too, her own face going grim.
"Yumiko, you… what's wrong?"
The female voice dragged Miura Yumiko's mind back to reality.
Her frightened heart slowly settled into calm.
"Sorry," Miura Yumiko apologized first.
"I was just thinking about something."
"Ah, mm-hmm, it's my fault, I'm the one who disturbed you, Yumiko."
With the two of them talking, everyone else in the classroom went back to their own business.
Hayama—the blond, handsome Hayama Hayato—glanced at Miura Yumiko a few extra times. Something told him her situation was far from simple.
But right now he had no standing to ask.
Miura Yumiko already had a boyfriend now, and as a male he had to keep a certain distance to avoid suspicion, avoiding too much contact with her.
So Hayama didn't dwell on it further.
Still, staying in the classroom felt dull, so he got up meaning to wander outside and clear his head—but as he rose he shot a glance out the window.
His eyes narrowed at once, then went wide.
Who was that down there among the campus grounds?
That wasn't… that was Haruno, the one who filled his every thought.
Haruno had come to Sobu High.
In that moment, Hayama Hayato had not a shred of attention left for Miura Yumiko, and he immediately set off out of the classroom.
What he had to do now was leave the room and go find Haruno.
Haruno coming here surely meant something was going on, and maybe he could be of help.
That was what was on Hayama Hayato's mind.
Seeing Hayama Hayato leave, Miura Yumiko's mood grew even heavier.
It hurt so much.
Bullied, yet forced to swallow all of it, forced to endure in silence.
"Haah…"
"Once that guy gets bored, it'll be fine."
"Then I'll be free."
Miura Yumiko told herself as much.
But when the end would come, she truly had no idea.
A short while—a week, two weeks?
That really wasn't possible.
A month, two months?
That… didn't seem possible either.
How could a man like that get bored so quickly?
And yet, she who couldn't stand even a single day, who felt sick all over—could she really endure that long?
The mere thought of it left Miura Yumiko dizzy, but in the end she could only accept it.
For now, all she could do was take it one step at a time.
On the other side, Haruno, having finished bullying Miura Yumiko, arrived at the classroom.
Today she felt refreshed, her mood couldn't be better.
Meguri Shiromeguri had been bullied, Miura Yumiko had been bullied.
Bullying her little Sister Yukino next would be enough to round it off.
Haruno came into the classroom and saw her sister Yukino sitting quietly in her seat.
She walked straight over and reached out to pat her sister on the shoulder—
but Yukino Yukinoshita reacted quickly, lifting her head with a cold glare.
It was a warning, telling her to keep her hands to herself.
Haruno was taken aback for a moment, but that sort of thing had no effect on her at all. Faced with her sister's refusal, if anything it stirred up even more impulse and drive in her.
Haruno raised her hand again, ready to pat her sister's shoulder.
"Get lost—"
Just then a sharp rebuke rang out—Yukino Yukinoshita had snapped at her.
She rejected this sister wearing Lin Ye's skin in the most primal way she could.
She knew that if she kept being polite about it, there was no stopping her sister, so she had no choice but to resort to extreme measures.
Just as she'd expected, her rebuke drew a whole wave of intensely curious stares from the surrounding classmates.
They'd all noticed something off between Yukinoshita and Lin Ye.
Especially the way Lin Ye's hand hung there in midair—it set off a round of speculation among them.
"What's going on?"
"Why did Yukinoshita snap like that?"
"Did Lin Ye do something inappropriate?"
…
Whispers and murmurs, but faintly audible all the same.
Haruno hadn't expected her sister to be so ruthless, so cutting and direct.
But she knew her sister had certainly figured out who she was—otherwise there was no way she'd act like this.
To be so hard-hearted toward her own sister—she really would be hurt.
"Student Yukinoshita, I like you," Haruno smiled, quickly setting her mood right again.
She had no shortage of ways to handle this.
"Please accept my confession and be my girlfriend!"
Shameless.
Yukino Yukinoshita thought silently.
With one move, her sister had completely flipped the atmosphere.
"Student Miura would kill you if she heard that."
Nearly everyone present knew Lin Ye and Miura Yumiko were a couple.
"She wouldn't. Student Miura doesn't mind. But since you won't accept, that's fine too—I have other targets, plenty and plenty of targets, and some girl will accept my confession sooner or later."
In that instant, Yukino Yukinoshita almost thought Lin Ye had come back.
After all, that bastard did play two women at once, utterly faithless in matters of the heart.
"Scumbag."
"Haha, thanks for the assessment. Being a scumbag isn't so bad. I wonder, Student Yukinoshita, whether you'll become the scumbag's girlfriend, the scumbag's fiancée!"
Yukino Yukinoshita gritted her teeth.
Her sister just loved bullying her like this.
Her answer needed some thought.
"You tell me!" she said through clenched teeth.
"Of course you will, hahaha."
And Yukino Yukinoshita's reply was a simple, flat "Hmph."
To the other classmates this naturally read as a refusal, but only those in the know understood it meant Yukino Yukinoshita hadn't denied it.
Ring-a-ling.
The bell for class rang.
Haruno sat down in her seat.
Watching the person who walked in, the smile at the corner of her mouth grew even stronger.
Shizuka.
How she wanted to bully her too!
But knowing Shizuka's mind and temperament, she knew Shizuka wasn't the sort of woman who could be swayed and threatened as easily as Meguri.
So, however many ideas Haruno had inside, in the end she didn't act on them.
Of course, she couldn't very well sit waiting in the classroom forever, either.
By her guess, Lin Ye would be hurrying over toward Sobu High too—after all, with a spy like Yukino to tip him off.
She didn't believe Yukino would fail to inform Lin Ye.
"Sensei…" Haruno raised her hand. "I… don't feel well, I need to make… a trip to the infirmary…"
She put on a pained look.
Shizuka Hiratsuka waved a hand, granting it.
And so Haruno got up at once.
Just then Yukino Yukinoshita rose as well. "Sensei, I'm not feeling well either…"
She spoke up too.
She meant to keep her eyes on her sister and give her no chance to slip away.
This was what she'd promised Lin Ye. This time she was going to watch her sister no matter what.
Shizuka Hiratsuka fell silent.
Last time it had been Yukinoshita and Lin Ye going off to the infirmary together, and now the two of them again—
however pure your relationship is, this really does set the imagination running.
"Go on!"
She had no grounds to stop them anyway.
And so she went on teaching, though her thoughts kept drifting back now and then to whether something might happen between Lin Ye and Yukinoshita in the infirmary.
Surely not!
That was the only comfort she could offer herself.
As for Haruno, her sister tagging along was well within her expectations.
If anything, if her sister hadn't followed, she'd have found it strange.
Soon the two of them reached the infirmary.
Whether by good luck or bad, the infirmary was empty—the school nurse wasn't in.
"Yoo-hoo, Yukino-chan, it's just the two of us!" Haruno greeted her with a smile.
But Yukino Yukinoshita stood at the entrance, staring, her face blank.
"Haha, stare at me like that and you'll make me shy."
Still Yukino showed no reaction at all.
She actually knew the best way to handle her sister.
That was to wait in silence, ignoring every word her sister said—that was the best method.
"Yukino really isn't being good at all. If you won't respond, big sister's going to have to teach you a little lesson."
With that, Haruno made her move.
With the strength of Lin Ye's body, in an instant she dragged Yukino Yukinoshita over to the sickbed.
Yukino Yukinoshita tried to struggle and resist, but to no effect.
The gap in their physical strength was far too great.
She lay on the sickbed, looking up at the sister standing over her.
"Yukino," Haruno laughed. "I've wanted so badly to bully you myself! Where should I start, do you think?"
She reached out and first took hold of her sister's hand.
"Let go."
"What's there to be unwilling about? Whether it's me or Lin-kun, we've both touched you plenty of times already."
"Let go…"
"I won't, though," Haruno said without the slightest courtesy.
"Oh right, let me tell you something interesting."
She thought of the matter with Miura Yumiko and decided to tell Yukino Yukinoshita, who could count as one of the parties involved.
She wanted to see Yukino's reaction.
"I don't want to hear it."
"Oh, that won't do—it has to do with you!"
She stroked her sister's cheek and slowly went on, "Miura Yumiko really is quite good to you."
That name caught Yukino Yukinoshita's attention.
"For your sake, she let me bully her—willingly!"
That one line made Yukino Yukinoshita realize something.
She hadn't expected that in such a short time this woman, her sister, had gone and stirred up trouble again!
…
…
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