The Fourth Period Is Modern Chinese (Continued)

Her handsome, fearless smile—cute, with just a hint of cleverness—held me spellbound.

Ah, amazing... I thought to myself, letting out a silent sigh of admiration.

It wasn't just me. Komachi felt the same way. Forget sighing in admiration—she even started clapping.

"Ooh~ As expected of the master of romance! Getting dumped by Hayama-senpai wasn't for nothing! Yo!"

Komachi cheered as she heaped praise upon Iroha, while Iroha, receiving the compliments, flicked back her hair and proudly puffed out her chest.

"That's right... Huh?"

But she immediately noticed something was off and turned to glare at Komachi.

"Wait, why does Mimi know about that? Senpai? Was it senpai? Did senpai tell you? Maybe I should just kill him."

"No, no, it wasn't my brother. Tobe-senpai mentioned it while we were talking! He likes to talk about things nobody asked him about~"

"I'm going to kill him."

"Kill him, kill him."

Unlike Komachi's lively voice, Iroha's sounded utterly cold.

I nodded along from the side, but my mind was completely occupied by something else.

Each time I gave a small nod, my gaze lowered with it, falling onto the plate in front of me.

The half-eaten Amish Country Cake had been distorted beyond recognition. Maybe because it had been baked so fragrant and soft, it was easy to deform.

It had probably been a complete circle when baked, but by the time it was served to me, it had been a beautiful isosceles triangle.

Now, it had become a warped trapezoid.

Its original triangular shape had completely fallen apart.

There were no straight lines left. No matter which side I traced, they curved and broke off midway, unable to become the shape I had envisioned.

I tried hard to fix it, but every time I touched it with my fork, crumbs fell