The Fourth Class Is Modern Chinese (Continued)

"What kind of thing is that to say...? It's not like we're at the zoo..."

Feeling somewhat drained, I watched Yukino look up in surprise.

"...Ah. Hikigaya-kun. H-hello."

At a loss, she swiftly hid the phone she had been holding just a second ago behind her back.

My guess was that they had come out together to have fun and taken some purikura photos.

Purikura had a long history and remained very popular even now; lately, you still saw people taking them from time to time. Although phones now made it easy to edit photos, some "effects" could only be achieved by the machines. Perhaps precisely because social media was at its peak, people trusted the machines to reliably "produce effects," which was why purikura booths were still chosen.

"It's rare to see you two at an arcade."

I glanced toward the purikura area, and Yuihama quickly swiped through her phone.

"Ah, yeah. We took purikura."

Yukino tightly grabbed Yuihama's hand as she tried to show me the pictures and shot her a somewhat sharp look, her voice equally sharp.

"Stop."

"...Y-your eyes are so serious."

Yukino's forcefulness thoroughly startled Yuihama, while Yukino puffed out her cheeks like she was sulking.

"Of course I'm serious... That photo is strange."

"Ehh? No, it isn't."

As she spoke, she held out her phone—

"Look. This one has no effects at all. The strange one is Yukino's face, which doesn't need any effects in the first place!"

"My face is strange..."

Yuihama had probably meant to compliment her, but her wording was so awful that Yukino silently took a hit and lowered her head dejectedly.

"Ah, I mean you're cute!"

"I-is that so...? Well then, thank you for the compliment..."

Yuihama's desperate explanation perked Yukino up a little. Still, she seemed completely unwilling