A Little Secret Between the Two of Them

Fortunately, Yuuka's reaction speed was passable at a time like this. After freezing for a few seconds, she quickly nodded.

After seeing Yuuka's response, Qigong Shiori sat down at the other end of the flower bed.

"You two know each other?" Zhao Yu asked quietly.

"I don't know? I think I only saw her when school started, right?" Yuuka quietly replied as she sat back down on the edge of the flower bed.

"Anyway, we still don't know what she means by this, so don't rush to say you don't know her or anything. Wait for her to bring it up herself," Zhao Yu said after thinking for a moment.

"Classmate Ueno?" Qigong Shiori looked at Yuuka, who had been muttering to herself, in confusion.

"Ah! What is it?" Yuuka quickly turned her head.

"Just play it by ear for now. Don't talk to me yet, or she'll get suspicious." After saying that, Zhao Yu muted himself for the moment.

Then Qigong Shiori's voice rang out again.

"You actually noticed me a long time ago, didn't you?"

"Yeah. I never expected you to be in Ochanomizu too," Yuuka went along with Qigong Shiori's words.

"Actually, I didn't expect us to meet again this way either. You recognized me during the interview, didn't you?" Qigong Shiori turned her head and silently looked at Yuuka.

"Ahahaha, of course I did." Yuuka gave a dry laugh.

At this point, denying it outright would probably disappoint her, right? Yuuka discreetly observed the girl before her.

Though she appeared calm and composed, her hand was tightly clutching the fabric at the side of her long skirt. Clearly, she was just as nervous as Yuuka.

Yuuka could not remember where she had met her, but just as Zhao Yu had said, if it were merely a simple crush, she might not have come here to meet her at all.

And judging by Qigong Shiori's current behavior, she was not as intimidating as she appeared on the surface. Instead, she was no different from an ordinary girl.

That cold and domineering exterior felt like nothing more than a disguise. To put aside that disguise in front of her and come to this meeting without hesitation, she must have gathered considerable courage too.

So... remember already... If I can't remember, it feels like I'm letting down her expectations.

Yuuka stared at Qigong Shiori, racking her brains as she searched through every memory she had of the girl.

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you when school first started, but I felt like you'd be shocked if you saw me looking like this." As she spoke, Qigong Shiori revealed a faint, helpless smile.

"But I really didn't expect that even after I changed so much, Classmate Ueno still recognized me."

Yuuka said nothing. She did not know how to continue. Perhaps, just as Qigong Shiori had said, it was precisely because she had changed so much that Yuuka had failed to recognize her.

Fortunately, Qigong Shiori did not seem to mind and simply continued on her own.

"It's really wonderful that I got to meet Classmate Ueno again. You're still as kind as before. I was planning to gather my courage and say hello before this semester ended, but I never thought you'd come find me first."

"Um... I'm not as great as you make me sound." Yuuka spoke somewhat embarrassedly.

She had originally planned to let her down gently, but since Qigong Shiori had said all this, she could only go along with the misunderstanding.

"Hehe, then one of my long-held wishes has come true." A brilliant smile appeared on Qigong Shiori's face.

"At last, I became friends with you, Young Lady."

Young Lady? Yuuka looked at the girl before her, and her smiling expression gradually overlapped with a figure from her memories.

Yuuka had been in middle school when she first came to Tokyo. As an outsider from Kansai, she had always been ostracized by her classmates.

Not only because of her Kansai accent, but also because she was a country bumpkin.

That was right. To Tokyo locals, anyone from outside Tokyo's twenty-three wards could basically be considered a country bumpkin. Even Kyoto, the ancient capital, was included, and Kansai dialects were sometimes used as the butt of jokes in anime.

If even Kyoto was treated that way, the rest of Kansai went without saying. At that time, Yuuka had completely shut herself off.

As the eldest daughter of the Ueno family, Yuuka began carrying herself like a young lady while deliberately ignoring the other students, believing them all to be rude commoners.

But there had been one exception: the little follower who had always trailed behind Yuuka and called her Young Lady.

It was an extremely clichéd story. A young lady from Kansai, isolated by her classmates, came across another girl who, like her, had been ostracized and was being bullied.

Perhaps because she had suppressed it for too long, Yuuka erupted in anger for the first time. After driving those people away, she successfully gained herself a little follower.

She still remembered how that little follower often asked when they could become friends, while Yuuka would always tsundere her way through the answer, saying it was far too soon for that.

Who would have thought that years later, the aloof young lady would gradually become more easygoing under pressure from her family's lack of understanding?

And that little follower had changed from a plain, country-looking girl into the delinquent-looking girl before her.

So it was you...

"I remember you didn't use to have the surname Qigong?" Yuuka asked hesitantly.

Upon hearing that, Qigong Shiori let out a sigh.

"Actually, my parents divorced after I graduated middle school, so I use my mother's surname now."

"Sorry... Classmate Qigong." Yuuka hurriedly apologized.

"It's all right. But you, Classmate Ueno..." Qigong Shiori looked at Yuuka.

"Just call me Yuuka," Yuuka said.

"O-okay. Then, Yuuka, you can just call me Shiori." Qigong Shiori nodded.

"Yuuka, you've become much easier to get along with than before."

"I suppose I realized that sometimes, rather than blindly keeping your distance from everyone else, it's better to fit into your surroundings." Yuuka smiled awkwardly.

"So even as I am now, would you still be willing to be friends with me, Classmate Ueno?" As she spoke, Qigong Shiori held out her hand to Yuuka.

"Actually, those words came many years too late." Yuuka took Qigong Shiori's hand.

Maybe it was not too late to make up for how dishonest she had been back then.

"It's getting late. Shall we head back together?" Qigong Shiori stood and asked.

"You go ahead. I still have something I need to take care of." After hesitating for a moment, Yuuka declined.

She still needed to explain this to Zhao Yu, or he would worry.

"All right, then. See you tomorrow." Qigong Shiori waved at Yuuka and headed toward the school gate.

"So after all that, you two were actually acquaintances?"

After Qigong Shiori left, Zhao Yu finally understood what had happened after Yuuka explained it to him.

"The main thing is that she's changed so much. I couldn't recognize her at all." Yuuka recalled Qigong Shiori's appearance.

"It feels like it's not just me. Everyone keeps changing..."

"Still, I never expected the old Yuuka to be like that." Zhao Yu could not help saying.

"Like what?" Yuuka asked in confusion.

"A tsundere Young Lady type."

"That was when I was little! I'm different now!"

At Zhao Yu's teasing, the gloom that had settled over Yuuka from recalling the past instantly vanished. She retorted, a little embarrassed.

"Oh~ when you were little, huh~ Then can you perform that again for me? You know, the part where... we can actually be friends..."

Zhao Yu vividly imitated what Yuuka had just said to Qigong Shiori.

"Shut up! Lord Yu, you're talking way too much today!" Yuuka's face immediately turned red.

She had not expected things to turn out like this at all, which made everything she had said earlier seem incredibly ridiculous.

Wasn't this just like those people who were absurdly self-confident? Thankfully, Classmate Qigong had not noticed anything strange, or she would have been utterly humiliated.

"All right, don't be mad. This isn't really your fault either. After all, certain someone's words were way too misleading." Zhao Yu thought of A Shui.

"Exactly, it's all Jack-kun's fault!" Yuuka agreed.

Meanwhile, A Shui, who was training elsewhere, suddenly sneezed. He scratched his head in confusion, then continued to focus completely on the practice match.

"But don't worry. I won't tell anyone about what happened today. Let's just treat it as a little secret between us," Zhao Yu said.

"A little secret...?" Yuuka repeated the words, a subtle expression appearing on her face.

In a sense, perhaps what happened today had not been entirely bad.

But...

"It's too unfair for Lord Yu to know only my secret. I want to know Lord Yu's secret too!"

"Huh? Mine? Let me think..."

Chatting with Zhao Yu, Yuuka walked toward the school gate. Under the setting sun, her shadow split into three, making it seem as though... she had two people accompanying her.