Yukino Yukinoshita Is Definitely Secretly in Love With Me

"Because even though both of you are annoying, at least you're a bit better looking."

Asano was bewildered at first, then stunned, and finally, her face turned beet red.

Beside her, Miura, who had been standing with her arms crossed and a relaxed expression, saw her expression turn increasingly serious upon hearing this.

I'm out here sticking up for her, and she's out here flirting with girls????

Damn you, Yukinoshita. For the next week... no, starting tomorrow, you are absolutely forbidden from having a crush on me!!!

Although Miura had declared to her friends that she would never meddle in Yukinoshita's business again and would never pay attention to her again, she actually broke her resolve the very next day.

Because Yukinoshita had bought her a can of cola.

"Yukinoshita is such a pain..."

Even though she couldn't suppress the shyness and smugness on her face, she quickly pretended not to care at all. "Why are you giving this to me? I don't like this kind of sugary, cloying stuff at all."

That was a lie.

Miura actually loved Fat Otaku Happy Water, but such an otaku hobby would make her gain weight, and it didn't fit her strong, queen-like image, so she had never revealed it to anyone out of shyness.

In private, she would occasionally calculate the calorie count, drinking just a tiny bit while feeling both pained and happy.

Junko Kamizawa smiled and said, "Since Yumiko doesn't like it, then I'll take care of it... I'm super curious about what something gifted by the young lady Yukinoshita tastes like."

Onozawa Kaho nodded like a mortar and pestle, "I'm curious too, I'm curious too."

Miura's expression changed instantly as she tucked the cola into her desk, shooing them away like flies with a nasty tone, "Go away, go away! It's not like you've never had cola before!"

"Yumiko, you're so stingy!"

I am stingy!

Come to think of it, even when Yukinoshita confessed to those other people, she had never given anyone a gift, right?

Although that was indeed quite scummy, it made Miura feel like she was bubbling over with joy at this moment.

Miura wanted nothing more than to hold the cola and take a few sips in front of people like Hayama and Hachiman Hikigaya to show off, but because she wanted to preserve this bottle of cola properly, she managed to hold herself back.

Yui Yuigahama watched them with a smile, occasionally chiming in with a polite, harmonious remark.

Miura cupped her flushed face, feeling both shy and puzzled. "I still don't get it. Why would Yukinoshita like me..."

Onozawa Kaho said as if it were obvious, "Because Yumiko is pretty."

That was indeed true. Miura was a natural beauty to begin with, and after taking such good care of her hair, skin, eyes, and hands, she was even more radiant. Every single strand of her hair seemed to be glowing, possessing a uniquely bright and vivid beauty.

--That really is a reason, isn't it?

Miura opened her small compact mirror and gazed at her own rather convincing face in the reflection. To hide the slight flush on her cheeks, she gave a light cough and nodded with great confidence.

Yui Yuigahama nearly failed to maintain her professional smile.

Wait, no, are these two serious?

Yukino Yukinoshita was known as the "crush-crusher" at Sobu High School. The number of boys she had snatched away was countless, and among the female victims, there were certainly some who were quite attractive.

There was no way she could be secretly in love with so many girls at the same time, right?

By this time, Ka Onozawa and Yumiko Miura had already finished their fierce, tiger-like analysis and reached a conclusion.

Yukino Yukinoshita had been paying attention to Yumiko ever since the first day of school when she saw her.

Yukino's feelings were truly so deep that it was enough to move one to tears, sob, sob, sob.

"So, Yumiko, are you going to date Yukino?"

Miura immediately denied it. "Who would date Yukino? At most... at most, isn't being friends enough?!"

No matter how you looked at it, dating Yukino, who she had barely been in the same class with for less than two weeks, was just way too out of the ordinary!

Junko Kamizawa sighed. "With a personality like Yumiko's, she might be single for the rest of her life. I don't see any possibility of her successfully chasing Yukino."

Ka Onozawa nodded in agreement. "No wonder Yukino has been secretly in love for so long without saying anything. Yumiko's personality is just too difficult."

She grinned and bumped her shoulder against Yui's. "What do you think, Yui?"

Yui rubbed her chin. "If it's Yumiko, I really can't imagine what she would look like chasing someone."

Miura's eyebrows shot up in anger. "What do you mean 'me chasing Yukino'? She's the one secretly in love with me! If anyone is doing the chasing, it should be her, okay?!"

Although she refused to back down verbally, Miura was genuinely starting to worry.

If Yukino liked her so much, why had she never thought of saying it out loud? Could it be that she was actually such a terrible partner that Yukino only dared to admire her from afar and didn't dare to get close?

Oh no, oh no, what if Yukino stops having a crush on me?

At this very moment, Yukino was enthusiastically exploring the new features of her System.

Her System was exceptionally unscrupulous. To grind for quests, it had even been willing to let her walk through a heavy downpour, soaked to the bone, just to reach her private car.

Sobu High School strictly forbade students and even parents from driving private cars onto campus. That day, Yukino, who had luckily worn a jacket and held her schoolbag over her head, had looked like a drowned rat by the time she reached the car.

Although the heartless System was indeed heartless, it was also undeniably useful.

More than two weeks ago, when Yukino had first arrived in this frustrating timeline—it was frustrating in every sense of the word—she had worked herself to the bone grinding quests. Now, her reputation in Class 2-F had at least dropped from "hostile" to "indifferent."

Not to mention anything else, even if someone like today's visitor came knocking to confront her face-to-face, Yukino Yukinoshita wouldn't be caught in a pincer attack from both front and back.

Although Miura's actions today still caught her somewhat by surprise.

This was the first time Yukino Yukinoshita had truly felt, in the real sense of the word, what it was like to be protected by someone other than her own family.

[Give Miura a Sprite?]

The System did not respond.

[Give Miura a pair of trendy sneakers?]

The System still did not respond.

This unscrupulous System was not intelligent at all; it only generated option quests when keywords were triggered. Consequently, Yukino Yukinoshita discovered that she could use a process of elimination combined with exhaustive searching to fish for these keywords.

For instance, previously, after Yukino Yukinoshita had tested every item she could think of by giving examples to the System, she finally discovered that the System reacted to Miura + Cola, successfully triggering an option quest.

As for cola, the related terms Yukino Yukinoshita could think of were probably things like youthful, refreshing, and delicious.

However, despite exhausting all these related terms for a long time, Yukino Yukinoshita failed to trigger any more quests.

It wasn't for the sake of triggering quests that Yukino Yukinoshita kept changing her test words at this very moment; she was simply trying to find out what Miura truly liked.

Yukino Yukinoshita was not accustomed to owing people anything.

She had grown used to walking alone in the dark, to the point where even if someone were to hold up a lantern to shine light upon her, she would worry whether that light might burn her.

[Give Miura a dessert?]

This time, the correct keyword was finally triggered, and the dead-as-a-doornail, unscrupulous System finally had a reaction.

[The System has selected the current best option for you: Give Yumiko Miura a cream puff.]

It was the weekend again, and the tutor with hair like a cascading waterfall, Eriri Sawamura, arrived as promised.

"Yui Yuigahama, please continue to guide me~"

Yukino Yukinoshita, whose gaze had originally been fixed on her textbook, finally looked up and glanced at Eriri Sawamura.

"Tell me, do we really have to keep using these bizarre ways of addressing each other?"

Although the two had a history of bad blood, they had both used aliases for various reasons when they met again this time.

One called herself Eriri Sawamura, and the other called herself Yui Yuigahama.

Honestly, both of them were extremely mischievous.

Kasumigaoka smiled at this, "Isn't that obvious?"

She actually looked quite pretty when she smiled, but there was an exceptionally snarky air about it that made anyone who saw her want to start an argument.

"After all, how could someone like Utaha Kasumigaoka possibly do something as stupid as becoming a tutor for her former romantic rival?"

Even though you're wearing a smile, you're about to snap that pen in your hand in half, Teacher Sawamura.

"Compared to that, I'm more surprised that you actually showed up as promised today."

The malice you hold for me is practically overflowing, yet you can still suppress your disgust and come over here.

You didn't come here specifically to commit murder because you were underprepared last time, did you?

Kasumigaoka said, "Compared to that, your door was actually left ajar today... You're really that unguarded around me?"

She smiled brightly and said, "I heard yesterday, you know. You declared at Sobu High School that you like girls."

She set down her bag, sat across from the coffee table, and leaned in toward Yukino with her chin propped up, her eyes shimmering. "You wouldn't happen to... like me, would you?"

Yukino kept her eyes fixed on the textbook she was flipping through, not even twitching an eyelid, her voice cold and detached.

"Such foolish words, whether they be sleep-talking or drunken ramblings, certainly suit you well."

Kasumigaoka sat up straight. "If that were really the case, it would be for the best. Otherwise, if something as disgusting as Yukino liking me actually happened, I'd have to spend time worrying about it."

"Hold on a second, I'll go get you a plate of stir-fried hangover cure."

Although the Yukino from her blonde phase wasn't her, this person was indeed one of the victims under the original Yukino. Plus, in order to grind for missions, having a little tolerance for her malice wasn't impossible.

In any case, Yukino had been subjected to malice her entire life; these mere sharp-tongued remarks couldn't even make her lose her composure.

She could even deflect them all right back!

Although both of them were people who refused to let the other have the last word, they were able to tacitly call a ceasefire when it came time to get down to business.

Kasumigaoka casually asked questions about the topics skipped during the last tutoring session, and unsurprisingly, Yukino answered them all correctly.

Then came the advancement to new material. Yukino had likely previewed it once already; she was naturally intelligent, and now, as soon as Kasumigaoka finished speaking, she was already grasping the underlying logic of everything.

This person seems to be getting smarter and smarter.

Yukino had a sharp brain and flexible thinking; she was actually quite gifted when it came to things like academics. She had heard that when Yukino entered high school, she had placed first in the entrance exams.

It was just unclear why, after entering her first year, this wealthy young lady—who should have been well-bred—degenerated at lightning speed. She dyed her hair yellow, wore heavy eyeshadow and thick makeup, painted her nails in vibrant colors, and even wore her school uniform in a sloppy, loose fashion, looking every bit the delinquent gal.

Kasumigaoka had seen photos of Yukino from back then on the Sobu High School forum. She had to admit, even with that Shibuya-style visual kei gal aesthetic, Yukino's looks allowed her to pull it off quite well.

She was truly beautiful; as a blonde, she was dazzling and vibrant, and with black hair, she was as clear and pure as a lotus.

Kasumigaoka thought to herself, with someone like this, it's no wonder Aki chose her back then.

"Yukinoshita."

Halfway through explaining a point of knowledge, Kasumigaoka suddenly fell silent for a moment. She gripped the pen in her hand and called out Yukinoshita's name.

Yukinoshita turned her head in confusion, instinctively sitting up straight and adopting a posture of listening.

Even in an environment like her home, where one should be relaxed, her spine remained straight, and the curve of her neck was as elegant as a dancer ready to take the stage at any moment.

Even when facing a former rival with an unfriendly attitude, she subconsciously displayed an earnest listening posture.

It is truly hard to imagine that someone who has breeding and respect for others etched into her very bones could be the kind of terrible person who would repeatedly interfere in someone else's relationship time and time again.

Kasumigaoka was silent for a moment, then suddenly let out a laugh. "Do you have any strawberry milk at home? I'm a bit thirsty."

Yukinoshita raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you afraid I'll poison it?"

"If it could land you in prison, I suppose I wouldn't mind a bout of food poisoning."

Although a bit surprised, Yukinoshita stood up anyway. She sighed, "There aren't any drinks in the house. I'll go check the supermarket downstairs. You stay here for a moment."

She put on her coat and slipped into her shoes at the entryway. "For the milk brand, do you prefer Morinaga, Meiji, or Kyodo?"

Kasumigaoka replied, "Anything is fine."

She added, "Isn't your family's driver waiting downstairs at the apartment building all day except for at night?"

Yukinoshita rolled her eyes at her. "Mr. Ito is a driver, not a butler."

She walked to the entryway and lowered her head to put on her shoes, murmuring, "Even if he were a butler, he would only be a butler for the Yukinoshita family."

The door was gently pulled shut. The faint warmth belonging to that person seemed to be taken away with her, leaving Kasumigaoka all alone in the rather spacious room.