Yukino Yukinoshita Is Definitely Secretly in Love With Me

The studio apartment where Yukino Yukinoshita was temporarily staying was decorated in a palette of white, gray, and blue. There were very few decorations or unnecessary pieces of furniture in the room; in short, it felt cold and desolate.

Everything was placed neatly and precisely in its proper spot, without a hint of disorder.

Even in her own home, she maintained such a rigid, restrained, and orderly demeanor. Was this Yukino Yukinoshita really the wanton and promiscuous person she was made out to be?

What exactly was going through her mind at this very moment?

When Kasumigaoka had left the house, she had been full of confidence, determined to play some nasty pranks on Yukino Yukinoshita—like adding chili water to her shampoo or mustard to her toothpaste.

Dealing with a detestable interloper and a loathsome love rival in such a way was only natural.

Besides, with Yukino Yukinoshita being so completely unguarded, wasn't the door of opportunity wide open?

Come on, Yukino Yukinoshita, let's tear each other apart!

That was indeed what she had thought before leaving the house.

But now, the chili water and mustard in her bag felt uncomfortably hot to the touch, and she didn't have the slightest desire to take them out.

To have absolutely no defenses against a former-former-former-former-former-former love rival.

Yukino Yukinoshita, are you an idiot?

Kasumigaoka leaned back against the sofa, sighing with a conflicted and complicated mood.

While Kasumigaoka was leaning on the sofa, lost in thought, her phone suddenly beeped twice. She took it out of her bag and saw, as expected, a Line message from that girl, Eriri.

"Ahhhhhhh, where are you?!! I'm going crazy trying to meet my deadline, come over and be my model right now!!!!"

Kasumigaoka slowly typed out a question mark. "What does that have to do with me? Get lost, go crawl away somewhere far."

It was hilarious, really. Eriri, who always managed to finish her work calmly before the deadline, deserved to be strung up on a lamppost and whipped by her editor.

All deadline-dodging dogs should just drop dead, except for Kasumigaoka.

Eriri Sawamura and Utaha Kasumigaoka, two people who should have been bitter love rivals, had actually seen their relationship slowly begin to thaw now that Tomoya Aki, the catalyst for their conflict, was no longer in the picture.

Yes, their current dynamic was actually the "thawed" version.

After thinking for a moment, Kasumigaoka offered her own reasonable advice. "Didn't you used to use excuses like 'I lost my phone,' 'I went abroad,' or 'my computer broke'?"

"I just got caught by my editor two days ago for playing video games on an alt account, so I can't use the 'I went abroad' or 'lost my phone' excuses anymore. Kasumigaoka, hurry up and come over..."

Kasumigaoka immediately curled her lip. "You don't even want to think about the trash you're drawing, do you? You must be insane to ask me to be your model."

"...The Ball-jointed Doll can't hold the poses I need."

Ball-jointed Dolls were essential tools for adult manga artists, capable of holding many poses and providing realistic templates for artists who lacked life experience.

"Get lost."

"Fine, I'll pin your new book on my Twitter, okay?"

"Deal. I'll head over to your place as soon as my tutoring gig is finished."

On the other end, Eriri was practically screaming into her phone, "Wah wah wah wah! Kasumigaoka, you actually took a tutoring job?! Is the student a boy or a girl? Eww, you abandoned Tomoya so quickly? You really are a cold-hearted person!"

"Wait, you aren't doing something lewd while talking to me, are you?!!!"

Kasumigaoka let out a cold scoff. "Has drawing ecchi manga rotted your brain? Your head is filled with nothing but yellow trash!"

"The student is a girl. I'm just looking into the tutoring profession for some new material." She brushed past the topic with a casual tone.

For some reason, Kasumigaoka didn't want to mention Yukino Yukinoshita in front of Eriri.

Perhaps it was because back when Yukino Yukinoshita had successfully stolen her love interest and mocked her relentlessly, Eriri had looked like her life was in ruins—as if she were either going to kill Yukino Yukinoshita or commit suicide.

Such a terrible thing; it was better to keep it to herself.

But, did she really have to do this?

While she was busy trading barbs with Eriri on Line, Yukino Yukinoshita returned.

She carried a convenience store bag in one hand and was talking on her phone with the other. From a distance, Kasumigaoka could only catch snippets like "Please rest assured" and "I'm so sorry for the trouble."

After finishing the call at the door, Yukino Yukinoshita hung up and came over to take out several cartons of milk, lining them up neatly. "I wasn't sure which kind you liked, so I bought a few different brands of strawberry flavor."

As Kasumigaoka inserted a straw, she asked offhandedly, "Was that a teacher from school?"

That distant and respectful tone—it had to be a teacher.

"It was my mother."

Yukino Yukinoshita piled the rest of the milk in front of Kasumigaoka, her expression indifferent. "She was asking about my class transfer, and I was explaining it to her."

"Wait, didn't you transfer classes over two weeks ago? Your mom is only finding out now?"

Just how little does your family pay attention to you...

Yukino Yukinoshita tilted her head to look at her. "You knew when I transferred classes?"

The smile on Kasumigaoka's face stiffened.

Ever since she returned from her tutoring session last weekend, she had immediately logged onto the Sobu High School forum to search for the latest news on Yukino Yukinoshita. Doing something like that made her look like either a perverted stalker or a serial killer; she certainly couldn't tell Yukino Yukinoshita that!

She absolutely could not let it slip. She would suffer a social death for sure!

Kasumigaoka gave a light cough. "I can't finish all this milk by myself. Should I put the rest in the fridge?"

Yukinoshita shook her head. "I don't often use the refrigerator or the kitchen. If I put these things in the fridge, they'll just go bad. You should take them back with you later."

This person was written through and through with a clean, cold detachment, as if she hadn't been touched by even a speck of the world's mundane dust.

Yet, the icy-faced Yukinoshita was actually feeling a bit frantic inside.

After all this effort, she still hadn't triggered a mission!

It was unbelievable. Kasumigaoka clearly hated her guts.

As today's lesson was drawing to a close, Kasumigaoka couldn't help but ask something outside the scope of her role as a tutor. "May I ask a question, even if it's presumptuous?"

Yukinoshita replied, "If you know it's presumptuous, then you certainly may not."

Yukinoshita didn't really want to bring up that chaotic year or so. "Unbearable to look back on" was only one reason; more importantly...

She truly had no idea what had happened over that past year.

Besides, even if Yukinoshita thought about it with her toes, she could guess that the question Kasumigaoka wanted to ask was definitely about that so-called Tomoya Aki.

Tomoya Aki wasn't her mission trigger, so why would she bother with him?

She was at constant risk of being possessed again, worried that she might open her eyes to find her life in a complete mess. She hadn't even paid much attention to Hikigaya or Hayama, so how could she have time to care about some random guy from another school who wasn't a mission trigger?

Tomoya Aki was a game otaku on the surface, but in reality, he was a normie who could transform into a handsome guy the moment he took off his glasses. He was once the person liked by the two biggest school beauties at Toyogasaki Academy.

Yes, he was the person Utaha Kasumigaoka and Eriri Sawamura had once liked.

Kasumigaoka tapped her lips lightly with the pen she was holding. She smiled and said, "How about this? I'll ask you a question, and in exchange, you can ask me one. How does that sound?"

The realist Yukinoshita answered instantly, "Agreed."

Kasumigaoka laughed.

It had to be said that when this person smiled without any malice or sarcasm, she was truly quite beautiful.

"I have never seen Aki-kun so obsessed with someone, as if he were obsessed with a dating simulation game."

Kasumigaoka smiled slightly. "So, Yukinoshita, why did you personally leave him with a BE game ending? And an instant BE at that."

BE, in dating sim terminology, stands for Bad Ending.

Yukinoshita: "..."

Damn it, she really couldn't make up an answer to this one.

Please go ask the detestable possessor about this kind of thing.

How could I possibly understand the heart of a scumbag player?

But even if she said such things, they would only be seen as an attempt to shirk responsibility.

Yukino contemplated the behavioral patterns of the blonde Yukino, her expression serious as she sternly rebuked her.

"Because Yukino is an idiot."

Yes, the blonde Yukino was a one-hundred-percent, pure-bred idiot.

There was no doubt about it!

Yukino had never considered the blonde Yukino to be herself, so she felt absolutely no psychological burden in berating her.

Upon hearing this, Kasumigaoka's pupils trembled.

Had the reformed Yukino actually reached such a level of self-awareness?

Kasumigaoka opened her mouth to speak, then stopped, then opened it again, finally stammering, "It's... it's not really necessary to go that far..."

If the Yukino of the past had said such things, Kasumigaoka would certainly have scoffed at her.

But now, she was somewhat skeptical.

After all, Yukino's actions over the past two weeks had proven that she truly seemed to have begun turning over a new leaf and finding her way back from the path of error.

Compared to that, she herself—still unable to climb out of the mire of the past, even carrying pepper spray and mustard in her bag at this very moment—was simply atrocious.

Wait!

Even if viewed through a filter, Yukino's past words and actions were still extremely terrible, weren't they!

Kasumigaoka, you face-obsessed fool, pull yourself together and hurry up and fill yourself with hatred for Yukino again.

Yukino was definitely trying to fool her again; how could a person's terrible nature possibly change so easily?

The only reason Yukino was keeping her claws retracted for now was that she had an even more sinister scheme in mind!

After some internal therapy, Kasumigaoka managed to recover her composure.

Yukino tilted her head to look at Kasumigaoka, observing the rapid changes in expression on her face, and asked in a calm tone, "Teacher Sawamura, you still hate me, don't you?"

Judging by this senior Kasumigaoka's large chest and good looks, it was highly probable that she was a popular character.

However, there was no reason why she shouldn't be able to farm tasks from such a popular character who hated her.

Could it be that she didn't actually hate her?

Or perhaps, she didn't hate her enough?

Kasumigaoka, pull yourself together, hurry up and hate me more!

Yukinoshita had now been molded into the shape of an Option Quest, spending her entire day racking her brain on how to farm Option Quests from the victim list to avoid being possessed again.

What exactly were the keywords for Kasumigaoka? What did she hate, and what did she like? If she asked directly, Kasumigaoka would surely either snap back or brush her off.

What should she do?

Kasumigaoka acted as if she had heard a joke. She cast a sidelong glance at Yukinoshita. "I hate you. Isn't that a given?"

The loathing contained in that tone was, without a doubt, genuine.

Yukinoshita finally let out a sigh of relief. "That's great. Now I can rest easy using shampoo mixed with chili water and mustard tonight."

The atmosphere in the living room fell silent for a moment.

Yukinoshita said with a deadpan expression, "My deepest thanks to you. I hadn't considered things like hair removal cream or glue."

Kasumigaoka: "...You already knew?"

"Because ever since elementary school, people have been adding all sorts of nonsense to my water glass. My nose has always been very sensitive."

In the silence, Kasumigaoka said softly, "The evidence is sufficient. You could call the police, Yukinoshita."

Saying it out loud actually brought a sense of relief.

Doing such a thing in a fit of rage—even if it was an attempted act—ultimately meant she was the one who was being malicious and foolish.

When she thought about retaliating against Yukinoshita in such a wretched way, she realized she had become an even more wretched person.

Doing something wrong required paying a price. Yukinoshita had experienced that before, and now it was her turn.

Yukinoshita watched her in silence for a moment, then turned her head away and began to organize her notebook in a slow, measured manner. "Forget it. You didn't succeed anyway... Besides, I've long since gotten used to being hated."