Yukino Yukinoshita Is Definitely Crushing on Me

It was a perfectly ordinary sentence, yet to Kasumigaoka, it felt inexplicably lonely.

Yukinoshita said, "Then, it is my turn to ask."

Even though she was the culprit who had done something far worse at this very moment, the victim had brushed the matter aside so lightly.

She had been forgiven—forgiven by the very person she used to loathe so intensely.

Yukinoshita's expression was calm, her spine as straight as a pine. With her hands resting on her knees, she looked at Kasumigaoka with eyes like melting spring snow.

Kasumigaoka swallowed imperceptibly. "...Let's get this straight, I won't answer any questions that are too excessive."

Was it true or false that Yukinoshita liked girls?

If it were true, then who exactly was the girl she liked?

Was it...

"So, Kasumigaoka-senpai, what do you like?"

"I don't like—"

Her cheeks heating up, she was just about to blurt out I wouldn't like you, when Kasumigaoka suddenly processed the question Yukinoshita had actually asked.

"...Huh?"

She sat up straight, feeling rather awkward. "That's such a broad question, it really makes me have to think about it."

"Anything is fine, as long as you like it enough."

After thinking for a moment, she tentatively offered an answer. "Coffee?"

"You're lying."

Because of her deadlines, she often needed coffee for company.

"I wouldn't say it's my favorite, but it's not exactly a lie... Alright, fine, sleeping?"

Kasumigaoka was a genius student who spent her nights addicted to writing and her days sleeping through class. Although she spent every day in a daze at school, she consistently held the top spot in every mock exam.

Yukinoshita's gaze sharpened as she glared at her.

Kasumigaoka chuckled. "Alright, let me think... Oh, right."

She gently patted her cheeks. "Light novels."

She did indeed enjoy reading light novels, but what she loved most was, naturally, writing them.

Yes, while Kasumigaoka's public identity was one of the two school idols of Toyogasaki Academy, the ace of the Literature Club, and a top-tier student who dominated the grade rankings year after year, she had another identity in private—a budding light novel author who had debuted with a hit work.

Love Metronome, published by Fujimi Shobo's Fantastic Bunko, has released five volumes in total with sales exceeding 500,000 copies—a truly remarkable achievement for a newcomer.

[System: Best option to reverse your negative image: Have Kasumigaoka give you a light novel]

The System had indeed triggered a quest.

Congratulations, Yukinoshita, you've even learned how to exploit bugs to farm quests!

Yukinoshita said, "If you're feeling uneasy about what just happened, give me a light novel you like. Let's consider everything that passed between us wiped clean."

Still thinking about the perpetrator?

A reformed Yukinoshita is almost too kind for her own good!

Kasumigaoka lay lazily across her desk, tilting her head to look at her with a strange expression. "Love Metronome, how about this one?"

So, Kasumigaoka likes this light novel too.

Yukinoshita's expression softened, and she nodded. "As it happens, I don't have the fifth volume yet."

"Alright then, next time I'll give you the author-signed edition of all five volumes of Love Metronome."

"There's no need to boast. The author who wrote this book is indifferent to fame and has a rather old-fashioned temperament. I heard that since the signing event for the first three volumes, they haven't held another one. So, an autographed set of all the volumes is simply impossible."

For some reason, having her bluff exposed like this only made Kasumigaoka, who was propping her head up, smile even more happily.

Inside the Yukinoshita residence, Mrs. Yukinoshita had just hung up the phone when she happened to see her eldest daughter, Haruno, walking through the door.

"I'm home... Mother?"

Haruno's makeup was exquisite, and her accessories perfectly complemented her beauty; there wasn't a single part of her that didn't shine.

Although she looked somewhat tired, she still appeared confident and radiant.

This was her most outstanding daughter, the most excellent heir to the Yukinoshita family. Even without the other daughter—the one who had been raised into a failure—to serve as a comparison, Haruno Yukinoshita was a pearl in the country's socialite circles that would never be overshadowed.

Though she hadn't fully matured yet, she was already a young python capable of baring its fangs.

The prouder she was of her eldest daughter, the more disappointed she felt in the other.

Yukino had clearly been such an excellent child before. Although she couldn't compare to her older sister, she was perfectly qualified to be the backup heir of the Yukinoshita family.

But overnight, her daughter had rebelled and decided to become a gyaru—a piece-of-trash gyaru who played eighty men at once and was good for nothing but dating. Mrs. Yukinoshita had been so angry at the time that she nearly fainted.

Perhaps surprised to see her mother at home for once, Haruno Yukinoshita turned her head in surprise.

The smile on her face was sweet and affectionate—the kind of smile most capable of winning people over and making them drop their guard. She had been practicing that smile since she was a child.

"Are you waiting for me? Please wait a moment; I'll go change and be right back."

She was still wearing her ornate, flowing evening gown; it did feel a bit strange to be having a conversation with her mother in such attire.

"That won't be necessary, Haruno."

Mrs. Yukinoshita gestured for Haruno to sit, taking a seat on the sofa opposite her. "I have something to ask you."

Haruno sat down obediently. "Are you looking to hear the details of the banquet, Mother?"

"The eldest daughter of the Shinomiya Family did not attend this banquet, though the young lady of the Shijo Family was present. With the national economy in a general slump lately, many people have been paying close attention to the ACG industry. I feel this is a good opportunity, but..."

"Haruno, your sister has started to study properly lately."

Haruno Yukinoshita's voice came to an abrupt halt.

After a brief pause, Haruno's expression remained unchanged, and she continued with a light chuckle: "Ah, she must be chasing after some honor student, then. It's not exactly a strange thing for Yukino to do, is it~?"

After all, it wasn't as if Yukino Yukinoshita hadn't done such things before. For instance, to pursue a certain boy with eighth-grader syndrome, she had painstakingly read through a pile of chuunibyou masterpieces and even memorized countless lines of chuunibyou dialogue.

Or, to pursue a certain otaku boy, she had dove headfirst into the hobby, buying a mountain of otaku-oriented games, light novels, and manga—she had even nearly debuted as a cosplayer herself.

Over the past year, the obsession Yukino Yukinoshita had shown in pursuing people had truly left Haruno in awe.

"That is not the case."

Mrs. Yukinoshita laid out several photographs. "Yukino hasn't pursued anyone for two weeks, and she has turned over a new leaf and studied diligently for two weeks. Even when she was pursuing someone in the past, she never put in the effort for more than two weeks."

Haruno's expression grew complex. "Why do these photos look like they were taken by a stalker?"

Mrs. Yukinoshita's habitually poised demeanor faltered for a moment. "...Do not misunderstand. These were downloaded and printed from the Sobu High School campus forum."

Haruno smiled brightly. "It's not bad for Yukino to want to study hard. Let her do whatever she wants."

Mrs. Yukinoshita replied, "Yukino is a child of the Yukinoshita family. If she has the heart to improve herself, I would naturally be very happy."

The topic was clearly mundane, yet an inexplicable undercurrent seemed to surge between the two.

If Haruno was a young, underage serpent, then Mrs. Yukinoshita was a fully mature, massive python capable of blotting out the sky.

Despite her appearance as a calm, smiling noblewoman, both her smile and her words carried an indescribable sense of oppression.

Mrs. Yukinoshita said, "Next weekend, Haruno, go and bring your sister home for a visit."

It was less of an imperative sentence and more of a statement carrying a calm command.

Haruno pressed her lips together, the smile on her face vanishing completely.

"Do you really have to make me say it, Mother?"

"I will never acknowledge that she is my sister."

"She's here, she's here!"

Onozawa Kaho rushed to Miura's seat like a whirlwind, whispering in an ultra-low voice, "Yukinoshita is here! Yumiko, hurry up and get ready!"

"What is it? It's not like I'm chasing her; she's the one chasing me. Why do I have to be so proactive..."

Although she complained with her mouth, Miura still quickly took out her makeup mirror to fix her hair, then pulled a bag she had prepared long ago from her desk.

Her eyes were burning as she stared at the classroom door.

And so, when Yukinoshita walked into the classroom with her backpack, she was met with four pairs of eyes locked onto her.

Yukinoshita's first reaction was to look at her desk, finding no curses scrawled all over it. She then looked at her chair, finding no thumbtacks placed on it, and finally looked at the blackboard, finding it free of any "Yukinoshita is a bitch" graffiti.

Yukinoshita: "?"

She slowly projected a question mark.

As the puzzled Yukinoshita sat back down in her seat, she heard someone dash over like the wind and slap something onto her desk.

Yukinoshita had been careless; she hadn't defended in time!

When she turned her head, she only saw Miura dashing back just as quickly, sitting elegantly in her chair, and clearing her throat without looking in this direction.

Yukinoshita, who had initially thought it was a suicide-bombing device, took a light glance at the items on her desk and discovered they were a stack of notebooks. Curious, she opened one and flipped through it.

—They were all the class notes from the first year of high school up until last week.

The handwriting was elegant; it was a girl's notebook.

A whole bag full of them—every single one was a diligent and comprehensive record of study notes.

As for the second-year notes, because Miura needed them too, she had given Yukinoshita printed versions.

Yukinoshita pursed her lips as she looked them over, then picked up the bag of cream puffs she had brought this morning and walked over, placing it on Miura's desk.

Miura crossed her arms, trying her best to look indifferent as she glanced at them. "Cream puffs, huh? They're greasy and make you gain weight easily. I hate them the most."

Yukinoshita: ?

System, get out here and take a beating.

Didn't you say Miura likes cream puffs the most?

Junko Kamizawa, sitting behind them, poked her head over from the back. "Eh? I love cream puffs the most! If Yumiko doesn't want them, give them all to me~"

Onozawa Kaho poked her head over from the left. "I want some too, I want some too!"

"Who said I wanted it!" Miura snapped, quickly shoving the bag of sweets into her desk. Even the tips of her ears turned bright red.

"I feel like getting fat today, is that a problem?!"

From the newest to the oldest, covering everything from her first year of high school up until last week, notebooks for every subject and every chapter were spread out before Yukino Yukinoshita. They contained summaries of classroom lessons, organized collections of difficult problems, and step-by-step solutions—everything one could possibly need.

Miura usually had decent grades in class. While she didn't dominate the grade-level rankings, she consistently placed in the top three in her class and the top twenty in the grade.

Yukino Yukinoshita had originally assumed this girl was a genius type similar to Kasumigaoka, but she hadn't expected that Miura was quietly putting in effort where no one could see.

How can someone like this exist? Yukino Yukinoshita wondered.

She clearly looked like a queen-type who was incredibly difficult to deal with, but in reality, she was a girl who could lose her composure in a split second. She loved being shy, loved sweets, and loved cute things; she was full of girlish sentiment but was always too embarrassed to show it.

She seemed highly aggressive, but she was actually terrible at arguing—the type that Yukino Yukinoshita could make cry with a single retort.

If someone showed her a shred of kindness, she would want to repay them tenfold.

Even toward a nuisance like Yukino Yukinoshita, who could be considered her romantic rival, she was still capable of offering genuine concern.

For the past sixteen years, Yukino Yukinoshita had feared two types of people: the first were clever people whose brains were constantly calculating gains and losses, and the second were these kinds of complete idiots.

Especially the latter; she found them incredibly difficult to handle.

The bell for class rang. Yukino Yukinoshita turned her head to glance at Miura, seeing her resting her chin in her hand, smiling as she looked at her phone under the desk, chatting with someone.

Noticing Yukino Yukinoshita's gaze, Miura turned fierce in a second. Her forced, angry expression clearly said, "Why are you looking at me?!"

But she couldn't hold it for more than three seconds before her face flushed crimson. She let out a hurried huff and turned her head away with an arrogant look.

--Idiot.