Yukino Yukinoshita Is Definitely Secretly in Love With Me

This person was a fool whom everyone respected and adored, someone completely different from a dark, acerbic character like herself.

This period was Japanese History. As she listened to the lecture, Yukino Yukinoshita opened the Negative Image Reversal progress bar on her System page.

Negative Image: 88%
Possession Success Rate: 88%

Treating this progress bar like a game boss to be grinded, Yukino thought about how she had been working day and night for over two weeks, racking her brain to exploit bugs and farm quests, only to shave off about one-tenth of the boss's HP.

At this rate, it was simply too slow.

What if she were to be caught off guard and possessed by someone else while she was still grinding this progress?

At this moment, Yukino's phone vibrated slightly.

Email was extremely widespread in Japan, though after the sudden emergence of Line, young people generally preferred using Line. The positioning of email and Line in Japan was roughly analogous to that of SMS versus WeChat in neighboring China.

The difference was that email still held a considerable market share among the middle-aged and older generations, unlike SMS, which was practically on the verge of being phased out.

[Come home next weekend, Yukino.]

It was an email from her mother.

Yukino quickly typed out "scram" and then deleted it.

It was class time; replying instantly would get her caught immediately.

Interacting with her mother always involved these subtle, quiet traps.

Oh, right, of course, one couldn't send "scram" to one's mother either.

She had been arguing online with Kasumigaoka too much over the past two days and had been infected by her terrible vocabulary; she had almost sent it just now.

Ah, this is bad.

She thought this expressionlessly.

Having gone over a year without any memory gaps, she, as a daughter and a sister, would likely appear very strange in front of her family.

Furthermore, she had no idea what the current state of her relationship with her family was.

Although there was no overly harsh wording in her mother's email, according to a slip of the tongue by the driver, Mr. Ito, her mother had once been nearly angered to the point of fainting by the blonde Yukino.

To be able to anger that mother, who could remain calm even if Mount Tai collapsed before her, to the point of seeing stars.

In a sense, the blonde Yukino was quite formidable.

A Line notification suddenly popped up on her phone screen. Yukino exited the email app and opened Line, seeing a message from one of the only two friends on her friend list.

It was Kasumigaoka.

[I won't be charging for the tutoring starting next month~]

It was somewhat unexpected. Kasumigaoka, who claimed she was always sleeping during class, actually had the time to send her a message.

Yukinoshita thought for a moment and replied.

[No need.]

Kasumigaoka's messages came through in a rapid-fire succession.

[What did you think yesterday was? That was an attempted crime! There's a price to pay for doing something wrong, and a single light novel is nowhere near enough. If you can easily forgive something like that, people will only think you're a pushover.]

[It's precisely because of this indifferent attitude of yours that you get bullied at school, Yukinoshita.]

Hearing this from you of all people is what makes it truly strange.

Is it just my imagination?

Ever since the blonde Yukinoshita completely shattered the order of her world, it seemed to have also broken down the walls she had built to isolate herself. She finally had to muster the courage to look up and see the world beyond her own.

Because her mother was likely disappointed in her to the point of no return, she no longer felt the same fear and panic she once did about making her mother angry.

Yukinoshita was a young lady of high standing, raised according to strict family rules, and viewed by her mother as a backup in case anything were to happen to her older sister.

She was a girl who had been bound by countless rules and regulations since childhood, yet no one expected anything from her, and no one affirmed her. It could be said that for a long time, she had locked herself away in her own little world, not knowing why she was living.

Although the soul from another world had made a mess of her life, it had also completely shattered the shackles that had bound her.

Finally, Yukinoshita replied to Kasumigaoka.

[I don't need money.]

Yukinoshita was still Yukinoshita. Even without those shackles, and despite being bound to an unscrupulous System, she still adhered to the moral bottom line she held within her heart.

Kasumigaoka: [Flexing your wealth? Get lost! !!!]

On the other side, Miura was responding to an inquiry from Onozawa Kaho.

[Did Yukinoshita make the cream puffs herself? Wuu, I want to eat them too~]

[Hmph, Yukinoshita-san likes me so much, of course these are handmade desserts made by her personally.]

Miura was incredibly smug and happy. She even wanted to stand up, put her hands on her hips, and livestream herself eating this box of cream puffs in front of the entire school.

Just as the message was sent, Miura noticed the words "Handmade by Moumou Bakery" printed on the packaging of the cream puffs inside the exquisite bag.

Miura: "..."

Yukino Yukinoshita clearly likes me so much, so why wasn't the cream puff she gave me handmade?

How perfunctory!

Yukinoshita, do you even know how to pursue someone!

It was another P.E. class.

At Sobu High School, P.E. classes are co-ed, though boys and girls train in separate, nearby areas. Because of this, the P.E. uniforms at Sobu High aren't the skimpy, revealing kind; they are loose, academic-style white T-shirts with blue trim paired with knee-length shorts.

But even in such generic clothing, Yukinoshita possessed a unique sense of coolness and ethereal grace.

Especially during the volleyball lesson in the indoor gymnasium, when Yukinoshita tied her hair back and leaped high to deliver a powerful spike—that sharp, almost fierce expression, her flying ponytail, and the way the volleyball obeyed her every command, hitting exactly where she directed it.

It was all so incredibly cool!

Miura cheered in her heart.

Then, she was sharply rebuked by Junko Kamizawa.

"Yumiko, stop spacing out! We're trailing by a huge margin!!!"

Onozawa Kaho even whispered a snide remark in her ear: "Didn't you say you wanted to be friends with her earlier? What kind of friend stares at someone so intensely like that!"

Miura immediately grew flustered and angry. "I was just studying Yukinoshita's volleyball technique, that's all, just that!"

"Yes, yes, yes, then hurry up and return the serve!"

But how could she return it...

Thinking about how a crystal princess, so beautiful she seemed to have walked out of a fairy tale, liked her, Miura felt she had absolutely no motivation to fight back. Her footwork slowed down, and her movements became sluggish.

Meanwhile, Yukinoshita was still dominating the court.

Miura used to be called the queen of Sobu High School; she was skilled at both academics and various sports—badminton, tennis, volleyball, basketball, and even baseball. But she had never heard that Yukinoshita's volleyball skills were this high.

She could probably go pro with this, right?

Yukinoshita had never revealed this side of herself. If Miura hadn't specifically organized this volleyball match during P.E. today and pretended to casually pull her into it, she probably would have remained as she always was: silently drifting on the fringes of the crowd, never truly stepping in.

Thwack—

Even though she tried to focus and return the ball, one sharp spike after another shot past her feet.

Miura began to doubt her own existence. Was she, the former athletic genius, actually just a total loser?

In a moment when she looked up, feeling dejected, Miura thought she saw Yukinoshita's eyes—which seemed to be filled with the melting, fragmented snow of a winter day—gaze toward her from across the net.

After that, the offensive pressure from the side where Yukinoshita was the primary scorer clearly slowed down. By the second half, Yukinoshita even requested to leave the court to rest.

With that, Miura's team began to slowly close the score gap, but because the deficit had been too large at the start, they still ended up losing to the other group by a narrow margin when the match concluded.

After all, it was just a game between two groups of girls in the same class; winning or losing didn't really matter. Everyone was chatting and laughing in high spirits, and the boys who had been watching from the sidelines were now coming over to hand water to the girls they liked.

Some were even excitedly discussing Yukino Yukinoshita's performance just now.

"Isn't Yukino Yukinoshita just too amazing?"

"I thought we were going to get crushed since Yumiko was on the other side, but I didn't expect us to win~"

"Honestly, I think Yukino Yukinoshita is kind of cool."

"Ho ho, don't tell me you've fallen for Yukino Yukinoshita?"

"Stop joking around, hahaha."

Miura bit her lower lip and looked toward the distance at Yukino Yukinoshita, who was sitting on the gymnasium floor with a towel draped over her head, her head bowed as if she were resting.

Even when playing, her style was solitary—receiving the ball alone, spiking it alone, never considering teamwork. Now that the match was over, she was once again silently isolating herself from everyone else.

It was truly awful.

"Yumiko."

Hayama walked over carrying two bottles of water and handed them to Miura.

She was just about to put on a confused face and say she couldn't drink two bottles, when she heard Hayama say, "Could you help me give one to Yukino Yukinoshita?"

Why don't you go give it to her yourself?

Probably guessing what was on Miura's mind, Hayama scratched his head with an awkward smile. "Yukino Yukinoshita wouldn't take water from me."

In the few weeks since Yukino Yukinoshita had transferred classes and turned over a new leaf, her reputation at school had improved somewhat. As for the rumors about her and Hayato Hayama, the beloved school prince, many people were no longer as resistant to them as they once were.

Ambiguous gossip was spreading everywhere: Hayama wanted to win Yukino Yukinoshita back!

The two of them were so handsome and beautiful; standing together, they would likely be the golden couple everyone envied.

How nice, how truly nice...

But for some reason, a subtle yet dense prick of pain suddenly appeared in her heart. This pain, mixed with a sour taste, turned into a discomfort Miura had never experienced before.

Even back when she first heard the news that Hayama and Yukino Yukinoshita were together, she hadn't felt this kind of distress.

A bright smile rose on Miura's face as she took the two bottles from Hayama's hand. "Of course, we're close, aren't we?"

As it turned out, this facade of an emotion shattered the second she walked up to Yukino Yukinoshita. "Were you intentionally going easy on us just now?"

Her tone was filled with aggrieved, hot-headed frustration. "Am I really that pathetic, not even worth you taking seriously?"

She had clearly intended to shout and demand an answer, but for some reason, the moment she spoke, her words were filled with an irrepressible sense of loss, even carrying a hint of grievance and coquetry.

She had managed to hide it so well when she was in front of Hayama.

Yukinoshita pulled down her towel, tilted her head, and looked at Miura with some confusion. After a moment, she explained, "My basic stamina is poor. I was only barely holding on during the first half, and I couldn't keep it up at all in the second."

"Who are you trying to fool? You were scoring so aggressively when you were attacking!"

"I am not lying to you."

"I don't believe you!"

Miura's soul felt as if it had been split in two: one half was filled with a bewildered sense of grievance and anger, while the other was soberly consumed by unbearable shame.

Yukinoshita glanced at Miura, then let out a soft sigh.

The sound was so light, so faint, that it reminded Miura of snow quietly sliding off tree branches when a breeze blows after a heavy snowfall.

It was as if that sigh had breathed directly into Miura's heart.

Just as Miura was feeling lost and overwhelmed by this sudden, unidentifiable emotion, Yukinoshita reached out with her slender, elegant fingers and gently took hold of her palm.

Miura froze for a second, then her cheeks flushed bright red.

"W-what are you doing..."

It was meant to be a demand, but her voice was so small it sounded like a murmur.

"We've been resting for nearly ten minutes, yet my body temperature is still this scorching, and my blood has yet to settle. I wasn't lying to you; my basic stamina has been poor since I was a child."

Yukinoshita said, "Miura, you are truly excellent. I didn't have the confidence to go easy on you."

And at this very moment, Miura's heart was completely filled with:

She's praising me!!!!!!!!!!!