After lunch, there was still some time left. Miura had wanted to take Yukino around the shopping mall and look for a photo booth, but after searching for a while, they couldn't find a single one.
"What are you looking for?"
"A photo booth. I checked some guides, and they all said that a perfect date... Ahem! A perfect outing with a friend had to include a photo booth."
"Aren't those guides from a few years ago?"
Yukino rubbed her forehead. "Young people haven't been very interested in them for a while now."
With phone selfies and photo-editing apps becoming commonplace, the sticker-photo booths that had once been popular on every street gradually disappeared. Last year, Japan's famous photo-booth maker Make Software declared bankruptcy, and sticker-photo booths officially began their decline.
Miura's face fell. "Aw... I was hoping to take a picture as a memento of our date."
Yukino glanced at her. "Dummy."
"Who are you calling a dummy?!"
But Yukino said, "Why not just take one with your phone?"
That was exactly what she'd been waiting to hear!
Miura happily pulled out her phone. As she focused the camera on what was in front of her, she saw Yukino had already walked a few steps away. Then Yukino lifted one hand to tuck back the hair at her temple, lightly pressed down her skirt with the other, and turned around with a smile.
As if a breeze had swept by, Miura instinctively pressed the shutter.
She looked at Yukino on her phone screen, smiling gently with adorable dimples showing in her cheeks, then lowered the phone and looked at Yukino, whose expression had returned to its usual calm.
Miura suddenly realized that this was the first time Yukino had smiled in front of her.
She was freaking gorgeous!
What was she, a Disney Princess who'd escaped from the castle? An Avalon Elf who'd wandered into the human world?
She was so beautiful that Miura was at a loss for words!
She was so beautiful that even as they wandered around the mall, Miura's head remained in a daze.
It was a large shopping mall, with all the facilities and a wide selection of products.
The two of them got on an escalator, chatting casually.
"Miura, have you come up with an idea for your Club Activity Report yet?"
That was just an excuse I made up to get you to ask me on a date. How the hell would I have an idea?
Miura gave a light cough and put on a serious expression. "I think so. I've got the outline in my head. I can finish writing it in fifteen minutes once I get home."
She made things up as she went along, then stood behind Yukino.
Yukino was wearing a pleated skirt that came just above her knees. It wasn't short, but there was still some risk of accidentally showing too much on an escalator, especially when someone was below them.
"Is there anything you want to buy, Miura?"
"A light jacket."
In the end, besides Miura's light jacket, Yukino also bought her a pink headband. "It's a thank-you gift for the beef bowl today."
Looking at the pink headband in her hand, Miura instinctively acted coy. "This color doesn't suit me, does it?"
Actually, she liked pink very, very, very, very much!
A strong Queen suddenly having something to do with a girlish heart and the color pink... It felt so embarrassing.
[Miura, pink doesn't suit you, does it?]
Lots of people had said that to her before.
After that, whenever she went shopping, she always instinctively skipped over pink things. But every time she did, she felt a little pang of regret.
Yukino even knew about a preference she'd hidden so deeply. She really did like Miura!
Yukino, the Beloved, had gotten the answers from the System Task by cheating. She casually complimented Miura in the most straightforward way possible. "You're pretty. Anything would look good on you."
Miura felt like she was about to blush again. She snuck a glance at Yukino's face and muttered, "You're obviously prettier. Hayama and the others all think so..."
What good was being pretty? It wasn't as if it stopped people from hating her.
The words circled around in Yukino's mind, but she still didn't say them.
She looked at Miura. "Speaking of Hayama, I've heard the rumors about you and him."
For some reason, Miura suddenly felt anxious. She immediately denied it. "They're all made up! People are just spreading rumors!"
"Hayama and I have known each other since middle school, and we're neighbors, so we spend a lot of time together. That's why people at school love gossiping!"
Yukino let out a soft breath. "That's a relief."
Miura stared at her blankly, her heartbeat gradually speeding up.
Why did she say that?
Was she about to...?
But Yukino said, "Most of the girls who like Hayama hate me. I don't want you to hate me, too."
Miura was the first friend Yukino had ever made in her life. At this point, she wasn't even thinking about racking up points with Miura.
The fluttery feelings in Miura's heart gradually settled, leaving only tenderness for this person.
"I'd never like him. Hayama's an idiot!"
"I've heard all about it. Back in elementary school, lots of people were jealous of Yukino because of Hayama, and he didn't do a thing! What an idiot. It makes me so mad!"
Seeing Miura getting all worked up like this actually put Yukino at ease. She even casually defended Hayama. "If he'd stepped in back then, he would only have made things worse... And I probably haven't been bullied too badly this past year at Sobu High School because Hayama has been quietly looking out for me."
"What does quietly looking out for you even count for? You hadn't been in our class long before I told everyone that anyone who dared bully you would have to deal with me..."
Yukino looked at her in confusion. "...You would?"
Miura's voice cut off abruptly.
"Eriri, can I come in?"
Before heading out, Mrs. Sawamura, Sayuri Sawamura, had casually tied up her hair. She knocked gently on her daughter's door before pushing it open.
Just as she'd expected, her daughter was wearing her unfashionable Junior High Tracksuit and black-rimmed glasses, working on a manuscript at her desk.
She smiled and walked over, resting both hands on the desk as she took a look. She was about to tease her daughter, but then she realized that this time Eriri had drawn an entirely normal illustration of a beautiful girl!
It was a little suggestive, but it wasn't outright pornographic at all!
Mrs. Sawamura was devastated. "Eriri, are you actually going to give up being a pornographic manga artist?!"
Eriri Sawamura was one of the two Campus Belles of Toyogasaki Academy, alongside Utaha Kasumigaoka. She was also an art-club prodigy who had won awards at exhibitions ever since her first year of high school, and she possessed a rare talent for drawing.
In reality, though, she was a rising pornographic manga artist with quite a reputation in Japan. Thanks to her delicate, sensual art style, she had earned herself a devoted following of perverts.
Most erotic manga artists would have gone to great lengths to keep their work a secret from their family. But Eriri's father was a diplomat, and her Japanese mother was a hardcore otaku. With both her parents' support and the family's money behind her, she could stay at home and indulge herself without the slightest shame. Her parents even ran her personal website and sold her pornographic manga for her.
Eriri shook her head. When she was thinking about her drawings, she occasionally bit down on the end of her pen without realizing it. "Of course not. This is the Character Illustration I promised to prepare for Kasumigaoka's New Book."
They were both popular Rising Stars in the Japanese ACG Industry. Promoting each other like this was a great way to get people talking, and both their editors thought it was a good idea.
Mrs. Sawamura was a little surprised. "Oh? Is that girl Utaha going to start writing a New Book?"
The two Campus Belles of Toyogasaki Academy had once been at each other's throats, but they'd grown much closer lately. They even often went to each other's houses to work on their manuscripts when deadlines were approaching.
People who met deadlines were truly superior beings!
Eriri shook her head. "She's still gathering ideas. She only gave me a rough outline of the character."
Mrs. Sawamura smiled in satisfaction. "You and Utaha have gotten along a lot better lately, Eriri..."
Eriri immediately got coy. "No, we haven't. I can't stand that woman!"
"You..." Her mother gently tapped her daughter on the forehead, clearly disapproving.
Ever since Tomo and Eriri had completely cut ties, it was only Utaha Kasumigaoka who occasionally came around to trade barbs with Eriri, keeping her from becoming completely lifeless.
Mrs. Sawamura had a very good impression of Kasumigaoka.
"I've got a banquet tonight, so stay home and work on your manuscript. I've kept dinner and a late-night snack warm in the rice cooker."
Before waving goodbye, she turned back with a smile. "You should try reaching out to your friends once in a while, too. You can't be so coy all the time, Eriri."
Kasumigaoka can get lost!
How could she possibly be a friend of hers, Eriri Sawamura?!
But...
Eriri's brilliant platinum-blonde hair seemed to dim as she slumped over her desk in dejection.
Tomo had moved on from the entanglements between the three of them and started studying seriously. That woman Kasumigaoka also seemed to be starting a new life.
It was as if Eriri alone was wandering through the darkness, struggling in a swamp.
What was she supposed to do?
In the past, the only things connecting them had been their shared otaku interests and Tomo. But now Tomo had left their lives, and they'd already talked about otaku stuff as much as they could.
What else could they even talk about?
If she had to say, there was probably only...
Eriri skillfully opened the saved link to Sobu High School's Campus Forum on her phone. She entered "Yukino" into the search bar and tapped search.
But the sudden change in tone of the posts that came up left her dumbfounded.
[Yukino's P.E. class—tons of photos! What kind of peerless beauty is this?! (Lots of pictures inside)]
[Yukino's playing volleyball. Please stop playing volleyball and hit me instead! (Lots of pictures inside)]
[Yukino took promotional pictures for the school with the School News Agency today. Wow, she looks amazing on camera! (Lots of pictures inside)]
Most of the comments in those posts were all full of the same kind of praise.
For example:
[OP has great taste! Black-haired Yukino is absolutely lethal to my aesthetic sensibilities!]
[Waaah, I thought I was the only one secretly drooling over Yukino's peerless beauty!]
[Let me quietly say this: if I had a face like that, I wouldn't just be juggling eighty people at once. I'd be floating everywhere I went.]
[No need to say anything else. Big Sister Yukino, come play with my heart~]
Did these people even have any morals?!
She had to admit that black-haired Yukino was pretty, but it wasn't like people had to let their values go out the window over her looks, was it?!
Was there something wrong with everyone at Sobu High School?
Wasn't Sobu High School supposed to be the worst-hit area for victims of the Scum King Yukino?
Now they were practically praising Yukino to the heavens!
She sensed something was off. Looking through the posts, she saw they'd all been made by the same account, and several accounts with matching names were repeatedly steering the discussion and singing Yukino's praises in the comments.
Most of the posts had been started by an account called [What Do I Do, She Likes Me Too Much]. There were also two Alt Accounts popping up in different threads and showering her with praise.
The two forum Alt Accounts were [My Silly Daughter] and [Love Troubles Expert].
There were only two or three of them, yet they'd managed to make the comments look like an army of thousands.
Unbelievable. This green-tea Yukino had even hired a bunch of shills for herself?
Eriri flew into a rage right there and started typing furiously, unleashing a stream of vitriol at Yukino.
[What's the point of this?]
[Yukino, you shameless green-tea girl! You've really stooped this low??]
[You think buying a few shills to praise you on the school forum will cover up what you've done in the past???]
She replied to several of the posts and was just getting ready to keep fighting when she refreshed the page and found that all her replies had been deleted.
Eriri Sawamura: "..."
Before you continue