My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As Expected

Yukino looked away from Maki Shijo and lifted her head. Haruno was smiling at her, her expression as placid as an autumn lake.

Seeing Haruno like that, Yukino felt a jolt.

At last, she understood where the Sense of Discrepancy surrounding Haruno came from.

Haruno was capable and accomplished. No matter who she was facing, she could put on a warm, friendly smile and quickly draw closer to them. She was practically a born diplomat.

Yukino had always known that Haruno had many, many masks. Even the moments when her true self slipped through were part of the mask she had made.

But in the past, she had never worn that mask around Yukino.

In front of Yukino, she had always been that nasty, awful, boring older sister who could make Yukino lose her temper in a matter of minutes.

Not the Haruno Yukinoshita who smiled so warmly and kindly now.

Let's turn back the clock to that morning and shift our view to Hachiwa-hara Shrine in the city's Higashiyama district.

Hachiwa-hara Shrine was a private shrine passed down through generations of the Hachiwa-hara Family. Across the city, it was no more than a modestly known shrine.

It was a little past seven in the morning. There were hardly any visitors or worshippers at the shrine yet, and only the elderly miko was busy at the ema racks.

Ema were a unique product of Japanese Shinto culture. People wrote their wishes on wooden plaques about fifteen centimeters long and ten centimeters high, offered them before the gods, then hung them on ema racks to pray for divine protection.

Miko Maeda, a high school student and part-time miko, came clattering up the stone steps. She passed through the torii gate and washed her hands at the purification fountain before finally managing to slow down.

"Grandma Hachiwa-hara, I'm back."

Hachiwa-hara Shrine was the Hachiwa-hara Family's ancestral shrine, and Miko was this generation's part-time miko. The job should have gone to the current Hachiwa-hara lady, but she had gotten pregnant out of wedlock and gone chasing after love and freedom long ago. She hardly had time to bother with these feudal relics.

In ancient Japan, the standard for choosing miko was "pure and untainted"—in other words, virgins who hadn't done that sort of thing. Modern standards had relaxed enough to allow miko to date, but however low the bar fell, a married woman couldn't be allowed to serve the gods.

The daughter was getting married, but the shrine still had to keep running. To prevent it from being shut down, they had no choice but to hire a miko from outside.

Room and board included, plus a salary.

Now that was a capitalist miko.

The old miko didn't even turn around. "Miko, tidy up those ema over there."

Miko inwardly clicked her tongue, silently condemning the retired miko's endlessly flexible morals when money was involved. "Got it. Is that the ema rack the pretty big sister reserved?"

About four or five months earlier, a beautiful, wealthy young lady had started coming to the shrine where Miko worked part-time.

She arrived in a luxury car, with a driver and secretary in tow. She was obviously a top-tier rich young lady.

Even though Miko Maeda had worked part-time at the shrine for more than two years and had seen countless worshippers and visitors, she had never seen anyone so beautiful. She immediately became nervous.

But the young lady wasn't just beautiful; she had a sunny smile and spoke with such warmth that after only ten minutes, Miko felt she was kind, beautiful, gentle, good-hearted, and considerate. She was practically the kindest person Miko had ever met.

The young lady said she wanted to buy the rights to all the ema here, so that only her ema would be hung on the racks.

Miko thought it was such a ridiculous request that the old miko, a devout believer who worshipped the gods, would never agree. She might even take it as an insult to her steadfast faith and chase the elegant, beautiful young lady away with a broom.

After listening to Miko's advice, the young lady merely smiled. "Just pass my request on to the head of the shrine, Miko."

She smiled and winked. "Don't worry. His Excellency Hachiwa-hara is getting on in years. Even if he wanted to beat me, he couldn't catch me."

Ah, she was so beautiful when she smiled!

His Excellency Hachiwa-hara, a venerable and dignified old miko, didn't get angry at the young lady's monetary insult. "Hachiwa-hara Shrine isn't very well-known, so it shouldn't have much advertising value. Why do you want to reserve the shrine's ema racks, Your Excellency?"

The young lady smiled. "I've always wondered if the gods constantly have worshippers chattering in their ears. A million? Ten million? Maybe even more?"

"So if the gods could hear only my prayers, would they grant only my wishes?" she asked with a smile. "I'm curious about that."

Hey, hey, hey! That's blasphemy!

Besides, who even knows if gods exist!

You'd be better off throwing your money into a pond. At least you'd hear a splash!

The old miko's definitely going to beat you up. Run!

And, well, I guess that's what you'd expect from a rich young lady. Trying to monopolize prayers is so capitalist...

His Excellency Hachiwa-hara still didn't get angry. "The shrine is open to all worshippers. We can't hang only your ema."

Miko was a little surprised the old miko hadn't gotten angry, but surely a true believer wouldn't give in to money...

"If Your Excellency is willing to pay, we can build a few more ema racks. We can't raise the theoretical chance of your wish coming true to one hundred percent, but if the sample size is large enough, we can get infinitely close."

The young lady nodded. "I'm also in talks with other shrines and temples."

Miko Maeda: "..."

After the perpetual-motion merit machine, the all-purpose wish-granting Holy Grail was achieved. [x]

The young lady and the old miko reached an agreement. One achieved the feat of blaspheming against the gods with a mortal body, while the other acquired a considerable sum of money. They both had bright futures ahead of them.

Only Miko Maeda was left questioning her entire worldview.

As she grumbled inwardly, she hurried over to the young lady's four-sided ema rack. It was densely covered with wooden plaques, each bearing a prayer the young lady had written by hand.

[May the gods protect Little Yukino and let her come back soon]

[I want to have another snowball fight with Little Yukino]

[No one made me cry this year. I'm so lonely]

[Little Yukino and I fought last year, and she almost cried. But she still hasn't come back to win a match against me. She's such a bad girl]

Each line sounded more like some idle remark than a wish. At first they were calm and sad, then little by little they became shadowed with despair.

[Gods, will my little sister really come back?]

[That person might truly be innocent, but I still wish she would die every second of every day... Gods, I am guilty]

[No one noticed Yukino was gone, and no one would believe it... Even if I'm the only one who keeps believing, I will]

[So I'm the only one who mustn't forget Yukino. If even I give up, then Yukino really will disappear from this world...]

After taking down the last ema, Miko couldn't help remembering the time she'd asked the young lady a question during one of her visits.

"Miss Yukinoshita, you said before that you were doing all this just to test your theory. That wasn't true, was it?"

The young lady had smiled in a daze, then silently admitted it. Miko couldn't help asking, "Why not try something more reliable?"

Yes, this part-time miko was an atheist.

Praying to gods and buddhas was simply too unreliable.

Just how desperate and out of options did someone have to be to place so much hope in the gods?

The young lady looked into the distance. The smile that had always hung over her face like a veil of mist vanished.

"Because the chance of my wish coming true is even more illusory than the chance that gods exist..."

Countless Japanese luminaries came and went at this banquet. Familiar faces gathered in little groups, and, inevitably, started gossiping.

Not only was Haruno being grilled by a group of close friends about how many handsome men she had dated, but the people around Miss Maki Shijo were also teasing her about her relationship with Tanuma-kun.

As expected, gossip and watching the drama unfold were humanity's primal driving forces!

As soon as the topic came up, Haruno saw her friend Hananomiya pat Yukino on the shoulder and wiggle her eyebrows. "That Tanuma boy, huh~"

The young master of the Tanuma Family, Tsubasa Tanuma.

Rumor had it he was someone Miss Shijo had once liked, and one of the ex-boyfriends Yukino Yukinoshita had stolen from her.

Though the two of them had broken up the very next day, and some time later Tsubasa Tanuma had started dating a new girlfriend, Nagisa Kashiwagi.

And Nagisa Kashiwagi was a friend of Maki Shijo.

Emmmmmm... The people in this circle sure were tangled up in each other's lives.

But never mind. The Socialite Circle was full of messes even worse than this.

Miss Shijo clearly had no intention of getting sucked into that fetid swamp. She raised her chin slightly. Though she was still smiling, her eyes were sharp. "Please don't repeat such ridiculous rumors in the future."

"Leaving aside the fact that Tsubasa Tanuma is my friend's boyfriend, even if he weren't dating Kashiwagi, I wouldn't spare him a second glance."

"Foolish, impulsive, cowardly, indecisive, and lacking any backbone. There's no way I, Maki Shijo, could ever fall for someone like that."

With words bordering on cruel, she mercilessly judged her friend's boyfriend. "This foolish rumor won't just affect my friendship with Kashiwagi. It could even make people question the Shijo Family's taste."

Her words had been so firm that the entire room fell silent for a moment.

Miss Yagyu raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Looks like Miss Shijo really does hate that Tanuma boy."

Hananomiya rested an elbow lightly on Yukino's shoulder and casually laughed. "Maybe she really doesn't want to be associated with the boring rumor that she's in love with her friend's boyfriend."

Haruno had known for a long time that Hananomiya had no sense of personal space. If someone suited her taste, she couldn't help moving closer and getting touchy-feely with them.

Besides, that person wasn't really "Yukino," so it shouldn't have mattered to Haruno.

It should have been that simple.

But she couldn't stop her irritated gaze from turning toward Hananomiya. "...Hananomiya, are you seriously unable to tell that Yukino isn't comfortable with that much Physical Contact?"

Hananomiya stuck her tongue out at her, then immediately wrapped both arms around Yukino's waist. "She just doesn't like Physical Contact with you, her awful big sister!"

Haruno: "..."

Hey, "Yukinoshita," the least you could do was push her away!

Have some dignity!

Miss Suzuki nodded enthusiastically. "Well said! I want a little sister as pretty as Yukino, too. I'd dress her up in cute outfits every day!"

Miss Yagyu rolled her eyes at her. "Is that why you got your little brother to dress up as a girl?"

Everyone chatted and laughed, the atmosphere warm and lively.

But Haruno soon sensed that, at some point, the girl beside her had begun to feel... off.

Haruno had always been sensitive to Yukino's moods.

But right now, she hated that sensitivity of hers.

Like that Shinomiya heiress, she had the same ice-cold, long-haired, flat-chested beauty image, but the two of them were completely different people.

Yukino Yukinoshita's icy demeanor made her seem unapproachable, as if she were only meant to be admired from afar. But really, she wore only a thin shell of bluster that would crack if you lightly touched it.

Yukino was actually a kindhearted girl, if a little prickly.

That young lady from the Shinomiya Family was the real walking iceberg, with ice shards flying everywhere.

When she looked up at someone, the sharpness and coldness in her eyes seemed to slice through the air.

And now, Haruno Yukinoshita felt as if she were looking at that impossible-to-get-along-with Miss Shinomiya.

Yukinoshita lowered her eyes. "Sorry, I'm going to the restroom..."

The girl who had once thought she could become Yukino in front of her older sister was, at that moment, Yukinoshita once again.

She walked straight out of the lively, brightly lit Banquet Hall. She didn't go to the restroom; instead, she turned and headed up to the third floor.

As a seasoned loner, she needed good mental fortitude to face the isolation and rejection of countless people without flinching. More importantly, she needed to know at a glance which spot in any given area was best for being alone.

If loneliness were an academic discipline, Yukino thought she could get straight A's.

She kept her expression calm and her steps unhurried. Even when a waiter approached to ask her something, she had time to politely refuse in a soft voice. No one knew how many feelings were gathering and breaking apart inside her at that very moment.

The feeling could only be described as mortified anger.

She had been taciturn since childhood and could even keep her emotions in check. She rarely came close to losing control like this.

But only in front of her older sister, Haruno, did she never need to hold back or put on a brave front. She could be like a little cat, claws out, picking fights and losing every time.

She could do anything embarrassing in front of Haruno.

That was their sisters' awkward but happy way of getting along.

Though she would never admit it out loud, Yukino Yukinoshita knew in her heart that Haruno was very special to her.

If Haruno's soul were ever replaced with someone else's, Yukino was confident she would notice immediately.

But she had been too confident—so confident that she'd actually held on to the same unrealistic hope for Haruno: if Yukino herself were ever possessed, Haruno would be able to tell at a glance that something was wrong with her, too.