So now, when she realized that Haruno hadn't noticed anything strange about her, just like everyone else, and that Haruno harbored ill will toward her, just like everyone else, she flew into a rage out of shame.
Ridiculous.
You're truly ridiculous, Yukino Yukinoshita!
Wasn't this only to be expected? Soul Possession and Reincarnation was so absurd that even your parents hadn't noticed. No one in the entire world would believe you. What gave you the right to expect Haruno to understand everything about you without you saying a word?!
How dare you expect anyone in this world to understand you, believe you, and know what you meant without conditions?!
Foolish, arrogant, presumptuous, utterly ridiculous.
A barely suppressed anger toward herself rose in Yukino's heart. She walked to the end of the hotel's third-floor corridor, where no one ever went, and stepped onto the secluded, quiet balcony.
Then she heard someone crying softly there.
"I actually... like Tanuma-kun..."
At the sound of footsteps, the light-brown-haired girl, her hair loose over her shoulders, looked up in alarm. Her beautiful face was streaked with tears.
Yukino: "..."
At the far end of the narrow Observation Deck, which was little more than a corridor, stood a few potted plants. Few people ever came here.
Yukino and the girl opposite her stared at each other.
The cold wind brushed their cheeks. Even worse than the chill was the painfully awkward atmosphere between them.
At the banquet just now, Yukino had heard the Eldest Miss of the Shijo Family insist, with absolute certainty, that there was no way she could like Tsubasa Tanuma.
She'd even harshly criticized Tsubasa Tanuma, acting as if she'd rather like a dog than him.
Yukino had wondered then how the young lady from the Shijo Family had ended up on the victim list. Whoever had put the list together had clearly been making things up as they went.
But come to think of it, who had compiled that damned thing anyway???
It was all over the Sobu High School forum, other schools' forums, and even gossip forums frequented by the wealthy. The sheer number of lists, and the detail in them, was astounding.
After the list had been made public, curious onlookers had flocked to those posts. Some busybodies had even drawn up a Harem Map for Yukino.
Then, to everyone's delight, they'd discovered that the people Yukino had cheated on stretched from Hokkaido to Honshu, from Shikoku to Kyushu and on to Tokyo. Her Harem Domain covered almost all of Japan.
At first, the major forums had, of course, condemned and cursed this appalling behavior. But after all the gossip about Yukino they'd devoured by now, the mood of condemnation had long since changed.
# When is Yukino publishing a book? I'll buy every copy! #
# When will Yukino's green map expand overseas? #
# Who did Yukino cheat on today? #
# I heard Yukino gave up her harem queen title? Does that mean I won't get any more gossip??? #
Among all those gossip posts, discussions about Maki Shijo were especially popular.
After all, she was the only person on the victim list to deny that she was a victim. She'd said she'd rather like a hammer than Tsubasa Tanuma.
She'd said, What does it have to do with me who Yukino cheats on?!
She'd said, Don't bring up this kind of stupid news in front of me again.
She'd said, Tsubasa Tanuma is a complete idiot!
Apparently, when Tsubasa Tanuma heard that, he'd nearly cried. Even later, when he started dating Maki Shijo's friend Nagisa Kashiwagi, he kept his distance from his girlfriend's friend.
Tsubasa Tanuma: QAQ
And just now, Yukino had heard this young lady from a wealthy family crying here and saying what?
"I actually... really do like Tanuma-kun..."
Yukino: "..."
Was she supposed to say something now?
She'd been holding in her frustration from the start and had wanted to find somewhere to calm down. But now she'd walked into this painfully awkward scene, and she turned to leave.
The icy atmosphere between them shattered at the movement.
Maki Shijo's face flushed red. "I don't like Tsubasa Tanuma!!!"
[The system has selected the best option for reversing your Negative Image: Ask Maki Shijo, "Who's Tsubasa Tanuma?"]
Yukino: "...Who's Tsubasa Tanuma?"
System, are you actually reliable? There's absolutely no way this would help!
Wouldn't it be ridiculous and mocking if Tanuma's ex-girlfriend asked who he was?
Maki Shijo would definitely start a fight with her right here, wouldn't she???
Maki Shijo froze for a moment. She'd already been crouched on the ground, crying with her face buried in her arms. After a little sob, she buried her face in them again.
This time, though, she cried silently, only giving an occasional sniffle.
The storm of clashing emotions inside her, almost like a split personality, gradually settled.
Her voice was muffled. "Yukino, I don't need your pity."
Who said I pitied you???
If I weren't trying to earn points with you, I'd have turned around and left already!
I'm having a hard enough time myself!
Maki Shijo turned her face halfway out of the crook of her arms and looked at Yukino. The tears in her eyes shimmered faintly in the moonlight.
"I hate you so much, Yukino."
Yukino sighed with relief. Things had finally returned to a situation she knew how to handle.
She nodded calmly. "A lot of people hate me."
Aside from Haruno Yukinoshita failing to recognize her and hating her, nothing in the world could rattle Yukino. She could calmly face other people's loathing, curses, and hatred.
If she weren't worried about affecting the relationship between the Shijo Family and the Yukinoshita Family, and if she didn't need to earn points, she'd have ignored Maki Shijo's dislike of her outright.
Maki Shijo's voice was very soft, like a breeze that might die away if one didn't pay attention.
"Tanuma-kun said you knew she liked Kashiwagi. On the day you started dating him, all you did was teach him how to pursue Kashiwagi."
Blonde Yukino had actually pulled a stunt like that just to make sure the confession succeeded?
But come to think of it, if Maki Shijo knew about Blonde Yukino's confession strategy, she shouldn't hate her. After all, Blonde Yukino and Tsubasa Tanuma had seemed more like a Love Coach and her pupil than a couple.
Oh, no. Blonde Yukino's maneuvering had set Tsubasa Tanuma and Nagisa Kashiwagi up, which had led to Maki Shijo being eliminated.
Seen that way, Blonde Yukino was still the one to blame.
Forget it. Whip the Corpse.
Yukino tried to find a keyword that might earn her points with Maki Shijo. "You like Tsubasa Tanuma?"
Maki Shijo turned her face away and said nothing.
On a night when only the two of them and the moon were present, the Eldest Miss of the Shijo Family, so accustomed to shutting away her feelings, was surprisingly tender.
Yukino continued to test the waters. "If you want, I can be your Love Coach now and help you win your Tanuma-kun back?"
Maki Shijo said quietly, "Tanuma-kun and Kashiwagi have already started dating. As Kashiwagi's best friend and a daughter of the Shijo Family, I can't do that."
"What about fair competition?"
"No."
Yukino could tell that although the young lady's voice was subdued, her answer held not the slightest hesitation or ambiguity.
When it came to love, she'd never considered fighting her friend for anything.
She was an exceptionally upright girl.
The thing trapping her wasn't pain inflicted by other people, but the moral framework she'd built for herself.
Yukino sighed, lightly gathering her dress around her, and crouched down beside her.
Seeing Maki Shijo crying so bitterly made Yukino, who already had troubles of her own, feel that they were in the same boat.
"Then why not try liking someone else?"
"I can't..."
Maki Shijo gently rubbed her eyes. Her voice was choked with tears. "I've liked Tanuma-kun since elementary school. I can't make myself like anyone else..."
Ah...
Wasn't this a dead end, one she was trapped in as if by fate?
How miserable, Maki Shijo.
What did it mean to be friends?
Even if they were going different ways, they'd meet at the school gate and walk in together. They'd share snacks, talk about which fashion magazine was the most authoritative, and discuss the latest episodes of the shows they'd watched.
Even when they argued, they'd soon forgive each other.
Yui Yuigahama and Yukino had been friends like that in the past. Later, she'd had the same kind of friendship with Yumiko, Junko, and Kaho.
But Yukino was different—or rather, the Yukino of now was different. Yui could sense it clearly.
"Yui..."
Mrs. Yuigahama had just come out of the kitchen. She handed Yui a small box with a sweet fragrance. "Take these to school tomorrow and give them to your friend. I just baked them."
Yui, lying on the sofa and staring blankly at her phone, took the box in confusion. "...Butter Cookies? Who are they for?"
Yui didn't like these. They were too sweet and rich.
"That pretty girl you brought home before."
Mrs. Yuigahama turned back toward the kitchen and bent down to clean the oven. "She said she liked Butter Cookies when she visited. I found a little leftover butter while cleaning out the fridge today, so I figured I'd make some cookies."
Oh, right. She remembered.
Back then, a car from the Yukinoshita Family had almost hit her dog, while Hikigaya-kun had happened to risk his life to save it. That was how the three of them had met.
It had all happened so suddenly that Yui had almost frozen. It was Yukino who'd told her family's driver to take Hikigaya to the hospital and calmly taken charge of everything.
Yui had always envied people with that kind of decisiveness and drive. By chance, she'd become very close to Yukino back then—so close that Hikigaya sometimes joked that he was the rival between Yukino and Yui.
She'd brought Yukino home several times. That Yukino, so arrogant and indifferent to everyone, had been as obedient as a little girl in front of Mrs. Yuigahama.
Yukino had once told Yui in private that Mrs. Yuigahama was a little like her own mother.
Yui had been astonished: her mother was like Madam Yukinoshita, that elegant lady?
After that, Yukino had fallen silent.
Sometimes Yui really felt that she and Yukino belonged to two different worlds. She couldn't understand the things that made Yukino happy or sad.
Mrs. Yuigahama dried her hands and smiled as she patted her daughter's listless head.
"It's normal for friends to have disagreements now and then. But if you don't try to make things right, you might really lose your friend for good~"
But what had happened between her and Yukino was far more serious than a simple disagreement.
Yui wasn't a clever girl, but she had a heart more sensitive than anyone else's. She'd vaguely sensed that the Yukino of the past, who often acted as if she didn't care about anyone, had always carried an unspoken pain inside her.
Yui, who could offer kindness to anyone, had tried to save Yukino in her own way—even after the two of them had completely fallen out.
But then the Warehouse Incident had ruined everything.
Did Yukino really need her so-called salvation and kindness?
Did she really understand Yukino?
She couldn't help starting to ask herself those questions.
The pink-haired girl lay listlessly on the sofa and let out a long sigh.
Friendship could be even more of a headache than love sometimes.
Before you continue