On the narrow terrace on the third floor of the luxury hotel, two young ladies from powerful families who should have been poised and graceful, every word and gesture displaying their upbringing, were instead crouched on the ground without a trace of decorum, their formal gowns bunched carelessly on the relatively clean floor.
The two of them, who should have hated each other, now looked like two pitiful little creatures who had fallen into the water together.
After crying her fill, Maki Shijo finally had a chance to speak in a muffled voice. "I came here because I couldn't stop myself from wanting to sneak off and cry. What are you doing here...?"
Yukino rested her chin on her hand and looked at the waning moon on the horizon.
"Same as you."
"Hmm...?"
"Just like you, I wanted to come here and have a quiet cry."
Yukino said with a straight face, "But seeing you cry so miserably has already made me feel much better."
Maki Shijo: "..."
Seeing the veins bulging on Miss Shijo's forehead, Yukino finally smiled. "I..."
She paused, then continued, "The person who matters most to me not only doesn't remember me anymore, but can't even recognize me."
Miss Shijo replied coolly, "Well, you deserved that."
Yukino said, "Yeah. I really did."
Her tone was so calm as she spoke those self-deprecating words that Maki Shijo was stunned for a moment.
This notorious black-haired girl had a face as lovely as jade. Just moments ago, she had stood serenely in the middle of the room, but the instant the glittering lights had shone across her face, the entire room had paled in comparison.
She wasn't someone who should have said things like that.
"...Then just go and tell her directly. What good does it do to make yourself miserable?"
"I won't."
Yukino answered at once. "Just as you'd never confess to Tsubasa Tanuma, I'd never say it outright, either."
Maki Shijo: ?
The reason she couldn't express her feelings was that she couldn't do anything that might damage her best friend's happiness or harm her family's reputation. Yukino had no such obstacles!
Because Haruno had said she would find me.
That was what Yukino thought.
When they were little and their parents weren't home, the two of them would play hide-and-seek. Yukino always liked to hide in some especially remote blind spot, smugly thinking that Haruno would never find her, while also genuinely worrying that Haruno might not find her.
But every time, Haruno found her quickly.
"No matter where you hide, Yukino, I'll find you."
Haruno had said she would find her.
So Yukino would wait.
She had always been this awkward and childish.
Now and then, a voice from the banquet hall downstairs drifted up to them. Yukino checked the time on her phone.
"We should go."
Under the safe cover of night, the two young women who had spent so long in a miserable state of self-abandonment rose to their feet.
They brushed the dust from their skirts and returned to being strangers who could nod to each other when they met.
Maki Shijo thought she might never have another night like this, never again have a night when she could share the deepest secret in her heart with someone else.
Though a faint regret lingered in her heart, so slight it was hardly worth noticing, she saw Yukino reach toward her, her fingers brushing the hair below her ear.
The warmth of a stranger's touch was gone in an instant.
Maki Shijo's face turned bright red, and she jumped away.
"What are you doing?!!!!!"
"There was a leaf."
Yukino held up her fingers. Between her index and middle fingers was a half-yellow leaf, probably fallen into Miss Shijo's hair when she'd gone near the plants on the terrace.
Seeing her mortified expression, Yukino looked puzzled. "...Would you rather I put it back?"
Maki Shijo: I really am going to hate Yukino forever!!!!!!!!
Fifteen minutes and thirty-two seconds had passed, and Yukino still hadn't returned.
Although Haruno kept telling herself that whatever that person was doing, wherever she had gone, had nothing to do with her, and that all she needed to do was protect this body and wait for the day her real little sister could safely come back, ever since Yukino had excused herself to go to the restroom, Haruno couldn't help glancing toward the stairway.
[If the soul inhabiting my body dies, will my little sister be able to come back?]
Haruno had considered that possibility before. In fact, at some point on some day in the past, the thought had swelled until it almost turned into action.
What if that person died and my little sister still didn't come back?
In the end, Haruno had managed to put a stop to that mad idea herself. When it came to her little sister, she had to consider even the slightest chance of something going wrong.
"Haruno, you really are in love lately, aren't you?"
Miss Yagyu remarked casually, "You haven't been doing too well this past year. The dark circles under your eyes are practically like pets you keep—they're always with you."
Miss Hananomiya teased her. "Could it be that you're seeing several people at once and can't find the time?"
Over the past year, even after using the most expensive whitening, hydrating, and moisturizing cosmetics, faint bluish shadows had still lingered beneath Haruno Yukinoshita's eyes.
She still wore a brilliant smile, but she looked much more exhausted than she had a year ago.
Haruno finished the wine in her glass and smiled softly. "I've just been juggling work at the company and my grades at school. It's been a bit much for me."
That was a lie.
For the past year, Haruno Yukinoshita had been so busy that she had nearly collapsed, body and mind.
The Yukinoshita Group and its branch companies were all busy expanding their businesses, and as the much-anticipated heir to the Yukinoshita Family, she absolutely couldn't afford to slip up at a time like this.
At school, she had to stay ahead in everything, letting no one outdo her in grades, club activities, or influence. Yukino admired a big sister who excelled at everything, and Haruno would never let her down.
And then there was the fact that no one else in the world knew or believed that someone else had taken over her little sister's body.
Curse Studies, Talisman Studies, Occult Studies, Religious Studies, Probability Studies, even Evil Cults—over the past year, Haruno had frantically searched for any information that might help her little sister, however slightly.
She had invited Tokyo's most renowned mediums and masters to try to summon her little sister's soul, but the results had proved that every single one of those so-called mediums and masters was a fraud.
She had visited every temple and shrine she could find with a reputation for granting wishes. She had left an Ema and made a prayer at nearly every shrine in Japan.
Science or the supernatural, she was willing to believe in anything, as long as Yukino could come back.
All the endless work and errands only exhausted her body. What nearly crushed her spirit was that none of it had helped in the slightest.
[Could Yukino be somewhere in the world right now, waiting for me to find her?]
Whenever she felt close to breaking down, she thought that, and then pulled herself together and tried again.
Her pain and despair had become so tangled that they had turned into an obsessive, distorted fixation that allowed no room for retreat.
She took another glass of red wine from a server's tray and downed it in one go.
Miss Suzuki's eyelids twitched. "Hey, hey, hey, you've had a lot to drink today."
"You know how much I can drink." Haruno's eyes were still bright. She smiled. "I could have plenty more and still wouldn't get drunk."
As the heir to the Yukinoshita Family, Haruno had been taken to all kinds of banquets by her parents since childhood. After coming of age, she had practically lived in a wine barrel.
"Yukino's back."
Miss Hananomiya's eyes lit up. Some time after the return of Miss Shijo, Yukino soon came down the stairs as well.
Haruno's gaze instinctively followed her.
When Yukino had stepped away earlier, Haruno had vaguely sensed that she was in low spirits.
But in barely ten minutes, the negative emotions seemed to have been completely cast aside.
She was carrying a glass of champagne and seemed to be heading back when a young man from one of the prominent families approached her and said something with a smile.
Yukino stopped, and they exchanged a few polite remarks.
The Yukinoshitas had always had good genes. Mr. Yukinoshita was refined and handsome, and Madam Yukinoshita had been a dazzlingly beautiful young woman, as radiant as a summer flower. Their eldest daughter, Haruno Yukinoshita, had earned countless compliments and admirers ever since she entered society.
But Haruno had always believed that the prettiest, loveliest person in her family was Yukino.
She had grown into such an elegant young woman, and she knew how to deal with people so well. Every young man and man from the prominent families present couldn't help stealing a glance at her.
This banquet was being held by a local powerful family that had allied itself with the Shijo Family, to welcome the Shijo Family's official return to Japan. Since most of the guests were young people, it also had the feel of a matchmaking party.
After the young man who had first approached her, several more young men came over in succession. They were impeccably dressed, handsome, and distinguished, but Haruno found the whole scene especially grating.
Honestly, what was that thief who had stolen Yukino's body so pleased about?
Yukino, for her part, wasn't feeling pleased at all. Talking to just one person had been fine, but now so many people had crowded around her, and the socially awkward introvert who disliked crowds was starting to feel uncomfortable.
After apologizing to them, she returned to her sister and her friends.
As soon as she came back, Miss Hananomiya gently wrapped an arm around her waist. "Waaah, Little Yukino's finally back..."
Why was her sister's friend so clingy...?
Yukino sighed and looked at Haruno, only to see that the tips of her ears had turned pink.
Yukino gave her a helpless look and handed her a glass of orange juice. "Drink a little less. Mom's going to nag you again when we get home."
Haruno could hold her liquor, but her real talent was acting sober. Even when she was dead drunk, her eyes stayed bright, her voice clear, and her body steady.
The way to tell whether she was drunk was to check her ears.
And judging by the way they looked now, she was probably half-drunk.
"I'm not drunk."
Haruno protested, then accepted the orange juice without thinking and took a sip. She froze when she realized what she had done.
How could I act so naturally with her???
No.
Absolutely not.
I can't let my guard down, not even a little.
Yukino only has me...
The banquet was nearing its end, and the atmosphere was at its liveliest.
The guests, who had been somewhat stiff and unfamiliar with each other at the beginning, had now set aside the complicated grudges between their families and gathered together to chat and laugh.
That was why the Shirakawa Family had hosted this banquet and invited mostly young people.
Shushi Shirakawa held a glass of red wine. "Compared with those Old Foxes who think ten steps ahead after taking one, lively young people always get to know one another much faster."
Maki Shijo understood the Implied Meaning perfectly well.
She smiled and raised her lemon water to clink glasses with the young master of the Shirakawa Family. "The Shirakawa Family has been a great help to us during this time."
Shushi Shirakawa smiled modestly. "It's what we ought to do for our main family."
The Shijo Family had originally been part of the Shinomiya Conglomerate. Dissatisfied with the Shinomiya Conglomerate's current, decaying state, they had tried to reform it from the top down, but the Conservative Faction had suppressed them across the board. They had no choice but to flee to the United States and establish the new Shijo Group.
The Shijo Family had mainly developed its business in the United States and Europe. After years of effort, they had gained a firm foothold overseas. Now that Maki Shijo had returned to Japan, the implications were obvious.
The Shirakawa Family, a hidden piece the Shijo Family had positioned domestically, had immediately held a banquet and invited young people from various families, including Maki Shijo.
The Shijo Zaibatsu intended to quietly build a new, diversified consortium system led by the Shijo Family to oppose the Shinomiya Conglomerate.
Some of the people attending the banquet had come despite their misgivings, wary in their hearts. Some didn't want to oppose the Shinomiya Family or offend the Shijo Family, so they hoped to stay neutral. Others were completely oblivious and had come simply to find a match.
But none of that mattered. The warm water for Boiling Frog was ready, and the stage had been set.
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