My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As Expected

Yukino: [...I clearly booked an installation appointment for the next day for you.]

Kasumigaoka: [So it was you after all! Don't even think about denying it!!!]

Yukino: [...]

Damn it.

Even Kasumigaoka had learned to use schemes to trick people into letting things slip!

Although Kasumigaoka had stayed up all night, after acting all awkward for a while, she eventually sent a message saying thanks.

Before this weekend, Haruno had said she'd come to the apartment building Yukino was renting today to check whether her poor little sister had starved to death in her room. But yesterday she'd called to say she had to go on another business trip to the neighboring Great Prefecture this weekend.

Haruno seemed to be getting busier and busier lately.

In the past, even though Haruno, as the Yukinokita Family's heir, had always been up to her neck in work, she'd never been so busy that she disappeared even on weekends.

Oh well.

Yukino changed into casual clothes and went downstairs. Since she'd already spoken to her driver, Mr. Ito, he wasn't on duty today and had gone home to rest.

Yukino took out the map she'd planned in advance, along with the train routes she'd marked carefully, the names of the various stations, and the meeting place.

Then she checked the weather one last time. Clear skies.

Great, everything was perfect.

Yukino rarely traveled by train, so afraid that something might go wrong and she'd embarrass herself in front of that Kasumigaoka woman, she'd even left half an hour early.

With that level of seriousness, Yukino made it off the train without a hitch and arrived at Music Fountain Plaza, where she'd arranged to meet Kasumigaoka.

As expected, Yukino was a genius.

Just as she was giving herself a little pat on the back, she heard the System's voice again.

[Automatic scan triggered... A High Popularity Character with extremely intense negative feelings toward you has appeared...]

Since taking over the Unscrupulous System, this was the first time it had spoken up on its own, aside from when a Sensitive Word was triggered.

Ah, in other words...

Had the Boss appeared?

Yukino instinctively looked up. At that moment, the music reached its stirring crescendo, and the fountains surged skyward in time with the rhythm, forming a curtain of water across the sky.

Amid the dazzling spray that glittered beneath the sunlight, Yukino could just make out a figure with long black hair on the other side of the water curtain.

Her figure was so slender and graceful, she was just like a faint crescent moon in the sky.

They hadn't even met face-to-face yet, but Yukino could already feel the other person's gaze on her.

How could she describe that gaze?

It was as if she were hanging upside down by her ankles in a deep pit, with countless sharp blades pointing upward across the ground. The glinting tips were less than an inch from her eyes.

At the same time, she could clearly feel the ropes binding her legs creaking, as if they were about to give way under her weight and snap at any moment.

The sharp, icy pressure was unlike anything she'd ever felt before. Yukino's face stung, and for an instant, she even wondered whether the one watching her was human.

The Boss had appeared, and it was a Boss the System had specifically marked in red. Yukino immediately looked back, wanting to see who this person was.

But when the music softened and the fountains fell, the figure on the other side of the water curtain had already disappeared in the brief span of time.

On a weekend, Music Fountain Park was crowded with people. Couples walked hand in hand everywhere, their faces sweet with happiness. The only person nowhere to be seen was that unusually distinctive figure.

If the System hadn't specifically warned her this time, Yukino might have wondered whether the figure she'd just seen was merely an illusion created by the water curtain.

[System, is that person still here?]

That sudden warning seemed to have drained the System of all its energy. It went silent again.

Yukino pressed her lips together, but there wasn't much she could do about the System.

And although the Unscrupulous System had always been pretty unscrupulous—it had given her an option to publicly confess she liked girls as soon as she arrived in this Timeline, a choice that would have resulted in Social Death, and hadn't considered her feelings at all when she needed to earn points—Yukino had to admit that it had been working sincerely and diligently to help her.

The main reason she'd been able to make friends, keep up with her studies with ease, and even occasionally lend others a hand was that she'd encountered the Unscrupulous System.

She couldn't find any trace of the final Boss for the time being, but alarm bells were still ringing in her mind. Once she got back, she planned to go through the victim list again and see who fit the Boss's profile.

Yukino had arrived in this Timeline only recently, and her First Play had been practically the worst possible scenario. Most of the people she'd met had felt nothing but utter hatred for her.

But the people who disliked her were still just teenage boys and girls. Most of them were good-hearted and well brought up, so even though they'd hated her at first, none of them had done anything too terrible to her.

Take Miura, for example. At most, she'd snapped at Yukino—and had even embarrassingly lost the argument.

And Kasumigaoka, at the point when she'd hated Yukino most, had only tried to squeeze a little mustard into her toothpaste. When the moment came, she'd still given up.

But the hatred of the person she'd just encountered was so intense and undisguised that Yukino didn't doubt for a second that the person might suddenly charge at her with a knife.

Would she hurt Yukino's family? Would she hurt Haruno?

Being watched with such malice by someone so terrifying put even Yukino under pressure.

Her mood had grown a little heavy. Just as she was about to leave the bustling center of the fountain and wait for Kasumigaoka a little farther outside the park, she suddenly spotted a familiar-looking figure.

It was the weekend, and Tsubasa Tanuma and his one-and-only adorable girlfriend, Nagisa Kashiwagi, were enjoying a lovey-dovey date at Music Fountain Park, ranked the best place for couples to go on dates in the city.

The young couple had only just fallen head over heels for each other. They were at that stage where they each saw the other as practically divine, and they'd gone out shopping together that weekend to deepen their relationship.

Tsubasa was holding his girlfriend's hand, so moved he could practically burst into tears.

At school, his girlfriend usually preferred to stick with her Best Friend, Maki Shijo. But anyone at Shuchiin could tell you that Maki Shijo hated him more than anyone else in the world!!!

She looked at him as if he were some sort of under-evolved monkey, or perhaps something even uglier, like a humanoid chimpanzee.

Even when he tried to get a little closer to his girlfriend, Shijo would glare at him as if she wanted to kill him, as though he were some kind of bacteria or virus that could contaminate her friend.

There had once been a brief rumor at Shuchiin that Maki Shijo liked him. Tsubasa had wanted to get down on his knees and beg the people spreading that rumor to stop.

There was no way Shijo could like him—not when she wouldn't even like him as much as a dog, QAQ.

But today, his girlfriend's Best Friend, Maki Shijo, wasn't around, so he could finally hold his girlfriend's hand openly and happily.

Great!

Blushing a little, Tsubasa sneaked a glance at his girlfriend, then hurriedly looked away. "Kashiwagi..."

Kashiwagi, who'd been looking into a shop window, smiled and turned around. "Tanuma-kun?"

"Well..." After hesitating for a moment, Tsubasa finally worked up the courage. "Could I... could I call you Nagi...?"

A blush quickly spread across the girl's smooth, fair face. She murmured, "Th-then I'll call you Tsubasa-kun too..."

It wasn't even anything that embarrassing, but the young couple still lowered their heads, blushing.

Not far behind them, however, Maki Shijo was watching from behind a wall and nearly crying her eyes out.

She swore she hadn't deliberately followed them!

As a Young Lady from one of Japan's most prestigious families, she would never do something so awful that getting exposed would result in Social Death!

She'd just... just happened to run into them...

Though lately, she'd been happening upon them a little too often. _(:з"∠)_

Maki Shijo had been in love with Tsubasa Tanuma for a long time. It was an awkward truth she could admit only when she was alone.

Her feelings had been awkward enough back then. Now, they were painful beyond measure.

He was her Best Friend's boyfriend, so she absolutely couldn't try to steal him.

But sometimes Shijo wondered: if Tsubasa Tanuma weren't dating Kashiwagi right now, could she really face him and tell him how she felt?

At that moment, Tanuma seemed about to turn his gaze her way, and Shijo, who'd just stepped out from around the corner, had no time to hide again.

Shijo's face went deathly pale.

—I'm done for.

I'm going to suffer Social Death!!!!!!!!

But just then, an umbrella popped open with a soft thump in front of her.

The Dark Blue Umbrella Surface blocked the sun and happened to conceal Shijo from view.

With tears in her eyes, Shijo looked up and saw a familiar, beautiful girl beneath the umbrella, as if she'd stepped out of the mingled glow of moonlight and snow.

She tilted her head slightly and looked over calmly.

"Every time I see you, you seem to be crying."

The music played gently as the fountain water trickled down into the pool.

And on this busy Plaza Street, surrounded by people coming and going, just as Maki Shijo thought she was about to suffer Social Death, an umbrella opened in front of her.

Maki Shijo finally realized who the person in front of her was.

She hiccuped through her tears. "...Yukino?"

Then she asked, with complete conviction, "Are you following me?"

Yukino: "..."

Yukino glanced at her, then at the Spirit +1 she'd just earned. She turned and started to walk away.

If not for the Point Mission, she wouldn't have come over.

But someone gently tugged at her hem. "W-wait a little longer before you go, okay...?"

Yukino was wearing a White and Gray Color-Blocked Shirt with a Cotton Light Blue Long Skirt. A medium-sized Shoulder Bag hung from her shoulder.

It was an utterly ordinary spring-and-summer outfit for a young woman, and its colors were the usual black, white, gray, and blue—not particularly eye-catching at all.

But Maki Shijo felt that even if everyone on the street were dressed in the most expensive and striking clothes, none of them would draw the eye as much as this person did.

This person really did have a way of drawing people's attention without making a show of it.

Maki Shijo rubbed her reddened eyes. "I'm afraid they'll see me again..."

Tanuma and Kashiwagi had probably wandered off somewhere by now.

So she just didn't want passersby to see her with red eyes and make a fool of herself?

Compared to the Miss Shijo Yukino had seen at the banquet—the one dressed in formalwear and perfectly composed, with an imposing air even when she cried—Maki Shijo was dressed casually now. Her soft-colored, shoulder-length hair was tied into twin tails.

She was petite, and her pretty, adorable face made her look a little childish. So even when she cried, she looked cute.

Yukino glanced at her and turned around. She switched the umbrella to her other hand and tilted it slightly to the right, still shielding the girl with red eyes.

---There wasn't even a Point Mission this time.

With her other hand, she pulled out her phone and messaged Kasumigaoka.

Kasumigaoka: [I've already left the house!!!]

Kasumigaoka: [What about you, Yukino? I hope you haven't been waiting too long for me???]

She also sent a photo. In it, the kitten Hoshi was tucked inside the Space Capsule Cat Backpack, with its little head and two paws resting against the transparent cover. It really did look full of energy.

Yukino: [I just left too.]

Maki Shijo caught sight of the messages on Yukino's phone and immediately felt a little awkward. "You're waiting for someone..."

Yukino's expression was cool. "Of course. I've been fabricating chat logs since last night just so I could follow Miss Shijo."

Shijo: "..."

She couldn't help defending herself in a small voice. "You suddenly showed up here. It's only natural that I'd misunderstand, isn't it?"

"That's not entirely incomprehensible," Yukino said calmly. "Someone who follows her Best Friend and her Best Friend's boyfriend would naturally assume everyone else was a Stalker too."

"I'm not a Stalker! I just happened to run into them!!!"

"If you could really say that with such conviction, you wouldn't have been scared into tears just now."