My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As Expected

After all, back in their first year, Yui and Yukino really had been acknowledged as good friends.

Junko Kamizawa hurriedly slapped her own cheeks, trying to knock the terrifying thought out of her head.

If things really were like that, then the originally harmonious balance among their little group of friends would be completely ruined!!!

Kaho, sitting in the seat diagonally in front and to the right of Yukino, saw Junko suddenly start slapping her face and looked at her in confusion.

Junko couldn't help remembering the day Yukino had transferred into their class.

If you looked at the seats of their group in the classroom as a line, they were arranged on a slant like this: from Yui to Junko to Yumiko to Kaho.

That day, while she was slacking off in class and messaging Junko, she happened to look up and see Yumiko staring toward the front of the classroom, almost frozen, with a lovestruck look on her face.

And what expression had Yui, seated to her rear left, worn as she watched Yukino step into the classroom?

Could she, too, have been captivated for just a moment?

"You and your sister finally stopped fighting?"

Yukino didn't even look up. "It's bad enough that Teacher Hiratsuka shirks her work. Could you please stop interrupting me?"

Shizuka Hiratsuka was practically slumped over in her chair, her legs propped on the desk with no regard for her dignity as a teacher.

The sight even made her sigh over the joys of life. "So this is how wonderful a life of slacking off is..."

As a capable young teacher, Shizuka had become increasingly relied upon by Sobu High School in recent years, and the administration was always looking for more responsibilities to pile on her.

Besides teaching Japanese and serving as homeroom teacher for Class 2-F, she was also responsible for reviewing second-year school event plans and coordinating the school's external activities.

As a result, Shizuka was so overworked she felt completely drained. Yukino had just brought over the Sports Meet planning documents for their class during lunch, only to find the teacher looking like a salted fish, utterly exhausted.

Then Shizuka had asked her to help grade the first-years' wildlife observation reports.

Yukino could only give her a stern look and say there wouldn't be a next time.

She skimmed one report, barely managed to imitate Teacher Hiratsuka's handwriting for the comments, then said coldly, "Rather than slacking off here and enjoying yourself, you should talk to the school. Nobody can keep working this hard."

Shizuka bared her teeth and pounded the desk. "Of course I've said something, but those old codgers told me young people should work harder!"

"Then why didn't you tell them, 'Old folks should hurry up and lie down in their coffins'?"

Shizuka froze for a moment, then threw herself back against her chair and burst out laughing.

"Yukinoshita, you really are different from your sister. Is your mouth Japan's biggest knife factory?"

In such a short time, Teacher Hiratsuka had brought up her older sister, Haruno, twice.

Yukino didn't like discussing her sister too much with other people.

The relationship between Yukino and her older sister, Haruno Yukinoshita, was painfully awkward. She didn't like people praising Haruno in front of her, but of course, she liked it even less when people put Haruno down.

She lowered her head and focused on the stack of reports beneath her pen, trying to keep her expression from looking strange.

She gave a flat "Oh," as if she didn't care much about the topic.

Teacher Hiratsuka, meanwhile, had already begun reminiscing about life in that slumped, salted-fish pose.

"Haruno was probably the smartest student I've ever taught..." Shizuka glanced at Yukino and smiled. "Of course, her kind of intelligence is different from yours."

Yukino knew that, of course.

"Haruno always seemed completely at ease, no matter what she was doing. Student Council, clubs, academics, relationships with her classmates, getting along with the teachers... I doubt anyone would believe it was possible to do all of that perfectly."

At that, Teacher Hiratsuka sighed softly. "But she was also too smart..."

Smart enough to become arrogant and try to control everything. Arrogant enough to look down on everyone and believe nobody could be her equal.

With her mask on, she was the most popular person in the world. Once she took it off, she was arrogant, despicable, obnoxious, and downright awful.

"Surrounded by countless acquaintances, yet without a single confidant."

That probably described Haruno Yukinoshita.

Although Teacher Hiratsuka hadn't said the Implied Meaning out loud, Yukino understood exactly what she'd left unsaid.

She lowered her eyes and didn't respond.

Haruno lived a very, very exhausting life.

Teacher Hiratsuka seemed to remember something and suddenly let out a laugh. "The most awkward person in the world is also the person who cares about you most, Yukinoshita."

"Teacher, that's really creepy."

Shizuka yawned and laughed. "You sisters are exactly alike when it comes to being awkward."

It must have been about two years ago. At the time, Haruno Yukinoshita had been in her final year of high school.

When she heard that her younger sister was about to return to Japan to attend high school, she'd even brought home a bunch of promotional photos of Sobu High School, trying to tempt her sister into choosing her alma mater.

And later, she must have succeeded, because she'd returned to school in high spirits and dug out every award she'd earned at her alma mater—things she'd never cared about in the slightest—and put them all up in the school's Hall of Fame.

"She can see just how outstanding her big sister was here, and how hard I am to surpass!"

Shizuka had never seen Haruno Yukinoshita so smug and triumphant—so much so that she seemed almost childish.

For that one moment, all the layers of masks wrapped around her face and her very being seemed to vanish, revealing a lively, bright, cheerful soul.

So even when Shizuka later heard that Haruno had fallen out with her younger sister, she still believed they'd make up sooner or later.

After all, those sisters were both constantly bickering while caring about each other more than anyone else in the world.

When she finished grading the activity reports, the slacker teacher sprang back to life in an instant. "Hooray! I love you, Yukinoshita!"

Yukino gave a soft "Mm." "I know."

Her gaze fell on Shizuka's neck, and she casually reached out to pull the collar of her jacket, which had been shoved messily inside her shirt, back out.

Then she bowed slightly. "I'm leaving, Teacher."

Once Yukino had closed the door behind her, Shizuka staggered backward and collapsed into her chair, frantically pounding her chest.

"Damn it... I've been single too long! I've been single too long! I've been single too long!!!"

For a moment, she'd felt like a housewife seeing her husband off as he left for work.

"Is something wrong with me...?"

When Yukino returned to her classroom, the first thing she saw was Yui, who usually spent every break gossiping with the people around her, diligently working through practice problems at her desk.

Teacher Yukino felt a little gratified.

Yukino was the kind of person who, despite being awkward with her words, would still reach out to help when someone asked. But if the person asking for help wasn't willing to make an effort and only knew how to complain, Yukino wouldn't get involved.

Fortunately, Yui wasn't that kind of person.

Yukino had just looked away and sat down when she noticed Miura beside her staring at her with a resentful, wounded expression.

Miura spoke very quietly. "I already turned him down..."

She'd clearly rejected that younger student decisively and left no room for ambiguity at all, yet Yukino was still so close to Yui.

Jeez, Yukino really got jealous easily...

Yukino was definitely in love with her!

And she really liked Yukino, too. They were truly, wonderfully in love with each other!

After Miura accepted this truth, she went through a complicated process of inner struggle before reaching that conclusion.

From disbelief to refusal to accept it, and finally to shy acceptance, she'd spent a great deal of time coming to terms with it [one day].

But once she'd accepted the truth, Miura quickly began making preparations to clear the way for her romance.

Yukino liked her so much. Going by Junko and Kaho's deductions, Yukino had definitely started paying attention to her soon after she'd enrolled—and might even have fallen for her already!

But if Yukino liked her so much, why was she so unwilling to confess?

She could even make pretending to be indifferent look so convincing. If not for the occasional accident, then even a wise and intelligent person like Miura would never have discovered the hidden truth that the ice-cold girl kept buried in her heart.

Miura quickly came up with reasons for why Yukino had silently kept her feelings to herself.

First, Yukino felt that these feelings of hers, so different from those of ordinary people, couldn't be revealed or conveyed to Miura.

Second, Yukino worried that if these feelings were exposed someday, they would drag the person she loved [Miura] into trouble, and that Miura might be misunderstood by her friends or even her parents, or judged by the people around her.

Waaah, Yukino, you're so kind.

Yukino was reserved and restrained with her emotions. Unless those problems were resolved, the doubts and worries accumulating in her heart would only make her keep those feelings buried forever.

Miura decided to start with her friends. She had a lot of faith in them, after all. She and Yukino had been able to become good friends during this time thanks to her friends' advice.

They'd even teased her now and then about Yukino having a secret crush on her.

So surely Junko, Kaho, and the others would be at least somewhat prepared to accept the idea that she and Yukino were in love with each other, right?

That afternoon after school, Miura, Junko, and Kaho, whose train routes overlapped for a few stops, headed home together as usual.

As they walked to the station, Miura gave a little cough. "Um, don't you think Yukino's crush on me has been getting more and more obvious lately?"

Junko and Kaho looked at each other, confused. "Has it?"

Of course it had!

It was super obvious! Yukino had gotten so jealous just then!

Miura could easily list a hundred little examples and a thousand tiny details to prove just how jealous Yukino had been lately.

But neither Junko Kamizawa nor Onozawa Kaho thought Yukino had really been acting any differently toward Yumiko lately.

Junko hadn't dared bring up the idea that Yukino's crush was on Yumiko for quite some time now.

Back when they didn't know Yukino very well, that possibility had indeed seemed fairly likely.

At the time, Yukino had been so cold that she seemed like a true beauty on a distant mountaintop, an ice queen who kept everyone at arm's length. And back then, her attitude toward Yumiko had indeed been very special.

On top of that, Yukino had been practically icy toward everyone except Yumiko, so the difference had stood out all the more.

But now it seemed that Yukino only looked cold and difficult to approach on the outside. In truth, she wasn't stingy about showing kindness to others.

Perhaps she'd treated Yumiko so specially back then simply because Yumiko had been the first person to show her kindness.

If someone else had been the first to reach out to Yukino at the time, would Yukino have treated that person just as specially?

Likewise, the more Kaho thought about it lately, the more she trembled, wondering if she'd accidentally led her friend astray.

Especially when she saw how enthusiastically Yumiko indulged in her fantasies, she grew even more afraid to say anything.

Kaho carefully chose her words. "Um, Yumiko, I think..."

Yumiko's eyes lit up as she looked over. "Kaho thinks so too, right? Yukino's so clingy, it's really a lot to deal with. There's nothing I can do about it~"

She said it was such a hassle and that she couldn't help it, but every word was overflowing with pride and delight she couldn't hold back.

She wanted to say, "Yukino likes me this much, and I'm not a coldhearted person, so shouldn't I give her a little something in return?"

She wanted to say, "How should I hint to Yukino that she still has a chance, so she should hurry up and make a move?"

There was so much she wanted to say. Her pure, sparkling girlish feelings seemed to press her gaze into a bright shine, as if she'd stuffed an entire warm spring into it.

Kaho felt like she'd been choked up and couldn't get a word out.

Junko pulled Kaho behind her. "Forget it. I'll say it."

She didn't look at Miura. Instead, she lowered her eyes to the pavement beneath her feet. "Yumiko, I think this is an unusual situation, so you need to consider it carefully... either for your sake or for Yukino's."

You need to think carefully about whether Yukino really likes you. That kind of thing.

Miura froze.

Just then, the train pulled into the station, and its wind swept up her long hair.

Kaho saw that the Yumiko who'd been filled with happiness moments ago seemed to crumple in an instant.

She still didn't seem to understand what Junko had just said.

"Eh...?"