My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As Expected

"Don't read too much into it. It's just that Teacher Hiratsuka is one of the few people who's still kind to me."

When she heard that, Shizuka Hiratsuka felt her heart give a slight twinge.

All the messy, muddled thoughts she'd just been having vanished in an instant.

Yukino was just an ordinary child, someone who could feel lonely and hurt.

She laughed and patted Yukino on the head. "From now on, whenever something's bothering you, just tell your teacher. If nothing else, I'll make sure you have all the ramen you can eat."

Yukino gave a soft little hum.

Shizuka wasn't quite used to seeing her so well-behaved.

She thought for a moment. "If you have time, Little Yukino, try to make things better with that sister of yours, Haruno. She doesn't say it, but she really does care about you."

She'd leave aside the disgusting topic of Haruno caring about her.

Yukino looked at her in confusion. "You know my sister?"

"Mm-hmm. Haruno was one of the most troublesome students I ever taught."

She glanced at Yukino and quickly corrected herself. "One of the second-most."

Yukino: "..."

During breaks at Soubu High School, the Social Butterflies and the social rejects still kept firmly to their own sides.

Social reject Yukino sat quietly at her desk, solving problems, drawing diagrams, and memorizing vocabulary. When she got serious, she really couldn't see or hear anything.

Not other people's chatter, not even gossip.

A few Social Butterfly girls from Class 2-F had gathered around Yui's desk in the corner of the classroom. Yui sat in her seat, while the others leaned against or perched around it, all still clustered around Yumiko Miura.

Whether she was sitting or standing, whatever her pose, Yumiko Miura had an undeniable air of being the center of attention.

When high school girls got together, they talked about fashion and, of course, school gossip. Today, they were whispering about the private topic they'd been obsessively discussing lately:

[Does Yukino have a crush on Yumiko?]

Yui hesitated, but couldn't help speaking up in a quiet voice. "We keep speculating about it, but aren't we just making wild guesses based on our own impressions...?"

She tactfully left out the fact that Yukino had been equally cold toward everyone in class lately, Yumiko included.

"Would someone like Yukino really like anyone?"

Yui could imagine Yukino choosing a random stranger and successfully confessing to them on the spot. She could imagine Yukino dating a different boy every day. She could imagine... well, even the most absurd rumors about Yukino seemed entirely possible.

The one thing she couldn't imagine was Yukino genuinely falling for someone.

When Yukino had turned over a new leaf and started studying seriously, her earnest, proper attitude had made plenty of people wait for her to become a laughingstock. But some had been half-convinced.

Yui had never believed it for even a second.

Whether it was turning over a new leaf or studying hard, it was all just another way for that girl to toy with people's feelings.

Yumiko might put on a haughty front, acting like she'd never get along with Yukino, but she was actually innocent and kindhearted, and had a bit of a meddlesome, mother-hen streak.

The idea of Yukino having a crush on her and wanting to get back on the right track was practically a checkmate against Yumiko. There was no way she could stay cold toward Yukino.

Besides, Yui Yuigahama thought that if the long-haired, black-haired Yukino was willing, there was no one who wouldn't want to be her friend.

Or, more than that, her "friend" in a much closer sense.

Yukino just had that kind of magic.

Yui was easygoing and didn't like forcing others or herself to do anything. She'd only known Yumiko Miura for a year, but she really did consider her a dear friend.

Yui couldn't bear to watch her friend Yumiko follow in her footsteps, after what had happened to her.

Junko Ueda lightly touched her lips with her index finger. "Well, it's definitely worth testing."

She'd been looking down at her phone, listening distractedly and only chiming in now and then. But now she seemed to have come across some interesting romantic trick and was suddenly full of enthusiasm.

Yukino, the former school delinquent turned current iceberg, had only made her even more curious.

Looking at Yumiko Miura, Junko Ueda smiled mischievously. "Would you be interested in testing it, Yumiko?"

"Who would be interested in something like that?!"

"So you're scared, then?"

"Huh? Me? Scared?"

Miura almost disdainfully grabbed a book and smacked Junko Ueda on the head with it.

The Queen of Soubu High School was beyond question!

(The Queen of Soubu High School was ridiculously easy to trick.)

"Go ahead and try me. The word 'scared' doesn't exist in Miura's dictionary."

Yukino felt a deep pang of regret for her rapidly dwindling conscience.

During PE a couple of days ago, Yumiko Miura, who was usually good at sports, had done something strange. She'd twisted her ankle just doing warm-up exercises, like some kind of klutz. It was bizarre.

And just as she'd expected, the moment the system—now practically shaped like Miura—saw Miura get hurt, it reacted right away.

[The system has selected an option with an 88% chance of reversing your Negative Image: Carry Yumiko Miura to the infirmary in a princess carry, looking absolutely dashing.]

You've got to be kidding!

Who was Yumiko Miura? The class queen who was always at odds with her, the damned peak of the Social Butterflies, the beloved darling of the class—the natural enemy standing on the opposite side of the social rejects like her.

She'd just rebuilt her iceberg image from the ruins of her scumbag persona, putting her heart and soul into it. How could a mere Miura make her demolish all that hard work?

Go away! You damn rewards, get away from me!

Even if she got cursed out here, died outside, or jumped from the school building, Yukino would never give Yumiko Miura a princess carry!

Fine—

To be honest, it was because her stamina really was terrible.

Yukino's basic physical fitness was awful. She'd even taken up aikido so she wouldn't be helpless and could protect herself, but her stamina was still lousy.

If she tried to carry Yumiko Miura in a princess carry, she wouldn't look dashing at all. She'd probably tumble head over heels dozens of times before they made it to the infirmary.

Torn and heartbroken, Yukino gave up on the task.

As class was about to start, Yukino sat quietly at her desk and vaguely heard Miura and the others returning to their seats, chattering about something to do with umbrellas.

Her ears, hidden behind her hair, were wearing Bluetooth earbuds as she listened to English vocabulary. She silently complained that Social Butterflies were so noisy and annoying, then turned up the volume on her phone.

Wonderful. Now she couldn't hear the commotion around her.

That pleasant mood ended shortly before dismissal. During the last class of the day, the sky suddenly darkened. Endless clouds rolled in, and then the rain came pouring down without the slightest warning.

Some students in the classroom whispered among themselves, clearly panicking because they hadn't brought umbrellas. Yukino, however, remained as steady as a rock.

Yukino gave herself a pat on the back. Sure enough, a mature, composed, thoughtful, and considerate girl like her was just that impressive.

Well, it was only because years of being ostracized had taught her to carry everything she might need in her bag.

The weather forecast had said there might be rain today. For Yukino, who was prone to imagining the worst, "might" was already something she had to prepare for.

After reviewing the day's Knowledge Points in the classroom for the usual ten minutes after school, Yukino finally left the now sparsely populated room and got ready to open her umbrella and go.

That was when the system went and did it again.

[The system has selected the best current option for you: Leave your umbrella on the communal umbrella stand before leaving school.]

Yukino: "..."

You've got to be kidding. Why would something like that reverse my Negative Image?

During the rainy season, students brought their wet umbrellas into the classroom and made a mess, so Soubu High School had specially put a communal umbrella stand outside every classroom.

Had Soubu High's students gotten so awful that they could only feel at ease if they watched her get drenched?

You were even worse than Blonde Yukino.

She grumbled to herself, but still shoved her umbrella into the communal stand. Then she covered her head with her schoolbag and dashed out into the pouring rain.

Only after she'd left did a few figures slowly approach.

"Yumiko's the only one in class who hasn't left and didn't bring an umbrella. She definitely left it for Yumiko, no doubt about it!"

"She'd rather get drenched herself than leave Yumiko without an umbrella..."

Even Junko Ueda, the one who'd come up with the way to test the theory, could hardly believe it now.

She'd seen today's weather forecast and bet with Miura and the others, figuring that weather forecasts were only right about half the time anyway.

Earlier, during the break, they'd deliberately said loudly in the classroom, "It might rain later. Yumiko's worried because she didn't bring an umbrella!"

If it rained, they'd see whether Yukino had been keeping an eye on Yumiko, and how Yukino—who treated everyone with the same cold indifference—would react to her.

If it didn't rain, they'd call the whole thing off.

But it seemed even the heavens wanted to help Yumiko. During the last class, the rain had started pouring without warning.

None of them had expected that Yukino, who'd once been utterly awful and was now utterly cold—who, in short, had never learned to treat people gently—would rather get drenched herself than leave her umbrella for Yumiko!

Say it out loud: if that wasn't love, what was?

Of course, Yumiko really hadn't brought an umbrella today. But normally, she'd just share one with a few friends on the way home. It wasn't something that would have troubled her much.

But Yukino, her head clouded by love, clearly hadn't thought of that.

Onozawa Kaho's expression was especially exaggerated. "Yumiko, Yukino really likes you this much..."

Yui watched in silence as Yukino ran into the rain and disappeared from sight.

Ono grinned and tried to open the umbrella Yukino had left behind, but Miura put out a hand to stop her.

Miura watched as Yukino's figure rapidly vanished in the downpour. She wanted to call after her, but felt like she couldn't get the words out.

She hugged the umbrella to her chest, her ears bright red and her eyes darting around, then grew embarrassed and angry.

"U-Use your own umbrellas!"

At Soubu High School, Yukino Yukinoshita was a particularly famous name. She wasn't quite known by everyone, but she was close.

Back then, everyone had hated her. From her original class to the whole school, after she'd successfully racked up a record of dumping a hundred people and cheating on them, she'd gone from being hated exclusively by girls to being hated by everyone.

Her original International Culture class, Class 2-J, had been a total madhouse every day. Boys she'd dumped and girls whose boyfriends she'd stolen came to confront her or bully her outright every single day.

But Soubu was still a prestigious school in the area. When students there talked about bullying, it amounted to smearing her desk, writing "Yukinoshita's a slut" on the blackboard, or throwing her schoolbag into the trash.

Desks and blackboards could be wiped clean. Mockery and sarcasm were easy enough to ignore, and her schoolbag could still be used after a good cleaning.

To Blonde Yukino, that was nothing at all. It only fueled her arrogance.

Now, there were still plenty of people who hated Yukino, but everyone was more interested in gossip than in hating her.

[Yukino Yukinoshita—who's the girl she likes?]

She'd had countless boyfriends she'd dated for a day before cheating on them, but no one had ever heard of her being particularly close with any girl. Instead, she had a whole crowd of rivals who hated her guts.

The only person who could be considered a former friend of hers was Yui Yuigahama.

But a few months ago, Yui had also had someone she liked stolen from her, and Yukino had bluntly insulted her as "big boobs, no brains."

Yui [smiling]: Whoever says this means she likes me, I'll have a problem with them, okay?

Was it Kaoru Kawamura from Class 2-D? After all, Yukino had turned over a new leaf right after Kaoru Kawamura had served as the school's discipline committee member the other day!

A bad girl had changed her ways for love—who could say that wasn't love? Eee-hee-hee!

"What do you mean Kawamura isn't on discipline duty this week, but Yukino still hasn't reverted to her old self?"

"Ah, this—this is her devotion to love!"

Or was it upperclassman Mizuno in Year Three? They seemed to have no connection at all, but they'd nodded to each other when they met yesterday.

Yukino had always been such a mean girl—once arrogant and overbearing, now as cold as ice. No one had ever seen her nod and say hello to anyone.