Catch Them All?

Kushida obviously wasn't going to come over, and Bai Ye hadn't expected her to.

But that night, someone still showed up at his dorm room.

Hasebe waited for him to unlock the door, then shoved it open and demanded furiously:

"Little Ye, you've been so mean! You haven't talked to me in days. All you do is hang out with Horikita!"

"She's my girlfriend, after all."

"You could still talk to me, though. We could have lunch together or something."

"What if you two got into a fight?"

"Why would we fight? I'm your big sister. She... she should call me big sister too."

"After hearing that, she definitely won't let you off the hook." Bai Ye sighed.

"Forget it. Since I'm your big sister, I won't hold it against you..." Hasebe walked into his room and sat down on his bed without a care in the world. "That girl you mentioned the other day—I've already managed to become friends with her. Impressive, right?"

" S̲akura?"

"Yeah. At first, I was surprised you cared about her, but then I realized she's pretty cute once she takes off her glasses... She's just as cute as Kushida."

"Don't make it sound like I had this all planned out."

"Wasn't that the case? Little Ye, I never knew you were like this. Have you been plotting to get close to the girls in our class all along?"

Hasebe gave him a sidelong look and interrogated him.

"If that were true, why would I ask you to befriend her? Why not just win her over myself?"

"Good point."

Hasebe murmured to herself. Then a glint appeared in her eyes, and she suddenly understood.

"Could it be that you want to... catch both of us?"

"Cough, cough..." Bai Ye nearly choked on his own spit. "Don't you feel embarrassed saying that?"

Only then did Hasebe feel her cheeks grow warm, but she forced herself to stay composed. "Little Ye, are you saying you don't want to take responsibility?"

At the words "take responsibility," his heart skipped a beat.

Just a couple of days ago, someone had asked him to take responsibility, and now she was his girlfriend. What was Hasebe's reason?

What had he done to deserve such outrage from heaven and earth?

"Take responsibility for what?"

"For..." Hasebe suddenly grew shy. "For stealing my heart..."

"..."

Watching the girl lower her head until she was almost buried in his blankets, he couldn't help but rub his forehead and sigh.

He knew exactly how Hasebe felt about him.

So she didn't really mean that she had feelings for him when she said that. She was just trying to make him break up with Horikita.

She was willing to sacrifice herself to do it.

He hesitated for a moment, then said, "Jiajia, Horikita isn't as bad as you think. She's actually pretty kind at heart, so..."

"Yeah, I know." The girl looked up and met his eyes. "If she were really a wicked girl, Little Ye wouldn't have fallen for her. I know you're pretty clever, Little Ye. You're not the type to be easily swayed by a pretty face... So there must be a reason, right?"

"That's true."

"Can you tell me?" Hasebe gazed intently at him, hope in her eyes.

"I..."

[Warning! The host is unable to reveal any information about the system to anyone. Violation will result in execution!]

"..."

"All right." Hasebe lowered her head, dejected.

The heavy silence made it hard for them to breathe.

Bai Ye knew he could tell Hasebe what he'd told Kushida, but he didn't want to.

He didn't want to lie to a girl who cared about him so much. He couldn't bring himself to do it.

"I'm going back..."

Hasebe walked toward the door, looking downcast.

He watched her lonely figure, his hands clenched tight.

This should be enough, shouldn't it...

No.

How could he let this happen?

He stepped forward and took Hasebe's hand. Under her slightly surprised gaze, he suppressed his embarrassment and said:

"I want to sleep with... my big sister tonight."

"Eh—"

Hasebe brightened at first, but when she realized what he meant, her face quickly turned bright red.

"You... you can't..."

"I just meant sleeping together. I didn't mean it like that. What are you thinking?" Bai Ye explained.

"Oh... Still, we shouldn't. We're not really siblings, and what if..." Hasebe pulled her hand away, her expression turning flustered. "Maybe next time. Let me think about it... I'm leaving now. Bye!"

With that, she fled the room.

Bai Ye went over and closed the door, muttering to himself:

"And she says she thinks of me as her little brother..."

That probably wasn't possible. They weren't related, so how could she not mind?

And at that moment, Bai Ye understood that Hasebe's feelings for him weren't so simple. They weren't just the affection he'd assumed she felt for him.

It was probably her intense possessiveness at work.

Sigh.

His path through life was a rough one.

The next day, under the intense gaze of his classmates, he walked into the classroom.

After a day to get used to the news, his classmates had finally calmed down.

It wasn't like the morning before, when they'd swarmed him as soon as he entered the classroom, bombarding him with questions.

In the end, Kushida had been the one to rescue him.

All this trouble had come from joining the Student Council.

But it wasn't all bad. He'd also taken the opportunity to ease some of the boys' resentment toward him.

That was only natural. The girls in his class had always praised him to excess, which had earned him the boys' dislike. But in the end, he hadn't had the strength to back it up.

In other words, he hadn't been worthy of his reputation.

Men tended to respect strength. As long as you showed enough of it, not only would they not envy you, they might even admire you.

Of course, people like Yamauchi were exceptions.

"Good morning, Jingu-kun!"

"Morning."

He answered each of those troublesome greetings in turn.

Once he'd taken his seat, Kushida turned around and smiled at him.

"Jingu-kun, it must feel nice to be popular."

"I still prefer how things used to be."

"Most people would love this... Oh, right, Jingu-kun. Your popularity has already surpassed Ichinose's in Class B. People in the upper grades are talking about you too, but some of the older students don't seem to like you. They might come looking for trouble."

"Thanks for letting me know. I'll be careful."

He said this calmly.

"Um... aren't you scared?"

"If I'm scared, will they leave me alone? The more afraid you are, the more brazen they get. What do I have to be afraid of?"

"Good. I'll be cheering you on from the sidelines!"

Kushida pumped a little fist in encouragement.

"...Thanks."

Honestly, Kushida was pretty cute when she wasn't letting her true nature show. Any other boy would probably have been so excited he'd feel like he'd been injected with adrenaline.

He glanced at the timetable. It looked like they had PE today.

He remembered that this PE class was shared with the upper grades. Hopefully, nothing unexpected would happen.

If it did, he'd deal with it.