Ying: Having Charm Is Also a Troublesome Thing

Time to return to when the Class B exam results were announced.

"Byakuya, I didn't expect your grades to be this good." Kanzaki looked at Ying, who had achieved perfect scores in every subject, with some surprise.

"Yeah, the other subjects are one thing since they were the original papers, but getting perfect scores in math and physics? Is he even human?" Hamaguchi was also astonished.

"Hmph, hahaha! Now you know how amazing I am!" Ying's nose was already pointing toward the ceiling.

"Byakuya-kun, congratulations on achieving such great results. Thanks to your guidance, Asako and Chihiro also scored much higher." Honami said with a smile as she congratulated him.

"That's a given. Who do you think their teacher is?" Ying said, puffing out his chest.

"I wonder how everyone in Class D did?" Honami's expression turned slightly worried.

Ying smiled. "Heh, Honami, why don't you just go over to Class D and take a look?"

"What are you saying? If anyone is going, it should be you. Honami is the leader of Class B and has a speech to give later," Kanzaki retorted coldly.

"Why!? This is my hard-earned masterpiece!" Ying felt that after all the days he had spent painstakingly tutoring Sudo and the others, they must have achieved even higher scores than in the original story. He had originally wanted to show off his brilliance to Honami again.

"Since it's Byakuya-kun's masterpiece, I suppose I'll go take a look." Honami thought for a moment before saying this.

Everyone: Huh?

Not long after, Honami returned from Class D, her steps lighter than usual.

"Everyone, listen up~. I just went to Class D and discovered that three students were about to be expelled. However, some students in their class realized that they could use private points to buy marks. But they didn't have enough points to cover the deficit for their classmates, so I dipped into our class funds and helped them pay 600,000 points. Don't worry, though; they will pay it back in the future, and with interest. We signed a contract in front of their homeroom teacher: they will pay an extra 100,000 points every month. Once they have enough to pay us back, they will return the funds to Class B immediately; otherwise, Class D will receive no more private point transfers. Everyone, you don't mind that I acted on my own, do you?"

"Of course not! Honami-chan is doing this for the sake of Class B, right!"

"Yeah, yeah! Whatever Honami decides, we'll agree with it!"

"Alright, alright! Let's go have a victory celebration!"

The members of Class B clearly weren't going to blame Honami; if anything, they were still praising her.

"Ying! This is a victory celebration for Class B's midterm success, and you, our top scorer, can't miss it!" Shibata grabbed Ying by the neck and threatened him.

"O-okay... okay! I... will go, let go of... me! Ugh..."

Hearing Ying agree, Shibata released his grip on Ying's neck.

Ying rubbed his neck, which had been rubbed red, and looked at Shibata with a mischievous smile.

"Shibata! Don't let me catch you!" With that, Ying chased Shibata, running back and forth around the classroom.

Kanzaki and Honami watched the two playing around and smiled in unison.

"I'm so glad I was placed in Class B~." Honami sighed happily.

A seemingly ordinary day in June, but for some, it was anything but ordinary.

"Stare..."

Ying gazed at a letter with a heart pattern on his desk, lost in thought.

This must be it, that thing. The first love letter of his two lifetimes.

He had found this suspected love letter in his desk drawer after arriving at the classroom this morning. Now, he was hesitating: should he open it or not?

It couldn't have been put there by mistake, right?

It must be for me, right?

Fine! Open it!

"Ying, what are you doing?"

Just as Ying was about to open the letter, Shibata walked over.

"Is this... could it be a love letter? Byakuya, are you going to confess to Honami!?" Hamaguchi noticed the letter in Ying's hand and said in surprise.

"Who's confessing!? And why Honami!? Listen up, you bunch of single losers..." Ying stood up, stepped one foot onto his chair, and held the letter up to show off to everyone. "This is a love letter that someone put in my drawer this morning, just for me."

Hamaguchi and Shibata exchanged glances and suddenly started stifling their laughter, while Kanzaki sighed and went back to his own work.

"Hey! What are you laughing at!? I'm telling the truth. Being this charming is a troublesome thing, you know." Ying said, flicking his hair.

"Then open it and see! See what it says?" Hamaguchi said, covering his mouth to stifle his laughter.

"Hey! I told you not to laugh! How can you just open a letter like this? Do you even understand? This carries the determination of a teenage girl. You have to have the same feelings to open it, otherwise, wouldn't you be letting down the girl's intentions?" Ying held the letter to his chest and said longingly.

"Fine, fine. Then open it when you have those feelings. Remember to tell us your thoughts later." With that, Hamaguchi and Shibata walked away, laughing.

"I told you not to laugh! You don't believe me!? Just you wait, once I get a girlfriend tomorrow, I'll be flaunting it in front of you every single day, damn it." Ying sat back down in his seat, frustrated, and stared at the letter again.

That afternoon, Kanzaki felt like he was suffering. The person behind him, Ying, kept shaking his leg and occasionally kicking his chair while making strange noises, preventing him from concentrating in class. He wanted to turn around and warn him, but Ying was staring at the letter on his desk and ignoring him entirely. In the end, Kanzaki could only recite a calming mantra in his heart.

After school, Ying strolled through the campus, thinking about the love letter.

"Byakuya-kun! You're here! I've been looking for you for a long time." Honami said, breathless; it seemed she had been searching for a while.

"Honami, is something the matter?" Ying asked.

"Well... there are too many people here. Let's go somewhere else to talk." Honami then pulled Ying to a secluded spot.

This made Ying's heart race. Could the girl be Honami? Had he finally escaped being single after two lifetimes? And with such a cute girlfriend, no less!?

Ying had already started letting his imagination run wild, to the point where he almost drooled at the corner of his mouth.

"Um, Byakuya-kun, you received that this morning, right? You know, that thing." Ichinose asked, acting a bit bashful.

Ying swallowed hard and pulled out the love letter: "You mean... this?"

"Yeah. It's a bit embarrassing to say, but there are some things I'd like to talk to Byakuya-kun about." Ichinose became even more fidgety. Ying was incredibly nervous, waiting for what would come next.

"Actually..."

Ying: (wiping away sweat)...

"I received one too! I wanted to ask Byakuya-kun to help me out!"

"Please take care of me from now on."

"What?"

"I, I said I see..."

Ying's Dao heart is shattering... No big deal, even if it's not Ichinose, there are still girls who like me, right? Thinking this, Ying felt a little better.

Then Ichinose took out her love letter and said, "Actually, I wanted to ask Byakuya-kun to pretend to be my boyfriend. I don't really know how to date, but I don't know how to reject him either, so this was the only method I could think of."

"Have you read that love letter yet?" Ying asked.

"Eh, not yet," Ichinose replied.

"Since they were able to write a love letter to confess, it proves that person must have had a lot of resolve. If you reject them like this, wouldn't you be letting down their feelings? You might as well read what's written in the letter first and face that person properly. At the very least, don't let them down," Ying said with his arms crossed.

After that, Ichinose read the letter, and she and Ying went to the location specified in the letter. Ying hid nearby, and before long, the person arrived—Chihiro Shiranami?

"Chihiro, we... we can still be friends, right?" Ichinose said apologetically.

"Of course. Actually, I'm the one who feels sorry, Honami..."

After admiring the pure friendship between the girls, Ying felt his soul had been purified. Now, he felt he had the resolve to read his own letter.

"Byakuya-kun, thank you." After seeing Chihiro off, Ichinose came over to thank Ying.

"Not at all, it was nothing."

"I remember, Byakuya-kun hasn't read your letter yet, right? Aren't you going to look?"

"Yeah, I was just about to..."

Then, Ying opened the letter:

Anyone who believes this is a love letter is a complete idiot. Hahahaha! (￣y▽￣)~* covers mouth and giggles

With a quick swipe, Ying tore the letter into shreds and tossed it into the trash can nearby.

"Byakuya-kun, what are you doing..." Ichinose asked, confused.

"It's nothing, Ichinose. I suddenly remembered I have something urgent to take care of, so I'll be going now." With that, Ying ran as fast as he could toward the soccer club.

"Shibata Sou! Hamaguchi Tetsuya! You can't just toy with a brother's feelings like this! You guys better wait for me! I'm going to make your bodies taste the agony I'm feeling right now!" Ying let out a desperate, gut-wrenching roar, a single tear sliding down his cheek.

Ying's Dao heart is shattering... (again)