I have been wounded by wine and lust, to think I have become so haggard!

During a boring class, Uesugi Hara felt bored.

The math teacher droned on at the podium, covering material that Uesugi Hara had already mastered years ago, and when combined with that monotonous tone, it was practically a hypnotic chant.

He was doing fine himself, but his peripheral vision caught Kamuro Masumi beside him, her head bobbing slightly; to an outsider, it might have looked like she was earnestly nodding along to the lesson.

But Uesugi Hara could see clearly that her eyelids were tightly shut, her lashes fluttering gently with every breath.

She looked quite pretty.

However, truth be told, his good bro had likely already "fallen" in the middle of math class.

Kamuro, you're an elite of Class A! To be like this on the first day of class, are you following some script about a loser making a comeback?

Chapter 1, The Fallen Genius?

Listening to a lecture filled with formulas and derivations was no different from suffering.

Yet Uesugi Hara didn't have the same refined patience as Kamuro Masumi.

He flipped through the love letters in his desk drawer that he hadn't gotten around to dealing with yet.

Most of them meant roughly the same thing.

The more literary ones carried a hint of subtle longing between the lines: "A fleeting glance at first sight, and ever since, every dream has been of you"; "When the wind passed through the corridor and I saw you leaning against the railing, I felt as if all the cherry blossoms of April had fallen into my eyes"...

The ones without so much beating around the bush: "Love at first sight, those sword-like brows and starry eyes made my heart race..."; "Whether you have a girlfriend or not, I just want to tell you—I like you, the kind of like that's super intense"...

--Superficial.

Uesugi Hara sneered inwardly, his fingertips carelessly brushing the edges of the stationery.

There were plenty of people coveting his looks; these people would have to wait in a long line.

He raised an eyebrow slightly, a flicker of dissatisfaction rising in his heart: coveting his looks wasn't their fault, but only coveting his looks was where they went wrong. With so many people, why couldn't a single one look past this skin and see the "inner beauty" hidden in his bones?

Thinking this, he folded the love letter into a small square, stuffed it into the corner of his desk, and prepared to throw it away after class.

Days passed in this bland, unremarkable fashion.

Uesugi Hara's daily routine was simple: listen (or don't listen) in class, clear out the mountain of love letters after class, bicker with Kamuro Masumi, occasionally accompany Morishita Ai in her crazy antics, and furthermore, brush off Sakayanagi Arisu whenever she came looking for trouble, while incidentally... appreciating the pretty legs passing by.

As for Kamuro Masumi, she seemed to treat him like a recycling bin, tossing every beer she got his way.

He dutifully helped his good bro deal with this "trouble," yet the other party wouldn't even grant him the benefit of letting him look at her legs a little longer.

Uesugi Hara would sometimes complain to himself: what kind of situation is this? I treat you like a brother, keeping you in my pocket, but you, on the other hand, turn around and kick me into a ditch.

That really wasn't an exaggeration—a few days ago, when an argument got heated, he was genuinely kicked hard by Kamuro Masumi, and he still felt a bit numb just thinking about it.

Saturday morning, the mirror in the bathroom was covered in a thin layer of steam.

Uesugi Hara reached out to wipe the mirror, and when he saw the face inside clearly, he was startled—there were faint dark circles under his eyes, a lingering weariness between his brows, and he looked completely listless, exuding an indescribable haggardness.

He was stunned: when did he become such a wreck? Even after pulling several all-nighters in the past, he had never looked this haggard.

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He unconsciously touched his reflection, recalling the past few days: the beer Kamuro Masumi kept shoving at him hadn't stopped, he looked at legs every night, and he stayed up late last night... Comparing this to his old life, his heart suddenly skipped a beat.

"So that's it!" He slapped his forehead, suddenly enlightened, "I've been damaged by wine and women, which is why I've become so haggard!"

Staring at his weary reflection, he took a deep breath, clenched his fists, and made a decision, his voice carrying a note of desperate resolve: "From this day forward, I am quitting alcohol!"

After saying this, he looked at the mirror again, as if he could already foresee his former high-spirited self.

It was just that the determination at the corners of his mouth looked like a comically serious expression.

Uesugi Hara immediately sent a message to Kamuro Masumi, "No need to give me beer anymore, bro has decided to quit drinking!"

After a long while, Kamuro Masumi finally replied, sounding as if she had just woken up, with a touch of grumpy confusion: "Huh? What kind of nonsense are you spouting early in the morning? Quitting drinking? You haven't woken up yet, have you?"

Just as the message popped up, a second one followed immediately. She seemed to have suddenly realized something, her tone filled with suspicion: "Wait! Quitting drinking?! You drank all the beer I gave you? Are you even old enough to drink?"

"No." Uesugi Hara honestly replied with one word.

"Then that's an illegal act." Kamuro Masumi's message followed, "I could report you to the school, but if you listen to me from now on, I won't report you."

Uesugi Hara looked at the words on the screen, feeling a bit amused—his good bro was trying to manipulate him? She probably hadn't even woken up yet, right?

His fingertips tapped out a reply quickly, and he deliberately added a smirk emoji: "You seem to have forgotten where the beer came from / smirk. If you report me, I'll turn around and say that I saw you use your 'Sleight of Hand' to take the alcohol, and when I wanted to report you, you threatened me, forcing me to drink with you, saying if I didn't, you'd scream that I molested you. I only committed the error because I succumbed to your tyranny, heh heh heh."

Kamuro Masumi had just sat up in bed, wearing a loose cotton pajama set, and while she raised a hand to cover her yawn, with a bit of physiological moisture in the corners of her eyes, she slowly swiped her Terminal screen to reply.

The moment Uesugi Hara's message popped up, her yawn froze in mid-air, and her eyes went wide.

What did he mean by "threatened by me"?

Kamuro Masumi felt her temples throbbing, a surge of anger rushing to her head—who was the one who shamelessly clung to her, saying "I'll cover for you if you let me look at your legs"? And who was the one who, with a straight face, said perverted things like "let me look at your legs"?

She gritted her teeth and tapped her Terminal against the quilt, her fingertips stabbing at the screen rapidly, as if she wanted to vent all her frustration into the words.

"You pervert, how do you have the nerve to say such things!" Kamuro Masumi's message came through, laced with fire.

"Why wouldn't I have the nerve?" Uesugi Hara replied righteously, "Besides, wasn't the beer obtained by your 'Sleight of Hand'? Wasn't it you who shoved it at me?"

"Heh," Kamuro Masumi sent two characters, her cold, gritted-teeth sneer practically seeping through the text, "Uesugi Hara, just tell me, how did that beer taste?"

"Not good," Uesugi Hara replied bluntly, adding, "It was actually kind of gross. Can't compare to the stuff my underlings used to offer me back in the day."

Looking at the screen, Kamuro Masumi couldn't help but scoff—ha, underlings? This guy really just says whatever comes to mind; who knows what kind of nonsense he's bragging about now.

"Forget it, I'm not arguing with you. A sensible woman doesn't fight with men," Kamuro Masumi sent. "Never mind whether you drink it or not, I'm not going to go grab any more in the future either."

"Yo, is this a change of heart? Did you finally find your conscience?" Uesugi Hara seized the opportunity to tease her.

"Heh." Kamuro Masumi replied with a single syllable, though her fingertips tightened unconsciously around her phone.

Thinking back to last night, her face grew a little hot. She had actually been caught red-handed by Sakayanagi Arisu; it was embarrassing enough to ruin her reputation for "Sleight of Hand." She had only been caught by Uesugi Hara a short while ago, and now, just a few days later...

She let out a soft huff, suppressing that flicker of shame and annoyance, and didn't reply to Uesugi Hara's message again.

Seeing that Kamuro Masumi had stopped replying, Uesugi Hara couldn't be bothered to keep teasing her and casually shoved his Terminal back into his pocket.

He glanced up at his own haggard, listless reflection in the mirror and clicked his tongue—well, it looks like he shouldn't have stayed up so late last night.

Thinking this, he turned and walked out of the bathroom, deciding to head back to bed for a nap to recharge his energy.