Incompetent Shiranami Chihiro

The next day, Sunday.

Early in the morning, Uesugi Hara woke from his sleep, rubbing his eyes, his face still carrying a trace of the confusion that comes with just waking up.

"Did I... have a dream?" he whispered to himself.

How many years had it been since he last dreamed? One year? Two? Or three? He couldn't remember.

It was just that this dream had been exceptionally vivid and particularly interesting; it was about his time back in the White House.

Uesugi Hara chuckled softly, his fingertips brushing the corners of his eyes. "What's wrong with me, actually feeling nostalgic for a place like that?"

Although his memory wasn't as exaggerated as Ayanokoji's (in the original work, Ayanokoji remembers everything clearly from birth), he still possessed a photographic memory.

It was just that those memories of the White House were usually suppressed deep in his heart, like old items forgotten in a corner, rarely disturbed.

"It's probably because I ran into Ayanokoji that it triggered memories of the past; or perhaps these days have been too idle, and the suppressed memories just crawled out while I was sleeping." He continued to mutter to himself, as if analyzing the reason.

"Well, whatever the case, it doesn't matter. I'm living a new life now." He threw off the quilt and sat up. The gloom from the dream had mostly dissipated, leaving only a vague sense of melancholy, but it quickly dissolved in the morning light.

Today, Uesugi Hara planned to go to the commercial district to pick out some casual clothes. It was only after seeing Morishita Ai not wearing her school uniform yesterday that he realized, belatedly, that he seemed to only have the few school uniforms issued by the school.

But things were no longer as they used to be. With money in his hands, he should learn to enjoy life. There was no need to keep living like before, rotating through a few school uniforms.

After lunch, Uesugi Hara strolled slowly through the commercial district. The shops along the street were packed, with all kinds of trendy clothes hanging in the display windows, which left him feeling a bit troubled.

It wasn't that he had never bought clothes before, but in the past, whenever he passed by shops that looked "high-end," he would always avert his eyes and walk right past them.

Buying clothes had always meant finding street stalls and haggling with the owners, trying to stretch every single dollar as far as it could go.

(There aren't many boys as frugal and thrifty as Uesugi Hara left.)

But standing outside these bright clothing stores now, he hit a wall—his old "street stall haggling strategy" was clearly useless here.

The group from Class B had just finished their meal and were huddled together discussing where to go next.

Ichinose Honami, surrounded by everyone, suddenly felt something for no apparent reason and subconsciously looked in one direction—a familiar figure entered her line of sight.

It was him.

Ichinose Honami recognized him at a glance—it was that kind and handsome shop assistant from before.

She looked at Uesugi Hara, who was standing outside the clothing store in a daze (or what appeared to be a daze to her), feeling a bit puzzled. Was the shop assistant actually a student at this school too?

"Eh~ Honami-chan, what are you looking at?" The girl next to her followed her gaze and immediately started teasing her with a smile. "Oh~ so you were looking at a handsome guy~"

"Really! Really! Let me see too—" Another girl leaned in, took a look, and said, "Isn't that Uesugi-kun from Class A of the first year? I heard he's number one on the handsome guy ranking!"

"So Honami-chan likes this type?"

Listening to the jokes of her companions, the girl with short white hair in the group quietly clenched her fists, the smile on her face stiffening slightly.

"It's not like that, Mako and Yume-chan, don't talk nonsense!" Ichinose Honami's cheeks flushed, and she waved her hands to explain. "I just ran into an acquaintance, and he helped me out before."

Hearing the words "helped me out," the white-haired girl seemed to relax slightly, her clenched fists slowly loosening.

"I knew it, Honami isn't that shallow," she whispered, though it was unclear if the others heard her.

"Mako, you guys go back first, I'm going over to say hello," Ichinose Honami said to her companions.

"Honami, is it really safe for you to go over alone? What if that person is a pervert?" Shiranami Chihiro grabbed her, looking worried, her eyes full of unease.

"It's fine, Chihiro-chan, the shop assistant is a very good person," Ichinose Honami said with a smile, patting her hand to explain.

Amikura Mako and Kobashi Yume exchanged a look, and with a tacit understanding, they grabbed Shiranami Chihiro from both sides and started dragging her back. "Then Honami-chan, go ahead~ We'll head out first, won't bother you."

Shiranami Chihiro was still kicking in mid-air, shouting at the top of her lungs: "Honami, you must be careful! You really must be careful!" Unfortunately, her strength was no match for the two of them, and her struggles were all in vain.

To onlookers, this scene looked a bit like a husband being dragged away, which was both serious and funny.

Ichinose Honami's face turned an embarrassed red, and she called out to the retreating Shiranami Chihiro: "Don't worry, Chihiro-chan, I'll be careful!"

Meanwhile, Amikura Mako and Kobashi Yume were whispering to Shiranami Chihiro: "Look, Chihiro, Honami-chan clearly has a crush on that boy, we'd definitely be in the way here."

Unfortunately, what sounded like comfort to others was like "the devil's whisper" to Shiranami Chihiro.

After hearing this, the girl's face turned deathly pale. She stood there as if struck by a petrification spell, completely giving up the struggle, her head hanging low and wilted.

Amikura Mako and Kobashi Yume looked at each other, both a bit confused—why did this little one suddenly wilt like this?

After the two of them dragged her around a corner, Kobashi Yume asked in a low voice: "Hey, Mako, are we really just going to leave like this?"

"How could we?" Amikura Mako raised an eyebrow, her tone matter-of-fact. "Can you really feel safe leaving Honami alone with someone we don't know well?"

When Shiranami Chihiro heard this, her eyes lit up, and she instantly came back to life, asking anxiously: "Then what should we do?"

"What else? We follow and keep an eye on them," Amikura Mako glanced in the direction of Ichinose Honami and lowered her voice. "What if that guy really is a pervert? Wouldn't Honami be in danger?"

"What if Honami-chan finds out?" Kobashi Yume asked in a low voice, still a bit worried.

"If she finds out, we'll just say we were hanging out in the area and happened to run into them," Amikura Mako winked at her, her tone mysterious. "Besides, if we really run into them, we can naturally join in and start a conversation. What a perfect excuse."

The more Shiranami Chihiro heard, the brighter her eyes became. The wilted look from before was completely gone, and she grabbed their sleeves and pulled them forward: "Then let's hurry and follow! Every second we waste, Honami is in more danger!"

Amikura Mako stumbled from being pulled and couldn't help but look at her with suspicion—this child was just wilted a moment ago, why was she suddenly acting like she'd been injected with adrenaline?

However, she didn't think too much about it, assuming Shiranami Chihiro was just too concerned for Ichinose Honami's safety, so she waved her hand and led the two of them, tiptoeing as they followed.

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