The Cute Beauty Behind You

Nishikawa Ryoko glanced at Yagami Shizuka, then at Sakayanagi Arisu. Like a defeated hen, she still looked unwilling to give up.

She retrieved her textbook and left.

Yagami Shizuka had already confessed to Sakayanagi Arisu on the first day. Going after him now was just asking for rejection.

"Hehehe, you failed!" Shiraishi Asuka, sitting beside her, teased.

"Shoo, shoo. You think you can do any better?"

"Hehehehe, I told you from the start that you couldn't handle a man like him. Just watch me." Shiraishi Asuka eagerly headed over.

As she walked, she toyed with the pen in her hand. When she reached Yagami Shizuka's desk, she gave him a sweet, bashful smile. "Shizuka, how do you do that pen-spinning trick? Could you teach me?"

[Image: Shiraishi Asuka]

When Yagami Shizuka looked up, he saw a girl with long yellow hair falling over her shoulders. Her voice was soft and sweet, and she was just as cute.

Shiraishi Asuka was quite something. In just a few days, she'd gotten close to several boys in class. She even had ambiguous relationships with boys in other classes, including upperclassmen.

Whenever she encountered a boy, she seemed able to act all weak and helpless, then effortlessly capture his heart.

A woman like that was frightening.

That wasn't entirely accurate, though. All this information came from Shiraishi Asuka herself; only she knew whether it was true.

Still, she really did have a knack for charming men with ease.

Yagami Shizuka also knew about her other identity.

She was a spy planted at this school by the White Room's Silver Faction, and her mission was to keep an eye on Ayanokoji.

Yagami Shizuka really wanted to find a way out of this situation in the hints, but they all told him to find Sakayanagi Arisu or simply turn Shiraishi Asuka down.

It seemed Sakayanagi Arisu was an all-purpose shield who could bail him out of anything. He really ought to thank her properly.

"Spinning a pen is easy. Hold it flat like this, flick it back with your middle finger, then flick it back again with your index finger. Like this, and this... You can also use your middle finger like this..."

"Like this?" Shiraishi Asuka tried, but didn't quite get it. The pen dropped straight to the floor. She seemed genuinely interested in pen spinning, but couldn't get the hang of it.

"Just teach me hand over hand. I don't mind, so you don't have to be shy." Shiraishi Asuka made as if to sit on Yagami Shizuka's lap.

Thud, thud, thud!

Just then, Sakayanagi Arisu's cane fell to the floor and rolled to a stop in front of Shiraishi Asuka.

"Sorry, could you pick that up for me?" Sakayanagi Arisu asked, making it seem like an accident.

"Oh, sure. No problem." Shiraishi Asuka bent to pick it up.

As she lifted the cane and started to straighten up, a small hand closed around her neck and easily pulled her in front of Sakayanagi Arisu.

A quiet voice reached her ear. "If you don't want everyone hearing about your affairs, then get lost. I'll only say this once."

Sakayanagi Arisu released Shiraishi Asuka and calmly took her cane back.

That startled Shiraishi Asuka badly.

It wasn't that she cared about her own affairs. It was Sakayanagi Arisu's presence just now—she'd seemed ready to kill her.

She gave Yagami Shizuka an awkward smile. "Sorry, I'm hopeless at this. I'll keep practicing on my own. I won't interrupt you two lovebirds."

When she got back, the other girls naturally had plenty of teasing for her.

There was nothing she could do about it. Yagami Shizuka now had Sakayanagi Arisu backing him. Even if they had any bad intentions, they had no way to act on them.

"Does Sakayanagi Arisu really like Shizuka?" one girl asked.

"I don't know. I think she's just protecting her pride. Shizuka confessed to her, so even if she turned him down, she won't let another girl get her hands on him."

"That's so domineering. Even if she doesn't like him, she shouldn't keep us from having a chance."

"But Shizuka really does like Arisu. He uses her as a shield for everything."

"Ugh, what can we do? She's the chairman's daughter. We can't afford to offend her."

"Can someone tell me why Shizuka likes Arisu? Is there a reason?"

"Go ask him!"

Yagami Shizuka rested his head on his desk and pretended to be asleep, ignoring the girls chatting behind him. Sakayanagi Arisu also really wanted to know whether he truly liked her or had some other motive.

Normally, love at first sight required knowing something about the other person first. At the very least, the other person had to be good-looking.

Sakayanagi Arisu knew her own worth. Whether cute or mature, there were plenty of girls in class prettier than her. The only thing she took pride in was her intelligence.

But school had only just started, and she hadn't had a chance to show it off yet.

Unless he'd known her for a long time and understood her well.

She tapped the corner of Yagami Shizuka's desk with her cane. "Where are we going after school?"

"Going where? Back to sleep, obviously." Yagami Shizuka stretched as if he hadn't woken up yet, then rested his head on the desk again.

"Didn't you just say you wanted to go out with me?" Sakayanagi Arisu asked pointedly.

Yagami Shizuka immediately denied it. "No, no. I meant that I need your permission to go out. If you want me to go somewhere with you, I'm fine with that. Where do you want to go?"

He'd turned the whole thing around, making it sound as if Sakayanagi Arisu was asking him out.

Sakayanagi Arisu was instantly speechless and didn't want to deal with him.

I gave you a chance, and you still couldn't make use of it!

You've got the nerve, but not the guts.

Just wait. I already gave you a chance, so don't come begging me again next time.

You even expect me to ask you out myself? Dream on.

"Oh, right. I need to go to the library. Reading's one of my main interests, so you don't need to worry about me." Only then did Yagami Shizuka remember that he wanted to read at the library.

After all, Nishikawa Ryoko was right: if you had nothing to do, you got bored.

He didn't have a club, games on his phone, long novels, or short videos to watch. So the only thing he could do was go to the library and read.

He'd been the same way at school before. He got bored easily, and reading was one of his essential pleasures.

When Sakayanagi Arisu heard that Yagami Shizuka was going to read, she lost interest. It wasn't as if she really wanted to ask him out.

She was also very disappointed in him. If he'd insisted on asking her out, she wouldn't have been opposed, considering they were classmates.

But all he knew how to do was sleep, eat, or read.

Can't you see the cute girl behind you?

Don't you want to do something?

If you're trying to win me over, shouldn't you be taking action?

You're this lazy, and you still think you can win me over?

Do you know what you missed because of your laziness?

You'll regret it!

She cursed him under her breath a few times, then stopped asking.

As soon as school let out, Yagami Shizuka went to the library.

Normally, he didn't read books in the library itself. He borrowed them and read them elsewhere. One book a day was typical for him; sometimes he read three.

All you needed to borrow books from the library was a phone or student ID. You could also get a library card.

Borrowing books was free. You only lost points if you kept them for more than half a month, and the fee was reasonable: just 10 points per day. If you kept one for over a month, it was treated as lost. You'd have to pay the original price and would also be disciplined by the school, which would affect your class points as well.

As a seasoned bookworm, Yagami Shizuka read all kinds of books. He never looked down on any book he read.

He believed books were repositories of knowledge, passed down through the painstaking efforts of their forebears and other learned people.

Books were cultural treasures, and anyone who gained access to that knowledge ought to be grateful.

To nitpick about them would be disrespectful to those who came before.

As soon as Yagami Shizuka entered the library and breathed in the scent of the books lining the shelves, he perked right up.

He was always listless in class and wanted to sleep, but reading was different.

He could even read for days without sleeping and never feel tired. The more he read, the more alert he became, and his eyesight stayed at 5.5.

He chalked it up to some kind of special constitution. It wasn't as if he truly went without sleep; he could switch between the left and right sides of his brain to sleep while meditating.