As he turned, his shadow stretched long across the ground. "I'll stay close behind you these next few days. Don't be afraid."
His tone was as lazy as usual, but the end of his sentence was a little gentler.
Watching his back, Sakura Airi suddenly added in a quiet voice, "Thank you... Thank you for being willing to help me."
Her voice was as faint as a mosquito's, but Tanaka's steps faltered almost imperceptibly.
He didn't look back. He simply raised a hand and waved it casually, his silver-white hair swaying gently in the breeze.
A girl's heartfelt gratitude.
Well, this was...
Tanaka sighed inwardly, but the corners of his mouth lifted despite himself.
Determine the Target
Night had fallen, and the bright moon hung high in the sky.
On the big bed in the bedroom, the two-hour battle came to an end with the girl's long, high moan.
Afterward, a lingering flush still colored her cheeks.
Lying on Tanaka Yukishin's chest, Karuizawa Kei traced aimless circles between his ribs with her slender fingers.
Her nails occasionally brushed lightly over his skin, sending a faint shiver through him.
"So, Sakura Airi is your new target?"
Karuizawa Kei suddenly spoke, her voice carrying a post-coital laziness and a hint of tension she couldn't quite conceal.
Her fingertips stopped moving as she spoke, then lightly pressed against his chest.
She felt the steady beat of his heart.
Karuizawa Kei's flushed face showed a touch of jealousy.
Although she had already accepted it...
Wasn't this a little too soon?
She wanted to keep Tanaka Yukishin to herself a little longer.
Tanaka Yukishin looked down. Beneath the moonlight, Karuizawa Kei's eyes shimmered with complicated emotions—three parts jealousy, three parts unease, and four parts composure.
He couldn't help chuckling. His right hand wandered over her smooth back, feeling the muscles stiffen slightly beneath his touch.
"You're overthinking it." Tanaka Yukishin patted the girl's bottom with his right hand. "I told you on the way back. It's just to satisfy my curiosity."
"Right now, my target is Kushida Kikyo."
Tanaka Yukishin continued, the corners of his mouth curling into a mischievous smile.
"I just want to see when she'll come to me."
"After all, she's been working toward her goal of becoming friends with everyone."
Karuizawa Kei eyed him suspiciously.
The guy who had personally told her he wanted to build a harem was now claiming he wouldn't make a move.
Who would believe that?
She propped herself up, her silky golden hair falling over Tanaka Yukishin's chest. The ticklish sensation made him narrow his eyes.
Supporting herself on her arms, Karuizawa Kei looked down at his expression, trying to find a crack in those golden eyes.
"But Sakura Airi is clearly an easier target for you. She already has some affection for you," Karuizawa Kei said.
"If you insist on comparing them, Kushida Kikyo should be easier. Like you, she's a problem child."
"She was bullied too?" Karuizawa Kei exclaimed, pressing one hand to Tanaka Yukishin's chest as she sat up, bracing herself with the other.
That was unbelievable.
If she had been bullied because of her somewhat timid personality, how could someone as cute, gentle, helpful, kind, and sociable as Kushida Kikyo possibly have been bullied?
She was at the top of the class, surrounded by friends.
There was no comparison with a fake gal like her.
"You've got it wrong. You're both problem children, but your problems are different."
Seeing that Karuizawa Kei thought Kushida Kikyo was just like her, Tanaka Yukishin grinned and told her what Kushida was really like.
He sat up and leaned against the headboard, the moonlight outlining his well-built frame.
Karuizawa Kei found herself drawn to him and slowly snuggled against his side.
"Just as you pretended to be a gal so you wouldn't get bullied," Tanaka Yukishin said, "Kushida Kikyo has her reasons for wanting to be friends with everyone."
Kushida Kikyo had been just as popular in middle school as she was now.
But her friends had shared their emotions with her without restraint, until the fragile, young Kushida Kikyo could barely handle it.
So she chose to vent her stress online.
Then, by chance, one of her classmates noticed what she had written.
Since it was something she had told only Kushida Kikyo, it was easy to conclude that Kushida was the one who had posted it.
Later, when her classmates confronted her in class, she snapped and revealed everything they had ever confided in her.
After that, no one could get along with anyone else. Those things she'd said had planted countless thorns in her classmates' hearts.
In the end, the class fell apart.
As the story unfolded, Karuizawa Kei's expression shifted from shock to conflicted sadness.
When she heard that Kushida Kikyo had finally exposed everyone's secrets in class, her fingers clenched tightly around the bedsheet.
"This..."
Karuizawa Kei's voice was as light as a sigh, and her gaze drifted into the distance.
Trust and betrayal between friends, venting and bearing one another's emotions... These conflicting thoughts churned in her mind.
She felt at a loss.
It was normal for friends to share their thoughts about people or things with one another.
But Kushida Kikyo had also been driven to vent her stress online. After all, the secrets of countless classmates had weighed her down until she could barely bear it.
It seemed like everyone was at fault, and yet no one was.
Caught between these thoughts, she looked up at Tanaka Yukishin.
"Yukishin, who do you think was in the wrong here?"
"Does thinking about it matter?"
His tone was almost cruelly casual, yet somehow it was soothing.
"Girls really do love to fret over things. Even when it has nothing to do with them, they hear about it and can't help thinking it over."
Karuizawa Kei froze for a moment, then blushed with anger and punched him.
Tanaka Yukishin burst out laughing and pulled her into his arms. He whispered in her ear, "Instead of thinking about all that... why not think about how you're going to wake me up tomorrow morning?"
Beneath the moonlight, Karuizawa Kei's expression shifted from sadness to resignation, then finally bloomed into a happy smile.
She lifted her head and bit his shoulder, mumbling, "You're such a jerk..."
Tanaka Yukishin only smiled and tightened his arms around her, holding her closer.
Outside the window, the moon quietly slipped behind the clouds, as if it, too, didn't want to disturb the two lovers, each lost in their own thoughts.
The next day, Sakura Airi followed Tanaka Yukishin's plan and left her digital camera in her dorm-room drawer.
She stood in front of her desk, watching the camera for a few seconds as her fingers tapped the surface without thinking.
Although she had already decided to do this, she still felt a little uneasy without the camera by her side.
After school, Sakura Airi walked slowly along the road.
Whenever she passed a corner, she slowed down a little, pretending to adjust her bag or fix her shoelace, while glancing back out of the corner of her eye.
The third time she did this, she finally spotted a familiar figure.
Tanaka Yukishin stood about fifteen meters away, looking down as he fiddled with his phone. His school jacket was draped on him casually, making him look like any other student heading home.
Their eyes met briefly, and Tanaka Yukishin gave her a slight nod.
The tension in Sakura Airi's chest eased a little, and her fingers loosened their death grip on her bag strap.
After wandering around for a while, she realized she no longer felt like she was being watched.
Sakura Airi couldn't help beaming with joy.
The wind rustled through the treetops.
She couldn't help smiling as she turned to find Tanaka Yukishin.
But there was no one behind her.
Her expression froze. The smile had barely faded from her lips, but panic had already crept into her eyes.
"Looking for me?"
The voice came from behind her.
Sakura Airi spun around. Tanaka Yukishin stood right in front of her, his school-uniform sleeves rolled up to his elbows. A little dust clung to his exposed wrist.
"When did you get ahead of me?"
Sakura Airi's eyes widened.
"I hurried and took a shortcut."
Tanaka Yukishin brushed the dust off his wrist.
"We still don't know how the other person is tracking you, so I can't let them find out I'm protecting you. I don't want to alert them."
His tone was calm, but his eyes kept scanning their surroundings.
"Now we can be sure—the problem lies with the camera."
"How many times has the digital camera you're carrying changed hands?"
Only Once
"Only once. That was..."
Sakura Airi remembered the story of her digital camera very clearly.
She had bought it on the first day of school and carried it with her ever since, never letting it out of her sight.
Until eight days ago...
Sakura Airi sat on her dorm-room bed with her legs crossed, turning the silver-gray digital camera over and over in her hands.
Her fingertips brushed each button along the side of the camera, and her brows furrowed without her realizing it.
The familiar device seemed to have suddenly changed.
She stared at the screen and tried operating it the way she always had, but the shutter stubbornly clicked again.
"Argh—!"
She tossed the camera onto the bed and fell backward onto the blanket, her long hair spreading across the sheets.
She raised an arm to cover her eyes, her chest rising and falling with frustration.
A few minutes later, she slowly sat up and picked up the camera to examine it again, her fingertips absently rubbing the power button.
"I guess I really will have to get someone to take a look at it."
She muttered softly, a hint of frustration in her voice.
After carefully putting the camera in her bag, she tidied her slightly disheveled hair and took a deep breath before leaving the dorm.
The cold air from the air conditioner in the electronics store on the shopping street made Sakura Airi shiver as soon as she stepped inside.
She hunched her shoulders and looked around the shop, her gaze finally settling on Yamamoto Ichiro, who was organizing the shelves behind the counter.
He wore a white shirt and tie under a red work uniform, and a little stubble showed on his cheeks.
Before you continue