Chapter 43

As he turned, his shadow stretched long across the ground. "I'll be following behind you for the next few days, so don't be afraid."

His tone was as lazy as usual, but the tail end of his sentence was softened by a fraction.

Sakura Airi watched his retreating back and suddenly added in a low voice, "Thank you... thank you for being willing to help me."

Her voice was as thin as a mosquito's hum, yet it caused Tanaka's footsteps to falter almost imperceptibly.

He did not turn back, merely raising a hand to wave dismissively as his silver-white hair swayed gently in the breeze.

A girl's sincere gratitude.

This really is...

Tanaka sighed inwardly, though the corners of his mouth curled up against his will.

Chapter 46: Determining the Target

At night, the bright moon hung high.

On the large bed in the bedroom, a two-hour fierce battle came to an end with the girl's high-pitched moan.

After the pleasure, a lingering flush still remained on her cheeks.

Lying on Tanaka Yukishin's chest, Karuizawa Kei traced meaningless circles on his ribs with her slender fingers.

Her nails occasionally scraped lightly against his skin, triggering a faint tremor.

"So, is Sakura Airi your new target?"

Karuizawa Kei spoke suddenly, her voice carrying post-coital languor and a trace of imperceptible tension.

As she spoke, the movement of her fingertips stopped, shifting to press gently against his heart.

She felt the vibration of his heartbeat.

Karuizawa Kei's face was flushed with a hint of jealousy.

Although she had already accepted it.

However, was this too fast?

She still wanted to have Tanaka Yukishin all to herself for a while longer.

Tanaka Yukishin looked down. Under the moonlight, Karuizawa Kei's eyes flickered with complex emotions—three parts jealousy, three parts unease, and four parts composure.

He couldn't help but chuckle, his right hand wandering over her smooth back, feeling her muscles stiffen slightly.

"You're overthinking it." Tanaka Yukishin patted the girl's hip with his right hand. "I told you when I got back, it's just to satisfy my curiosity."

"The current target is Kushida Kikyo."

Tanaka Yukishin continued, the corners of his mouth hooking into a playful arc.

"I just want to see when exactly she'll come looking for me."

"After all, she's been acting with the goal of becoming friends with everyone."

Karuizawa Kei looked at him with full suspicion.

The man who told her to her face that he wanted to build a harem was now saying he wouldn't make a move.

Who would believe that?

She propped up her upper body, her silk-like blonde hair falling onto Tanaka Yukishin's chest; the ticklish sensation made him narrow his eyes.

Supporting herself with her arms, Karuizawa Kei looked down at his expression, trying to find a flaw in those gilded pupils.

"But it's obviously easier to target Sakura Airi. Because she already has a certain level of affection for you," Karuizawa Kei said.

"If you really have to compare, Kushida Kikyo is even easier. Because she is a problem child, just like you."

"She was bullied too?!" Karuizawa Kei was startled, pressing one hand against Tanaka Yukishin's chest while pushing herself up from the bed with the other.

This was too unbelievable.

If the reason she was bullied was because of her own somewhat weak personality.

Then how could Kushida Kikyo—who was cute, gentle in attitude, helpful, kind-hearted, and a social butterfly—possibly be bullied?

She was at the top of the class hierarchy, with friends everywhere.

She couldn't be compared to a fake gyaru like herself.

"You're mistaken. Although we are both problem children, her problem is different from yours."

Seeing that Karuizawa Kei mistakenly thought Kushida Kikyo was the same kind of person, Tanaka Yukishin told her the truth with a grin.

He propped up his upper body and leaned against the headboard, the moonlight outlining his sturdy silhouette.

Karuizawa Kei was involuntarily drawn to him, slowly leaning over to curl up at his side.

"Just like how you pretend to be a gyaru to avoid being bullied," Tanaka Yukishin said, "there is a reason why Kushida Kikyo wants to be friends with everyone."

Kushida Kikyo was just as popular in middle school as she is now.

But her friends shared their emotions with her without restraint, to the point where the fragile and immature Kushida Kikyo couldn't bear it.

So, she chose to vent the pressure in her heart by posting online.

Later, by chance, her comments were noticed by a classmate.

Because that was something she had only told her, the conclusion was reached quite easily: the Sender was Kushida Kikyo.

Afterward, she self-destructed in the face of accusations from her classmates, revealing everything everyone had ever told her in confidence.

As a result, no one could get along with anyone else anymore; after all, those words had planted countless thorns in the hearts of her classmates.

In the end, the class collapsed.

As the story unfolded, the expression on Karuizawa Kei's face shifted from shock to complexity.

When she heard about Kushida Kikyo finally self-destructing in class, her fingers gripped the bedsheets tightly.

"This..."

Karuizawa Kei's voice was as light as a sigh, her gaze drifting into the distance.

Trust and betrayal between friends, the venting and bearing of emotions... these contradictions churned in her mind.

It left her feeling somewhat at a loss.

Sharing thoughts about people or things among friends is a perfectly normal behavior.

But Kushida Kikyo venting her stress online was also a helpless act; after all, the secrets of countless classmates had already weighed her down to the point of collapse.

It seemed everyone was at fault, yet it also seemed no one was.

Caught in her struggle, she looked up at Tanaka Yukishin.

"Yukishin, who do you think is the problem in this situation?"

"Is there any point in thinking about that?"

His tone was so relaxed it was almost cruel, yet it strangely carried a soothing power.

"Girls are just sentimental. Even when it involves people who have nothing to do with them, they can't help but think about it once they know."

Karuizawa Kei froze for a moment, then punched him in a fit of embarrassed anger.

Tanaka Yukishin laughed heartily, pulling her into his arms and whispering in her ear, "Instead of thinking about this... why not think about how you're going to wake me up tomorrow morning?"

Under the moonlight, Karuizawa Kei's expression shifted from sadness to resignation, finally settling into a joyful smile.

She looked up and bit his shoulder, saying indistinctly, "You really are a jerk..."

Tanaka Yukishin just smiled and tightened his arms, pulling her even closer into his embrace.

Outside the window, the moon quietly hid behind the clouds, as if it couldn't bear to disturb these two lovers, each harboring their own thoughts.

The next day, Sakura Airi followed Tanaka Yukishin's plan and left her digital camera in her dormitory drawer.

She stood before the desk, staring at the camera for a few seconds, her fingers tapping the tabletop unconsciously.

Although she had decided to do this, she still felt a bit unaccustomed to being without the company of her camera.

After school, Sakura Airi walked slowly along the road.

Every time she passed a corner, she would slow her pace slightly, pretending to tidy her bag or adjust her shoelaces, while her peripheral vision constantly scanned behind her.

The third time she did this, she finally caught sight of a familiar figure.

Tanaka Yukishin stood a dozen meters away, head down, fiddling with his phone, his school blazer draped casually over his shoulders; he looked no different from any other student heading home after school.

Their eyes met briefly, and Tanaka Yukishin gave a slight nod.

The tightness in Sakura Airi's chest eased slightly, and her fingers stopped gripping her bag strap so hard.

After wandering around for a while, she realized that today, there was no feeling of being watched.

Sakura Airi's joy couldn't help but show on her face.

The wind blew through the treetops, rustling the leaves.

She couldn't help but smile, turning around to go find Tanaka Yukishin.

But she found that the space behind her was empty.

Her expression froze instantly; the smile hadn't even fully faded from her lips, but her eyes were already filled with panic.

"Looking for me?"

The voice came from behind her.

Sakura Airi turned her head abruptly. Tanaka Yukishin was standing right in front of her, his school uniform sleeves rolled up to his elbows, a bit of wall dust on his exposed wrists.

"When did you get in front of me?"

Sakura Airi's eyes widened.

"I sped up and took a shortcut."

Tanaka Yukishin clapped his wrists together, dusting off the dirt.

"We hadn't confirmed how the other party was tracking you yet, so I couldn't let them discover I was protecting you, lest I alert the enemy."

His tone was calm, but his eyes kept scanning the surroundings.

"Now we can be sure—the problem lies with the camera."

"How many times has the digital camera in your hand changed hands?"

Only once.

"Only once, that was..."

Sakura Airi remembered the matter of the digital camera very clearly.

Ever since she bought it on the first day of school, she had carried it with her at all times, never letting it leave her side.

Until eight days ago...

Sakura Airi sat on her dormitory bed with her legs crossed, holding the silver-gray digital camera in both hands and turning it over repeatedly to inspect it.

Her fingertips gently brushed over every button on the side of the camera, and her brows furrowed involuntarily.

This machine, which had once been so familiar, seemed to have suddenly changed into something else.

She stared at the screen and tried once more to operate it according to her usual method, but the "click" of the shutter still stubbornly rang out.

"Ahhh--!"

She threw the camera onto the bed and fell backward onto the quilt, her long hair spreading out across the sheets.

She raised an arm to cover her eyes, her chest heaving noticeably with frustration.

A few minutes later, she slowly sat up, grabbed the camera to look at it carefully again, and unconsciously rubbed her fingertips over the power button.

"I really have to find someone to take a look at it."

She whispered to herself, her voice tinged with a hint of defeat.

After carefully placing the camera into her backpack, she tidied her slightly messy hair and took a deep breath before walking out of the dormitory.

Inside the electronics store on the shopping street, the cold air from the air conditioner made Sakura Airi shiver as soon as she entered.

She hunched her shoulders and scanned the store, finally letting her gaze rest on Yamamoto Ichiro, who was organizing the shelves behind the counter.

He was wearing a white shirt and tie underneath a red work uniform, and there was a slight stubble on both of his cheeks.