Inside the school building
The sound of footsteps came closer and closer.
Two figures appeared at the top of the stairs. They were none other than Yuki Gyakukai and Tomie Hanyu, who had come to this school.
They walked one behind the other. Their steps were out of sync, but the sound of their shoes striking the floor wasn't chaotic; it rang out like a melody.
"Do we really have to run so fast? We'll be spending the next three years here, after all." The girl's voice was sweet and gentle, and a mischievous smile appeared on her fair little face.
[Tomie - image]
Tomie Hanyu looked at the guy in front of her, who was holding her hand but wouldn't even turn around, and felt rather pleased with herself.
Feeling the warmth of his broad palm, she couldn't hide the delight in her eyes. As expected, no one can resist my charm.
She took a big stride and quickly caught up to Yuki Gyakukai, then hooked her arm around his, the one hidden beneath his uniform.
Looking at Tomie Hanyu, whose head only came up to his shoulder, Yuki Gyakukai felt a headache coming on.
"Do you think all this is happening because of anyone else, my dear fiancée?"
"As a ghost story, you should know better. I don't want you disrupting my peaceful school life."
Looking at the man whose eyes were fixed on her, Tomie Hanyu furrowed her brows, somewhat displeased by his lecture, and gave a soft snort.
Damn that jerk. As a live-in son-in-law, he should at least act like one!
Wasn't protecting his adorable fiancée exactly what he was supposed to do?
That's it!
She absolutely wouldn't say another word to him before tonight.
But the very next moment, just as Tomie had decided not to respond to Yuki Gyakukai anymore, he said, "So from now on, make sure you bring me along whenever you go out. Got it? It's a hassle, but I'm your fiancé, after all."
"Is that your way of showing you care about me?" Her eyes brightened almost imperceptibly.
"No such thing. I'm worried I'll be taking a whole bunch of Tomies home after graduation."
Tomie was a rather terrifying creature. As long as even the tiniest bit of her biological tissue remained in the world, it would turn into a new Tomie.
The Tomie family had used that trick more than once to catch members of rival families off guard and kill them.
"Hah? You're just as selfish as ever, you jerk!"
She immediately stopped paying attention to Yuki Gyakukai and sulked on her own.
Looking at his fiancée like that, he could only find it a little amusing.
She was clearly gritting her teeth so hard they were grinding, her pretty brows knitted into a frown, yet she still forced a strained smile.
Tomie was just as tsundere as ever.
The two fiancés walked quietly along the indoor corridor, chatting about this and that.
As if something had just occurred to him, Yuki Gyakukai stopped, turned around, and stared straight into his fiancée's eyes.
"By the way, I originally wanted to go to Suzuran or Fuurin. Why did you drag me to this school?"
Tomie said nothing, only smiling at the detestable man in front of her.
What could she say?
She couldn't exactly tell him outright that she'd chosen this school because students couldn't contact the outside world for three years, giving her a chance to be alone with him.
Wouldn't that make Tomie Hanyu seem way too tsundere?
Everyone knew that being tsundere was the same as being a loser.
She, Tomie Hanyu, would never be a loser. That jerk would absolutely fall at her feet!
Soon, the two of them arrived at the Year One, Class B classroom.
Perhaps because they had arrived early, only a handful of people were in the classroom.
They seemed rather shy, with most of them sitting in their seats.
But judging by the way they kept looking around, they seemed eager to talk to others—or, more accurately, to find people like themselves.
When students in Japan entered an unfamiliar environment, they had to find people with similar interests to fit in.
The purpose was to establish their place in a group and make sure they wouldn't be ostracized.
After all, not fitting in meant being unpopular, and there was a high chance the group would reject you, leaving you on the fringes of the class. Worse still, you might even get bullied.
If you didn't fit in from the start, spending three years at this school would be a truly terrifying prospect.
Once inside, Yuki Gyakukai quickly scanned the room. Disappointingly, he didn't see the golden-pink-haired archangel he remembered, the one with a clearly defined point in his memories.
But he was only disappointed for a moment. She was in Class B, after all, so he'd meet her soon enough.
"Ow!"
A sharp pain shot through his waist. Feeling that familiar pinch, he couldn't help sucking in a breath.
"What are you looking at? Your adorable fiancée is right beside you, yet you're staring at other women. How rude!"
Tomie put extra emphasis on the word "fiancée," her cold gaze sweeping over the others in the Class B classroom.
The commotion at the door caught everyone's attention. They turned and saw a pair standing in the doorway, radiating both good looks and charm... A couple?
Judging by how close they were, they had to be a couple, right?
Otherwise, there was no way two people could be so familiar with each other on the first day of school.
Everyone in the classroom, both boys and girls, was drawn to Tomie Hanyu and Yuki Gyakukai as they walked in.
The sound of people swallowing rang out again and again.
'Whoa! Why am I having such indecent thoughts?!'
'That one... Tomie Hanyu? She's so beautiful. Her exquisite features, straight black hair, tiny, cute ears, and hands, so lovely and slender they're like willow branches—this is completely unfair!'
'I kind of want to cut off those hands and keep them. What do I do... No, why would I think something like that?! But I like them so much!'
Under everyone's gaze, the two of them found their seats.
By coincidence, they sat beside each other, and their seats were in the back row.
"All right, we've found our seats. Tomie, stay here and secure your queenly status. I'll go check things out." Yuki Gyakukai sat by the window in the back row, looking out at the crowd.
"Is it really okay to leave me alone in the classroom?" As she spoke, her eyes flicked toward the heated gazes around them.
He clicked his tongue twice and gave Tomie, who was pretending to look pitiful, a mildly exasperated look. Then he put his free hand on her head and ruffled her hair.
"They don't know you, but I do. You could take on everyone in this classroom by yourself. And with your incredible charm, you could turn them against each other in just a few words."
"By the time they're done fighting, they might not even get close enough to touch your toenails."
"All right, stay here and be good. This weird school must have plenty of strange rules. I'll go check things out."
Watching Yuki Gyakukai walk away, the furious Tomie swung her tiny pink fists at his back. Her once-smooth black hair was now a tangled mess.
"What an insensitive guy... I wasted all those flirtatious glances on a dog..."
Once the footsteps in the hallway outside had gradually faded, the students in Class B, who had seemed rather inactive before, got to their feet one after another and gathered around Tomie Hanyu as she fixed her hair.
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