Asking for Help, the Campus Stalker

Haruka Hasebe: "Yuki, could you do me a favor?

My friend and I were out shopping, and I think someone's following us."

Yuki Gyakukai stared coldly at the message that had just popped up.

He immediately picked up his phone and replied:

"Head over to the karaoke place. I'll come find you right away."

After sending the message, he tapped Haruka Hasebe's profile picture, and a location screen appeared.

As long as two people had added each other as friends on their school-issued phones and neither had blocked location sharing, they could see each other's locations in real time.

It could be inconvenient at times, but now the benefit of the feature was clear.

"Everyone, something urgent came up. I have to take care of it now, so I'm heading out."

He quickly said goodbye to the group, threw on his coat, and hurried out.

Seeing how rushed Yuki Gyakukai was, no one tried to stop him.

"Come back soon, okay? This party wouldn't feel right without you at the center of it."

"Got it."

In the corner of the sofa, Himeno Yuki had already spent an hour or two feeling completely out of place.

Honestly, she'd wanted to leave ages ago. But when she saw Yuki Gyakukai getting ready to head out without hesitation, her eyes immediately lit up.

"Wait, Yuki, take me with you. I'm not feeling well either, so I might as well leave with you."

He glanced at Himeno Yuki as she followed him. He knew she was putting on her good-girl act, and she'd probably had enough of the atmosphere.

"Fine. Hurry up. I'm really in a rush."

"Coming."

The two of them opened the door and hurried out.

No one in the room found their departure strange.

Yuki Gyakukai had something urgent to deal with. As the class leader, he probably had plenty of things to take care of, so it made sense.

As for Himeno Yuki, she was famous in class for being frail and always acted quiet and reserved.

She'd left in the middle of several parties before because she wasn't feeling well.

Once they were out of the karaoke place, Yuki Gyakukai checked his phone, spotted the red dot marking Haruka Hasebe's location, and took off at a run.

"Hey, why are you running so fast?!"

As soon as Himeno Yuki got outside, she looked relieved. Since Yuki Gyakukai already knew her true colors, she stopped pretending around him.

Her voice and movements both became much more natural, and she started running alongside him.

Her stride was fluid, nothing like the level of athleticism she usually showed.

She was already more capable than most of the girls in class, though she still couldn't match Minami Kosho, the class's star athlete.

But based on what she'd shown so far, she was already one of the class's stronger students.

"Hurry up and keep up. You put on that good-girl act in front of your classmates, so why bother with me?"

Himeno Yuki, who was giving it everything she had to catch up, couldn't help feeling exasperated.

"Do you think everyone's built like a monster like you?

Even if I stop acting like a good girl, I'm still not as fit as you. I'm doing pretty well just to keep up!"

Even as she said that, she gritted her teeth and kept chasing after him.

Wait, what was she even doing here?

Hadn't she just wanted to get out of the party and go home?

Ugh, whatever. Since she'd been dragged along, she might as well find out what was going on.

Brushing aside her thoughts, Himeno Yuki clenched her teeth, fixed her eyes on the figure already some distance ahead, and sprinted with all her strength.

At last, after running for more than three minutes, she finally slowed to a stop.

But when she saw that Yuki Gyakukai had hurried over for two pretty girls, Himeno Yuki's lungs felt ready to burst. She was so furious she nearly fainted on the spot.

She braced both hands on her knees, bent over, and panted nonstop.

Large beads of sweat ran down her forehead and cheeks, then dripped from her chin.

She'd been putting on her good-girl act so often lately that she hadn't exercised much, and she was a little short of breath.

Of course, that was only part of it. More importantly, what kind of normal person ran like Yuki Gyakukai? He was already going that fast, and he kept speeding up.

Was he even human?

Forcing herself to stay upright despite nearly passing out, she staggered a few steps and leaned against Yuki Gyakukai's back.

At the same time, she stared hard at the woman across from them. She held her phone in one hand, the screen showing her call with Tomie.

She showed Yuki Gyakukai the screen, her eyes practically saying:

If you don't give me a good explanation, I'll tell Tomie about this right now.

But when Haruka Hasebe and Airi Sakura saw Yuki Gyakukai, they didn't pay any attention to the girl leaning against him from behind.

Their eyes lit up with joy. They hadn't expected him to arrive just minutes after they'd sent the message.

In an instant, their worry and fear vanished, replaced by an overwhelming sense of relief and delight.

They quickened their steps, breaking into a run.

Haruka Hasebe casually linked one arm through Yuki Gyakukai's and patted her chest with lingering fear.

"Little Tree, thank goodness you came. Airi and I were scared to death by that stalker."

Airi Sakura, a little embarrassed, nodded emphatically. The fear still hadn't left her face.

"A stalker?!" Himeno Yuki, who'd caught her breath a little, stared at the two of them in shock at the familiar word.

"Why would there be a stalker at this closed-off school?!

And if you spotted a stalker, shouldn't you tell a teacher or one of the school security guards?"

As she spoke, Himeno Yuki looked at the two of them with open distrust.

She immediately raised her phone to show them her call history with Tomie.

"I'm warning you, don't try anything funny. Also, what did you mean by 'Little Tree'? Is that Yuki's nickname?"

Airi Sakura waved her hands in a fluster.

"No... that's not it. Jiajia and I really did run into a stalker. I think Jiajia just gave Yuki that nickname."

Himeno Yuki remained skeptical.

"Then where's the stalker?"

Thump!

"Ow—! Yuki, why'd you suddenly hit me on the head?!"

Yuki Gyakukai didn't answer. He planted all five fingers on Himeno Yuki's little head and pointed in a direction.

"See over there? That's probably the guy Haruka and the others were talking about."

At the sight of him, Airi Sakura quickly slipped behind Haruka Hasebe.

Haruka pointed at the man's back and exclaimed:

"That's him! He wore a mask and followed us the whole way!"

Himeno Yuki saw the man too, but unfortunately, the stalker seemed to have realized he'd been spotted.

Or maybe he'd seen Yuki Gyakukai and Himeno Yuki and was now turning to leave in a hurry.

"At this distance, we probably can't catch him."

"Maybe... we should report it to a teacher."

Airi Sakura looked frightened.

"Our Class A has already checked that area. There are no cameras, so there's no way to investigate.

That stalker probably knew that, which is why he dared to follow you so brazenly."

In other words, telling a teacher would treat the symptoms, not the cause.

Haruka was frightened too, clinging tightly to Yuki's arm.

"What do we do? Airi and I don't have any other friends in Class D..."

Himeno Yuki watched as Haruka clung to Yuki Gyakukai's arm.

She could understand Haruka's thinking and actions to some extent, but not entirely.

Yuki Gyakukai gently reassured them before looking in the direction the stalker had gone.

"It's fine. We'll find a way to track him down."

"Um... I think... I know who that stalker is."