The Toughest Disguise is Often Quietly Pried Open by the Tiniest Kindness

Night.

"What's the occasion for you to come running to my place?" Uesugi Hara sat at his desk reading a novel. He shifted his gaze from the page to glance at Kushida Kikyo, who was lying on his bed, his tone flat.

Kushida Kikyo sank into the soft bedding, her fingertips twirling a strand of hair that had fallen onto the pillow. Her voice carried a deliberately drawn-out languor: "It's obviously because it's most comfortable here at Uesugi-kun's place."

She turned on her side, watching his profile outlined by the desk lamp. "I'd go stir-crazy staying in my own room all the time, and besides—"

She trailed off, suddenly propping up her upper body and tapping her fingertips against the sheets. "Didn't Uesugi-kun say it? If I need to vent, I should come to you."

"Heh," Uesugi Hara's gaze returned to the page. He flipped it with a light touch, his tone carrying a cold, mocking edge. "Constantly maintaining useless social connections and acting as everyone's 'trash can'—it would be a miracle if you didn't drive yourself insane."

Kushida Kikyo's tapping fingers paused, and the strand of hair she had been twirling slipped away.

She didn't retort immediately; instead, she let out a low laugh and lay back down, her voice so soft it seemed pressed against the pillow. "But if I don't do that, what else can I do? I can't just shut everyone out like Uesugi-kun does."

She turned her face to stare at the ceiling, her fingertips unconsciously picking at the corner of the quilt. "Besides... being used as a 'trash can' at least means someone still needs me." Her voice trembled slightly, but she quickly covered it with a light, airy tone. "But it's different now. Now I'm here to be the one 'dumping the trash,' so Uesugi-kun better be ready to catch it."

Uesugi Hara's page-turning paused for half a second. He didn't look back, nor did he respond. His fingertip pressed a faint crease into the edge of the page. After a moment, he spoke faintly: "Dump away, just don't get my sheets dirty."

There was a rustling sound from under the quilt, as if Kushida Kikyo were curling up. "It's not that dramatic." Her voice drifted over from the pillow, muffled and aggrieved. "It's just that those idiots in class have been pestering me for ages, saying all sorts of nonsense... I didn't want to listen, but I had to keep smiling."

Uesugi Hara finally closed his book and rotated his neck. The light from the desk lamp hit the bed just right—Kushida Kikyo had buried her face in the pillow, leaving only a small, reddened earlobe visible.

He fell silent for a moment, reached out to grab a fruit candy from the corner of the desk, and tossed it toward the bed.

The candy wrapper made a soft sound as it hit the quilt. "Suck on it." He picked up his book again. "You're disturbing my reading."

Kushida Kikyo scrambled to fish the candy out from the quilt, turning the wrapper between her fingertips for a moment before slowly peeling it open. As the sweet scent of orange filled the air, she mumbled with the candy in her mouth, "Uesugi-kun really is a good person after all."

Uesugi Hara ignored her, and the sound of pages turning began again. Suddenly, she sat up, shoved her bare feet into her slippers, walked over to the desk, and leaned over to look at the book in his hands. "What are you reading? Let me see too."

He shifted his chair to the side, making room for her to stand. "A boring novel."

"It's not boring at all." She simply pulled up a chair and sat down, resting her elbows on the desk. "Anyway, I don't want to go back yet, so I'll just keep Uesugi-kun company until it's time to sleep."

As she spoke, her cheek, bulging with the candy, puffed out like a little squirrel that had stolen some honey.

"How have you been getting along with Airi lately?" Uesugi Hara asked out of the blue, his eyes still fixed on the page, his tone devoid of ripples.

"I never expected that the shy and introverted Airi was actually a gravure idol behind the scenes." Kushida Kikyo tapped her fingertips on the desk, her tone carrying a hint of surprised lightness.

"Is that so? It seems you two are getting along well." Uesugi Hara's fingertip paused on the edge of the page. He didn't look away from the text, his tone unreadable. "She was even willing to tell you that."

Kushida Kikyo twirled the half-eaten candy wrapper between her fingers and suddenly laughed. "Airi is very cute, after all. At first, she always avoided me, but once we got closer, she was willing to tell me in secret—though she made me promise repeatedly to keep it a secret."

She tilted her head to look at him. "How did Uesugi-kun know? Don't tell me Airi told you too?"

Uesugi Hara didn't answer her. He took out his terminal, swiped his finger across it, and turned the screen toward her. "A photo Airi took a few days ago. Take a look."

On the screen was a Polaroid—Airi was smiling with her head tilted, her hair slightly lifted by the breeze, holding half a piece of taiyaki she hadn't finished yet. Kushida Kikyo was leaning against her, their shoulders almost touching, her eyes curved into crescents, the corners of her mouth bright as if touched by light. The two of them were smiling with complete lack of guard, and even the fine lines at the corners of their eyes revealed genuine joy.

Kushida Kikyo stared at the photo, stunned. Her fingertip pressed lightly against the edge of the screen, her voice softening. "...We took this when we went to buy snacks last week."

She said it quietly, but she didn't show the look of disgust she usually did. She rubbed her fingertips against her hem, as if savoring the memory.

Uesugi Hara watched her and suddenly curled the corner of his mouth. "It seems my 'teaching' has had some effect."

He put down his book and walked to the window. "At least you should understand by now that you don't need to disguise yourself to treat people with sincerity—when Airi smiles at you, she isn't calculating whether you'll help her with something, nor is she thinking about what she can gain from you, is she?"

Kushida didn't speak. She put down the terminal and let her gaze fall on the cherry blossom bookmark at the corner of the desk. The light from the desk lamp shone from the side, making the petals on the bookmark translucent.

"From now on, you don't have to go out of your way to accommodate anyone," Uesugi Hara said suddenly. "If you want to see Airi, go yourself; if you don't want to, no one is forcing you."

She looked up abruptly. "Then, about what we discussed before..."

"Don't worry, I'll do what I promised." Uesugi Hara's voice grew thinner. "But looking at it now, watching how you get along with Airi is much more interesting than all that."

Kushida gripped the bookmark tightly, her fingertips touching the smooth paper. She stood up and walked toward the door. As she passed the wardrobe, she suddenly stopped. "The photo she took... it's not bad." She dropped this sentence and almost hurried out the door.

The moment the door closed, Uesugi Hara looked at the photo on the screen, his fingertips tapping a light rhythm on the window sill. The mystery novel on the corner of the desk was slightly stirred by the breeze, resting on the line: "The hardest disguises are often quietly pried open by the most trivial acts of kindness."

The soft sound of the door closing hadn't fully dissipated when the night breeze from outside stirred the half-open curtains, slipping into the room with a slight chill. The halo of the desk lamp cast the shadow of the book onto the floor, swaying gently as the wind pushed it. The fruit candy jar on the corner of the desk remained open, and the sweet scent of orange, mixed with the smell of printer ink from the pages, slowly dispersed into the quiet air.

Uesugi Hara raised his hand to pull the curtains shut, his fingertips brushing against the fine dust on the fabric—just like the bookmark Kushida had gripped earlier, like the emotions she hid behind the words "not bad." There were always tiny traces that couldn't be hidden.

He walked over, picked up the terminal, and sent a message to Airi: "Kushida said the photo you took is very cute."

A few seconds later, the terminal popped up a reply. It was a string of star emojis from Airi, followed by the sentence: "Then next time I take photos, I'll save one for her too!"