Yukinoshita's Correction Method

"I never ordered you to do that. You called out on your own." Yukino Yukinoshita gave a cold snort. "And you sounded so... happy."

"Right, right, of course a gentle, upright little Yukinoshita could never have deliberately guided me into it." Dong Yunshan flicked his finger, and the cat-ear headband spun on his fingertip. "Little Yukinoshita absolutely had no intention of misleading me. Even if she did, she'd admit it openly. And then... return one meow to me."

The next moment, the cat-ear headband spinning on Dong Yunshan's fingertip landed in Yukino Yukinoshita's hand.

"...Awful." Glaring viciously at Dong Yunshan, Yukino Yukinoshita put on the cat-ear headband with practiced ease. "Meow!"

It was as if a little kitten nestled beside its mother had heard its mother bring up the embarrassing story of how it had once gotten lost because it was too greedy for food, and was loudly protesting in shame and anger.

Yukino Yukinoshita's meow was, as always, full of emotion and expression.

It even connected with the earlier plot.

Dong Yunshan had never imagined there would be a sequel.

The bell rang for the end of school. Yukino Yukinoshita yanked off the cat-ear headband, stuffed it into her bag, and walked out without looking back.

The little kitten had run away from home.

Dong Yunshan let out a long breath of relief. Going head-to-head with Yukino Yukinoshita really was mentally exhausting.

"Dong Yun." Yui Yuigahama waved her phone. "The photo... should I delete it?"

"Of course you should..." Dong Yunshan stopped halfway when he saw the image on the phone screen. "Keep it. This is evidence."

In the photo, he had hooked his finger around Yukino Yukinoshita's, his smile confident and his spirit high.

Paired with the cat-ear headband on his head, it carried a kind of inexperienced... clear-eyed stupidity.

Dong Yunshan was looking at the camera, and she was looking at him.

With her finger hooked around his, Yukino Yukinoshita's face was slightly tilted up.

Leaping from the corner of her eye to the tip of her brow... was an unconcealable smile.

Volume Two: Club Activities: Startlingly Unconventional

"Tanaka, the photographer from the Film Research Club, happened to capture a prop being blown out the window by the wind. In a flash of inspiration, he became absorbed in scriptwriting and couldn't stop himself. His brand-new work—The Disappeared Girl—is currently in preparation, so please look forward to it." Shizuka Hiratsuka put down the school newspaper, leaned forward slightly with a cigarette between her lips, and said, "Nicely done."

"It was Yukinoshita's achievement." Dong Yunshan lit Shizuka Hiratsuka's cigarette with practiced ease. "The school paper reports on this kind of thing too?"

"It was a haunting incident, after all. If the school came out to dispel the rumors, it would only have the opposite effect. Solving it like this was the best possible outcome." Shizuka Hiratsuka took a shallow drag and narrowed her eyes amid the spreading smoke. "From the sound of that, you lost this time?"

"Victory and defeat are common for soldiers." Dong Yunshan flicked his finger, and the lighter began to spin. "If I can handle winning, naturally I have to handle losing too."

"I was even thinking of giving you some guidance, but it looks like there's no need." Shizuka Hiratsuka looked him up and down. "And from your state, you don't look like you came here asking for a hug."

"I don't want to rub myself all over with the smell of smoke."

"You little brat!" Shizuka Hiratsuka glared at him. "At a time like this, even if you're pretending, you should at least pretend to look a little expectant, right?"

"Wow~ I really want to rub myself all over with the smell of smoke~"

"...I'm telling your mom right now." Shizuka Hiratsuka took out her phone. "I'll say you want to hug me."

"And then she'll tell you to call her Mom." Dong Yunshan flicked his finger, sending the spinning lighter flying upward, then caught it casually and placed it on the table. "It's not like you don't know what her personality is like."

"Damn it..." Shizuka Hiratsuka put down her phone in misery. "Our personalities are clearly about the same, so why..."

Dong Yunshan couldn't bear to watch and looked away. "How about I give you some guidance instead..."

"No need." Shizuka Hiratsuka grumbled twice, then recovered on her own. "What are you actually here for?"

"After coming into contact with too many minors, I feel like I've become a little childish." Dong Yunshan sat up straight, rolled his shoulders and neck, then slumped back onto the sofa. "So I thought I'd come into contact with a reliable adult."

"You say that as if you're already an adult." Shizuka Hiratsuka still couldn't get used to Dong Yunshan saying things like this with such a young face. The dissonance was too strong. "So how do you feel now?"

Dong Yunshan said, "I feel like I came to the wrong person."

"You little brat!" Shizuka Hiratsuka was about to bite him.

Dong Yunshan smiled. "After all, Sensei is still young."

"Hmph~" Shizuka Hiratsuka smoothed back her hair. "At least you have good taste."

"I'm acting spoiled, you know."

"Hm?" Shizuka Hiratsuka froze. "What?"

"This is a child's privilege." Dong Yunshan pointed at his own face. "Adults don't hold things against children, so kids can say whatever they want."

Shizuka Hiratsuka nodded. "That's true."

"But the underlying logic that forms that perception is adults' disregard for children." Dong Yunshan lowered his eyes slightly. "What do children know? Since when do kids have backs that hurt? Since when do kids have pride? Since when do kids have privacy? What do kids know about life and death... People often say things like that."

"Exactly!" Shizuka Hiratsuka slapped her thigh. "I've heard plenty of that too."

"Is... is that how it is? So that's what it was..." Shizuka Hiratsuka's gaze drifted. "I've never experienced it at all, so I never knew... Ahahahahaha!"

Just look at how guilty she looked.

"I'm not trying to imply anything about you, Sensei. What I mean is, behind these seemingly incomprehensible behaviors, there's an internal logic to them." Dong Yunshan raised his eyes. "For example, Yukinoshita's personality issues."

"Wait!" Shizuka Hiratsuka finally realized the key point of what Dong Yunshan had said. "Are you saying Yukinoshita acted spoiled with you?"

Dong Yunshan nodded calmly.

"Mm... well..." Shizuka Hiratsuka scratched her hair. "How should I put this..."

"Excessive self-consciousness, being full of myself, fantasizing that pretty girls like me the moment I see them, already thinking up names for our future children just because they said hello, peculiar fetishes, spiritual victory method..." Dong Yunshan listed them off like he was reciting dishes on a menu. "That should be about it. Sensei, you don't need to worry that your words are too cutting."

"That wasn't what I meant..." Shizuka Hiratsuka sighed and lit a cigarette. "All right, maybe a little—but are you sure this really isn't just your imagination?"

"I wish it were my imagination. That would actually make things simpler." Dong Yunshan let out a long breath. "Then it would mean Yukinoshita was just a nasty, sharp-tongued, venomous, rude little brat who took pleasure in tearing others down. As long as I disciplined her enough, was a little more ruthless, a little more heavy-handed, I could straighten her out sooner or later without feeling bad at all."

Shizuka Hiratsuka realized the severity of the problem. "But if it isn't your imagination..."

"Then it means she's a child who's been severely neglected." Dong Yunshan lifted his head and looked at the ceiling. "So severely that... she doesn't even know what acting spoiled is."

Shizuka Hiratsuka finally understood why Dong Yunshan had come here.

He had come to confirm something he had already confirmed long ago.

It was something Shizuka Hiratsuka had told him before.

"Yukinoshita... is a very gentle child." Shizuka Hiratsuka repeated it seriously. "I'm certain of that."

"You really handed me one hell of a job..." Dong Yunshan couldn't help letting out a long sigh.

"Then..." Shizuka Hiratsuka set down her cigarette. "Will you give up? If you want to give up, there's still time now."

"Sensei, did you know? So-called growing up is the process of reconciling with yourself." Dong Yunshan picked up the still-burning cigarette and gave it a light shake, watching the smoke curl upward. "Recognizing that your abilities are limited, realizing that what you can do is limited. Facing and accepting your own incompetence, rationally allocating your time, tolerating your own avoidance—that's what it means to be an adult."

Just like the cigarette in front of him now. He had once tried hard to quit many times, but every attempt had ended in failure.

Shizuka Hiratsuka closed her eyes. "...I understand."

"No, Sensei, you don't fully understand yet." Dong Yunshan stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray. "Adults should face and accept their own incompetence, rationally allocate their time, and tolerate their own avoidance—but I'm still young."

"Difficulties?" Yukino Yukinoshita shook her head, and the teacup she set down made a light tap on the coffee table. "I think you've misunderstood, Sensei. I didn't come here to ask for help."

"Huh?" Shizuka Hiratsuka froze.

So these two weren't going to introduce themselves by holding up mirrors from afar this time?

"I came to tell you that the correction is progressing smoothly." Yukino Yukinoshita sat with perfect posture, her hands folded in her lap. "It simply still requires some time."

"From the sound of that..." Shizuka Hiratsuka raised an eyebrow. "You've already found his problem and come up with a suitable solution?"

"'Only children care about right and wrong. Adults just muddle through.'" Yukino Yukinoshita repeated what Dong Yunshan had said. "What do you think, Sensei?"

"It's a little depressing..." Shizuka Hiratsuka spread her hands. "So-called growing up is the process of reconciling with yourself. Recognizing that your abilities are limited, realizing that what you can do is limited. Facing and accepting your own incompetence, rationally allocating your time, tolerating your own avoidance—that's basically what being an adult is."

"Hm?" Yukino Yukinoshita tilted her head in surprise.

Shizuka Hiratsuka felt inexplicably guilty. "What is it?"

Yukino Yukinoshita picked up her teacup. "I'm simply a little surprised to hear you say something like that, Sensei. I always thought only your age made you seem like an adult."

Shizuka Hiratsuka protested, "My age is the one thing that doesn't!"

"That feels more right." Yukino Yukinoshita nodded in satisfaction. "Back to the topic just now. What you said was very good, Sensei. Adults like that do indeed exist. But does being able to do those things make someone an adult? And if they can't do those things, are they not an adult?"

"Uh... mm..." Shizuka Hiratsuka realized it belatedly.

Right. Why hadn't she asked Dong Yunshan that question before?

"If we elevate it to the level of a thought experiment," Yukino Yukinoshita said, changing her wording, "and place a child's soul inside an adult's body, is that person an adult or a child? If we place an adult's soul inside a child's body, then what?"

"This..." Shizuka Hiratsuka was a little dizzy from being led in circles, but she quickly reacted. "Isn't that just childishness and precociousness?"

"Exactly." Yukino Yukinoshita lifted her eyes through the steam rising from the hot tea. "It's that simple."

"This... seems a little too simple." Shizuka Hiratsuka gulped down some tea to organize her thoughts. "I feel like Dong Yun's problem is much more complicated than that."

"Because his precociousness was too successful." Yukino Yukinoshita set down her teacup and refilled Shizuka Hiratsuka's tea. "You said before, Sensei, that he was already living on his own in middle school."

"Mm. What about it?"

"What was the reason?"

"What reason could there be? He wanted to move out, and he was capable of taking care of himself, so he lived alone."

"When he was little, he was very sensible. He took the initiative to share housework with his father and developed the ability to live independently very early. But that ability had no chance to be displayed at home, so he had to leave home to prove that he possessed it." Yukino Yukinoshita paused. "But that still wasn't enough. He also had to prove his social ability, so he made many friends and even helped others make friends. Of course, his grades were good too—is that about right?"

"That really is..." Although Shizuka Hiratsuka did not know that much about Dong Yunshan, when she occasionally met up with her friend, she had still heard plenty of praise for him.

At the time, she had simply taken it as a good friend's mom filter and had not paid it much mind.

Now that she heard Yukino Yukinoshita put it this way, and matched it with her memories, it really was more or less exactly right.

"He has always been doing things his peers couldn't do, and he has always been succeeding. From family to school, the next step would naturally be society—and that's where the problem lies." Yukino Yukinoshita rested her bent index finger against her lips. "Whether in terms of mentality or ability, he is more than ready to enter society, but his body is still that of a minor. That means he can't obtain recognition from adults in society, so..."

Following Yukino Yukinoshita's train of thought, Shizuka Hiratsuka immediately saw the light. "He gains recognition by helping others—but why does he want recognition so badly?"

"This is the process by which he verifies his own abilities." Yukino Yukinoshita explained in detail. "How does he verify whether he truly has the ability to live independently? By actually leaving home and living alone. How does he verify whether he has the ability to adapt to campus life? Excellent grades, plus good interpersonal relationships. How does he verify whether he has the ability to adapt to society? By solving problems adults cannot solve and obtaining adults' recognition."

"That's pretty practical..." Having seen far too many students who aimed high but achieved little, the sudden appearance of a Dong Yunshan who honestly verified his own abilities like this made Shizuka Hiratsuka genuinely a little unused to it. "Isn't that quite good? Why would it..."

"Sensei," Yukino Yukinoshita stared into Shizuka Hiratsuka's eyes, "have you ever gambled?"

"Well..." Shizuka Hiratsuka looked away. "I'm a teacher... a model for others..."

Yukino Yukinoshita paid no attention to Shizuka Hiratsuka's subtle expression. "If one day you kept winning, what would your first reaction be?"

"Pinch myself... Ah!" Shizuka Hiratsuka remembered that thick stack of medical records. "He pinched way too hard."

"On one hand, he was using pain to keep himself clearheaded; on the other, he was testing his body's limits. Once he'd confirmed he wasn't so strong that he could tank cars, barbells, or switchblades head-on, he stopped. Then, as I said before, that testing, verification, and confirmation progressed to the mental level." Yukino Yukinoshita mimicked Dong Yunshan's movement and tapped her temple. "His constant success left his mind in a perpetual state of daze and unease, so when he saw other people trapped in difficult situations, he was genuinely happy, like someone lost in a dense forest suddenly spotting another living person."

"Your explanation is very reasonable..." Shizuka Hiratsuka admitted, "but that's still a little too twisted."

"Consecutive victories do lead to problems like this. If someone around his age could suppress him, then his condition should..." Yukino Yukinoshita suddenly stopped and lightly shook her head. "Excessive suppression wouldn't work either. He needs to experience failure in just the right measure, feel pain in just the right measure, and be given reality in just the right measure. Only then can he truly become an adult, rather than playing the role of one."

"So he needs to touch his own limits?" Shizuka Hiratsuka understood. "That won't be easy."

"As long as he agrees to my second command, it will be very easy." The corners of Yukino Yukinoshita's mouth lifted. "And he has already agreed."

P.S. Happy New Year's Day!

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Volume Three: Finals and Spring Break: Reasonable and Well-Founded

Whoosh~

Hearing the sound of the kettle, Yukino Yukinoshita carefully tucked in her bookmark, stood, and walked toward it.

Hot water poured into the glass teapot. The tea leaves slowly churned upward, then quietly sank back to the bottom.

On the long table in the Service Club's clubroom sat Yukino Yukinoshita's teacup and saucer, the snacks Yui Yuigahama had brought, a mug printed with a picture of a lazy-looking puppy, and a white enamel cup.

Yukino Yukinoshita poured tea into the three cups, tipped the remaining black tea into a ceramic teapot, put on the lid to keep it warm, then returned to her seat and sat down.

Yui Yuigahama, who had been fiddling with her phone, also picked up her mug.