Yukinoshita's Correction Method

Yui Yuigahama pointed at her earphones. "Those are..."

Yukino Yukinoshita glanced at the earphones in her hand. "They're earphones."

"I know what earphones are!" Yui Yuigahama didn't even dare imagine what kind of image she had in Yukino Yukinoshita's mind. "I'm asking why you're wearing them."

Yukino Yukinoshita said, "To listen to music."

"I know they're for listening to music!" Yui Yuigahama puffed up her cheeks. "But why are you listening to music?"

Yukino Yukinoshita said, "They can eliminate the surrounding noise."

"That's not right!" Yui Yuigahama slapped the table in protest. "A study session isn't supposed to be like that."

Yukino Yukinoshita propped a hand against her chin and thought, clearly having once again been dragged into a blind spot in her knowledge by Yui Yuigahama. "...Then what is a study session supposed to be like?"

"Hmm..." Yui Yuigahama tilted her head and looked at Komachi Hikigaya. "What is a study session supposed to be like again?"

"There's not really any fixed process, right..." Komachi Hikigaya thought for a moment. "I guess everyone first decides the range of questions, figures out the parts they don't understand and studies them, and then..."

"Break time!" Once things reached this step, Yui Yuigahama was much more familiar with it. "After the break, you keep discussing, exchange the information you got, chat about interesting things that happened lately..."

"So a study session is going through the motions, then doing things other than studying." Yukino Yukinoshita understood. "I see. So that's why it's called a 'session'—a discussion activity that uses solving problems as an excuse while failing to solve any problems."

Yui Yuigahama and Komachi Hikigaya looked at each other, speechless for a moment.

"Um..." Yui Yuigahama finished the iced black tea in her glass through a straw, picked up the empty cup, stood up, and left as if fleeing. "I'm going to get a drink."

Yukino Yukinoshita turned her gaze to Komachi Hikigaya.

"Oh, right!" Komachi Hikigaya lowered her head and flipped through her book. "There's a question I don't know how to do. Can you take a look for me?"

"All right." Yukino Yukinoshita gave the question a quick scan, then began explaining it to Komachi Hikigaya.

She had only gotten halfway through when Yui Yuigahama came back.

Holding an empty cup.

Yukino Yukinoshita blinked. "A drink session?"

"What?" Yui Yuigahama froze for a moment, then shook her head. "It's not a drink session—I just saw someone who looks a lot like Dong Yunshan, right over there!"

Yukino Yukinoshita glanced in the direction Yui Yuigahama was pointing. "That is him."

"Really?" Komachi Hikigaya's gaze shifted slightly. "Then who's the woman beside him?"

"I thought it was just someone who looked like him." Yui Yuigahama snuck a careful look. "It really does seem to be Dong Yunshan."

Hearing her say that, Komachi Hikigaya also felt a little dazed. "He really is kind of hard to recognize. He feels completely different from when he's at school."

"Yeah..." Yui Yuigahama had never seen Dong Yunshan out of his school uniform either. "It feels like he deliberately chose clothes that look more mature. He looks like a college student—Yukinon, how did you recognize him at a glance?"

"His hands." Yukino Yukinoshita wrote the solution process in the notebook.

Komachi Hikigaya pressed in confusion, "What about his hands?"

"His hands are never still. He's always trying to spin something." Yukino Yukinoshita explained further. "Just now he spun his chopsticks for a while, seemed to think it wasn't very appropriate, then put them down."

Yui Yuigahama was full of admiration. "You can tell from just one movement... But there are plenty of people who can spin chopsticks, right?"

"His arms too," Yukino Yukinoshita added. "His fitness plan is a three-day split, divided into push, pull, and legs. Yesterday was his pull day, mainly training his back."

Komachi Hikigaya didn't understand. "And then?"

"After training his back, the angle between his arms and torso noticeably increases." Yukino Yukinoshita pushed the notebook she had finished writing in toward Komachi Hikigaya, then turned to look at Yui Yuigahama. "You didn't notice?"

"I wasn't looking that closely..." Yui Yuigahama's expression suddenly turned serious. "Since we've confirmed that's Dong Yunshan, we have to confirm who the woman beside him is!"

Yukino Yukinoshita continued reading her own book. "I can't hear any logic between those two things at all."

"Is she his older sister?" Komachi Hikigaya stared in Dong Yunshan's direction. "Or his aunt... She doesn't feel like an elder."

"There's no need to deliberately dress that mature just to eat with an elder, right..." Yui Yuigahama lightly bit her finger. "Could it be... he's on a date?"

"How can that be allowed!" Komachi Hikigaya declared righteously. "We have to..."

"Disrupt his date?" Yukino Yukinoshita raised her eyes. "You don't learn what you should, yet you're both full of enthusiasm for things you shouldn't meddle in."

"Why are you so calm about this?" Yui Yuigahama lowered her voice. "Dong Yunshan is on a date with an older woman."

"You should focus on studying logic." Yukino Yukinoshita shook her head helplessly. "School clubs do not have the authority to forbid club members from dating."

"But... um..." Yui Yuigahama only thought of a suitable reply after a long while. "What if... what if it affects your correction of him?"

"If he starts dating," Yukino Yukinoshita said, turning a page, "that means my correction method has taken effect."

Komachi Hikigaya looked suspiciously at the composed Yukino Yukinoshita and gradually realized something. "Don't tell me... you know what's going on?"

"It seems you won't start studying unless I explain it clearly." Yukino Yukinoshita sighed. "Dong Yunshan has other..."

Yui Yuigahama cut in, startled, "...women?"

"Activities." Yukino Yukinoshita shot Yui Yuigahama a sidelong glance. "When someone who needs help finds him, he provides help."

"An odd-jobs shop, huh." Komachi Hikigaya understood. "So the woman beside him is his client?"

"Ah!" Yui Yuigahama let out a low cry of surprise. "A rental boyfriend?"

"That makes sense now." Komachi Hikigaya nodded. "When Dong Yun said he had something to do before, it looks like he meant pretending to be that woman's boyfriend for a day."

"Can we start studying now?" Yukino Yukinoshita lightly tapped the table, signaling for the two of them not to forget the main purpose of today.

"Wait!" Yui Yuigahama's gaze suddenly sharpened. "Something's going on!"

"Something big!" Komachi Hikigaya chimed in.

Yukino Yukinoshita thought something had happened and glanced in Dong Yunshan's direction. "What is it?"

Dong Yunshan was clearly just talking to that woman.

"Didn't you notice?" Yui Yuigahama looked indignant. "That woman is talking while holding a spoon!"

Yukino Yukinoshita: "...And?"

"This is how a normal person holds a spoon." Yui Yuigahama picked up a spoon and demonstrated the motion of eating, her grip similar to how one held a pen. "And this is how she's doing it."

Curling four fingers around the spoon handle, Yui Yuigahama held the spoon upright just below her lips. "She's definitely trying to act cute!"

"I'm so focused on talking to you that I even forgot to put down my spoon—that's the message she's trying to send," Komachi Hikigaya explained further. "And the texture of the spoon can highlight how fair her skin is."

Yukino Yukinoshita: "?"

"Her hair is down, too." Yui Yuigahama stared at that woman as if she were looking at a sworn enemy. "And she's draped her clothes over her shoulders."

"She's even using a combo?" Komachi Hikigaya ground her little white teeth. "This woman is no simple opponent!"

Yukino Yukinoshita held her forehead. "...I really should focus on studying logic."

"Because it can slip off if you're not careful, draping a jacket over your shoulders can restrict your movements and improve your poise," Yui Yuigahama said, sounding perfectly reasonable. "Then, halfway through eating, she can take the jacket off, and her whole image will change in an instant, giving people that wow effect. I bet the clothes underneath are sleeveless and show her shoulders!"

"The hair follows the same process," Komachi Hikigaya said, as if seeing straight through the woman's little schemes from afar. "To keep her loose hair from touching the food, she'll need to sweep it to one side, and that'll instantly draw the attention of the person beside her. Once she's almost done eating, she can tie her hair up, and that's another change in image."

"...If you two put even a fraction of that effort into studying, you wouldn't have to worry about final exams." Yukino Yukinoshita sighed. "Let's assume everything you said is true. What does any of that have to do with you, who came here to study?"

"Don't you get it, Yukino?" Yui Yuigahama looked anxious. "Dong Yun might be eating with that woman to complete a request, but that woman's intentions definitely don't stop there!"

"It's a common plot in dramas." Komachi Hikigaya looked worried. "First they pretend to date, and then the act becomes real!"

"She showed Dong Yun her phone!" Yui Yuigahama discovered something new. "That's definitely the kind of move where she shows the other person scenery photos she took, then pretends to accidentally flip to a private photo of herself!"

Komachi Hikigaya lightly bit her lower lip.

This was bad.

Dong Yunshan was going to be taken down!

"Yukino!" Yui Yuigahama tugged at the corner of Yukino Yukinoshita's clothes. "Hurry up and think of something."

"What exactly am I supposed to think of?" Yukino Yukinoshita asked expressionlessly.

Yui Yuigahama picked up her empty cup and pretended to drink, her eyes still fixed on Dong Yunshan's direction. "A way to keep Dong Yun from getting tricked by a bad woman!"

Yukino Yukinoshita glanced at Dong Yunshan's expression. "What you said just now was only speculation. Leaving aside whether that woman has such intentions in the first place, even if she does, it won't have much effect on Dong Yun."

"She absolutely has intentions." Komachi Hikigaya narrowed her eyes. "That woman has started puffing out her cheeks while drinking. She's definitely pretending to be cute."

As she spoke, she picked up her own drink and started sipping through the straw.

Her cheeks puffed out.

Yukino Yukinoshita reminded her, "Would you like to look in a mirror?"

"Hm? I..." Komachi Hikigaya's round, puffed cheeks returned to normal. "I was thinking, okay~"

"She might be thinking too." Yukino Yukinoshita set her math book aside and began writing out vocabulary words from memory. "Pay attention to Dong Yun's expression. He isn't that easy to fool."

"Hm?" Komachi Hikigaya observed carefully. "Dong Yun looks so happy. Doesn't that mean he's already been fooled?"

"No..." Yui Yuigahama noticed something unusual. "That expression..."

Yukino Yukinoshita followed up on her words. "It's familiar."

"Exactly." Yui Yuigahama tilted her head, searching her memory. "When did I see it before...?"

"When you first came to the Service Club," Yukino Yukinoshita reminded her. "He had that exact expression back then."

"Gloating anticipation?" Yui Yuigahama remembered Dong Yunshan's overly eager reaction at the time.

That expression was like it was saying...

Did something unhappy happen to you? Tell me, so I can have some fun.

"New development!" Komachi Hikigaya dragged Yui Yuigahama into hiding to avoid being spotted by Dong Yunshan, who had stood up.

Yukino Yukinoshita had no intention of hiding at all. With a slight shift of her gaze, she saw the situation Komachi Hikigaya was talking about.

Another man and woman had arrived and sat down in front of Dong Yunshan and that woman.

After a few simple greetings, the woman introduced Dong Yunshan to the two who had arrived later.

Once the four of them sat down, they were much like the other diners around them, ordering some snacks and mainly chatting.

"So that's what it is." Seeing the two who had arrived later raise their hands and show the backs of them, Yui Yuigahama understood. "Those two women are probably close friends, and the woman who came later got engaged, so she wanted to treat her good friend to a meal and introduce them. The woman beside Dong Yun is still single, and to avoid the awkwardness, she found Dong Yun to pretend to be her boyfriend."

A classic TV-drama setup.

It was just that most of them were about dealing with parents. Renting a boyfriend to deal with a good friend was still pretty rare.

"Even if being single is kind of awkward, there's no need to rent a boyfriend just to deal with a friend..." Yui Yuigahama said, a little puzzled. "If she isn't a good friend, there's no need to put on an act. If she is a good friend, she'll figure it out really quickly."

"What if it's the other way around?" Komachi Hikigaya offered a new line of thought. "At first, she only wanted to rent a boyfriend and experience what it felt like to have one for a day. But after meeting him, she wanted to make the fake thing real, so she brought in her engaged friend as backup."

There was a happy couple right in front of her, and a beautiful woman beside her.

It was only natural that an impulse would surge up in her heart.

A lot of the time, that little impulse was all that was missing.

Yui Yuigahama looked indignant. "That's way too much. Dong Yunshan was trying to help, and she schemed against him like that."

"Let me remind you again that your guesses may not necessarily be true." Yukino Yukinoshita tapped the tip of her pen lightly against her notebook, her expression serious. "Also, we came here to study."

"R-right." Yui Yuigahama immediately started flipping through her book.

"Dong Yunshan shouldn't be that easy to fool..." Komachi Hikigaya saw the solution steps Yukino Yukinoshita had written out and thanked her repeatedly. After reading through them herself, she asked Yukino Yukinoshita about the parts she did not understand.

The three who had come to the study session finally began studying together.

They read for a while.

"It's starting," Yui Yuigahama lowered her voice.

Komachi Hikigaya stole a glance.

Sure enough, the woman beside Dong Yunshan took the coat draped over her shoulders and placed it on the back of her chair.

That revealed the sleeveless fitted layer underneath, her fair shoulders generously exposed.

Yui Yuigahama and Komachi Hikigaya exchanged a look, both wearing expressions that said, just as expected.

"Dong Yunshan won't be fooled, right..." Seeing the woman start tying up her hair, Yui Yuigahama grew a little worried.

"Dong Yunshan's reaction is pretty cold." Komachi Hikigaya kept glancing in Dong Yunshan's direction. "So far, he hasn't given much feedback at all. Not only does he not seem like a boyfriend, even by the standards of an ordinary friend, he's on the cold side."