Yukinoshita's Correction Method

Yukino Yukinoshita, who had been holding forth so eloquently just moments ago, went silent like a kitten pinched by the scruff of the neck.

"Silence?" Dong Yunshan shook his head. "Fine. For someone who only talks strategy on paper, being honest and not lying counts as a virtue."

Yukino Yukinoshita's fair cheeks puffed out slightly.

"Isn't this perfect?" Shizuka Hiratsuka finally found her chance to speak. "Neither of you acknowledges the other's Service Club activities, so use your own methods to save the lost lambs and prove yourselves right! I'll judge this battle for the Service Club. First, absolutely no acting out of emotion. Second, absolutely no overlooking any wrongdoing..."

"I refuse," Yukino Yukinoshita said flatly.

"I wasn't finished..." Shizuka Hiratsuka bit her thumbnail in frustration. "Damn it... So [GUNDAM Fight Ready Go!] really is more concise?"

"Changing it to [Medabots, battle!] won't help," Dong Yunshan reminded her. "And it really gives away your age."

"Sensei, please stop behaving in a way that doesn't suit your age," Yukino Yukinoshita added. "It looks very unbecoming."

"A-Anyway!" Shizuka Hiratsuka flushed bright red and forced out an unreasonable declaration. "If I tell you to compete, then you compete! You are not allowed to gang up on me—prove your respective justice through action!"

Dong Yunshan felt like Shizuka Hiratsuka and Yukino Yukinoshita's roles had somehow been reversed.

"I refuse." Yukino Yukinoshita shot Dong Yunshan a sideways glance. "My justice does not need to be proven to others."

"I have no interest in taking part in such an unfair contest." Dong Yunshan pointed out the key issue. "Her actions are limited to eloquent talk. When it comes to practical action, I have far more experience than she does."

The strongest king beating up the king of running his mouth was no different from smurfing.

"Now that you mention it, Yukinoshita really doesn't have much hope of winning..." Shizuka Hiratsuka heaved an exaggerated sigh. "Then let's forget it."

"Although I disdain accepting such a boring provocation," Yukino Yukinoshita said, her icy gaze almost vicious, "to prevent these ridiculous Service Club activities from affecting even more people, I suppose I'll dispose of you in passing."

"So that means you agree?" Dong Yunshan raised one eyebrow. "Then I con—"

"No conceding!" Shizuka Hiratsuka saw through Dong Yunshan's intention. "Additional clause: the winner is king and may order the loser around however they please!"

Dong Yunshan's gaze fell on Yukino Yukinoshita's glistening lips, and his smile gradually turned wicked.

Yukino Yukinoshita warily took a step back and covered her mouth. "What are you planning to do?"

"If I win, I can make you keep your mouth shut." Dong Yunshan was suddenly full of interest. "Just imagining you with a bellyful of lofty arguments yet forced to remain silent makes this victory, which would otherwise be so easy as to be boring, seem a bit more delightfully entertaining."

"Though I wouldn't call it interesting," Yukino Yukinoshita said, her eyes narrowing dangerously, "turning you into an immobile stone statue would at least count as ridding the world of evil."

"Then it's happily decided!" As if afraid the two of them would go back on their word, Shizuka Hiratsuka announced loudly, "I'll decide the outcome. My subjectivity and prejudice will be the standard. I'll absolutely judge this fairly and beautifully!"

"Your own statement runs completely counter to Captain Dragonfly's lines." Dong Yunshan waved his phone. "But in that case, as long as one of the two of us is in the Service Club, that's fine, right?"

Shizuka Hiratsuka grabbed Dong Yunshan's arm. "Trying to run right after the match starts?"

"I won't leave school," Dong Yunshan explained. "A friend has something to discuss with me. I'm going to return a call."

Shizuka Hiratsuka snorted softly and let go. "That's more like it."

Dong Yunshan left the clubroom. Inside the clubroom, Yukino Yukinoshita pulled out a chair and sat down, took a book from her schoolbag, and opened it. "Now Sensei should be satisfied."

Shizuka Hiratsuka: "Hm?"

"Handing the Service Club over to him was to keep him at school." As Yukino Yukinoshita spoke, she turned the pages. "That means his problem has already become urgent, yet he has no awareness of it at all. Instead, he believes he is correct."

"Ah... mm." Shizuka Hiratsuka nodded hard. "Yes, exactly—that's it. I didn't expect you to notice so quickly."

"Habitual formalism and reflexive escapism, expressed as conscious overpreparation and unconscious shirking of responsibility." Yukino Yukinoshita summarized it concisely. "Sensei must have encountered many people like that. Whenever their superiors assign them a task, they always begin preparing immediately, but when they're truly needed, they're nowhere to be found."

"He's acting like a seasoned old hand despite being so young..." Shizuka Hiratsuka thought back carefully. "But I didn't feel he was that annoying."

"Because he is trying to correct himself. When I questioned him, he immediately reflected on his formal error. After I made my stance clear, he actively fought back." Yukino Yukinoshita raised her head. "He is trying to save himself, he simply lacks the proper method. That is why I went along with Sensei's crude provocation and helped him complete his self-correction."

"Then good." Shizuka Hiratsuka smiled in farewell. "I'll leave the rest to you~"

After leaving the Service Club, Shizuka Hiratsuka was walking through the courtyard when she happened to run into Dong Yunshan, who had just finished his call.

"The very first request is this big of a project," Dong Yunshan said, putting away his phone in accusation. "You trust my comprehension ability way too much."

Shizuka Hiratsuka: "Hm?"

"No matter what club she wanted to establish because of what you said, I would become that club's president." Dong Yunshan recalled Yukino Yukinoshita's icy smile and condescending attitude. "After all, a perfectionist with such a high opinion of herself won't seek treatment on her own. You can only manufacture conflict artificially, then use crude provocation to stir up her competitive spirit and complete the correction through a duel."

"Ah... mm." Shizuka Hiratsuka nodded hard. "Yes, exactly—that's it. I thought you hadn't noticed."

"When I was being suppressed, you said nothing. The moment she fell into a disadvantage, you started favoring one side. Your inclination was already obvious. Then considering that you wouldn't overturn your own request, the answer became even clearer." Dong Yunshan wore an expression of perfect understanding. "It's like adults coaxing a child into getting a shot. As the doctor, of course I have to cooperate with the parent's performance."

This was the tacit understanding between adults.

"Even high schoolers need coaxing..." Shizuka Hiratsuka patted Dong Yunshan on the shoulder. "Then I'll leave the rest to you."

Dong Yunshan waved and walked toward the Service Club.

"Crude provocation?" Shizuka Hiratsuka lowered her head and lit a cigarette, gazing at his back with a meaningful smile. "Crude doesn't mean ineffective."

First Meeting in Freshman Year: Competitive

Dong Yunshan pulled open the clubroom door, and what entered his sight was a girl on a steel pole.

The girl who had been so overbearing and full of lofty talk earlier now had both hands gripping the steel pole, her body curled up with difficulty as she tried to lift her feet off the floor.

Then, the instant their eyes met, Yukino Yukinoshita's face—which had already flushed from the effort of maintaining her posture—bloomed with an embarrassed, angry red, like white snow soaked through by the light of the rising sun.

Thud!

In her panic, the strength left her hands, and Yukino Yukinoshita landed solidly on her backside.

The ice and snow in the girl's eyes seemed to have shattered and melted, turning into a glittering sheen.

"..." Yukino Yukinoshita bit her lip, used the steel pole to pull herself up, straightened her skirt as if nothing had happened, then glared viciously at Dong Yunshan. "Do you really need someone to remind you over and over to knock before entering!"

"Pfft!" Dong Yunshan very shamelessly burst out laughing.

The chill bursting from Yukino Yukinoshita's eyes seemed almost sharp enough to pierce Dong Yunshan's skull. "After everything awful I said earlier, you actually still dared to come back... Even if you like being abused, there should be a limit."

The harsher Yukino Yukinoshita's words became, the easier Dong Yunshan found it to laugh. "Pffhahahahaha!"

"...The worst." Having recognized Dong Yunshan's vile nature, Yukino Yukinoshita decided to pretend he did not exist. She picked up her book, opened it, and sat down on the chai—

"Hiss~"

Yukino Yukinoshita frowned and practically sprang up from the chair.

"Pfft!" When Dong Yunshan saw Yukino Yukinoshita glare over at him, he gave a light cough. "Let me see... I'll rub it for you... You should just take it easy yourself."

"If you can't hide your evil thoughts, then shut your mouth," Yukino Yukinoshita said, shooting him a sideways glance. "Even if those wicked ideas still spill out of your eyes, at least it will spare the ears of people who don't want to look at you."

"There are several variations of the human flag. The hardest is extending your body outward from a vertical support and keeping your torso straight, so it looks like a flag fluttering in the wind." Ignoring Yukino Yukinoshita's barrage of cutting remarks, Dong Yunshan held back his laughter and gripped the steel pole that still held the last of her body heat. "The human flag trains the entire lateral chain. Not just the obliques, but also the latissimus dorsi under the armpits, the serratus anterior near the rib cage, the intercostal muscles, the hip abductors, and the muscles along the outside of the thighs. To lock the whole body in place, you also need a spine and trunk muscles like steel."

There were two main variations of the human flag. One was called the clutch flag, and the other was called the press flag.

The clutch flag required pulling the vertical support to chest level, while the press flag required straightening the arms and pushing the body outward from the vertical support.

Because the lever arm was shorter, the clutch flag was far less difficult than the press flag.

Dong Yunshan wrapped his right arm behind the steel pole, bent his elbow, pressed his forearm close against the pole, gripped it, and braced the heel of his palm firmly against it.

He placed his left hand on the steel pole, pushed hard, took a small step back, and, using the elbow below his waist as a lever, slowly raised his feet.

His feet left the ground. His curled legs became parallel to the floor, and once his posture was completely stable, he slowly straightened his legs until they were perfectly straight.

Dong Yunshan adjusted his breathing, silently counted to ten, then tucked his legs, spun once, and landed back on the floor.

At some point, Yukino Yukinoshita's gaze had shifted from her book to Dong Yunshan. When he finished the movement and looked over, she immediately turned back to her book.

"I've seen talented people before. Things other people spend ages struggling to master, geniuses learn as soon as they try." Dong Yunshan dragged over a chair, sat down, and looked at Yukino Yukinoshita, who was standing ramrod straight. "But precisely because of that, they have a hard time sticking with one thing. They even think that things other people can only accomplish through persistence are things they can do after one simple attempt. And the result... Well, today I only just realized this chair is actually pretty comfortable to sit in."

"Correcting such an awful personality as yours would indeed require preparing for a long, persistent effort." Yukino Yukinoshita tilted her head and revealed a smile with no trace of warmth. "But you seem to be in quite a hurry for results. Don't tell me you think you've won just because of this?"

"At the very least, it's a good beginning." Dong Yunshan's eyes held undisguised schadenfreude and anticipation. "It's about time. See you tomorrow."

In the silent room, a staticky crackle like a malfunctioning radio rang out. It was the precursor to the school dismissal bell.

A melody in synthetic tones began to play. Yukino Yukinoshita snapped her book shut, carefully placed it into her bag, glanced at Dong Yunshan, then turned and left.

With Yukino Yukinoshita no longer standing there, Dong Yunshan immediately felt that the chair he was sitting on was nothing special after all.

But if his judgment of Yukino Yukinoshita was correct...

The next day, when Dong Yunshan came to the Service Club again, the instant he saw Yukino Yukinoshita, a wicked smile appeared on his face.

Yukino Yukinoshita was sitting in a chair reading, but unlike yesterday, there was now a desk in front of her.

Although Yukino Yukinoshita merely glanced at him before looking away again, Dong Yunshan still confirmed his guess from the stiffness of her page-turning.

Muscle soreness.

Given Yukino Yukinoshita's competitive personality, after going home yesterday, she had definitely started training.

And when a beginner suddenly started working out, they would inevitably have sore muscles the next day.

Dong Yunshan put down his bag, looked in Yukino Yukinoshita's direction, and happily loosened his limbs as he warmed up.

Other people's suffering was sweet as honey~

Dong Yunshan, cheerfully warming up, and Yukino Yukinoshita, whose body was stiff, gave off completely different auras, forming an intense clash of ice and fire in the quiet clubroom.

Amid that intense clash, a faint knock sounded at the door.

Dong Yunshan stopped moving. Yukino Yukinoshita stopped turning the page, put in her bookmark, and the two replied in unison, "Come in."

The cold voice and the enthusiastic voice overlapped, rushing out through the gap of the opening door.

"Sorry to bother you." A girl pulled the door open just wide enough to pass through and carefully squeezed inside.

Her light peach-colored hair reached her shoulders and showed slight signs of having been permed. Part of it was tied into a bun with a black hairband, while the loose strands swayed gently as the girl walked.

Her gaze wandered uncertainly. Her delicately made-up face carried a hint of awkwardness, and three buttons of her shirt were undone, revealing a subtly captivating view.

When she saw Dong Yunshan, the girl was clearly stunned. "Dong Yunshan?"

Dong Yunshan remembered her. "Hello, Yui Yuigahama."

"What are you doing here...?"

"It's a long story," Dong Yunshan reminded her. "But you probably came here for something more important."

Yukino Yukinoshita stiffly pulled out a chair. "Sit down first."

Even while forcing herself to endure muscle soreness, she still had to use this method to assert ownership over the Service Club... Dong Yunshan gained a deeper understanding of Yukino Yukinoshita's competitiveness.

P.S. Thank you to [Heaven-and-Earth Yukikaze Dear] and [Fish Sea] for the rewards!

Thank you all for the votes. The ranking is working hard to climb!

I'm working hard to stockpile chapters and striving to release plenty of bonus updates!

Volume One: First Meeting in First Year: Chapter 7: Like Fire and Water

Although Yukino Yukinoshita moved as lightly as she could, the motion still tugged at her aching muscles, and her brows furrowed.

"Yukinoshita..." Yui Yuigahama asked carefully, full of concern. "Are you feeling unwell? Should I... come another day?"

"I'm fine." The instant Yukino Yukinoshita sat back down in her chair, her expression grew even colder. Then she glared fiercely at Dong Yunshan.

That obvious movement fell into Yui Yuigahama's eyes. The girl froze for a moment, her gaze darting wildly between Dong Yunshan and Yukino Yukinoshita. Shock surged into her eyes, and her face reddened at a visible speed.

"Ah... um... I..." Her gaze was like a mouse being chased by a cat, scurrying around helplessly. When it landed on the metal pole in the classroom, it could no longer move away. "This..."

"This is for working out." Dong Yunshan expertly grabbed the metal pole and performed a human flag. "Like this."

"S-so amazing!" Yui Yuigahama could not help exclaiming.

"And it's also very dangerous," Dong Yunshan said pointedly. "If you try it rashly, you can easily fall right on your butt, and then it'll hurt every time you sit down... Pfft!"

Yukino Yukinoshita cast him an icy look. "And then people with rotten personalities will gloat over it."

"It feels..." Yui Yuigahama's eyes sparkled brightly. "So fun!"

Yukino Yukinoshita: "Hm?"

"No, no, no... I didn't mean you falling on your big..." Yui Yuigahama hurriedly waved both hands to clarify. "I mean, the atmosphere in this club is really fun. Good friends are like that, right? That kind of feeling of, 'If you fall down, I'll help you up, but only after I'm done laughing.'"

Yukino Yukinoshita's attitude was cold. "This club is not fun. On the contrary, your misunderstanding makes me very unhappy."

Dong Yunshan grinned. "And I didn't help her up, and I still haven't laughed enough."

"Ah... I... I see..." Yui Yuigahama wisely did not continue digging into that topic. "Um... I heard from Teacher Hiratsuka that this place can help students solve their worries."

"Mm-hmm." Dong Yunshan nodded, his face full of anticipation. "If there's anything making you unhappy..."

"The Service Club only provides assistance," Yukino Yukinoshita interrupted Dong Yunshan. "As for whether your worries can truly be resolved, that depends on you."

"Huh?" Yui Yuigahama asked blankly, "Is there any difference?"