Yukinoshita's Correction Method

Yukino Yukinoshita: "???"

"Um..." Komachi Hikigaya quietly reminded them, "I don't think that's the point."

"Right." Dong Yunshan belatedly realized, "You took advantage of the three... four of us."

"Only you would think of something so boring." Yukino Yukinoshita wanted to glare at him, but with Baby Xixi watching her, she could only force a smile devoid of amusement and pinch Dong Yunshan. "Mama is one of the easiest sounds to make. It's the natural result of a baby opening her mouth and exhaling. The 'meow meow' I taught her happens to sound similar to 'mama,' so that's why Xixi said it. She wanted to make the 'meow meow' sound, but she said it wrong."

"Really?" Dong Yunshan leaned closer to Dong Yunxi. "Xixi, mama~"

Dong Yunxi: "Eh."

Dong Yunshan: "???"

Yui Yuigahama desperately held back her laughter, her face turning red from the effort. "Dong Yunshan, you definitely didn't take advantage of me."

"No, us." Komachi Hikigaya's face was full of smiles. "You didn't take advantage of the four of us."

Dong Yunshan noticed the adorable smile on Baby Xixi's face. "Why do I feel like you did that on purpose?"

"Xixi did do it on purpose." Yukino Yukinoshita's eyes curved into crescents. "She can distinguish expressions now. When she agreed, everyone was happy, so she kept agreeing."

Dong Yunshan swept his gaze over everyone.

Yui Yuigahama avoided his eyes. "I-I held it in."

Komachi Hikigaya flashed a V-sign. "I didn't!"

Yukino Yukinoshita picked up Baby Xixi and shot Dong Yunshan a sideways look. "It's about time. Go make the formula."

Dong Yunshan: "...Okay."

After feeding her, Yukino Yukinoshita held Baby Xixi's legs and did some gas-relief exercises with her.

Dong Yunshan returned after washing the bottle, picked up Baby Xixi, and coaxed her to sleep.

The little baby, who had been squirming around moments ago, quickly settled down. She yawned, moved her tiny mouth, and drifted into dreamland.

Dong Yunshan laid Xixi down, tucked a cushion beside her, took the blanket Yukino Yukinoshita had folded, and wrapped it around Baby Xixi to simulate the feeling of being held so she could sleep more soundly.

Yui Yuigahama and Komachi Hikigaya watched the two of them coordinate with practiced ease without needing to exchange a word. They barely dared to breathe, afraid of waking Dong Yunxi.

Yukino Yukinoshita raised a hand to tie her hair into a ponytail, then looked at the two of them. "What do you want for lunch?"

Yui Yuigahama gave Baby Xixi a worried glance and lowered her voice. "Won't we wake her up?"

"She isn't that easy to wake once she's asleep." Yukino Yukinoshita shot Dong Yunshan a sideways look. "Someone has already tested that."

Dong Yunshan nodded proudly.

"We only came to see Xixi," Yui Yuigahama said, relieved. "As for lunch, there's no need to trouble yourselves."

"It's no trouble." Yukino Yukinoshita shook her head. "We'd be eating lunch even if you hadn't come."

Um... weren't you the one who came here with us? Yui Yuigahama wanted to remind Yukino Yukinoshita, but decided there was no need.

"I can help too~" Komachi Hikigaya raised her hand. "I'm often in charge of cooking at home."

"I-I don't cook much at home..." Yui Yuigahama said eagerly. "But I can help too!"

Dong Yunshan: "I..."

"You can eat your fitness meal by yourself." Yukino Yukinoshita pointed to one side. "Wash Xixi's drool cloths and clothes. That, and that toy needs to be sterilized too. She's been drooling a lot these past couple of days, so they need to be washed promptly..."

Dong Yunshan: "...I'll keep myself busy."

Yui Yuigahama blinked her big eyes. Dong Yunshan at home felt so different from Dong Yunshan at school.

How should she put it... He seemed especially obedient.

The three girls went into the kitchen to get busy, leaving Dong Yunshan outside to get busy as well.

But before long, Yui Yuigahama came out of the kitchen.

"Dong Yunshan..." Yui Yuigahama looked pitiful. "Let me help you."

"Hm?" Dong Yunshan glanced toward the kitchen. "What happened?"

"I don't know..." Yui Yuigahama muttered softly. "They both know how to cook, but I don't, so I thought I could help wash and cut vegetables... Then they told me to come out."

Dong Yunshan guessed, "Maybe there are too many people in the kitchen. It's a little cramped."

Yukino Yukinoshita's voice came from the kitchen. "She wanted to wash the meat with dish soap."

Dong Yunshan: "..."

Yui Yuigahama weakly asked, "Is that not okay?"

"How should I put this... It's not exactly impossible." Dong Yunshan sighed. "But do you want to eat meat that tastes like dish soap?"

"Um..." Yui Yuigahama considered it. "It sounds kind of interesting."

Dong Yunshan: "...Don't go into the kitchen."

Volume Three: Final Exam Spring Break: This Really Is Correction

"Even you're saying that..." Yui Yuigahama puffed out her cheeks and looked toward the kitchen.

Whether Yukino Yukinoshita was worried about choking or waking Dong Yunxi, or worried Yui Yuigahama would suddenly decide to enter the kitchen again, she closed the kitchen door.

"Come to think of it," Yui Yuigahama only just noticed, "your kitchen isn't open-plan. Isn't that inconvenient?"

"I chose it specifically." Dong Yunshan pointed at the exercise equipment on the balcony. "Normally, I do my daily workout in the living room. If I could see the kitchen at a glance..."

"I get it!" Yui Yuigahama nodded in deep agreement. "Sometimes I deliberately put cakes at the very back of the fridge... Though I still end up digging them out and eating them."

"Digging them out counts as burning a little energy." Dong Yunshan chuckled. "Any extra movement is good."

"Hehe~" Yui Yuigahama listened carefully and found that she could faintly hear the conversation from the kitchen, though not the exact words. "Come to think of it, I didn't expect you to be this smart."

"Hm?" Dong Yunshan looked up. "What?"

"The second command." Yui Yuigahama reminded him. "Don't you still owe Little Yukino one command?"

"Ah... that." Only then did Dong Yunshan remember. He had not thought about it for quite some time. "I had considered asking her to help take care of Xixi to fulfill the second command."

"You had considered it..." Yui Yuigahama caught his phrasing. "That means you didn't end up doing it, right?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"This is between her and me. There's no need to drag Xixi into it." Dong Yunshan explained what he had thought at the time, then paused before adding, "Besides, taking care of a child is hard work. I like watching other people's miserable lives, but only when that misery has nothing to do with me can I laugh without any burden."

"What I mean is..." Yui Yuigahama waved her hands. "If you didn't ask Little Yukino to do it, why is she helping take care of Xixi?"

"Because of correction." Yukino Yukinoshita skillfully handled the ingredients.

Originally, she had wanted both Komachi Hikigaya and Yui Yuigahama to go outside. When she cooked, she did not like anyone disrupting her rhythm.

But Komachi Hikigaya seemed able to see right through what she needed. Once Yukino Yukinoshita said what dish she was making, Komachi Hikigaya could prepare the ingredients exactly as needed. She returned seasonings to their proper places after using them, and immediately cleaned up even if she accidentally spilled something...

So she had not told Komachi Hikigaya to leave as well.

When Komachi Hikigaya asked why she was taking care of Dong Yunxi, Yukino Yukinoshita glanced at the kitchen door. She could vaguely hear Dong Yunshan and Yui Yuigahama talking outside, but could not make out the details.

It was probably the same outside.

"At first, he did intend to ask me for help. He probably gave up because he did not want to involve Xixi." Yukino Yukinoshita put the ingredients into the pan and stir-fried them. "Instead, to repay me for helping him choose several books, he planned to hand me the victory with a commission I could easily complete—but that would interfere with my correction of him."

"Correction?"

"You've probably noticed already." Yukino Yukinoshita looked at Komachi Hikigaya. "His problem."

"Dong Yunshan feels... very mature." Komachi Hikigaya stuck out her tongue. "He holds himself to an adult's standards—or rather, the standards of an excellent adult—and it has even become a habit. He does very well. You could absolutely call him a reliable adult—but he is still a high school student. That must be exhausting."

Komachi Hikigaya lifted her head and recalled, "I can tell he wants to enjoy high school life too, but he has pretended to be an adult for so long. You can see that he tries hard to build the atmosphere, but at the same time, it feels like he stands entirely outside it, watching coldly... What is that called again?"

"Dissociation." Yukino Yukinoshita gave the answer. "It may arise from factors such as abnormalities in neural networks, disruptions in the memory system, and imbalances in neurotransmitters. It manifests as a breakdown in memory, self-awareness, identity, and cognitive functions."

More specifically:

Unexplained brief memory gaps—one moment you know what you were doing or looking at, and the next you cannot remember it at all;

Suddenly asking yourself who you are and what you are doing;

Feeling as if you are underwater, as though a membrane separates you from everything around you, with sounds becoming distant;

Suddenly calming down when you feel sad or hurt, then questioning who you are performing for...

"I've heard of that." Komachi Hikigaya nodded vigorously. "I remember not being able to feel pain is one symptom of dissociation. Dissociation can minimize mental and physical pain. When patients cannot feel pain, they may even need to injure themselves to confirm their own existence... Dong Yunshan isn't that severe, right?"

"If he isn't corrected..." Yukino Yukinoshita recalled the thick stack of medical records in Shizuka Hiratsuka's office. "It's dangerous."

"So..."

"So I used duels to stir up his competitive spirit and commands to guide him toward self-awareness." Yukino Yukinoshita finished stir-frying a dish while bringing the conversation back around. "It was starting to show results. You saw how he behaved in the clubroom before."

"Mhm, mhm." Back then, Komachi Hikigaya had thought the two of them were being rather flirtatious... But now that she thought about it, Yukino Yukinoshita really had been trying to correct Dong Yunshan. "Dong Yunshan choosing to hand you the victory for the second command means the competitive spirit you worked so hard to cultivate in him... is gone again."

"I'm not helping him take care of Xixi. I'm helping Xixi, who needs care." Yukino Yukinoshita clarified the key point. "I can't leave Xixi, who needs help, with Dong Yunshan, who needs correction. And while I help Xixi, I can also complete Dong Yunshan's correction along the way."

"Now that you mention it..." Komachi Hikigaya recalled how Dong Yunshan had looked earlier. "Unlike how he clashes with you at school, Dong Yunshan really does seem obedient at home—but why is he so obedient?"

"Because of correction." Dong Yunshan hung up the washed drool cloths. "You've noticed her problem too, haven't you?"

"To correct Little Yukino's problem, you listen to her?" Yui Yuigahama's big eyes were full of confusion. "But she's excellent. It's just that, socially... But that isn't really a problem. It should fall under personality, right?"

Volume Three: Final Exam Spring Break: Being Full of Yourself

"Being able to honestly face your own thoughts and bravely express them is something amazing." Yui Yuigahama lowered her eyes. "I don't think she's bad at interacting with people. I think that after seeing through the nature of human relationships, she chose to remain true to herself."

Before getting to know Yukino Yukinoshita, Yui Yuigahama had never imagined anyone could do such a thing.

To her, Yukino Yukinoshita was a beautiful girl who was upright and serious, gentle and intelligent.

Things others could not do, Yukino Yukinoshita could do.

Things others could do, Yukino Yukinoshita could do better.

So when she heard Dong Yunshan say he wanted to correct Yukino Yukinoshita, Yui Yuigahama always felt that was just a cover and excuse for the way the two of them got along.

It's not that I want to help you take care of your little sister. I'm doing this to correct you, so don't get full of yourself and misunderstand.

It's not that I want to obey your every word. I'm doing this to correct you, so don't get full of yourself and misunderstand.

It was probably something like that.

"Compared to maintaining interpersonal relationships, she chooses to devote her energy to more important things. Like preferring pears over apples, so she chooses to eat pears—that is not a problem requiring correction." Dong Yunshan carefully scrubbed Baby Xixi's little clothes. "What I want to correct is her excessive perfectionism."

Yui Yuigahama muttered softly, "Little Yukino just wants to do things well..."

"Then let me ask you a few questions. Answer based on your impression of Yukinoshita." Dong Yunshan wrung out the little clothes and set them aside. "Then you'll probably understand what I mean."

"What questions?"

"First question: if something does not go as expected, would Yukinoshita think she did poorly, or would she think external factors affected it?"

"Uh..." Yui Yuigahama tilted her head. "If it were Little Yukino, even if someone else messed up, she would think she had not considered things thoroughly enough. She would think she should have accounted for other people's mistakes too."

"Second question: does she believe every matter has only two outcomes, success or failure?"

"You should know that better than I do." Yui Yuigahama recalled the duels between them. "Yukinoshita has always believed a loss is a loss and a win is a win."

"Third question: does she believe everything has a correct answer, and that it must be done according to that correct answer?"

"Yes!" Yui Yuigahama answered instantly, without a second of hesitation.

"Fourth question: is she fixated on her ideals? Compared to other people's demands, does she insist more strongly on her own views?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Yui Yuigahama nodded hard. "That's exactly it."

"Fifth question: does she insist on completing every matter as perfectly as possible, unwilling to compromise no matter what?"

"Mhm, mhm." This was also one of the reasons Yui Yuigahama admired Yukino Yukinoshita. "If it were Little Yukino, she would definitely work hard to do everything as well as possible."

"Then..." Dong Yunshan paused. "Can she not forgive herself even for a tiny mistake?"

Yui Yuigahama vaguely realized something. "Little Yukino is like that."

"Does she often underestimate the effort needed to accomplish something, or overestimate the impact it will have once it is accomplished?"

"That's true." Yui Yuigahama had always thought Yukino Yukinoshita's talk about succeeding through effort, changing the world, and saving other people's lives sounded incredibly cool. But hearing Dong Yunshan put it this way, it did seem a little...

Dong Yunshan raised one eyebrow. "So?"

"Unwilling to accept failure, unable to forgive her own mistakes, painting an ideal blueprint in her heart that is too perfect, while also refusing to compromise along the way. Giving the things she does too much significance, forcing herself to keep striving under intense pressure..." Yui Yuigahama bit her lower lip. "That would be exhausting. Something would go wrong... Ah!"