Yukinoshita's Method of Correction

"I didn't know you'd admit defeat," Dong Yunshan said, blinking. "That was to eliminate another doubt of mine."

Yukino Yukinoshita stared at Dong Yunshan. Though she said nothing, she still conveyed her meaning plainly.

Go on.

"Ms. Hiratsuka said you were an excellent student, but just how excellent? I wanted to test that." Dong Yunshan slightly expanded on what he had said earlier. "An excellent Yukinoshita would be able to work backward from my question to my conclusion, then discover her own bias and mistake, and admit defeat."

"What if I hadn't noticed?"

"Then I wouldn't have lost anything—that was how it was supposed to be." Dong Yunshan sighed. "I didn't expect you to add an extra condition."

[If you can do it, it counts as two wins for you.]

And then Shizuka Hiratsuka had even agreed.

"Honestly, I really got nervous for a moment back then. Good thing you admitted defeat so quickly." Dong Yunshan was extremely curious about that. "I thought you might figure it out, but I didn't expect it to be that fast—how did you do it?"

Yukino Yukinoshita lowered her eyes slightly. "Your question reminded me of requests I've received before, things like romantic advice."

"Romantic advice?" Dong Yunshan froze for a moment. "I thought that with the way you talk, you wouldn't have any friends other than me."

"Before you decide that we are friends," Yukino Yukinoshita said, her fair cheeks puffing slightly, "let us first define what a friend is."

"All right, I get it. Those people who went to you for romantic advice weren't friends." A very familiar concept surfaced in Dong Yunshan's mind. "A protective acquisition? No, in this case it should be called protective consultation."

Protective acquisitions were common in business activities. They referred to acquisition actions carried out primarily to protect the interests of the target company or its shareholders by purchasing shares in the target company.

For example, if one company discovered that another company's business overlapped with its own, in order to avoid competition and conflict between the two sides, it would acquire the other party's shares to reduce risks to its own business.

Yukino Yukinoshita's eyes shifted slightly. "Your basis for that judgment?"

"No one would ask someone of the same sex who's superior to them in every aspect for romantic advice. Their methods and experience would have absolutely no reference value, especially when the gap is huge." Dong Yunshan held his hands one above the other, pulling them apart. "I have a friend who once asked another friend with rich romantic experience for advice, wanting to learn how to get to know girls. The answer he got was to directly ask for contact information, and in the end I—my friend never succeeded even once."

The corners of Yukino Yukinoshita's mouth rose slightly. She was beginning to understand the pleasure Dong Yunshan took in other people's suffering. "Leaving aside this personal experience of yours..."

Dong Yunshan corrected her with righteous indignation. "It was a friend of mine."

Yukino Yukinoshita accepted the correction readily. "Leaving aside this personal experience of that idiot friend of yours..."

Dong Yunshan reminded her irritably, "Watch what you're saying. Don't make personal attacks."

"Heh." Yukino Yukinoshita gave a soft laugh. "Your judgment is correct. Their consultations were actually a form of restraint. The goal was to let me know who they liked. If I knew the target of someone around me and still made a move on him, I would be treated as a cheating cat and squeezed out of the little circle."

Dong Yunshan nodded and added, "Even if the target confessed to you on his own, you couldn't accept, or else you'd be ostracized."

"After hearing so many consultations that weren't really for the sake of consultation, the answer was already very clear once you asked that question." Yukino Yukinoshita crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Sagami regarded the owner of the doll, and only the owner of the doll, as a romantic rival. Therefore, the person she liked was the one who regarded the doll's owner as his girlfriend. If one person tells another that they are the doll owner's boyfriend or girlfriend, there is one and only one purpose—to take the doll. So Sato, who was holding the doll, is the person Sagami likes, and Sato likes the owner of another similar doll."

Dong Yunshan raised a question. "Why the owner of another doll?"

"When you saw the photos of the two dolls, your first reaction was to ask whether there was other supporting evidence. That shows that the two dolls, which were very different to Yuigahama and me, did not differ much in your eyes—Sato was very likely in the same situation." Yukino Yukinoshita paused. "The source of the other piece of evidence was also you. You came back from the handicrafts club brimming with confidence, so you must have found decisive evidence there. The question is, in such a short amount of time, how did you determine that they were in a romantic relationship?"

Dong Yunshan gave the answer directly. "When I was speaking to Kaori as the client, Sato's hostility was the most obvious."

Yukino Yukinoshita raised her loosely clenched right hand, her bent index finger resting against her lips. "Even so, that cannot rule out the possibility that Sato has a one-sided crush on Kaori."

Dong Yunshan chuckled. "When people are suddenly watched by many others, their first glance is always toward the person they like."

Of course, that reaction could also mean the two of them had feelings for each other but had not officially started dating.

But if they had feelings for each other, Sato couldn't possibly have picked up the doll and not returned it.

"Subconscious, is it... I see." Yukino Yukinoshita nodded, lowered her hands, and sat up straight. "This time, you won... twice. State your orders."

"Your judgment and solution were right." Dong Yunshan shook his head. "Let's call this one a draw."

"Call it?" Yukino Yukinoshita's gaze turned icy. "A win is a win. A loss is a loss."

"...Then not twice." Dong Yunshan didn't want to go too far. "Let's count it as once."

"One is one. Two is two." Yukino Yukinoshita's icy gaze was almost fierce. "Do not make me repeat such a simple matter."

"Then..." Dong Yunshan paused, reconsidering his wording. "I order you to finish the strawberry yogurt I gave you."

That tone should be fine.

Yukino Yukinoshita glanced at the already-finished strawberry yogurt. "Are you worried that next time I win, I'll be too harsh on you? Let me warn you in advance: I won't hold back. Unlike you, I can afford to lose, and I can afford to win."

So she means I can't afford either winning or losing?

"You asked for this." Dong Yunshan shot to his feet.

Yukino Yukinoshita pulled up her perfectly neat collar and gripped it tightly with her delicate white hand, staring at Dong Yunshan warily. "What... what are you going to do?"

"Of course..." Dong Yunshan answered with a beaming smile, "I'm going to order the loser around however I please."

First-Year First Meeting: Forever in My Heart

"Guh..." Yukino Yukinoshita glared at Dong Yunshan, attempting to use that method to increase her intimidation.

Dong Yunshan walked toward the changing room in the corner of the clubroom.

Wait... Yukino Yukinoshita immediately realized Dong Yunshan's intention.

The maid outfit.

That guy Dong Yunshan wanted to make her put on that maid outfit!

The moment she thought of having to put on the maid outfit she had denied at the very beginning, Yukino Yukinoshita felt an uncontrollable humiliation.

And that humiliation was exactly what Dong Yunshan was after!

The instant the thought I absolutely can't let him get what he wants surfaced in her mind, Yukino Yukinoshita realized that Dong Yunshan was about to get exactly what he wanted.

The command to put on a maid outfit was balanced on an extremely delicate line.

If he had gone even a little too far, Yukino Yukinoshita could have refused him sternly.

If he had pulled back even slightly, Yukino Yukinoshita would not have felt so humiliated.

Most importantly...

In their conversation just now, Yukino Yukinoshita had clearly stated her stance.

She could afford to lose, and she could afford to win.

So at this very moment, faced with Dong Yunshan's order, she had no room left to maneuver.

For example, saying that while he had given an order, he had not said when it had to be carried out, or where it had to be carried out...

Excuses like those all fell under being unable to accept defeat.

Had she blocked off her own escape route?

Thinking of that, Yukino Yukinoshita lightly bit her lower lip, and another kind of humiliation surfaced in her heart.

Two subtly different kinds of humiliation collided at the tip of her heart, turning into an adorable blush that appeared on Yukino Yukinoshita's fair cheeks.

The hand gripping her collar loosened and pressed lightly against her chest.

Yukino Yukinoshita tried hard to breathe deeply, attempting to calm herself down.

It worked well. Yukino Yukinoshita successfully shook off the feeling of humiliation, and her thoughts gradually became clear.

Then she thought of a possibility.

Had all of this been part of Dong Yunshan's plan?!

He was not someone who could not afford to lose, nor was he someone who could not afford to win.

Instead, he knew that she could afford to win and lose, so he had deliberately provoked her with infuriating words, making her block off her own escape route.

The instant a third kind of humiliation surfaced, the two kinds she had barely suppressed surged up with it. The three humiliations intertwined and churned, making Yukino Yukinoshita's slender body tremble lightly beyond her control.

No... she couldn't.

Yukino Yukinoshita kept her face stern and forced herself to steady herself.

Although they had not spent much time together, Dong Yunshan's undisguised schadenfreude had already been laid bare.

Other people's embarrassment, anger, hostility, pain, inner conflict... all of it would make him laugh from the bottom of his heart.

Yukino Yukinoshita closed her eyes and reminded herself over and over in her heart.

Against someone like this, she absolutely could not show any openings.

She had to act as if she did not care at all!

Tap.

A faint footstep sounded, and Yukino Yukinoshita's body instantly went taut.

It was coming...

Dong Yunshan's footsteps stopped in front of Yukino Yukinoshita, and immediately after, his voice rang out. "My order is this."

It was only a maid outfit.

Holding that resolve in her heart, Yukino Yukinoshita opened her eyes.

The instant she saw the thing in Dong Yunshan's hand, Yukino Yukinoshita's mind went blank for a moment.

Dong Yunshan would be standing in front of her with a maid outfit in hand, his face full of anticipation—Yukino Yukinoshita had already prepared herself for that.

But instead...

"A headband?" Yukino Yukinoshita blinked, stared at the headband in Dong Yunshan's hand, then looked up at Dong Yunshan's face. "Where's the maid outfit?"

"I was originally going to have you change into a maid outfit, but changing clothes in the clubroom isn't exactly convenient. This just happens to be part of a cat-ear maid set, so we'll use the cat-ear headband as a symbol." Dong Yunshan looked at Yukino Yukinoshita suspiciously. "Why do I get the feeling... you seem kind of disappointed?"

"I'm surprised by the extent of your childishness." Yukino Yukinoshita's tense body relaxed, and she raised a hand to take the headband Dong Yunshan handed over. "I just have to put it on, right?"

She picked up the black cat-ear headband and put it on her head, adjusted its position slightly, then lifted her head and revealed a faint smile.

She had won.

Although she had lost the previous duel, in the current command phase, Yukino Yukinoshita, who had prepared her resolve in advance, had already obtained victory.

With Dong Yunshan's rotten personality that took pleasure in others' misery, ordering Yukino Yukinoshita to put on a cat-ear headband was nothing more than wanting to see her look embarrassed and humiliated.

But!

Yukino Yukinoshita possessed a level of resolve even higher than Dong Yunshan's order.

The resolve to change into a maid outfit.

Yukino Yukinoshita, possessing such resolve, showed not the slightest embarrassment or humiliation when faced with the cat-ear headband. She even smiled.

Dong Yunshan's order had not achieved the result he wanted.

This was Yukino Yukinoshita's victory. This was the victory of resolve. This was the victory of a desperate counterattack after defeat.

The smile on Yukino Yukinoshita's face grew even more confident. Though she was clearly looking up at Dong Yunshan, those ice-blue eyes of hers somehow seemed to be gazing down from above.

Dong Yunshan might have won twice, but Yukino Yukinoshita had claimed three victories.

Wait...

Two victories meant two commands.

Yukino Yukinoshita's body, which had only just relaxed, tensed again, and even her breathing quickened slightly.

Could it be...

Dong Yunshan silently raised his phone.

The girl who had been so full of confidence moments ago seemed to have all the strength drained out of her in an instant.

A hazy gleam surfaced in her ice-blue eyes. She had already realized what was about to happen, yet she showed not the slightest intention of running away, almost stubbornly glaring back at him.

But the increasingly obvious blush spreading across her snow-smooth cheeks had already betrayed how she truly felt in that moment.

Unease, humiliation, helplessness, embarrassment, shame and anger... or perhaps even more complicated emotions, all tangled in her slightly hurried breaths, lingering between her slightly parted, crystal-clear lips.

As if trying to stop something, the girl pressed her lips tightly together, attempting to regain her initial composure.

But her waterfall-like long hair magnified the faint trembling of her delicate body, making the red bow ribbon tied in her hair flutter like a real butterfly dancing on beating wings.

Her collar, mussed by her own grip, her slightly raised face, and her unwilling glare, paired with the fluffy cat ears atop her glossy black hair, presented a fragility and aloofness infinitely close to that of a little kitten.

For a moment, Dong Yunshan even suspected that the cat-ear headband possessed some sort of magical power.

Less than a minute after putting it on, Yukino Yukinoshita, who had been like an ice queen, had actually turned into a pitiful little kitten.

Such a beautiful sight was worth remembering for a lifetime.

But there was no need to use a phone.

Some moments needed photographs to keep them from being forgotten.