Picking Out a Gift / Haruno Yukinoshita

Mashiro Chinana: "I want to talk with Ayano a little longer, Yu. Don't worry."

After receiving an affirmative answer, Luo Yu headed over to Yukino Yukinoshita and the others.

"Yahallo!" Luo Yu greeted them as he walked over.

"It's Luo Yu." Hachiman Hikigaya patted his chest. "When I heard that greeting, I thought Yui was here."

"What's this? Looks like you came out without telling Dumpling?" Luo Yu knowingly asked.

"Yuigahama's birthday is in a few days, so we came to pick out a gift." Yukino Yukinoshita explained the reason. "What about you, Luo Yu? Why are you here?"

"I'm here to pick out a birthday gift for Dumpling too." Luo Yu casually used the reason he had just heard. "Come to think of it, Yukinoshita-senpai changed her hairstyle. Twin tails? They look pretty nice."

"Thank you for the compliment," Yukino Yukinoshita said evenly.

"You obviously just came up with that!" Hachiman Hikigaya mocked Luo Yu's excuse.

"What does it matter? I don't have anything to do right now anyway, and Dumpling is my friend too. Why don't we go together?"

Just like that, Luo Yu joined the gift-shopping group.

"Then who might this cute young lady be?" Luo Yu asked Komachi Hikigaya.

"That's right, Hikigaya. You still haven't introduced the young lady beside you." Yukino Yukinoshita raised the same question.

"Hello, I'm Komachi Hikigaya. Thank you for putting up with my brother all this time." Komachi Hikigaya politely introduced herself.

"I'm Luo Yu, one of your brother's friends." Luo Yu introduced himself to Komachi Hikigaya.

"Oh! You're Luo Yu-senpai." Komachi Hikigaya grabbed Luo Yu's hands. "I thought my brother was lying to me. I never expected him to really make a friend. Luo Yu-senpai, thank you so much for being willing to be friends with my useless brother."

"Don't worry, Komachi." Luo Yu's expression turned serious. "Even if Hikigaya has nothing going for him at all, I'll still keep being his friend."

Hachiman Hikigaya: "You two, stop insulting me for no reason."

"Sigh... But Komachi isn't wrong. Brother really is this useless. He went through an entire year of high school without making a single friend. Even at home, Komachi does all the housework by herself. If this keeps up, Komachi is really worried you'll become a useless member of society, Brother." Komachi Hikigaya sighed.

"Komachi, you've had it rough." Luo Yu looked at Komachi Hikigaya sympathetically. "From what I know of Hikigaya, you'll probably have to support him for the rest of his life."

"What else can I do?" Komachi Hikigaya let out a soft sigh. "He's my brother, after all. Even if he becomes a useless member of society, Komachi will still support him."

"Komachi really is a good little sister. How about you abandon Hikigaya and become my little sister instead?"

Luo Yu still could not forget about poaching other people's little sisters.

Picking Out a Gift

"Luo Yu, don't casually try to poach someone else's little sister." Hachiman Hikigaya could no longer stay silent.

"Thank you for the offer, Luo Yu-senpai, but Komachi has no plans to leave her brother," Komachi Hikigaya replied.

"Komachi." Hachiman Hikigaya looked at Komachi Hikigaya emotionally.

"After all, without Komachi, useless Brother won't be able to survive in the future."

Crack! Someone shattered.

"You're right. I underestimated just how useless Hikigaya is." Luo Yu spoke thoughtfully. "Looks like there's no helping it."

"Yeah, who told my brother to be so useless?" Komachi Hikigaya spread her hands and shrugged.

Then Luo Yu and Komachi Hikigaya exchanged looks before both breaking into laughter.

Luo Yu: "You're completely different from your brother."

Komachi Hikigaya: "Isn't Luo Yu-senpai the same? You're so interesting. I really can't imagine how someone like you became friends with my brother."

Luo Yu: "Maybe that's fate."

"But Komachi can finally rest easy." With her hands behind her back, Komachi said playfully, "Brother really did make a very good friend."

"Then what about this big sister? What is your relationship with Brother?" Komachi Hikigaya asked Yukino Yukinoshita.

"Me? Nice to meet you. I'm Yukino Yukinoshita, and my relationship with Hikigaya..." Yukino Yukinoshita began to think. "We're not classmates, and we're not friends. Regrettably, acquaintances?"

"Why is that a question? And what do you mean, regrettably?" Hachiman Hikigaya recovered and immediately mocked Yukino Yukinoshita's answer.

He seemed to have recovered quite well.

"Now that everyone knows each other, what should we do next?" Luo Yu brought everyone back to the matter of choosing a gift.

"Then let's use the most efficient method. I'll go this way," Hachiman Hikigaya suggested.

"Then I'll go to the other side." Yukino Yukinoshita also chose where she would go.

"Listen." Luo Yu had a bit of a headache. "It's rare for everyone to come out together. Why don't we browse around together?"

"Huh?" Hachiman Hikigaya's eyes widened. "Wouldn't that be completely inefficient? Ow!"

"Shut up, stupid Brother!" Komachi Hikigaya withdrew the fist she had used to hit Hachiman Hikigaya. "Yukino, let's browse around together."

"But then we won't be able to visit every store." Yukino Yukinoshita looked somewhat hesitant.

"It's fine. Based on what I know about Dumpling." Luo Yu pointed to an area on the map. "Anything bought around here will definitely be fine."

After making their decision, everyone headed toward the mall. Where Yukino Yukinoshita and Hachiman Hikigaya could not see, Luo Yu and Komachi Hikigaya quietly exchanged words.

"Nicely done, Luo Yu-senpai." Komachi Hikigaya gave Luo Yu a thumbs-up.

"You cooperated pretty well too, Komachi."

"Didn't Luo Yu-senpai signal me with your eyes just now?"

"To be honest, I wasn't even sure whether you'd understand what I was trying to say with my eyes."

"Then, Luo Yu-senpai, what exactly is the relationship between my brother and Yukino?"

Seeing Komachi Hikigaya's face full of curiosity, Luo Yu naturally chose to be cryptic.

This land.jpg

"Why ask me? Just watch them yourself and you'll know."

You ask me, but I don't know either. This was reality, not the light novel of My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected. If this were only that world, I could tell you for certain that she was your future sister-in-law. But this was a mixed world, and no one knew what might happen later.

It was like giving a math problem to high school students. They might give you ten different methods of solving it. But if you brought it to college students, they would only tell you that the school cafeteria was also open at ten.

So stop asking me, a guy who was just here for the fun. Watch for yourself. Maybe you could even become a great shipper with me.

"If Luo Yu-senpai won't say it, then forget it. Bleh." Komachi Hikigaya ran toward Yukino Yukinoshita, making a face at Luo Yu before she left.

And so, the four of them arrived at their destination chatting and laughing. Well, except for Hachiman Hikigaya. The other three chatted and laughed, though Luo Yu did occasionally say a few words to Hachiman Hikigaya along the way.

"So, what exactly are we choosing? Do any of you have any ideas?" Yukino Yukinoshita asked first.

"Since it's a birthday present for a girl, maybe clothes or accessories?" Komachi Hikigaya offered a useful suggestion.

"Even if you say that, I don't know much about girls' preferences," Hachiman Hikigaya said.

"I don't know much about Yuigahama's preferences either." Yukino Yukinoshita looked troubled as well.

"As for Dumpling, she seems to have gotten pretty interested in cooking lately," Luo Yu reminded them.

"How do you know that?"

Hachiman Hikigaya was very curious about this. Luo Yu and Yuigahama did not interact much normally, so why did he know something even Hachiman himself did not?

"After all, I promised to bring her into the culinary world—though it's the Dark Cuisine World. It's only natural that she would message me to ask questions if she wanted to learn cooking, right?" Luo Yu said, waving his phone.

"Cooking?" Yukino Yukinoshita fell into thought. Then she entered a kitchenware store.

Picking up a frying pan, Yukino Yukinoshita asked everyone, "What do you think about giving Yuigahama kitchenware?"

"No, I think kitchenware is too advanced for Yuigahama," Hachiman Hikigaya objected.

"I also think it's too early for kitchenware for Dumpling," Luo Yu added. "How about an apron? I think an apron would be a pretty good gift for Dumpling."

"An apron? That sounds good. Wait a moment."

As she spoke, Yukino Yukinoshita chose an apron and tied it around herself.

"How does it look?"

"Even if you ask me that, I can't think of anything besides that it suits you well."

Hachiman, your tone wavered a little there.

"It looks pretty good." That was Luo Yu.

"Thank you, but I wasn't asking how it looked on me. I was asking how it would look on Yuigahama." Yukino Yukinoshita began looking in the mirror.

"For Yuigahama, she would probably prefer something soft and fluffy, floaty, and so stupid-looking it has no limits." Hachiman Hikigaya mercilessly described Yui Yuigahama's taste.

"To be fair, Hikigaya, you're right this time."

Though he did not want to say that about Dumpling, it was indeed the truth.

"Even though what you said is pretty cruel, it's so accurate that I can't refute it."

It seemed that even Yukino Yukinoshita could not force herself to praise Yui Yuigahama's taste.

"I think that one looks pretty good." Luo Yu pointed to a pink apron with a dog pattern. "What do you think, Yukinoshita-senpai?"

Yukino Yukinoshita imagined Yui Yuigahama wearing the apron and said, "It feels pretty fitting. We'll take this one."

Yukino Yukinoshita picked up the apron, preparing to pay.

Suddenly, a voice rang out.

"Yukino?"

Haruno Yukinoshita

"Yukino?"

At that, everyone looked toward the source of the voice.

A short-haired woman who somewhat resembled Yukino Yukinoshita walked over. Why only somewhat? Wasn't that obvious? Other than their faces, what else did Yukino and Haruno have in common?

"It really is Little Yukino."

Haruno Yukinoshita only confirmed it after coming closer.

"Big Sister..." Yukino Yukinoshita looked at Haruno Yukinoshita with a complicated expression.

"I'm Yukino's older sister, Haruno."

In an open area, Haruno Yukinoshita introduced herself.

"I'm Yukinoshita-senpai's junior. You can just call me Luo Yu, Haruno," Luo Yu introduced himself.

"Oh, you're calling me Haruno right away."

Haruno Yukinoshita was somewhat surprised by Luo Yu calling her by name upon their first meeting.

"Well, Yukinoshita-senpai is Yukinoshita, and Haruno is also Yukinoshita." Luo Yu smiled flawlessly. "I'm already used to calling Yukinoshita-senpai that, so I can only call you by your name, Haruno."

"I see..." Haruno Yukinoshita looked at Luo Yu thoughtfully.

"And what about this one?" Haruno Yukinoshita looked at Hachiman Hikigaya. "What's your name?"

What an act. I really don't believe you don't know Hachiman Hikigaya. That acting was far better than those fresh-faced young idols, wasn't it?

"I'm Hikigaya." Hachiman gave a simple introduction.

"Hikigaya..." Haruno Yukinoshita looked Hachiman Hikigaya up and down, then smiled. "Nice to meet you."

"So, are you all doing something together today?" Haruno Yukinoshita asked curiously.

"We came together today to buy a birthday present for a member of our club, Big Sister," Yukino Yukinoshita answered.

"Buying a birthday gift."

Haruno Yukinoshita put on an enlightened expression, then said, "Setting this little sister aside for the moment."