Yukinoshita-san is definitely secretly in love with me.

Just as Kasumigaoka was zoning out on the couch, her phone chimed twice. She fished it out of her bag and, unsurprisingly, saw a LINE message from none other than Eriri Spencer Sawamura.

"AAAAHHHHH WHERE ARE YOU?! I'm losing my mind trying to meet this deadline! Get over here and be my model!!"

Kasumigaoka slowly typed a single punctuation mark:

"?"

"What does that have to do with me? Crawl away. Far, far away."

How ridiculous. Eriri, who always pulled things together effortlessly right before deadlines, seriously deserved to be strung up on a lamppost and flogged by her editor.

Death to all deadline slackers.

Kasumigaoka excluded, of course.

Despite being supposed love rivals, Kasumigaoka Utaha and Eriri Spencer Sawamura had seen their relationship gradually ease after Aki Tomoya the original spark that set things ablaze was no longer in the picture.

Yes, this… was the mellowed version of their relationship.

After some thought, Kasumigaoka decided to give a practical suggestion.

"Didn't you used to say your phone got lost overseas or your computer broke down?"

"I used that excuse already. I got caught playing on my alt account the other day. Can't use that one again. Kasumigaoka, pleaaaase..."

Kasumigaoka rolled her eyes.

"Have you lost your mind? Do you even remember the kind of garbage you draw? Asking me to model for that?"

"…Ball-jointed dolls can't pose the way I want."

Ball-jointed dolls were essential props for color manga artists. You could bend them into all sorts of positions perfect for artists lacking firsthand experience.

"Crawl."

"I'll pin your new novel on my Twitter for promotion, deal? "

"Deal. I'll head over after I finish my tutoring session."

On the other end, Eriri practically screamed into her pillow.

"WAAAAHHH- Kasumigaoka, you're doing private tutoring?! Is your student a guy or a girl?! I can't believe it! You already moved on from Tomoya?! So heartless!"

"Wait, don't tell me you're calling me while doing something very inappropriate?!"

Kasumigaoka scoffed.

"Did your brain rot from drawing too many adult comics? You're full of nothing but indecent garbage."

"My student is a girl. I'm just doing this for research. I need to understand the tutor profession for my next project."

And just like that, she brushed the subject aside.

For some reason, Kasumigaoka didn't want to bring up Yukinoshita in front of Eriri.

Maybe it was because when Yukinoshita swooped in and "won" Tomoya, mocking them mercilessly in the process, Eriri had genuinely looked like someone on the verge of either killing Yukinoshita or herself.

Such a terrible task... might as well leave it to herself.

But did it really have to be done?

Just as she was engaged in this back-and-forth bickering on LINE, Yukinoshita returned.

She held a convenience store bag in one hand and was on a call with the other. From where Kasumigaoka sat, she could only catch fragments like "Please don't worry" and "I'm really sorry for the trouble."

After finishing the call at the entrance, Yukinoshita came over and began setting out several cartons of milk neatly on the table.

"I wasn't sure which one you'd like, so I bought all the strawberry-flavored brands I could find."

As Kasumigaoka stabbed a straw into one carton, she asked offhandedly, "Was that your teacher on the phone?"

The tone had sounded formal and respectful definitely a teacher, she figured.

"It was my mother."

Yukinoshita placed the rest of the milk in front of Kasumigaoka with a calm expression. "She asked about my class transfer, so I explained it to her."

"…Wait, you transferred classes over two weeks ago. And your mom just found out now?"

How absent can your family be…?

Yukinoshita tilted her head. "How did you know when I transferred?"

Kasumigaoka's smile froze.

The moment she returned home last weekend from her tutoring session, she had immediately logged into the school's online forum to look up the latest news on Yukinoshita. Which sounded like exactly the sort of thing a stalker or possibly a serial killer would do. Obviously, she couldn't tell her that.

Absolutely not. That would be social suicide.

Kasumigaoka cleared her throat. "There's too much milk for one person. Should I put the rest in the fridge?"

Yukinoshita shook her head. "I rarely use the fridge or kitchen. If I put them in there, they'll just go bad. You should take them home later."

This girl every inch of her seemed sealed off from the world. Like not even the tiniest bit of warmth or mess could cling to her.

Yet, despite that cool, detached face, Yukinoshita was silently tearing her hair out.

After everything she'd done still no mission trigger?

Seriously?

Kasumigaoka was supposed to hate her guts!

As their session neared its end, Kasumigaoka finally couldn't resist breaking past her role as a tutor.

"Forgive my bluntness, but… may I ask you something personal?"

Yukinoshita replied instantly, "Since it's blunt, then no."

She really didn't want to talk about the mess that had been the past year.

Not just because it was unpleasant to remember but because…

She genuinely didn't know what had happened over the past year.

And Yukinoshita could practically feel it in her bones: whatever Kasumigaoka was about to ask, it was definitely about that guy, Aki Tomoya.

But Aki wasn't her mission's trigger. Why should she care?

Right now, she had to worry about the risk of being possessed again at any moment. For all she knew, she'd wake up one day to find her life completely wrecked again. She didn't even bother talking much to Hikigaya or Hayama anymore how could she have time to care about some random guy from another school?

Aki Tomoya. On the surface, just another gaming nerd.

But take off those glasses, and he turned into a surprisingly good-looking guy.

Once, he was the object of affection for the two school idols of Toyogasaki Academy.

Yes Kasumigaoka Utaha and Eriri Spencer Sawamura had both liked him.

Kasumigaoka absentmindedly tapped her pen against her lips and gave a soft smile.

"How about this let's trade questions. I'll ask one, then you can ask one in return. Deal?"

Yukinoshita, the pragmatist, responded without hesitation.

"Fine."

Kasumigaoka smiled.

When she wasn't smirking or throwing out sarcastic barbs, that gentle smile was honestly… breathtaking.

"I've never seen Aki-kun so obsessed with someone before," she said lightly. "Like he was addicted to a dating sim."

Her smile didn't change.

"So, Yukinoshita why did you give him a bad ending? And not just any bad ending… a one-second bad ending."

In dating sim lingo, a "bad end" means the route ends in failure or heartbreak.

Yukinoshita: "..."

Crap. That one's hard to bullshit.

Please ask the possessor that question.

How on earth am I supposed to understand the mind of a trashy womanizer?

Of course, if she said that out loud, it'd just sound like an excuse.

Yukinoshita searched her memory for how her blond counterpart would handle this kind of situation. She put on a serious face and answered with conviction:

"Because Yukinoshita… is an idiot."

____________________

NEXT CHAPTER : Get Fired Up and Hate Me Already!

(Yukinoshita's mission to mend broken bonds continues with mustard shampoo, pepper spray, and psychological warfare. As tensions rise with Kasumigaoka, a prank gone too far leads to unexpected confessions and an unlikely truce sealed by a light novel. But is forgiveness really that simple… or is someone still hiding a secret?

Next time: A signed book, a softening heart, and a truth that might rewrite everything Yukinoshita thought she knew.)

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