Yukinoshita-san is definitely secretly in love with me.

The notebook in her hands, neatly organized from the first year of high school up until just last week, contained summaries of every subject and chapter key lecture points, difficult post-class problems, detailed notes, and solution strategies. Everything was laid out before Yukinoshita, comprehensive and meticulous.

Miura usually ranked quite high in class not enough to dominate the school rankings, but solidly within the top three of her class and around the top twenty in the year.

Yukinoshita had assumed she was another genius type like Kasumigaoka someone who just got things. She hadn't expected that Miura was also quietly putting in a ton of work behind the scenes.

How does someone like her even exist? Yukinoshita thought.

She looked like the type who'd be impossible to deal with regal, unapproachable, full of sharp edges. But in reality, she was the kind of girl who would fall apart at the slightest push. She got embarrassed easily, had a massive sweet tooth, loved cute things with all her heart but would never admit to any of it.

She seemed fierce, but really couldn't handle arguments at all. The kind of person Yukinoshita could emotionally wreck ten of in a row without breaking a sweat.

If someone was kind to her, she felt the need to return that kindness tenfold.

Even toward someone like Yukinoshita technically a romantic rival and definitely not a friend she could still offer genuine care.

In all her sixteen years of life, Yukinoshita had only truly feared two types of people. The first were the coldly calculating kind, always weighing pros and cons in every conversation. The second were complete idiots like this one.

And it was the latter that really gave her trouble.

As the bell rang to signal the start of class, Yukinoshita glanced sideways at Miura, who was grinning into her phone, elbows on the desk, head in her hands. She was clearly texting someone.

The moment their eyes met, Miura immediately scowled, putting on her best scornful glare like a cat puffing up its fur. Her expression screamed: What are you looking at me for?!

But within three seconds, her face turned bright red. She huffed and dramatically turned away, chin lifted in that trademark haughty pose.

Idiot, Yukinoshita thought.

She was the kind of idiot everyone loved admired, respected, treasured. A complete contrast to someone like Yukinoshita, who was all shadows and barbed words.

Today's class was Japanese History. As the teacher began droning on, Yukinoshita quietly opened her system's Negative Impression Reversal Progress Chart.

[Negative Impression: 88% | Possession Success Rate: 88%]

Treating this like a boss fight in a game, Yukinoshita realized that after two intense, sleepless weeks of strategizing, side quest grinding, and shameless bug abuse, she'd only managed to chip away about ten percent of the boss's health bar.

At this rate, she'd never make it.

What if someone just snatched her body again while she was still grinding?

Just then, her phone vibrated faintly.

In Japan, email was still fairly widely used, especially among older generations. But after the rise of LINE, most younger people had shifted to using that instead. Email in Japan now played a role similar to how text messages functioned in China technically still around, but less favored among the youth.

The message read:

[Come home next weekend, Yukino.]

It was from her mother.

Yukinoshita instinctively typed out "shut it" but deleted it before sending.

They were in the middle of class. Replying instantly would get her caught right away.

Communicating with her mother always came with these quiet, invisible traps.

Oh, and of course, telling her mom to "shut it" was a terrible idea.

She'd been arguing with Kasumigaoka online too often lately and had picked up some terrible habits from her. She had almost sent it without thinking.

Ugh. Pathetic.

She thought this, face perfectly blank.

After more than a year of missing memories, she was bound to act strangely around her family.

And she had no idea what kind of relationship she even had with them anymore.

Her mother hadn't used any obviously harsh wording in the email, but according to their driver, Mr. Itou who had accidentally let something slip once her mother had apparently been this close to fainting from rage thanks to the previous "blonde Yukinoshita."

To actually make her mother that woman, who could stare down a collapsing mountain without blinking see stars from sheer anger… Blonde Yukinoshita must've been a force of nature.

Just then, a LINE notification popped up.

Yukinoshita closed the email app and tapped open the chat. One of her only two LINE contacts had sent her a message.

It was Kasumigaoka.

[Starting next month, I won't charge you for the tutoring anymore~]

A bit unexpected. Kasumigaoka, who always claimed to sleep through class, had taken the time to send her a message?

Yukinoshita thought for a moment, then replied:

[No need.]

Kasumigaoka's replies came in fast:

[What do you think yesterday was? That was attempted criminal activity! Mistakes have consequences. A light novel isn't nearly enough compensation. If people think they can walk all over you and face no consequences, they will.]

[This whole "nothing affects me" act is exactly why people bullied you at school.]

Coming from you, that's pretty ironic, Yukinoshita thought.

Was it just her imagination?

After the golden-haired Yukinoshita had shattered her carefully constructed worldview, Kasumigaoka had been forced finally to lift her eyes and face the world beyond her own.

And maybe, because her mother had long since lost all hope in her, the idea of making her angry didn't scare Yukinoshita the way it used to.

She'd grown up bound by her family's rigid rules a perfect lady in every way. She was meant to be the backup in case anything happened to her older sister.

She had been raised with endless restrictions and zero expectations. For a long time, she had locked herself inside her own world, unsure of what she was even living for.

The foreign soul that had invaded her body had left behind chaos but it had also shattered the invisible chains holding her back.

Finally, Yukinoshita replied:

[I'm not short on money.]

Yukinoshita was still herself. Even without all those rules, even trapped in a system designed to exploit her, she still held fast to her own sense of right and wrong.

Kasumigaoka: [Are you flexing? EXCUSE ME??!!]

...

Meanwhile, on the other side of the classroom, Miura was replying to a message from Onozawa Kei:

[Did Yukinoshita really make those cream puffs herself? Waaah, I wanna try them too~]

[Hmph. Obviously, Yukinoshita likes me so much that she insisted on making the sweets herself.]

Miura was thrilled absolutely delighted. She almost wanted to jump up and do a triumphant pose, maybe even livestream herself devouring the entire box of cream puffs just to rub it in everyone's faces.

Just as she hit send, her eyes drifted to the packaging inside the fancy little gift bag.

A discreet label read: Handmade by [Bakery Name].

Miura: "..."

Yukinoshita obviously likes me so much… so why weren't the cream puffs handmade?

So perfunctory!

Yukinoshita, do you even understand how to woo someone properly?!