Yukinoshita-san is definitely secretly in love with me.

"Eriri, may I come in?"

Before heading out, Sayuri Sawamura Eriri's mother casually tied her hair up and gently knocked on her daughter's door before pushing it open.

As expected, she found her daughter still wearing that hopelessly outdated green junior high gym uniform, thick-rimmed glasses perched on her nose, hunched over her desk frantically working on a manuscript.

Sayuri chuckled softly and walked over, leaning on the desk to sneak a glance. She had originally intended to tease her daughter, but was caught completely off guard when she saw what Eriri was drawing an utterly normal, wholesome illustration of a pretty girl.

Though the art had a slightly seductive air, there wasn't a single trace of full-blown lewdness.

Sayuri looked absolutely devastated, as if she'd just learned her favorite drama was getting canceled.

"Eriri, don't tell me you're giving up on being an ecchi manga artist?!"

Eriri Sawamura Spencer was one of Toyonozaki Academy's two reigning beauties, standing shoulder to shoulder with Utaha Kasumigaoka. A standout talent in the art club who had been winning awards at conventions since her first year of high school, she was a prodigy with a rare gift for illustration.

But behind the scenes, she was also a rising star in the underground world of erotic manga. Her delicate yet sensually charged style had gained her quite the following among a certain niche crowd.

Most erotic manga artists would've gone to great lengths to hide their work from their families. But with a father who was a diplomat and a Japanese mother who was a hardcore otaku, Eriri's home environment was like a paradise for the creatively depraved. Backed by both her parents emotionally and financially, she had no need to hide anything. Her personal website and even the sale of her erotic works were all handled by her folks.

Eriri shook her head, chewing on the end of her pen out of habit as she pondered her next line.

"It's not that. I promised to do the character designs for Kasumigaoka's new book, that's all."

Both she and Utaha were popular figures in the Japanese ACG (Anime, Comic, Game) scene, so this kind of mutual collaboration made for great marketing. Even their respective editors had praised the move.

Sayuri raised her eyebrows.

"Oh? So Utaha-chan is starting a new book?"

The two school idols of Toyonozaki had once been bitter rivals, but their relationship had improved recently. These days, they often worked together when deadlines loomed, sometimes even crashing at each other's homes to finish manuscripts.

Deadline warriors are gods among mortals!

Eriri shook her head again.

"She's still gathering ideas. She just gave me a rough character draft for now."

Sayuri smiled warmly.

"You and Utaha are getting along much better now..."

Eriri instantly went full tsundere.

"No way! I can't stand that stupid woman!"

"You..." Sayuri sighed and lightly tapped her daughter's forehead, clearly disapproving.

Ever since Tomoya had drawn a hard line between them, it had been Utaha despite her acerbic tongue who still came by to banter with Eriri, preventing her from completely collapsing into herself.

Sayuri had a good impression of Kasumigaoka.

"I've got a party tonight. Be good and keep working on your drafts, okay? Dinner and your late-night snack are both waiting in the rice cooker."

She waved cheerfully as she left, turning back one last time with a grin.

"You should try reaching out to your friends once in a while. Being too much of a tsundere isn't good for you, Eriri."

Tch.

Kasumigaoka, get lost!

There's no way someone like her could ever be Eriri's friend!

And yet...

Her brilliant platinum-blonde hair seemed to dim all at once. Eriri slumped over her desk in a defeated heap.

Tomoya had moved on from their complicated triangle and was now focused on studying. Utaha had also embraced her "new life" like it was a fresh chapter.

It felt like she alone was left behind, walking blind through the dark, sinking into the mire.

What was she even supposed to do?

Back then, aside from their shared otaku interests, the only real link between her and Utaha had been Tomoya. But now that he was gone, and they'd exhausted their nerd talk...

What did they even have left to say?

If she really had to come up with something...

Eriri pulled out her phone, effortlessly navigating to the familiar Soubu High online forum. She typed "Yukinoshita" into the search bar and hit enter.

But what popped up left her stunned.

[Yukinoshita's P.E. Class ↑ Tons of Photos. What a Real-Life Goddess! (Massive Image Dump)]

[Yukinoshita Playing Volleyball. Omg, Stop Spiking the Ball Spike Me Instead! (Tons of Photos)]

[School Promo Shoot Today: Yukinoshita Poses for the Newspaper Club How Is She This Photogenic?! (Yup, You Guessed It: More Photos)]

Even more jaw-dropping every single post was overflowing with adoring comments, all ridiculously positive.

Examples:

[OP has such great taste! Black-haired Yukinoshita is everything my aesthetic needed.]

[I thought I was the only one secretly worshipping her beauty. Turns out I'm not alone! ]

[If I had that face, forget dating I'd be flying to school like I had wings.]

[Say no more. Yukinoshita-senpai, please ruin me~]

What the hell?

Have these people lost their damn minds?

Sure, she could admit Yukinoshita was kind of pretty but did their morals evaporate just because she had a nice face?

Had the students of Soubu completely lost it?

Weren't they the ones who used to call Yukinoshita the ultimate two-faced manipulator? The queen of heartbreak?

And now they were worshipping her like she was some saint?

Eriri sensed something fishy. She combed through the posts and quickly noticed a pattern nearly every thread was started by the same forum ID. Even the supportive comments seemed to come from only a few repeat usernames hyping things up.

The main poster's ID was: [She's Just Too Into Me, What Do I Do].

Alongside that were two alternate accounts seemingly dedicated to praising Yukinoshita non-stop: [My Silly Daughter] and [Love Life Advice Guru].

Just three users, yet they made it seem like an entire army had mobilized to worship Yukinoshita.

Unbelievable. That two-faced snake Yukinoshita even hired bots?

Eriri was livid. She slammed her fingers on the keyboard, unloading a full barrage of fury straight into the forum threads.

[Is this supposed to be funny?]

[Yukinoshita, how shameless can you get?!]

[Do you really think hiring bots to post praise will erase everything you've done?!]

She hit post on several threads and was just gearing up for round two when 

Refresh.

Gone.

All her replies were wiped clean.

Eriri: "…"

You've got to be kidding me!

She opened her inbox completely flooded.

All from the same ID: [She's Just Too Into Me, What Do I Do]

[How could you say that about Yukinoshita?]

[She's not like that. And even if she did make mistakes, there must be an explanation!]

[You don't know her at all!]

She tried to respond, eager for another fight.

But 

[Your account has been suspended for 99,999 days due to violations of forum rules.]

Eriri: "…"