Chapter 275: So You Were Also...

The night had deepened. The whole room sank into thick ink-black. The wind came from afar, wrapped in cold all the way, crashing against the outer wall of the dormitory building, forcing its way in through the gaps in the ventilation window like a thin, shrill whistle, thread by thread, unending.

An abrupt clack came from outside the balcony, pulling the girls' thoughts back to reality.

After staring blankly at Morishita Ai's bedding for a good while, the girls in the room turned in unison to look at the others.

Sakayanagi Arisu furrowed her delicate brows slightly, looking at Kamuro Masumi beside her, motionless, with surprise and uncertainty.

Ichinose Honami's gaze fixed first on Yamamura Miki, who had only the top of her head showing.

Horikita Suzune and Kushida Kikyo turned toward Shiraishi Asuka, serene as a sleeping beauty. Their gazes briefly met in the darkness, then quickly parted.

Only Shiina Hiyori still quietly watched Morishita's figure in the dark, her calm eyes glinting faintly in the shadows.

Before the girls present could pull themselves out of their tangled thoughts, Sato Maya, who hadn't noticed the shift in atmosphere at all, continued cheerfully:

"Hey... so that super~ handsome Fuyuji-kun is Morishita-san's boyfriend?"

"Yeah." Morishita's tone was as casual as if she'd been asked whether she'd eaten breakfast.

'A clumsy lie. He's mine!' xN

The girls tacitly tightened their grips on their blanket corners and complained in unison in their hearts.

"Th-then, may I ask what kind of guy he is? Can Morishita-san tell me?"

"Heh heh, Sato Maya, you want to know?" Her usually emotionless voice actually carried a rare trace of showing off.

"May I? After all, that's Fuyuji-kun. Lots of girls in our class are curious about what kind of person he is. But he seems to have a strange personality. He rarely makes friends with students from other classes. It's really hard to get in touch with him."

"Since you've asked so sincerely..." Morishita dragged out the last syllable.

Several beauties lay back down on their beds, holding their breath, quietly pricking up their ears.

"He's a little bit dumb."

The moment the words landed, the room fell silent. Only the wind outside kept howling.

After a long while.

"Uh, um..." Sato asked tentatively. "Is that it? Just... that?"

"That's it. Boyfriend-kun is just that kind of person." Morishita was concise.

"But Morishita-san, aren't there other aspects? Like his hobbies, his favorite color, what he's like as a person?"

"That's boyfriend-kun. The rest doesn't matter." Ai-sama was full of confidence.

"Ano..."

A sweet, cloying laugh rippled in the darkness. She, Horikita Suzune's lifelong enemy, the two-faced demon lord sworn to befriend the whole school—Kushida Kikyo—today launched her brave, fearless charge against this shameless little bitch!

"Morishita-san, could you be mistaken? Fuyuji-kun and I are good friends, you know. He's a little strange in personality, but he's very smart. For example, his grades have always been among the top of the whole grade."

That's right. She was questioning the truth of Morishita's words, challenging Morishita's status as Fuyuji's girlfriend. As his girlfriend, how could she not even know something like that? So her status as girlfriend had to be a lie!

And she herself knew exactly what kind of photos that bastard liked, and even the fact that he was a foot fetishist!

The first Fuyuji Mikage Championship, ding ding ding, officially begins!

Round one: a contest of how well they knew Fuyuji. Only by knowing him well enough could one hold the right to define him!

"Boyfriend scored nine points on his Japanese exam first semester. His handwriting was ugly as hell at first, like a dog's crawl. He was fifteen and had never been to a ramen shop, and he can't cook. His favorite color depends on his mood, and he doesn't know what he wants to do in the future. Every day after school he has nothing to do but wander around the school, but he always runs into weird and interesting things."

KO!

One-hit kill!

Amid a faint creak from the balcony door, the confident smile on Kushida's face froze. She silently swallowed the words about to leave her mouth, her jaw dropping in disbelief.

L-lost!

Her fair hands clenched. Kushida lowered her head in humiliation and pounded the bedding in frustration.

Damn it!

She'd been careless. She shouldn't have attacked from that angle. Thinking about it carefully, that guy knew everything about her, but her own knowledge of the bastard was only a vague, rough impression. She hadn't even been to his room!

"Morishita-san, that's not it." A cool voice rose. Horikita cut in at the right moment, her tone firm. "He... is outstanding. He can always find the key to a problem first. Though he's a little... mm... abnormal normally," she paused, "in the previous special exams, he played no small role, didn't he?"

Skill activated: words with hidden meaning!

The implication was to tell Morishita that she knew what role he played in the class's special exams—that she knew Fuyuji was Class A's true leader, and that Class A's special exam strategies were all his. Using that to score a point for herself... and her ally?

At this moment, a spark of hope reignited in Kushida's eyes.

Good job, Horikita... Suzune.

Even though I still find you detestable, still hate your personality, still want you to drop out, in this moment, I acknowledge you. You're my friend. For five minutes only.

"Heh heh, Horikita Suzune, you seem to know boyfriend quite well."

"Because I met him at the start of the school year."

"How confident."

"It's simply the truth." Horikita answered flatly.

The back-and-forth made the room's atmosphere a few degrees tenser. The girls on the sidelines gradually grew confused. Something seemed off, but they couldn't put their finger on it.

A faint rustle rose. Morishita, on the top bunk, turned over, gave a small yawn, and faced the wall on her side, tossing out one line.

"Boyfriend and I knew each other before we even started Advanced Nurturing (referring to the bus)."

Swoosh—

As if an invisible current had struck the beauties listening with pricked ears, their movements all froze at once. Their previously reclining or leaning bodies snapped straight. Their eyes flew wide open in the darkness. Their pink lips unconsciously parted slightly.

Ch-childhood friends?!

"He gave me the only thing he had, and I generously returned something equally important (referring to fighting over the seat)." Morishita added, her voice carrying a rare note of pride.

A-and exchanged tokens of betrothal?!

"Then we got assigned to Class A, seats one behind the other, sitting together every day (fighting under Mashima Tomonari's nose all day long)."

There's even fate backing it up? How are we supposed to fight that?!

Morishita's three-hit combo instantly froze the girls present.

"..."

Yamamura, up in the corner of the top bunk, knowing everything and silently listening, pulled the blanket all the way up, covering her flushed little face, then turned and buried her cheek deep in her pillow.

Morishita-san, is it really okay to bluff them like this?

After a few seconds of silence, seeing no one pick up her thread, Morishita closed her eyes and coolly declared.

"So, no one in this world knows boyfriend better than I do. He's just a little bit dumb."

Shiina Hiyori: "That's an incorrect judgment—"

Horikita Suzune: "No, Fuyuji-kun is very smart—" (simultaneously)

Ichinose Honami: "That's not it, Fuyuji-kun is—" (simultaneously)

Before Kushida could recover from the aftermath of her defeat, almost at the same instant, several voices suddenly rose in the darkness.

The three paused at the same time, as if suddenly realizing something, and sat up again in surprise. What the person opposite was thinking, no one knew better than themselves right now. In the darkness, they looked at each other with shock and uncertainty.

'So you were also...'

A subtle feeling lingered in their hearts.

After a brief silence, Ichinose, who had been watching from the sidelines, bit her lip and unconsciously hugged her blanket tighter, then spoke softly:

"No, Morishita-san. Maybe in your eyes Fuyuji-kun is a little clumsy, but in my eyes, he's always been a very reliable boy. His methods can be baffling sometimes, but he always manages to show up around me when I'm alone. And no matter how things turn out, everything returns to how it was. That's the him in my eyes..."

With that, Ichinose tightened her hold on the blanket, her snow-white, faintly pink face burying deep into the bedding. The edge of the blanket was gripped into deep creases. In a voice no one could hear clearly, she murmured softly:

"That's the boy who comes to save me whenever I pray..."

"Haa~~ So that's how you all see boyfriend-kun..."

A yawn thick with drowsiness came from the top bunk. Morishita turned back over, gradually curling into a ball under the blanket, murmuring like someone talking in their sleep. "Do whatever you want... anyway, in my eyes, boyfriend is just... a little dumb... a little cute... my boyfriend..."

Her voice grew quieter and quieter.

About a dozen seconds after she finished, even breathing came through. Ai-sama sank into a sweet dream.

"..."

'We're no match for her...'

The girls all showed a bitter smile, their tense bodies slowly relaxing.

How to put it. It felt like this strange girl didn't seem to care much about them, her love rivals.

'Ara ara~'

On another bed, Sakayanagi Arisu, who usually went to bed on time, had wrapped herself in her blanket, sat up early, and leaned against the wall, watching everything around her with amusement.

'How interesting... Ichinose-san.

I thought you and he were close to some degree. Now it seems, in a sense, we're on the same level.

And also...'

Sakayanagi's mouth curved upward. She slowly shifted her gaze to Kamuro Masumi, on the bed closest to her.

'So many girls connected to him, gathered together. Was it coincidence, or did someone deliberately arrange it?

Kamuro-san, given your personality, you wouldn't go from start to finish without saying a single word, would you? So... you're the real winner?'

At this moment, Sato Maya, Wang Mei-Yu, Himeno Yuki, and the other girls had question marks popping up over their heads, looking utterly baffled.

Why did it feel like, aside from themselves, everyone seemed very familiar with that handsome student named Fuyuji Mikage? Wasn't he supposed to be some Class A weirdo?

And the atmosphere was a little strange too. They were just normally gossiping about the handsome boys in the first year. Why did the topic suddenly focus on Fuyuji Mikage, and why did everyone's tone get stranger and stranger?

Outside the window, the wind seemed to blow harder, pounding against the glass with a whoosh whoosh. The fine, shrill whistle was especially clear in the silence.

Sato opened her mouth, as if wanting to ask something more, but was blocked by the sudden wind.

The other girls each retreated into their blankets, some turning over to face away from the others, some staring at the pitch-black ceiling. That earlier discussion about Fuyuji Mikage, with its subtle contest, seemed to be swept away by the cold wind too, leaving only a room full of exhaustion and the unspoken thoughts in each heart.

In the end, no one spoke again.

Heavy drowsiness and the endless wind outside together dragged the room into a deeper silence.

Only Shiina, still lying awake in the dark, no one knew what she was thinking. It was a long while before she gently closed her eyes.

The night had deepened completely.

The moonlight tilted bit by bit toward the balcony. The cold wind slapped against the window.

No one knew how much time had passed when a figure suddenly sat up from her bed. Her eyes fluttered gently in the darkness like butterfly wings. Then a pair of delicate feet emerged from under the covers, the arches beautiful, ten pink nails like gems adorning them. The blanket was lifted. She put on her red tracksuit jacket, and with a pad pad pad, climbed down from the top bunk.

Her tender soles stepped on the cold railing, making a sound neither too loud nor too soft. Finally she put on her slippers and stood quietly beside the bed, motionless, listening intently to the even breathing in the room, confirming no one had been woken.

Inside the room, everyone had fallen soundly asleep. No one noticed the sound at this hour.

After a long while, the figure looked around, saw that the girls in the room still maintained their even breathing, and only then walked slowly and noiselessly toward the balcony.

With a faint creak, she gently opened the balcony door, then shut it behind her.

Moonlight spilled over her without reserve, plating her in a layer of flowing silver radiance, illuminating her soft, slender body. Her pale golden, waist-length hair hung quietly, swaying faintly in the night wind. Her violet eyes shimmered, like ripples rising in a clear lake. A faint, elegant smile curved at the corner of her mouth.

Then she walked slowly to the balcony toilet door and turned the handle with a fair hand. Her gentle gaze fell on the boy who had appeared on the balcony at some unknown hour, shivering from the cold, rubbing his arms over and over.

"Good evening, my Fuyuji..."

Fuyuji's teeth chattered uncontrollably. "If I'd known... I wouldn't have listened to your idea, Shiraishi-mama. Sneaking in on my bro at night, and in the end I didn't even get to sneak in before I froze to death."

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