Chapter 249: Brothers in Hardship

Time flies, the days pass gently.

"Hoo...." Gently blowing a puff of warm air into her cupped hands, feeling her palms warm up significantly, Utaha pulled her scarf up a bit around her neck and secretly glanced at her boyfriend walking beside her.

Seeing Miyahito looking intently at his phone, Utaha seemed to think of something. With a mischievous, 'ill-intentioned' look in her eyes, the corners of her lips curled up, and she smiled like a playful little fox.

Slowing her steps slightly, falling a few paces behind Miyahito, Utaha took advantage of not being discovered to tiptoe and pinch a small, crystal-clear piece of ice that had condensed overnight from the wall of a house by the roadside.

Brrr~ So cold.

Feeling the piece of ice in her hand was a bit too large, she secretly looked up to check if Miyahito had noticed his girlfriend walking up behind him. Then, carefully breaking the ice and keeping only a smaller shard in her palm, Utaha crept closer to Miyahito.

Slowly raising her hand, she gently pulled the collar of her boyfriend's shirt open a little.

Timing it perfectly, Utaha directly shoved the piece of ice from her other hand down the opened collar at Miyahito's back.

"!?"

"Hiss—!"

Startled by the sudden icy shock, Miyahito jumped in fright.

"What is it! What is it! Wah! So cold! I'm freezing to death!!!"

Watching her boyfriend jump around, frantically pulling at the clothes on his back, his face contorted from the cold in a comical way.

As the 'mastermind', Utaha hugged her stomach, covering her mouth slightly, laughing so hard she could barely stand up straight.

"Hahahaha..."

"....Utaha!"

Not knowing if the ice had melted from the warmth of his clothes or accidentally fallen out, the chilling sensation finally dissipated. Hearing the familiar snickering from behind, Miyahito turned his head with a helpless expression.

Looking at his girlfriend, who was laughing with her mouth wide open and unable to stand straight, Miyahito didn't need to think twice to know that the 'chilling to the core' sensation he just felt was his girlfriend's masterpiece.

In the middle of winter, shoving a small piece of ice into her boyfriend's clothes... and right against his innermost layer at that...

"Ka-su-mi-ga-o-ka U-ta-ha." Gritting his teeth, Miyahito called out his girlfriend's name word by word. With a darkened face, he walked step by step toward the still-laughing Utaha, "Shoving ice into your boyfriend's clothes... you did a great job, didn't you."

Hearing her boyfriend's words, the smile on Utaha's face instantly froze. Seeing Miyahito walking toward her with a dark face, especially as he bent down to scoop up a handful of snow from the roadside.

And that handful of snow, as Miyahito got closer, was gradually rolled into a small snowball that could easily be shoved into clothes.

Seeing this, Utaha didn't think twice. Her first reaction was to turn around and run.

"Utaha! Don't run!"

"No way! I absolutely won't!"

"Stand still! Didn't you just shove ice into my clothes? Stand still!"

"Nyeh nyeh nyeh! Don't even think about it!"

"Stop! Just for this snowball!"

"No!!!"

After chasing and running for a short while.

Miyahito still couldn't bring himself to shove the snowball into Utaha's clothes (he couldn't bear to). With a sour face, he shoved his hands into the pockets of his down jacket, turning his face away and refusing to look at his brightly smiling girlfriend.

Ugh, so annoying.

With light, cheerful steps, Utaha held her schoolbag with both hands behind her back, leaning her upper body forward slightly to look sideways at her boyfriend's dark face. Suppressing her laughter, she spoke in a tone that was both coaxing and doting to the slightly grumpy Miyahito.

"Hey, are you still mad~ Good grief, don't be mad."

"Boys shouldn't be so petty, okay."

"Hey, Dar, look at me."

"Oh, don't be so petty, anata~"

Hearing Utaha use various cheesy couple nicknames in a sweet, coquettish tone, and occasionally shaking his sleeve cutely like a spoiled little girl, Miyahito couldn't help but let the corners of his mouth rise slightly.

But the next second, remembering that he couldn't just forgive her so easily, he immediately pulled the corners of his mouth back down and continued to keep a sour face.

However, that split second of a rising smile had already been truly caught by Utaha's eyes.

Hehe, still as easy to coax as always~

After silently saying something in her heart that would make Miyahito jump in anger, Utaha slowly moved a little closer to the boyfriend she had just provoked.

Her left hand, which was lightly resting on his forearm, quietly slid down, and then her palm naturally slipped into his pocket, smoothly sliding into the palm of Miyahito's hand hidden inside.

Their fingers interlaced, holding each other gently but firmly.

Feeling the warmth radiating from his palm and enveloping her hand, even though they were strolling down a snow-dusted street in the dead of winter, Utaha still felt wonderfully warm. It was as if that heat seeping into her heart was blocking out the chilling breeze brushing against her face.

"Hehe...."

Hearing Utaha's joyful, cheerful laughter carried by the wind, Miyahito felt as if a soft, light feather had just brushed against his heart.

Unable to help the smile tugging at the corners of his lips, he gently but firmly squeezed the hand nestled in his palm.

Feeling the softness and warmth in his grasp, Miyahito looked up slightly.

Although the sky after the snowfall was still a dreary gray, it seemed that this winter wasn't as cold as the previous ones~

Utaha-senpai~

.....

Walking hand in hand at a leisurely pace on their way to school, Utaha remembered something that had happened not long ago.

"By the way, how has Ishigami-kun been lately?"

"Yu?" Caught off guard for a moment, Miyahito paused. After lowering his head to think for a brief second, he couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"He's fine, fine. If anything, I'd say..."

Thinking about how a certain Student Council treasurer had recently been pouring his heart out to him and Tooru, frantically complaining about his hellish school life, a touch of schadenfreude crept into Miyahito's smile.

"That guy's life has been incredibly colorful lately."

"....."

Utaha shot an exasperated glance at her boyfriend, whose face was full of smug delight.

Faintly sensing the disdain and disgust in his girlfriend's gaze, Miyahito reined in his unscrupulous smile a bit, put on an air of righteousness, and spoke with a completely straight face.

"Well, he's been busy with tutoring lately."

"Tutoring? Ishigami-kun?"

Hearing this from her boyfriend, Utaha looked somewhat stunned.

After all, she had known Ishigami Yu for a while now, and her boyfriend got along quite well with him... Occasionally, on their days off, the three boys would get together to play games and such. Utaha simply couldn't connect Ishigami-kun with the word "tutoring." It was just too jarring.

"Yeah." Miyahito nodded honestly.

"He failed so many subjects that he's right on the red line for being held back a grade."

"After Kaguya-senpai heard about this, she started dragging him to tutoring sessions every single day so he wouldn't be held back."

"Tsk, tsk, let me tell you, Utaha, Yu is really suffering. Kaguya-senpai's tutoring is practically more terrifying than an execution."

Listening to her boyfriend gleefully describe how miserable Ishigami-kun was and how grueling the tutoring was... gradually, the look Utaha gave her smug boyfriend began to turn dangerous.

It seemed, should, might, perhaps.... Miyahito also needed her to tutor him in science.

After all, Toyogasaki's final exams were approaching soon.