Living in Tokyo, all I want to do is laze around.

"Yandere!?"

Takahiro Tsubokawa froze for a second, his face showing shock. "Are you kidding me, Uesugi? Hanamaru-san is such a delicate girl, a yandere!?"

He couldn't imagine that Hanamaru, who was usually cute and timid, would have a sinister expression on her face, holding a fruit knife and saying things like "No one can come near Uesugi."

This is a complete collapse of one's public image.

“It’s true, that’s why I said Hanabi is very close to having a split personality.”

Kai Uesugi was very serious, and didn't seem to be lying at all.

Then, he continued to Tsubokawa, "I'm asking you, do you think Hanabi is very easy to talk to?"

"Correct."

Takahiro Tsubokawa nodded seriously. Because Hanabi Hanabi was easy to get along with and very beautiful, she was quite popular in the class, which was the opposite of Kai Uesugi.

"Does she help with many requests?"

"Correct."

"Is she very delicate, the kind of girl who can't refuse a request at all?"

"Correct."

"I thought so before too."

"Before?" Tsubokawa asked.

Kai Uesugi continued, "Ever since she accepted my confession, I've noticed that her deeply hidden traits have gradually become more apparent."

"Why?" Tsubokawa couldn't understand.

"Ah~~"

Kai Uesugi sighed, looking up at the sky as if recalling something. "Hanabi's personality is very popular in high school, but in junior high and elementary school, she's always the one who gets bullied."

Takahiro Tsubokawa listened with a frown.

“Especially in junior high school,” Kai Uesugi continued, “I couldn’t be in the same class as her back then, and because she was cute and easy to talk to, she was often bullied by the girls in the same class.”

"She does all the cleaning, wiping tables, wiping the blackboard, wiping windows, and so on."

"Although she never complained much, you know that kind of guy only gets more and more aggressive when he bullies people,"

Uesugi Kai's face hardened, as if stating a fact, "Because she often walked home with me after school, some bad rumors started circulating in her class, saying that she seemed innocent but was actually..."

He paused for a second at this point.

“Ignoring her, provoking her, deliberately talking behind her back... she went through everything you can imagine. During that time, she was very gloomy, but she still pretended to be someone else in front of me, not wanting me to know.”

At this point, Uesugi Kai sighed again.

"I was also very oblivious back then. In order to get into this famous high school in Tokyo, I was studying all the time and completely ignored what she was going through. I only told her that I wanted to get into Shinko High School."

"When she came to her senses, she revealed a side of herself that was rarely noticed before, sigh..."

"Is...it really true?"

Takahiro Tsubokawa's doubts gradually diminished, and he truly believed the experience that Kai Uesugi had described.

Because he really encountered those kinds of people in junior high school, and he also saw people being dragged into the toilet and bullied.

The next day he noticed that a corner seat in the classroom was empty.

Although I don't know what bullying among girls looks like, I imagine it must be the kind of situation Uesugi described.

"Of course it's true,"

Kai Uesugi stated meticulously, "This is called the Psychological self-protection mechanism."

"?"

"It can make sensitive and fragile minds stronger, help people cope with crises and setbacks, and reduce or eliminate inner anxiety and pain to better adapt to the current situation."

"Hanabi exemplifies the 'compensation' mechanism within self-protection. Because of the failure of her personality, another aspect emerges to compensate for the feelings of loss caused by that failure."

"Have you noticed that Hanamaru has been acting strange lately?" Uesugi Kai asked seriously.

"No,"

Takahiro Tsubokawa was taken aback by these unfamiliar words and subconsciously replied, "I just see you always peeking at me."

"No no no,"

Kai Uesugi shook his head and said, "She secretly watches me because her other side has recently expanded. She subconsciously wants to see what I'm doing in order to know my information at every stage of my life. That side of her personality wants to help her control everything."

"Really?" Takahiro Tsubokawa felt that what Uesugi was saying was getting more and more outrageous.

“How could I, Uesugi, lie? Just now, when we walked out of the classroom to the stairwell, Hanabi kept staring at me. Don’t you think her gaze was very strange?”

Takahiro Tsubokawa frowned in thought:

"It seems... there is a little..."

Chapter 71 I, Uesugi, wholeheartedly agree with this statement.

"That's it."

Seeing that Tsubokawa Takahiro was deep in thought, Uesugi Kai quickly interrupted his train of thought by adding two sentences, "Actually, I confessed to her because I didn't want her yandere side to gradually deepen."

"As a result, it backfired, sigh..."

Takahiro Tsubokawa glanced at Kai Uesugi and noticed that not only his tone but also his disappointed eyes were filled with sincerity.

That long sigh was also filled with his regret for this unfortunate event.

"Hanamaru-san, is she really a yandere...?" Tsubokawa murmured, still somewhat doubtful, as his previous impression of Hanamaru-san seemed to have become much more blurred.

"real,"

Kai Uesugi placed his right hand on his shoulder, holding it tightly, and said seriously, "So for my own safety, I can't help you realize your harem dream."

Please understand.

Infected by Uesugi Kai's aura, Tsubokawa shook his head, his hands hanging limply, "Ah, what a pity..."

"and many more!"

He suddenly raised his head and looked at the serious-looking Uesugi Kai. "Uesugi, you've told me all this just to reject my suggestion that you build a harem?"

"Do you think it's superfluous?"

Takahiro Tsubokawa nodded.

Kai Uesugi lowered his right hand from his shoulder, having anticipated his question: "Actually, this is also to help you understand us better. Hanabi and I are not just a simple couple."

“She has a severe personality disorder and is easily agitated. Now I need to use my identity to help her until she recovers.”

"So, I also have a request for you."

Takahiro Tsubokawa: "What?"

Uesugi Kai: "Please don't spread rumors about my relationship with Hanabi. It's best not to mention our relationship either. You know Hanabi's outward personality is very fragile. If any more bad rumors spread, Hanabi..."

He didn't finish his sentence, leaving Tsubokawa with a blank space that left him with an "you know what I mean" moment, naturally leading him to steer his thoughts toward Kai Uesugi.

"..."

After a moment of contemplation, Takahiro Tsubokawa nodded solemnly and replied, "I understand, please rest assured."

"grateful."

Kai Uesugi said something to him, then looked towards the archery club's location not far away.

Although he doesn't like to attract attention, the exposure of his relationship with Hanabi didn't actually have much of an impact.

He did this because it was Hanamaru Hiroki's request.

He wanted him to stop publicizing their relationship, especially the engagement ring, at school until Hanabi turned 16.

Kai Uesugi didn't know the reason behind Hiroki Hanamaru's request, but he clearly didn't want the matter to spread.

Takahiro Tsubokawa remained silent. He felt that something was off about what Uesugi was saying, but those experiences didn't seem like a lie at all.

His eyes were exceptionally sincere.

Is it really true?

We can already see the entrance to the archery club dojo. If we continue walking forward from here, we will reach the small grove of trees in the corner of the school.

It's called a grove of trees, but it's actually just an open space on the edge of a grove.

There weren't many students scattered around, since they were all from the archery club.

The atmosphere didn't seem very tense.

Before Uesugi Kai and Tsubokawa Takahiro even got close to the crowd, they saw Ogata Asaka with an icy expression and Goto Iwakatsu standing on the opposite side.

Ogata Asaka was dressed in a pure white archery uniform and hakama, her slender figure and cold face making her appear very aloof.

As soon as Uesugi Kai approached the crowd, many archery club members greeted him, and he could only nod in response to each one.

However, upon hearing the greeting "Uesugi-kun," Goto Iwakatsu's bitter expression immediately brightened, and he turned to look at the source of the voice.

"Uesugi! Quick, explain this to me!"

Uesugi Kai glanced at Goto, who had just finished speaking and was running over quickly, still not understanding what was going on.

Ogata Asaka's gaze shifted to Goto behind Uesugi, and she frowned, saying:

"Uesugi-kun, do you know him?"

Uesugi Kai noticed that there was a girl in a sailor uniform standing next to Ogata Asaka who had a similar face shape to her, and replied, "Yes, I know her."

That girl wasn't as cold as Ogata Asaka.

"You're going to help that guy?" Ogata Asaka's tone was serious.

Under Goto Iwakatsu's eager gaze, Uesugi Kai agreed on his behalf:

"I guess so, but I don't know the current situation yet. Could you tell me a little about it?"

“He’s a scumbag,” Ogata Asaka said calmly, while the girl behind her shrank back.

"Everyone says it's a misunderstanding!" Goto Iwakatsu quickly defended himself.