My love index is at its maximum.

"Speak quickly!" Kuriyama Sakura snapped.

"I'm sorry~" Tsukasa Tazaki slowly suppressed his smile, and after calming his breathing, he said calmly, "The reason you forgive me is because I promised her that if she asked me to give up everything else to be with her, I would agree."

In an instant, the room fell silent.

There was no sound.

Everything was dead. Silence, absolute silence; the only sounds were like a telephone with its power cut off.

Kikawa Yui stared at him blankly, her clear blue eyes losing their luster, like a frozen winter sky.

“It’s not that hard to guess…” Kuriyama Sakura’s lips trembled slightly as if she were saying something, her voice audible only to herself.

Tsukasa Tazaki broke out in a cold sweat.

The sweat on his face felt like a cool, hard film, which was very uncomfortable, but he couldn't wipe it off.

After thinking for a long time, Tsukasa Tazaki shrugged silently and said, "Please, keep asking. Your silence is making me pessimistic about the future."

"There's nothing to ask." Kikawa Yui cracked her neck a few times, as if warming up for some kind of exercise. "After saying something like that, how can you expect us to have any good feelings towards you?"

"At least ask me why I did this..." Tsukasa Tazaki muttered guiltily.

"Idiot!" Kuriyama Sakura shrugged, remained silent for a few seconds, and then lectured in a hopeless tone, "A complete idiot. If you hadn't been so honest and had just said something to fool us, the three of us might still be able to bicker like this. But now that you've said it out loud, how am I and Kikawa Yui supposed to see you?"

Another silence followed.

Tsukasa Tazaki was having a daydream.

Vulgar, chaotic, and boring daydreams.

But that's okay. Most daydreams are impossible to realize, but it's not bad to just think about them.

“That’s precisely why I’m telling the truth,” Tsukasa Tazaki said, looking up at Sakura Kuriyama. “Do you understand my thoughts?”

“I understand perfectly; I comprehend every word you say.”

“That’s what you call perfect teamwork!” Tazaki Shiro said.

Kuriyama Sakura stuck out her tongue and made a face: "We know what's going on!"

Super cute.

It's rare to see the Minister so adorable.

Kikawa Yui leaned back on the sofa, silently watching the two of them.

The late autumn breeze rushed in through the wide-open window, making her golden hair sway like ripe ears of wheat.

"I have nothing to hide from the two of you. Or rather, apart from Hanami-nee, I have not hidden anything from anyone. Therefore, the only person I have wronged is her."

At this point, Tsukasa Tazaki sighed and slumped onto the table: "During the day, it was just the two of us. I told her I would agree to anything she asked. When she made her request, she hesitated for a moment, and in the end, she didn't say anything."

Qichuan remained silent.

She simply rested her elbows on the sofa armrests, her fingertips pressed motionless against her temples, her eyes slowly narrowing, as if she had fallen asleep.

Only his eyelashes trembled slightly from time to time, and his lips quivered slightly.

Perhaps, her body is crying out, silently and tearlessly sobbing.

“You know Hanami-nee wouldn’t ask for that.” Kuriyama Sakura narrowed her eyes and sighed, “Should I say you’re clever or shameless? You’re taking advantage of something she wouldn’t do in the first place and giving her a useless promise.”

“There are two problems with what you’re saying.” Tazaki Tsukasa stared at her face for a long time. “First: Rather than saying that I agreed because I knew she wouldn’t ask for that, it would be more accurate to say that I knew she wouldn’t ask for that, and in order to repay her love and tolerance, I had to give her a promise of equal weight. From the very beginning of our acquaintance and love, my sister and I have been going through this mutual exchange. Neither of us has been the one who simply gives, nor has either of us been the one who simply enjoys.”

"And second?" Kuriyama Sakura asked.

“Secondly, this promise is certainly not useless,” Tsukasa Tazaki replied. “The most special and unique person is, of course, Hanami-nee. I have never wavered on this point, and of course I hope that Hanami-nee can feel it very clearly.”

Kuriyama Sakura smiled faintly and nodded, saying, "I understand what you mean."

"Good comprehension." Tsukasa Tazaki straightened up.

"But what about the others?"

"I don't know if you've ever heard this saying: 'A person who loves everyone the same way actually loves no one.'" Tazaki Tsukasa felt a tickle on his back and couldn't help but twist his waist. "Or, 'A person who loves everyone the same way actually only loves himself.'"

Kikawa remained in the same position for a long time without moving an inch.

Like an uninvolved outsider, he showed absolutely no interest in their conversation.

After a long silence, Kuriyama Sakura sighed softly: "You seem to be very good at explaining things to people."

"I'm not very good at explaining..." Tsukasa Tazaki said helplessly, "It's just that the thought of wanting to be a sincere person is driving me to be frank. Of course, it would be better to use jokes and pretend to be crazy to get by, but I can't get past my own conscience. After all, I once seriously deceived Hanami-nee, and I absolutely don't want that to happen a second time."

Kuriyama Sakura shook her head and sighed, "How silly!"

“That’s true to some extent.” Tsukasa Tazaki nodded in agreement. “Compared to my actual thoughts, it’s just to avoid hurting anyone again, even if it means losing both of you forever.

“Not bad.” Kuriyama Sakura nodded in agreement, her tone suddenly rising as if she were excited: “For some time now, I’ve felt that you’ve become more and more vulgar. But now it seems that was just an illusion; you’re still the same person you always were.”

"How so?" Tsukasa Tazaki smiled, looking at her expectantly.

If we were to choose the person who knows me best in this world, the Minister would undoubtedly be the undisputed winner.

"Ahem~" Kuriyama Sakura cleared her throat, looked into his eyes, and gave him a smile that was somewhere between level five and level six.

“Some people might think your actions are foolish and slow, while others might think they are shrewd and cunning. It doesn’t matter what you think, you don’t care. You are now extremely honest and upright, as straight as a sharp arrow, aiming straight where it points. So you don’t need to be surprised by other people’s opinions at all. You are still the same Tsukasa Tazaki who is ‘only interested in things that interest him’, right?”

“Absolutely right.” Tsukasa Tazaki wanted to applaud, but after realizing his hands were cuffed, he smiled helplessly: “Whether I’ve become vulgar or willing to bear other people’s expectations, it doesn’t mean I’m willing to do things I’m not interested in. This behavior only shows that things I wasn’t interested in before have become interesting to me because of you.”

“I’m very satisfied with this answer.” Kuriyama Sakura stretched comfortably and said contentedly, “I’ll find the answer to how I should get along with you in the future from your answer to Kikawa-san’s question.”

After saying that, she reached out and gently tugged at Qichuan Yui's arm.

The blonde girl slowly opened her eyes, glanced at Tsukasa Tazaki, and then her gaze fell on the floor, her eyes empty and indifferent.

His eyes were vacant, as if he were deep in thought, and his expression lacked vitality.

Soon after, his blue eyes regained some of their luster, as if a down-on-his-luck traveler had staggered a long way through the forest, only to suddenly remember the wild fruit he had seen earlier that would satisfy his hunger and turn back.

"You really didn't hide anything from me?" Yui Kichikawa asked.

After Tazaki Tsuyoshi and Kuriyama Sakura talked for a long time, she picked the very first sentence to ask a question.

Perhaps the moment she heard those words, she was lost in her own thoughts and had no time to pay attention to the rest of their conversation.

But without a doubt, this question hits the bullseye.

"..." Tsukasa Tazaki remained silent.

Seeing his elder brother's moist eyes and listless expression, he was caught in a great dilemma.

Sakura Kuriyama's lips curled up slightly.

Something interesting seems to be about to happen.

"Speak up, you liar!" Qichuan Wei slumped her head against the back of the sofa, staring listlessly at the ceiling.

It's rare to see her so uneasy.

A feeling of pity welled up in Tsukasa Tazaki's heart.

Over the years, in order to construct a perfect personality, she must have completely altered her original self. And those who were with her before that, those who knew her true self, can only remain as faint figures in her memory, and will soon vanish completely.

Pitiful!

Aside from that, Tsukasa Tazaki couldn't recall any other words or adjectives.

Chapter 275 School Trip (5)

The moon peeked out from the wide-open window, quietly observing the room.

In the dim, silvery light, Kuriyama Sakura boiled water and made three cups of instant coffee. Then she took out a ballpoint pen and a notebook from her bag, returned to the sofa, and happily opened the book she had just been reading, "Crime and Punishment."

The travel suitcase still sat under the table, and a white coat was draped over the back of the chair. Qichuan Yui's shoes, which she had taken off sometime earlier, lay quietly at her feet like two wounded little animals.

She herself maintained the same posture for a long time.

His body seemed frozen and he remained motionless.

Those clear blue eyes were fixed on Tsukasa Tazaki, and seemed even more transparent than before.

Transparency that leaves no room for hiding.

When he was being stared at like that, as if searching for something, Tsukasa Tazaki felt both ashamed and uncomfortable, a very strange feeling.

Perhaps her brother's gaze was trying to convey some feeling to her, but she couldn't express what she wanted to say fluently in words.

Do not!

It should be said that even before she could put it into words, she was already unable to face this fact mentally.

Tsukasa Tazaki wanted to tell the whole story several times.

But I don't know how to express it.

It was really strange, as if it had been infected with a problem of not knowing how to phrase things.

As night deepened, the moon gradually rose higher outside, its silvery light streaming through the window, casting long shadows that looked as if they were painted with a layer of light ink.

Kuriyama Sakura closed the book, picked up her coffee, took a sip, and slowly swallowed.

The warm sensation slowly moved down from the throat, and then spread from the stomach to every corner of the body.

She took a second sip, put the cup back on the table, and her shadow swayed with her movements.

She seemed to have just remembered something and asked, "Is it too bright inside that you two can't speak?"

"Maybe," Tsukasa Tazaki replied uncertainly.

"Then I'll go turn off the lights."

Kuriyama Sakura stood up, went around to the window, and drew the thick curtains, leaving only a small gap.

Then, she turned off all the lights in the room.

The room suddenly became pitch black.

Although a sliver of moonlight still peeked through the gaps in the curtains, it only served to accentuate the darkness.

“I think I saw a spare candle just now…” Kuriyama Sakura groped her way to the dressing table in the guest room, opened the drawer, and took out a large spare white candle.

They lit the candle with the matches inside, and the three of them sat around it, as if they were the only three people left in a corner of the world.

The pale, silvery moonlight, the flickering candlelight, and the overlapping shadows on the pristine white walls.