The person who likes me is a yandere.

Afterwards, Qianyu kept repeating, "I'm sorry..." I thought you were apologizing for yelling, but at the time I didn't realize you were apologizing for a different reason.

"What am I apologizing for?"

"...At that time, Qianyu felt that my bad luck had affected me, and thought that because of our bad luck, we had stepped into the manhole, so she apologized to me. That must be it."

Then, a week after Qianyu almost fell through the manhole, she told me, "Being near me will bring bad luck," and then dumped me. At that time, Qianyu was probably afraid that her bad luck would affect me, right?

Oh, sorry, you don't remember, right?

However, while reading Qianyu's love letters today... something came to mind.

In my letter, I, a fourth-grader, wrote down my thoughts on counting the moles on each other's bodies. Even if we're considered hopeless idiots, there's nothing we can do about it.

Asuna took the letter out of her uniform pocket and shyly read it aloud again.

“‘If Asuna is happy, then I am happy too. If Asuna is unhappy with me, then that is an unbearable unhappiness for me.’…”

Asuna stopped reading and put the letter back in her pocket.

"...What happened to that section? Was there a typo?"

"Although this is just my speculation... you probably don't have any concrete evidence, but you're stubbornly convinced that I might encounter misfortune if I'm around Qianyu... so you're trying to get away from me and that's why you want to break up with me."

Just thinking about how I might suffer because of Qianyu... Qianyu would certainly not be able to bear it.

Because Qianyu is that kind of person. She's a gentle person.

When I heard someone say that they had forgotten their past and were a good person, I felt ashamed. I could only use humor to cover up my embarrassment.

"No, I probably haven't even thought about that kind of thing. I'm not even slightly interested—"

"Don't deny it!"

Asuna's voice echoed through the quiet classroom after school. I felt utterly embarrassed.

"I know the Qianyu I knew better than the Qianyu I know now when we were dating!"

So I'm right! Please believe my speculation, my reasoning... If you don't believe me, I'll be very sad, won't I?"

"Will Asuna be sad?"

"I think Qianyu wants to break up with me because she doesn't want to pass on her bad luck to me... Because if that's the case, it means that Qianyu doesn't hate me and wants to get rid of me, right... Being hated by Qianyu... Just imagining it makes me want to cry."

He distanced himself from Asuna to avoid causing her unhappiness...

There is no concrete evidence to prove that this was the reason for the breakup.

Although not, it's not difficult to believe Asuna's words. In fact, there's absolutely no room for doubt.

I feel like I can finally reunite with the version of myself from my second year of junior high school who knelt down and begged my beautiful lover to break up with me.

So I continued with the original topic.

"...I know why we broke up. And then, what happened between Asuna and me after the breakup?"

"Yes. After the breakup, Qianyu immediately transferred schools."

...We will never meet again in the school corridor.

Every time we changed seats, I no longer felt butterflies in my stomach at the thought of sitting next to Qianyu.

He no longer cheered for Qianyu so enthusiastically during the sports meet, even though she only had a small part to show for herself...

Qianyu disappeared from my world. I thought that as time went by, I would be able to forget everything.

But the idea that time will make you forget is a complete lie.

...Christmas...birthdays...Valentine's Day and...summer festivals and the like...White Day too...and the last day of summer vacation.

Whether I'm with family or friends, when I come to my senses, I realize that the whispers I cared about, which were always beside me, have vanished without a trace.

Chapter Eighteen Unlucky

"...What will Asuna and I do on the last day of summer vacation?"

"Asuna, you never do your summer homework. Then on the last day, you come to me crying. So the last day of summer vacation is the day Asuna is most grateful to me all year. Asuna, you are very realistic. It's only on that day that you call me 'Asuna-sama' or something."

Indeed, I'm extremely bad at finishing my homework beforehand. I always leave the difficult things for later. It's a bad habit.

"After you transfer schools, without me by your side, will you be able to finish your summer homework?"

"Yes, I still found someone to cry to."

"Who are you looking for?"

"Find a teacher."

Asuna laughed as if she had heard a lame joke.

"Qianyu hasn't changed at all. I feel relieved."

"I haven't changed. Even if I've lost my memory, I'm still me."

I answered jokingly, but this time she didn't laugh. Asuna recalled the past again, her gaze fixed on the distance.

"I feel it's really not good that I can't forget Qianyu even after three years since we broke up and I'm now in my second year of high school. I think I have to forget her... But as time goes by, Qianyu's importance in my heart grows day by day."

Then, suddenly one day...

I started to find myself uncontrollably concerned about Qianyu's words, "Being next to me will bring bad luck."

Why is it considered unlucky?

Because if you really want to say something, the usual thing to say is "being around me would be unfortunate," right?

"Being near me will bring bad luck." ...Why would Qianyu say something like that? I think I can't properly sort out my feelings for Qianyu if I don't understand this sentence correctly.

So, like a girl running a family detective agency, I started investigating Asahi's surroundings. That's how I decided to do it. I began investigating Asahi's surroundings on July 20th. It's Marine Day (Author's note: Marine Day is a Japanese national holiday, originally set for July 20th, but later changed to the third Monday of July). It's my birthday, remember that!

The sound of woodwind instruments from somewhere in the school building drifted over. Asuna's voice, as she made a certain resolution in her heart, suddenly became bright and clear, like the timbre of a woodwind instrument.

"Interrogation, surveillance, tracking, wiretapping... Within days of starting my investigation into Qianyu, I immediately discovered something incredible."

Did she just mention eavesdropping?

"Qianyu's luck is unusually bad every day."

Like a monthly routine, you seem to get hit by bird droppings at least once a month, and it always happens on your way to school. If you're going to get hit by bird droppings anyway, at least it's on the way home from school. Having to wear a uniform covered in droppings all day... that's just too unlucky.

I hadn't even noticed until you told me that I always get hit by bird droppings in the morning... I'm such an unlucky person.

"That day, Qianyu also got hit by bird droppings in front of the school gate, so you rushed into the boys' changing room to change out of your uniform. But because the girls' changing room was under renovation, the girls who had finished practicing in the morning were inside. That's why Qianyu was called 'Super Erotic Language', right?"

"Yes, the way I was scolded was so unique, I can't forget it... What exactly is 'super**'?"

"And the worst part is, since you're going to be called a porn star anyway, at least you should see some girls looking alluring... But the moment you entered the changing room, your phone beeped with a text message, so you were looking at your phone screen as you stepped into the changing room, right? So you didn't see the girls changing at all. And because you were holding your phone in one hand when you entered the changing room, the girls thought you were a fearless voyeur... Even though you weren't hiding it, so it wasn't exactly voyeurism... But they thought a voyeur had come, so they broke your phone in half. To make matters worse, you had just gotten a new phone then, what a sad story."

“That’s something I really want to forget. The boys treated me like a peeping Tom, calling me a ‘violent, lucky pervert.’ They even forced me to use my telekinesis to project what I’d seen.”

"...Um, Qianyu, is the nickname '**' popular at this school?"

Who knows! If such a school really exists, it would be terrible.

"...Speaking of **, something like this happened before."

So what exactly can happen when we talk about **?

"When I was in the third year of junior high school, I got together with some friends to watch the blockbuster movie that was released the year I was born, right?"

“You’ve investigated very thoroughly. Yes, why I wanted to do that kind of thing remains a mystery to this day.”

"Then you went to a DVD rental store to rent Titanic, but I don't know if it was the clerk's mistake, but they had... the sexy movie Bitanic on it, right?"

"Let me make this clear first, Bitanic is not an 18+ movie, but a sexy version of Titanic. It's just that all the crew members on that luxury cruise ship had big breasts and wore bikinis. The scene of the ship hitting an iceberg and many big-breasted beauties falling into the sea in their bikinis is a shocking image that I will never forget."

"...Qianyu is really unlucky. She wanted to borrow the Titanic, but she ended up borrowing the Bitanic instead."

"No, it's not necessarily true that the person who desperately needed to borrow the Bitanic but ended up with the Titanic was the unluckiest one."

Watching a pure love movie when your blood is pumping must be painful.

"Speaking of gathering a few friends, back in the first year of high school, Qianyu invited everyone to eat 'dark hot pot,' right? Everyone brought their own secret ingredients... The pot contained the world's spiciest chili peppers, the world's spiciest wasabi, and the world's spiciest wasabi sauce, right?"

"Although it's called a 'dark hot pot,' everyone is trying not to put in sweets or things that aren't food, which are absolutely unsuitable for hot pot. Speaking of which, where do you guys get the world's best ingredients? It's really puzzling."

"Qianyu, who is the number one critic of hot pot, suffered a perforated esophagus after eating it because it was too spicy, and was unconscious for two days, right?"

Strictly speaking, it's three days. No, I don't want to correct that.

"Stop talking about it. Listening to these unfortunate stories from the past... I'm starting to feel pathetic for no reason."

"I only posted number 48 of the 50 worst things."

"...Is number 48 a memory of a coma? I'm starting to think it's a miracle I'm still alive."

"Well, I didn't mean to talk about Qianyu's misfortunes. Well, because of these things, my attention was almost drawn to Qianyu's usually unlucky situations."

My bad luck was glossed over with just a few words about these things. No, it's okay, there's nothing to worry about.

“There’s something strange about Qianyu’s usual behavior… I’ve discovered that Qianyu has done things that are very unlike her.”

"Are you saying you can't sleep without a pillow? Well, I can't help it, it makes me feel more at ease."

"...Qianyu, you'll hold me tight, right?"

"Yes, that's why I said I always sleep with a body pillow."

“...Every morning, you would...hug Miss Qiong, right?”

"That's because my brother and I depend on each other for survival... It's an expression of love."

"...Brother, sister."

Asuna spoke in a barely audible voice. Despite her faint voice, Yui's face was indeed smiling. Being unfamiliar with the meaning of a girl's smile, I wasn't quite sure what it meant.

Chapter 19 Asuna’s Reasoning

She stopped smiling ambiguously and gently rested her hand on her chin. It was the posture of a detective deep in thought.

“Qianyu hugs Miss Qiong every morning, and Miss Qiong scolds her for being a pervert. You’re often called a **, aren’t you?”

"All you do is call me a pervert! ...Correcting this feels so empty."

“Even when you’re called a pervert, you don’t give up on hugging me. Is Qianyu’s sexual dissatisfaction really that serious… I’m very concerned about this, so I’m trying to gather evidence.”