I really don't want to have a girlfriend.

"I'm sorry, I lied."

"..."

She lowered her head, looking at the ripples at her feet and at her own indistinct reflection in the rain.

Some things can only be said over the phone—face to face, my heart would probably pound so hard I wouldn't be able to speak.

Asuna Yuuki pursed her lips, and a gentle and happy smile gradually appeared on her face, like a white snowflake blooming brilliantly in the rain.

She smiled and said softly, "I've always kept your words in mind... Thank you for always being by my side, giving me the courage to take a step forward, Yu-kun."

"May I hold your hand next time we meet?"

"..."

There was a brief silence on the other end of the phone, but not long after.

"Just don't mind that I have sweaty hands in real life."

"Really?"

"If it happens to be raining when we hold hands, then yes."

Asuna Yuuki looked at the gentle breeze and drizzle before her, her cheeks flushed, and she smiled very happily.

……

Inside the car, Ms. Sada told her something.

"Madam needs to borrow the car tonight. She wants you to take a taxi home directly after your tutoring class. Be careful, stay alert, and don't wander around in other places."

Asuna Yuuki asked, puzzled, "Why didn't she just tell me?"

"Your wife thinks you're going through a rebellious phase lately. If she tells you this herself, you'll definitely act like a child and deliberately go against her."

Ms. Sada smiled wryly and said in a gentle but helpless tone.

“Rebellious phase…” Yuuki Asuna looked speechless, pressing her temples as if she had a headache. “What is Mom thinking… Oh well, I was planning to go straight home anyway.”

And if my mother isn't home when I get there, maybe I can go to her room and look for NERvGEAR?

Thinking of this, his round brown eyes immediately lit up.

She quickly suppressed her wicked thoughts, not wanting her mother's informant, Ms. Sada, to notice anything amiss, and nonchalantly took out her exercises to begin reviewing.

"Ichiyo Academy" will be here soon.

After getting off the car with an umbrella and saying goodbye to Ms. Sada, Asuna Yuuki avoided the puddles on the ground and entered the cram school building.

Tutoring classes are different from schools. People pay money to study for the future and to improve their grades. Few people waste time socializing or chatting. It's as if they want to squeeze every spare moment to cram as much knowledge from books into their heads as possible.

So when she pushed open the classroom door and glanced around, she could see that many students were already sitting behind the long tables in the tiered lecture hall. The air was quiet and heavy, pressing down on everyone's shoulders, with only the sound of pens scratching on paper.

The space was suffocating. Only the slogan "Geniuses are unstoppable" posted at the back of the classroom had a hint of youthful energy; the rest could almost be described as stagnant and lifeless.

After all, it's a cram school for top students, and almost 40% of the students in each year get into the University of Tokyo, and quite a few also get into Keio University, Waseda University, and medical school.

Yuuki Asuna silently walked in, placing her umbrella on the umbrella stand outside. She walked along the wall to a row of empty seats on the left, next to a window overlooking the Tokyo night view.

The grayish-white rain was still falling, but it was gradually disappearing into the night, and the hazy, misty world was about to change its appearance.

She took out her phone, checked it, and after confirming that Tenkuji Yu hadn't sent her any messages, she put her phone away on silent and took out her notes to start reviewing.

"Excuse me, could you please let me pass?"

I heard a sound behind me, so someone must have taken a seat in the row behind me.

Asuna, focused on her studies, didn't notice anything amiss. After a brief distraction, she concentrated fully on her studies again.

Completely unaware that a dark, filthy gaze hidden under her hood was staring straight at the back of her head, even chuckling softly, licking its lips, and excitedly rubbing its hands under the table.

Not long after, the hooded figure was suddenly patted on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, could you come with me for a moment?"

Startled as if electrocuted, the hooded man tilted his head back, his expression turning fierce as if he were feeling guilty.

"Huh? What? Who are you?"

The other person smiled slightly: "I'm just a Kamen Rider passing by."

The two deliberately lowered their voices, and even in this quiet study space, they didn't cause much of a ripple.

At least it didn't make the girl, who was focused on her studies, turn around out of curiosity.

"Are you sick?" the hooded man said, and then prepared to swat away the hand that was on his shoulder.

But he grabbed her forcefully, then leaned down and whispered in her ear:

"Sorry, but you'll be the one who's sick in the next minute. Stop talking nonsense—shut up and come out with me!"

"..."

Not long after, the tutor came in and announced that one student had left early today and another had joined the class at the last minute, and that everyone should get along well.

Seeing that most people didn't care about this matter, the teacher didn't ask the transfer student to come up and introduce himself, and started the class directly, without wasting any of the expensive tutoring time.

The intense and stressful study session lasted for two hours.

After the event was finally over, the students filed out, and Asuna Yuuki also began packing her things and heading out of the classroom.

"I always feel like I'm being watched..."

Snapping out of her focused study, Asuna Yuuki immediately sensed that something was wrong.

After getting off the elevator, she took a few steps toward the building entrance, then suddenly turned around, but didn't see any strange gazes or anyone in particular.

With a slight frown, Asuna Yuuki shook her head. To distract herself from this inexplicable feeling, she took out her phone and sent a message:

"Ugh, today's tutoring was so tiring~ Yu-kun, have you ever been to a tutoring center? The pace here is as fast as an airplane; if you're even slightly distracted, you won't know what the teacher is talking about anymore."

"I think it's alright. As long as the content is substantial, that's fine. Even I've learned a lot."

"What does that mean?"

"It's nothing. I recently found a tutoring center, and I heard the teachers are quite good. It's just that a few students have become psychologically warped from the lessons..."

"Wow, that sounds terrifying. Thank goodness there aren't any people like that in my tutoring center..."

"hehe."

"Hey~ what's so funny about that?"

As she replied to messages on her phone, Asuna Yuuki smiled and looked down. The sound of raindrops falling on the umbrella and her shoes on the pavement seemed to lighten with her mood.

As she walked out of the tutoring center building toward the intersection, she remembered there was a large puddle by the roadside, so she moved aside a distance to avoid stepping into it, and then continued to stare at her phone.

The night was as dark as ink, and the headlights of cars would occasionally flash past in the corner of her eye, the sound of them rushing by becoming background noise; the damp evening breeze brushed against her face, but the warm chest and cheeks made Asuna feel no cold at all.

She was immersed in the world of chatting with him, like a bird finally soaring in the sky.

Suddenly.

"Asuna, stay where you are! Hold the umbrella to your left!"

A familiar voice suddenly rang out like an elder's command. Yuuki Asuna subconsciously stopped in her tracks, her body reacting involuntarily by raising the umbrella to the left to cover half of her body.

The next moment, a speeding car swept past the sidewalk, its tires crashing into a huge spray of water that splattered onto the umbrella she had 'coincidentally' raised.

slam-la-

"...Huh? Huh?"

Having perfectly defended against the attack, Asuna Yuuki blinked blankly as she watched the sewage dripping from the umbrella, still holding her phone which she was halfway through a conversation, completely unaware of what had happened.

The drizzle continued to fall.

An umbrella was held over her head, which was now completely exposed.

"Even if you're having a great time chatting with me, you still need to be more mindful of your surroundings when you're out and about. You silly, top student."

"..."

At this moment, my thoughts froze as if in a daze.

Asuna Yuuki slowly raised her head, only to meet his annoyed gaze.

"Yu...kun?"

The night enveloped the two of them like rain.

The sound of my heartbeat went from quiet to noisy.

Chapter Sixty-Three: My Online Boyfriend

Tenkuji Yu skipped half a day of class in order to find the best opportunity to reunite with Yuuki Asuna in the real world.

It's not that he can't greet people normally, but out of a certain wicked sense of humor, he still intends to make things a bit more complicated—just like when he gave Yukinoshita Haruno a surprise.

In his opinion, as long as you don't step on any landmines, most girls like this kind of approach.

Yuu Tenkuji's plan was very simple: investigate the cram school Asuna attended, and use his financial resources and special abilities to gain admission, thus creating a legitimate reason to communicate with her in the real world.

After completing the preparations, it was time for the actual operation—he officially became a student of "Ichiyo Academy," deliberately choosing a seat behind Asuna, and also casually dealing with a perverted classmate with ulterior motives.

Unfortunately, even though he spent half the time staring at the back of her head, Asuna, who was focused on her class, didn't notice him. After school, she only sensed something was wrong and glanced back, not even noticing him silently following beside her, also engrossed in his phone.

Once outside the tutoring center building, she was engrossed in chatting online, completely unaware that a suspicious young man was following her closely.

He would pounce on her as soon as she stepped into the shadows, capture this pure and lovely chestnut-haired young lady, and take her home for a good, satisfying encounter... cough cough, unfortunately, Tenkuji Yu's perverse sense of humor hadn't reached that level yet.

He originally planned to send her a message telling her to look behind him, to give her this surprise in the most ordinary way.

Unexpectedly, a car sped past her, about to run over the large puddle by the roadside and splash the filthy water onto the girl's pure and lovely body.

Should we rush over to protect her?

Holding an umbrella and a phone, the thought flashed through my mind.

In less than a second, he realized that if he rushed over now, the umbrella might break, and he might not be able to completely block the splashing water for her in the rush.

Therefore, at this moment, talking is definitely more advantageous than taking action—he had such firm confidence in his own abilities and Yuuki Asuna's reaction speed.

The result was just as he had predicted.

Walking up to the girl who had executed a perfect parry during the "Truth Bullet" attack, Yuu Tenkuji held the umbrella over her head, letting the rain ruffle her hair.