I really don't want to have a girlfriend.

She turned away as if she couldn't look at him, and walked towards the classroom while muttering something he couldn't understand.

Tenkuji Yu followed behind her with great pleasure, looking at her fair and tender thighs swaying under her skirt, feeling indescribably happy.

"Ah, it just occurred to me."

Before entering the classroom, Yui Yuigahama suddenly stopped and tentatively glanced at him.

"Xiao You, this must be your first kiss too, right?"

"..."

For some reason, when faced with her expectant gaze, Tenkuji Yuu was slightly taken aback before subconsciously answering.

"Yeah, after all... I've never had a girlfriend."

He shouldn't have lied, if it's always been him.

However, in Yui Yuigahama's world, "Yuu Tenkuji" has never had a girlfriend, and naturally, he has never had the chance to give away his first kiss.

If all those facts that happened will vanish after the mission ends... then what he's saying now is the truth that can both put Yui Yuigahama at ease and distinguish her from 'those worlds'.

So... there's nothing to worry about; he's never made a wrong choice.

"I see..." Yui Yuigahama pressed her hand to her chest and secretly breathed a sigh of relief, her smile as shy and sweet as that of a girl in love.

Upon entering Class 2F, half of the seats in the classroom were still empty.

Several classmates who were chatting saw them come in one after the other. After exchanging glances, they couldn't contain their curiosity and surrounded the two of them, asking a barrage of questions.

"I heard you went to participate in the Kendo tournament? How did it go?"

"Did we win? My friends in the kendo club said they wanted to keep it a secret and wait for the school to announce the results. It's infuriating!"

"By the way, you guys are going to Kyoto together, right? That's great, it'll be another school trip experience!"

"Hey, I heard there's a really effective love shrine near Kyoto. Did you guys go to pray there together? You guys seem a little different!"

"It's impossible for nothing to have happened in four days and three nights, right? I heard Yukino-san went too, did she have any fun experiences..."

"Alright, alright." Before Yui Yuigahama could show a troubled expression, Yuu Tenkuji smiled and spoke.

The voice wasn't loud, and the tone was gentle, yet it pierced straight through the noisy chatter and reached their ears clearly.

"Nothing interesting happened. Go back and sit down. Our affairs aren't worth worrying about."

"..."

The group paused for a moment, then suddenly seemed to find it quite reasonable. They nodded with great disappointment, said a few words of nonsense, and then turned back to their seats.

Because Yui Yuigahama wasn't among the recipients of the "Truth Bullet's" emotional transmission, she remained unaffected, staring at the scene in astonishment. It took her a long time to shift her gaze from their backs to Yuu Tenkuji, and she said with deep admiration:

"Xiaoyou, when did you become the class leader? How come everyone listens to you so well!"

“Because I am so prestigious.” Yuu Tenkuji raised his finger with a smile and flicked the round and pretty bun on his head. “You should hurry back to your seat too. I heard that Hiratsuka-sensei might give a surprise test today. If you don’t do well, you’ll have to give him more work.”

"Really?! Oh no, I didn't prepare anything!!"

Before she could even fix her hair, Yui Yuigahama let out a panicked scream and quickly grabbed her schoolbag and went to her seat.

……

After finishing his morning classes, Yuu Tenkuji wanted to have a long-awaited lunch tea party with Saika Totsuka, but unfortunately, the slender tennis club captain had to prepare for the upcoming tournament and even planned to have lunch at the tennis court, so Yuu could only politely decline his invitation with a wry smile.

As for Yui Yuigahama, she also has her own little group to maintain—a certain Flame Queen forcibly drags her to the cafeteria as soon as get out of class is over, not giving her a chance to say goodbye to Yuu Tenkuji.

Before leaving, she frowned and glanced at him sideways, like a mother hen protecting her chicks. There was not much hostility in her eyes, but she seemed to be on guard against something, with a hint of wariness.

Yuu Tenkuji didn't care. No matter how Miura Yumiko's memories were altered after the world was remade, or whether his image in her heart would change, those were all irrelevant things—he was usually this indifferent to people he didn't care about.

Since his only two companions both had things to do, he picked up his lunchbox and left the classroom alone.

If you don't want to eat lunch in the classroom, places to go will naturally come to mind.

—The grove of trees behind the teaching building.

Yuu Tenkuji glanced at the familiar stone pavilion. The once affectionate and eccentric couple was no longer there; they could no longer be seen feeding each other or flirting with each other.

Even though she was alone, the silver-haired girl didn't appear here... naturally, because she had forgotten everything from the past, and forgotten the fact that she used to come here for lunch every day.

After pausing for a moment, Tenkuji Yu shook his head, a relieved smile playing on his lips, and silently murmured a prayer towards the stone pavilion:

"I hope that Natsukawa Masuzu can live a happy life like the two of them, even without me."

Then, without looking back, he turned and left.

In the deserted woods, the wind howled through the bare branches.

The yellowed leaves fell silently to the ground, disappearing into the shadows where no one cared.

……

Special Building, Department of Service.

The window glass and even the door handles showed signs of being disinfected with alcohol. The empty classroom, which was originally just used as a storage room, felt cleaner than any classroom in the teaching building.

Like a certain girl among them, she possessed a pure, ethereal, and seemingly nonexistent aloof quality, as pure as snow, compared to all the students of Soubu High School.

Before opening the door, Yuu Tenkuji paused slightly with his fingers, then bent them and gently knocked on the door panel.

"Please come in."

A clear, cool voice, refreshing and invigorating, came through the room.

"Then I'll come in."

After saying that, Yuu Tenkuji, carrying her lunchbox, walked into the bright classroom filled with the midday sun.

She remained seated upright by the window, her long, jet-black hair, as black as 0.5 millimeters of lead powder, swaying gently in the breeze. Her pleated skirt accentuated her perfectly slender waist, and her legs, encased in stockings, were thin and taut, revealing a glimpse of her pristine white territory.

Her pretty face was expressionless, except for her captivating sky-blue eyes, which glanced indifferently at a vice minister walking towards her, her tone flat and even.

"It's rare to see someone so polite."

"Don't be jealous of me just because I have a good personality."

"I'm actually quite envious of your thick skin."

With a gentle tug on her hair behind her ear, Yukino Yukinoshita turned her gaze away silently, though the corners of her soft, pink lips subtly turned up.

Whether it was a misperception or not, Yuu Tenkuji seemed to see a sense of 'reassurance' in her expression.

Chapter Twenty: You really did have ulterior motives!

Tenkuji Yu put down his lunchbox and sat down in his usual spot, across a long table from her.

"Minister, do you have anything to say about how I once again perfectly completed a request for the Service Department?"

Slowly picking up a grain of rice with her chopsticks, she elegantly and calmly put it into her small mouth, chewing with a gentle twitch of her slender, fair neck. After swallowing it, Yukino Yukinoshita calmly said:

"Thank you for your hard work, you did a great job."

"That's it?"

When Yuya Tenkuji opened his bento box, he realized that he had accidentally made a bit too much.

Good habits are formed, and it will take longer to forget them—but it doesn't matter, with the skills provided by the system, I can handle as much as I can do.

"Otherwise what?" Her long, delicate eyelashes fluttered slightly, and her cool, dark blue eyes glanced over. A mocking smile played on her lips. "Do you want me to pat your head like I would a cat that has learned to use the toilet?"

"Do cats usually stroke their chins?"

Yukino Yukinoshita put down her chopsticks and sincerely bowed her head to apologize: "I'm sorry, but if it's you, I really can't do it physically."

"So you can just pat someone's head? Your XP is pretty weird."

Meeting her glare, Tenkuji Yu couldn't help but laugh with pleasure, thoroughly enjoying the seemingly tense but actually conversational banter.

In this respect, Yukino Yukinoshita is actually a "special" person to him—it has nothing to do with his ex-girlfriend's sister, it's just that he feels more and more comfortable spending time with her.

The more you understand her, the better you should be as friends with her, rather than as enemies who can't stand each other.

Even if you're not friends, it's nice to tease her occasionally like you're playing with a cat.

As for what Yukino Yukinoshita thinks of him, Yuuto doesn't really care—if she really hates talking to him, this dignified girl who upholds correctness and honesty will just say it directly, and then he can change his approach.

There's no need to guess at her pretense, no need to correct her distortion...

Similar to Yui Yuigahama yet different, despite not having known each other for long, Yuu Tenkuji felt an inexplicable familiarity with her, as if he were looking at her from the same level.

"Under the snow," he suddenly spoke halfway through the meal, "Would you like to come see my cat?"

"...A cat?" His eating motion froze in mid-air, as if a pair of cat ears had popped out and flapped on his head. Yukino Yukinoshita looked up at him seriously. "Are you serious?"

She remembered that Yuu Tenkuji had once told her in a boastful tone that his family had a gray-spotted kitten that was not only cute but also smart and could understand human speech.

He just didn't understand what the sentence "the voice actress is Ayako Kawasumi" meant, and Yukino Yukinoshita wasn't interested either—after all, that was his cat, not his own.

"It's just looking at cats, what's the big deal about taking it so seriously?"

It was just a casual suggestion that came to mind, and Tenkuji Yu didn't understand why she had such a serious expression.

Yukino Yukinoshita pursed her lips, placed her chopsticks flat on the lunchbox, lowered her eyes and said softly, "I once saw a news report that said many scumbags lure girls into their homes under the pretense of looking at their pets and then commit crimes against them."

He ate his meal leisurely: "Do you think I'm that kind of person?"

"...Putting personality aside, you are still trustworthy in terms of character." Yukino Yukinoshita, who had slept in the same hotel with him for several nights and traveled with him in Kyoto, said this, her attitude seemingly softening.

"So, you're just shy about coming to my house to see the cat, right?"

Tenkuji Yu astutely saw through her thoughts.

Her ears turned slightly red, and Yukino Yukinoshita coughed twice, glancing indifferently out the window.

"Let me suggest a time."

See, this is the downside of not wanting to lie: you have to fight against your own shame, and in the end, you can only honestly endure the humiliation of being stripped naked.

Tenkuji Yu smiled, stopped teasing her, and slammed his phone onto the table.

"Although my intention was just to show you a picture, not to take you home to play with the cat... you can come anytime this weekend if you want, and I'll make you some black tea that hasn't been laced with any drugs."

"...I'm so sorry I misunderstood you. Unfortunately, I don't really want to go."

Yukino Yukinoshita clenched her small fists on her knees and took a deep breath. Knowing she was in the wrong, she didn't retaliate but instead turned her gaze to her phone, her cold eyes unable to suppress the glint of anticipation.

She put down the bento box, stretched out her hand to Tenkuji Yu, and said matter-of-factly, "Remember to unlock it first."