I really don't want to have a girlfriend.

"...Just like Yui said, you might not be able to win in the end."

Tenkuji Yu waved his hand with a smile, but did not meet her gaze. He simply said indifferently, "If you want to compete, then compete; if you don't want to compete, then give up. It's that simple. There's nothing to worry about."

"...Okay, you said it yourself."

After a sigh of resignation, Yukino Yukinoshita picked up her notebook again and looked at Iroha Isshiki: "Give me a question."

"Yes! No matter what the question is, I won't lose!" Yui Yuigahama said, full of fighting spirit.

This puts Isshiki Hatake, the one who set the question, in a difficult position.

"Um, you guys are putting so much pressure on me... I feel like no matter what questions I give, it's wrong. I really don't want to offend my seniors."

Yukino Yukinoshita shrugged gently: "The person involved said they don't care, so just come up with whatever you want."

"Okay, let me think about it..."

Iroha rubbed her little hands together, thinking nervously and struggling for a long time before suddenly showing a reckless expression. She turned around and wrote a few big words on the whiteboard.

"Didn't Yukinoshita-senpai just say that senpai's nature is frivolous?"

Facing the crowd behind the long table, the flaxen-haired girl took a deep breath, her chest puffed out under her sweater, and her small and cute face carried a heroic expression of "So what if I die? As long as I die in the right place." She slammed her hand on the whiteboard with great force.

"Whether it is or isn't, the answer can be found by this question!"

Question 5 —

[Will my senior cheat on me with another girl before we even break up?]

This is the problem that Iroha Isshiki came up with, a problem that would prevent her from offending anyone except her senior!

Naturally, the senior would definitely give a negative answer, and the two senior students who trust him would never make a joke like "Tenkuji Yu is a womanizer" in this situation.

The result was that both of them scored, making the score four to three, with Yukinoshita-senpai winning.

But this would disprove her earlier claim that her senior was a frivolous guy—even if it's a bit of sophistry, she could still say that Yukinoshita-senpai misjudged her senior and didn't actually know him that well.

That should offer some comfort to Yui-senpai, right?

There's no way around it; coming up with a perfect solution in a short time is just too difficult for a high school girl who only has a little bit of cunning!

'This is the limit of how well I can maintain a good atmosphere... Senior, you can definitely understand, right?'

Isshiki Hachiman prayed silently, unable to resist secretly glancing at his expression.

However, he found that Yuu Tenkuji did not glare at him as expected. Instead, he exchanged a complicated glance with Yui Yuigahama before silently lowering his head to write his answer.

On the other side, Yukino Yukinoshita hesitated for a moment before putting pen to paper, her soft, glistening lips pressed together.

Before long, they all raised their eyes and looked at Isshiki Hachiman.

"Uh... so, shall we reveal the answer?"

Isseiro was somewhat cautious, trying to minimize its presence.

As Yukino Yukinoshita flipped through the notebook, her expression remained calm as she offered her own explanation with conviction:

"Let me state upfront that the frivolity and promiscuity I mentioned earlier are different things."

The answer written in the notebook was exactly what everyone expected—

"Won't".

She believed that no matter how frivolous Tenkuji Yu was, he would never do something like two-timing.

After spending several months together, the man Yukino Yukinoshita knew had already earned the qualifications to make her so certain.

After answering first, she looked at the other two who hadn't moved yet, and gradually became puzzled.

For some reason, the atmosphere between them became inexplicably heavy, and even the air in the Service Department classroom seemed to freeze.

"Xiao You... are you telling the truth?"

With her fingers gripping the notebook tightly, Yui Yuigahama seemed to only now realize something was wrong, and asked with a worried expression.

Tenkuji Yu shrugged and said nonchalantly, "I can't lie to your face, can I? Even if it's just written on paper."

"...Let's just lie. There's no need for everyone to know."

Yui Yuigahama shook her head vigorously, preparing to put the notebook away, but he reached out and snatched it away.

"Don't worry about those useless things. I might have cared about that in the past..."

He glanced at the contents casually, smiled faintly, and laid the two notebooks out on the table so that Yukino Yukinoshita could see them clearly.

"As for now, whatever happens, happens. I'm too lazy to care anymore, and I don't want to lie anymore."

"What do you mean..."

As her gaze shifted downwards, the words caught her eye, and Yukino Yukinoshita's eyes widened in surprise. The rest of her words were lost in astonishment.

On the paper were two identical, short answers.

--"meeting".

In other words, he admitted that he would cheat on his girlfriend with other girls.

And Yui Yuigahama believed this.

The score is three to three.

The first-ever tacit understanding quiz in the Service Club ended in a tie between the two girls.

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Senior, you big ○○!

"Senior, I'm sorry. I'm guilty..."

As the two upperclassmen in the Service Club packed up their things and prepared to leave, Iroha Isshiki quietly approached Yuu Tenkuji and obediently bowed her head to admit her mistake.

"I'm sorry for making the atmosphere so awkward."

"It has nothing to do with you. Yui raised the question, and I answered it. You don't need to apologize." Yuu flicked her forehead lightly, and before she could smile with relief, he used his other hand to flick her forehead harder.

Snapped!

"However, I still need to settle accounts with you for using me for amusement."

"Ugh!" Iroha Isshiki cried out in pain, clutching her forehead, tears streaming down her face. "You said it had nothing to do with me, Senpai! You have no sportsmanship! You ambushed me, your cute sixteen-year-old junior..."

She hid behind Tachibana Kanade, who was quietly observing everything, and pointed at him angrily: "President, expel him from school! The reason is that he ruthlessly beat up a junior!"

"I'm not the president yet," Tachibana Kanade said casually, looking at the two of them with little change in expression, except that the corners of her mouth curved up slightly and a hint of a smile appeared in her pale gold eyes.

"You two have such a good relationship."

"Huh?" Iroha Isshiki's eyes widened, looking incredulous. "Me and my senior? No way! Although I consider our senior-junior relationship to be better than others in school and workplace, when it comes to feelings—"

Before she could finish her long, breathless speech, Tachibana Kanade spoke in a soft yet clear voice: "Is Ayaha deliberately coming to bother Yu-senpai because she felt he was in a bad mood? I think that's a sign of a good relationship."

"..."

Her soft, glistening lips parted as if speechless. Before a blush of inexplicable shyness could spread across her face, Iroha's eyes darted around, and she tilted her chin up in a deliberately smug manner.

"That's right! How about it, senior? Aren't you touched? It's not too late to show your loyalty to your cute and considerate junior, is it? Hehehe~"

"Ah, yes, yes, I'm very touched." Tenkuji Yu rolled her eyes. Besides her devilish nature, she's also a bit tsundere? This junior is really multifaceted.

The lights in the Service Club were gradually turned off, and Yui Yuigahama and Yukino Yukinoshita walked over carrying their schoolbags.

Before that, Isshiki Hachiman suddenly spoke in a voice so soft that even he could barely hear it, almost muttering:

"Senior... were you serious about that question?"

Tenkuji Yu didn't look down at her expression, but instead gazed out the window at the desolate sky filled with cold wind.

"Even if you don't want to, you'll have to do it someday."

There is no explanation, nor is there any need to explain to anyone.

If you don't know how to deal with increasingly complicated situations, then just stay true to yourself and do what you're supposed to do.

The rest is up to others to decide.

……

The group left the special building.

As if nothing had happened, Yui Yuigahama and Iroha Isshiki chatted, with Yukino Yukinoshita occasionally chiming in.

Tenkuji Yu and Tachibana Kanade followed silently beside him, one too lazy to speak and the other simply used to being silent.

Yui Yuigahama would occasionally turn around and pull Yuuto Tenkuji into the conversation, but at those times, Yukino Yukinoshita would usually shut her mouth and fall silent, not looking at him, let alone retorting to his jokes.

Yui Yuigahama's deliberately cold demeanor made her hesitate several times, wanting to say something to ease the atmosphere, but she was interrupted by Yuu Tenkuji at the right time.

The only person who cared about that issue was Yukino Yukinoshita, while Yuu Souji seemed to want her to continue to "misunderstanding" it, so he deliberately kept quiet and let her distance herself.

In the end, Yuigahama Yui also gave up and didn't want to care anymore.

As the preparatory bell rang, amidst the throngs of people pouring into the teaching building, Tenkuji Yu and his two junior classmates bid farewell.

Before leaving, Isshiki complained, "Senpai, why don't you go visit the manager at the coffee shop once in a while?"

Yuu Tenkuji rolled her eyes: "You just want me to cover your shift, right?"

Having her little scheme exposed so bluntly, Isshiki Iroha wasn't embarrassed at all; she just gave a mischievous chuckle.

"There's nothing we can do about it. They're definitely busier than you lately and don't have time to go work. Luckily, the store manager hired a few more employees, otherwise we would really be facing a talent crisis."

"It's good that we don't need anyone. I'll go back and visit when I have time," Yuu Tenkuji waved his hand dismissively.

Iroha Isshiki pouted slightly: "What kind of attitude is that! If you don't want to come, fine, but I won't tell you that all the new employees are cute high school girls..."

She suddenly realized halfway through her sentence that it wasn't just her and her senior who were there.

'Waaaaah, you idiot, Ayaha-chan! Even now, you still don't know when to stop speaking! Are you trying to push yourself and your senior into the fire...?'

Cold sweat trickled down his forehead.

As if her voice had been choked, she stopped speaking, secretly glanced at the other two senior students, and Iroha Isshiki straightened her face, coughed twice with a serious expression, and raised her hand to greet them.

"That's settled then! Goodbye, seniors!"

With her arms crossed over her elbows, Yukino Yukinoshita nodded gently.

Yui Yuigahama waved with a smile: "Bye-bye~ Iroha-chan, Kanade-chan!"