I really don't want to have a girlfriend.

"Thank you, you're pretty good too."

"Wow, why are you being so frank now?"

"Hehe, if someone hadn't been deliberately trying to make me angry, I wouldn't always be so rude to them."

"Hey you two, stop flirting over my shoulder! At least include me!"

"Flirting? With this man?"

"Hilarious, it's impossible to tune."

Before I knew it, the sound of rain on the umbrella had gone from light to silent, and a fresh, cool evening breeze swept over me, making me feel refreshed and relaxed.

The dark clouds dispersed, and the two moved their umbrellas aside.

"The rain has stopped."

Will it still rain tomorrow?

"No, not tomorrow."

"What about filming? What if a rainy scene is needed as a backdrop..."

"Don't worry, the people over there will figure something out."

“I’m just your tool, but a certain chairman is the tool of the entire cultural season.”

"But when Xiaoxue is too busy, Xiaoyou will become Xiaoxue's tool, right?"

"Huh? That's what Yui said? My tool man?"

"...Damn it, don't show such a cute smile at a time like this."

They held hands and chatted.

Together we gaze up at the gradually brightening night sky.

The reward results are in!

Thank you all for your continued support. The May bounty has ended!

Without further ado, after summarizing the results of this bounty, I will strive to continue to bring you exciting, engaging, and entertaining content that is not tedious, drawn out, boring, or dull!

Here is the data.

-

Monthly votes: 9109 → 9548 (439 monthly votes, one extra chapter)

Donations: 618,300 → 631,600 (No bonus chapter if donations do not reach 20,000)

Blade count: 5860 → 6153 (293 blades, one more update)

-

The result is fantastic! There were actually two updates!

Hmm, I'm already two chapters behind this month, I'm feeling a bit pressured...

But there's no Kansai! That's nothing to me, since I can finish writing in twenty-three chapters!

Don't worry, I will pay off this bounty as soon as possible—even with such a hefty bounty, I'm full of motivation!

Whole body and whole spirit!

That concludes the bounty offer. We hope you'll continue to support us in the future!

(Today's update is a combined 5,000 words, so there will be an update tomorrow morning (?＞?＜)☆)

Chapter Ninety-Nine: Let's just buy a basement and lock him up.

10 PM.

Yukino turned on her computer and logged into her long-unused campus network account.

Soon, she saw a familiar name in the most popular post of the day.

Good evening, everyone. This is Sky Temple from the Service Club. Yesterday I saw many discussions online about me and our club president…

The title of this post is: "Come in and take a look, give me a chance to explain and promote."

"The title is terrible, but it's still eye-catching."

She casually commented, spent ten seconds reading through the formulaic text, and then clicked on the video at the bottom.

This is the most important thing in this post; it's a 'shield' he specially created to quell the recent uproar over his rumored affair with a certain younger woman.

To be honest, the scandal had only been circulating on the campus website for about a day when he had already come up with a strategy to shift the blame and brought out a half-finished fire-fighting solution—whether this reaction was right or wrong was still unknown, but it was certainly surprisingly fast.

"As expected of my little Yuuyu." Yukinoshita Haruno nodded matter-of-factly. Seeing that the video had finished loading, she subconsciously straightened her back, which had been leaning back lazily, and watched intently as the clubroom slowly appeared on the screen from dark to light.

Outside the window, it was a rainy night, and the sound of the rain seemed to be deliberately amplified, filling the air around the two students and making them stand out even more in silence.

The camera cuts to the handsome male student's face, where the dim lighting perfectly accentuates his features. The struggle and the need to muster courage are vividly conveyed to the audience through the slightly shaky camera.

"Yui, you really misunderstood that matter..."

The girl with the bun clenched her fists, glaring at him with complicated emotions: "What misunderstanding! I already left the club so as not to disturb your intimacy, why are you still bothering me!"

At this moment, Yukinoshita Haruno pressed pause.

She lowered her face, her fair fingertips slowly sliding from her brow to the bridge of her nose, across her full, soft lips, and finally gently opening her mouth to bite her bent second knuckle.

She was thinking about a very important question.

"If it were just a rumor with Yukino, he wouldn't go to such lengths to explain... A misunderstanding? Is it a misunderstanding involving someone or something?"

—If Yukino isn't enough, what if we add a dango-chan? Would that make him react quickly enough?

Yes, that should be the answer.

He wasn't doing it for Yukino, but for Yui Hihama to explain—although he hadn't finished watching it yet, Yui probably wanted to use the film to explain that he and they were innocent.

However, explaining only to one person would seem like a cover-up, so he dragged Yukino into it, using the Service Club as an excuse to preemptively exonerate Yui Yuigahama, who hadn't yet been embroiled in a scandal.

Recalling the information she had collected, Yukinoshita Haruno's thoughts flashed through her mind: his actions at school, on autumn outings, and during the Kyoto National Tournament. She felt more and more that this guess was reliable and that it was something that the person she knew would do.

Dumpling sauce must be very important to him, right? Even if she's not his girlfriend, they must have reached the stage where they like each other.

After all, he was willing to travel 133 kilometers for the person he loved, so what was a mere video from a cultural festival?

He always liked to go to great lengths to do things to please girls.

As for whether Yui Yuigahama likes her little Yuuyu, Yukino Yukinoshita didn't even doubt it for half a second—isn't it natural that a man she herself couldn't help but fall for would be popular with a passerby character?

The only thing that matters is what Yuu Tenkuji thinks.

"So, this time the target is Dango-chan, right?"

As if talking to him on the screen, Yukino Yukinoshita murmured to herself, her eyes unconsciously darkening, and the corners of her usually upturned mouth curving into a cold arc.

The group of girls he saw in front of his house, including his own sister, were all his main targets. But unexpectedly, the most ordinary and inconspicuous one became his next "leading lady," and was even suspected of running off with his sister...

My boyfriend has become too independent. What's the best way to completely break him down so he can only crawl on the ground and hug his own feet?

Why not just buy a basement and lock him up? That would solve everything once and for all, and we could even have kids in there every day...

"—Phew, calm down, Yukinoshita Haruno."

But soon, she shook her head, slapped her face twice, which had become terrifying due to jealousy, and the rational monster regained control of her consciousness.

“Too much pressure will only push him further away. I’m at a disadvantage right now, and I can’t resort to those last resorts until I’m sure he has no ability to resist.”

Completely oblivious to what she was saying, Yukinoshita Haruno pressed the spacebar to distract herself, and the video, which was about a minute long, started playing again.

"There's only one reason, a very simple answer." He said to Yui Yuigahama affectionately, "Yukinoshita is just my good friend, but the one I love... is you!"

With a snap, she pressed the space bar.

The irritation in her chest was almost bursting out of her throat. Yukino took a deep breath, resisting the urge to punch through the screen, and stood up, pacing around the room.

She was afraid that if she continued watching, even a rational monster would be killed by her own fist, turning her into a fool controlled by her emotions—although she envied the simplicity of such people, she didn't want to become an idiot because of the influence of her feelings.

"I feel like throwing up."

Although he knew it was acting, and although he had already guessed beforehand that he liked Tuanzi-chan.

But seeing her boyfriend confess his love to someone else still filled Yukino with immense anger and nausea, constantly shaking her composure and causing her fingers to tremble uncontrollably.

She was unwilling to admit that there was any feeling of grievance, bitterness, or pitifulness in her voice; that was not suitable for Yukinoshita Haruno.

His masculinity could only become vulnerable in front of him. If he wasn't by his side, he should act like a mature adult and make rational choices.

After pacing around the room several times and calming herself down, Yukino returned to her computer. Instead of watching the video that was still nine-tenths complete, she scrolled down to read other students' comments.

"So, the girlfriend you mentioned before was just a line from a script?"

"I'm a member of the committee, and I originally thought that Tenkuji-kun was really dating the committee chairman, but what he said today and this video have made me start to doubt that idea... How should I put it? Tenkuji-kun's acting is really good!"

"Isn't this just messing with us? The video is awful! Boycott the Service Club! Boycott Tenkuji!"

"Upstairs, see you at the school gate at eight o'clock tomorrow morning? I'm not Tenkuji-sama, just an enthusiastic casual fan of his."

"The general public is confused, but this trailer is quite interesting. I'm curious to see what happens. I'm planning to go to the cultural festival on the day of the festival. Anyone want to organize a group? Girls only."

"Sunflower seeds, cola, and Sprite are available for sale in the front row."

"Congratulations! Our Tenkuji-sama doesn't have a girlfriend, he'll always belong to us! —by an anonymous member of the True Love Fan Club"

"Upstairs, he's Yuihama's boyfriend from Class F, and it's already confirmed. You guys can give up..."

Upon seeing the last message, Yukino slammed her laptop shut, as if afraid it would pollute her eyes.

Her chest heaved violently, her eyes filled with icy coldness. Ignoring the fact that it was already 10 p.m., she picked up her phone and made a call.

"Is this Xiao Zhenliang? I'm so sorry to bother you so late. I'd like to ask you a few simple questions..."

Chapter 100 Yukinoshita, this is all you've got.

They had agreed to exchange information, but if Yukinoshita Haruno weren't a graduate of Soubu High School, she would have had other ways to learn about the things happening around Tenkuji Yu—

At least, she hadn't heard any of these things from Natsukawa Masuzu.