I really don't want to have a girlfriend.

"Your charm seems to be concentrated on your long, black-stockinged legs. Now that it's just your upper body, you feel like you've become quite ordinary."

"..."

"By the way, I was just kidding. I only made this joke to help you relax. I hope you won't be angry."

"...If you're not angry, do you expect me to thank you?"

"No need for that."

"hehe."

Seeing his feigned serious expression, Kasumigaoka Utaha gave a forced smile.

—This guy is truly a scumbag.

What kind of outrageous accident would happen for me to fall for a guy who's so awful I'd want to twist his head off, someone who's even less appealing than a frog's pee?

He must have saved her life dozens of times, right?

"No, we can't think like that."

Kasumigaoka Utaha shook her head, deciding to avoid seeing him altogether, and turned her gaze away from that annoying guy: "Different timelines will create different personalities in ourselves... That guy is the most obvious example."

"I don't care what other worlds are like, I just won't fall in love with this Tenkuji Yu in front of me."

Having made this conclusion, I felt a little relieved, and my consciousness momentarily wavered.

When she came to her senses, her vision suddenly brightened, and she found herself standing in an unfamiliar room, with Kasumigaoka Utaha's figure not far away.

The hair length is still the same, so not much time has passed.

Before I could even take a good look at my surroundings, a pale blue window popped up as expected.

[Chapter Two, Fate Bound]

Chapter 104 What kind of predestined relationship is this?

Where am I?

The window quickly disappeared, and Kasumigaoka Utaha raised her eyes to take a look at where she was now.

The air conditioner blew out cool air, the curtains blocked out the bright sunlight outside, and the faint chirping of cicadas could be heard—in this clean and tidy bedroom, 'Kasumigaoka Utaha' sat at a low table, typing intently on the keyboard.

“But this isn’t my room.” The spirit behind her frowned.

The room was decorated in cool colors, and the bedding looked brand new without a single crease. The decorations were simple enough, with only a whole wall of books adding interest to the monotonous furnishings. There were all kinds of books, from literature and law to science and theology, and they were neatly categorized and arranged on the bookshelves.

Just by looking around, Kasumigaoka Utaha could imagine what the room's owner looked like—a rational and calm adult male with a bit of obsessive-compulsive disorder and a lot of knowledge.

But the question is, why is "she" here rushing to finish her manuscript?

Apart from her parents' bedroom, she had never entered the room of any man in her seventeen years of life...

This question was quickly answered.

"You really treat my house like a studio?"

A boy with long bangs and a gloomy, rustic appearance pushed open the door and walked in, carrying two cups of ice-cold barley tea.

Under Ling's incredulous gaze, he casually sat down next to Kasumigaoka Utaha, placing a cup of barley tea beside her while drinking another cup and watching the text constantly increasing on her screen.

"Hmm... Is this the beginning of Volume 3? Which edition?"

"The tenth edition," she answered crisply, without even looking up. "None of them are the best, and if they're not the best, I won't use them."

Typing away with one hand, Kasumigaoka Utaha downed a glass of barley tea in one gulp, slamming the cup down on the table before continuing her frantic typing session.

He placed the empty cup opposite her to prevent her from accidentally dropping it, and sighed helplessly, "Judging from your expression, you're not planning to write a hundred different opening lines, are you?"

His typing hands suddenly paused: "...You have so little faith in me?"

Yuu Tenkuji rolled her eyes: "I just don't have confidence in your deadline."

"Then you'd better just watch."

Although she didn't look away from the screen, she still curled the corners of her lips and confidently hummed at him: "I'm bursting with inspiration right now, I'm in top form! I'll finish the most brilliant and impeccable opening today, and let those guys who say my level has declined witness Xia Shizi's talent!"

Tenkuji Yu shrugged, said nothing, pressed his knees as he got up and returned to his computer desk.

As he shook the mouse to make the screen light up again, he casually said, "Write something down and show it to me."

"Don't worry, I won't give you any room to find fault."

Her expression turned serious, and she struck the ground heavily, the steady and firm sound of her knocking echoing once again in the quiet room.

Men and women alone, with their hearts unguarded.

The two of them stood back to back, relaxed and at ease, immersed in their own worlds of fiction.

"..."

Floating in mid-air, Kasumigaoka Utaha looked at them with a head full of question marks, unable to utter a single word of her grievance.

How is this going?

Why did it turn out like this?

What exactly happened in between?!

"Chapter Two, The Beginning of a Bond... Didn't we already finish the beginning of the bond? Why did you jump straight to the end of the chapter?"

Rubbing her temples as if she had a headache, Kasumigaoka Utaha tried to calm herself down, recalling the few words they had just exchanged, and gradually made a rough guess about the current situation.

The timeframe is one month after the awards ceremony.

During this period, they somehow became so familiar with each other that they could be alone at the man's house, which was probably due to their common ground—writing.

Since she had agreed to let him read her work, it meant that Kasumigaoka Utaha had recognized his abilities and was willing to let him guide and review her work. Judging from his nonchalant attitude, this might not be the first time this had happened—the two of them had probably communicated privately quite a few times since that meeting, as authors.

However, after careful observation, Kasumigaoka Utaha realized that the progress did not seem to be as advanced as she had imagined.

The atmosphere remained serious and solemn throughout. Neither of them spoke, but they focused intently on typing on their keyboards—just as Tenkuji Yu had said earlier, this was not his room, but a studio reserved for authors.

The people sitting inside were not young men and women who were attracted to each other, but creators who poured their hearts and souls into their writing.

"So, does 'forming a bond' mean not familiarity, but rather the process of friendship transforming into love?"

Kasumigaoka Utaha frowned slightly. Now that she knew that the version of herself in front of her would eventually fall in love with someone, she could tell even better that she probably hadn't developed feelings for Tenkuji Yuu yet, and that her affection for him was at most at the level of a writer friend.

Feeling inexplicably relieved, Kasumigaoka Utaha patted her cheeks and couldn't help but smile wryly, "I really have nothing better to do than analyze my own feelings..."

The ending is already predetermined anyway; it's just a matter of seeing how things unfold. Thinking too much about it is just a waste of energy.

Since that's the case, Kasumigaoka Utaha simply relaxed, crossed her arms, and floated lazily behind her, watching the plot unfold.

About half an hour later, Kasumigaoka Utaha, who had been engrossed in typing, slowly stopped. Her bloodshot eyes quickly scanned what she had just written. After confirming that there were no problems, she slammed her hand on the table with her disheveled hair and smiled from the bottom of her heart.

"It's written! This time it'll definitely work!"

Yuu Tenkuji took off her headphones, spun her chair halfway around, and was stunned for a moment when she saw Yuu's unkempt yet pure and natural appearance, which seemed like she was insane. Then she couldn't help but laugh.

"Have you completely abandoned your image in front of me?"

Kasumigaoka Utaha tossed her hair and said nonchalantly, "Anyway, you've seen how much worse I look. This is a sacrifice made for the sake of creation, there's no need to be pretentious."

The spirit behind him: "?"

What has this guy seen of you...? You've only known each other for a month, can you two stop acting like an old married couple?!

Unaware that someone was secretly gossiping about them, Yuu Tenkuji, after the black-haired girl moved away from the computer, casually sat cross-legged on the still-warm ground and began to seriously review the manuscript.

Her gaze lingered on his slightly pursed lips, and Kasumigaoka Utaha quickly turned her head away as if nothing had happened. She took out a small mirror from her bag and realized that she did look rather unpresentable, like a crazy woman.

"I'm going to pick a flower."

She casually uttered a sentence, and without waiting for a reply, she got up, left the room, and went downstairs to the bathroom.

Ling followed slowly behind, but before leaving, she glanced thoughtfully at the potted plant in front of his door.

Then, peeking inside, they successfully discovered a small, dark box, concealed by leaves and stuck to the door panel—it was a bugging device.

"I remember this guy lived with his sister, and they were very close... It seems like he and I in real life are enemies?"

The spirit behind him subconsciously glanced at the next room, which had a sign that read "Kasugano Sora" on the door, and it was quiet and without any movement.

Even if he has a sister who's overly obsessed with her brother, that's none of my business.

She quickly dismissed the discovery, and the spirit followed her to the toilet. To her relief, she didn't do anything like a pervert. She simply reached her hand inside her skirt, pulled down her stockings and the white fabric underneath to her ankles, and then sat on the toilet, relaxing her body with a soft, rhythmic motion.

After a while of beautiful music, Kasumigaoka Utaha finished cleaning up, put on what she needed to wear, and pressed the flush button.

—I doubt many people have had the experience of witnessing themselves using the toilet.

Ling silently complained to herself, then watched as she washed her hands, began to carefully comb her hair, adjust the position of her headband, wash and dry her face, closed her eyes for a few seconds to let the blood vessels recede, before opening her eyes again and looking straight into the mirror.

"……very good."

She gently clenched her fist, tossed her long, flowing hair behind her, her eyes sparkling with warmth, and gave herself a confident and beautiful smile in the mirror.

She blinked her big eyes cutely, her fist pressed against her chin, and the dimples on her cheeks added a touch of playfulness to her maturity.

After striking several "killer poses," she finally composed herself, her overly expressive face settling into a low voice as she muttered to herself:

"That despicable guy dared to say he didn't see me as a woman at all, letting me come and go as I pleased..."

The girl's gritted teeth lasted only a moment before she regained her composure. With a contemptuous yet aggressive smile, she slowly unbuttoned the top two buttons of her shirt.

Chapter 105 You just wait!

I can't describe the specific details like the snow-white skin or the deep cleavage, so please experience it for yourselves—it's a beautiful sight that can firmly capture the gaze of the opposite sex and easily lure them into the abyss with the unique charm of a young girl, a 'weapon' that a girl of this age should not possess.

After dressing herself up in a seductive and alluring way, and even wetting her collar with water as if she had unbuttoned it while washing her face and forgotten to button it back up, Kasumigaoka Utaha made sure that her preparations to shake someone's heart were complete before leaving the restroom with light and cheerful steps.

As for the certain ghost behind him, it had already covered its face, too afraid to watch what would happen next.

"Why would I be so stupid... No, this is definitely not me... How could I be so stupid as to actually do something like that old cliché of trying to seduce someone who's alone in a room because I'm not even in love with them yet, just because I'm unwilling to give up..."

Didn't you ever consider the possibility of being violated in return?! You big-breasted, brainless literary girl!

No matter how much she complains, feels ashamed, or curses her other self, the facts that have already happened will not change because of a ghost.

After going upstairs, Kasumigaoka Utaha slowed her pace and quietly walked to the door of Tenkuji Yuu's room. Then, with minimal movement, she opened the door and floated inside like a ghost.

Inside the room, the seemingly unremarkable young man, whose broad back gave him a sense of security, was still intently reviewing a document on his computer. He had probably already read it all, as he was using a small mouse nestled in his palm with one hand and rapidly typing on the keyboard with the other, highlighting certain paragraphs in red and making revisions.