I really don't want to have a girlfriend.

In the quiet air, time marched on with its own rhythm.

Like a prisoner obediently awaiting sentencing, Kasumigaoka Utaha didn't care where he was looking or what his expression changed during the reading.

Just look at the minute and second hands in the distance, slowly but steadily moving towards the moment when they completely overlap.

However, the two people who should be lying together on the bed still maintain a sense of distance, like "I'm leaning on your shoulder, but I can't let you reach out and hug me."

—In comparison, it all seems rather pathetic.

"Humph……"

With a slight furrow in her brows, Kasumigaoka Utaha exhaled softly through her nose, showing no urge to immediately roll over onto him.

If it were any other time—the kind of time she'd be in now, since time has been so unkind to her, giving her absolutely no chance to develop things slowly—she would definitely spare no effort and use every trick in the book to flirt with him, right?

Having finally managed to lie on the same bed with this iron lump, how could I possibly do nothing?

Unfortunately, he was engrossed in reading his novel, which he had just finished writing. His respect for him and his work prevented Kasumigaoka Utaha from doing such a thing. She could only try to ease her inner unease by talking to him. Being able to lean on his shoulder without being thrown off was an unexpected joy, enough to make her happy.

With a helpless smile, Kasumigaoka Utaha looked down at their parallel legs, a jumble of emotions welling up inside her, a barrage of questions flooding her mind—

"When did I start liking this guy?"

"When did it all begin, that I got used to teasing him, used to arguing with him, and even used to the feeling of being with him?"

"Finally, I stopped denying the fact that I had fallen for a scumbag who was very promiscuous..."

To be honest, these questions are meaningless in the face of established facts.

Since she had nothing better to do, Kasumigaoka Utaha calmed herself down and quietly recalled the little things that had happened over the past few days.

The reason for no longer denying one's own feelings is simple—

After returning from the bookstore yesterday, she knew she was beyond saving.

Perhaps it's the suspension bridge effect at work, or perhaps my other self is just too good at finding the right solution, or maybe this man is just undeniably sweet...

Realizing that she had begun to care about his existence and that she could no longer hide her desire to become closer to him, Kasumigaoka Utaha decisively gave up struggling after a date made her realize that this was probably what was called "first love".

She's not the kind of stubborn, arrogant person who only realizes at the very last moment, when things are already going badly, that if she doesn't act now, she'll never have another chance.

Give her a reason and an opportunity to convince herself, and Kasumigaoka Utaha won't be afraid to face her feelings head-on. At worst, she'll fight to the death, even if it means mutual destruction.

Most importantly, you can't regret it or run away from it!

As a writer of angst-filled romance novels, no one understands better than her how to get hurt in love and how to make herself disappear in disappointment.

To repeat the mistakes made in one's writing is the most foolish thing an author can do.

So even though someone is worse than the crumbs of an almond, Kasumigaoka Utaha still has to admit that she has really fallen for this guy in just a few days.

Despite her boldness, she still retained some girlish reserve—a confession was out of the question; she could only win him over physically and establish a fait accompli first.

It doesn't matter if the results aren't great. As long as I give myself more time, I'll be able to pull this damn radish out of the soil one day!

As for when this feeling changed from dislike to affection, and even love...

If it could be explained clearly, then love wouldn't be one of the topics that humanity has always studied, would it?

"Thinking about it this way, I really feel quite resentful."

Kasumigaoka Utaha sighed silently, her mind drifting into a daze as she muttered intermittently.

"He was...my first love...but he just happened to run into the male protagonist of a light novel who's building a harem...Even if I wanted to have him all to myself, I was several steps behind everyone else...Why did it turn out like this..."

It's all the fault of our counterparts in other worlds.

If so many inexplicable things hadn't happened, if at Shibuya Station, at that very beginning, I hadn't chosen to follow him but had instead called out to him directly...

Could it be that he's one of the girlfriends who come to rescue him now?

Will Yukino Yukinoshita and others have to wait their turn? Even if they can't stop him from building a harem, they can still lead the others as the main heroine to bring him back to the real world; instead of being like now, lagging far behind the others, and having no room to struggle to rise to the top after he fully regains his memories?

It might be too late to think about anything like that...

At the wrong time, I met the right person—or rather, under the wrong circumstances, I fell in love with someone I would never have liked otherwise.

"Even this last chance is about to slip through my fingers..."

After a brief period of darkness and a momentary loss of consciousness, Kasumigaoka Utaha groggily opened her eyes again.

With her eyes fixed on the clock on the wall, the instant her gaze sharpened and her vision cleared, she suddenly opened her eyes wide and exclaimed in surprise:

"I fell asleep?!"

However, I felt a moment of disorientation, and the hour hand was incredibly close to the twelve o'clock position, while the minute hand was only one mark away from coinciding with it.

This means that this created, false world is about to enter the next cycle of reincarnation.

Her blank, wide eyes slowly turned to the window. Night had fallen, but she could no longer see the dark, lightless sky—the entire balcony was covered in gray snowflakes, as if snow had buried the whole city. An inexplicable chill enveloped the malfunctioning air conditioner room, and the surrounding silence was so deathly that it was nauseating.

Kasumigaoka Utaha instinctively hugged her arms tightly, trying to suppress the belated trembling deep within her body. She felt her eyelids grow heavy again, and her consciousness, which had just been clearing, was pulled down by an inexplicable dizziness.

"Of all times, I had to wake up at this worst possible time..."

"Yes, I was originally thinking of not waking you up and waiting until you regain your memory tomorrow before telling you about my reading experience."

"!?"

Upon hearing the gentle and calm voice, Kasumigaoka Utaha froze in fright.

In that instant, she realized that she was not alone—she was in his room, with him by her side!

Then, a warm current, like a summer heatwave, welled up from the bottom of my heart, instantly dispelling the omnipresent cold and loneliness.

As her body gradually relaxed, Kasumigaoka Utaha slowly exhaled, a smile unconsciously appearing on her face as she turned to look in the direction from which the sound came.

"Oh, my dear Youyou, if you really dare to do that, I swear to your girlfriends, I will definitely kiss your butt with my pointed high heels."

Yuu Tenkuji rolled his eyes at her clumsy translation, threw the blanket on her delicate body—who was dressed in thin pajamas and had very obvious goosebumps—and told her to hurry up and pull the blanket off her head.

“Look at you, shivering with cold. I don’t think waking you up to face the ‘end of the world’ together is a good thing for you.”

This is a rare moment of tenderness from me, so just shut up and accept it—his impatient profile seemed to say that.

Kasumigaoka Utaha squinted her eyes and smiled as happily as a child about to go on a picnic.

"Whether it's a good thing or not, I just want to be with you~"

Tenkuji Yu gave her a strange look: "Why are you being so honest... Wait, don't hug me!"

Ignoring his words, Kasumigaoka Utaha tightly hugged his left hand—a force that would hurt her if she were to forcefully shake him off.

As mentioned earlier, Yuu Tenkuji is not the type of person who likes to be rough with girls, especially beautiful girls he is close to.

"If you're going to be gentle with me, then be gentle to the end. What's the point of throwing a blanket at me? I'm still cold!"

She dragged out her words playfully, a sly smile playing on her lips, and then took the opportunity to rub her head against his chest a few times, as if she was sure he wouldn't resist.

Whether she was still not fully awake or planning to go crazy in the last minute, Ms. Kasumigaoka, who had been so calm not long ago, now pounced on him like a drunken female wolf, her face flushed, closely transmitting her rapid heartbeat and rising body temperature, and her long, slender legs inadvertently clamped his feet.

Lying on the bed, Tenkuji Yuu found it difficult to break free. He glanced at the time and finally decided to give up resisting, letting Kasumigaoka-senpai, who had suddenly become soft and cute for some reason, enjoy this last bit of handsome guy perk.

However, we still need to get down to business.

"Senior, time is running out, I still have something to ask you."

"Huh~?"

She let out a soft, nasal hum, not as a response, but as a questioning sound tinged with dissatisfaction.

Even though the view outside the window was an apocalyptic scene resembling an ice age, Yuu Tenkuji felt as if he were on a rocking chair on a spring lawn, soothing a kitten that had jumped into his arms and was being affectionate.

This little cat has a great figure, and its paws always seem a bit out of place no matter where it's placed. Its scent is also fresher and more pleasant than any floral fragrance.

"Shiyu, I've finished reading your novel."

Tenkuji Yu held her head down to prevent her from sliding further down, while speaking with a helpless air of habit.

The sexy and cute big cat stopped moving, seemingly snapping out of her drunken smirk and no longer trying to take advantage of him.

After a long pause, Kasumigaoka Utaha didn't look up at him, but gently tugged at his collar with her fingers: "Have you finished watching...? What are your thoughts?"

Yuu Tenkuji asked bluntly, "I haven't read the first two volumes, and I didn't finish the third volume when I looked at it in the library... but I can sense that your 'fourth volume' is a story with the two of us as the main characters, right?"

The protagonist of the original work, "Love Metronome," is clearly not related to him.

With her ears turning red, Kasumigaoka Utaha nodded slightly, her fingertips, white from gripping her collar tightly, conveying a sense of timidity.

"...Didn't you say you were going to write your own 'Love Metronome'?" Unconsciously, Yu's voice softened as he sighed close to her ear and asked, "Is this a side story or a spin-off?"

"..."

The brief silence seemed to be preparing words, and after a moment, a slightly hoarse, soft voice emerged from her chest.

"That was my original plan... but as I wrote it down, I found that my mind was filled with thoughts of you, thoughts of everything that happened after we got together."

She released her hand from his collar, her timid fingertips reaching towards his waist, and finally slowly wrapped her arms around him.

Completely different from the force before, it was both clumsy and cautious, like trying to scoop up the moon from the river with unrealistic expectations.

"So, what can I do, Yoyo-kun?"

Kasumigaoka Utaha said with a wry smile, "My 'Love Metronome' has been changed because of you since a long, long time ago."

A meeting at Shibuya Station in July.

While she was troubled by the plot of the new volume, she met a boy who played the piano very well.

Under the guise of gathering material, she followed him for a while, only to be tricked by him in an alley. The first warning note she had ever received was put away in a drawer. She was furious, but also filled with curiosity about this man, and a constant stream of inspiration flowed from him.

So she changed the gender of the boy she met by chance and wrote him as a new female character, making her suffer greatly in the process of competing with the female protagonist for the male protagonist.

The new book was a great success, but the retribution came quickly—she was drawn into a strange situation because of a magical notebook that suddenly appeared.

She shut off the building's main power supply during the school festival, and rushed to the apartment entrance to save him.

In the end, she even fell in love with him in this world that was on the verge of collapse.

Is this a complicated and ill-fated relationship, or a destined romance?

Perhaps even the system itself cannot be certain.

In any case, the beginning and the end of this story cannot be without him.

If she were the female lead, then Yuu Tenkuji would have to be the male lead.

Kasumigaoka Utaha was so certain of this, and she wrote all of these feelings into this book, "Love Metronome".