I really don't want to have a girlfriend.

It's not the fourth volume, not the final chapter—it's a love story that belongs solely to him and her.

Looking at the closed laptop lying to the side, Tenkuji Yu let her hug him and sighed to the sky as if admitting defeat.

"I never expected you to write me a love letter that's 100,000 words long..."

"It's not a love letter!" she protested, but gave up after a couple of seconds, muttering sullenly, "...Fine, you can call it a love letter then. Just tell me if it's pretty or not!"

"Of course..."

Before Yuu Tenkuji could finish speaking, while the two were engrossed in their conversation, the clock did not stop for them, and a minute passed in the blink of an eye.

The hour and minute hands are like two people on a bed, completely overlapping and intertwined.

And so, in an instant.

The gray snow quickly turned an ominous black and seeped into the room from outside the window. Like a black tide, an avalanche suddenly fell, swallowing up the desk, computer, bookshelves, and everything in sight.

As the two reacted, a chill came from all directions, slowly freezing their consciousness and stripping them of all their power.

—If Kasumigaoka Utaha hadn't bitten her tongue hard, she would have already passed out, as she was already drowsy.

But it won't last long.

They might not even last a second.

If she only had this one second, what could she do...?

With almost no time to think, Kasumigaoka Utaha used her last bit of strength to grab his shirt and tilt her head back as high as she could.

Then, their lips 'collided' with his lips.

"Your first kiss...take responsibility for it..."

She didn't even know if she had said those words to him or if he had heard them.

The next moment, Kasumigaoka Utaha completely lost consciousness.

Chapter 147 Second Cycle, Meeting Again

Suddenly, blinding sunlight pierced through the window cracks, gradually illuminating the dim room.

At six o'clock in the morning, the boy in bed woke up on time, and the drowsiness and confusion dissipated in an instant.

"Is it morning...?"

He murmured to himself, picked up his phone from the bedside table, and focused his gaze on the time and date.

It was the same Monday, but it was seven days earlier.

He frowned and pondered for a long time before finally figuring out where the problem lay.

"Why wake up at home instead of in the classroom?"

It's supposed to be a cycle, but the second playthrough is different from the first playthrough from the very beginning.

Is this how the system is set up? Or...?

Before he could come up with an answer, a soft knock sounded on the door.

"Please come in."

Naturally, a girl with short silver hair, petite and cute like an elementary school student, pushed open the door and entered, still with that expressionless look.

"The second playthrough has begun," she said bluntly.

“I know.” Yuu Tenkuji sat up in bed, brushed her messy bangs back, and frowned as she asked, “But shouldn’t I have woken up in the classroom?”

“Like a save point in a game, starting from the second playthrough, after the seven-day cycle, you will wake up in this room,” Itoko explained. “This setting is to strengthen your sense of belonging to ‘home’ and make it easier for me to lower your guard from the perspective of family.”

"Your true form is quite cunning." Tenkuji Yu curled her lips. Is it really true that it is a system that has been with her for more than a hundred years? It always likes to use such petty tricks to scheme against others. If she hadn't been on guard, she might have really fallen for it.

"Fine, according to the procedure, I should just go to school now, right?"

Yuu Tenkuji got out of bed, stretched vigorously, and loosened his stiff muscles.

After handing him the uniform from Toyonosaki Academy, the silver-haired girl stood obediently beside him.

"If nothing unexpected happens, Yukinoshita and the others should follow the action logic of the previous timeline and approach the host or appear in front of the host one by one."

Tenkuji Yu tilted her head slightly: "If someone influences them, or if my actions change, will I not encounter them?"

“It depends on what they think.” Itoko shook her head. “Yukino Yukinoshita and Asuna Yukinoshita, who are currently in animal form, retain memories of the real world. Even if they are unaware of the fact of reincarnation, they may choose not to meet you because they suddenly change their minds… The system does not have the power to control them as puppets.”

"Yeah……"

After pondering for a while, Yuu Tenkuji picked up his phone and scrolled through his empty contacts.

He remembered Kasumigaoka Utaha's phone number and LINE ID, but calling her now wouldn't make much sense—going directly to her door might be an option, but that would be too forceful.

So she put down her phone, walked to the window, and suddenly pulled back the curtains to let the golden morning light bathe her whole body, letting that false warmth seep into every inch of her skin.

He chuckled softly, his eyes narrowing slightly. His fingers gently traced the corners of his slightly upturned lips, and the soft touch he felt before losing consciousness seemed to leave a faint sweetness on his lips.

"He clearly kissed me without permission, and now he wants me to take responsibility? That's so unreasonable..."

Previously, Yuu Tenkuji would have definitely dismissed this, and might even have turned the tables on him.

That guy clearly took advantage of her; she's already being lenient by not asking for compensation, let alone taking responsibility? Go ahead and apply for arbitration in court if you dare!

If Aya finds out about this, he'll have to go to great lengths to comfort her... Even if she's a partner who's been through thick and thin with him, he has no interest in taking responsibility for a female hooligan.

His four girlfriends, who were still waiting, would certainly not agree to this.

"Besides, even if you wrote me a love letter of 100,000 words, I could never be so moved as to fall in love with you."

Even though there was no one in front of me, only the quiet cityscape that had just awakened stretched towards the horizon.

Yuu Tenkuji was still muttering to himself, making some amused comments about someone who wasn't there.

"I'm not going to give myself away so easily. It took me a long time to develop feelings for Aya, and I've only known you for a few days. How could I possibly be won over by these few waves of advances..."

That would be a gross underestimation of Yuu Tenkuji.

Do you really think his integrity and moral character are made of paper?

No matter how many kisses you give or how many 2.23 million words of love letters you write, it's no use. If you don't like someone, you just don't like them. Otherwise, how do you think Kasumigaoka Utaha from other worlds became a loser?

Even scum have their own code of conduct.

A womanizer is someone who accepts anyone and sleeps with anyone he can, but neither he nor the girls would like a womanizer like Yuu Tenkuji.

So, Kasumigaoka Utaha's idea of ​​using this tactic to become his heroine before leaving was simply too naive.

Just like a theoretical physicist who has never conducted an experiment, even if he has read two hundred romance novels, he will inevitably falter when it comes to actually doing it, and ultimately face this disappointing outcome.

"I hope she won't be too heartbroken when she regains her memory."

Yuu Tenkuji shook his head, turned around, picked up his school uniform, and politely asked Itoko to leave the room.

Before closing the door for him, the silver-haired girl asked in confusion, "Are you going to keep your promise to Kasumigaoka Utaha? Before meeting the others, go and help her recover her memories from the previous timeline."

Tenkuji Yu wasn't surprised that she knew what the two were talking about in the room. After all, the door was so thin that an ordinary person could hear the conversation inside by pressing their ear against it, let alone someone with their heightened senses.

"Of course! I will do my best to keep any promises I make to others."

Tenkuji Yu waved his hand, indicating that she shouldn't ask such nonsense.

As Itoko slowly closed the door, she stared intently at him as he gradually took off his pajamas with her slightly bright black eyes. At the same time, she said calmly, "But Yu-nii, you don't know the correct way to restore memories, do you? Unlike them, even I don't know how to restore Kasumigaoka Utaha's memories from the previous timeline."

With her fingers hovering over the buttons, Yuu Tenkuji turned her head away irritably: "If you don't know what to do, then hurry up and go downstairs to prepare breakfast!"

"understood."

Seeing that she would no longer have the pleasure of watching a handsome man undress, the silver-haired girl closed the door obediently with a slight regret.

Just as the door was sewn shut, she seemed to hear the boy inside the room say in a confident yet calm voice:

"As long as I believe in myself, there is nothing I cannot do."

Because he is Tenkuji Yu, Tenkuji Yu who carries their trust.

……

Toyozaki Academy.

To ensure the plot didn't go off track, Yuusuke Tenkuji, unusually well-behaved, finished his morning self-study session and went to look around the third-year classrooms, but couldn't find Kasumigaoka Utaha.

After finishing his first class in the classroom, he chose to go to the library this time, and decided that if he still couldn't find her, he would hack into the surveillance cameras throughout the city and start tracking her from her doorstep.

Fortunately, it didn't end up going to that much trouble.

On the third floor of the library, the bell for the second session had just rung, and the place was quiet and deserted, both between the bookshelves and on the seats.

But if you listen carefully, you can hear the sound of pages turning from time to time in the corner.

Yuu Tenkuji stood at the top of the stairs on the third floor, in the shadows where the sunlight couldn't penetrate.

He took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled.

"If I'm not mistaken, after Yu-ge restored Kasumigaoka Utaha's memories, he intended to reject her confession and say he wouldn't take responsibility for her first kiss, right?" The silver-haired girl behind him tilted her head slightly and asked in a strangely sharp yet calm tone, "If that's the case, then why did you react with such nervousness that your heart was racing?"

"I want you to manage."

The two were in a state of "no one can hear them from behind the walls," so they weren't worried that the person in the corner on the third floor would hear them.

After finishing her sentence without turning her head, Yuu Tenkuji added, as if she were in a hurry to defend herself, "I just feel a little complicated thinking that if I go and talk to her now, I will be mistaken for a suitor who is attracted to her beauty."

Itoko's eyes flickered, and she finally thought of a suitable retort: ​​"Yu-nii, being tsundere is out of fashion."

"It's just that you haven't kept up with the version. This isn't called being arrogant. Don't label me like that."

Tenkuji Yu snorted coldly and waved her hand to interrupt her next sentence: "Don't stand here like an idiot, go downstairs and wait for us to come down."

"……understood."

As the silver-haired girl strolled away slowly—he wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt like she rolled her eyes at him before going downstairs, just like he had done to Kasumigaoka Utaha before—he also shook off his extraneous thoughts, stepped through the rows of bookshelves, and walked toward the corner where the sound of turning pages was coming from.

With each step, he was reminiscing about the time he had spent with Kasumigaoka Utaha.

They abruptly approached her, established contact with her in the worst possible way, and used her only as a tool for finding clues.

Forced by circumstances, he went to her house to find her. Even though he took the initiative to be friendly, he still regarded her as his sister's enemy. And his sister's enemy was his enemy. He had no intention of building a good relationship with her.

What changed everything was that journey of memories.

No matter what the other Kasumigaoka Utaha was up to, he didn't think he would fall for that gruff, fat woman in black stockings—even knowing about their past relationship in another timeline, even having personally experienced dating her, even though their lips were only a Pocky stick away from each other.