I really don't want to have a girlfriend.

And right beneath our feet is the home ground of the Night's Light Jade, which is why there's a movie theater with a summer night theme.

"Really? That's good." Natsukawa Masuzu breathed a sigh of relief, as if all her strength had been drained, and lazily leaned her head on his shoulder. "The host of the fifth light orb should be Kasumigaoka Utaha, right?"

“I don’t know.” Yuu Tenkuji shook her head. “There are only four Light Orbs at the moment. The process of Utaha and I getting to know each other is different from yours. I’m not sure if she will be able to create a Light Orb according to the process.”

Natsukawa Masaki was a little worried: "Without the five Light Orbs, won't you be unable to break free from the system's control?"

"Don't worry about that, I have a way."

Yuu Tenkuji didn't explain much, but simply patted the back of her hand resting on his lap and gestured for her to turn her attention to the enormous projection screen made of starlight above them, smiling as he said:

"The most important thing now is to reconnect with our past relationship. Right?"

"...Yes, that makes sense."

Nodding obediently, Natsukawa Masaki turned her gaze back, her slender, snow-white arms wrapping around his like snakes, pressing tightly against him, more intimate than most couples.

With both of them watching, the projection screen gradually lit up, like a movie about to start.

At the same time, the surrounding darkness deepened, making the emerging scene even clearer.

Blinking, Natsukawa Masuzu suddenly remembered something important.

"Watching a movie without popcorn and cola is like the West without Jerusalem—this Guangyu is careless!"

She shook her head in exasperation, but naturally, the radiant jade hanging above her head paid no heed to her criticism.

Yuu Tenkuji rolled her eyes: "It's good enough that there's a sofa to lie on. Haruno, Asuna, and I stood and watched the whole thing. What kind of VIP service do you want?"

"Really? Then it's alright."

Natsukawa Masaki's eyes lit up immediately. She gave a triumphant hum and adjusted to an even more comfortable position—almost half of her body was pressed against him, and her hands were gently wrapped around his waist.

When she tried to quietly descend, she was firmly grabbed by Yuu Tenkuji and secured to her waist.

"Focus on watching the movie."

"Good~"

She obediently drew out her voice, her small hands resting softly in his palm.

This made Yuu Tenkuji suspect that this guy did this on purpose so that she could hold his hand.

Just then, images finally appeared on the giant light screen.

The first scene is set in the classroom after school.

Of course, Yuu Tenkuji remembered that after completing Asuna's mission, the system made him wait in the classroom for the next mission to begin, which was almost like announcing that his next girlfriend would come to find him at that time.

Sure enough, the next second, the camera switched away from him as he was texting Yui Yuigahama.

A beautiful girl with silver hair like stardust and a fairy-like, dignified and beautiful face stood at the classroom door, looking inside with a pure and kind smile on her face.

"Excuse me, is Tenkuji from your class here?"

Upon seeing this, Natsukawa Masaki, who was standing next to her, commented, "Who is this actress? She's so beautiful, and she's such a perfect match for the male lead."

Yuu Tenkuji chose not to criticize her.

Then, under the ambiguous gazes of other students, the two met at a grove. After the fake confession, the silver-haired beauty revealed her wicked nature, threatening him with the matter of renting a boyfriend to force him into a fake relationship.

Natsukawa Masuzu stared wide-eyed in disbelief, tugged hard at Tenkuji Yu's sleeve, and gritted her teeth, saying, "How can there be such a shameless, filthy woman... She's so wicked! The male lead should have pinned her to a tree and spanked her hard!"

"..."

Yuu Tenkuji stared blankly at the screen, seemingly completely absorbed in the movie she was starring in, oblivious to everything around her.

He secretly decided that from now on, when he went to the movies with Natsukawa Masuzu, they would either book the entire theater or find a cinema with private boxes...

This guy... even in a packed movie theater, he probably could still do something so reckless and capricious.

The movie is still going strong.

As the plot unfolds, Natsukawa Masuzu sometimes shouts and criticizes, sometimes praises her own beauty, and sometimes rolls her eyes and makes sarcastic remarks.

"Service Club? They actually turned a personal request into a club request, accepted the heroine's helping hand without being threatened, and didn't cause any misunderstandings among the other female characters... No wonder he's the male lead in a light novel adaptation movie."

"Fake dating seems so stupid, and the female lead too, just casually touching the male lead's skin, it's really shameless... Although I can understand her feelings, after all, who wouldn't love Ayu who is handsome, charming and gentle?"

"Iroha Isshiki? Is this your other new girlfriend? How did she go from being a junior to a girlfriend? She clearly looks like the type to loser... Okay, okay, let's not talk about her, and don't mess up my hair!"

"This Mizuhara Chizuru, she's probably just a background character, right? She's pretty, but would you date a girl who's been someone's girlfriend before? Even if it's just business... I knew she wouldn't, hmph~"

"Yui Yuigahama..."

They weren't alone; even though it was just a commissioned, fake relationship, things still took an unexpected turn.

The girl with the bun hairstyle has finally begun to get involved in the relationship between the two.

Meanwhile, the silver-haired beauty and the male protagonist's interactions become increasingly intimate, as if something is being born from the depths of her heart, gradually changing her twisted and dark nature.

At some point, Natsukawa Masaki pursed his lips, completely losing any interest in causing trouble.

She simply watched them quietly as they performed those familiar yet unfamiliar scenes, as if flipping through old photos sealed away years ago.

Unconsciously, some long-buried fragments of memory resurfaced from the depths of my mind.

During their autumn outing, their relationship deepened, and they established a bond of mutual need—a connection that transcended romantic love.

He gave her a new pillar of support and affection, allowing her to entrust her most vulnerable self to him without any defenses. She even had the absurd thought that "it wouldn't matter if he needed me for a lifetime."

When she was sick, she would do gentle exercises and reluctantly let him leave, as if she had completely become a different person.

Yes, this isn't love—she kept telling herself that.

It's just two lonely souls attracting each other and yearning for one another.

If that's the case, then why would he feel anxious and uneasy because other people like him?

Unwilling to admit it, she had come to regard him as increasingly important, as her most important lover.

She was even more unwilling to admit that deep down she liked him terribly, but she couldn't face it because of the shadows of the past.

Therefore, they are conflicted, therefore they suffer, therefore they keep replacing their hearts with fake ones, indulging in the fountain of happiness, suffocating but unwilling to wake up.

During a lunch date at a gazebo, she asked me this:

Will you leave?

"meeting."

"When?"

"When you don't remember me."

"Then you'll always be here."

Like a little girl who believed that happiness would last forever, her smile was so bright and reassuring back then.

On the sofa, Natsukawa Masami bit her lip hard, her heart trembling. She wanted to shout at the idiot on the screen, "Don't be fooled by the stinky man under your butt! He knows they'll break up someday, that's why he's giving such an ambiguous answer. You have to look at his expression to believe it!"

Don't just listen to his frankness and gentleness. If you open your eyes and look at him right now, you'll find...

The slight smile and gentleness on his face seemed to conceal a silent, tearful despair, a despair that no one could save him from.

"What's wrong?"

Yuu Tenkuji noticed her emotional fluctuations, raised his hand and gently stroked her soft silver hair, his voice as gentle and pleasant as the one on screen.

Natsukawa Masaki suddenly turned her head, her red but bright eyes wide open, staring intently at him.

After a while, she turned her head away with a snort and roughly wiped away her tears.

"I have no pity for a scumbag like you who loves to lie... If you show that same expression as before, I will definitely use the 'Euler Riding Style' to make you repent!"

It was just like a little girl throwing a tantrum, leaving Tenkuji Yu unsure whether to comfort her or tease her, looking at the back of her head with a mix of amusement and exasperation.

"In order to concentrate on watching the movie, I won't ask what Euler riding style is..."

Chapter 180 The Collar I Gave You

The story then moves on to the preparations for the Kyoto Kendo Tournament.

Before that, the scene splits into two parts—Yuu Tenkuji takes his sister to the hospital and runs into Kanade Tachibana on the way; while Masuzu Natsukawa is about to go out to find Yuu Tenkuji when she also runs into Yui Yuigahama and has an argument with her.

It wasn't quite a dispute; it was more like a clash of emotions between rivals, or perhaps Yui Yuigahama deliberately forcing her to make a choice and confront her own feelings...

She was forced to tear off her disguise, and her unwilling feelings were laid bare before her. This twisted pain reached its peak when Tenkuji Yu confessed to her and no longer offered her a safe haven as gently as before.

"Let's start dating."

"Give me half of your life, and I will give you half of mine in return."

This would be a deeply affectionate confession for any girl, but for Natsukawa Masuzu, it was a poison that would prevent her from ever going back to the way things were.

"You betrayed me."

Leaning lazily on the sofa, Natsukawa Masaki spoke softly: "It would have been so much better if we had continued. We could have found happiness without love. We had such an understanding. You were so kind to me, this foolish opponent of love... So why did you have to deny and expose my dream in the end?"

"That's not a dream, it's just being bound by old ideas, a self-deceiving lie." Yuu Tenkuji looked at himself lying on the bed, utterly dejected after the confession, and said calmly, "If you really wanted to oppose love, you wouldn't fall in love with anyone—men are just tools for you to measure value, to be used and discarded at will, to seize everything you want through all sorts of schemes and tricks, and the only person you truly love is yourself."

Like some feminists, compared to them, Natsukawa Masuzu is just a slightly eccentric teenage girl.

"Isn't that exactly what I did?"

Yuu Tenkuji couldn't help but laugh: "You're still far from it... At least, you can't abandon me, and I'm the person you love most."

If it weren't for that, she wouldn't have gone to Kyoto with them.

"Trying to take away my mother's place in my heart? That's a long shot."

Xia Chuanzhen let out a couple of weak hums, but her arms obediently wrapped around him, and she leaned her head against him.

"No matter what, you still went too far... Just to finish the mission as soon as possible, you tore someone's girlish heart to shreds and exposed what was hidden underneath, leaving her not knowing how to face you at that time, thinking that this was the end of it."

Tenkuji Yu gently inhaled her hair, savoring the warmth of memories rising in his mind and stirring his emotions, and smiled wryly.

"If we don't speak out, we can't have a fresh start, can we?"

Even if you were full of lies back then?

Yuu Tenkuji closed her eyes.

"I didn't lie, I just couldn't tell the truth... From beginning to end, I never wanted to lie to the person I like."

Natsukawa Masaki stopped talking.