I'm in a real religion, why are all the people who confess to me girls?

She specifically chose the citrus flavor.

Because she vaguely remembered that Tianyin had said her scent had a citrus aroma, she specially chose a citrus-scented lip gloss in order to leave the deepest impression on Tianyin.

With the prepared love letter and gift in hand, Karuizawa confidently pushed open the door.

A vast expanse of white came into her view, and snowflakes drifted gently in the humid air. To be honest, today wasn't a suitable day for a date.

But confessing your feelings on a snowy Christmas Eve is a perfect opportunity that shouldn't be missed. In such a romantic atmosphere, Tianyin... probably wouldn't refuse too directly... right?

Karuizawa gave a somewhat disappointed smile.

She's probably the only one who knows the answer but still stubbornly refuses to give up until she hits a brick wall.

But that's just the kind of person she is; what can she do?

It was almost eleven o'clock. Karuizawa had spent two whole hours washing up and getting dressed. If she didn't hurry up, she might be late.

The person who is late for a date is the worst!

Despite rushing, Karuizawa still managed to arrive at the agreed-upon location, the movie theater at Keyaki Shopping Center, before the appointed time.

That's right, their arrangement was a fairly traditional dating pattern. A date is nothing more than watching a movie, having a meal, going shopping, and then finding a secluded little corner to do something... well...

This is Karuizawa's understanding of the school. There's a good movie showing at 11:50, which she chose, but she doesn't know if Amane will like it.

Before she could even greet Tianyin, she was stunned again.

She wondered if she would become stupid one day from sitting there so often, but the fact was that the scene before her left her no choice but to stand there.

Tianyin, sitting on a pure white coffee chair, was almost entirely shrouded in black except for her hair.

A black coat was casually draped over her shoulders, and underneath was a knitted wool sweater that was the epitome of high school girl style and impossible to resist. However, for some reason, the sweater was pure black and very form-fitting and sophisticated, perfectly outlining Tianyin's figure while adding a touch of mystery to her.

The tiny diamonds near the collar and the dazzling ruby ​​on the chest suggest they are high-quality accessories. After all, if they were real gemstones, the price would probably be quite staggering.

Amane's unusual attire was, in Karuizawa's eyes,... beautiful? cool? or both?

Karuizawa couldn't find a single word to describe Amane at that moment.

Passersby couldn't help but look in Tianyin's direction. Even though she was sitting there alone, Tianyin was the center of attention.

I wonder how many people were so amazed by Tianyin's outfit that they stopped to take pictures.

Hearing the whispers around him filled with praise and requests for contact information, Karuizawa felt a little intimidated and didn't even dare to go up and greet Amane.

What should we do? Is it too late to escape?

Tianyin glanced at her watch, her brows furrowing slightly.

Karuizawa should have arrived here by now. Could something have delayed him?

Just as Amane was wondering whether she should contact Karuizawa, a girl suddenly sat down in the seat in front of her.

"Hello, I am..."

"That's not where you should be sitting. Could you please move to the side to talk?"

Tianyin pointed to the chair next to her. The other person was obviously not expected to make such a request. After a moment of hesitation, he still sat down in the seat that Tianyin had specified, giving up the seat that would allow him to sit face to face with Tianyin.

"What do you need me for?"

"Here's the thing, I'm Yuuki Mie from Class C, Grade 2. I'd like to be friends with you. Would it be convenient for us to get to know each other?"

Yuki skillfully opened the interface displaying contact information.

Tianyin was already used to this, so she glanced at it casually and added it as a friend.

Thank you very much! May I ask how I should address you?

"First Grade, Class B, Miyako Amane"

With a thud, Yuki's phone slipped from his hand and fell onto the table.

Anyone in this school would almost certainly know about a first-year girl named Miyako Amane.

Amane's reputation was so great that everyone knew about her. Yuuki never expected to be so lucky. He originally planned to get the contact information of a cool girl to see if he would have a chance to "eat" her in the future, but he encountered a terrifying existence like Amane right away.

In the second and third years, Amane was described as "the queen who reigns over the first year." Everyone believed that if Amane was willing to rule the entire first year, it would only be a matter of time before the second year lost Nagumo. Fortunately, she seemed to be more interested in beauty than power, which saved the others from disaster.

Even so, no one dared to underestimate this girl who single-handedly defeated the entire Gaoyu.

"Sorry I'm late."

Karuizawa's apology brought Yuki back to reality. Seeing the pretty girl, radiating youthful energy, suddenly sit in the seat she had just given up, Yuki's expression turned very unpleasant.

It turns out someone beat them to it.

"It doesn't matter how late it is, as long as it's Hui. Would you like something to warm up? Coffee or milk? If you're talking about milk tea... the strawberry au lait seems pretty good."

Seeing that Tenon, who had just been as cold as ice, now had a look of doting affection on her face, Yuuki, unwilling to give up, could only slink away.

"I'm fine with anything... milk, I've been really enjoying it lately."

Karuizawa was originally going to say anything, but then she suddenly remembered that Amane liked to drink milk, so she quickly spoke up.

Sure enough, upon hearing about milk, a happy expression appeared on Tianyin's face.

"I didn't expect Hui to start drinking milk too. I knew girls should drink more milk to grow bigger!"

Seeing that Amane was satisfied with the answer, Karuizawa finally felt relieved.

I hope this date will be wonderful...

Karuizawa was about to pray to the gods that today's date would go smoothly and have a good outcome, but as soon as she looked up, she saw an uninvited guest appearing not far away.

Chapter 86: Coincidence? Coincidence my ass!

Maya Sato.

A classmate with whom Karuizawa had a relationship that was neither particularly good nor bad; in Karuizawa's view, their relationship was nothing more than that.

It means that because of her position, Karuizawa has to show enough hostility towards Sato, since what Sato is doing now is taking away the voice of the girls in Class B from her.

Therefore, everyone who was on good terms with Karuizawa regarded Sato as an enemy, but Karuizawa, who was at the very core of this power struggle, disapproved of Sato's behavior.

The reason she wanted to become the most influential person in the girl group was simply for self-protection. Now that she has Amane's protection, it doesn't really matter whether she has any influence or not. Anyway, no one listens to her anymore, so even if Sato takes it away, there's nothing to feel sorry about.

Therefore, in her heart, Karuizawa did not regard Sato as an 'enemy'. Sato was also quite tacit in this regard. Seeing that Karuizawa did not try to undermine her at all costs, she naturally did not provoke Karuizawa too much. The two of them usually maintained a 'harmonious' atmosphere of neither interacting with each other nor causing trouble for each other.

But even the best relationships don't mean you can accept the other person suddenly appearing at your most important moment.

"Isn't that Karuizawa-san and... Miyako-san? What a coincidence!"

Sato, arm in arm with Ayanokoji, took the initiative to come over and greet Karuizawa.

Sato's sudden enthusiasm stemmed entirely from Kushida's recent antics, which left her feeling increasingly overwhelmed. Lacking sufficient authority, she was struggling to control the various girls within their cliques. Coincidentally, Kushida exposed Karuizawa's fake relationship with Hirata at this time. Furthermore, Ryuen had Manabe reveal that Karuizawa had been bullied in junior high and elementary school, instantly thrusting her into the spotlight. This shift in public attention relieved much of the pressure on her, who was already overwhelmed with problems.

Adhering to the idea that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," Sato had the audacious idea of ​​trying to bring Karuizawa into her group. So she took the initiative to socialize with Karuizawa. Originally, she was on a date with Ayanokouji today, but she happened to see Karuizawa chatting with a girl. It was a rare opportunity to meet Karuizawa alone without Amane. If she didn't seize this chance, she might not have a chance to contact Karuizawa in the future.

So Sato ignored Ayanokouji's advice and came over to greet Karuizawa, but to her surprise, the person sitting opposite Karuizawa was Amane.

For a moment, the air seemed to freeze.

Ayanokouji shrugged helplessly, his expression revealing his frustration with Sato's unauthorized actions.

"That's quite a coincidence. Speaking of which, Sato, are you on a date with Ayanokouji?"

Sato's embarrassed expression was obvious to anyone with a modicum of emotional intelligence; he seemed to have encountered an awkward situation. Karuizawa glanced at Amane in front of him and immediately understood the reason for Sato's embarrassment.

Perhaps she didn't expect to run into Amane here? After all, Amane had just rejected Sato's confession not long ago, and Sato had immediately turned to Ayanokouji. Needless to say, it would be very awkward for the two to meet again. Seeing Sato in a difficult position, Karuizawa took the opportunity to pick up the conversation and offered Sato a way out.

Fortunately, Sato wasn't stupid. After Karuizawa responded, his expression softened considerably, and the two began to talk.

Amane silently looked at the menu, then integrated and analyzed the information revealed by Sato.

It was probably to commemorate that she and Ayanokouji had been dating for a month, so she chose to go on a date on Christmas Eve, but unexpectedly ran into Amane and Karuizawa on her itinerary.

When Karuizawa heard Sato say that he had come over specifically to say hello after seeing her, she felt incredibly annoyed.

She should have dressed more discreetly. Now that Sato is here, there's no way Amane would be interested in a date. Christmas Eve is only once a year, is Sato not even going to let her off the hook on this one day? Besides, you two are already dating, you can stay in your love nest and do whatever you want, why do you need to go on a date!

Karuizawa cursed Sato a thousand times in his heart, but he still maintained a reserved smile on his face, while secretly observing Amane's expression out of the corner of his eye.

"Which section is Hui's viewing area in?"

In just a few minutes, Sato had already started calling Karuizawa "Megumi." Although Sato seemed to be trying to show that he was close to Karuizawa, he probably didn't control his approach well, and it looked more like he was deliberately trying to please Karuizawa.

"Let me see... Tianyin and I are in Zone A."

"Huh? What a coincidence, Kiyotaka and I are also in Area A."

For a moment, Karuizawa almost blurted out, "Are you kidding me?" Although she and Sato weren't at the point of never speaking to each other again, she couldn't remember when they had become so close. Just talking to each other was barely tolerable, but now they even had to watch movies in the same viewing area. This made Karuizawa's mentality a little broken. If she could, she would want to go and change a movie right now.

But since the other party had already said it, it would be obvious that she didn't intend to give Sato face if she suddenly said she wanted to change the division. This was not in line with Karuizawa's style of doing things, so she had no choice but to accept this coincidence.

"Yes, yes, I didn't expect it to be such a coincidence..."

Ayanokouji noticed Karuizawa's reluctance, but this was not a 'coincidence' he had planned in advance, so he could do nothing about it.

"Maya, it's getting late, we should go in too."

Ayanokouji seems to have gotten used to calling the other person by their name.

Sato checked his phone and saw that there were only a few minutes left before the movie started. He quickly said goodbye to Karuizawa and then pulled Ayanokouji toward the ticket collector.

Seeing Sato leave, Karuizawa breathed a sigh of relief. However, the thought of watching a movie with Sato in the same section as her made her stomach ache. This was her first real date ever! Please, please don't mess with her!

"What should we do? Should we just leave? Or would it be better to go to another screening room or watch a different movie?"

Cinemas have multiple screening rooms for each film, and you can freely change your screening room as long as you have your movie ticket, provided that there are still seats available in other screening rooms.

"The purpose of this is too obvious. Although judging from the ticket check, these screening rooms should be packed, they are classmates with contact information. If it gets exposed, there might be bad rumors."

Even though Sato and the others were told from the beginning that they were also in the screening room of Section A, if Sato couldn't find Karuizawa in the screening room and sent a message asking about it, no matter how Karuizawa answered, it would be taken as her leaving because she didn't want to watch the movie in the same screening room as Sato. This would undoubtedly be the most offensive way.

Chapter 87: Kiss Me

"What should we do? Today is our... date, I don't want anyone else to interfere!!!"

Karuizawa scratched her beautifully combed hair in distress. Amane narrowed her eyes. Besides her rejection of Sato, Karuizawa's words also had another meaning: she wanted Amane to stay with her all day.

If Horikita or Sakayanagi messaged her right now asking her to go back immediately, would she give up her date with Karuizawa?

If judged by value, Amane would choose to give up the date because, in her view, the date with Karuizawa is not special. She could perfectly replicate everything from today on any other day, and if Karuizawa liked her, she could even date him for a week or a month without any problem.

Horikita and Sakayanagi's affairs are clearly a level of importance, even if they are just trivial matters of daily life, they are far more important than Karuizawa's date.

Of course, this is a judgment made under absolute rationality.

However, people are not machines; they cannot solve all problems simply by judging right and wrong and weighing the pros and cons.

Karuizawa subtly probed Amane through Sato's affair. Was his only purpose to possess Amane today?

If you really understand it that way, then you will undoubtedly make the wrong judgment, because once you think that Karuizawa is selfish and wants Amane to belong to her completely today, Amane will naturally reduce the weight of Karuizawa's date.

However, if we look at it from another angle, Karuizawa's probing actually stems from fear and insecurity, which is why she wants Amane to stay with her today. She has already lost Hirata as a shield, and if she can't get a sense of security from Amane, she probably won't even be able to sleep peacefully. If we think about it this way, Amane will most likely choose to stay with Karuizawa until the end of the date.

After all, the purpose of this date was to reassure Karuizawa and make her feel at ease.

"Don't worry, it's just watching a movie in a theater. I'll stay with you all day."

After realizing that Amane had seen through her little scheme, Karuizawa lowered her head somewhat embarrassed. She didn't want to use such tricks to force Amane to make a choice, but the relationship between her and Amane was always in a state of ambiguity, which made her have to deal with it carefully.

Upon arriving at the screening room, Karuizawa took Amane's clothes and began looking for seats, while Amane volunteered to buy some food and drinks.

Karuizawa wandered back and forth between the seats with her seat number in hand. She finally found two seats next to Amane. Just as she was happily preparing to sit down, a familiar but untimely voice came from behind her.

Wow, I didn't expect our seats to be so close!

The moment Sato's voice rang out, Karuizawa felt like dying. Was there really any point in watching this movie? Under the watchful eyes of Sato and Ayanokouji, she and Amane couldn't even engage in any intimate behavior, let alone have a chance to whisper to each other.

Because... Sato was positioned directly behind her.

To have bought such adjacent locations so precisely without any prior discussion—what else could she say but that it was fate?

"What a coincidence..."

Karuizawa's answer this time was too perfunctory, and his expression was also very unpleasant. Sato was puzzled for a while, as if he did not understand why Karuizawa had such an expression.

Then, as if suddenly realizing something, he quickly began to explain.

"I didn't intentionally buy a spot near Megumi's. Kiyotaka and I had no idea you and Miyako would be out today. Kiyotaka and I just picked the spot randomly. You can ask Kiyotaka if you don't believe me."

Sato nudged Ayanokouji with his elbow, urging him to explain quickly.

"That's right. We had absolutely no idea about your and Tianyin's itinerary. Although this coincidence is a bit too much, it really is just a coincidence."

Ayanokouji offered an explanation with a wry smile.