Chapter 55: Intelligent Yui
That night, Yui was in her room.
While she propped her elbows up on the bed, she smiled to herself as she looked back and forth at some of the photos stored on her phone.
The picture was one that Mizuna had secretly sent Yui of her and Yuuki.
There was a picture of the two leaning back on the sofa, with Yui’s head resting on Yuuki’s shoulder. (They were actually barely touching).
One of Yuuki’s head being combed.
She tried stopping her right there and replied saying to not send her that, but it turned out to be a pretty good pic and she had to say MIzuna GJ.
(It’s not an exaggeration to say that this was a serious relationship…)
So she thought.
But what’s the meaning of this situation?
(What an unexpected ambush…)
There was something strange about those two. Of course, the two in question were Yuuki and Rin.
She was on good terms with Rin now, but it was hard to sit next to her last year.
For some reason, she was always on edge, and when Yui tried to talk to her, she barely reacted. And if she didn’t do her homework or was a little late, she would start scolding.
At first, Yui was a bit off-put by it, but there was no way she was going to be disliked by the person sitting right next to her. It was impossible to spend each day in such an awkward atmosphere.
So, using her natural cheerfulness and easy-going nature that she developed over the years, she started speaking to Rin patiently. In this way, she gradually opened her heart to Yui.
Even so, Rin’s capture was difficult for a while, but the clue to a breakthrough came from something small.
When she rubbed her shoulders, she suddenly turned red and got flustered.
Once it became clear that contact was her weakness, she was pushed to the limit.
Anyways, after a lot of struggling, they finally became friends.
What did Yuuki manage to do in a week?
(Is that guy actually insanely good at making friends?)1
But as usual, there weren’t any signs of him talking to other girls.
It’s possible that they were sneaking around behind the scenes, but Rin is special.
That was the first time that she had brought Rin with her, but she never dreamed that this would happen.
(Long, black hair, neat, beautiful… Could it be that that’s his type…?)
Rin has been said to be the most beautiful girl among Yui’s friends by far.
She was a completely different type from her and it was hard to compare.
To Yui, Rin was a high-spec beauty with impeccable taste, so it seems that caring so much was unnecessary.
(Rather, you should get more of Yui-chan~ mou~)
It was hard to imagine that Rin would be the one to… contact Yuuki, so it must have been Yuuki who reached out to her.
A suspicion that he would… immediately shift his attention to any cute girl he sees was beginning to arise in Yui.
“You bastard, you bastard, you bastard!”
She poked and prodded at Yuuki’s face that was on the screen of her cell phone.
As Yui repeatedly zoomed in and out of the image for no reason,
“M~~…..”
“What’s wrong, Yui? Constipation?”
“Eeeeek!”
She suddenly heard a voice in her ear and jumped out of bed.
Maki, who had crept up on Yui, stood beside her in her pajamas with a smiling face.
There were no sounds of a door being opened or footsteps. There wasn’t even a hint of her presence.
“There you are, Assassin…”
“Fuu, you’re already dead.”2
“That’s not even close.”
As Yui was wary, Maki went ahead and sat down without permission, giving a seemingly angelic yet pouty smile.
“What’s bothering you? Why don’t you talk to your Onee-chan about it?”
“….I’m thinking of growing out my hair.”
“It definitely won’t look good on you, so don’t do that.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I don’t like it long.”
“I’m not asking about what you like.”
Their gazes met and sparks flew.
Maki squinted her eyes and lightly patted Yui’s hair with her hands.
“Yui’s hair should be shorter, shouldn’t it? You’re like a pretty boy.”
“That habit of yours is disgusting.”
“Yui-chan, you’ve been spitting venom for a while now, haven’t you~?”
Maki’s hand stretched out and tugged at Yui’s cheeks.
It hurt a bit. Actually, it hurt a lot.
“S-sorry…”
“I wonder why you said that all of a sudden, huh~?”
“N-nothing really…”
“What happened?”
Yui tried turning away, but Maki went around her and looked into Yui’s face.
Her eyes, which had suddenly sharpened, caught Yui and didn’t let her go, as if telling her Maki could see all of her thoughts.
Yui finally thought about it for a bit, and in the end, she closed her eyes and jumped into Maki’s chest.
“Onee-chaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!”
“Oh- it’s okay, it’s okay. What’s wrong?”
As usual, she brushed aside the hand that was grabbing her butt.
“It’s an unimaginable ambush, at this rate, I’m gonna lose…”
“…What are you fighting this time?”
“I might not have found a small devil.”
“Wha?”
“She’s a cool woman. And clever. And cool. She’s a capable woman.”
“Fu~n…?”
Her speech was quite fragmented, but Maki somehow managed to guess.
“So you have a rival and are in a dire situation.”
“To compete, I’ll have to transform…”
“With an intellectual character? That’ll be impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s impossible.”
“I see.”
What is impossible is impossible. She was convinced. End of discussion.
However, as expected of her, Maki thought that this was unacceptable, and pointed at Yui’s eyes.
“Well, why don’t you try on some glasses for now? Just for the style.”
“I see! Let’s begin with style!”
“I have a pair of glasses I can lend you. Cute ones.”
Maki left the room and came back a few minutes later with a pair of glasses in hand.
The lenses had a round and rectangular shape with a red frame. They weren’t what you would call serious glasses, but instead were a bit more stylish.
When she received the glasses, Yui happily put them on immediately.
“Dewah!”
“What the heck is that yell?”
“Eeh, you don’t know?”
“I don’t. It’s weird. That’s no good Yui.”
She was suddenly disappointed, but didn’t think that the other person knew anything.
“Isn’t it a bit loose? Here.”
“Sorry my face is too big.”
“So? Is it good?”
“Mhm…”
For the time being, Yui held up a hand mirror and looked at her own face.
“Waaah, this is nice! It looks smart! It’s smart Yui!”
“I’m pretty worried about you. Intelligent Yui is still Yui, right?”
“Intelligent Yui-chan Bomb! Look, look!”
Yui pushed up the center of her glasses with her finger.
Maki silently watched the scene for a bit and then her eyes suddenly became gentle and she smiled.
“Yui, you seem to be having fun.”
“Thank you, Onee-chan! I’ll show what I’m made of!”
“I’m glad you’re happy. By the way, Yui, don’t you have a test coming up? Isn’t it time to be studying? Do you have enough time?”
“Don’t worry, it’s fine. I don’t have to worry yet.”
When it came to tests, she had a strong ally in Rin.
She has asked her to help her take notes over the material covered by the test.
In addition, the effect of the glasses made her feel smarter. In other words, she could afford to slack.
“How is it? Shining?”
“Yep, you’re shining.”
She’s going to win with this.
She couldn’t wait for the next day of school.
Notes:
1 This sentence is actually more accurately translated to [Is this man actually a communicative freak?]
2 Unfortunately, she didn’t say ‘omae wa mou shindeiru’ but instead ‘kisama wa sudeni shindeiru’