On a June morning, the sun had yet to officially climb over the hills. As a single cicada's cry faded, a chorus of chirping erupted like a rainstorm all across the Advanced Nurturing High School, desperately giving voice to their mating urges.
Awakened by the cicadas' din, Fuyuji walked into the school building early in the morning, brimming with resentnt. Then he spotted Morishita, her expression as cool and indifferent as ever.
At the shoe lockers, Morishita was opening hers, taking out her indoor shoes.
Seeing Fuyuji, Morishita's movents paused for a mont. She said nothing and silently changed her shoes.
Looks like she too fell victim to the cicadas' racket today.
Harboring a sense of schadenfreude, Fuyuji opened his own shoe locker.
"Creak—"
"Bang—"
The locker door slamd shut with unparalleled speed, producing a slightly sharp, shrill sound.
Just now, sothing that did not belong in this shoe locker seed to have appeared!
Masaka!
Fuyuji, his expression unchanged, drew a deep breath and slowly opened the locker door just a crack.
A sliver of light fell through the gap, illuminating the neat, rectangular interior of the shoe locker.
Stationery that looked high-grade at a single glance, folded into a small, delicate rectangle. A cute heart-shaped sticker affixed right in the center. And handwriting that was clearly not that of a male student.
There could be no mistake. This was—a love letter!
Has this kind of manga-like developnt finally co around for , too?
With a heart full of excitent, Fuyuji reached out his sinful hand, trembling.
"What are you do—"
"Bang—!"
The locker door slamd shut once more, just as quickly.
Fuyuji turned around, pressing his back against the lockers behind him. "It's nothing," he said, his expression perfectly composed. "A dead cockroach suddenly showed up in my shoe locker. Startled a bit."
There was absolutely no way he could let this one find out! Otherwise, she would one hundred percent drag the entire class into feasting on this drama!
Morishita stared at him with large, suspicious eyes. A bead of sweat rolled down Fuyuji's forehead.
"How strange."
With those words tossed aside, Morishita turned and headed toward the classroom.
"Please do hurry, Fuyuji Mikage."
"Right!"
Fuyuji let out a long breath, reopened his shoe locker, quickly slipped the love letter into his pocket, and hastened his steps to catch up with Morishita.
"Morishita Ai-san, may I ask what ti you woke up today?"
"Sa as you, Fuyuji Mikage."
...
The entire morning, Fuyuji fidgeted restlessly, itching with unbearable curiosity. However, to prevent Morishita behind him from sabotaging his grand plans, he could only patiently bide his ti until class ended.
As the deep, leisurely chi of Big Ben sounded, morning classes at the Advanced Nurturing High School finally ca to a close. The students of Class A gradually trickled out of the classroom, heading to the school cafeteria or elsewhere to eat. A small number of students had prepared homade bentos or bought simple als from the convenience store and ate right there in the classroom.
"Fuyuji-san, want to go grab a al together?" Hashimoto was the first to extend an invitation.
"No, I have sothing else to take care of."
"The three of you together again?" Hashimoto stroked his chin, glancing at Morishita and Yamamura, and teased, "Truly inseparable, aren't you."
"Heh heh." Fuyuji folded his arms and grinned confidently. "The three of us are the Class A oddball crew. Naturally, we must be unconventional—and move as a unit!"
"Fine, fine." Hashimoto shrugged and turned toward another corner of the classroom. "I'll go find Kito, then."
Having brushed off Hashimoto, Fuyuji scanned the remaining students in class. About a dozen or so were still in the classroom.
Fuyuji tilted his head back and asked Morishita, who had been fully absorbed in assembling so new gadget.
"What are we having for lunch later?"
"A bento from the convenience store."
"I've got a little sothing to do later. Grab one for while you're at it?"
"Fine."
Operation successful!
Fuyuji smirked triumphantly. Luring Morishita away ant no one would interrupt him while he examined the contents of the love letter.
Ten minutes later.
Morishita remained seated, making no moves whatsoever.
"Um... Morishita, shouldn't you be heading out to buy that bento about now?"
Morishita nodded and unhurriedly continued her own task. "Fine."
Another ten minutes passed.
"Morishita-san, we're running out of ti, you know."
Morishita nodded again. "Fine."
Yet another ten minutes went by.
Sensing that the jig was up, Fuyuji silently rose from his seat. "I'm getting a bit hungry. How about I go buy the bentos instead?"
"Fine."
Morishita also rose from her seat, looking as if she intended to follow him.
At this mont, Fuyuji understood that his secret had been completely exposed. He crossed both arms in front of him in a defensive stance and shouted a battle cry.
"What are you plotting, Morishita Ai!"
"The great Morishita has caught the scent of romance." Morishita's previously blank expression had vanished. Her eyes now sparkled as they fixed on Fuyuji's pocket. "A maiden's budding feelings, innocent emotions, cheeks flushed bright red, and confession phrasing revised over and over. Ne ne, Fuyuji Mikage, please let see it too. I beg of you."
Is that really the face of soone making a request?
Her scorching gaze seed as if it would pierce right through Fuyuji's pocket and strike the love letter within.
"Actually, I'm quite curious too, you know?"
Shiraishi, who had already left to eat, had sohow doubled back at so unknown point. With her hands gently clasped together, and a voice as soft as flowing water, she quietly materialized behind Fuyuji.
"Nani!" Fuyuji felt a twinge of despair. "How is it that even you know, Shiraishi-san?"
"Because today's Fuyuji-kun was very much not himself, you see." Seated on the other side of the classroom, Yamamura had her legs together and tilted to the side. She extended an index finger and pointed it out with earnest seriousness.
"Constantly readjusting your sitting posture, sliding forward and backward and side to side in your chair, frequently shifting your rear end in movents that were by no ans small—the great Morishita had a perfectly unobstructed view of it all from behind," Morishita declared.
"Fingers shouldn't tap rapidly and irregularly on the desktop, either. If you do that, anyone can tell at a single glance that sothing's on your mind," Shiraishi added with a smiling, gentle admonishnt.
"Because Fuyuji-kun seed completely out of spirits today and stayed in his seat the whole day," Yamamura delivered the final blow.
"..."
Faced with this all-out, three-way overwhelming offensive, Fuyuji had nowhere left to run. He could only heave a long sigh toward the heavens and accept this cruel reality.
At Fuyuji's seat, the four of them gathered around the desk, their gazes locked deathly onto a single pink envelope.
"So this is the legendary love letter? I can already sll it—the pounding sensation of a maiden's heartbeat." Morishita's excitent was written all over her face.
"Fufu~ So Fuyuji-kun discovered this in his shoe locker?" Shiraishi cupped her chin in her hand and let out a lilting laugh.
"Eh?" Her face now flushed red like an apple, Yamamura covered her cheeks. "This... so it's like this?"
"In truth, this is my first ti seeing one in the flesh, as well." Fuyuji lowered his head and spoke with a solemn expression.
He had initially thought it might be so jerk's prank, but on second thought, aside from Morishita, no one had that much free ti to pull a prank on him. So this love letter was very likely genuine.
"Fuyuji-kun, are you going to open it?"
Yamamura curiously examined the sticker on the envelope.
"I'm more curious whether Fuyuji-kun will accept," Shiraishi said, her eyes narrowing into slits and an ambiguous smile on her lips.
Fuyuji sat in his chair, arms folded, deep in thought. Truthfully, he hadn't figured out what to do yet either. Or rather, if it really was a love letter inside, how should he respond to this person?
"Open it, open it. The script of love is knocking at the chambers of your heart. Open it and unlock the gates to romance."
Morishita, ever the one to relish the drama, continued to fan the flas with whispers right into Fuyuji's ear.
Fuyuji abruptly turned his head and glared into Morishita's large eyes. "You're absolutely sure this isn't your prank?"
"It's not."
"Do you want to open it?"
Within the span of a few seconds, the expression of keen interest on Morishita's face smoothed over into one of flat, placid indifference.
"Do whatever you want."
"..."
"In that case..."
Fuyuji slapped his own cheeks, drew a deep breath, picked up the envelope, and broke its seal. "I'm opening it."
Mm, mm.
The other three nodded solemnly.
"I hope it's not so prank that soone pulled just because they had nothing better to do."
A deliberately folded sheet of pink stationery was revealed before Fuyuji's eyes.
To ease his own nervousness, Fuyuji specially placed a notebook over the top of the stationery and pulled it downward, bit by bit.
First, he needed to confirm whether this thing was actually a love letter or not.
Filled with a mixture of curiosity, bewildernt, excitent, and other such emotions, the other three heads silently crowded in above the stationery.
And then they saw Fuyuji's palm covering it.
"No matter how you look at it, this is a love letter addressed to . It's not really appropriate for you all to be staring at it like this, is it?" Fuyuji narrowed his eyes at the three who remained rooted to the spot.
"Wrong!"
Morishita deployed her signature talent for sophistry and declared with a straight face, "Since she was able to write this, seal it in an envelope, and place it in your shoe locker, that proves ownership of this envelope has already been transferred to you. And since she was able to muster the courage to send this envelope, that proves she was already fully prepared for the possibility that what she wrote would be seen by others."
"Fuyuji-kun, girls can be very skilled liars, you know." Shiraishi's eyes curved like crescent moons as she gently wagged a finger. "If this was written by a bad girl, I'll help you vet it."
"..."
Fuyuji turned his head toward the final mber of the trio.
Yamamura's face instantly flushed bright red. Stamring, she said, "I-if Fuyuji-kun wants to find out who wrote it... I-I-I can help Fuyuji-kun track her down."
"So in other words, you three absolutely must see this letter, yes?"
"Yes!" the three replied in perfect unison.
Faced with three people who had so thoroughly cast aside all sense of sha, Fuyuji could only relent.
"You are not to tell anyone else about its contents."
"Agreed!" x3
"If it turns out to be a prank letter, you are not to laugh at ."
"Agreed!" x3
Having received their threefold reply, Fuyuji redirected his attention back to the envelope. At the sa ti, he slowly withdrew his hand, revealing the first line of text at the top.
[I've been very conscious of you ever since the day I entered this school...]
All four hearts gave a violent leap. Not just because of the content itself, but also because of the handwriting—small, cute, and clearly not written by a male student at a single glance. And if one sniffed carefully, one would discover that mingled within the scent of ink and paper was a faint, delicate fragrance.
"It looks like it was written by a cute girl," Shiraishi remarked, her gaze flickering across the handwriting.
"Mm!" Yamamura nodded emphatically in agreent.
"..."
Morishita stared blankly at the envelope on the desk. She was silent for a mont, then suddenly rapped her palm with her fist.
"Soone actually wrote a love letter to Fuyuji Mikage?"
Fuyuji's face clouded over with black lines. So before this, it had never even crossed your mind that soone might actually like , huh?
"Quick, quick, quick. The part below, the part below."
Morishita's palm slapped incessantly at Fuyuji's shoulder.
"I know, I know. Could you do that a little lighter?"
"No!"
Fuyuji drew another deep breath and slowly pulled the notebook further down.
The general gist of the letter was: I've been drawn to you ever since school started. The sight of you doing all sorts of everyday things makes my heart flutter uncontrollably. What followed was a list of specific, detailed monts. The final paragraph read: Lately, I've begun to realize my own feelings. On Friday, after school at four o'clock, I'd like to et you behind the gymnasium.
Fuyuji tilted his head quizzically.
No matter how he looked at it, this letter was a love letter. The emotions were genuine, perfectly capturing a young girl's innocent, fluttering, anxious feelings toward the person she liked.
It was just...
Fuyuji looked up and saw three pairs of wide, gleaming eyes.
Shiraishi: "Does Fuyuji-kun often go sing karaoke with his classmates?"
Yamamura: "So Fuyuji-kun originally cleaned up the entire classroom back at the start of the school year, and then helped the classmate who wrote this letter?"
Morishita: "You even make bentos and share them with your classmates? What about my share? Give it back right now!"
"How could that possibly be? No matter how you think about it, none of that sounds like sothing I would do, right?"
Fuyuji was starting to go a little frantic.
Wait!
Fuyuji yanked the notebook all the way down in one go, exposing the entire sheet of stationery.
After he flipped through the opened envelope once more from the beginning—
His eyes half-narrowed, he silently pulled out his mobile phone and dialed a certain number. After three consecutive rings, a cheerful, energetic voice ca through the line.
"Yahallo! Fuyuji-kun!"
Holding the phone close to his ear, Fuyuji spoke without any expression.
"Ichinose, you left sothing at my place."
...
On the school path, the four of them were walking together on their way to the convenience store. Fuyuji walked alone at the front, his face stern. From behind him, the sounds of lighthearted, rry laughter drifted forward from ti to ti.
"Say, can you all please stop laughing already? Didn't you promise you wouldn't laugh?"
Fuyuji stopped in his tracks and turned his head to look at the three walking raggedly behind him.
"I'm sorry, Fuyuji-kun." Shiraishi wiped a tear of mirth from the corner of her eye, walked past Fuyuji, and gazed at him quietly. Her voice was soft as she said, "But still... this is wonderful, isn't it."
"What's so wonderful about it?"
"Because you didn't receive a love letter."
Shiraishi's words ca as a stunning surprise. Without waiting for Fuyuji's response, she continued on ahead.
"Um... please... don't be sad." Yamamura caught up from behind. Her fingers intertwined nervously, and she shouted in a voice slightly louder than usual, "There will be soone who likes Fuyuji-kun. There definitely will be."
Having said that, she too jogged on ahead.
"Hehehe~" Dragging out her syllables deliberately, Morishita ca up beside Fuyuji. On her face, normally so devoid of emotional fluctuation, there actually appeared a look of gleeful delight. "I just knew no one would ever like that chuunibyou, fantasy-obsessed, girl-bullying Fuyuji Mikage."
Having tossed out this remark, Morishita also bounced ahead like a little rabbit.
Fuyuji fell behind, gazing at the three retreating figures from a distance. He let out a heavy sigh.
That's right...
From his pocket, he pulled out a pale blue envelope—a love letter, too, bearing that sa heart-shaped sticker.
He unfolded the paper. Written upon it was just a single line.
[I like you, Fuyuji Mikage.]
-----------------------------------------------------------
If you want to Support , you can Read 95 Advanced Chapters on : [email protected]/Yuni_TL
50 PS = Bonus Chapter!
User Comments
0 comments from readers