Chapter 152 – Karuizawa’s heart

During lunch break, each class had different arrangements. Some classes, aiming to better prepare for the afternoon's competitions, chose to eat their bento under the shade of a canopy.

Other classes, not wanting to hassle themselves, ran back to their classrooms in the school building to enjoy lunch comfortably with the air conditioning on.

Yukio's class was of the type that went back to the classroom. Although it was already October and theoretically the end of summer, the autumn breeze had not yet arrived, and the midday heat still made dining outdoors unbearable.

Returning to the cool air-conditioned classroom, they felt revived, excitedly pulling out convenience store bento boxes and beginning a joyful exchange.

A piece of fried pork cutlet for a piece of teriyaki chicken, two sushi rolls for a tempura shrimp, simple bento boxes made everyone delighted and very satisfied.

However, during the meal, Yukio noticed in the corridor, a golden ponytail flashing by. Kei Karuizawa moved like a thief, quickly crossing the corridor outside the classroom without being noticed.

Did Karuizawa need something from him? Yukio took out his phone and checked—strange, no LINE messages, no texts.

After the incident in the small forest, where she was almost discovered by her close friends Sato and Shinohara, Karuizawa had become much more cautious, maintaining contact only online and rarely meeting in person. Why was she so bold today, daring to wander outside Yukio's class?

Curious, Yukio, having just finished eating, decided to go out and take a look. There was no one in the hallway or near the stairwell. Just as he took out his phone to inquire, he unexpectedly saw Karuizawa nervously poking her head out near the bathroom, looking every bit the sneak-thief, to the extent that calling campus security seemed plausible.

When Karuizawa noticed that it was just Yukio alone in the hallway, her face immediately lit up with a radiant smile, and she beckoned him over with a small wave, looking just like a cat who sees its owner carrying two bags of fish treats.

Yukio walked over, amused, thankful that the high standards of cleanliness of this school meant the bathrooms were odor-free. If this had been a regular high school's bathroom, he wouldn't have wanted to come here to talk for all the world.

After confirming there was no one else in the bathroom, Yukio looked at Karuizawa, puzzled: "Why did you rush over here? Didn't we agree that it's best not to meet unless absolutely necessary, to avoid risks?"

"Yes, yes." Kei Karuizawa turned her head away somewhat embarrassedly, her cheeks climbing with a suspicious flush: "I, I didn't mean to meet up, just that I, I came here to wash my hands."

"You see, I didn't send you a message, so, so this is just a coincidence."

Yukio's gaze turned strange, his cheek twitching involuntarily as he kept his eyes fixed on Karuizawa.

Feeling scrutinized like this, Karuizawa couldn't take it either: "Alright, alright, I, I wanted to come over to thank you. In this sports festival, your opponents are the second-year Class A, and it really has nothing to do with our Class D."

"Originally, that information about Sudo could have been used at a more critical time, but you used it outright, it was... for me, right?"

As she asked this last question, Karuizawa was extremely nervous, even somewhat afraid to ask, because she dreaded receiving a negative answer.

That would be really embarrassing!

Since the pole-vaulting competition, after the two classes had separated, Karuizawa had been somewhat absent-minded. Her friends and classmates thought she was just a bit scared, and didn't think much of it.

Only Karuizawa herself knew, what scared? She didn't harbor any fear towards Sudo; she was just in love!

Whenever she recalled how she successfully dodged Sudo's punch, and how Yukio immediately led his team over, threw out the evidence, and forced Sudo to withdraw from school, Karuizawa's girlish heart couldn't stop throbbing, and she would become very, very strange.

She didn't understand how Yukio did it. People are protected by skin and bones, yet how did every word from Yukio manage to precisely pass through the skin, through the gaps in the bones, through the heart, thereby stirring her emotions?

It was for her, right? Seeing Sudo swing at her and caring a lot about her, that's why Yukio threw out that evidence, chased Sudo out of school, to stand up for her, right?

Just the slightest fantasy of that content made Karuizawa dare not think deeper or further; her heart was already filled to the brim with sweetness, leaving no room for anything else.

That sweet taste almost seemed to seep out from her entire heart; every bite of food she ate at noon, every sip of water, even every breath of air she took tasted incredibly sweet, like breathing in ice cream.

So, she ended up coming to Yukio's class in a daze, hoping to "accidentally" run into him.

She didn't send a LINE message, didn't send an email; she just simply came for a walk. She understood the risk, but she couldn't help it—she desperately wanted to look into Yukio's eyes and hear his true thoughts.

If she couldn't get an answer, Karuizawa feared she might sweetly swoon away, or worse, she feared finding out much later that Yukio wasn't doing it for her. The huge gap between reality and fantasy would be something she absolutely couldn't accept.

"Isn't that obvious?" Yukio didn't hesitate at all, without any second thoughts, he affirmed decisively and clearly: "Keeping him around still serves a purpose, but laying a hand on you means crossing me, and getting him expelled was the natural course of action."

What's there to think about? That was always Yukio's original intention when he dropped that bomb. Besides, Yukio is not the kind of saint who does good deeds anonymously. He'd rather make things crystal clear, to make Karuizawa give up any false hopes about him.

"!" Karuizawa's breath halted, the blush on her face deepened—not so much a natural flush as though she had slapped two patches of rouge on her cheeks.

She didn't hear anything else, only Yukio's words, "my person."

She, his person? Since when? Isn't this too soon? Shouldn't a girl maintain some reserve?

Don't the books say that if girls are too easy to get, boys won't cherish them?

Karuizawa's gaze was as soft as autumn water, foolishly tender, the ripples of affection in her heart almost visible through her eyes, looking at Yukio with an expression that said, "it's natural to protect you." Her heart melted instantly, wishing she could dissolve into Yukio's embrace.

What do the books say? To hell with that! I don't believe in those books! If she had known Yukio sooner, she could have been cherished and protected sooner, and avoided all that bullying, right?

When she got back, she'd burn that dating guidebook!

Thinking of her encounters with Yukio, his protection of her, his praises for her, and today's action of getting Sudo expelled, Karuizawa couldn't suppress the volcanic emotions erupting within her.

Without thinking it through, she blurted out her most genuine thought at the moment: "I, I am your person… then, I'll go back right now, announce my breakup with Hirata, we were just a fake couple anyway."

"…" Yukio's face twitched twice.

"Huh?"

***

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