Meguri Shiromeguri was, at heart, a kind girl who always considered others.
Even though Lin Ye had harassed her, taken advantage of her, and demanded she become his girlfriend, and even though she'd thought about getting fierce revenge on him—making him bleed money—when it came down to it she still hesitated, still wondering whether such behavior on her part was really such a bad thing.
In the end, she was still kind and gentle.
Being bullied herself was something she could endure—not something that gave her license to retaliate without any restraint.
Meguri Shiromeguri looked at the dishes on the menu, utterly at a loss for what to order.
Lin Ye noticed the girl's reaction too.
If it were Isshiki or Haruno, they wouldn't have hesitated in the slightest; they'd just order straight away. Yukino wouldn't stand on ceremony either—given her family background, spending at this level wouldn't faze her at all.
As for the other girls, Ryou Fujibayashi would definitely react the same way as Meguri Shiromeguri, while Kyou Fujibayashi wouldn't hold back one bit—she'd absolutely fleece him for all he was worth.
As for Ren, her reaction would probably be about the same as Ryou's.
And Mai—Mai would probably care a little too, thinking about saving him money!
"President, don't hold back."
Even if you say that, I can't just not care at all!
Meguri Shiromeguri thought.
"This is my way of making amends and apologizing to you."
Those words left Meguri Shiromeguri stunned.
Making amends and apologizing?
What did that mean?
Lin Ye spoke up to explain the confusion in her heart. "For the trouble and harm my actions caused you yesterday, President, I offer my apologies. This dinner represents my apology to you."
Meguri Shiromeguri was even more bewildered.
Just like that, an apology?
He'd forced her so ruthlessly yesterday, even resorting to threats to make her submit and agree to become his girlfriend—and after just one day he was apologizing, expressing regret, hoping for her forgiveness.
This was way too fast.
Meguri Shiromeguri simply couldn't comprehend how quickly Lin Ye's thinking shifted.
"You... you... you don't want me... to be your girlfriend anymore?"
Lin Ye: ???
He blanked out for a moment. He'd always assumed the extent of what Haruno did was nothing more than sweet talk, at most getting a little handsy to cop a feel.
But it turned out Haruno had straight-up made Meguri Shiromeguri agree to be his girlfriend.
That woman was seriously bold!
Lin Ye marveled inwardly. "Mm, I don't need that."
He gave his answer.
He couldn't just accept this girlfriend who'd fallen into his lap!
Sure, Meguri Shiromeguri was good-looking, had a nice figure, and carried the label of Student Council President, which lent her an even higher allure—but Lin Ye wasn't that kind of man, not the type to take whoever came his way.
He had his own conduct and his own principles. Besides, it was Haruno who'd hit on Meguri Shiromeguri—it had nothing to do with him.
"No."
But what followed was Meguri Shiromeguri's objection.
Lin Ye was even more dumbfounded.
Clearly Haruno had used his body and despicable means to force Meguri Shiromeguri into agreeing to be his girlfriend—she should be utterly dissatisfied and unwilling.
Faced with his refusal, she should be all the happier to accept it. So why was she objecting, unwilling to accept?
Could it be that Meguri Shiromeguri had become his girlfriend of her own free will?
That Haruno hadn't actually pressured or threatened Meguri Shiromeguri, hadn't forced her to agree?
That woman, not use force?
Oh, right—as the one who understood Meguri Shiromeguri best, Haruno could also use honeyed words to fool her. But for a girl to have no fondness for a total stranger of a boy, and for Haruno's silver tongue alone to successfully talk Meguri Shiromeguri into agreeing?
Honestly,
Lin Ye didn't buy it—not unless she could use the Hypnosis skill, but Haruno couldn't use skills.
In other words... Meguri Shiromeguri had already harbored a little bit of a fondness for him some time ago, and under Haruno's initiative and cajoling, she'd finally relented and agreed?
Lin Ye thought it over—this explanation was the most likely.
"President, you don't have to force yourself."
Force myself? You're telling me not to force myself now?
Meguri Shiromeguri gritted her teeth. "I'm not forcing myself—I mean it. I'm already your girlfriend. If we just break up so casually, how am I supposed to see myself? I... get dumped by my boyfriend in less than two days?"
The girl pursed her lips, her eyes filled with resentment.
But in truth, what drove her inner thoughts was the reminder and warning from Haruno.
It was just as Sis Haruno had analyzed—Lin Ye would take the initiative today to propose parting ways and ending their relationship.
This wasn't Lin Ye having a change of heart; it was a test he was running, to see how far she'd accept her identity as his girlfriend.
If she now showed a willingness to end this boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, Lin Ye would reveal his other face next, and start scheming something.
Meguri Shiromeguri placed immense trust in Haruno. Sis Haruno had already predicted that Lin Ye would bring up ending the relationship, so her subsequent predictions couldn't be far off either.
This was not something Meguri Shiromeguri could accept.
Something could happen to her, but nothing could ever happen to Sis Haruno—that was Meguri Shiromeguri's bottom line.
"President, no one else knows about the relationship between the two of us,"
Lin Ye said.
He figured he understood Meguri Shiromeguri's thinking now—it was pique, a rebellious streak influencing her decision.
Her first relationship, and dumped in less than two days—no one could accept that!
Lin Ye thought.
"Someone does know. And even if no one knew, I—the person involved—know. I can't accept it. Lin Ye, let me tell you: yesterday you racked your brains and used every trick to make me agree to be your girlfriend, and now you want to break up with a single word? I'm telling you, no way. I won't accept it."
This resolute attitude left Lin Ye momentarily stunned.
He'd really run into a stubborn girl.
"Then how about I use two words instead?"
"Lin Ye, don't joke with me."
Meguri Shiromeguri was getting a little angry.
You're the one who made me your girlfriend, you're the one who took liberties with me, and now you want to break up and end the relationship?
Let me tell you, that's impossible.
This was what was on Meguri Shiromeguri's mind—she would never give Lin Ye any chance to find an excuse to keep threatening her, or even to expose the dirt on her.
"I'm serious."
"So am I."
The small private room fell into silence.
Lin Ye said nothing more either.
After a good while, he pointed at the menu. "Let's order first!"
"Mm."
Meguri Shiromeguri ordered.
This time, with the boost of anger and fury, she ordered viciously, no longer caring about the prices of the dishes on the menu.
In any case, she knew Lin Ye had the money—that composed air of his didn't look like someone who couldn't afford it.
The top-grade 5A wagyu,
plus sukiyaki, grilled skewers, sushi, and juice—
she ordered one of everything.
"Here, add whatever else you want."
As far as she was concerned, that was plenty.
"You've got quite the appetite, President."
"I'm unhappy today—I need to eat something to relax."
"Eat plenty, President."
Lin Ye added two more dishes to round things out.
'Ding-a-ling...'
A server arrived quickly.
Lin Ye spoke, and the server jotted down the dishes.
"Please wait a moment, sir; the dishes will be served shortly."
The server left,
leaving just Lin Ye and Meguri Shiromeguri.
Lin Ye poured Meguri Shiromeguri a cup of barley tea.
Meguri Shiromeguri blew on it and took a small sip.
At this, her slightly parched throat was moistened.
"President, tell me about you and Miss Haruno!"
Lin Ye brought up a topic.
"Don't you already know a lot?"
"I know a fair amount, sure, but hearing it from your mouth versus from Miss Haruno's is a completely different feeling."
Meguri Shiromeguri thought about it and agreed. She began to reminisce—recalling the scene of when she and Haruno first met.
The beautiful girl, a faint smile at the corner of her lips—in this moment, recalling that first encounter of days past, her heart brimmed with joy and happiness.
She really, truly liked Haruno Yukinoshita.
Lin Ye felt mostly helpless.
The girl before him had absolutely no idea that the person who'd bullied, coerced, and threatened her yesterday was Haruno Yukinoshita, the one she liked most, most, most of all.
If Meguri Shiromeguri were to find out, there was no telling how she'd react.
A thought flashed through Lin Ye's mind and vanished, but in the end he held it back.
He couldn't expose his secret to the girl before him just for the sake of his own twisted amusement.
A little while later,
the server brought the dishes to the table.
The beef on the plate gave off an enticing aroma, its juices glistening, tempting the appetite.
'Click...'
The sukiyaki pot was lit as well.
The fresh ingredients were layered in neat order, a picture of beauty.
A moment later,
the salmon sushi was served too.
For the Japanese, sushi could be called the most common of foods.
"Senpai, please."
"Mm."
Meguri Shiromeguri picked up her chopsticks and dug in, starting with a piece of sushi.
One bite, and she tasted a flavor completely different from any sushi she'd had before.
The rice was domestically grown,
its unique texture entirely different.
But most important of all was the salmon—compared to the salmon sushi she bought at convenience stores, the taste was worlds apart.
The salmon flesh was smooth and tender, delicate, with a slight springiness when bitten, like jelly. Paired with the sushi rice and nori, it struck her tongue, and for a moment she was immersed in the deliciousness.
"Try the beef!"
Lin Ye reminded her.
He didn't know whether this dinner would successfully make it up to Meguri Shiromeguri, but in any case, he'd do it right first.
In the end, the one responsible was still Haruno Yukinoshita—that woman had to pay the price.
"Okay."
Meguri Shiromeguri picked up a slice of the cut steak; as her chopsticks lifted it, threads of juice seeped out.
She blew on it first, then placed it in her mouth.
The next second,
as she chewed, the beef melted in her mouth, requiring hardly any effort at all.
The texture and flavor of this beef were completely different too.
Even though she'd tasted 5A beef before, compared to the beef in her memory, the taste was utterly different.
"A high-end restaurant really lives up to its name—the ingredients are different, and the chef's skill is genuinely excellent."
The ingredients, the chef's craft—
she marveled at how delicious the food here was.
This was the sort of delicacy the wealthy got to enjoy.
Meguri Shiromeguri marveled once again.
"If you like it, Senpai, I can treat you to a meal here again next time."
Meguri Shiromeguri glanced at Lin Ye.
Honestly, she felt a tiny flutter of temptation.
Good food—who doesn't love it!
But what came next was the thought that he very likely harbored improper designs on her. When a man invites a pretty girl out for a lavish meal, he's surely after something from her—coveting the girl's body being the most natural thing of all.
But Lin Ye's situation was a bit special. She was already his girlfriend, and he'd already taken liberties with her yesterday. If this guy wanted to go further, all he had to do was keep up his threats—and honestly, Meguri Shiromeguri didn't have the confidence to guarantee she'd firmly refuse.
Therefore,
Lin Ye surely had no need to treat her to fine dining again for that purpose!
Could it really be that he was inviting her again simply because he saw that she enjoyed it?
Meguri Shiromeguri arrived at the simplest of answers.
"No thanks."
Meguri Shiromeguri declined.
Though she didn't know what Lin Ye's aim was, she refused all the same.
No pies fell from the sky; she still kept her guard up.
"No need to be polite, Senpai."
"It's fine. Tasting it once is enough. Next time I come, I want to rely on money I've earned from my own work to enjoy this delicacy."
She wanted to come here on her own merits.
By nature she was an independent, strong-willed girl.
"That's Senpai for you—an independent woman."
"Compared to you, Student Lin, I fall far short. You already have the financial means to spend here now—I'm nowhere near you."
"My situation and yours are a bit different, Senpai."
Lin Ye gave a slight smile.
The sukiyaki had come to a boil, and the beef rolls were cooked through.
Meguri Shiromeguri once again used her chopsticks to pick up a beef roll and began eating.
Even this sukiyaki was vastly different from the sukiyaki at ordinary Japanese restaurants outside.
She quietly savored the deliciousness.
Because Lin Ye made no move to harass her or take advantage, Meguri Shiromeguri gradually let down her initial wariness.
She'd been worried the private room would give Lin Ye a chance to take liberties, but right up until the meal ended, he did nothing to her, which struck her as strange.
Of course, she said nothing about it.
Surely Meguri Shiromeguri wasn't going to ask out loud why Lin Ye hadn't taken advantage of her!
In her heart, she wished for nothing more than for Lin Ye to do nothing at all to her.
Coming here with Lin Ye today, she'd wrestled and agonized inwardly for a long while, and only now had she finally settled down.
About half an hour or so later,
the two finished their meal.
Meguri Shiromeguri was stuffed. She leaned back, and her right hand made to rub her over-full belly, but feeling it unseemly and improper, she refrained from the gesture.
"Are you satisfied, Senpai?"
What's he plotting now?
That was Meguri Shiromeguri's first thought.
"Not satisfied?"
The counter-question prompted Meguri Shiromeguri to answer. "It's fine—quite tasty. Better than the food at any wagyu restaurant I've ever been to."
With prices like these,
it couldn't possibly be bad, no matter what.
What's more, with top-notch ingredients and chef skill, the dishes were already extremely delicious. Meguri Shiromeguri was quite satisfied.
"So then, Senpai, are you satisfied with the sincerity of my apology today?"
At these words,
Meguri Shiromeguri frowned again.
This dinner as an apology for yesterday's behavior?
Once again, Sis Haruno had called it.
Do something wrong yesterday, apologize today—so would he do something wrong again tonight, and then apologize again tomorrow?
Round and round like that,
until in the end, she'd be dragged into this emotional whirlpool.
Meguri Shiromeguri couldn't help recalling Sis Haruno's warning.
The man before her wasn't just after taking advantage or claiming a title—he wanted to win her heart as well.
So... despicable.
So... cunning!
She absolutely could not let this man succeed.
At the very least, her heart... absolutely not.
Nor her body.
Meguri Shiromeguri added inwardly.
"You don't need to compensate me. Today's dinner is because I accepted your invitation yesterday—we're boyfriend and girlfriend now, so eating together is perfectly normal."
Meguri Shiromeguri had made up her mind not to accept.
"President, there was indeed a reason behind yesterday's behavior."
"I know—you like me, you like me a lot, that's why you did it. I know."
Those words blocked whatever Lin Ye had been about to say.
The girl before him seemed rather set in her ways. Short of laying his cards on the table, or using the Hypnosis skill to influence her thinking, Lin Ye felt it would be very hard to change her mind.
Lin Ye thought it over and didn't use Hypnosis—there really was no need to resort to Hypnosis to solve this.
At this current stage, the Hypnosis skill's effect wasn't very strong, and its influence was limited.
Even if he used it, he wouldn't necessarily achieve the effect he intended.
"I don't like you, President."
Meguri Shiromeguri: ???
Yesterday you were all sweet talk, saying you liked me, and today you've changed your face? Just like Sis Haruno said—next he'll say, 'I like Yukinoshita.'
"I already have someone I like—it's Yukinoshita."
Meguri Shiromeguri: "..."
Exactly the same as what Sis Haruno had said.
Sis Haruno's grasp of the human heart was truly precise.
"Want me to give up, want me to accept the end of our relationship? Let me tell you, that's impossible—you can rest completely assured of that!"
Meguri Shiromeguri's inner rebelliousness had been fully provoked.
She would resolutely refuse Lin Ye's proposal.
Date when you want to date, break up when you want to break up—what did she count for?
What did this make her out to be?
Yesterday he took all sorts of liberties with her, and now this.
If Meguri Shiromeguri didn't know that Lin Ye hadn't gone all the way with her yet, she'd have thought he was the ultimate scumbag—the kind who pulls up his pants and walks off once he's had his fun.
"President, why bother! You know it too—Student Miura and I..."
"Sis Haruno told me—about you and Student Miura."
She'd been informed, and knew about the relationship between Lin Ye and Miura Yumiko.
This also made her understand why Miura Yumiko had suddenly come to like Lin Ye and become his girlfriend—it was entirely a coincidence.
"You trust Miss Haruno that much?"
"Of course. She's one of the people I trust most—I definitely believe her."
Especially the precise analysis and judgment of Lin Ye that had played out over the course of today—it made Meguri Shiromeguri admire her all the more, raising her estimation of Haruno yet another notch.
Lin Ye had quite the headache.
This woman was truly detestable.
If he didn't catch her and give her a proper thrashing, he'd feel he'd done himself a disservice.
"President, you'll regret this in the future."
"I won't."
"Fine, you said it."
"Of course."
"Since I'm your boyfriend now, President, shouldn't you fulfill certain girlfriend duties and obligations?"
In that case,
Lin Ye could only use other methods to provoke Meguri Shiromeguri, to make her back off in the face of difficulty.
Sure enough, just as Lin Ye expected, Meguri Shiromeguri grew tense, her eyes filling with worry, wariness surfacing in them.
Lin Ye rose to his feet then.
He walked over slowly, step by step.
'Tap...'
'Tap, tap...'
Lin Ye came to Meguri Shiromeguri's side, looking down at this Student Council President of Sobu High.
By now this Student Council President had long lost her everyday composure, leaving only tension. Her body had even curled up somewhat, and the look in her eyes as she gazed at Lin Ye was exactly like a little squirrel's.
This stirred in Lin Ye, for an instant, a flicker of the urge to bully her.
But that thought quickly vanished.
He really had no intention of letting the pretense become real—he was just provoking Meguri Shiromeguri.
"President, I'm not wrong, am I?"
Meguri Shiromeguri pursed her lips and said nothing, but her body's reaction betrayed her true feelings.
She was unwilling, yet in the current situation it seemed being unwilling was of no use.
If Lin Ye meant to force it, she couldn't refuse.
The silence lasted ten seconds.
Meguri Shiromeguri slowly relaxed her body, shifted her stance, and made room.
"Do as you please."
At these words, Lin Ye was taken aback.
Meguri Shiromeguri had compromised and agreed?
Holy crap, what on earth had Haruno done yesterday?
"But don't go too far—this is... a restaurant, it's not appropriate."
Every sentence she spoke took all the strength in her body.
She felt these were the most shameful words she'd uttered in her entire life.
In the past, she'd never have imagined such a thing.
After a few seconds, Meguri Shiromeguri saw that Lin Ye stood rooted in place, taking no action, and then thought of something.
She gritted her teeth and went on, "Let's... let's go to... a hotel... all right?!"
By the end, her voice was as thin as a mosquito's buzz.
These words were even more mortifying than the last.
Lin Ye was thoroughly thrown into disarray.
He truly hadn't expected Meguri Shiromeguri to go this far.
What exactly had Haruno done yesterday, to make Meguri Shiromeguri willing to go to such lengths?
"No need."
But this refusal, in Meguri Shiromeguri's eyes, seemed to mean Lin Ye simply preferred to toy with her right here in the restaurant.
This was... him seeking more of a thrill!
"..."
She pursed her lips, struggling inwardly.
If she didn't agree, Lin Ye would surely threaten to expose the matter between her and Sis Haruno.
If she resisted to the death, Lin Ye would expose it outright, and Sis Haruno would be finished.
This was absolutely not the future Meguri Shiromeguri wanted.
After a good while,
her body went limp, and she gave up struggling with a long sigh.
"Whatever you want..."
"Just don't... go too far."
Having said this, she assumed a posture of letting Lin Ye do as he wished.
At this moment, Meguri Shiromeguri was like a delicate, gorgeous flower there for the plucking, her faint fragrance alluring, tempting one to reach out with claws of desire.
Lin Ye watched this scene, ripples stirring in his heart.
Honestly, he prided himself on having a high enough resistance to pretty girls.
Ai, Ren, Mai, the Fujibayashi sisters, and Yukino—which of them wasn't a beautiful girl?
With a girl like Yukino in his arms, he could still manage restraint and calm.
But now, watching Meguri Shiromeguri's fragile, given-up-struggling appearance, an odd sensation truly welled up within him.
Lin Ye realized his tastes really were rather broad after all.
...
...
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