After turning it over and over, Yukino Yukinoshita concluded that the best way to get Mai Sakurajima to give up and leave on her own was for her to marry Lin Ye. Once marriage cemented the relationship between the two of them, that big star would truly choose to bow out and leave.
Surely, once Lin Ye was married, Mai wouldn't still be willing to stay at his side, guarding him, playing the role of his secret mistress!
After all, Mai Sakurajima was a big star, not some ordinary office worker. The pressure that came with matters like this was of a completely different order.
If word got out that Mai Sakurajima was a married man's mistress, the other woman, the blow to her career as a star would be enormous, devastating even. The moment it spread, her acting career could be considered finished.
And so, as Yukino Yukinoshita saw it, once Lin Ye actually married, Mai would choose to end things with him too. Even if Lin Ye refused to let go, if Mai was set on leaving, how could he possibly talk her out of it?
With Lin Ye already married, what promise could he even make to Mai Sakurajima?
Lin Ye kept talking about changing his nationality and marrying them both, but Yukino Yukinoshita felt the odds of that were genuinely slim.
Even if Lin Ye really did change his nationality, would she and Mai truly be willing to marry him together?
At the very least, she herself was rather unwilling, let alone Mai Sakurajima.
"Yukino, buy me some milk-tea!"
All at once, a single line from Lin Ye pulled Yukino's thoughts back to reality.
The two of them were walking side by side along one edge of a bustling street.
There were plenty of passersby around, couples walking hand in hand, and here and there a family of three out together.
Yukinoshita followed the direction Lin Ye indicated and spotted a milk-tea shop not far off, one that wasn't very crowded.
"Why the sudden craving for milk-tea?"
"I want to drink the milk-tea Yukino buys for me," Lin Ye said.
Yukino Yukinoshita agreed to this request of his, since it wasn't anything excessive, in fact it couldn't be called excessive in the slightest.
She was just curious about why he'd want milk-tea. A moment like this, where he clearly stated something he wanted, had to be the first time!
To her, it was quite unexpected.
"Wait here a moment," she said.
Yukino Yukinoshita quickened her pace, took a couple of steps, and headed for the milk-tea shop.
She ordered two cups.
She couldn't very well let Lin Ye drink alone. Tonight counted as a date, after all, and she felt she ought to keep him company and drink milk-tea alongside him.
Five minutes later, Yukino Yukinoshita came back to Lin Ye carrying two cups of milk-tea.
"Here," the girl said, holding the milk-tea out to him.
"Thanks," Lin Ye took it and deftly slid the straw into the cup. Yukino poked hers in just as quickly.
A little while later, Yukino Yukinoshita sipped at her milk-tea, a faint puzzlement in her dark navy eyes. She noticed Lin Ye staring at her the whole time, which struck her as odd. "What is it?"
She asked the question, but in truth she could already guess what Lin Ye was thinking. This guy had probably set his sights on her cup, wanting to drink hers!
This jerk… So that's what he had in mind!
But even though Yukino was shy and put off by the idea, in the end she didn't quite have the resolve to refuse outright.
She knew that if Lin Ye actually asked, there was a very good chance she'd agree.
They'd already kissed directly, so an indirect kiss like this really amounted to nothing at all, Yukino Yukinoshita told herself.
She looked at Lin Ye, waiting for him to speak, but he never did, and she realized this jerk was deliberately waiting for her to speak up, waiting for her to offer it herself.
Well, fine then.
Yukino gave in. "Here, drink it if you want…" She let out a sigh.
This guy had asked her out on a date, so she'd treat it as a small bit of repayment, Yukino Yukinoshita told herself.
But to her surprise, Lin Ye didn't take it.
Had she guessed wrong?
"You drink it."
At Lin Ye's prompting gesture, Yukino Yukinoshita reflexively raised the cup and, out of habit, brought it to her lips.
She took a light sip of the milk-tea.
"Actually, Yukino, the milk-tea I most want to drink is…"
"Hm?" she made a questioning sound.
"Imported milk-tea."
There was no imported milk-tea anywhere around here.
But she caught his meaning at once.
A flush of crimson spread across her face.
Yukino found herself under assault. She struggled a little but failed to break free, and in the end she simply let Lin Ye have his way.
What weighed on her most was the gaze of the people around them.
Those piercing stares made her even more embarrassed, far more embarrassed than a kiss itself.
The moment it was over she dropped her head, grabbed Lin Ye's hand, and hurried off at once, giving no one else another second to watch.
For Yukino right now, all she hoped was that no one she knew had seen that scene just now.
If an acquaintance really had seen it, then she… then she would simply face it with composure, since there was no other option anyway.
But she figured the odds of being seen by an acquaintance were very low. There hadn't been anyone familiar nearby.
Yukino Yukinoshita cast her mind back over the passersby she'd encountered, and none of them left any impression.
A few minutes later, Yukinoshita shook off Lin Ye's hand. "Don't ever do that again."
She said it with real force, making her stance clear.
She had to let Lin Ye know her principles and her limits, otherwise things like this would only happen more and more from now on, until finally something she absolutely couldn't stand would come up.
So Yukino Yukinoshita resolved to make her refusal plain right now, to leave no opening whatsoever.
"What?"
"Don't do that."
"Don't do what?"
Lin Ye wore a look of utter confusion, as though he genuinely had no idea what he'd done.
Yukinoshita of course understood it was all an act. How could Lin Ye not know? He was absolutely pretending to be clueless just to fend her off.
How infuriating.
Yukino Yukinoshita was thoroughly annoyed.
This man knew perfectly well and was playing dumb.
And against a man like that, what was the best approach?
To make her stance even clearer, of course.
"Lin Ye, I'm really about to get angry," she said heavily, her words carrying real temper.
"If you don't spell it out, Yukino, how am I supposed to know what I can't do?"
Lin Ye answered with equal seriousness.
The two of them were locked in a contest, and in the end Yukino gritted her teeth and spoke. "Don't ever do that 'imported milk-tea' thing from before again."
"Oh, that… How exactly did I do it?"
Yukino Yukinoshita nearly burst out cursing, but her fine upbringing reminded her she couldn't do that.
"Lin Ye, I'm going home. Get yourself back to the apartment tonight!"
With that, Yukino Yukinoshita walked off without a backward glance, giving Lin Ye no time to wait at all.
Lin Ye knew the girl was angry, so he hurried after her, reaching out to put an arm around her, but she pulled away.
"All right, all right, my fault. I promise you I'll try my best not to do it again from now on."
The instant she heard that promise, Yukino Yukinoshita knew Lin Ye still meant to try it, so she held firm to her position.
"Yukino, really, believe me, I really will try my best not to," Lin Ye said.
Only then did Yukinoshita feel a little better.
In the end, she let Lin Ye drape an arm over her shoulder, quietly permitting some of his small, intimate gestures.
After a while, the two of them rode the train and arrived at the train station.
It was a familiar road.
Lin Ye had walked it so many times he could practically do it with his eyes closed, knowing exactly which way to go.
A few minutes later, he caught sight of that apartment tower.
"You can head back now."
"Yukino's being this cold?"
"Who knows whether you'll wake up in a swapped body again tomorrow morning."
It hadn't happened today, but that didn't mean it wouldn't tomorrow.
"If my judgment's right, I probably have to use this ability first for the passive effect to trigger," Lin Ye said.
This was his guess.
The biggest difference between yesterday and the days before was that he hadn't used the Body Swap superpower yesterday.
And so he'd arrived at this hypothesis.
It wasn't that Yukino didn't trust Lin Ye's judgment, but she did hold a certain amount of doubt about it.
"Want to test it?"
"I've got no problem with that," Lin Ye said with a shrug.
If the superpower's drawback triggered again and the target happened to be Haruno, he could catch Haruno red-handed. That would be a gain too.
"Fine."
After that, Lin Ye went with the girl up to the apartment tower.
Yukino Yukinoshita first went to change into a set of loose black loungewear.
"Go ahead and start!"
She was giving Lin Ye permission to use the superpower and swap bodies.
In just a brief moment, Yukino Yukinoshita felt her body go light, then sink again, and her field of vision shifted.
She saw herself sitting across from her.
The swap had succeeded.
Even though it wasn't the first time she'd experienced it, every single time she couldn't shake a sense of novelty.
"Yukino's body really is nice, so soft, so supple. Once you start squeezing it, you can't bear to let go."
She watched Lin Ye squeezing her body.
This feeling was even stranger.
"All right, swap back!"
"What did you say? I didn't hear you."
"We can swap back now."
"What was that?"
Lin Ye kept up his can't-hear-you act.
"I'm going to take a shower first. Whatever it is, we'll talk about it later."
With that, Lin Ye stood up and headed for the bathroom, using Yukino's body.
Yukino's expression changed on the spot. She hurried after him and blocked his path. "No, no."
"We're practically an old married couple. What's there to be shy about?"
"No."
This felt completely different.
Even though Lin Ye had already touched her all over, more or less, this feeling still wasn't the same. There was no way she'd let him use her body to shower and bathe.
Just picturing that scene made her shake her head over and over, a strong wave of discomfort rising in her.
Lin Ye pressed to go, but Yukino kept refusing, her stance firm, giving him not the slightest opening.
"Yukino,"
"I can make it up to you, but I won't let you go shower."
Cornered, she had no choice but to offer compensation, hoping it would make Lin Ye let go.
"Oh? What kind of compensation?"
Lin Ye smiled, clearly this had been his aim all along.
"You can make one request, as long as it isn't too excessive."
"Not too excessive?"
"Right."
"Then… a naked apron?"
"…"
This man really did dare to dream.
Yukino Yukinoshita shot him a withering look. "In your dreams."
"Then… a Maid outfit, one of those special ones."
"Stop dreaming. Name something reliable and a little more realistic."
Against a demand like that, Lin Ye spoke again. "Then, you and Mai keeping me company together."
"…"
This guy really did have the nerve to ask.
"That's impossible."
But her tone had wavered, just a little.
Lin Ye knew he had an opening. "This won't do, that won't do, then forget it, I'll just go take my shower!"
And with that he headed toward the bathroom. Yukino Yukinoshita kept blocking him and, by her own strength, managed to hold him off, but she'd forgotten Lin Ye had a skill in hand, and there was no way she could stop him.
In the blink of an eye, she watched Lin Ye vanish before her eyes, and the sound of a door closing came from the direction of the bathroom.
Lin Ye had already gone into the bathroom.
"Spatial teleportation."
That kind of ability really was too much of a cheat!
Yukino Yukinoshita grumbled inwardly.
"I agree, I agree," she said, coming up to the bathroom door and calling out loudly.
But Lin Ye inside acted as though he hadn't heard and turned on the faucet. The rush of gushing water made Yukino Yukinoshita even more frantic.
"Don't,"
"Please don't,"
"I agree, I really agree," she knocked on the door and raised her voice.
Only then did Lin Ye open the bathroom door. "Good. No going back on your word."
"Mm," Yukino nodded.
"Mm, I'm looking forward to the moment Yukino and Mai keep me company together."
The girl with long black hair let out a soft sigh.
"Mm, that scene in bed."
Yukino Yukinoshita: ???
So that was what this jerk had in mind!
She looked at the beaming 'herself' and grew even angrier.
"Keep dreaming!"
"Anyway, you've already agreed, Yukino. Next I'll get Mai to agree too."
"There's no way she'll agree."
"Who knows! You weren't going to agree either, Yukino, but here you are agreeing now, aren't you?"
"I didn't,"
"Oh? You want to break your word?"
Under those words, in the end Yukino Yukinoshita gave her tacit acceptance after all.
"Swap back."
The Body Swap ended, and Yukino Yukinoshita returned to her own body.
She'd made up her mind: from now on she'd do her best to give Lin Ye no opening, because the moment she did, she'd end up saddled with all sorts of conditions and compensations.
"I'll head back for tonight," Lin Ye said.
"Mm."
"Wait for my call tomorrow morning. If I've swapped bodies with someone, I'll get in touch with you."
Yukino nodded, and the two settled on what they'd discussed.
It wasn't that Lin Ye didn't want to stay the night at Yukino's place, but if a Body Swap really did happen again tomorrow morning, then even if it were Haruno, there'd be a certain problem.
Lin Ye didn't dare give Haruno a chance to bully Yukino.
And so Lin Ye left the apartment and returned to his own.
The moment he opened the door, the one who greeted him was of course John.
The German Shepherd had been waiting a long while for Lin Ye.
Tonight it wanted to get out and move around, so Lin Ye took it for a walk around the block before heading back.
Before returning, he even bought fried chicken, some for himself and some to feed John.
The poor thing had spent the whole day cooped up in the cramped apartment, which really wasn't easy on it.
For now, all Lin Ye could do was make it up to the dog through food.
He was also planning to move to a bigger place, so John would have more room to move about.
He'd have Haruno handle that.
But Haruno's punishment would still stand, all the same.
…
…
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