"Xiao Ai, can we do that tonight?"
"Lin-chan wants to come sleep together? Mmm..."
Hesitated, there's definitely something fishy!
Even though it was only for a few seconds, Yilin still successfully captured that fleeting change in Aisha's expression, as well as the trembling of the ahoge atop her head due to guilt.
Normally, Aisha, who lived alone, would definitely agree immediately if she learned Yilin was coming to keep her company tonight, nodding vigorously, shaking her ahoge, and revealing a smile.
So the problem really is in the dormitory?
"Mm, come on over, Lin-chan. It's been a long time since we slept together, I'm really looking forward to it."
Although the final result was still Aisha nodding in agreement, the meaning for Yilin was already different.
The truth hidden in the darkness, the great Detective Lin is about to touch it!
——Originally, Yilin thought the development would be like this.
Or perhaps, at least she could sniff out some clues in Aisha's dormitory that led to Aisha's change.
But the reality was completely opposite to imagination.
Even though Yilin conducted a carpet search in Aisha's dormitory, she didn't find anything different from before.
"Lin-chan, it's your turn to roll the dice, stop digging around everywhere."
Ostensibly, Yilin was playing a magical board game called Royal Tycoon with Aisha.
In reality, Yilin, with half her body already drilled under Aisha's bed, anyone with eyes could see that her mind was not on the game at all.
"Don't mind me, Xiao Ai, this posture is a new metaphysics (luck technique) I discovered."
Yilin, making excuses while rolling the dice from under the bed, accurately rolled a 6.
You Ling: "How many 6s is that now?"
Even You Ling had to admire that this red-haired girl's luck was even more terrifying than his own.
Compared to Duel Monsters, she might be more suited for gambling.
However, even by continuously using the game to stall for time, Yilin's plan to find the truth still failed.
No flaws, even the only blind spot, the dormitory room, had no abnormalities.
This made Yilin couldn't help but start doubting herself, wondering if she was overthinking and getting obsessed.
...The turning point appeared when Yilin had almost given up and was preparing to take a bath and rest.
"What? Lin-chan, you, you said, bathe together? Th-th-th, that's not really good!"
"Why not, didn't we always do it together before?"
That's naturally because now is different from before.
Aisha wanted to answer this way, but didn't know how to say it.
In the seemingly two-person room, there was now an extra person.
Even though Aisha had gradually stopped minding You Ling seeing things when she bathed in recent days, she couldn't let her childhood friend be seen completely naked too.
(You Ling: "I really didn't want to see this...")
"How strange, we're both girls, what's there to be shy about."
As she said this, Yilin had already started taking off her top, revealing snow-white, delicate skin without a trace of fat on her abdomen to the air.
"You just can't, Lin-chan!"
To avoid synchronizing the view to You Ling inside the Millennium Puzzle, Aisha covered her eyes like a shy girl who had seen something she shouldn't have.
"Super shock! Is my body that unbearable to look at?"
Yilin unwillingly pounced, trying hard to pry open Aisha's hands covering her eyes.
"Look straight at me, otaku!"
"Don't, Lin-chan, you really can't..."
Aisha, persisting until the end with willpower, still didn't open her eyes. And repeatedly and seriously rejected Yilin's invitation to bathe.
It had to be said, this was the strangest behavior Aisha had shown all evening.
But no matter how hard Yilin, soaking in the bathtub, racked her brains, she couldn't figure out the reason for Aisha's strange behavior.
Clearly, since childhood until now, the two of them being frank with each other, bathing together and such, was perfectly normal.
Thinking it over and over, Yilin could ultimately only think of one reason that caused such a change in Aisha.
"Could it be, Xiao Ai... has fallen for me!"
A completely wrong answer.
However, Yilin herself found it more and more plausible the more she thought about it.
"Maybe Xiao Ai doesn't see me as a friend, but sees me as a romantic interest. Is that why she's so shy! What should I do, what should I do?"
Facing her childhood friend, Aisha Yuna Carlos, with her appearance as cute as an exquisite porcelain doll, Yilin would definitely be lying if she said she didn't like her.
But Yilin's liking leaned more towards the best friend aspect.
She liked hugging Aisha, liked rubbing those soft, fair cheeks, liked holding those cool, smooth little hands.
"If it's really like that, how should I respond to Xiao Ai's feelings."
Because the problem was too complex, thinking overloaded, Yilin's head gradually submerged into the bathwater.
Only after getting dizzy from soaking did she dazedly, unsteadily, walk out of the dormitory bathroom.
"Yah, Lin-chan, why did you come out without wearing clothes!"
Aisha, who quickly activated her eye-closing mode, unfortunately, although only for an instant, the scene of white snow (euphemism for naked body) still flooded into You Ling's mind.
You Ling: "If I say it was an accident, probably no one would doubt it this time."
Directly collapsing onto Aisha's bed, Yilin, dizzy to the point the world was spinning, managed to give Aisha a thumbs-up with her hand.
"I'm fine, I'll be okay after resting a bit, Xiao Ai, you go wash up quickly."
"Then remember to put on clothes later." Aisha didn't forget to remind before leaving, "For pajamas, you can wear the ones in my wardrobe. Remember you must wear them, you can't act like a hooligan!"
"This girl must like me."
Even though dizzy from soaking, Yilin didn't recognize where her mistake lay.
Quietly lying on the bed, gradually recovering from the state of dizziness, Yilin tilted her head and noticed the deck Aisha had placed by the bedside.
Aisha's pile of trash monster decks, Yilin had dueled against them countless times since childhood, she couldn't be more familiar with them.
Of course, that was before the battle with Kevin.
An inexplicable curiosity prompted Yilin, without even putting on clothes, naked, to pick up the deck by Aisha's bedside and look through it card by card.
"I see, so that's how it is."
While looking through the deck, Yilin's expression gradually recovered from its daze.
"Xiao Ai, she really has gotten stronger, strong to the point that even I feel surprised... So, what problem was I even agonizing over, like an idiot."
Everyone grows, everyone changes. This point was no exception even for her most familiar best friend, Aisha Carlos.
"If I continue letting my imagination run wild, maybe I'll inadvertently be surpassed by Xiao Ai. I wouldn't want that; after all, according to our childhood promise, I'm supposed to be the hero who protects Xiao Ai."
If she couldn't protect Aisha well in the academy, Yilin had originally planned to withdraw from Fusion Academy together with Aisha.
Anyway, Yilin still had three older brothers; the Austin family wasn't lacking her as one Duelist.
But since Aisha successfully avoided the expulsion crisis, she couldn't continue letting her imagination run wild and slack off like this.
After putting down Aisha's deck, although she hadn't found the most correct answer, Yilin seemed to have found the answer that could best convince herself.
Then, as if fate wanted to prove this answer.
This Friday's practical combat duel test matchup: Aisha Yuna Carlos versus Yilin Austin.