Rumors in the school continued to snowball. The forums were flooded with posts some true, many false about the key players involved in Class 1-D's incident.
Some even dug up Yoshida and Kuraki's past from middle school. Apparently, Yoshida had nearly been expelled for seriously injuring a classmate, while Kuraki and Eda had once been victims of bullying.
Yukinoshita thought to herself: people who desperately want to cut ties with their past fear nothing more than having that ugly past dragged into the light.
The frenzy of digging up "black history" only intensified. Everyone in the class was on edge. Yukinoshita had even heard that many students in Class 1-D had suddenly become very warm toward Shouko Nishimiya, as if dying to paste "I'm not an accomplice" across their foreheads.
The next day, the homeroom teacher of Class 1-D held a short meeting after morning classes. She announced that a black box would be placed in the classroom that afternoon, along with identical confession envelopes to be distributed to each student. Everyone was required to write a statement of reflection on the incident.
Of course, if the person who had stolen Kuraki Eda's money was willing to quietly return the money in their envelope, the school would consider the matter resolved, chalking it up to youthful ignorance.
If not, the investigation would continue.
Yui Yuigahama was extremely curious about how it would all turn out.
"Yuki~ Yuki~ Do you think the thief will actually return the money in secret?"
Yukinoshita had no idea when Yuigahama had started calling her something so familiar.
Yukinoshita lightly tapped her on the head with a rolled-up test paper. "Have you finished your exercises? Did you pass your retake?"
Yuigahama clutched her head with teary eyes. "I finished all the practice questions you picked out for me, and I'm feeling pretty confident about the retake."
Yukinoshita nodded. "That's good then."
"So do you think the stolen money will actually be recovered?"
Yukinoshita was sketching out a timeline of the Momoyama period's key events on scrap paper, casually reviewing for ancient Japanese history.
"Whether the thief returns the money or not, the others definitely will."
Yuigahama held her head and let out a soft, confused noise.
"Eh?"
Before the end of the school day, the final result of Class 1-D's reflection meeting was posted live text-only by one of their own classmates on the school forum.
When the result came out, the anonymous poster spammed the thread with question marks.
"Kuraki Eda lost 6,000 yen, but there were eight envelopes each with exactly 6,000 yen in them????"
"Is something wrong with our class? Since when are we all so rich???????"
It wasn't that anything was wrong. It was just that most of Class 1-D wanted this incident to be over with as soon as possible.
Soubu High might not be as elite as Shuchiin Academy, where the average student was a young master or lady of high society, but 6,000 yen (around 380 RMB) wasn't exactly unaffordable. Spending that money to end the rising tide of personal scandals seemed more than worth it.
Miura thought so, too. She sent a message to the other moderators of the school forum, suggesting they start restricting posts about this incident.
And so, the matter came to a smooth if somewhat anticlimactic close. The only regret was that no one ever found out who had actually stolen the money.
After school, Yukinoshita was packing her books when she glanced over at Miura.
The blonde beauty, hypersensitive to Yukinoshita's gaze, immediately turned red, slammed her things together, and ran out of the classroom, not even hearing Onodera calling after her.
Yukinoshita: ???
Didn't we already clarify that day was just an accident? It was just a bump on the forehead! Why are you blushing like a kettle full of tea!?
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Miura sprinted all the way to the station.
It wasn't until she boarded the train that she realized she'd forgotten to wait for Junko and Zeka.
Their homes weren't particularly close to hers, but they usually took a few stops together anyway.
When she checked her phone, she saw that both Junko and Zeka had already sent her a bunch of question marks. Miura felt a little ashamed. She really had been doing a lot of dumb things lately.
[I had something urgent come up. Sorry!]
[Okay okay, just send a message when you get home so we know you're safe... You really ran off fast, geez _]
Miura hated lying to her friends like this.
She didn't actually have anything urgent. She just couldn't face Yukinoshita right now.
Her parents were away on a business trip again, so no one was home, and no one cared when she came back.
Miura got off at one of the stops and hadn't walked far from the station when she came across a familiar bookstore.
She was overwhelmed with emotions confusion, anxiety, fear and desperately needed something to help her make sense of them.
She passed the study guides section and the fashion magazines, then arrived at the light novels and manga shelves.
*"*Love Metronome – Complete Remastered Edition! Kashi-ko-sensei redefines the romance genre!"
"I Got Reincarnated in Another World as the Evil Supporting Male Lead!"
"My Offline Girlfriend Is Actually My Sister???"
Eventually, she came across a manga with a cover featuring two girls nestled together in a close embrace.
She had barely flipped a few pages when someone tapped her on the shoulder.
"Wow! You like this manga too? What a coincidence!"
Startled, Miura turned around and saw... a blonde, foreign-looking girl?
"Nice to meet you! I'm Smith A. Bansaka!" The blonde girl introduced herself with sparkling eyes and a pure, innocent smile.
Why are you introducing yourself to a total stranger!?
Miss Smith chirped, "It's so rare to meet another girl my age who likes yuri manga! I'm so happy!"
Wait, yuri manga????
Miura struggled to explain herself. "Um, uh…"
Miss Smith dragged her to one of the bookstore's reading tables. Even though she lowered her voice, her enthusiasm couldn't be hidden.
"Miss, you must love how the two female leads secretly like each other, right?"
Female leads? Secretly in love?
Miura swallowed back the words she had originally wanted to say. She stammered, "Uh… it's just that I'm confused…"
There were so many things she never dared to say to anyone before, but maybe because this girl was a complete stranger, it gave Miura a strange sort of courage.
"I have this friend…" she began nervously. "She knows that her other friend has a crush on her. But until recently, she'd never thought about her that way."
Miss Smith's eyes sparkled. "And then? And then?"
Miura chose her words with extreme care. "Then, she recently told me that her thoughts about that friend have gotten weirder and weirder."
"She wants to always be with her. Just seeing her happy makes her smile. When she's sad, her heart feels heavy. But that's not even the worst part…"
Miura looked utterly distressed. "She even starts wondering what her friend's neck smells like… Her face and lips make her heart race just by looking at them…"
She covered her face in shame. "Isn't that… just completely perverted?"
"Perverted?"
Miss Smith let out a soft "ah" and then suddenly giggled.
Her laugh was sweet and innocent, pure and without a trace of judgment.
"That's not perversion," she said, smiling brightly.
"That's mutual affection."
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