When Yukino returned home, she saw her sister curled up on the sofa reading a library book, "Lolita."
The sound of her opening the door clearly startled the other party, causing Haruno to instinctively look up in a daze, but after seeing Yukino, the expression on her face immediately became bright and radiant.
"Yukino-chan~" She tossed the library book aside and stretched out both hands toward her sister, making a "request for a hug" gesture that was inconsistent with her age.
"Don't call me by that nickname like Yuigahama does." Yukino ignored her sister's playfulness, walked straight to the table and put down her school bag before speaking with cold eyes.
Actually, after the Human-Faced Sore incident, the relationship between the sisters had become much better than before, but Yukino was an awkward person, and she still couldn't quite bring herself to suddenly change her attitude toward Haruno.
"How stingy, I am your sister after all. Could it be that in your heart, Yukino, I can't even compare to that Yuigahama?"
If it were a fun-loving person like Asakura, they would probably say "sodayo" without hesitation, but Yukino was an honest person, so she just slightly furrowed her brows and replied: "Those are two different things."
"It's the same thing." Haruno chuckled and said: "Rather than that, how did the matter Sister entrusted to you go?"
"Failed."
"..."
Haruno sighed and looked at Yukino with an expression of "Little sister, Sister is very disappointed in you."
A faint blush of embarrassment appeared on Yukino's face, which she was trying to keep cool.
If it were a debate with others using formal logic, the girl would not retreat in the slightest; no matter how difficult it was, she could grit her teeth and persist in fighting for her beliefs.
But when it came to showing kindness to others, it was somewhat difficult for Miss Yukino, who had always been regarded as an "ice beauty" at Sobu High.
"Let me guess... you probably mentioned it casually at the cat café, and after being rejected by the other party, you almost never asked again, right?" Haruno watched her sister and spoke in a certain tone.
"Why can you be sure it was at the cat café..."
Yukino was still putting up a final resistance.
Haruno reached out and plucked a snow-white cat hair from her body, looking at her sister with a half-smile.
"Also, it's possible I accidentally got it from a cat I encountered on the road." Yukino continued to be stubborn.
Haruno reached out again and plucked a yellow cat hair from her body, her expression changing from a half-smile to a fake grin.
"If that guy doesn't want to eat with you, I can't help it..." Yukino sighed and stopped struggling: "My relationship with him isn't particularly good either."
"Oh, I thought Yukino would continue to argue that these hairs were from the same cat."
"Don't say such things anymore."
As a cat lover, Yukino could very clearly distinguish different breeds of cat hair. For example, the white one came from a Silver Tabby's cotton-like fur, while the orange-yellow one was the silky fur of a Tabby cat. They were not the same breed at all—one could distinguish this very clearly just from the touch when petting a cat.
As a side note, in Yukino's view, cotton-furred cats are more comfortable to pet, but she has heard that these cats shed quite heavily.
"Sigh, I originally planned to go on an international trip with you, Yukino, during the summer vacation. As a result, who knew this world would actually become so... well, lively? Now hasn't even going out become difficult?"
Haruno sighed.
"Don't nonchalantly take up my vacation time." Yukino said calmly while picking up a library book she hadn't finished reading.
"Yukino, aren't you going to comfort me at all?!" Haruno protested indignantly.
"In a sense, this can be considered knowing the price of the real world..." Yukino said, completely ignoring her sister's almost tearful accusation: "When I first came into contact with such things, I was also slightly shaken, but time is a good medicine that heals everything. After living like this for a while, you won't care as much."
"Time is a good medicine that heals everything... Hearing these words from you, Yukino, not only is it completely unconvincing, but it actually has a strange sense of irony." Haruno looked at her sister's expression and spoke softly.
"The things of the past, I don't care about them anymore."
Yukino turned the book to the page with the bookmark and sighed slightly: "After all, I've experienced even worse situations. I feel that the previous version of myself who couldn't let go of those small things was truly too naive."
"No, no, no, in my opinion, that's also a cute point of Yukino's~" Haruno's mouth curved into a 'ω' shape as she said happily: "After all, you are my important little sister."
"But your important little sister seems to have messed up your important date." Yukino flipped through the book and said nonchalantly.
"Now that things have come to this, I can only compensate Asakura-kun with my little sister."
"How important is a sister who is given away by her own sister as a compensatory gift?"
"In Sister's heart, Yukino will always be the most important." Haruno said in a tone like an old mother seeing off her daughter for marriage while fake-wiping non-existent tears: "Even if you go to Asakura's side, you must remember to write to me~"
"What are you saying? Weren't you the one who didn't think highly of Asakura-kun before?" Yukino finally couldn't help but close the book and complained with a look of looking at trash.
"That's why a compensatory gift is needed!"
"I feel the cause-and-effect relationship of the conversation is no longer valid..."
"Hey, Yukino."
"What's wrong?"
"How do you actually view Asakura-kun?"
"...Friend." When Yukino uttered these two words, she felt a bit inexplicably guilty, so she added: "Probably."
"This 'friend' of yours..." Haruno stroked her smooth chin and thought: "Is it the kind that needs to be redefined?"
"...Occasionally I should also report the issue of Hiratsuka-sensei smoking in school to the school board."
"Even if one 'Kojizu' falls, thousands upon thousands of intelligence stations will stand up!"
"Although it's a bit strange for me to say this, you should worry about Hiratsuka-sensei's professional career first..."
"Well, because Shizuka-chan's family originally didn't quite approve of her choice to be a teacher, if Shizuka-chan loses her job, they will only feel happy about it."
"I felt so before; Hiratsuka-sensei is really being controlled by you."
"Speaking of which, Shizuka-chan has always been by your side, but she doesn't know about 'that side' of you guys."
"Because Hiratsuka-sensei seems to advocate for the students' autonomy quite a bit. As a guiding teacher, she almost never appears in the club to give any guidance." Yukino said: "After all, she is someone who can do something like trying to stuff a boy into the Service Club without caring at all about the problems of a solitary man and woman being alone together."
"So why couldn't you conquer Asakura at that time?"
"..."
Yukino had a constipated expression on her face, like she had eaten a cookie baked by Yuigahama Yui.
She really didn't expect her sister to circle the topic around and then circle it back in this way...