"A white-haired, red-eyed, tsundere, flat-chested girl, and a blonde, blue-eyed, pure-hearted bitch—why do I feel like I've seen this combo somewhere before?"
Looking at the single colored page among the manuscript, a thoughtful glint flashed through Mio's eyes.
Eriri snatched the page back in one motion, then mumbled, "Th-those are all really common elements, you know. Don't read into it."
Mio glanced at Eriri's smooth, flowing blonde hair, and something seemed to click. She broke into a sweet smile. "If you say so. But put that combination together, Eriri—doesn't it feel a little familiar to you?"
"What are you talking about? Beats me."
Eriri gathered up the scattered pages at lightning speed, but no matter how fast her hands moved, they couldn't outrun Mio's eyes.
On top of that, Mio had a memory that never forgot a thing she saw, and quite a few of those pages were already filed away in her head.
Come to think of it, she mused, isn't everything drawn in this book just stuff that's actually happened between me and Eriri?
No wonder Eriri hadn't wanted her to see it.
If it were me, I'd probably react the same way.
Just as Mio was debating whether she should keep pressing, she watched Eriri hold the pages she'd only just tidied back out toward her.
That gave Mio pause. She looked up, puzzled. "Eriri, I thought you didn't want me to see it?"
Eriri let out a melancholy sigh. "You've already seen the parts you weren't supposed to see anyway. Might as well just let you look at the whole thing—it's not like there's anything in there I have to hide."
What she'd drawn was indeed a doujinshi, but not the R-18 kind—it was all-ages.
It wasn't that the thought of drawing an R-18 plot had never crossed Eriri's mind. But the moment she remembered the two leads were modeled on herself and Mio, she simply couldn't bring her pen down on the page.
Besides, she didn't even know how two girls would actually go about that sort of thing.
Maybe... I could ask Mio to research it with me?
The instant the idea surfaced, it scared the daylights out of her. She had to be out of her mind—seriously considering asking Mio to look into that together.
While Eriri was lost in her wild imaginings, Mio picked up the manuscript and studied it in earnest.
After reading through the story, she was all but certain: this was a work based on her and Eriri.
Looking at the final page, where the two of them shared a kiss, Mio honestly hadn't expected Eriri to draw this kind of book.
Noticing that Mio had finished, Eriri finally spoke up. "Don't get the wrong idea, okay? I just figured I'd collected a lot of material spending time with you, and it'd be a waste not to use it. That's the only reason I drew it."
"It's pretty good, actually. Good enough to submit to an exhibition."
"Absolutely not."
The book might not be R-18, but it was still modeled on her and Mio. A work like this was for keeping at home and admiring by herself—there was no way on earth she'd ever put it on display.
"I was only making a suggestion. I didn't realize you were this good, Eriri—not just at childhood-friend pure-love doujinshi, but yuri doujinshi too. Looks like you've got a real knack for it."
"Stop, just stop."
Mio hadn't even said anything cutting, yet Eriri's face burned like fire—the same way it had the very first time she'd shown her work to someone.
By the time Mio handed the pages back, there were fifteen minutes left before class.
Just as she was about to stand and head off, the System's voice suddenly sounded in her ear: "Host, please find a way to hold hands with Eriri, and have at least three people see the two of you hand in hand. Success may yield the Eriri Series Deck or an item reward. Failure will require a draw from the Punishment Deck."
"Wow. As if there isn't enough gossip about me already, huh?"
"Not at all—this really is just a sudden development. In any case, please do your best to complete the task, host~"
Mio rolled her eyes, then started turning the problem over in her mind: how exactly was she supposed to pull this off?
Getting at least three people to see her holding hands with Eriri wasn't hard, really—she could just take a lap somewhere crowded and probably knock it out.
The problem now was how to get Eriri to hold hands with her in the first place.
Mio glanced at Eriri, who had already packed up and was ready to leave, then said, "Eriri, can you do me a favor?"
"What favor?"
"Lend me your hand. I want to hold it on the way back to the classroom."
"???"
Eriri, who'd already started to reach out, pulled her hand back. She couldn't quite figure out what was going through Mio's head.
If we actually walked back to class hand in hand and someone saw us, wouldn't that cause a huge misunderstanding?
But looking at Mio's eager, pleading, adorable expression, she found it hard to refuse.
After a moment's hesitation, she extended her hand toward Mio anyway.
Mio, who was still in the middle of preparing her arguments, froze when she saw it—she hadn't expected Eriri to actually agree to such a ridiculous request.
"What are you staring at? Hurry up and move before I change my mind."
"Oh."
Mio gave a little hum of acknowledgment, took Eriri's hand, and the two of them walked out of the Art Club activity room together.
The moment they stepped outside, they heard the familiar voice of the club president.
"I thought I heard a little noise inside earlier—I was wondering who it could be. Turns out it was you two~"
The instant the president-senpai appeared, the counter in Mio's vision ticked over to 1. Just two more people needed to see her and Eriri holding hands, and the task would be complete.
Beside her, Eriri opened her mouth as if to offer some kind of explanation, then thought better of it. She had a feeling that the more she explained, the blacker it would get.
The two of them headed straight for the stairwell.
Just as they reached it and were about to head down, Mio suddenly heard footsteps coming from upstairs.
A moment later, Kasumigaoka Utaha came into view.
And she wasn't alone—there was another familiar figure at her side: Aki Tomoya.
When Tomoya spotted Eriri, his first instinct was to call out a greeting. But he quickly noticed that Eriri and Mio were holding hands, looking awfully close.
At the sight, his brow furrowed. I already told Eriri there's something seriously wrong with Shirai Mio—so how did it come to this?
Mio, meanwhile, seized the moment to greet Kasumigaoka Utaha. "Senpai, long time no see."
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