At noon, on the tree-lined path leading to the student cafeteria.
Natsukawa Sosuke and Sakura Airi walked side by side. Sakura still habitually lagged half a step behind, but her pace no longer carried the tension and unease it once did.
Just then, a vibrant voice came from behind them.
"Natsukawa-kun! Sakura-san—!"
The two turned around to see Ichinose Honami jogging towards them with a wide smile, her waist-length hair tracing a youthful arc in the air.
"I have great news for you!" Ichinose ran in front of them, slightly out of breath, but the joy on her face was impossible to hide.
"That stalker... he's been caught!"
Sakura Airi's body stiffened abruptly.
She slowly raised her head, her large, azure eyes, hidden behind her glasses, looked excitedly at Natsukawa, then turned to Ichinose.
"This morning, the school's security department directly raided that electronics store and apprehended the employee on the spot!" Ichinose's voice was filled with excitement. "They found mountains of photos on his phone and computer! With irrefutable evidence, he's now been taken away by the school's disciplinary department. I heard he'll be directly expelled and handed over to the police! We... we succeeded!"
Succeeded... it's over... These two words, like two warm rays of sunshine, instantly pierced through the thick, cold clouds that had accumulated in Sakura Airi's heart for days.
These past few days, the fear of being watched, the helplessness of being threatened, the panic of her identity possibly being exposed, and the pressure of forcing herself to be brave... All these negative emotions had washed over her like a tide, nearly eroding her entire being into a thousand holes.
And now, all of it had vanished into thin air.
The string, stretched to its limit, completely and utterly relaxed at this moment.
Sakura Airi's eyes instantly reddened. She bit her lip tightly, not wanting to cry, but tears flowed uncontrollably from the corners of her eyes like broken pearls, blurring her vision.
These were not tears of fear, but of release, of relief, of the joy of surviving a catastrophe.
She could no longer control her emotions. The dependence and gratitude she had suppressed for so long erupted completely at this moment. She suddenly took a step forward and threw herself into the embrace that had given her all her security and courage.
"Waaah... Natsukawa-kun...!"
She buried her face deep in Natsukawa Sosuke's chest, her cold hands clutching the fabric over his chest as if she had grasped the entire world. The suppressed sobs, accumulated for so long, finally released themselves completely at this moment, turning into loud cries filled with endless grievance and joy.
Natsukawa Sosuke's body paused slightly, then he raised his hand and gently, soothingly patted her back, which was trembling violently from crying.
Ichinose Honami stood by, watching the embracing pair, a genuinely happy smile on her face. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, dappling Sakura Airi's red hair and Natsukawa's calm profile, creating a warm and beautiful scene.
She was happy for Sakura and reassured by Natsukawa's reliability. However, watching Sakura so unreservedly pour out all her emotions into that embrace, a small, even unnoticed, hint of envy involuntarily arose in Ichinose's heart.
If it were me... if I could do that too... it would be nice... Natsukawa Sosuke stood quietly, feeling the violent trembling of the small body in his arms. Sakura Airi cried like a child, pouring out all the fear, grievance, and pressure she had endured during this time into his chest without reservation, her warm tears quickly soaking a patch of his clothes.
He didn't speak, just silently supported her. His thoughts, however, returned to last night.
After receiving Sakura's message that the stalker demanded to meet on the rooftop, Natsukawa Sosuke knew it was time to close the net. He did not adopt Sakura's 'fishing plan' which involved putting herself in danger. In his opinion, making the victim confront the perpetrator herself was a failure in itself.
What he wanted to do was to uproot that rat hiding in the gutter, in its supposedly safest den.
Natsukawa Sosuke opened his laptop. He didn't use any complex hacking techniques; what he exploited was merely the most common human oversight and the stalker's self-important arrogance.
He first changed his laptop's MAC address to the unique fingerprint of the stalker's phone, which he had sniffed out at the Keyaki Shopping Center the day before yesterday. For the crude public Wi-Fi router at the electronics store, Natsukawa, at the network level, had completely impersonated that employee.
Immediately after, he took out the crucial key—the Session Cookie he had intercepted the day before yesterday.
He imported this string of characters into his browser's plugin and then visited Sakura Airi's blog. After verifying the cookie, the server immediately determined that he was the stalker himself, allowing him to enter the backend in a logged-in state. The entire process didn't even require a password.
The bullet was loaded.
Natsukawa Sosuke's fingers tapped lightly on the keyboard, imitating the man's greasy and pathological tone, and edited the two fatal private messages.
The location was changed from the rooftop to the electronics store.
The threat changed from a simple meeting to outright exposure.
All that remained was to wait. Wait for Ichinose to exert official pressure through proper channels, and wait for the school security personnel to follow the clues and apprehend the criminal, even if he deleted the chat logs, it would be useless.
This was Natsukawa Sosuke's plan. Without shedding blood, and without even needing to appear himself. He merely gave the stalker a gentle push from behind, and the bullet the stalker fired accurately hit himself along the preset trajectory.
"…Thank you."
The sobbing in his arms gradually subsided, replaced by a grateful voice thick with a nasal tone.
Sakura Airi slowly lifted her head from his embrace. Her azure eyes, washed clean by tears, now appeared exceptionally clear. Tear streaks still adorned her fair cheeks, and her eyes were red, making her look incredibly endearing.
She didn't immediately pull away, but gazed up at him from such close proximity, as if to engrave his image deep into her soul.
For Sakura Airi, this past period felt like the longest, darkest nightmare of her life.
Initially, the cold fear brought by that private message, like being entwined by a venomous snake, plunged her into a helpless abyss. Then, Natsukawa-kun's appearance, like a light piercing the darkness, pulled her back from the edge of the abyss.
Then, it was Natsukawa-kun who made her take her first step: morning runs. The burning in her lungs, the soreness in her muscles, and the shame of running under everyone's gaze—each made her want to flee immediately. But as long as she saw that steady, unceasing figure ahead, she felt as if she gained a surge of strength, making her grit her teeth and take the first step towards changing herself.
When those candid photos appeared, she thought she would collapse again. That was malice made tangible, proof that the shadow had touched her real life. But this time, she wasn't alone. Natsukawa-kun's calm analysis and Ichinose-san's warm assistance built a defense for her.
The final threat of exposure almost crushed her. That was a punishment more terrifying than any physical harm. She thought she would retreat back into that trembling shell, enduring the strange looks from her classmates.
However, Natsukawa-kun's words, "I'm here," were like a calming pill, completely shattering the last vestiges of hesitation and weakness in her heart.
She chose to trust him, staking everything on that trust.
And he did not disappoint her.
In a way she couldn't even comprehend, he effortlessly dispelled the nightmare that had loomed over her.
This person had saved her from the quagmire of fear again and again. He never blamed her for being timid, nor did he mock her incompetence. He simply guided her, protected her, and ultimately... rescued her, in the calmest, gentlest, yet firmest way.
This kindness, this sense of security, had far exceeded the boundaries of ordinary classmates.
...
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