Chapter 11 made her cry. Iodine solution is good; don't apply it next time.
Risa yawned as she entered the classroom, and the girl in the front row turned around.
"Matsuno-san,"
The girl lowered her voice and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear: "I don't think they'll let this go so easily about the trending topic. You'd better be careful."
Risa was slightly taken aback.
Yuzuki Iwai is a beautiful woman with a dignified appearance, a tall figure, and a mature demeanor. She is also an excellent student.
She usually has a cold expression and keeps to herself. But in the comments section of Risa's clarification post, she was one of the few people who stood up for her.
"Okay, I understand. Thank you for reminding me, Iwai-kun."
Risa took her textbook out of her bag and began to preview her lessons.
A timid head peeked out from the classroom door. Risa recognized her as a junior she had met a few times before—Sato Chinatsu.
Chika clung to the doorframe, her eyes scanning the classroom with unease.
Risa frowned slightly, thinking that she had come to see her. Just as she was about to get up, Yuzuki in the front row had already walked out quickly.
The two stood in the corridor talking in hushed tones, with Chinatsu occasionally stealing glances in Risa's direction.
When their eyes met, she hurriedly lowered her head, then, as if summoning her courage, gave a shy smile and waved gently.
Risa tilted her head, looking completely bewildered, but still responded politely.
A short while later, Yuzuki returned to her seat and placed a bag of handmade cookies on Risa's table.
"Chika made this especially for you."
She paused, then added, "She said she was very grateful for your courageous act. She also felt guilty for causing you so much trouble."
"She's overthinking it. This is nothing to me."
Risa unwrapped the package, picked up a cookie with a smiley face on it, and took a bite. The crisp texture and just the right amount of sweetness made her unconsciously squint her eyes.
"Delicious!"
Risa pushed the cookie toward Yuzuki: "Want to try some?"
Yuzuki waved her hand: "Chika has loved studying desserts since she was little, I'm almost tired of them."
Are you two close?
Risa couldn't resist taking another one, this time it was star-shaped.
"Our parents are old acquaintances."
Jieyue rested her chin on her hand and said, "After I returned to China, I lived next door to her house and received a lot of care from her mother."
Risa paused, suddenly realizing something. No wonder Yuzuki was the first to stand up for her when she posted the clarification on Twitter that day.
She looked down at the remaining matcha cookies on the table, and the image of Kirihara Akaya's green eyes lighting up every time he ate sweets flashed before her eyes, like a satiated cat.
Bring it to him during his lunch break; that kid loves sweets.
Thinking this, Risa carefully put away the remaining cookies and placed them in her desk drawer.
-
After the bell rang, the students rushed out.
The stairwell was packed with people, so crowded that it was almost impossible to breathe.
Risa was looking down at her phone when she suddenly felt a fierce push from behind. In a dizzying moment, her body was thrown forward uncontrollably.
In that instant of weightlessness, only one thought crossed Risa's mind—even the wisest can make a mistake; she had been careless.
Risa propped herself up, her elbows scraping against the rough ground, and a sharp pain shot through her knees.
The stairwell was packed with students watching the spectacle. Some gasped, some whispered, and every face wore an expression of curiosity, but no one actually stepped forward.
Are you alright?
A gentle voice descended from above, tinged with worry.
Immediately afterwards, a slender hand was extended in front of me, with distinct knuckles and a palm facing upwards.
Risa looked up and met the boy's unfathomable eyes. He stood against the light, the ends of his deep blue hair gilded with a pale gold by the sunlight, his face hidden in shadow, making it impossible to see his expression.
"Thank you for your concern, I just accidentally missed a step." Risa stood up, holding onto the wall.
Yukimura's hand hovered in mid-air, paused for a moment, and then slowly withdrew.
"Risa-nee!"
Kirihara Akaya's voice came from behind the crowd. He rudely pushed through the onlookers and rushed over, his green eyes filled with anxiety: "What happened? Who did this?"
"It's nothing." Risa smiled and casually waved her phone. "I was checking messages when I went downstairs and didn't notice the steps, so I missed a step."
"Huh?" Kirihara's eyes widened, his gaze quickly sweeping over her knee. "Are you hurt? Should we go to the infirmary?"
"I'm perfectly fine." Risa patted the dust off her knees and skirt, took out a bag of handmade cookies, and stuffed it into his hand. "Here, this is a gift from my junior. They're super delicious~ I saved them especially for you."
Kirihara's attention was successfully diverted. He took the paper bag, but still stared at her suspiciously: "Are you really okay?"
"Really." Risa tugged at his sleeve, unusually coquettish, "I'm hungry, take me to the cafeteria quickly, or they'll run out of braised pork."
Kirihara compromised: "Alright then, but if you feel unwell, you must tell me."
"Okay, okay, you're so long-winded."
As she went downstairs, Risa stumbled.
Yukimura watched the two figures disappear into the distance, his eyes growing increasingly dark.
"The probability of an accident being deliberately created is 98.7%." Liu Lian'er closed her notebook.
"Sanada, how's the investigation by the Disciplinary Committee going?"
Sanada straightened his back instinctively: "The Education Department has joined forces with the Kanagawa Cybercrime Countermeasures Division to launch an investigation." He paused, "Currently, we are identifying the IP address of the account spreading the rumors."
As soon as he spoke, Sanada suddenly realized something, and his brows furrowed slightly under the brim of his hat.
The person who said "don't worry about it" just the day before yesterday... is now more anxious than anyone else?
Sanada's gaze swept over Yukimura almost imperceptibly, and he silently lowered the brim of his hat.
As a longtime friend, he knew better than anyone that when Yukimura spoke in this tone, it was best not to ask why.
He was angry. In fact, you could say furious.
-
roof garden.
Risa leaned back on the bench with her eyes closed, sunlight filtering through her eyelids and spreading a warm glow. A dull ache throbbed from the scrapes on her knees.
Friday was a beautiful day with clear skies.
It's also a good day to reap the rewards.
It's time for this farce, which has lasted for so long, to come to an end.
She took out her phone and pulled the note out from behind the phone case. She knew it; it would come in handy someday.
She typed out the message to the phone number on the slip of paper and was about to enter the number to send it when she heard the soft sound of an iron gate being pushed open behind her, and footsteps approaching unhurriedly.
"So you were here."
Risa turned around at the sound and saw Yukimura standing in the light and shadow, holding a small bottle of iodine in his hand.
A gentle breeze lifted the hem of his school uniform, the sleeves rolled up to his forearms, revealing a section of his well-defined wrist.
She paused slightly, stuffed her phone and note back into her skirt pocket, and looked up with a smile: "Yukimura-kun, you're here to sunbathe too?"
Yukimura didn't reply, but walked up to her and looked at the injury on her knee.
"The wound still hasn't been treated."
Risa lowered her eyes and looked at the iodine bottle he handed her: "...It's just a scratch, don't worry about it, it'll be fine on its own in a couple of days."
"If not treated promptly, it may lead to infection."
Just as Risa was about to say, "I'm not that delicate," the figure in front of her suddenly shrank. Yukimura knelt on one knee and twisted the cap off the iodine bottle with his slender fingers.
"...Whatever you want." After a few seconds of silence, Risa seemed to finally give in.
She watched him pick up the cotton ball with tweezers, the brown medicine soaking into the cotton. When the cool touch touched the wound, she instinctively pulled her leg away.
"Don't move." A warm hand gripped her ankle.
His fingertips, calloused from years of gripping the racket, sent a shiver down his spine as he rubbed them against his skin.
Risa's breath hitched slightly. Gazing at his focused, downcast eyes, the corners of her lips unconsciously curved upwards.
Those eyelashes, that nose, that serious expression... Teacher XF truly deserves to be called a master at creating personas.
He moved very gently, the cotton ball brushing across the wound like a feather. Seemingly afraid of causing her pain, he even bent down and gently blew on it.
"Why do you do all this?" Risa asked him.
Yukimura continued his actions, his voice soft: "What do you think?"
Risa didn't answer, her inner monologue: "I think? I think you're just getting revenge for pinching my cheek, using this gentle trap to drive me crazy!"
The rooftop was deserted and completely silent. Only the sound of the wind could be heard, and sunlight streamed between the two of them.
The "Son of God" in XF's writing is my younger brother's idol. My younger brother once said that he is a well-mannered, gentle, and aloof young man. Beneath his divine and composed exterior lies an arrogant desire for control and a will to be the only one who matters.
With this arrogance, he overcame a terminal illness that doctors had given him a "death sentence," and crawled back from the abyss of despair.
But his younger brother, who regarded him as a faith, put his posters on the hospital room wall, and constantly encouraged himself to fight the disease, ultimately did not live to see his own miracle.
The protagonists in stories always manage to escape from dire straits, while ordinary people in reality often disappear without a trace.
Thinking of her younger brother, and then comparing him to the living, breathing "Child of God" who had overcome his illness, Risa was overwhelmed with complex emotions, her eyes stinging and welling up with tears.
Yukimura looked up and saw her eyes were red-rimmed, and he was clearly stunned.
"...I'm sorry, did I hurt you?" He was unusually flustered.
"......"
The breeze stopped, and the air froze.
Sunlight streamed through her trembling eyelashes, and tears welled up in her reddened eyes, glistening as they fell.
Two drops, three drops...
Like pearls with a broken string.
He took out a handkerchief and stopped just inches from her cheek. His words, unusually, became clumsy: "Um... okay..."
Risa grabbed his handkerchief and turned to hide half her face in the shadows: "It's nothing! It's just the wind... the wind was too strong, and the sand got in my eyes!"
"Hmm," Yukimura responded, his hand hovering in mid-air, momentarily lost in thought.
The look in her eyes when she looked at him just now was so sad, just like the one he saw on the first day of school...
-
Risa sat on the bench, seemingly gazing into the distance in a daze, but in reality, she had been wandering off into her own world for quite some time.
How embarrassing! Does this person even know the meaning of knowing when to stop?
Yukimura had been sitting next to her the whole time, showing no intention of leaving. The rooftop was a public area, and she couldn't just kick him out.
What a blunder. She actually lost control of her emotions.
Anyone who saw her just now would think she was moved to tears by his gentleness and thoughtfulness.
That's just... she should be killed.
"Akaya is a very loyal guy."
He suddenly broke the silence, startling Risa so much that her eyelashes trembled slightly.
She turned her head and met his gaze.
"If he knew you were pushed down the stairs, he'd probably turn the whole school upside down," he said with a laugh.
Risa's heart tightened, and her fingertips unconsciously tightened.
“I see… that’s what the club leader is worried about.” Risa’s lips curled up slightly. “Don’t worry, I won’t let Akaya do anything that would damage the tennis club’s reputation. After all, you still have to prepare for the national tournament.”
Yukimura paused slightly, his thin lips parted as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he just pursed them into a straight line. He stood up and gently placed the iodine bottle in her palm.
"Remember to treat the wound properly."
After saying that, he turned and left.
The iron gate closed with a dull thud.
Pear lowered her eyes to the iodine bottle in her palm, then her gaze shifted to the light blue checkered handkerchief in her right hand. The delicate embroidery in the corner bore the initials of her name: YS.
Oh, I forgot to return it to him.
-
As Yukimura reached the corner of the stairs, his steps unconsciously halted. He raised his hand to rub his temples, sunlight filtering through his fingers and casting dappled shadows on his face.
Originally, I just wanted to find a topic to talk about.
He lowered his eyes, the image of the girl's tightly clenched handkerchief flashing before his eyes, along with those barbed words—"Is that what the Minister is worried about?" His Adam's apple bobbed silently, and an indescribable tightness rose in his chest.
On the court, he could accurately predict the landing point of every ball. But when faced with her stubbornly narrowed dark eyes, all his usual judgment and skills failed him, leaving only awkwardness and clumsiness.
He let out a soft breath.
Compared to the ever-changing nature of tennis, a girl's mind is truly unpredictable.
-
As evening approached, the setting sun slowly sank below the horizon.
After the tennis club finished its activities, Akaya Kirihara wiped his sweat and habitually searched for Risa's figure on the sidelines.
In the past, Risa would wait for him on the bench under the cherry tree outside the venue.
But today, the bench is empty.
"Strange, why isn't Risa-nee here today..."
"Tch, tch, Yuan-kun!"
A classmate stumbled onto the court, panting, and said, "Your cousin is being harassed by someone near the lockers in Building B."
The towel in Kirihara's hand fell to the ground.
He grabbed the other man's collar abruptly: "Who? Say it again! Who did it?!"
"It's...it's those girls from the fan club..."
Before the boy could finish speaking, Kirihara dashed off like an arrow released from a bow.
"Akaya!"
Sanada's shouts to stop him were left far behind.
Yukimura slowly put down his racket, looked in the direction where Kirihara had disappeared, and his eyes darkened slightly.
Niou toyed with the end of his hair and chuckled, "Puri~ This is going to be interesting."
Renji Yanagi closed his notebook: "It would be best to go and see. After all... once that guy goes berserk, even Sanada might not be able to stop him."
Yukimura's gaze swept over everyone present, his brows furrowing slightly: "Yagyu didn't come to training today?"
“He asked for leave,” Sanada said in a deep voice, “saying that there was something to do with the student council.”
A note from the author:
----------------------
The previous chapters were slightly revised, and a few bugs were fixed. That's why this chapter is updated late.
This is my first time writing, so please be kind, everyone. [Thumbs up][Good luck!]
The next update is on Thursday, probably around 7 PM. If there's a ranking system, I'll try to update daily (I'm a slow typist, but I'll try my best). Please add it to your favorites and give me encouragement! [shy]
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