Chapter 18: Seducing Him Steals His Heart
"This is impossible..."
She murmured to herself,
"I was clearly going to take unflattering photos of you..."
Risa carefully examined the photos in the album. The first few photos did indeed capture Yukimura's "panicked" expression, but they were too blurry to recognize him.
Starting from the fourth photo, his outline finally appears clearly in the picture, but his expression has completely changed.
In the dim light, the boy slightly turned his head, his narrow eyes reflecting the eerie blue ghost fire, which was incredibly alluring.
Her figure was captured in the shot, the two of them so close they were almost touching. The corners of her lips curled up when she grinned wickedly, and the purple eyes of the boy looking at her with a half-smile, presented a breathtaking ambiguity against the eerie background.
The most striking image is one where, at the moment the "ghost" pounces, Yukimura, who appears to be hiding behind her, is caught on camera looking down, as if he's whispering in her ear.
I quickly swipe through the photos, stop at one, and zoom in with my finger. My ear tips inexplicably feel hot.
The crimson light cast two silhouettes onto the mottled wall, their shapes intertwining in an almost lingering way. Like a pair of lovers, an angel and the devil who tempted him, dancing together in purgatory.
...
Risa bit her lip as she scrolled through the photos one by one.
In the corner of the last photo, Yukimura's hand is around her shoulder, his fingers seemingly making a "V" sign.
Damn it! She'd been outmaneuvered.
These photos don't look like threatening or malicious gossip at all; instead, they look like sweet snapshots of a couple having fun in a haunted house.
But... why did it go wrong?
She was certain that her camera settings were correct and that she had indeed captured that moment.
"Hmm? Was the photo not taken well?" A soft laugh came from above.
Risa suddenly looked up and almost bumped into his chin.
"Want to know why?" His voice was filled with pleasure.
Risa didn't speak, she just stared at him, giving off an attitude of "if you don't want to talk, then forget it."
Yukimura calmly took half a step back, snatched the phone from her hand, and returned to the photo album.
“These are the basic principles of photography.” He slender fingers swept across the screen.
"First, your phone has burst mode enabled by default. In low-light conditions, the camera will automatically reduce the shutter speed while increasing the number of shots taken in burst mode."
Risa leaned closer to look and found that there were indeed more than twenty photos taken at the same moment. But among all these photos, there wasn't a clear, unflattering shot of him.
"Secondly, the lights in the haunted house change color every few seconds. The moment you press the shutter, the lights happen to switch to purple, and this hue naturally creates... an ambiguous atmosphere."
"Finally, the electronic flash has a 1-2 second delay, which is enough time for me to adjust my expression."
He smiled slightly and handed the phone back to Risa.
"After all, tennis players have excellent dynamic vision. Turning a 'threat' into a 'love letter' in an instant is a piece of cake for me."
So, what he was trying to say was simply this:
It wasn't that she was bad at taking photos, but that he was more calculating.
Risa was so angry she wanted to bite her teeth, but she had no room to refute.
This boy with an angelic smile, with his chillingly calculating abilities—is he really just a high school student?
“So,” her voice tightened, “you knew what I was going to do from the very beginning? You were just deliberately playing along. Don’t you think you’re being incredibly unreasonable?”
"Hmm?" Yukimura tilted his head slightly, blinking as if he were aggrieved: "The one who came up with the bad idea first was Matsuno-kun."
"Although but!!!" Risa was so angry that she was speechless, her canine teeth unconsciously grinding against her lower lip.
I really want to bite this cunning guy to death.
Where would you like to go next?
A warm, gentle voice came from behind, carrying an undisguised joy.
Risa glanced sideways and saw Yukimura with his hands casually behind his back, leaning slightly closer.
The night breeze ruffled the stray hairs on his forehead, and the colorful lights of the distant carousel reflected in his eyes, like a box of broken diamonds spilled out.
(Hmph! Even using my feminine wiles didn't work!)
Risa slammed her phone screen shut and turned to leave: "Let's all go home."
Just as I took half a step, an arm suddenly blocked my way. The palm slammed against the Roman column with a thud, cutting off all my path.
She looked up and met the boy's slightly lowered gaze. Those usually gentle eyes were now swirling with an undeniable, assertive power.
“The game has only just begun,” he said softly. “Running away isn’t like you.”
The night breeze, carrying the sweet scent of cotton candy, swept between the two of them, and the noise of the amusement park seemed to suddenly fade away.
Risa saw the collarbone faintly visible beneath the collar of his white shirt, saw the Adam's apple moving gently on his fair neck, and even saw a small, flustered reflection of herself in his eyes.
(She, a dignified 25-year-old adult, was actually overwhelmed by his imposing presence.)
The neon lights of the Ferris wheel swirled behind him, and the colorful light and shadow swept across his eyebrows and eyes, like a cascading galaxy.
"Since we're already here," Yukimura said, his sharp edge vanishing instantly, his eyes slightly lowered. "Wouldn't it be a waste not to have some fun?"
He held two tickets between his fingers, waving them gently. Risa glanced at them and saw they were VIP tickets for the Tokyo Dome Amusement Park's nighttime admission. They were said to grant access to all the rides in the park, and allow VIP entry without having to wait in line.
This guy is way too generous with his money. He's inhumanly extravagant!
She scoffed, turning her face away to hide her wavering resolve: "Who wants to be with you..."
Before he finished speaking, he felt a slight tugging at his cuff.
"Then..." His voice suddenly lowered, with a slightly hoarse nasal tone, "...consider it... granting me one of my willful wishes?"
The boy lowered his head slightly, wisps of hair falling across his forehead. When he lifted his eyelids, his eyes were moist as he looked over, the corners of his eyes drooping slightly, glistening with tiny drops of water under the lamplight, like a spoiled cat.
Risa's expression froze for a moment, then she moved her lips.
Just as she was about to speak, she caught a glint of light in the depths of his dark eyes.
...I almost fell for his trick.
She took a small half-step to the side and gently touched his chest with her index finger.
"My honey trap won't work on me."
She put on a professional smile, her voice trailing off like a honeyed hook, enunciating each word clearly: "My Lord, Son of God."
"Really... no use?" Yukimura smiled, took out his phone from his pocket, and opened the photo album.
"Then... what about this?"
With a flick of his wrist, he turned the screen toward her.
The moment the screen lit up, Risa's pupils suddenly contracted.
In the dimly lit corridor of the haunted house, he lowered his eyes, as if gazing at her with deep affection. She raised her chin, her eyelids slightly drooping. Due to the unconventional camera angle, their figures overlapped, making it appear as if he was embracing her, indulging her desire for a kiss.
Her deep blue, slightly wavy hair hung down to the corner of her mouth, and on the side that was partially obscured, there was an intimacy that left much to the imagination.
“Matsuno-kun~ you said…” He tilted his head, smiling innocently, “What if we posted this photo in the grade’s LINE group…”
"When...when did you take these photos without my knowledge?!"
She pounced like a cat with its fur standing on end, but Yukimura, anticipating her move, took a half-step back. His sleeve fluttered in the night breeze, brushing against her missing fingertips.
In the scramble for the phone, Risa tripped over a pebble on the side of the road and fell forward—
The expected pain did not come. A warm hand steadily supported her waist, and the scent of mint suddenly approached.
She looked up in a panic, only to meet eyes so close to his. The streetlights shattered into stars in his eyes, and reflected within them was her own furious reflection.
"How could you be so careless?" he chuckled, the vibrations of his chest coming through the fabric of their close-fitting clothes.
“…Let go!” Risa glared at him, but his arms tightened around her.
Yukimura leaned down, his warm breath brushing against her sensitive earlobe:
"Matsuno-kun, you don't want these photos to get out and make people misunderstand that you're my girlfriend, do you?"
Risa froze instantly.
These familiar lines, these standard threatening phrases…
She jumped away from him as if scalded by boiling water: "This...isn't this a classic line from those adult movies?!"
Yukimura tilted his head, feigning innocence: "Eh? Is that so?"
"How could you watch this nonsense?" Risa exclaimed in horror, clutching her face, her filter shattering on the floor.
"What happened to the handsome male god persona?!"
"Oh dear, have we been found out?"
Yukimura smiled and put his phone back in his pocket, saying casually, "They were all recommended by Sanada."
At that moment, Sanada, who was doing extra training in the courtyard, suddenly sneezed: "Strange, why do I feel a chill down my back..."
"You're kidding me!" Risa pointed at his nose.
"That Vice-Captain Sanada, who's so serious he can scare elementary school kids to tears? He watches adult films?!"
Yukimura thought for a moment, then said, "It seems to be Akaya's collection~"
Little Seaweed, who was playing video games at home, suddenly shuddered: "Achoo! Who's chirping me?"
Risa: "...Don't you want to listen to what you're saying?!"
"Matsuno-kun, let's go ride the Ferris wheel."
He suddenly changed the subject, his voice blending into the night breeze. His slender hand stretched out before her, his fingers distinct, like jade-carved bamboo joints.
Risa was stunned, her gaze falling on the hand that was being extended towards her.
Then slide his whole body.
The boy stood at the boundary between light and shadow, his left shoulder bathed in a halo of light, while his right half was hidden in the night. He looked like a god descended from among countless stars, or a phantom that might vanish with the wind at any moment.
The night breeze lifted the hem of his snow-white shirt, the corner fluttering in the neon lights. He stood with his back to the dazzling lights of the Ferris wheel, countless lights and shadows swirling behind him, yet none could compare to the glint in his eyes when he looked over.
Everyone's saying that Teacher XF created a flawless "son of God," giving him extraordinary talent and impeccable looks. But... he didn't give him the glory he deserved.
She didn't understand the meaning of those words at the time. It wasn't until she was sorting through her brother's belongings and looking through the comics he had left behind—
An undefeated champion, after his debut, suffered repeated defeats. How can this not be a source of regret and resentment?
A biting night wind swept by, and she instinctively reached out her hand. But she stopped abruptly halfway, as if burned by flames.
(No, he is—)
"Got you?"
The boy smiled and took her hand, which was suspended in mid-air.
Risa stared blankly at his hand that was gripping her wrist.
The warmth of my palm penetrated the coolness of the night, warm and real.
-
As the Ferris wheel slowly ascends, the night view of Kanagawa unfolds beneath your feet, with lights flowing like a river of stars.
Inside the enclosed carriage, a crisp, refreshing scent silently permeated the air, causing Risa to unconsciously lower her profile.
Whether in past lives or this one, my experience of being alone in a confined space with a minor is pitifully scarce. Especially when the other person is a beautiful, strong, gentle yet domineering high school student, almost like a cyborg AI.
"Actually today..."
The perfect high school student, a bionic AI, suddenly started speaking.
Risa turned her head to look over and saw him gazing at the world outside the glass, his profile bathed in a silvery moonlight.
"When I suddenly heard your cheers on the court, I almost dropped the tennis ball."
"Were you scared?" She deliberately tapped the glass with her fingertips.
“No,” Yukimura shook his head gently, his hair brushing against his eyelashes, “I was surprised.”
He turned his face, the moonlight shimmering like a silver river in his pupils, "...No girl has ever cheered me on so directly before, especially when the opponent is Atobe-kun, it's like I'm being specially favored."
The glass cabin swayed slightly, and his knee accidentally brushed against hers. Risa lowered her eyes, staring at the overlapping hems of their clothes, her fingertips unconsciously curling up.
Could he have actually taken her casual remark seriously? Could the legendary, cunning Rikkai Demon King really have such an unguarded, soft, and innocent side?
Risa felt guilty and dared not look him in the eye.
Yukimura turned his gaze out of the glass cabin again. Looking at the rotating lighthouse on the distant cape, he suddenly began to recount a past event.
From a young age, there were always people watching him from afar, their timid gazes and hesitant expressions like those of people admiring fragile porcelain in a museum.
In sixth grade, a girl with a ribbon in her hair came to watch him train every day and waited for him outside the court to go home together. But one rainy day, she said with red eyes, "It's too hard to be friends with Yukimura-kun," and then disappeared into the endless rainy season.
“Matsuno-kun thinks,” he suddenly turned his head, his eyes darkening, “why is that?”
"..."
Suddenly asked a question, Risa had no choice but to look up at him.
The moonlight shimmered in his eyes, bright but not scorching, yet dazzling enough to make one afraid to look directly at it.
Risa didn't answer his question, but instead looked up and pointed to the sky above.
"You see, if the moon is too bright, the stars will hide."
Yukimura paused slightly. He gazed at the girl's taut neckline and murmured, "What about Matsuno-san? Does she think so too?"
“Me?” She looked away, her amber eyes staring straight into his. “I’m not the kind of star that needs to be kept at a safe distance.”
"I am the sun, which even the moonlight pales in comparison to."
The air suddenly froze.
Inside the elevator, only the sound of their breathing mingled.
Yukimura gazed at the girl who shone brightly in the moonlight, his eyes tracing her radiant silhouette, and suddenly chuckled softly.
"...I feel inexplicably annoyed."
"Um?"
"For the first time in my life," he tilted his head slightly, his hair brushing against his brow bone, "I experienced what it's like to be suppressed by a girl."
"What? I don't understand." Risa tilted her head and looked at him, pretending to be dumb.
At this moment, the Ferris wheel reached its highest point. A sudden swaying disrupted the balance.
Yukimura was pulled forward by inertia, and his palm landed with a "thud" on the glass next to her ear.
As the distance suddenly closed, their breaths mingled, and warm breaths filled the small space.
At the highest point of the Ferris wheel, countless stars swirl overhead. Legend has it that those who kiss here will be remembered forever.
"Want to kiss?" Risa asked innocently, looking into his eyes.
This legendary actress has a remarkably persistent attitude when it comes to winning or losing.
Yukimura had turned the tables on her in the haunted house; she had just won back with words. But the score for him threatening her with the photos wasn't settled yet.
Yukimura didn't answer. He simply lowered his eyes, his gaze falling on her tightly pursed lips. His fingers, resting on the glass, tightened slightly, leaving fleeting traces of mist on the cold surface.
"If Matsuno's acting had been a little more sincere, I might have actually been bewitched."
The deep, magnetic voice fell into my ear like a pebble dropped into a calm, deep pool.
Risa's pupils suddenly contracted, and her amber eyes instantly darkened, like the surface of the sea at night.
No one had ever dared to provoke her like this, and no one had ever been able to step on her landmines so precisely.
Just as Yukimura calmly retreated to his seat, Risa suddenly made her move.
The tie tightened between her fingers, and the distance between them suddenly shortened.
Their eyes met, their noses touched, their warm breaths mingled, and an ambiguous entanglement filled the air.
"How about this..." she lowered her voice, her tone as sweet as honey.
The moment she looked up, her eyes were as gentle as the afterglow of a setting sun. It was as if she were standing outside the crowd, watching a dream she dared not touch. Like the wind brushing across the water, before the ripples even appeared, everything had returned to normal.
In his bewildered purple eyes, she slowly raised her index finger and gently touched his slightly cool lips. Then, she turned her palm over and placed the finger bone that had just touched his lips on her own lips, her little finger subtly hooking his.
It felt like an indirect kiss, or perhaps a probing attempt to cross a taboo.
The air froze, time stood still. The ambiguity of this moment seemed to stretch out infinitely.
Fireworks suddenly burst forth on the distant coast, their brilliant light shining through the glass cabin and casting shifting shadows in their intertwined gazes. It illuminated the pair of eyes that were fixed on her, their gaze deepening.
Risa's pupils dilated in surprise, and she abruptly withdrew her hand as if she had been burned.
"……Feel sorry."
The boy remained silent, turning his head slightly away. Strands of hair falling across his forehead obscured the emotions in his eyes. But Risa could vaguely see that the tips of his ears, peeking out from between his slightly curled hair, were tinged with an unnatural blush.
Silence spread between the two.
Risa lowered her head, staring at her clasped hands.
In that brief moment, amidst the flickering light and shadow of the fireworks, she glimpsed the turbulent undercurrent in his eyes.
It was no longer a composed ease, but a dangerous, almost out-of-control, scorching emotion that sent shivers down one's spine. Like lava suddenly erupting from beneath a glacier that never melts.
She seems to be...
The acting was a bit over the top.
A note from the author:
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Surprised? This chapter has 5000 words! Hahaha~
The next update will be on Sunday at 7 PM. That's all~
As usual, thank you everyone for adding to your favorites, commenting, watering, and for coming to this beautiful world. I've read all the comments~ Have a great weekend! [rainbow fart]
P.S.: That "bowl" face is so cute, who can understand my inexplicable adoration? =v=
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