Chapter 60 You Have to Snatch the Person You Like
Liu Lianji chose to tell the truth without hesitation.
Risa's eyes lit up: "Then, Liu-kun, please tell us, were you really not scared at all by my performance just now?"
Liu Lian'er calmly opened her notebook: "According to my calculations, the heart rate increased by 12% in the initial 0.5 seconds, which is a mild startle reaction. But through logical analysis, I quickly determined that this was your prank. The accuracy rate is 98.7%."
"Wow, they actually scared Yanagi-senpai!" Kirihara Akaya exclaimed excitedly. "Risa-nee, this was a great deal!"
The game continued, and laughter echoed on the beach.
The empty soda bottle swirled on the fine sand, eventually pointing directly at the moon.
“I choose…” Yuzuki twirled the end of her hair with her fingertips, “Truth or dare.”
Asuka, sitting next to her, twitched her ears and a smile immediately bloomed on her lips.
She pushed up her glasses, the lenses reflecting a cold light: "Then please answer—"
The sea breeze suddenly stopped for a moment.
When was your first kiss?
"cough--!"
Risa choked abruptly as the burning sensation of orange soda shot up her nose.
The scene from that night on the 28th-floor terrace suddenly flashed before my eyes:
[The intertwined figures under the moonlight, the young man's long, slender fingers clasped around the girl's waist and the back of her head, and that deep, lingering kiss that made one blush.]
Kirihara hurriedly handed over a tissue: "Risa-nee, you're choking so badly! Are you alright?"
"N-nothing..." She took the tissue and wiped her mouth haphazardly.
Just as she looked up, her gaze was unexpectedly met with a deep, purplish-blue sea.
Yukimura rested his chin on his hand as he looked at her, a slight upturn at the corners of his lips. His eyes, with their slightly drooping corners, gleamed with an unspoken understanding.
(He remembered...)
(Everything I saw that night...)
The taboo of sharing the same secret made Risa's ears burn instantly. Memories uncontrollably resurfaced from that night.
In the moonlight, the boy leaned against the shadows, his long, slender fingers lightly tapping the drink can. The look in his eyes then was exactly the same as when he was about to kiss me in my dream...
A strange emotion spread from my heart, like ripples created by a pebble falling into water, spreading outwards layer by layer, throughout my entire body.
"Hmm?" Asuka suddenly straightened up, her glasses reflecting light like a searchlight, scanning back and forth between the three of them.
After thinking for a moment, Yuzuki raised her hand and said, "Liu-kun, please give me the specially made punishment tea."
"Eh—!"
A chorus of exclamations erupted.
Risa watched as Yuzuki took the glass of liquid emitting ominous green smoke, and couldn't help but clench her soda bottle tightly.
(Would you rather drink Renji Yanagi's devilish drink than forget your first kiss with Mitsuya?)
The sea breeze, carrying waves, crashed ashore, and Risa secretly covered her heart amidst the splashing foam.
Oh no, this feels like my heart has been sniped...
Could it be that she also caught the incurable disease of shipping couples from Asuka and Chinatsu?
Just as Risa was wondering if she had contracted a terminal "shipping" disease, the soda bottle stopped, and the bottle mouth stopped in front of her again.
Not only that, she was forced to play a dare.
Risa stared at the stack of punishment cards spread out in front of her, as if facing a formidable enemy.
"Draw one! Draw one!" Marui Bunta shouted the loudest.
Risa sighed, her fingertips hovering over the cards for a moment before finally drawing one—
"Confess your feelings to any member of the opposite sex present by pinning them against a wall for ten seconds." Marui Fumio read the card's message aloud, whistling, "Wow, exciting!"
Risa: "......"
(Did the sea breeze blow away all my luck tonight??)
She looked around—
Sanada remained expressionless, but clearly moved back half a meter. Niou grinned like a fox about to play a prank, while Renji Yanagi closed his notebook and pretended to look at the sea…
After making eye contact with her, Jackal Kuwabara frantically gestured to the side. He was practically shouting: "Please, have mercy! Don't choose me for the department head!"
And Yukimura...
He remained as nonchalant as before, a faint smile playing on his lips, his purple eyes deep in the shadows.
"Who should I choose?" Marui Bunta shook his head. "I suggest Akaya. He's shorter, so it won't be difficult for him to pin someone against the wall."
"Hey!" Little Seaweed bristled.
Risa took a deep breath, suddenly stood up, and strode towards—
......ocean.
She stopped at the edge of the beach where the waves could just reach, bent down, and slapped her palm against the damp sand.
“Mr. Ocean,” she said earnestly to the surging waves, “I like you. Ten, nine, eight…”
Everyone paused for a second, then burst into laughter.
"This works?!"
"The rules don't say it has to be a real person!" Risa continued counting down confidently, "Seven, six..."
Suddenly, the tide rushed in with a splash, submerging her wrists before quickly receding.
"...It responded!" Marui Bunta laughed wildly, pointing at her soaked wrist. "Does that mean it accepts the confession?"
Jackal Kuwabara: "The waves have receded, which should be considered a rejection."
Everyone: "......"
(Thank you, Summary Guy.)
Risa shook the seawater off her hands, turned around, and calmly walked to her seat. The boy opposite her raised an eyebrow at her: "Dumped?"
“…No, not at all.” Risa squinted. “Mr. Tai is just too shy.”
The empty soda bottle spun around again, and under everyone's intense gaze, the bottle opening seemed to be under a spell, stopping right in front of Risa once more.
"..."
"..."
An eerie silence fell over the beach.
Marui Bunta: "How many times is this?"
Jackal Kuwabara: "Fourteen... or fifteen, I can't remember."
Marui Bunta: "A black hole for games."
Kirihara pointed at the bottle and shouted, "This must be cursed!"
"I second that." Liu Lian'er nodded silently.
"I strongly agree." Niou fiddled with his braid.
Asuka shrugged regretfully: "It's a pity, Risa-chan's secrets have almost been completely uncovered..."
Her eyes suddenly lit up. "Ah! How about this—"
The crowd shouted in unison, "Expel them immediately!"
So when the soda bottle stubbornly pointed at Risa again, everyone tacitly skipped over her, as if no one was in that spot at all.
Risa, who had been pranked all night, finally felt relieved and her tense nerves relaxed. She took out the snacks she had brought, opened a box of lemon sea salt Pocky, and crunched away, the crisp sound carrying a sense of vengeful joy.
At the same time, she didn't forget to share this joy with others, bringing out all sorts of snacks. Xiao Haidai and Niou Masaharu, who were sitting on either side of her, were undoubtedly the biggest beneficiaries.
......
"Clang clang—!"
Marui Bunta pointed to the stopped soda bottles, "It's the captain's turn!"
He blew bubble gum and grinned at Yukimura, "Truth or dare?"
Yukimura smiled slightly: "Tell me the truth."
Asuka's eyes lit up, and she immediately asked the question she had prepared long ago: "Excuse me—"
"Does Yukimura-kun have someone he likes?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the previously noisy crowd suddenly fell silent, with only the sound of waves gently lapping against the shore. Everyone's ears perked up, except for those three gluttonous fellows.
Yukimura bent one leg, casually resting his elbow on his knee, a smile playing on his lips as always.
What exactly does it mean to like someone?
His voice was warm and gentle, like melting snow in spring.
"I became interested in her from the first moment I saw her, and I would unconsciously stare at her, eager to know everything about her?"
"Is it that just being near her makes my heart race, and my chest surge with an unprecedented, unfamiliar flutter?"
"Or is it that you could easily solve the problem for her, but you choose to stand by and watch, just to see her stubbornly resist?"
Everyone: "......"
(The minister is basically exposing himself!)
"Or perhaps..." He gently stroked his chin with his fingertips, "when you see her chatting and laughing with other people, you find that person particularly annoying, and even want to make them suffer a little?"
He maintained his gentle smile as he said this, but everyone noticed the direction of his gaze.
The waves suddenly calmed down.
Everyone's gaze moved past the center of the circle and landed on the three people opposite them.
Risa was struggling with the canned peaches, her face turning red, but she just couldn't pry open the lid. Just as Little Seaweed was about to help, the white fox next to her reached out its paw.
Niou Masaharu took the can, snapped his fingers on the lid with a cool gesture, and then gently twisted it open with a "click".
"Niou-senpai is amazing!"
Wow~ The magician truly lives up to his reputation!
The two little ones turned into devoted fans, their eyes sparkling with admiration.
"If this is what liking someone is..."
His voice was softer than the night breeze, yet it sent a chill down everyone's spine.
"As expected, we still have to snatch her away and assert our dominance as soon as possible."
All the onlookers: "......"
(Niou, we will collect your body.)
The slow-witted Kirihara finally reacted: "-Captain?! Why are you looking at me like I'm a ball machine?!"
(Terrible! So scary QAQ)
Niou sensed danger and quickly shoved the can back into Risa's hand: "Puri~ I suddenly remembered that Yagyu asked me to discuss tomorrow's training menu!"
Before he finished speaking, he had already slipped three meters away.
Kirihara scratched his curly hair in confusion: "Eh? But didn't Yagyu-senpai go to the convenience store to buy popsicles?"
Sanada crossed his arms over his chest, his eyebrows twitching.
Risa held the can of food blankly, glanced at the empty seat, and then looked at the strange crowd: "Um... do you want to eat together?"
"puff--!"
Marui Bunta was drinking juice when he heard this and spat it out.
"Oh dear~, I suddenly remembered that the takoyaki machine is still running!" Yuzuki sprang up like a 100-meter sprinter, grabbing Asuka with her left hand and Chinatsu with her right, and quickly fled the scene.
“Vice Minister, didn’t you say you wanted to play chess with Jackal?” Marui Bunta pulled up the honest man and gave a coded signal to Sanada next to him.
"Ah..." Sanada coughed awkwardly and stood up.
Kirihara asked, bewildered, "Kuwabara-senpai can play Go?"
Renji Yanagi grabbed Kirihara by the back of his collar. "Akaya, come back to the room with me for a dictation test on English words."
Kirihara: "Eh???"
In less than half a minute, the crowd that had been surrounding them scattered like birds and beasts, leaving only Risa and Yukimura.
Risa, clutching the can of food, watched everyone slip away one by one, blinking her confused eyes.
"What's wrong with them?" She forked a wobbly yellow peach.
The sand around him sank slightly as Yukimura's shadow loomed over him.
"Who knows?" His bent leg brushed against the hem of her hoodie.
The moonlight made the yellow peaches look like amber. Just as Risa was about to enjoy them, the gazes beside her became excessively intense.
"You want some too?" She reluctantly offered her a fork. "I can only give you one piece."
Yukimura smiled faintly.
His leaning motion caused a few strands of slightly curled hair to fall from the side of his face, and with her hand suspended in the air, he slowly bit into the trembling piece of fruit.
The moment his teeth sank into the fruit, a glistening line of syrup oozed from the corner of his lips.
Moonlight fell on his high brow bone, and beneath his thick eyelashes, a deep, captivating light shone in his purple eyes.
But he didn't blink. His violet-blue pupils were fixed on her, his Adam's apple bobbed slowly with each swallow, and his lips, soaked with juice, glistened alluringly.
Risa suddenly stopped breathing. Her fingers, holding the fork, trembled slightly, and her earlobes and collarbone burned crimson.
"It's too sweet." He said very softly, his gaze sliding down to her lips. "I'd rather try something else than canned food."
Risa swallowed unconsciously. She put down her fork and silently pulled a can of grape-flavored Ponta from her hoodie pocket: "How did you know I had this hidden away?"
"......"
Yukimura's expression froze, a rare occurrence.
In the few seconds of silence, the only sound was the crashing of the waves.
From behind the palm trees ten meters away, came a series of suppressed laughs that were almost spitting out.
Nine boys and girls peeked out in a human pyramid formation, their eighteen eyes gleaming in the darkness.
“I knew the minister would get the short end of the stick… Pfft…” Niou Masaharu laughed until his legs trembled.
"hiss--"
Asuka gasped sharply, her nails digging deep into Yuzuki's arm.
"That useless Risa-chan! Yukimura-sama's look just now! That statement! It was a straight shot! A super-fast straight shot, ahhhh!"
Yuzuki winced in pain: "Let go! Asuka! You're pinching my flesh!"
Chinatsu was frantically calculating on the beach with a tree branch:
[Theorem Proof: When 1 mol of a gluttonous girl meets 1 mol of a gentle black lily, and the reaction vessel is a summer night beach, the product is... (handwriting suddenly becomes messy)]
Halfway through writing, the girl suddenly broke the branch in half: "Aaaaah, this question is way beyond the syllabus! It's not even in the textbook!"
Jackal Kuwabara: "Matsuno-kun wasn't even listening to what Yukimura said during his truth-telling session, was he?"
Marui Bunta's laughter almost broke his composure: "Judging from her reaction, it's probably true."
Renji Yanagi: "The success rate of confessing to Risa Matsuno while she's eating is 0.0001%."
An unnatural blush rose on Sanada's dark face.
Listening to the conversation of her seniors, Little Seaweed suddenly had a flash of insight: "Wait! So the captain was just... confessing his feelings?"
"What are you all doing?"
Liu Sheng's voice, like a narrator from a horror movie, drifted from behind him as he carried a large bag of popsicles.
"Waaaaahhhhhhh!"
The pyramid-shaped eavesdropping group collapsed instantly, rolling onto the beach in disarray like bowling pins.
Risa turned around at the sound and stared wide-eyed at the "human bowling ball" that had suddenly appeared in front of her.
"Are they playing some new game?" she asked Yukimura, turning her head and pointing to the "mountain of people."
Yukimura took the Ponta she handed him and snapped it open.
"It's probably around..."
He took a slow, deliberate sip, his violet-blue eyes sweeping over the frozen crowd: "Let's learn the science of human observation."
"call out--"
A sea breeze swept by, carrying sand with it, and cold sweat broke out on everyone's backs at the same time.
Kirihara clung to Yanagi like a koala: "S-Senpai! The captain is looking at us with eyes that can't see our senses..."
The waves gently lapped onto the beach and then quietly receded.
Risa watched her companions sprint towards the hotel, and a "?" slowly appeared above her head.
(Did I miss something?)
Did she miss something important while she was busy opening cans?
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