The second the final bell rang, I bolted.
I didn't even pack my bag. I just ran—because I knew what was coming.
And she was waiting.
Riko Hanazawa.Arms crossed. Eyebrows sharp. That same terrifying calm that always came right before she killed me in dodgeball back in middle school.
"I need to talk to you," she said.
"...Can I pretend I didn't hear that?"
"No."
I sighed and followed her behind the school building, to that cursed tree where people usually confess, not get judged by their childhood crush.
She turned to me, eyes burning.
"Who is she, Kaito?"
"Yuna?"
"Yes, Yuna. The girl who's been clinging to you, sitting in your seat, eating your lunch, and walking into school holding your sleeve like she's your girlfriend."
I opened my mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.
"She's just—she's just staying at my place, okay?! She crashed through my ceiling!"
"That's your excuse?!"
"IT'S TRUE!!"
Riko stared at me like I just confessed to tax fraud.
"She said she saw you naked."
"I was in pajamas!"
"She said you moaned her name."
"I WAS SNEEZING!"
She bit her lip, hard. Then looked away.
"I thought… I thought you liked someone else."
My brain did a backflip.
"I do! I mean—I did—NO I STILL DO I JUST—"
Before I could recover, the school broadcast system lit up.
"ATTENTION. WE NEED ALL BOYS OUT OF THE LOCKER ROOM. IMMEDIATELY."
Then:"REPEAT. ALL BOYS. OUT. NOW."
I blinked.
Then I knew.
"...Yuna."
10 Minutes Earlier – Boys' Locker Room
Yuna twirled a key in her fingers, humming.
"I wonder what it's like in here," she mused.
She opened the door.
Inside?Towels. Steam. Boys.
Yuna didn't care.
"Oh! Hello!" she waved.
Chaos.
Screaming.
Towels flying.
Someone slipped and crashed into a wall.
One poor guy cried. "My eyes… I saw too much…"
Yuna blinked. "Did I come at a bad time?"
Back to Me
I arrived to see the locker room in ruins. The coach was screaming. Guys were traumatized. And Yuna?
Sitting on a bench, sipping soda from a vending machine.
"Oh hey, Kaito," she waved. "I think I caused an emergency."
"I'm going to die," I whispered.
"Probably."
I turned.Reina (Student Council Queen) was standing behind me.
She took one look at Yuna.
Then at me.
Then at Yuna again.
She wrote something in a notebook and walked off without a word.
"…That's not good," I said.
Later that evening – School Library
Trying to escape all of it, I hid in the library.
That's where I saw her.
A girl I'd never noticed before.
Sitting in the far corner, glasses glinting in the low light.Dark, shoulder-length hair. School uniform perfectly neat.She was reading a book called:
"100 Ways to Emotionally Control Your Crush Without Going to Jail."
I froze.
She looked up. Met my eyes.Smiled.
"Oh. Kaito Tenma… I've been watching you."