Yukino Yukinoshita hadn't expected the Strange to circle around, head off in the other direction, and suddenly show up at this exact moment. It caught her completely off guard.
She'd been on guard against Lin Ye the whole time, convinced he was a Strange in disguise.
So she'd been wary in the wrong direction.
One step.
Two steps.
Yukino Yukinoshita and Rui Tachibana broke into a run without thinking.
The Strange behind them was closing in, but its speed was hampered.
That was good news. It meant they had more time to escape.
Not to mention that Lin Ye was there too.
In the span of a few heartbeats, countless thoughts flashed through Yukino Yukinoshita's mind. Her eyes landed on the face of the man ahead.
He looked tense, his face full of anxiety, waving them on to run faster.
That worried look melted her heart.
No girl could resist concern from a boy she liked.
Pitter-patter…
Two more steps.
Yukino Yukinoshita blinked, eyes widening, as a sudden thought struck her mind like lightning.
Zzzt… zzzt…
She abruptly stopped in her tracks.
But Rui Tachibana was still running, hand in hand with her, and Yukino stumbled forward several steps because of it.
"W-What is it, Student Yukinoshita?"
Rui Tachibana was confused all over again.
Why stop for no reason? Wasn't this exactly the time to get away as fast as possible?
Rui Tachibana glanced at the golden-haired female Strange behind them. It was lunging at them with claws flailing, but something held it back, and the way it couldn't pick up speed looked almost aggrieved.
It was a little funny, but she didn't dare mock it too much.
She was afraid of tempting fate. If she laughed at it, the Strange might just come charging right over.
That was how it always went in anime and novels. Monsters had feelings too.
"What kind of person do you think Lin Ye is?" Yukino Yukinoshita asked.
Her expression was serious, so serious that Rui Tachibana couldn't even bring herself to ask why she was asking this now.
"A good person."
Yukino Yukinoshita: ???
Fine. Maybe the girl just couldn't put it any better.
"Then what do you think he'd do when we're in danger?"
Yukino Yukinoshita tried a different approach. For a girl like Rui Tachibana, she figured, this phrasing would be easier to grasp.
"Come and protect us, of course."
No doubt, no hesitation at all. That was what Rui Tachibana believed about Lin Ye in her heart.
She was completely confident.
Yukino Yukinoshita nodded. "Right. He'd come to protect us."
She agreed. She thought so too. So Lin Ye would do exactly that. Then why had that Lin Ye not moved at all? Facing the Strange's appearance, he hadn't come out to meet it. He'd just stood there waiting for them to come to him!
It didn't add up. It made no sense at all.
That doubt had been coiled in Yukino's mind the whole way across, and she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
That Lin Ye looked normal. Too normal. So normal that the real Lin Ye could never have behaved that normally.
When they ran toward him, the real Lin Ye would have leapt up at once and rushed to them to deal with the problem.
Instead he'd stayed put, waiting for them to come over. The reason was simple: that Lin Ye was an imposter.
Rui Tachibana realized it too, and looked at the distant Lin Ye with fresh wariness.
"Hurry, come over here, run!"
"The monster is coming!"
"We're out of time!"
"I'll take you out of here, I've found a way out!"
The frantic words kept urging them on. Behind them, the female Strange pressed closer step by step.
If Yukino Yukinoshita hadn't noticed that something was off, they'd probably have charged straight over to that Lin Ye. And then…
"Student Yukinoshita, we should…"
The two of them exchanged a look and made their decision instantly.
Turn. Run.
No hesitation. They ran at once.
Where else could they go, if not back to the house?
"Hey, hey…"
"What are you doing?"
"Hurry up and run with me!"
As the distance stretched, the man's normal voice began to change too.
It turned hoarse and rasping, crackling with static, the tone growing stranger and stranger, a creeping chill seeping out of it.
Thud, thud, thud…
Footsteps rang out.
The figure started running too, and it revealed its true face: hideous, grotesque, black-red liquid dripping down it drop by drop.
Only then was Rui Tachibana certain that Lin Ye was a fake.
Huh?
A fake… so why did the Strange's face still look so much like Lin Ye's?!
A terrible thought crept into Rui Tachibana's mind.
Had Lin Ye already met a terrible fate?
Had something already happened to him?
No. No, please no!
As she ran, Rui Tachibana couldn't stop herself from looking back at the figure behind them. Its features were still very, very similar.
Her heart plummeted.
"Run! What are you thinking about?"
Yukino Yukinoshita's urging snapped her out of it.
Rui Tachibana picked up speed. She had to get away from this dangerous place.
Safety first. Everything else could wait.
Yukino Yukinoshita could clearly tell that Rui Tachibana's state a moment ago had been wrong. Very wrong.
"S-sorry." Rui Tachibana apologized quickly, panting.
There were Strange in both directions.
But both were restricted, so with Yukino Yukinoshita pulling her along, Rui Tachibana was soon back inside the doorway again.
In that instant, everything changed.
A sense of calm and safety settled over their bodies. Nothing else shifted.
"Huff… huff… huff…"
More panting.
The two of them had made it back again.
"Good thing we noticed first."
Otherwise it would have been dangerous.
Once they got past a certain distance, they probably wouldn't have been able to flee even if they'd wanted to.
The farther from the house, the less the Strange were hampered.
This time, they could thank Yukino Yukinoshita for spotting it early. Otherwise things would really have gotten difficult.
They might have been in serious trouble.
"What were you thinking about just now? You stopped running."
Yukino Yukinoshita asked.
Letting your mind wander in a situation like that was asking to die.
Rui Tachibana pursed her lips and lowered her head, as if the answer was hard to say.
"Tell me. This isn't the time to hide things."
"That Strange… it still had Lin Ye's face."
The words set Yukino Yukinoshita thinking, and she understood what Rui Tachibana meant.
She thought Lin Ye had been hurt, didn't she?
Of course, Rui Tachibana's worry was real.
Yukino Yukinoshita could understand it. Even she couldn't help drifting toward the worst possibility.
But when she thought it over carefully, she was still quite sure that nothing was wrong with Lin Ye.
Lin Ye couldn't possibly be in trouble. The only ones who could get into trouble were the two of them.
"Don't worry. Lin Ye will be fine. There's no way he'd be in trouble."
Yukino Yukinoshita swore it, but it gave Rui Tachibana little comfort.
Her words rang hollow, without any real conviction behind them.
"I know Lin Ye far better than you do, so trust me. Trust that he's fine."
"Then why would it use Lin Ye's face? Is it because…"
"It probably ran into Lin Ye. It wanted to use him to lure us in, but it failed."
Yukino Yukinoshita grew even more wary.
"Anyway, from now on we have to be more careful. We can't trust just anyone who shows up. This time we…"
They'd come very close to being fooled.
If Yukino Yukinoshita hadn't been on guard, and on guard twice, the two of them really would have been tricked by the Strange.
"There's more than one of them," Yukino Yukinoshita said.
She'd nearly overlooked that herself. It only hit her when she suspected, for the second time, that Lin Ye was a Strange.
"Mm, two have shown up, so three or four more wouldn't be a surprise."
"Right. On top of that, they can disguise themselves. The first was the golden-haired woman, the second was Lin Ye. Next they might even take the shape of people we know, our family."
The first person Rui Tachibana thought of was her older sister.
If her sister showed up, she'd instantly worry about her safety.
This place was nowhere near safe. If her sister appeared here, she'd be in danger. And what would she be doing here in the first place?
Something would have to be wrong.
"I'll be careful. I won't get fooled that easily."
Rui Tachibana said it firmly.
"If my sister shows up here, I'll run. No, if she comes at me, I'll hit her. Anything that dares disguise itself as my sister, I'll make it pay dearly!"
"Ha!"
Yukino Yukinoshita couldn't help laughing.
It was a joke, but it also rang true.
It was nice, actually. Funny, even.
They really did need to loosen up a little right now.
"It's not funny. The Strange might keep pretending to be Lin-kun, so we still have to be careful."
"Mm."
Yukino Yukinoshita hummed.
"The Strange are clever, and not just a little. So we have to stay on high alert."
From this moment, neither of them would let her guard down again.
The two of them rested briefly to recover from the short sprint and settle their nerves.
After a while, Rui Tachibana got up and walked to the door again.
Outside, the golden-haired female Strange was gone.
But that Lin Ye figure was still there.
"Hmph."
She snorted.
"I'm not falling for it now."
The figure looked over and beckoned for Rui Tachibana to come, but she gave it a cold stare and didn't spare it the slightest courtesy.
"Still trying to trick me? Dream on."
Rui Tachibana looked away.
For now, they only needed to stay here, and they'd be safe.
As for the longer term, that was a problem for later.
Wait for Lin Ye. Wait for the real Lin Ye to arrive.
Rui Tachibana had no idea when that would be. Yukino Yukinoshita had promised Lin Ye was safe and there was nothing to worry about, but still, a thread of worry lingered in her heart.
"Believe in him. He'll be fine."
"We'll wait for him here, until the moment we have no choice but to leave."
"Mm."
Rui Tachibana nodded firmly.
For now, waiting was all they could do. They'd wait until the moment Lin Ye appeared.
If they ran again, Rui Tachibana at least had no idea where they could even run to.
The two of them stayed here.
If she hadn't had a companion with her, the psychological pressure would have been unbearable.
Even Yukino Yukinoshita, cold by nature, would have let her thoughts spiral in a dangerous place with no one else around, imagining all sorts of things.
Sometimes danger didn't come only from outside. More often it was the repeated torment of the mind, until the heart wore down and chose to give up.
But now they had each other, and a chance to survive.
"Lin Ye."
Their remaining hope rested on Lin Ye.
Yukino Yukinoshita waited for him, waited for him to show up soon.
Otherwise she had no idea how long she and Rui Tachibana could hold out.
Outside, everything was a murky gray.
When this room could no longer keep the Strange out, she wouldn't know where to run.
They could only pick a direction at random and go.
Whether they lived or died would be beyond her concern by then.
"Student Yukinoshita, tell me some more about things that happened between you and Lin-kun."
"Why don't you tell me first, Student Tachibana? I'm curious why you're so fixated on this."
Under Yukino Yukinoshita's gaze, Rui Tachibana thought it over and finally agreed to tell her.
Sure.
No problem.
"In the beginning, I heard about him from my sister. She told me to spend more time practicing with Lin Ye. I thought she meant making friends, but it turned out…"
It turned out to be romance. She wanted her and Lin Ye to become a couple.
"I thought it was strange. Why would my sister suggest that I become Lin Ye's girlfriend? I resisted at first, but because of that I also became curious about him."
Rui Tachibana recalled it as she spoke, keeping it simple.
She also mentioned that back then she'd secretly followed Lin Ye and her sister when the two went out alone to talk, and she'd even suspected they were in that kind of relationship.
That they might be romantically involved. She'd been quite worried.
Honestly, hearing this, Yukino Yukinoshita worried too, wondering whether Lin Ye might have feelings for Hina Tachibana.
A beautiful teacher.
Who wouldn't like her?
And Hina Tachibana's beauty was no ordinary kind. She was a true stunner.
But Rui Tachibana's account afterward made that possibility seem unlikely, though not impossible.
It was just that neither Lin Ye nor Tachibana-sensei had moved in that direction.
"I did wonder whether my sister suggested it because she'd noticed Lin Ye liked her, and wanted me to get close to him to put a stop to his feelings for her. Now I know that wasn't it. She just wanted to repay him for saving her life."
Rui Tachibana couldn't help a wry smile.
"She's the one who owes him for saving her life, yet she makes me, her Sister, play the girlfriend to repay it. What kind of logic is that?"
True.
But Yukino Yukinoshita thought of her own sister, and felt that her sister would do something similar.
In fact, the odds were very, very high.
She'd have Yukino repay Lin Ye in her place.
Only, a few times her sister's persuasion had made Yukino realize that she didn't really want her getting close to Lin Ye.
But now, with the relationship the two of them had, it was already settled that parting would be hard.
As for anything beyond that, Yukino Yukinoshita had no comment.
Anyway, the kind of thing Rui Tachibana described her sister doing was something she could accept, something that could happen. Her own sister was the same.
"And then? Student Tachibana accepted?"
"Not exactly, but later I did start approaching Lin-kun on my own. You saw it a few times too, didn't you, Student Yukinoshita?"
Yukino Yukinoshita nodded.
Rui Tachibana had gotten close to Lin Ye, but Lin Ye had turned her down every time. Yes, he'd kept a considerable distance from her.
That part was no lie.
At the time Yukino Yukinoshita had thought Lin Ye kept his distance from other girls because of her, to win her favor.
But clearly that wasn't the case now.
Lin Ye simply had no interest in Rui Tachibana.
"And then? What else did you do?"
"Mm…"
Rui Tachibana drew out the sound, thought for a moment, then spoke. "I told Lin-kun I wanted to understand love, and asked him to teach me how."
Yukino Yukinoshita: ???
That phrasing set her imagination running.
"And the reward I offered was that I'd agree to anything he wanted."
In practice, that was no different from offering to let Lin Ye do something intimate with her.
No, it was a polite way of saying exactly that.
If Lin Ye had wanted, he could have taken Rui Tachibana to a hotel.
Well, that was…
Wasn't tonight, right now, a similar request on Rui Tachibana's part?
"He refused."
"Mm, he refused. He said he didn't need it, so I often wondered whether there was something off about Lin-kun's tastes. But he likes you, so I figure he just doesn't want to be with a girl he doesn't like."
If it were a girl he liked, she was sure Lin Ye wouldn't just like her, he'd be crazy about her, and might even do this and that!
Rui Tachibana couldn't help thinking.
"Mm, that's probably right."
Yukino Yukinoshita gave an answer that wasn't quite a denial.
Lin Ye's situation was complicated. Even she sometimes couldn't figure out his real circumstances.
But a few things were certain. He wouldn't approach girls just to satisfy his own needs and desires. He'd choose a girl he liked, and only when both were willing.
Take her, for example. She was already willing, but because of her conditions Lin Ye wouldn't touch her, wouldn't even try to trick her into it.
That made Yukino Yukinoshita marvel at him on one hand, and regret it on the other.
She had some charm, sure, but not enough to make Lin Ye throw everything away.
"But tonight, hehe, he's already agreed."
Those words made Yukino Yukinoshita's face fall.
Rui Tachibana had gotten what she wanted, but Yukino had to watch her fiancé spend the night in the same hotel room as another woman.
And that woman was her friend, the only one she'd ever reached out to make friends with on her own.
For some reason, the feelings were stacked to the brim.
The one suffering was Yukino Yukinoshita. She couldn't even picture the scene.
Judging by Rui Tachibana's attitude, Lin Ye probably wasn't going to get a moment's rest tonight.
Uh.
Even so, she really couldn't accept it!
Rui Tachibana's behavior and expectations made Yukino Yukinoshita feel worse and worse.
Before, she could pretend not to care, but now her heart had been swallowed up by negative emotions. She wanted to speak up and stop it, but she knew perfectly well it would be useless.
She couldn't stop something Lin Ye had agreed to.
Rui Tachibana was stubborn in her own way, even more stubborn than she was.
Lin Ye wouldn't agree to her objection, and Rui Tachibana certainly wouldn't, so there was nothing she could say.
"Student Yukinoshita, please don't worry. Lin-kun won't… won't be worn out by that."
Yukino Yukinoshita: ???
She still instinctively felt that Rui Tachibana was saying it on purpose, trying to provoke a reaction out of her.
It was really irritating.
Rui Tachibana's behavior made Yukino Yukinoshita purse her lips and hit back.
"Please prepare yourself, Student Tachibana. I'm afraid you can't handle Lin Ye. He's very strong."
Rui Tachibana: ???
Strong? She didn't get it at first, but a moment later she did.
The undertones of that line were many!
Could it be that Yukinoshita and Lin Ye had already been together that way?
At that moment, Rui Tachibana's scrutinizing gaze swept over Yukino Yukinoshita from head to toe. "Student Yukinoshita, you and Lin-kun, could it be…"
Had they already gone that far?
Otherwise how would Yukino Yukinoshita know?
You could only know that from experience.
But if they'd already done it and still weren't officially dating, then…
What a complicated situation. They really knew how to play.
She didn't understand it at all.
"No."
"Then how do you know?"
How could she not know?
She'd touched him, after all. She'd seen firsthand just how strong that guy's desires were.
"I heard it from other people."
Yukino Yukinoshita came up with an excuse.
Rui Tachibana half believed it, but since Yukinoshita said so, she had no choice but to accept it.
"Mm, but it's fine. It'll be okay."
Rui Tachibana gave herself a pep talk. "It's my first time, but I can do it. I can endure the pain."
She kept saying it.
That attitude, that tone, made Yukino Yukinoshita sigh once more.
It was truly exasperating.
All she could say was that Rui Tachibana had fallen far too fast.
She was ready to give her body just like that, and had already prepared herself mentally for everything it involved.
"Giving yourself to a man who actively won't like you… is that really okay?"
Yukino Yukinoshita couldn't hold back and tried to talk her out of it.
Rui Tachibana thought about it and shook her head. "At least I won't regret it right now. Whether I'll regret it in the future is a problem for the future."
She didn't care about the future.
What she cared about was the present, this very moment. As long as this moment was still here, she wouldn't regret it.
Yukino Yukinoshita couldn't argue with that.
Wasn't she the same?
Focusing on the present, giving up thoughts of the future.
Some things were good for the future but bad for the present.
Many times she herself had chosen to look after how she felt now rather than later.
"In some ways I'm a bit like you, Student Yukinoshita. I do what I want to do now. As for the future, I'll leave it to future me to worry about!"
With that, Rui Tachibana was done.
So there was nothing more she could say.
"Mm."
"So, Student Yukinoshita, is it your turn to tell me about you and Lin-kun?"
"I'll tell you about the time he saved me."
Yukino Yukinoshita knew Rui Tachibana must be very interested in this, so she decided to tell that story as payment for what Rui had shared.
Yes.
Payment. That was all it was.
That was what Yukino Yukinoshita told herself.
"Okay, okay."
After hearing Rui Tachibana's reply, Yukino Yukinoshita began. "At the time we'd taken a request from the Service Club, from Yui Yuigahama, to find a dog. The two of us went out to search."
Lin Ye stepped forward, knocked the huge dog to the ground, and let her escape first to a safe place.
From Yukinoshita's words, Rui Tachibana could feel her gratitude for the way Lin Ye had protected her back then.
Yukino Yukinoshita left out some details.
She didn't mention anything about Lin Ye's abilities. If anyone was going to tell that, it should be Lin Ye himself.
That was what Yukino Yukinoshita thought.
Rui Tachibana guessed that this was probably when Yukino Yukinoshita's attitude toward Lin Ye began to change, when she developed feelings beyond ordinary friendship.
Rui Tachibana was envious.
If she'd had an experience like that with Lin Ye, she'd have pursued him even more boldly.
But she also knew her chances with Lin Ye were still slim.
The moment Lin Ye met Yukino Yukinoshita, it was already decided that countless other girls, even very pretty ones, would have no chance.
Too late.
Yes, simply too late.
It wasn't that she wasn't good enough, or that Iroha Isshiki wasn't good enough. It was because Yukinoshita existed, because Lin Ye liked Yukinoshita, that neither she nor Iroha Isshiki had a chance.
If she'd met Lin Ye earlier, if Lin Ye had never met Yukino Yukinoshita, then she, and that persistent junior of his, would both have had a chance.
But now, that chance was probably close to zero.
"So Student Yukinoshita is afraid of dogs."
As if that needed saying.
"I'll go raise a big dog and come visit you every day. What do you think?"
"I'll chase you away."
"Haha."
Rui Tachibana laughed. "Just kidding, just kidding. Don't mind it."
It was only a joke, nothing more.
A girl afraid of dogs.
Rui Tachibana really hadn't expected a cool, aloof girl like Yukino Yukinoshita to be afraid of dogs.
Fear of mice, cockroaches, or snakes would have been perfectly normal, but dogs… maybe she'd been scared by one as a child.
That was what Rui Tachibana guessed.
She couldn't help asking.
Yukino Yukinoshita brushed back her black hair and slowly began. "Actually, when I was little, I quite liked dogs."
"Then why…"
Yukino pressed her lips together before slowly continuing. She felt a strong dread about this memory and didn't even want to recall it.
But since Rui Tachibana had asked, she spoke anyway.
"On my tenth birthday, my sister prepared a present for me."
"A dog?"
"Mm."
"What's wrong with that?"
Rui Tachibana didn't see the problem.
"Was it some terrifying dog?"
Had it frightened Yukinoshita?
"Sort of."
Rui Tachibana still didn't quite get it, until Yukino Yukinoshita said the next sentence.
"The moment I opened the door to my room, there were dogs."
"Mm."
Rui Tachibana still found that understandable.
"Lots and lots of dogs. Every breed imaginable. Thirty, forty, fifty?"
She was lost. She couldn't make sense of it.
Back then, looking at a room packed with dogs, she'd lost the ability to think. She hadn't wanted to think at all.
Her mind and body had been filled with nothing but terror. She'd backed away, and the dogs had all pounced on her to lick her.
It should have been the happiest moment of her life, but it had become her nightmare.
After that, she never liked dogs again, never liked the boisterous kind. She came to love quiet, homebody cats instead.
She went from a dog lover to a cat lover.
Rui Tachibana listened with sweat running down her back.
She was impressed. Truly impressed.
She'd never imagined it could go like that.
Yukino Yukinoshita's sister had actually sent dozens of dogs and crammed them into Yukinoshita's room.
That scene would have shocked and scared even the biggest dog lover.
Even she herself didn't think she could have taken it.
It had been pure luck that Yukino survived it.
At the same time, she felt sympathy for what Yukinoshita had been through.
She would never want to live through something like that.
"So… you and Miss Yukinoshita…"
"We're like any other sisters."
Outside the family, she never said that her relationship with her sister was bad. And it wasn't. They'd never been on bad terms and there was no hatred between them. It was only that some of her sister's behavior was something Yukino couldn't accept.
"Mm. Miss Yukinoshita should be more careful from now on, and won't do that again."
"Sort of."
It had gotten a little better, but not completely.
Her sister's habit of teasing her hadn't changed at all, even now.
And she didn't believe it would change in the future either.
Of course, if Lin Ye warned her, her sister would probably rein it in somewhat. After all, her sister had already been frightened by Lin Ye once.
But expecting her sister to restrain herself voluntarily was something she thought would never happen in this lifetime.
All she could do was see her sister less often. Only then could she live in peace.
"My sister isn't like that. She's very good to me. It's just that she can't cook and she's hopeless at daily life, so I'm the one who takes care of everything."
But that scene made Yukino Yukinoshita envious.
She truly wished she'd been born into an ordinary family.
Then she could have enjoyed an ordinary family's warm, simple life.
Of course, Yukino Yukinoshita knew that many people envied her current life and wished to be a Yukinoshita daughter.
And if anyone heard her say she wanted an ordinary family, they'd probably call it a humblebrag.
"That's nice."
"Even so, nothing beats the Yukinoshita family, Student Yukinoshita."
"Each has its pros and cons. A great family isn't as wonderful as you imagine."
Food and clothing were never a worry, but in many other ways she was restricted, and etiquette and formalities only multiplied.
Yukino Yukinoshita found it very hard to accept, as a girl raised in an ordinary household.
"True, you must have studied lots of etiquette as a kid, Student Yukinoshita, and all sorts of skills too, like flower arranging and tea ceremony."
Yukino Yukinoshita nodded. "I did."
"So you really did! As expected of the Yukinoshita family, a prestigious name in Chiba."
Rui Tachibana sighed in wonder and amazement.
Of course, those skills looked classy, and they were classy, but if it were up to her, she'd pass.
A big family had plenty of money, could buy whatever it wanted, and lived in a mansion, but Rui Tachibana herself didn't much like that.
Envy was envy.
If she had to do it herself, she wouldn't want to.
"There's nothing to be amazed about."
"It's already plenty to be amazed about."
The smile on Rui Tachibana's face didn't fade. "Of course, Student Yukinoshita must envy ordinary families a bit too. If the family gets along, it really can be good. But if they don't get along and there's no money, that's miserable."
Rui Tachibana was saying that not every ordinary family was fine.
Plenty of families were in terrible shape.
In Japan, there were quite a lot of poor families, and parents who didn't get along, who fought and even turned violent.
In a household like that, it truly hurt the children.
Rui Tachibana herself wouldn't have wanted to grow up like that.
She was quite satisfied with her family now. Even though her parents had divorced, her childhood had been normal, and she'd had a loving older sister looking after her and shielding her as she grew up.
"You're right. I shouldn't envy anyone. What I have is… enough."
If she were given the chance to choose again, she felt she'd still choose the Yukinoshita family.
Not because of the Yukinoshita family's money,
but because of her father, Mother, and sister.
She couldn't cut herself off from those family bonds, couldn't give them up.
So what she could do was cherish what she had now and live well.
And for the family, the thing most in line with her parents' hopes was to win over Lin Ye.
Well.
She didn't dislike Lin Ye. She even liked him a little.
She could only be with Lin Ye anyway.
As for the longer-term future,
that could wait until later.
One thing was certain: apart from Lin Ye, she couldn't find another man, and she couldn't possibly marry anyone else.
"Right. That's how it is."
Seeing Yukino Yukinoshita at peace with it, Rui Tachibana felt at peace too.
The two of them sat quietly in the room.
The gloom had mostly cleared.
Now all that was left was to wait for Lin Ye to come.
The light in the room had grown a little dimmer.
But at least it was still safe.
Yukino Yukinoshita walked over to the doorway.
The Strange's figure outside was gone, as if it had left.
"It's gone. Did it leave?"
"It might still be lingering nearby. We'll keep staying here and not go out."
Rui Tachibana nodded.
After what had happened last time,
Rui Tachibana knew that staying here was the best choice.
As for what came next, it was up to Yukinoshita's plan. She'd follow Yukinoshita.
She also trusted that Yukino Yukinoshita would get her out of here alive and safe.
Lin Ye,
when would he come back?
Rui Tachibana gazed into the distance, still hoping for that familiar figure.
Of course, she knew that even if some figure did appear, it wasn't necessarily the real Lin Ye and might be a Strange in disguise, but that was still better than having no figure at all.
Time ticked by, minute by minute.
Rui Tachibana and Yukino Yukinoshita stood at the doorway watching their surroundings. At the slightest disturbance, they'd be able to react immediately.
And they wouldn't be caught on the back foot.
To this moment, Yukino Yukinoshita still hadn't told Rui Tachibana about the separation of spaces.
It was for the girl's own good.
If she knew that they weren't in the same space as Lin Ye, and that he'd have a hard time reaching them to help any time soon, she'd probably sink into worry.
It would affect her state.
Better that she be the only one who knew.
She still firmly believed Lin Ye would come back soon to rescue them.
If that jerk didn't come,
his fiancée would really be carried off by the Strange, along with a lovely girl who liked him so much she was willing to warm his bed.
Facing the darkness outside,
Yukino Yukinoshita's thoughts drifted again, running on without end.
She shook her head with a sigh.
She had always wanted to be independent and rely on her own strength, and yet one day she was longing for someone this much, and a man at that.
It was a sharp contrast to who she used to be,
but Yukino Yukinoshita didn't regret it in the slightest.
When her life was at stake,
relying on Lin Ye, her fiancé and boyfriend, wasn't wrong at all.
She could accept it. She could accept it calmly now, with a settled heart.
And so Yukino Yukinoshita thought, and hoped,
when a figure appeared once more.
Both she and Rui Tachibana noticed it.
Rui Tachibana looked at Yukino Yukinoshita beside her, and her first reaction was wariness.
After what had happened before,
that wariness was necessary. They had to confirm whether that figure was really Lin Ye.
What if it wasn't?
What if it was a Strange disguising itself again?
"We wait."
"Mm."
After Yukino Yukinoshita's words, neither of them had any intention of going over. They waited where they were.
The figure slowly emerged from the darkness.
In the faint light, its build and face grew clearer.
At last,
both Yukino Yukinoshita and Rui Tachibana could see its face clearly.
Lin Ye.
It was Lin Ye.
But,
was it the real one or a disguise?
That needed further confirmation.
Neither girl made a sound,
and the figure stayed where it was, not speaking either.
The two sides fell into an eerie silence.
Ten seconds passed.
Rui Tachibana saw that the other party stood motionless and didn't come forward, and she tentatively judged him to be a fake, a Strange in disguise.
Otherwise, if it were the real Lin Ye, how could he possibly show no reaction at all on seeing them now?
Her eyes turned to Yukino Yukinoshita.
Yukino Yukinoshita was thinking too.
She had also provisionally decided that it was a Strange. Only a Strange would stand there without moving, right?
"Prove you're Lin Ye."
That single sentence plunged Lin Ye, who stood far away deep in thought, into a whole new line of thinking.
Prove that he was himself?
Did the Strange have this kind of routine now?
Lin Ye couldn't help thinking.
…
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