Of course, Lin Ye had another easy option: use Hypnosis, the skill, to simply make Rui Tachibana agree.
But he'd promised Yukinoshita he wouldn't use that skill unless it was truly necessary.
As things stood, Lin Ye didn't think this situation called for it.
This was the kind of thing he ought to handle properly with his own strength.
"You really want to break up that badly?" Rui Tachibana shot back.
She stood rooted in place, her slender frame trembling faintly in the night wind.
It wasn't just the cold night air. Lin Ye's breakup had left something inside her turned to ice.
"Yes. I don't feel that way about you, Student Tachibana."
"Then why did you agree to date me in the first place?"
Rui Tachibana stared at him, pressing her lips together before speaking seriously. "If you never had those feelings, why agree at all? Wouldn't it have been better to just keep rejecting me like before?"
She didn't understand it—but one possibility occurred to her.
"Was it because I said I'd expose what happened in the infirmary, when you attacked Yukinoshita? Is that why you agreed to date me?"
The moment this possibility surfaced, it took over her mind completely.
Because to her, it was the most reasonable explanation.
Back then, to keep her quiet, Lin Ye had chosen to become her boyfriend. And as his girlfriend, how could she just stand by and watch him get caught, dragged into a scandal she wanted no part of either?
So this was Lin Ye exploiting that very instinct in her!
The more Rui Tachibana thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.
If that were true, then from the very start, Lin Ye had never had even a shred of real feeling for her—everything had just been a means to an end.
"You can believe that if you want," Lin Ye said.
Since Rui Tachibana had already found a convenient explanation on her own, he didn't need to come up with a new one.
This reason suited him just fine.
Lin Ye was quite satisfied.
"Aren't you afraid I'll go public with this right now?"
"Who'd believe you?"
Even now, who would believe something like that?
Even back when it happened, hardly anyone would have believed it either.
Rui Tachibana knew exactly where she stood at Sobu High. As a transfer student, and given her own personality, she had no close friends there—barely anyone she even talked to.
If she spread it around, no one would believe her. If anything, people would think she was deliberately targeting Yukino Yukinoshita, and it would likely turn her classmates against her instead.
"Student Tachibana, whatever the real reason was, I hope you can accept this and let the relationship end. It's better for both of us."
"It's not better for me at all."
Rui Tachibana didn't feel that way in the slightest.
"I could agree to one thing as compensation."
"Then tell me what happened between you and my sister."
That question was actually exactly what Lin Ye had expected.
He'd already considered the possibility that Rui Tachibana would ask this from the start. He even suspected her firm refusal to accept the breakup was partly a bid to trade for this very answer.
Rui Tachibana wanted to use this leverage to make him tell her what had really happened that day.
"For that, you'll have to ask Hina-sensei. I won't be the one to tell you."
"If you tell me this one thing, I'll accept the breakup."
In truth, Rui Tachibana hadn't originally intended this. Her question had mostly been a shot in the dark—no, not even that. She'd simply thrown out something she assumed Lin Ye could never agree to, just to see how he'd react.
Clearly, Lin Ye wasn't all that desperate to end things—otherwise, why would he rather refuse to tell her than just accept the trade?
Which meant that between the two things, whatever had happened between Lin Ye and her sister mattered more to him than ending this relationship.
That only stoked Rui Tachibana's curiosity further. She'd once given up on knowing the truth, but now that curiosity had been fully reignited.
She wanted to know.
"Pick a different condition."
"That's the only one I'll accept."
"So negotiations have failed, then?"
That caught Rui Tachibana off guard. Faced with Lin Ye's cold response, she hesitated—surely he wasn't really planning to end things unilaterally, just like that?
No—he might really be prepared to do exactly that.
She thought he was genuinely capable of it.
"You can believe that too."
"Fine."
Lin Ye nodded. "I'll walk you home, Student Tachibana."
Was that really it? Just like that?
"I never agreed to the breakup."
"Your not agreeing doesn't change my decision."
Lin Ye made his firmness clear.
He knew by now that no amount of persuasion would work on her. Showing unwavering resolve was the better approach.
"I won't agree to it."
Rui Tachibana pressed her lips together, showing not the slightest sign of yielding. Even in the face of Lin Ye's hard line, she didn't budge or accept his proposal—she simply raised another condition.
"My answer stays the same."
The cold wind bit at them.
The two stood facing each other, eyes locked.
After a moment, Rui Tachibana spoke, having thought of another condition. "I'll change my condition."
"Go on."
Lin Ye knew the girl was giving ground.
"Promise me first."
"You go first."
But then Lin Ye saw Rui Tachibana take a step toward him and grab his hand with one of hers.
"Sleep with me tonight. I want to know what love is."
Lin Ye: ???
In that moment, Lin Ye was genuinely stunned into blank astonishment.
What was this girl even saying?
He couldn't have heard that right.
Except... he probably had heard it right.
"It's exactly what you're thinking. Don't worry, it's my first time—I've never been with another man—so you won't be losing out."
Rui Tachibana put it even more bluntly.
"Besides, we're still technically a couple right now. Doing that sort of thing is perfectly normal—expected, even. As my boyfriend, you should satisfy this wish of mine."
Lin Ye was more speechless than ever.
Someone who could say something like that so casually—there was probably no one else like Rui Tachibana in the world.
An ordinary girl would never bring this up with such calm, matter-of-fact composure.
Lin Ye almost had to admire her for it.
"Student Tachibana, you should give yourself to the man you'll spend your whole life with—not to me."
"I'm willing to."
Her answer came just as crisp and just as resolute.
Her bright eyes fixed on Lin Ye, Rui Tachibana held firm to her resolve. "That's my condition. Agree to it, and I'll accept the breakup. I won't bother you again after that."
Lin Ye shook his head.
There was no way he could accept that.
He wasn't the kind of man who could sleep with a girl and then just end things with her afterward.
His possessiveness ran unexpectedly deep. If he actually slept with Rui Tachibana, his instinct would be to keep her bound to him for life—not to cut ties with her.
"Those are my only two conditions. Agree to either one."
But Lin Ye's answer was...
"Neither works for me."
He rejected both, without a trace of hesitation.
"I won't accept either. Since every condition you've proposed puts me in an impossible position, I won't press you to come up with more."
Lin Ye decided he wouldn't push the issue any further.
He was certain that even if he gave her another chance to name a condition, whatever she came up with would still leave him just as troubled.
So be it, then.
It ended here.
He had nothing more to say.
"All right, Student Tachibana. Let me walk you home."
Rui Tachibana realized Lin Ye had already made up his mind. There was no room left for negotiation.
"You're still my boyfriend," she said to him.
"You can think that if you want, but I won't accept it. I've already made myself clear."
"But I never accepted it."
Lin Ye gave a light laugh.
He gestured that she could go now.
But Rui Tachibana stood frozen in place. "If you're not my boyfriend anymore and you don't even want to walk me home—"
She kept her eyes on Lin Ye as she went on. "And don't say it's just as friends—you're trying to break up with me. How could we possibly stay friends after that?"
That made Lin Ye swallow back whatever he'd been about to say.
He probably needed to be more decisive about this.
Walking her home didn't really seem appropriate anymore.
"Walk me home."
The voice wasn't close, but it rang out with startling clarity.
Rui Tachibana turned to look and saw the figure of the girl with long black hair approaching with light footsteps.
Yukino Yukinoshita.
That she would show up here, at this exact moment—
Rui Tachibana's face flashed with shock.
Lin Ye, on the other hand, showed no reaction at all—he'd known Yukinoshita was there from the very start.
He'd sent her a text with the location back when they were eating dinner.
The girl had been nearby the whole time.
Tap, tap, tap...
Footsteps kept sounding, and the girl with long black hair approached the two of them with her cool, composed bearing.
"Good evening, Student Tachibana."
Yukino Yukinoshita greeted Rui Tachibana. Her expression stayed calm, her black hair drifting in the night breeze.
"Good... good evening..."
Rui Tachibana's expression stayed calm too—that was just how she normally looked. But inside, she was trembling. Facing Yukino Yukinoshita made her tense, even a little afraid.
It wasn't as if she'd done anything wrong, and Yukino Yukinoshita didn't seem like someone capable of hurting anyone either.
Though she'd been standing some distance away, Yukino Yukinoshita had still caught most of the conversation—Lin Ye wanting to break up, Rui Tachibana refusing, the two conditions she'd proposed, and Lin Ye turning down both.
"Actually, there's something I think you should know, Student Tachibana," Yukino Yukinoshita said.
With that, she walked over to stand beside Lin Ye. The two of them stood there, shoulder to shoulder.
"What is it?"
"We're already together."
Rui Tachibana: "..."
Her mind blanked out completely in that instant.
Was Yukino Yukinoshita joking?
"We were already together before the infirmary incident. What happened in the infirmary was an accident. There's a reason Lin Ye went along with it—it was all just a misunderstanding."
Rui Tachibana thought back to what had happened that day.
But the more she remembered it, the more her suspicions grew. "Student Yukinoshita, surely you wouldn't sacrifice your own reputation for this. What exactly did Lin-kun promise you?"
Only that could explain why Yukino Yukinoshita would show up here to help Lin Ye out of this bind.
Everything made sense now.
That was Rui Tachibana's conclusion.
And she was quite convinced her theory was correct.
Yukino Yukinoshita felt utterly helpless. Telling the truth wouldn't get her believed.
But thinking it over, if she'd been in Rui Tachibana's position, she probably would have jumped to a similar conclusion.
It was the only explanation that made any sense to her.
As for her actually being Lin Ye's girlfriend—his quasi-fiancée, even—that was simply too unbelievable to accept.
"So, even so, Student Tachibana, you understand Student Lin's resolve to break up with you, don't you? He likes me, not you. There's no point in holding on."
A melon plucked before it's ripe never tastes sweet.
How could Rui Tachibana not know that?
The problem was, at first, she'd been the one constantly rejected, and she'd accepted it—she'd gotten used to it. But then Lin Ye had suddenly agreed to date her, and the two of them had become a couple.
That moment—the relationship she'd once hoped for had actually arrived. Even if, strictly speaking, she didn't feel that kind of romantic pull toward Lin Ye, she didn't want to let go of the title of being his girlfriend, now that she had it.
She had a stubborn streak too.
Lin Ye wanted to end it?
There was no way she'd agree that easily.
"That's not for Student Yukinoshita to decide."
Rui Tachibana held her ground.
"Why do this to yourself, Student Tachibana? You're sure to meet a boy someday who truly loves you."
"Truly loves me? But I don't like him."
She looked at Lin Ye, her attitude leaving no room for doubt.
It was as good as declaring that she was determined to have Lin Ye, no matter what.
Lin Ye looked thoroughly pained by all this.
Why wouldn't she listen to reason?
Lin Ye glanced toward Yukinoshita, hoping she could resolve this, but even Yukino Yukinoshita had no idea how to persuade Rui Tachibana any further.
The girl had dug her heels in completely.
"Student Tachibana, why insist on this so stubbornly?"
"I want to, that's why," Rui Tachibana said.
"If Lin Ye were your boyfriend, Student Yukinoshita, and he suddenly told you he wanted to break up—could you accept that?"
That question stumped Yukino Yukinoshita a little.
"Whether or not I could accept it, isn't it still the truth? Unless I have the ability to keep him by my side, I can't change his mind."
Yukino Yukinoshita thought of her own situation—she'd wanted to leave, but Lin Ye had forcibly kept her there.
Because right now, she genuinely lacked the power to break free of his hold on her.
Faced with Lin Ye's insistence, she had no way to resist or fight back.
She'd simply had to accept it.
But conversely, if Lin Ye wanted to end things, there was nothing she could do to keep him either.
In this relationship, the two of them stood on unequal footing.
Yukino Yukinoshita understood that all too clearly.
"The ability..." Rui Tachibana murmured this key phrase quietly to herself.
As long as she had the ability, she could keep Lin Ye by her side.
But what ability did she have?
She turned it over in her mind and couldn't come up with anything that would let her keep Lin Ye close.
"Student Tachibana, you just want to sleep with me, don't you? Fine, I agree."
That sudden line from Lin Ye changed the mood on the spot.
Yukino Yukinoshita stared at Lin Ye, stunned, as if she couldn't quite believe what she'd just heard him say.
____
Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 10 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter
________________________________________
If you want more chapters, please consider supporting my page on (P). with 50 advanced chapters available on (P)
👻 Join the crew by searching Leanzin on (P). You know the spot! 😉