The main building.
Tabletop Gaming Club.
"Nobody's in the activity room. Come in."
Chika used her key to unlock the door and pushed it open.
School clubs were divided into two categories. One type was sports clubs—volleyball, baseball, soccer, track and field, and so on. They were quite demanding, requiring arrival at school for training as early as six in the morning.
Other clubs were much more relaxed. Members only needed to come to the activity room for activities in the afternoon. In the morning, there was basically nobody around.
Natsuki stepped into the activity room. The first thing he saw was a round table with a complete tea set on top. Beside it was a two-seater sofa. If not for the game posters on the walls, you really couldn't tell this was the Tabletop Gaming Club.
"The board games are all in the storage cabinet." Chika pointed toward a corner. "Quite a few people are in the Tabletop Gaming Club. With everyone coming and going, if we don't properly store the games, they get lost easily... Do you want to play? A friend bought a new board game yesterday—it's super fun!"
Natsuki said flatly: "Let's finish the fun task first."
"Then we'll play next time when we're free." Chika pulled out her phone, opened the timer function, and waved her hand in announcement. "Begin."
Natsuki had no objections. He sat down across from Kaguya, the round table between them as their eyes met.
A moment later.
"No good."
Kaguya suddenly pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose and looked away.
"Huh? It hasn't even been a minute yet. Are your eyes stinging already?"
Chika couldn't help commenting. "Kaguya-chan, you're way too weak."
"My eyes don't sting." Kaguya was unhappy. "It's just that the task keeps showing 'progress not activated.'"
Natsuki pondered. "The task conditions probably aren't being met."
"I see..." Chika crossed her arms over her chest, deliberating for several seconds before suddenly thinking of a possibility. "Could it be that you two are too far apart?"
"Hm?"
Kaguya looked up at her.
"Kaguya-chan, did you ever play the 'whoever blinks first loses' game when you were little?"
"No."
"Eh, you've never played such a fun game? That's a precious childhood memory."
Chika's tone was disappointed.
Natsuki was speechless.
So where exactly is the fun in such a boring game?!
"I played it with friends when I was little, and I almost always won." Chika put her hands on her hips and lifted her chin proudly. "Back then we played with the person sitting in front or behind us. Being close together gives it more of a competitive feeling... You two go sit on the sofa and try again."
"Let's try again."
Kaguya nodded slightly in agreement, stood up, and walked over to sit on a two-seater sofa.
Natsuki left the round table and walked over to sit beside Kaguya without any psychological burden.
In other people's eyes, Kaguya Shinomiya was the icy Princess Kaguya—cold all over, unapproachable, with a built-in "freezing aura." Getting even slightly close would give you frostbite.
Unfortunately, Natsuki was different.
Ever since he'd gained the ability to see those strange prompts, he knew that the Shinomiya-san before him was only cold on the surface.
"Stare—"
Their eyes met.
Kaguya's expression was cool and composed, like a divine maiden seated upon a frosty sky. Her face showed no emotion, but inwardly she felt somewhat surprised.
(Strange.)
(Why doesn't his gaze waver at all when looking at me?)
Kaguya thought of the other boys at school. Forget making eye contact—they didn't even dare speak to her. Why wasn't the boy before her afraid of her?
The night before last, he'd even told her to have some backbone... How dare he!
"Kaguya-chan, how is it now?" Chika asked with concern.
"It is indeed related to distance."
Though her thoughts were churning, Kaguya's face remained expressionless—the standard cold-faced girl. Her voice was cool and pleasant. "The task is now activated and currently in progress."
"That's good."
"..."
The fun task was underway.
Chika sat down nearby and produced a box of chocolate sticks from somewhere. "Do you two want snacks?"
"How exactly am I supposed to eat in this state?" Natsuki couldn't help saying.
Chika held out a chocolate stick. "I can feed you."
"I don't want any at all."
Kaguya firmly refused.
Buzz buzz.
A phone vibration suddenly sounded.
"That's my phone..." Chika pulled it out. "The teacher messaged me, asking me to come to the office."
Chika quickly stood up and waved goodbye:
"I'm going to the office. You two keep doing the task."
"..."
As the endlessly chattering Chika left, the Tabletop Gaming Club suddenly fell quiet. It became so silent you could hear a pin drop. The two of them could clearly hear each other's soft breathing.
A gentle breeze blew.
White curtains fluttered softly at their side.
Bright morning light shone in through the window, falling precisely on Kaguya's face. Light and shadow divided perfectly along the bridge of her nose, as if the girl before him stood at the boundary between darkness and light, waiting for someone to reach out and save her—or to fall into the abyss.
For the first time, Natsuki carefully studied the girl Kaguya.
Her eyes... were very beautiful.
Those wine-red irises were like red gemstones, sparkling brilliantly in the sunlight.
Her eyelashes were slightly curled and long. Cute.
Her skin was snow-white and delicate, as if soaked in milk, so fair in the sunlight it seemed almost translucent.
Her nose was refined and exquisite. Cute.
And those moist, pink lips looked like cherry blossoms after the rain.
No matter what angle you looked from, Kaguya Shinomiya was an unmistakable beauty.
It was just that her personality was too cold—it was easy to get frostbitten.
By comparison, Miko, who frequently revealed her salted-fish nature, was actually cuter.
"What are you looking at?" Kaguya suddenly asked.
"Mm..." Natsuki hesitated briefly, then decided to tell the truth. "Shinomiya-san's eyes are very beautiful."
She must have heard this kind of compliment countless times since childhood, right?
I can't very well lie and say her eyes aren't pretty.
The next moment.
Natsuki's gaze suddenly sharpened. He was shocked to discover a faint blush rising on Kaguya's face.
The rosy flush contrasted with her snow-white skin, especially striking in the sunlight.
Wait, you're actually blushing?
The great Lady Kaguya, who bleeds but never sheds tears, can actually blush? This is super big news!
If a member of the newspaper club caught this on camera, it would definitely make tomorrow's front-page headline!
Watching Kaguya's pretty face gradually turn red, her long eyelashes trembling along with it, Natsuki suddenly thought of a possibility:
"You... want to sneeze again?"
"I do not!"
Kaguya bit down on her teeth, secretly clenching her pink fists, as another terrible memory surfaced.
Being treated like sandwich filling on the sports field was bad enough, but then he'd sighed with regret—the shame of a lifetime!
The boy before her still had use value. Once she'd wrung him dry, she'd make him turn himself in!
"It's just that my eyes are uncomfortable." Kaguya's tone wavered for once. "I definitely don't want to sneeze."
There was another reason she didn't voice.
For some reason, looking at her own clear reflection in the boy's eyes, Kaguya's heartbeat had begun to quietly accelerate.
"My eyes are uncomfortable too." Natsuki pondered. "The task only says you can't blink. I should be fine, right?"
"Hold it in. Don't blink." Kaguya crossed her arms. The young lady's voice was cold and merciless. "We're already three and a half minutes in. If your blinking affects the task, we'll have to start all over again."
"Starting over would only take ten minutes."
"If you're going to do something, do it perfectly. Something that can be completed in one attempt should never fail even once."
"..."
I didn't realize you were a perfectionist!
The warm, sweet breath the girl exhaled fell on his face, making it itch slightly.
Wait.
Natsuki suddenly realized something.
When did he and the ice sculpture girl get so close they were practically touching?