The rooftop was frozen in an awkward silence so thick it could be cut with a knife.
Riko and Hikari stood motionless, their jaws still dropped, their expressions caught somewhere between shock and horror. The question hung in the air like smoke.
Do you two like Kaito?
Neither of them could move. Neither of them could speak.
And then—
Yuki exploded.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" She doubled over, clutching her stomach, tears already forming in her eyes. "OH MY GOD! I DID NOT EXPECT THAT REACTION!"
Riko blinked. Hikari's eye twitched.
"You two look like you saw a GHOST!" Yuki wheezed, fumbling for her phone. "Wait wait wait—I NEED a photo of this! This is HISTORIC!"
Click.
The sound seemed to break the spell.
Riko's mouth opened. Closed. Opened again. "What—"
Yuki waved the phone triumphantly. "Perfect. I'm sending this to myself. And maybe framing it. And putting it on my wall."
Hikari's voice emerged, flat and dangerous. "You're dead."
"WORTH IT!" Yuki grinned, finally calming her laughter to manageable giggles. "Seriously though. I didn't expect THAT. You should be blushing, or angry, or something. But this?" She gestured at their frozen faces. "This is like I asked if you worshipped Satan."
Riko's composure began to reform, piece by piece. "Yuki. Explain. Now."
Yuki tilted her head, still smiling. "Okay. But first—" She looked at them both, something softer flickering in her eyes. "Looks like Kaito-san chose his friends correctly."
The words landed strangely. Warm. Unexpected.
Then Yuki's grin returned, sharper this time. "And after what I'm about to tell you, you're going to kill me."
Riko's stomach dropped. Hikari's eyes narrowed.
Yuki took a breath. "I lied."
Silence.
"The whole confession thing? The lip reading? What Kaito-san said?" She shrugged, completely unrepentant. "Made it up. All of it."
Riko's brain short-circuited again. "You... what?"
"That girl, Suzuki from 2-C? She wasn't confessing. She was THANKING him. For stopping the bullies. Kaito-san didn't say he liked someone else—that was me being dramatic." Yuki grinned wider. "It was a prank."
Hikari's voice was very quiet. Very dangerous. "A prank."
"A really good one, apparently!" Yuki beamed. "I mean, look at you two! You totally believed me! The way you've been acting all day—the tension, the awkwardness, the way you can't look at each other—" She laughed again. "I guess you didn't see that coming, huh?"
Riko's hands clenched at her sides. Her mind raced through every moment since that conversation. Every thought. Every fear. Every heartbeat.
He likes someone else.
A lie.
All of it.
Hikari took a step forward. "Yuki."
"Yeah?"
"You have exactly three seconds to run."
Yuki's eyes widened. Then she bolted for the door, laughter trailing behind her. "WORTH IT! TOTALLY WORTH IT!"
The door slammed.
Riko and Hikari stood alone in the sudden silence, the weight of the last hour crashing down around them.
But beneath the embarrassment, beneath the anger, beneath everything—a tiny, traitorous relief flickered in both their hearts.
He doesn't like someone else.
Not yet.
The unseen prank was over. But the questions it raised were just beginning.
(End of Chapter 72)