“I don’t know, meow. I’ve never been in love before, meow.”
The Phantom, now in her human form, lay sprawled on the bed, scrolling through videos on Yuriko’s tablet.
The Phantom’s two small feet swayed back and forth in the air, her long tail wrapped around her calf and twitching in rhythm with her feet.
“Phantom, let me touch your tail.”
“No, meow! A tail is a private part. Be careful, or I’ll bite you, meow!”
The Phantom rolled over, moving further away from Yuriko.
She hugged her tail to her chest, her cute, large eyes staring at Yuriko with suspicion.
“Tch, how stingy. I was actually planning to buy you two sets of clothes, but since you won’t even let me touch your tail, I guess I’ll just forget it.”
Yuriko turned away as well, pretending to ignore the Phantom.
“Ugh.”
Seeing that Yuriko had seemingly lost interest in her tail, the Phantom lowered her guard slightly and loosened her grip on it.
Even though she was a cat, the Phantom was still a girl, and she was naturally drawn to the idea of new clothes.
Knowing full well that Yuriko was likely tricking her, she crawled back to Yuriko’s side, grabbing her arm.
“Are you telling the truth, meow?”
Yuriko didn’t look back and continued staring at her phone with an indifferent expression.
“I thought I’d splurge a little since I made a small profit, but now that I think about it, I’d rather just spend it on good food.”
As soon as the Phantom saw Yuriko’s theatrical behavior, she knew the girl was deliberately baiting her just to touch her tail.
“If I let you touch my tail, are you willing to take me to the mall, meow?”
“Well… I’m not really that interested anymore—”
The Phantom controlled her tail, poking Yuriko’s neck and making her shrug her shoulders.
“Hey! Don’t you know that’s ticklish?”
Yuriko rolled over, covering her neck with her hand.
The Phantom’s tail hovered in mid-air, swaying back and forth right in front of Yuriko.
The tip of the tail twitched nimbly, drawing Yuriko’s gaze.
The moment the tail brushed close to her face, Yuriko couldn’t hold back any longer.
She reached out to grab it, but the Phantom predicted the move and dodged.
“New clothes, meow.”
“Don’t be in such a hurry. Let me pet the tail first, and then I’ll consider it.”
Yuriko sat up, her small hands making grasping motions.
The Phantom shrank back in response.
Retreating all the way to the headboard, the Phantom had nowhere left to run before Yuriko pounced on her.
She pressed her hands against Yuriko’s, desperately resisting the assault.
“Hee hee, just accept your fate. Little cats were born to be rubbed — “
“Pervert! This is a crime, meow!”
The Phantom’s small face turned red from the exertion.
Her strength was no match for Yuriko’s, and her hands were slowly pushed back.
Ultimately, the Phantom gave up her resistance, her hands falling limp onto the bed.
“I want to pick out the most expensive clothes, meow.”
“That will cost extra.”
“I’ll let you touch my ears too, meow.”
“Deal!”
Yuriko hugged the Phantom and rubbed against her.
One moment she was kneading the girl’s ears, the next she was stroking her tail, and when she had her fill of that, she buried her face in the Phantom’s hair to take a deep breath of her scent.
The Phantom wore a deadpan expression, letting Yuriko hold her while she simply lay in her arms and played with the tablet.
After a long-overdue session of petting the cat, Yuriko felt refreshed.
The tension she had felt because of Carmilla had eased significantly.
The price she paid was a massive hit to her wallet later that day when she took the Phantom to the mall.
***
A few days later, the day of *Fashion Weekly’s release finally arrived.
In addition to the posters of Yuriko and Carmilla put up inside Shengxiu Academy, Fashion Weekly also posted promotional posters in various parts of the city.
The chosen protagonists for this issue’s posters were, without a doubt, Yuriko and Carmilla.
When Yuriko arrived at school that morning, she could feel the number of eyes on her increasing.
The posters in the Academy were very well-done; the lighting and shadows had been finely adjusted, and decorative accents had been added to provide the perfect finishing touch.
As she entered the classroom, Yuriko successfully captured the attention of most of her classmates.
“Yuriko, I saw this issue of Fashion Weekly. You two are practically naturals at this.”
A copy of the latest Fashion Weekly was sitting on Yuri’s desk, opened to the section featuring Yuriko and Carmilla.
“I just went there and struck a few poses. The ones who are truly amazing are the Magnificent Clothing Club and the Plain Clothes Club. If they hadn’t made those clothes, I wouldn’t have looked so good on camera.”
Yuriko sat in her seat and noticed that Carmilla had also bought a copy of the magazine.
‘It looks like she cares quite a bit too,’ Yuriko thought.
‘But that makes sense. Who wouldn’t care after being featured as the lead on the posters and the magazine’s headlines for their first time as a model?’
Yuriko had originally planned to buy a copy after school, but since Carmilla already had one, she decided to just look at it with her.
“Let me see too.”
Yuriko squeezed closer to Carmilla.
Carmilla naturally made space for her, sitting almost shoulder-to-shoulder as she pushed the magazine toward Yuriko.
“The results are great. It looks even better than the photos we took back then,” Yuriko commented.
Though it was only a slight post-production adjustment, the visual impact was completely different.
Different styles of lighting and color made the photos fit the characters much better.
When they played the farm sisters, the images were bright and vivid.
When they were noble best friends, the tones were darker and the texture more elegant.
When they played Knights, the scenes looked dreamlike.
“Since the photos turned out so beautiful, is Miss Yuriko planning to debut as a big star?” Yuri said with a smile.
“I don’t want to stand in front of a screen every day. That would be far too restrictive.”
The idea of being forced to perform to please an audience while dealing with all the drama in that industry was a hassle just thinking about it.
She was already tired enough acting at the Academy; she didn’t want to add more to her plate.
“Yuriko, there are so many posters of you and Carmilla up around the Academy. Did you join some kind of event?”
Nomily and Olesia walked into the classroom.
The speaker was Nomily, who walked over with her handbag and immediately noticed the copy of Fashion Weekly on Carmilla’s desk.
“A while ago, Carmilla and I participated in an event for the Magnificent Clothing Club and the Plain Clothes Club as models. They submitted the photos they took, and we were lucky enough to be selected.”
“No wonder you two looked like you were plotting something these past few days. It turns out you were out taking professional photos.”
Nomily nodded.
This issue of Fashion Weekly actually had photos of Yuriko; she decided she would buy a copy to look at after school as well.
“Nomily, the seat next to me is still empty. Come look with us!”
Yuri patted the empty chair beside her.
Seeing Yuri being so proactive, Nomily became a bit wary.
In her memory, Yuri only acted this enthusiastic when she was up to no good.