“It looks like you two have something to talk about. I’ll be going then, you talk~”
Chuanshang Jieyi saw Momoka Aoi’s eager expression.
To avoid being nosy, she smiled and excused herself, returning to her seat.
“Thanks, thanks!”
Momoka Aoi glanced gratefully at Chuanshang Jieyi, then quickly hurried back to her own seat, looking flustered at Akiba Sakura.
“Sakura, it’s bad! Yuuma-kun…”
“Huh?”
Seeing how agitated Momoka Aoi was, Akiba Sakura felt a bad premonition rising in her heart.
‘No way, wasn’t he just full of energy a moment ago? Could he be getting bullied by upperclassmen?’
“Yuuma-kun…”
“What about Tsuguo? Just say it already, Aoi…”
Now Momoka Aoi had gotten Sakura really anxious, her voice revealing her worry.
Momoka Aoi took a deep breath, lowered her voice, and spoke quickly with a tone of certainty—
“I followed behind Yuuma-kun for a while just now… It seems like… he’s looking for other girls!”
“…Huh?”
Akiba Sakura froze, her eyes widening, her face stiffening instantly.
She stood there in disbelief.
Chuanshang Jieyi’s teasing had already made her uneasy, but hearing it from Momoka Aoi’s mouth made her mind go blank, completely stunned.
‘No way, how could this be such a coincidence? Was Chuanshang Jieyi a prophet?’
—
The scene shifts back to three minutes ago, at the corner outside the teaching building.
Yuuma Tsugumu was leaning against the wall, glancing toward the end of the corridor from time to time, waiting patiently.
He had rushed over right after class, hoping to run into that twin-tailed girl again and confirm whether she was really the Bratty Girl maid from “Soft Cat Cafe.”
Whatever.
Yuuma Tsugumu didn’t have a strong reason for wanting to find that Bratty Girl maid—he just wanted to confirm it face-to-face.
After waiting for a while, he heard the sound of two girls chatting and laughing from the end of the corridor.
It was the same two he had bumped into earlier—the twin-tailed girl and her best friend, strolling over slowly while talking.
‘Waiting for the rabbit by the tree really works…’
Yuuma Tsugumu straightened up, his eyes fixed on the girl’s face—
Although the girl was indeed cute enough, with round cheeks and bright eyes, her twin-tails made her look lively.
But after a closer look, Yuuma Tsugumu felt that her facial features, gaze, and temperament were still noticeably different from the arrogant Bratty Girl from the coffee shop.
He stared at her from a distance for a few seconds, but inwardly he was starting to doubt—
‘The face shape is a bit similar… but the features are different. Can makeup and clothes really make that big a difference?’
The more he looked, the more confused he became.
He couldn’t tell whether he had misidentified her or she was just too good at disguising herself.
All the while, he completely overlooked Momoka Aoi, who was secretly tailing him from behind.
At this moment, Momoka Aoi was hiding around a corner not far away, peeking out half her head, clearly seeing Yuuma Tsugumu staring at that strange girl.
The more she watched, the heavier her heart grew.
She even started to imagine an entire scenario, feeling both anxious and angry—
‘Yuuma-kun… what are you staring at that girl for? You already have Sakura, yet you’re thinking about other girls?! Are you a playboy?!’
Momoka Aoi knew Yuuma Tsugumu well.
They had been good friends for so long, and she knew he was usually serious around girls.
That was exactly why, if he kept staring at a girl, it meant—he knew her.
‘No way, an ex-girlfriend?! Or has this brat been hiding a girlfriend from me and Sakura all this time?’
The more she thought, the more serious it seemed.
Momoka Aoi didn’t dare linger another second, afraid she would explode from anger.
She tiptoed, turned around, and hurried back to the classroom as fast as she could, her mind filled with only one thought—to rush back and report to Akiba Sakura.
Meanwhile, Yuuma Tsugumu was still lost in his own confusion, completely unaware he was being followed.
He followed the two girls at a distance, watching them enter a classroom on the right on the second floor.
He silently memorized the location of that class, then turned around and slowly walked back to his own classroom.
The moment he stepped through the door, he saw Momoka Aoi whispering something to Akiba Sakura, while Sakura sat there with a blank, dazed expression.
Momoka Aoi caught a glimpse of Yuuma Tsugumu out of the corner of her eye.
Instantly, as if caught red-handed, she sat up straight, lowered her head, and pretended to organize her books, putting on a look of “I didn’t do anything, I didn’t say anything.”
Yuuma Tsugumu, however, hadn’t heard their conversation.
He assumed it was just ordinary girl talk, so he walked straight to his seat and sat down.
As soon as he sat, he subconsciously turned his head, remembering Sakura’s injured foot, and asked gently—
“Does your leg still hurt?”
But his words received no response.
Akiba Sakura remained in the same posture, completely frozen, still in a state of total mental shutdown.
In her mind, only Momoka Aoi’s decisive words echoed—
‘Yuuma-kun… seems like… he’s looking for other girls!’
Those words exploded in her head over and over, leaving her paralyzed—she didn’t even hear Yuuma Tsugumu speaking to her.
‘Does this mean… I’ve been NTRed?’
The word “NTR” exploded in Akiba Sakura’s mind like three huge characters.
She became a statue, her eyes wide, her mouth still frozen in that dazed curve, as if struck by lightning.
She clutched the hem of her school uniform, screaming inside—
‘No way! The pig-headed Tsuguo who carried me home yesterday and bought me a Raw Coconut Latte would never go looking for another girl! Did Chuanshang Jieyi open her third eye? How could she be so accurate?’
Yuuma Tsugumu saw Sakura’s blank, spaced-out expression and grew a little puzzled.
He reached out and gently poked her arm, calling her twice.
“Hey, Sakura, what’s wrong? Hey!”
“Ah!”
At his touch, Akiba Sakura jolted, snapping out of her petrified state.
She turned her head in a panic, her cheeks flushing red instantly.
Her gaze darted around, unable to meet his eyes, stammering—
“N-no… nothing! My leg doesn’t hurt anymore! Not at all!”
Afraid he would notice something, she even lightly lifted her injured foot, pretending to be full of energy.
But inside, the raging beast was about to break free—
‘S-such… such audacity! I’m the one who NTRs others; no one dares to NTR me!’
Yuuma Tsugumu didn’t notice anything strange.
Hearing her answer, he just nodded casually.
“Hmm, don’t push yourself. If it hurts, let me know.”
With that, he turned back and rested his head on the desk, continuing to mull over the twin-tailed girl.
One moment he thought her face shape matched, the next he thought the features didn’t quite fit—completely absorbed in his own “detective mystery box,” totally unaware that Sakura’s gaze beside him had grown dangerous.
Akiba Sakura stared at his profile, her last shred of hope not yet extinguished.
She bit her lower lip and, with the faintest hope, cautiously asked—
“Um… Tsuguo, what were you doing in such a hurry right after class?”
After asking, she held her breath, eyes fixed on him, praying desperately inside:
‘Just say you met a friend, just say you met a friend, just say you met a friend…’
But Yuuma Tsugumu had no idea why Sakura was asking this.
Naturally, he didn’t want to mention something as weird as looking for a “Bratty Girl.”
“So he just casually gave a half-hearted answer—”
“Nothing, just went to the bathroom.”
The moment those words left his mouth, all the color drained from Akiba Sakura’s face.
She felt as if she had been struck by lightning.
Her mind flashed with countless classic playboy scenes from romance manga or games, and she felt like crying—
‘It’s over! Confirmed! The first sign of being NTRed—lying to the victim! He lied to me! He really went to see another girl!’
As the “NTR Master,” she had used this trick many times in her past life.
She immediately judged that Yuuma Tsugumu was having an “affair.”
She drooped her head, her ears falling limp, like a puppy that had been abandoned—
‘You scumbag pig-headed Tsuguo! While my leg is hurt, you sneak off to meet other girls behind my back! And you even lie to my face?!’
Behind them, Momoka Aoi also frowned when she heard Yuuma’s answer, cursing him in her heart.
She totally forgot that she hadn’t finished telling Sakura everything just now—
When Momoka Aoi had reported earlier, she only gave her conclusion, not explaining that Yuuma had just been staring at a girl for a while.
That led Sakura to mistakenly believe Yuuma had gone straight to meet some girl after class.
‘As the “NTR Master,” having the duck I had in hand run off with another woman, in the end, it’s all for nothing… Since… since you chose to betray me, don’t blame me—’
Akiba Sakura’s eyes suddenly turned terrifyingly sharp, even revealing a hint of murderous intent.
‘Just don’t let me find out who that woman is…’
Meanwhile, poor Yuuma Tsugumu remained blissfully unaware, sensing no danger at all.
He was still lost in thought, wondering if the twin-tailed girl he had run into was the person he thought she was.
“No… that’s not the key point.”
After thinking for a while, a sudden flash of inspiration hit him—
“Since I don’t know if it’s her or not, I’ll just wait until next week’s School Sports Meet. If that twin-tailed girl shows up at my competition and cheers for me, then it’s probably her…”