“I’m so mad, I’m so mad…”
‘Stupid pig head, damn thing, hiding it so deep…’
Returning to the staff room, Akiba Sakura, ignoring her leg injury, thud heavily sat down into the chair, angrily pounding the table, her little face flushed red.
‘From elementary school to high school, we were basically inseparable. After all this pointless hard work, in the end, I’m told this bastard likes someone else? What am I? A clown?’
The more she thought, the more aggrieved she felt.
Somehow she felt a green grassland over her head, her whole spirit drooping, on the verge of a mental breakdown.
‘How can there be such a jerk… I’m so mad. Can’t he just obediently be my dog? He insists on liking another girl on his own. What a lunatic!’
Getting more and more worked up, emotions overwhelming her, she completely forgot she was injured. She lifted her injured leg and crash kicked the table leg hard.
“Hiss–!!”
Sharp pain exploded from her ankle, shooting straight to her head.
Akiba Sakura gasped sharply.
In pain, she shrank, hugging her leg and curling up in the chair, unable to recover for a long time.
Then she hurriedly and clumsily slipped off her shoe, revealing her ankle wrapped in white stockings with a thin layer of gauze, carefully rubbing it, her lips trembling from the pain.
Just then, the staff room door was gently pushed open, and Niijima Yukina walked in.
As soon as she entered, she saw Akiba Sakura holding her leg, looking both angry and pained, her eyes red.
She immediately frowned and quickly walked over–
“Sakura-chan? What’s wrong? You look terrible. Does it hurt again?”
Akiba Sakura was startled, snapping back to reality.
She still had her wits about her.
She would rather die than let the manager and the people at the shop know about her messy relationship with Yuuma Tsugumu at school.
So she forced herself to stay calm, sniffled, and made up a random excuse.
“N-Nothing…”
Rubbing her ankle, she forced an unnatural smile.
“I just accidentally strained it while walking, and my ankle suddenly hurt, so I came back to rest a bit. I’ll be fine soon…”
“I see. That’s why I told you to be careful!”
Hearing this, Niijima Yukina put her hands on her hips, looking at Akiba Sakura with concern.
“So, Sakura-chan, if you’re hurt, you absolutely must not push yourself. If it hurts, it hurts. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. If you force it, your injury might get worse and hurt for another day or two!”
“Mm, mm… I understand…”
Akiba Sakura quickly nodded to show she understood, not pausing in her movements to ease the pain.
“…Do you want me to buy you some ointment?”
“No, no!”
Akiba Sakura quickly waved her hand, then forced herself to calmly put down her leg–
“See? It doesn’t hurt anymore!”
“…”
“I mean it!”
Meeting Niijima Yukina’s doubting eyes, Akiba Sakura emphasized again that she was fine.
“…Alright. Don’t push yourself. I’ll take over for you for now.”
“Mm, thank you, Manager!”
And so, Niijima Yukina left Akiba Sakura in the staff room and went out herself to take over hosting Yuuma Tsugumu.
“…”
Looking at the now quiet staff room, Akiba Sakura’s restless heart gradually calmed down.
But following that came a heavier, more stifling discomfort…
That discomfort didn’t come from the pain of her wound, but a feeling of tightness in her chest, like a wet lump of cotton pressing down.
She wanted to shout, to throw things, but couldn’t find an outlet. It just festered sourly inside.
She slumped onto the table, her fingertips unconsciously twisting the decorative ribbon on her clothes, gradually recalling the ‘NTR Cultivation Plan’ she had tailor-made for herself and Yuuma Tsugumu when she was three years old.
Clearly, at first, she had planned to first conquer Yuuma Tsugumu, then find a ‘Yellow Hair’ to kick Yuuma away from her and steal him away, so she could enjoy watching his panicked, desperate expression to satisfy her fetish.
Thinking back, how clear that plan was back then–Yuuma Tsugumu was just the ‘Victim’ in her script, a childhood friend for her amusement.
But now, everything was completely shattered by a girl named Zaolai Qianxiao.
Before she could even make a move to steal someone, she felt like she had been cucked herself.
Yesterday, she was still excitedly listening to Momoka Aoi’s advice, gnashing her teeth to win Yuuma back.
Today, she endured the pain of cutting her hand to make him a bento, tried hard to act cute, handed him milk…
After all that trouble, talking to him tonight made her realize that she had already lost terribly.
‘This feeling really sucks… so pathetic…’
Akiba Sakura buried her face in her arms, mumbling gloomily–
“Should I… just give up…”
Anyway, he was going to find other girls.
No matter how much she struggled, it seemed meaningless.
If she continued implementing that NTR plan, watching him get close to someone else, her chest felt tight; if she didn’t, she felt empty, unwilling to accept that something that was originally hers had been taken away for no reason.
The more she thought, the more tangled she became.
She wilted into a ball, even the energy to be angry slowly faded.
“…”
—
“…”
The perspective shifts to Niijima Yukina.
At this moment, she gently closed the staff room door, walked along the carpeted corridor to the main guest hall of the shop, and habitually glanced at the corner by the window–that was Yuuma Tsugumu’s usual seat.
But the moment her gaze landed, she paused slightly–the seat was empty.
The cup had been cleared away, the chair had been put back in place.
There wasn’t a trace of anyone.
Niijima Yukina paused, instinctively scanning the shop.
There were quite a few customers, still lively, but Yuuma Tsugumu was nowhere to be seen.
He hadn’t moved to another seat; he had left.
Niijima Yukina immediately had a red question mark pop up over her head, wondering why this guy left so early today.
“He left already… Did he not wait for Sakura, or did something else come up?”
“Manager?”
Just as Niijima Yukina was muttering to herself, a young girl wearing a maid outfit, with a cute face and standard loli proportions, ran up to Niijima Yukina, looking at her with a puzzled expression–
“What’s wrong?”
“Meiyue!”
Niijima Yukina quickly pointed to Yuuma’s usual seat–
“Do you remember the guest who was sitting at that seat just now?”
“Guest?”
Meiyue Ya heard Niijima Yukina’s question, looked up slightly, closed her eyes and thought hard for a moment, then opened her eyes with a spark of realization.
“Manager, you mean that gloomy-looking guy?”
“Yes, yes, that’s him! Where did he go?”
“I think he left?”
Meiyue Ya’s answer made Niijima Yukina feel like she had heard a whole lot of nothing.
No useful clues.
So she sighed.
“Forget it, Meiyue. Go back to work…”
“Oh, right, before he left, he seemed to say something to Sakura-chan…”
Meiyue Ya suddenly recalled that while serving customers, she had noticed some situation over by Akiba Sakura, but it didn’t look like they were arguing, so she didn’t pay much attention.
“?”
Hearing this, Niijima Yukina paused, then thought of Akiba Sakura’s slightly angry expression just now.
“Those two… had a fight?”