Let's do it again, Yukino.

The blonde maid, who had stood there like a statue, looked at the student council room, which had become empty again in the blink of an eye.

A cold wind blew by.

Her golden ponytail trembled slightly, and as she glanced at the time changing on her phone screen, a relieved smile appeared on Hayasaka's lips.

Good luck, Miss.

……

Wearing those white indoor shoes, the girl stumbled and ran down the stairs, making several detours before finally stepping out of the teaching building's main entrance.

The scorching sun shone on the girl's fair and smooth skin, and sweat dripped down her face as she exerted herself.

His chest rose and fell slightly, accompanied by a soft panting sound.

However, the girl couldn't care less about that at the moment. She ran hard through the wide but deserted campus. When she passed the stone bridge, her shoes almost slipped on the smooth stone surface. But when she was about to reach the school gate, her uninterrupted pace slowly came to a stop.

The chirping of cicadas

The dappled shadows cast by the green trees

A campus so vast it seems to stretch to the horizon.

The red-eyed girl, however, did not find the figure she was looking for, and her expression was somewhat dejected.

What about others?

Could it be that they've already taken a bus to the station?

……

"Hey……"

……

If I go to the train station to find him now, is it too late?

……

"Hey……"

……

I think I'll have Xiao Ai arrange a car for me. That way, I should arrive at the train station before him. But if my father finds out...

……

"Hey! Miss Shinomiya, can you hear me? Hey?"

……

Soon

The lazy voice that had been calling "Hey, hey" became clearer, thus interrupting the girl's wandering thoughts.

That voice sounds somewhat familiar.

Her face lit up with joy.

Then, unable to resist, I suddenly looked back.

Right under the shade of the tree, the boy with glasses was squatting there, scratching his head somewhat embarrassedly.

"Um, I've accidentally gotten lost. Could you tell me where the exit of Shuchiin Academy is?"

The cicadas continued to chirp nearby.

This indicates that summer has arrived.

Chapter 74 Miss Shinomiya Wants Me to Stay

Shuchiin Academy

In a secluded corner

Just as he had just told the girl, he was indeed lost.

Initially at a loss, he planned to rest in the shade of a tree before searching for a way out.

However, the once quiet campus was disturbed by a sudden sound of footsteps.

Haruhi never expected that this girl, who was related to her by blood, would catch up with her.

He called out his own name as he searched for himself on campus.

He was running around like a headless fly in such hot weather, which was really unexpected for him.

At that moment, the eldest daughter of the Shinomiya family slowly walked up to him, the slight redness at the corner of her eyes not yet completely faded.

Footsteps were soft.

The dappled shadows cast by the green trees fell on their clothes.

Kaguya Shinomiya's wine-red eyes gazed at Haruhi, and the beads of sweat on her fair skin slowly evaporated as the shadow enveloped her.

Do you know?

She was very close to him; in springtime, she could even smell the faint fragrance of his body mixed with the scent of his sweat.

All that could be heard was the girl approaching the boy step by step, saying a sentence with each step.

“From childhood to adulthood, there have been very few things that have made me genuinely happy and joyful. However, when Xiao Ai told me that maybe I have a younger brother in this world, can you imagine how happy I was at that moment?”

“During this time, I thought about you whenever I had a spare moment. Later, I even went to Fengliu Nunnery with Xiao Ai without telling my family, just to see how you were doing.”

“I don’t know anything about my father. If Xiao Ai hadn’t secretly told me, I wouldn’t even know you existed.”

"However, you are my brother, my brother who is related to me by blood."

"Now that I, Kaguya Shinomiya, know this fact, I absolutely cannot abandon you, just like the doll I had when I was a child."

She stroked the boy's face; sharing the same blood, she could truly feel everything he had experienced over the years.

Confusion, impatience, jealousy, longing, yearning, prayer, hope, despair—she could feel all these emotions clearly in that one touch.

That's why she wanted to make it up to him, not out of pity or sympathy, but simply because she wanted to make it up to him properly as his older sister.

"To bow down to your older sister and beg her never to disturb your life again—don't you think that's a bit too cruel and shameless for someone like me who has only recently become an older sister?"

"I still have so much to say to you."

"What I want, you can't give me."

Looking at the girl in front of him who seemed to have made a decision, Chunri silently shook his head.

"How will you know if you don't try! And even if there are some things I can't give you now, I will definitely be able to give them to you in the future. But before that, come with me to a place!!! I have to show you the pride that comes with being an older sister."

Kaguya, who was originally very proud, pouted and pretended to be cold. She ignored the boy's sophistry and casually stretched out her hand. Her palm, slightly damp with sweat, grasped the boy's somewhat dry wrist without any hesitation. She then dragged Haruhi away in the opposite direction from the school gate.

"Hey, hey, I've already told you I don't need any older sister!!"

"No way! I finally have a little brother I can tease and take care of, I'm not going to give him up so easily!!"

"Where are you taking me? I want to go home."

"My home is your home too. As for where to go, you'll find out when you get there."

On a hot summer noon,

I could only vaguely see the figures of the brother and sister walking further and further away on the horizon of the campus.

……

…………

An hour and a half later,

Just as the hour hand was pointing to the direction of one o'clock,

In the school cafeteria, which should have been empty, three figures inexplicably appeared entangled together.

"Let me go! Let me go! I'm telling you, I only didn't bother fighting you because you're all girls. I'll count to three and let go, 3, 2, 2, 1..."

At this moment, Chunri was somewhat speechless as she roared angrily at the other two women.

At this moment, Haruhi's entire body was firmly pressed onto the dining table by the hands of a certain expressionless blonde maid, which were like the hands of a vise.

"I'm sorry, Young Master Qing, these are all Miss's orders. Please give up struggling."

"You old hag, Hayasaka, I saved you from those thugs back then, and this is how you repay kindness with enmity?"

"Xiao Ai, just like that, hold this idiot down for me."

Miss Shinomiya smiled smugly as she looked at Haruhi, whom she and Hayasaka had suppressed.

At this moment, she was holding a plate of steaming hot food, and her hands were trembling with fear. She looked at the plate with a smile, her eyes wide with delight.

In Kaguya Shinomiya's mind, this touching scene of siblings feeding each other would surely move her silly little brother to tears.

"Come on, let your sister feed you lunch, open your mouth—ah."

Lost in thought, with an incredibly strange smile on her face, Kaguya Shinomiya took the opportunity to pry open Haruhi's tightly closed mouth.

"Who would eat this food that has no discernible ingredients? Get this thing away from me! And let me go right now!!"

The steaming food on the plate burned his lips, and Chunri realized that the food in front of him was inedible. He began to shake his body in anger, but as he struggled, a trace of regret rose in his heart.

I shouldn't have come to Tokyo. This young lady from the Shinomiya family might have something wrong with her head.

And then there's the somewhat frivolous maid from the Hayamishi family.

"Young Master Qing, I just tasted a little bit. It shouldn't kill you, I guess..."

The blonde girl behind him continued to comfort Haruhi, who was utterly resistant to Shinomiya's kindness, with a blank expression.

Even if it doesn't kill anyone, I have no desire to eat it!!!

Click,

I felt my hands, which had been tightly bound, suddenly regain feeling.

With a flip, he nimbly broke free from the maid's grasp on the dining table.

Faced with the two girls who were starting to get a little unreasonable, Haruhi, who had regained his freedom, was about to punish them when a bell in his coat pocket stopped him at the most crucial moment.