What a twist! The loser heroine!

"Hehe, I've finally waited for you, Wen Shui."

He looked up and saw Himegami Karen standing by the window, smiling.

"Himeko? You've been here the whole time?"

"Yes, I couldn't find you in the office. Xiao Ju told me you went to chat with someone, so I waited here for a while," she explained.

"There's really no need for this..."

"I have something I'd like to talk to you about."

As Himegami Karen said this, she seemed to glance at the rooftop of the old school building, seemingly intentionally or unintentionally: "It won't take much time."

Wen Shui nodded and walked alongside her naturally in the direction of leaving the school.

“I’m going to Tokyo with my mom to visit relatives this weekend, so I can’t go to Lemon’s game on Sunday.”

"So you knew about this."

"Chihaya keeps talking about it, it's hard not to remember."

Himegami touched her lips with her finger, looking somewhat troubled, and said, "I heard Chihaya is going to talk to Ayano and the others about something, and I'm a little worried—"

"It's alright, Chaoyun has probably let it go completely."

Himeko looked at Wen Shui with some surprise: "How did you know...?"

"After all, she told me herself." Wen Shui couldn't help but smile bitterly as she thought about how she would have to accompany Chao Yun to put an end to her relationship on Sunday: "She even asked me to cover for her."

Upon hearing this, Princess Ji nodded without changing her expression.

She laughed and bumped the warm water with her shoulder:

"Then I'll have to trouble you to help Chihaya out during my absence."

"I can do it without you having to tell me."

~Eighty-ninth defeat~ Trajectory

In the bedroom, Wen Shui, who had just returned from a shower, picked up her phone. Her father, who was away on a business trip, had sent her a message not long ago.

"Are the midterm exams over?"

"Yes, the exam is over."

"How did you feel about the exam? Are you doing alright at home?"

Unexpectedly, his father, who was always the last to speak in the family group chat, actually read and replied to his message instantly. Wen Shuiheyan immediately perked up, put the light novel in his hand aside, and adjusted his posture.

"I feel fine, everything at home is normal so far."

"Yes, I'm going back on Monday. The reward we agreed on hasn't been canceled yet. Is everything alright with Yoshiki?"

Wen Shui turned her head and looked at Jia Shu, who was sitting on the cushion in her bedroom. Even though Taoyuan Junior High School's midterm exams were next Monday, she still had the mind to come to her room to read novels.

But she's always been first in her grade... so there shouldn't be any problem.

As he thought of this, his fingers began to dance across the screen.

"Don't worry."

"Well, let's stop here then, it's getting late."

Seeing Wen Shui put away her phone, she looked at her younger sister:

"Yoshiki, it's late. You have an exam tomorrow, so go to bed early."

"I'm so happy that my brother has always cared about me," Yoshiki said with a smile. "But I also sometimes want to care about my brother."

"I don't think it's just a coincidence," said the guy who had received a lot of care from Yoshiki since childhood, quite self-consciously.

"Hehe, are you going out with a girl tomorrow, brother?"

"Huh? Yoshiki, how did you know?"

The moment the words left his mouth, Wen Shui regretted them. If he remembered correctly, Yoshiki seemed to have already shared his LINE account with him.

So, does that mean... all the plans I made with Banami were seen by them?

Thinking of this, he quickly looked at his younger sister. From the smile on her face, Wen Shui received a confirmation that was enough to silence him.

"I don't know who this girl is, but Yoshiki wants to choose suitable clothes for his older brother based on her features."

Knowing that no matter what he said, his older brother would accept it immediately, Yoshiki simply skipped the part about defending himself and started worrying about tomorrow's matters for his brother.

"Is there a specific reason for this?" Wen Shui asked curiously.

"Of course, elder brother. So, which senior invited you this time? Was it Senior Sister Xiao Ju who visited our home before, or Tian Aixing who invited you to dinner before? Or perhaps—"

"neither."

"Hmm, isn't it Himegami-senpai too?"

"She's going back to her hometown to visit relatives." Wen Shui patted her sister's head helplessly. "It's just a trip with some acquaintances, don't overthink it."

"acquaintance?"

"Yes, Yoshiki should be called Hanami-senpai. You've met her at the autograph session before."

"That...blue-haired senior from before?"

"Yes."

Upon hearing Wenshui's affirmative reply, Yoshiki's expression suddenly turned strange.

"Brother, no matter what, doing this kind of thing is not a good thing..."

"It's just going out for a stroll, what's wrong with that?"

After a long silence, as if she had made a decision, Yoshiki stood up, walked behind her elder brother, gently wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and whispered in his ear:

"In that case, elder brother, you should choose your own clothes. That way, your charm might be diminished a bit."

Did I get insulted again?

"that--"

Yoshiki gently stroked her brother's hair as if she were coaxing a child:

"Brother, please be more careful. If things are exposed, please escape to Yoshiki's side as soon as possible. Yoshiki will always be waiting for you."

"So, Yoshiki, what have you been saying all this time...?"

◇

The next day, the weather was sunny as usual.

After spending a Saturday morning with Yoshiki, a day dedicated to appreciating light novels, Onami bid farewell to her worried sister and took the bus to Toyohashi Station.

He bought a ticket for the Nagoya Line and followed the flow of people through the ticket gates. He sat on a bench in the waiting area, took out his water bottle to moisten his throat, and checked his clothes.

Yoshiki is a woman of her word; if she says she won't help choose clothes, she really won't.

But is this combination of a black T-shirt with lettering and jeans really that bad?

"There's clearly nothing wrong with it, isn't there?"

The roar of the train interrupted his rant, and he quickly stood up and went into the carriage.

The place that Banami invited him to was a newly built facility in a neighboring city that he had recently heard of but had never been to.

"Toyokawa Aeon Mall...?"

I have some vague memories of it, perhaps from some recent tourism promotion programs or advertisements. The words that come to mind are mostly related to "discounts" and "consumption".

In short, it's probably a shopping mall.

Squeezing through the crowds at the train station, I followed the map navigation on my phone and arrived at my destination. Upon arrival, I silently discarded the word "maybe" that I had just conjectured.

He stood there blankly under the sign of a gift shop on the central road, his gaze constantly shifting between the high ceiling and his phone screen.

After confirming that the large shopping street with three floors where she was located was indeed her destination for the day, Wen Shui slowly put down her phone.

Wow, it's huge...

This was his first time visiting such a large shopping mall, and the massive, integrated building left him in awe.

How should I put it? It reminds me of visiting relatives in Kyoto back in the day. Perhaps this is what people often refer to as "a country bumpkin going to the city" when they argue online.

He cautiously withdrew his gaze and sighed helplessly.

Is it really necessary to come to a place like this if I'm just buying a few clothes?

He was just about to send a message to Banami to ask where to meet when he heard a somewhat familiar female voice behind him.

"Huh? Is it warm water?"

Wen Shui quickly turned around and saw Tsukinoki Koto, wearing a short-sleeved sweater, standing not far away.

"Senior Tsukinoki??" he exclaimed in surprise. Why would the senior be here?

When Tsukinoki Koto saw that it really was Wen Shui, she immediately smiled with surprise and walked towards him: "It really is you? I didn't recognize you at first because you weren't wearing your school uniform."

"Why did you come here, senior?" he asked immediately.

Upon hearing this, Tsukinoki reached out and pushed up her glasses, the lenses immediately reflecting an eerie light. She whispered, "If you ask why... heh heh, it's probably because the bookstore here has the... new materials I need."

Wen Shui consciously took two steps back. Knowing the true nature of his senior, who seemed to be a beautiful but artistic girl, how could he not understand what kind of material she was talking about?

To put it simply, it means, "I'm coming here to buy my favorite BL books because the bookstore here has updated its inventory."

Yes, I understand completely.

"Well then, I wish you a pleasant shopping experience, senior... Goodbye."

Knowing that she would be looking for someone later, Wen Shui quickly made the gesture of seeing the guest off.

"You're kicking me out so soon? Are you on a date with a girl? Not bad, warm water, uh—"

Senior Yuezhi first showed an expression of gossipy interest, then glanced at Wenshui's outfit with a puzzled look: "But it doesn't look like she dressed up carefully..."

What exactly constitutes dressing up carefully?

Just as he was internally criticizing Yuezhi-senpai's speech, footsteps sounded beside him, and his vision darkened slightly.

"This is warm water, what a coincidence."

【Huh?! Is Japan really that small??】

The one greeting Ayano Mitsuki, who recently confirmed her relationship with Yakushiro Lemon, was the one who greeted the warm water.

He was dressed in a casual suit today, looking at Wen Shui with great surprise, seemingly overjoyed by this unexpected encounter.

Meanwhile, Tsukino-senpai looked left at Onami, who was filled with surprise, and right at Ayano, who was beaming with delight.

"Oh, I remember you're Ayano-san, right?"

With a strange smile on her face, she asked Ayano.

"Yes, you must be the senior from the Literature Club, right? My name is Ayano Mitsuki, and I'm a friend of Nukumizu. I apologize for bothering you so much when I went to borrow books before."

Ayano nodded politely in response.

"Oh dear, no disturbance at all! It's actually me who's bothering you two by being here! Hehehe, you two take your time chatting."

She left hastily, letting out a strange laugh.

As Yuezhi-senpai, who seemed to have triggered some kind of mental state, disappeared from sight, Wen Shui inexplicably felt a chill.

"That senior student seems a bit strange..." Ayano muttered to herself.

"It's more like it's too strange." Wen Shui sighed. "By the way, what brings you here today?"

"Well, it's because Lemon is participating in a competition tomorrow, and her midterms are over, so her mother is planning to pick out a gift to give her after the salt-burning competition tomorrow."

Ayano explained with a smile, "But since I didn't know what to choose, my aunt asked me to come along."

What mother doesn't know her daughter's preferences?

If that's true, then it's definitely a failure on the part of the parents.

"The progress is really fast," Wen Shui said with a smile.

"Progress? What progress?" Ayano was a little confused.

"nothing."