What a twist! The loser heroine!

"...Idiot, lukewarm water."

Why did you specifically scold me twice?

~Fortieth Defeat~ End of Book Signing Event

"Sister Yun Que, the publisher said they have some tables and chairs in stock that we can borrow, but the style of the coffee shop might not be suitable for our style."

Just as Wen Shui and Xiao Ju were sitting idly by the autograph table, waiting for eight o'clock to arrive, the voice of student council treasurer Sakurai Hiroto came from the other side of the curtains.

"It's alright. Doesn't Shilu have a coffee club? Just think of it as them holding a tea party-related club activity. After all, high school life should be colorful."

"I've already had the school committee members go over to count the items. The publisher will deliver the items, and then Shikiya and Mato will receive them."

After saying this, Fang Huyuan Yun Que opened the curtain and came in.

She first focused her gaze on Xiao Ju, who was practicing her signature repeatedly, and then looked at Wen Shui, who was lost in thought beside her. Then she nodded in satisfaction: "To be honest, the school committee really did a great job getting these stylists from the publishing house to support us."

President Fang Hu walked to the table and carefully examined the two students in front of him, who were completely different from their usual selves. Xiao Ju and Wen Shui, under the president's piercing gaze, froze, broke out in a cold sweat, and dared not utter a sound.

After she had appreciated it enough, the senior student smiled and nodded again.

"Isn't this photogenic?" the president said. "As a student of Shi Lu, you should be confident and show yourself off."

The president pointed at Wen Shui with his index finger covered in several bandages and said with a smile, "I have high hopes for you, Wen Shui. Don't show any fear in front of the camera."

After saying that, she and Hiroto Sakurai walked backstage together.

"By the way, Sister Yun Que. The opening ceremony is about to start, do you want to go backstage to touch up your makeup?"

"Of course, but I'm a little worried that something might go wrong. That mirror was shattered pretty badly just now."

"As long as you don't touch the stylist's things, this situation should be avoided..."

Hiroto Sakurai's figure, silently clutching his stomach, was gradually obscured by the door.

[Sakurai-kun, this autograph session must have taken a lot of effort out of you.]

After silently mourning for the student council's accountant for a moment, Wen Shui raised her hand and glanced at her watch.

There are only 10 minutes left before the book signing event begins.

"I'm getting a little bored, I'm going out to take a look." Wen Shui got up to leave.

"Wait, wait a minute, stand there and don't move."

"what?"

Xiao Ju took her phone out of her desk and removed it from the power bank. She held up the phone and took a picture of Wen Shui.

"Is it fully charged?"

"Ah."

Xiao Ju nodded and handed the phone to Wen Shui.

"Take the picture, take a look for yourself."

"Oh, thank you. Hmm, where does the photo library redirect to? Hey? Xiao Ju, your phone's wallpaper looks familiar—"

"Wow, wowaaaaah!!!"

Xiao Ju's face turned bright red. She let out a shriek and hurriedly snatched her phone back.

"Huh? Didn't they just show it to me?"

I'm a little confused about the lukewarm water.

"Wait a minute!"

Xiao Ju's fingers flew across the screen, so fast they almost sparked from the screen. She quickly changed the desktop wallpaper to another picture and then opened the photo library.

"Here, here you go! Don't, don't touch any other buttons!" Xiao Ju handed the phone back to Wen Shui.

"Oh, okay."

Wen Shui took the phone; the person in the photo on the screen was himself.

The soft facial features, paired with makeup meticulously styled by a stylist, create a refined and handsome effect. Even his usually neglected hair has been carefully styled with hairspray into a trendy, seasonal look.

Wen Shui stared at herself on the screen for a long time.

Why does it feel like...there's not much difference from usual?

Wen Shui chuckled softly and handed the phone back to Xiao Ju.

How do you feel?

Xiao Ju looked at the warm water and asked curiously.

"Hmm...it's nothing, just like usual, right?" Wen Shui shrugged. "I don't know why you all seem so surprised, it's just a normal thing."

"I'll go out for a stroll first, see you later," Wen Shui said, lifting the curtain and walking out.

Xiao Ju glanced at the still-shaking curtain, then looked down at the photo of warm water on her phone.

"Ordinary...?"

She gave a silly smile.

"Hehe, so he still hasn't realized it—"

She accessed the settings menu, saved the photo—which only she owned—as a favorite, and then set it as her new desktop wallpaper.

"The more familiar you are with something, the less sensitive you are to changes in it."

◇

As Wen Shui walked out of the small shed, the first thing she noticed was the crowd gathered around the exhibition platform. Her younger sister was being watched by many first and second grade girls. Wen Shui glanced at her but didn't pay much attention.

After all, as the older brother, he knew perfectly well how adorable his younger sister was.

Of course, if any male classmates are interested in Yoshiki... hehe, then don't blame me for not holding back.

Wen Shui silently reminded herself that she wasn't a sister-complex person, as she walked towards the area where there were more boys.

The booth was set up with bookshelves, tables and chairs, and there seemed to be some drinks and fruits on display. Judging from the size of the beverage bottles, they were probably not inedible decorations.

Wen Shui thought about it for a moment. It was too bizarre that such an abstract thing as having students play the roles of students would happen at a book signing event, and as a means of promoting the school. It made people sigh that the author of this book was just making things up out of thin air.

However, since the school committee has agreed to this, the vanity project must continue.

The students selected through interviews are all handsome men and beautiful women, so the effect when they are broadcast on TV is bound to be good.

Wen Shui casually found a chair to sit down and picked up an unopened bottle of beverage from the table and twisted it open.

"Ah, isn't this Wen Shui? I almost didn't recognize her because of her new hairstyle."

"Really?"

The surprised voices came from President Tamaki and Sosuke Hakamada. When did those two become so close? In such a short time?

While inwardly marveling at the ease with which friendships were forged between the two, Wen Shui greeted them.

"Good morning, Tamaki-senpai and Hakamada-kun."

"Oh, good morning, warm water." Hakamada followed President Tamaki to sit opposite him, flashing him his classic sunny smile.

"I heard from Tamaki-senpai that the middle school girl over there is your sister?" Hakamada glanced at the girls who were crowding around Yoshiki, occasionally letting out gasps of surprise.

"Yes." Wen Shui nodded.

"I really envy you, having such a cute little sister." Hakamada touched his nose, his face full of envy.

"Huh? Don't you have one too?" Wen Shui blurted out, her mind preoccupied with other thoughts.

"Haha, I'm an only child, I don't have a younger sister." Hakamada said with a laugh, "You must have mistaken me for someone else."

"Oh, I'm so sorry."

As Wen Shui said this, she looked at Banami, who was trying to feed Yoshiki snacks not far away.

[You already have a younger sister.]

Seemingly noticing Wen Shui's gaze, Banami turned and glanced at her. Then, like the others, she showed an extremely surprised expression.

After a long pause, Banami finally looked away with difficulty, gently patted Himegami who was trying to talk to Yoshiki, and whispered a few words in her friend's ear.

Then Ji Gong turned around and her eyes met Wen Shui's.

Her eyes widened slightly.

Through the sticker-paved schoolyard brick path, Himegami gazed at the boy's "slightly" different appearance, momentarily lost in thought.

A moment later, Himegami raised her head high and quickly patted Hanami's arm.

"H-Hanami! Tissues, give me tissues quickly...!" she said urgently.

"Huh? Oh, oh!" Seeing this, Banai quickly took out a tissue from her school uniform pocket and handed it to Himegami: "What's going on all of a sudden?!"

"I'm a little excited, but I'm okay!"

Himegami Karen said this with her head tilted back. She wanted to sit back down in her chair, but in her panic, she didn't find the right spot and fell down onto the artificial turf.

"Hime-kun?? Are you alright??"

"Why is Himegami-san having a nosebleed?!"

"Don't panic, everyone! I'm really okay!"

【What happened? 】

Seeing the girls in complete chaos, Wen Shui, the instigator, unconsciously scratched her cheek.

Compared to Himegami, who was currently surrounded by a large group of girls, as if he were in some kind of yuri harem, he was more focused on Yoshiki, who had broken free of the encirclement and was walking towards him.

The image of her younger sister, dressed in the Shilu school uniform, had appeared in Wen Shui's imagination more than once. After all, given Jia Shu's consistent top ranking in Taoyuan Junior High School, it was only a matter of time before she entered Shilu.

But I never expected to see it in real life two years ahead of schedule...

Yoshiki walked up to her brother and stopped. Noticing his gaze, she smiled and asked, "How are you feeling, brother?"

"It's very cute," Wen Shui replied immediately.

"Yoshiki is asking his elder brother what he thinks of him."

"Huh? Then, then... normal?"

Wen Shui cautiously evaluated herself.

"Hey, warm water, this kind of change of yours is hardly ordinary." "If you keep going like this, it won't be modesty, it'll be playing dumb on purpose, okay?" President Tamaki and Hakamada Sosuke are going back and forth like this. When did they get along so well?

Yoshiki smiled slightly and said, "It seems that you haven't realized your own charm yet, brother. It's alright, Yoshiki will work even harder in the future."

Seeing that Yoshiki seemed to have developed a strong drive in some extraordinary direction, Wen Shui stood up with a wry smile and patted her head: "I think maintaining the status quo is fine."

Yoshiki silently enjoyed the caress from her brother, and said with a smile, "If you really want to keep things as they are, you'll have to get up 5 minutes earlier every day to style your hair, okay?"

"Then please spare me."

"hey-hey."

Yoshiki chuckled, took out her phone (which contained lukewarm water) from her school uniform pocket, took a picture of her brother with a wry smile, and then put the phone back in his hand.

"Return it to its rightful owner."

"Since that's the case, it would have been better to just give it back to brother from the beginning." Wen Shui turned her palm into a knife and gently tapped Jia Shu's head: "Brother thought that Yue Zhi Mu-senpai had drawn a turtle on my face."

"That's defamation! No matter what, I wouldn't draw a turtle on the face of someone who's about to be interviewed on TV. That's common sense!"

"Snapped!"

A crisp sound came from his forehead, followed by a mild pain. Wen Shui turned his head and saw that Senior Yue Zhimu was withdrawing her finger that had just flicked his forehead.

Himegami Karen was standing next to the vice president, her lips slightly parted, her crimson eyes fixed intently on the warm water. Why were her lips parted? Because a wad of tissue paper used to stop the bleeding was stuffed into her nose, preventing her from breathing properly.

"Warm Water, we were just taking pictures of each other, why don't you take one too?"

Himegami held her phone and said in a muffled voice.

"Taking photos as souvenirs? Is that even possible?"

Wen Shui glanced at Jia Shu, who had suddenly moved closer to her.

“We’ve taken photos of them all; the ones we took before have already been posted in the Line group,” said the vice president of Moonwood with a smile.

Upon hearing this, Wen Shui immediately took out her phone. She noticed that the Line group for the autograph session, which had previously been used to send updates on the event preparations, had somehow become a chat group for the Yangjiao students to send photos they had taken of each other.