Green plums cannot become lovers.

"You don't know?" Bana noticed that Anja's smile froze for a moment, and then, as if to hide her disappointment, she slapped Anwa Asuka's arm hard, her tone becoming fierce again.

"Hey! What kind of answer is that! Seeing your cute childhood friend get confessed to, don't you have any special feelings? Like, 'Oh, this guy actually has someone who wants him' or something?"

She tried to guide him with jokes, but her heart was racing uncontrollably as she stared intently at his lips, hoping to hear even the slightest hint of something different from usual.

An and Asuka looked into her blue eyes, which were trying to hide their nervousness and anticipation. His own somewhat confused face was clearly reflected in them. He really didn't know how to define that feeling. The unfamiliar emotion came too quickly, too vaguely, and was covered by the subsequent anger and protectiveness, making it difficult for him to accurately capture and describe.

What's more, that damned system panel that still stubbornly displays "89" is like an invisible shackle, imprisoning his cognition and preventing him from, and from daring to, think about "like".

“Thoughts…” He repeated the word, seemingly deep in thought, but ultimately just shook his head, avoiding her gaze, and turned to walk towards the teaching building. “Nothing special. Class is about to start, let’s go.”

It's always like this.

As Anzu watched his retreating figure, she puffed out her cheeks, a sense of powerlessness mixed with resentment welling up inside her. He was always like this; once the topic turned to potentially deeper emotional levels, he would quickly retreat into his shell like a startled snail, building a high wall of indifference and avoidance.

She jogged to catch up with him, walking alongside him. After a moment of silence, she couldn't help but mutter under her breath, "...Stupid Asuka."

An and Asuka heard it, but did not respond. His heart was far from as calm as it appeared.

The phrase "I don't know" is not a complete evasion.

He truly didn't know. He didn't know what caused that momentary unease, why his anger surged so fiercely when he saw Sato grab her wrist, and even more so... why a sense of panic, which he himself couldn't explain, welled up inside him when she questioned his feelings.

This loss of control and ambiguity regarding his own emotions was extremely rare for him. He had always been accustomed to using the "objective" data provided by the system to understand the world and interpersonal relationships. If the system said 89 was a close friend, then they were close friends, and all his behaviors and emotions should be explained within this framework.

But now, this framework seems to be starting to loosen.

He subconsciously brought up the system panel again, and the glaring [89] remained firmly in place. Was the system wrong? Or... was there something wrong with him?

An unprecedented sense of self-doubt quietly began to grow.

Meanwhile, Sato Hayato fled back to the basketball club in a disheveled state, his inner shame and anger burning like poisonous flames. He couldn't swallow the humiliation he'd suffered at the hands of An and Asuka in front of so many people, especially in front of Hanami Anna.

"An and Asuka...you just wait!" he gritted his teeth, his eyes filled with malice. He took out his phone and scrolled through his contacts.

He knew a few friends who hung out off-campus, and perhaps... he could ask them for a small favor to teach that arrogant guy a lesson.

The atmosphere in the light music club's practice room after school was somewhat subtle.

Although Anna Hanami appeared to have regained her vitality, she would unconsciously reveal a hint of resentment and inquiry when her eyes met those of An and Asuka. Karen Himegami keenly sensed the unusual atmosphere between the two and quietly moved closer to Anna during a break in practice.

"Apricot, what's wrong? Did something happen between you and Asuka today?" she asked softly.

Hanami Anna glanced at Anwa Asuka, who was tuning her guitar in the corner, sighed, and whispered to Karen what had happened at noon, including Anwa Asuka's dry "I don't know".

After listening, Karen Himegami remained silent for a moment, then gently squeezed Anja's hand and whispered, "That's just the kind of person he is... Perhaps, he himself hasn't really figured it out."

She seemed to be comforting Anja, but also comforting herself. There was no doubt that the boy had high emotional intelligence; otherwise, they wouldn't have liked him so easily.

But ironically, the other person seems a bit slow to react emotionally.

“But…” Bana saw that Anza wanted to say something, but was interrupted by An and Asuka: “Alright, it’s about time. Let’s end today’s practice here.”

"So early today?"

"Isn't it better to do it early?" An and Asuka laughed.

"In that case, I'll go find Shizuka and Marina first."

"Hey, I'm going too." (Six-character phrase)

The two girls left in a hurry after talking, seemingly deliberately creating space for them to be alone.

The afterglow of the setting sun shone through the window, bathing the room in a warm orange-red hue.

An and Asuka packed up their drumsticks, slung their backpacks over their shoulders, and looked at Anna Hanami, who was still sitting there, idly strumming the bass strings.

Aren't you leaving?

When Hana saw Anzu look up at his silhouette against the light, a thought struck her. She put down her bass, stood up, walked to him, and looked up at him with an unusually serious expression.

"Birds".

"Ok?"

“If… I mean if,” she took a deep breath, looked him straight in the eye, and asked, word by word, “if the person being confessed to today wasn’t me, but Hua Lian, or Xiao Ai, or any other girl you know, would you… still stand up like you did today?”

Of course.

An and Asuka answered without the slightest hesitation.

Whether it's the girl in front of him or the other girls, they all hold the same place in his heart, so no matter what trouble they encounter, he will protect them without discrimination.

Because that's how he's always done things. He wouldn't bear to let the girls suffer even the slightest harm, let alone what happened today.

Fortunately, that guy didn't go too far, or he really would have taken action.

“As expected…” Hearing the boy’s clear and affirmative answer, Anna took a breath and then smiled, “This is the Asuka I know.”

She wasn't the most special one in the boy's heart, or rather, they were all special ones.

I was so stupid to ask such a question.

Volume 1: Chapter 143 Hush, Can We Make Peace? [4.5k]

After school in the afternoon, An and Asuka carried the class's trash bags and headed towards the trash collection point in a corner of the campus. The setting sun cast long shadows of them, and the only sounds around them were the wind and their own footsteps.

However, this tranquility was soon shattered.

Just as he rounded the back wall of the teaching building, several figures emerged from the shadows and blocked his path. The one in the lead was none other than Sato Hayato, whom he had just met at noon, and whose confession had backfired spectacularly.

"Anwa Asuka, I told you you'd regret this!" Sato Hayato had his hands in his loose school uniform pockets, a self-righteous smile playing on his lips, his eyes fixed on him with a dark expression.

After returning home at noon, filled with shame and indignation, he immediately contacted a few of his usual buddies, determined to teach the guy who had made him look foolish a lesson. It wasn't so much that he liked Anna Hanami so much, but rather that his fragile pride couldn't bear the humiliation of being intimidated in front of everyone, especially by a seemingly weak junior.

An and Asuka stopped in their tracks, their gazes calmly sweeping over the group of people in front of them. Sato's towering height of over 1.8 meters, combined with his deliberately fierce expression, was indeed quite intimidating to ordinary students.

Fortunately, he wasn't ordinary. He didn't even put down the trash bag he was carrying.

“Sato-senpai,” Anwa Asuka’s voice was as calm as ever, without the slightest hint of tension, “to make a move here is a serious violation of school rules.”

"Hahaha!" Sato laughed loudly, as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world. He held his forehead and let out an exaggerated laugh that echoed in the empty corner. After a while, he stopped laughing and looked down at An and Asuka with the eyes of someone looking at an innocent child. "You're telling me you broke the school rules? You're such a good student, so adorably naive."

He stepped forward, trying to create a stronger sense of pressure, and said in a low voice, "Do you think I would dare to block you here because I care about those few stupid school rules?"

He widened his eyes, trying to make his gaze appear even more "cruel," and said, enunciating each word clearly, "You're dead! Today, I'll show you what I'm capable of!"

Seeing the other person's deliberate imitation of a delinquent manga character's posture and tone, An and Asuka were not afraid at all. Instead, they silently took a small step back. This was not out of fear, but out of an instinctive avoidance of the "chuunibyou virus"—the other person's overly exaggerated performance made him feel a little... stupid, and he was even worried that getting too close would infect him.

"Heh, scared now?" Sato smirked as he saw him retreat, even covering half his eye with one hand, and said in what he thought was a deep and cold voice, "It's too late to be scared now! Let me tell you, there are no security cameras here, and no one will come to save you!" He had deliberately chosen this secluded path leading to the garbage dump, a path rarely visited by anyone.

An and Asuka watched his smooth but awkward performance, their eyes revealing undisguised disdain: "Sato-senpai, are your eyes bothering you?"

"What do you mean? Are you cursing me?" Sato frowned, somewhat annoyed.

"If it doesn't hurt, why are you covering it?" An and Asuka asked calmly, but their tone was inquisitive. "Do you think... it's cool? And when you were laughing just now, you were also holding your forehead."

"Um..." Sato's expression froze, and he subconsciously and slowly lowered his hand from his eyes, a hint of unease flashing across his face.

But An and Asuka clearly weren't going to let up on his image advice, and continued to calmly analyze: "And your tone of voice, you deliberately lowered it to try to appear cold, but your voice is naturally quite bright, so doing so makes you seem less confident and less imposing."

"This, this..." Sato subconsciously touched his throat.

"Also, why isn't your school uniform tie properly, senior? And several buttons on your shirt are undone too." An and Asuka's gaze fell on his open collar. "Do you think that will better highlight a kind of... unruly, wild handsomeness?"

"No way!" Sato exclaimed, his voice rising sharply as if he'd been stepped on, and he frantically began adjusting his tie and buttons. "I just feel a little hot! I don't think I look handsome like this!"

"And what about when you covered your forehead and eyes...?"

"I just suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable in my head and eyes!" Sato forced an explanation, trying to maintain his shaky, fierce image. "And, well, that's just how I talk! I don't think it's impressive!"

As he spoke, he had subconsciously straightened his school uniform, and even unconsciously folded his hands in front of him, standing as stiffly as a primary school student being scolded by a teacher.

Looking at Sato, who instantly switched from "delinquent" to well-behaved student mode, An and Asuka couldn't help but smile slightly.

However, Sato quickly snapped out of his daze and realized that he had been led by the nose and was being criticized to his face. The anger he had just suppressed suddenly flared up again, even more intense than before.

"Anhe Asuka! How dare you play me?!" He was so angry that his face turned red, and he didn't care about maintaining his image anymore. He turned around and yelled at his friends behind him, "What are you all standing there for! Teach him a lesson!"

The scene of him rushing forward that he had imagined did not happen.

His friends, instead of stepping forward, looked at each other, their faces showing hesitation or even disapproval.

One of them leaned closer to Sato and whispered, "Hey, Sato, why didn't you say earlier that the person we were going to ambush was Anwa-kun?"

Another person chimed in, their tone tinged with resentment: "Exactly! If I'd known it was Anhe, I would have punched you first! How could you bully Anhe!"

"Don't you know I'm a fan of the Light Music Club?"

"Explain yourself clearly! What exactly happened?"

"How did Anhe offend you?"

The situation reversed instantly.

Sato was completely stunned. He looked at the group of partners who had just vowed to help him get revenge, and now they had turned their guns on him. His face was full of astonishment and disbelief.

"Hey! What's wrong with you guys?! Are you still brothers?!" Sato was both anxious and angry.

However, his friends were unusually adamant.

"Sato, stop! We won't let you bully Anwa!"

"That's right! Bullying others is wrong!"

"If you don't stop, don't blame us for using the 'Friendship-Breaking Fist' to help you reform!"

Seeing that his friends weren't joking, and some were even starting to rub their hands together in anticipation, Sato suddenly felt isolated and helpless. Looking at Anwa Asuka, who was still carrying a garbage bag, looking calm and even with a faint smile, cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

The situation is better than people.

He swallowed hard, his fierce expression completely crumbling, replaced by a hint of embarrassment and ingratiation. His voice lowered, becoming pleading:

"Um... Anhe, can we... can we make up?"

Sato, who had been arrogant at first but then became obsequious with Asuka, glanced at his friends behind him, whose sense of justice had suddenly exploded, and found it somewhat amusing.

He could roughly guess the reason. Over the past year, their light music club had become quite well-known at school, occasionally performing at large events and frequently using school facilities for campus performances. Perhaps due to their high level of skill, they had gained quite a few fans.

"Reconcile?" An and Asuka smiled, but their expressions were unreadable. "But senior, you really wanted to beat me up just now, didn't you?"

Sato's face flushed red and then turned pale, and he stammered, unable to speak.

At that moment, a bespectacled, rather refined-looking boy behind Sato stepped forward and scratched his head apologetically at Anwa and Asuka: "Um... Anwa-kun, I'm so sorry! We didn't know it was you! We're your fans, we especially love your band's 'It's So Cute, I'm Sorry'! Sato only said someone offended him, he didn't say it was you!"

"If we had known earlier that he was going to hit you, we would have stopped him."

"Yeah, yeah!" another burly boy nodded quickly. "If we had known it was you, we would definitely be on your side! We would never bully our idol!"

"Idol?" An and Asuka raised an eyebrow slightly, somewhat surprised by the title. He made music to accumulate fan points in the system, and didn't care much about how many supporters he actually had in real life.

This was the first time he had ever heard someone say to him that he was their 'idol'.

"Yeah, right!" The bespectacled man nodded vigorously. "You look so cool playing the drums! And that welcome performance last time was absolutely amazing!"

Sato watched his friend express his admiration for the "enemy" with such adoration that he felt like a complete clown, wishing he could dig a hole in the ground and disappear on the spot.

An and Asuka watched the dramatic scene unfold before them, then glanced at Sato, whose face was ashen, and decided that this farce should come to an end.

He didn't want to cause any unnecessary trouble, since his main focus should be on earning fan points.

“Reconciliation is possible.” An and Asuka finally put down the trash bag in their hands and looked at Sato. “But I have three conditions.”

"..."

"First, don't harass Hanami or anyone around me again."

"No problem, I definitely won't bother you!" Sato nodded his head like a chicken pecking at rice.

“Secondly,” An and Asuka paused, a hint of seriousness in their eyes, “Liking someone or pursuing someone should be based on respect, not on treating it as something to brag about, and certainly not on getting angry and embarrassed after being rejected. I hope you understand, senior.”

These words, though not harsh, were like a fine needle, precisely piercing Sato's bluffing facade, leaving him blushing deeply and stammering as he lowered his head: "...I...I understand."

Just as the atmosphere had begun to ease, An and Asuka abruptly changed the subject, calmly presenting their second condition in a tone as natural as if they were buying something at a convenience store:

"Third, give me two thousand yen."

"..."

The air seemed to freeze. Sato choked, frantically rummaging through his empty pockets, his face contorted with embarrassment, his voice dropping several decibels: "I...I don't have that much money...Could...could you give me a few more days?"

He searched his entire body and could only scrape together a crumpled three hundred yen, which was all the money an ordinary student had.

Seeing this, the others exchanged glances, seemingly reaching a consensus. They said nothing, nor did they express any dissatisfaction with An and Asuka's seemingly opportunistic behavior. Instead, they silently began piecing together the money.

Soon, several banknotes and some coins were gathered together and handed to Anwa Asuka by a representative. It was exactly two thousand yen, with some change and some coins.

An and Asuka weighed the coins in their hands, still warm from the boys' bodies, then glanced at Sato, whose expression was complicated, and at his friends behind him who had paid the ransom without complaint. A faint smile appeared on their lips.