People in Mygo are emotional firefighters.

Long-forgotten memories surged like a tide—the student council president, surrounded by girls, who had proudly announced her departure to study abroad, overlapped with the slightly arrogant face before me.

Ishikawa was sweating profusely, realizing that he hadn't recognized his junior high school classmate all along.

Fortunately, judging from this reaction, he probably didn't realize that he hadn't recognized her from the beginning.

that is really good!

He secretly breathed a sigh of relief; if he had been discovered, he would probably have been severely tortured.

"Haha, as expected of the president..."

"Ahem," Chihaya Aine's face turned slightly red. "That all happened in middle school. It's strange to call me that here. Just call me Aine."

Ishikawa Mayu gave an awkward smile, but out of the corner of her eye, she caught Takamatsu Akari taking her handbag out of her drawer and walking outside...

What a golden opportunity!

"Aiyin, I'm sorry, Deng accidentally left something with me. I need to return it to him first, then we can talk."

Ishikawa Mayu pulled out the stone that Takamatsu Akari had left with him, tossed it around, and prepared to make a quick getaway...

and many more,

Ishikawa-kun just called that girl Akari, right? Wasn't that a bit too intimate?

And this stone, could it be a souvenir or something? It looks like the kind of thing that Deng would like.

If the two of them are that close, wouldn't there be a constant risk that they might reveal their plans to study abroad?!

That one short sentence nearly set off alarm bells in Chihaya Aine's mind.

"Wait, wait a minute, Ishikawa-kun!!!"

Chihaya Aine's voice suddenly rose, and like a kitten whose tail had been stepped on, she pounced and tightly gripped Ishikawa Mayu's wrist.

"Please come out with me, I have something very important to ask you!"

"Huh?!?!"

Chapter Three: The Rooftop

Faced with the girl's invitation, Ishikawa Maho initially wanted to refuse, knowing that the entire classroom was focused on her, and even Takamatsu Akari had stopped in her tracks out of curiosity.

If he agreed to it just like that, he would definitely have to deal with everyone's gossip for a long time, which would be too terrifying for someone as socially anxious as him!

However, the force from his wrist was superhuman, and how could he possibly resist it?

Who knows how a girl who looks so thin and weak could have such outrageous qualities? Does being a "social butterfly" include weightlifting?

Despite Ishikawa Mayu internally ranting, he was like a cat being choked by the scruff of its neck, helplessly dragged out of the classroom by Chihaya Aine.

"Does the new transfer student have some past relationship with Ishikawa?"

"He grabbed my wrist right off the bat, and Ishikawa was the one who was passive."

"Go for it, Ishikawa-kun!"

……

The murmurs behind him had faded into the distance as they moved further away, but Ishikawa Maho knew that his innocence during his three years of high school was completely ruined!

Tired, destroy it.

After giving up entirely, Ishikawa Mayu became too lazy to resist anymore. She simply adjusted her pace and barely managed to keep up with Chisaya Aine's steps.

The sound of their footsteps echoed in the empty stairwell. Was this direction leading to the rooftop?

The heavy iron gate was pushed open effortlessly by Chihaya Aine.

The afternoon sun poured in instantly, enveloping her in a dazzling halo. Her pink hair shimmered softly in the light, and a few unruly strands were gently lifted by the breeze, brushing past Ishikawa Mayu's nose, carrying a faint, sweet fragrance, like a mixture of sunshine and strawberry scent.

Before Ishikawa Mayu could adjust to the sudden light, Chihaya Aine had already hurriedly run to the rooftop entrance, turned around, and pressed her entire back against the iron gate, as if afraid someone would follow her. She was slightly out of breath, her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes flickered with a hint of stubbornness.

Chihaya Aine's striking pink hair was blown by the breeze and fluttered in the air.

A few strands of hair gently brushed against Ishikawa Mayu's nose, bringing a faint, delicate fragrance, like a mixture of sunshine and strawberry candy.

Looking at her clumsy yet unusually earnest appearance—her back pressed tightly against the door, her cheeks flushed from running and nervousness, her eyes filled with the stubborn determination to "not let you get away"—Ishikawa Mayu finally couldn't help but burst out laughing.

The self-destructive emotions of "my innocence is ruined" and "I'm doomed in high school" that I had felt earlier have vanished without me noticing.

Perhaps being forcibly dragged onto the rooftop isn't so bad? At least the scene before us is quite interesting.

"President Aine, are you going to all this trouble to invite me up to the rooftop because you're planning to tell me some secret?"

"Um..." Chihaya Aine's eyes darted around, clearly not ready for this situation.

Ishikawa Mayu understood immediately and deliberately sighed, "If you haven't made up your mind yet, I'll head back now. Lunch break is so precious..."

"and many more!"

Chihaya Aine panicked and, without bothering with any preamble or tact, blurted out, "Um... Ishikawa-san, could you please not tell anyone about my previous studies in England?"

"..."

The blank look on Ishikawa Mayu's face lasted only a very brief moment.

He recalled that when he was about to graduate from junior high school, he did hear from others that the student council president planned to study in England, which caused quite a stir at the time.

Now, Chihaya Aine has suddenly appeared here, looking nervous and anxious—something we've never seen before...

So the conclusion should be obvious: the ambitious study abroad plan didn't go as planned, but that's not a big deal.

It was astonishing that she was so nervous about keeping quiet, afraid that someone would find out about this "failed plan."

Thinking about this, Ishikawa Mayu suddenly felt both annoyed and amused.

He almost thought he was involved in some kind of spy secret, but it turned out that the former student council president was just carefully protecting his possibly somewhat defeated self-esteem.

Looking at Chihaya Aine's tense, almost clumsy, eyes pleading "Please don't ask about the details," his initial displeasure at being forcibly dragged up was completely replaced by a sense of absurdity and comicality.

"I see, is it because things aren't going well with your studies abroad?"

These words were like a needle of unparalleled precision, instantly piercing through all the pretense that Chihaya Aine had been putting on.

"Well--!"

She let out a short, embarrassed whimper, her cheeks flushing bright red, as if they could bleed.

His eyes were fixed on Ishikawa Mayu, as if he were ready to die with him if Ishikawa disagreed. After all, this was a rooftop, and jumping off together wouldn't be difficult.

Wait a minute, with her strength, she shouldn't be unable to do something like this, right?

Ishikawa Mayu hurriedly raised her hands, almost kneeling down.

"Heroine, spare my life! I promise to keep this a secret!"

"Really?"

Chihaya Aine's eyes remained sharp, as if scrutinizing the truthfulness of his words, and the fist she had been clenching tightly loosened slightly.

“It’s more real than real gold! I swear!” Ishikawa Mayu nodded vigorously, holding up four fingers next to her head with a fawning smile.

"Besides, I don't have any friends to begin with, so who can I talk to about these things?"

"Well..." Chihaya Aine's voice softened, and her tense shoulders relaxed a little. Forcing others to reveal their weaknesses as guarantees was not her style, but she had no other choice at this moment.

"Where are you and Gao Songdeng?"

Ishikawa Mayu was somewhat amused and exasperated. He realized that it was precisely because of the closeness he had shown to Takamatsu Akari that Aine had overreacted.

"She's a bit of an eccentric girl. This morning, when I was spacing out and looking at her stone, she probably thought I was one of her enthusiasts."

He scratched his head and took out the stone he hadn't returned.

"When she shared it with me, she probably forgot to take it, so..."

Chihaya Aine listened carefully to his explanation, observing the perfectly natural, even slightly troubled, expression on his face, and the last bit of doubt in her heart finally dissipated.

Once the tension is released, a huge sense of embarrassment and shame belatedly surges over you.

She suddenly lowered her head, her fingertips unconsciously picking at the rust on the iron gate behind her, wishing she could disappear into a crack in the ground.

Looking back on how hysterical I was just now, crying and screaming, and even threatening to die with everyone else, it's really... so embarrassing!

Chapter Four is about exchanging LINE accounts!

A brief silence fell between them, with only the sound of the wind whispering in their ears.

A few seconds later, Chihaya Aine's voice rang out again, softer than before, carrying a barely perceptible, cautious probing tone, breaking the silence:

"...And what about you?" She still didn't look up, her voice muffled. "Now that you know about this...do you find it... ridiculous?"

Her question was somewhat vague, but Ishikawa Mayu understood.

He didn't answer immediately, but just looked at the campus below the rooftop, his gaze somewhat distant.

The days and nights when I first came into this world—that suffocating feeling as if I had been thrown into the deep sea, everything around me both familiar and strange, the fear of having to carefully weigh every word I said and every action I took—it wasn't too different from studying abroad.

If it weren't for the instincts and memories remaining in this body, he might have starved to death on the streets long ago.

He let out a soft sigh, pulling his wandering thoughts back to his own and turning his gaze back to the present.

His gaze fell on Aine's still lowered, slightly trembling eyelashes, where her unease was almost visible to the naked eye.

His voice was not loud, and his attempt to organize his thoughts sounded somewhat clumsy, as if he were venturing into an unfamiliar territory.

"There's nothing funny about it. It's just... plans getting disrupted, or... being suddenly thrown into a completely unexpected place... things like that..."

He paused, seemingly choosing his words carefully, his gaze drifting into the distance, muttering softly, almost to himself: "...After all, anyone can run into that, just like when I first came here...uh, when I first started high school, it took me quite a while to..."

Before he could finish speaking, he heard Chihaya Aine's teasing tone, slightly nasal but clearly regaining some of her energy:

"Huh? 'Just arrived here'? Ishikawa-kun, the way you're saying that... it sounds like you've fallen from some other world."

"Cough! Cough cough cough..."

Ishikawa Mayu choked on her own saliva, bursting into a violent cough. Her face instantly turned bright red, and tears almost streamed down her face.

Chihaya Aine was startled by his overreaction. She took two steps closer and instinctively wanted to pat his back, but then felt it was inappropriate. Her hand froze in mid-air as she looked at him somewhat helplessly.

"Uh... are you alright? I was just joking..."

"No, it's nothing!" Ishikawa Mayu finally stopped coughing, waving her hands repeatedly, her voice still hoarse from choking, "It's just... the wind was too strong, I choked a little!"

Seeing Ishikawa Mayu choking back tears and frantically trying to explain, Chihaya Aine's lingering tension and embarrassment completely dissipated. She finally couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Alright, alright, I know you choked." She waved her hand, her face regaining its mischievous, bright smile. "But since you've promised to keep my secret, then we're... accomplices, right?"

She pulled her phone out of her pocket, unlocked it skillfully, and the screen's light illuminated her smiling eyes: "For easier communication, and... in case you change your mind later! Come on, let's exchange LINE accounts, Makoto?"

She spoke with such confidence that she even unconsciously changed her form of address to Zhenyu, making her seem much closer to people.

Ishikawa Mayu had just caught her breath when she heard these remarks about being an "accomplice" and the blunt request to exchange LINE messages, leaving her both amused and exasperated.

The former student council president in front of him had an almost excessively good mental fortitude. All traces of his earlier melancholy had vanished. If it weren't for the faint pain emanating from the red mark on his wrist, he would have thought it was all an illusion.

I pulled out my phone and started using it, all the while trying to turn the tables and at least not let myself be led by the nose!

"Alright, LINE added." Ishikawa Mayu waved the phone screen showing that she had successfully added him as a friend, suppressed the urge to make a sarcastic comment, and deliberately sighed, "But, Aine-kun, have you thought about this? What do you think the classmates are talking about right now?"

"what?"

"For example, a transfer student and the shrewish boy in the class might exchange love tokens, like rings, on the rooftop."

He deliberately obscured the pronunciation of "LINE" and "ring," eagerly anticipating what kind of cute expression Chihaya Aine would make.

Chihaya Aine's fingers paused as she operated her phone, a faint blush rising on her cheeks, but the shyness lasted only a moment.

The next second, her eyes immediately cleared, and she raised her head to meet Ishikawa Mayu's gaze, a sly smile curving her lips.

"The term 'token of love' is so outdated, it's from the last century! And the pronunciation of 'ring' is completely off!"

"Besides, if such rumors can help people remember me faster, it doesn't seem like a bad thing, right? After all, as a transfer student, having a hot topic can help you integrate into the group more easily! That's common sense in social situations~"

Chihaya Aine tilted her head, her smile growing even brighter, as if she were seriously assessing the "positive" aspect of this unexpected development.

Then she changed the subject, her silver-gray eyes turning to Ishikawa Mayu, deliberately dragging out her words and pretending to be serious. She even leaned forward slightly to close the distance between them.

"But you, Mayu-kun—suddenly becoming one of the male protagonists in a school scandal, aren't you under a lot of pressure? Not used to it? Do you need me to teach you some coping strategies, Mayu-kun?"

She pronounced his name slowly and deliberately, her voice so sweet it was irresistible. A mischievous smile played on her lips, revealing a cute little canine tooth.