Yukino's brow furrowed sharply.
"Have you been having me investigated again?"
"Now, Yukino-chan, how can you use such an ugly word?"
Haruno replied, batting her eyelashes with a mockingly innocent pout.
"This is just a doting sister showing a healthy amount of care and concern for her little sibling."
"..."
Yukino didn't feel even a microscopic shred of warmth or sympathy.
If anything, she found Haruno's impossibly fake, cheerful attitude increasingly grating and irritating.
Her older sister wore that impenetrable, smiling mask every single second of the day, never once peeling back the layers to reveal what she was truly thinking or feeling underneath.
Just as Haruno was drawing in a breath to continue teasing her tightly wound younger sister, her smartphone chimed loudly.
Catching sight of the familiar contact name flashing across the screen, she answered the call right in front of Yukino without a second of hesitation.
"What's up, Shizuka? Why are you calling me at an hour like this?"
Shizuka?
Even without being addressed formally, Yukino instantly knew the name referred to their notoriously fierce and perpetually single literature teacher and guidance counselor, Shizuka Hiratsuka.
"Haruno, I... actually need to ask your advice on something," Shizuka's voice came through the speaker, uncharacteristically hesitant.
"Oh? What could it possibly be?"
Haruno teased, her eyes glinting with amusement.
"Don't tell me your family finally cornered you into an arranged meeting, or are you desperately searching for a boyfriend because you're getting older?"
Yukino was well aware that Hiratsuka-sensei was frequently subjected to relentless pressure from her family to settle down and get married given her age, so she paid the jab little mind, assuming it was just standard banter.
"Uh..."
To both Yukino and Haruno's utter astonishment, Shizuka let out an awkward, drawn-out syllable instead of her usual sharp retort.
Haruno's posture instantly shifted, a deeply intrigued expression taking over her face as she realized this conversation was taking a wild turn.
After a long, suffocating pause on the line, Shizuka quietly confessed.
"Haruno... what on earth am I supposed to do if one of my high school students seriously confessed his feelings to me?"
"Huh? A student confessed to you?!"
Even the usually unflappable Haruno dropped her teasing facade, her eyes widening in genuine shock.
Across the room, Yukino snapped her head up, her gaze locking onto her sister in absolute curiosity.
A teacher-student romance?
In their strict academic environment, that was nothing short of a scandal.
"Pfft, I'm completely at a loss here!"
Shizuka groaned in embarrassment on the other end.
"And to make things infinitely worse, we ended up making a stupid wager, and now I have to go on a date with him. What should I even do?!"
"!!!"
Haruno's eyes instantly lit up with a wicked, brilliant spark of excitement.
It had been an awfully long time since she had stumbled upon anything quite this delightfully scandalous!
Yukino, watching her older sister's face twist into that familiar, calculating grin, instantly knew that Haruno was plotting something mischievous and that nothing good could possibly come of it.
"How about this—why don't you actually go through with the date this weekend?"
Haruno suggested smoothly, her voice dripping with suppressed glee.
"Don't worry, I can tag along from the shadows or help you navigate the whole thing."
"This weekend? Well... I suppose I could use some backup," Shizuka muttered, sounding thoroughly cornered.
"Fantastic! It's a plan, then,"
Haruno chirped happily.
"Oh, by the way, Shizuka-chan, what's the brave little student's name? If I know who I'm dealing with, I might be able to dig up some fun background information for you."
"His name is Haruto..."
Shizuka warned firmly, her teacher instincts kicking in.
"And listen to me, Haruno—don't you dare go stirring up any trouble or playing games with him. He's actually a remarkably capable student."
"Oh, relax, Shizuka. You know me,"
Haruto's sister replied, her smile widening into something dangerously sweet.
"I always know exactly how to handle things."
Haruno ended the call, her face practically glowing with mischievous excitement, before she noticed the frozen, bewildered expression plastered across her younger sister's face.
Sensing an unexpected thread to pull, Haruno narrowed her eyes playfully.
"Hmm? Yukino-chan, you look unusually shocked. Is it really that hard to believe Shizuka managed to attract a suitor?"
Yukino remained tight-lipped, but her gaze shifted downward, a subtle tremor betraying her thoughts at the mention of the name Haruto.
Haruno caught the micro-expression instantly.
"Wait. You actually know this Haruto?"
"..."
Yukino's mind raced back to her initial, reluctant encounters with Haruto through the Service Club.
She certainly hadn't expected someone as elusive and unconventional as him to boldly step up and confess to their guidance counselor!
The sheer audacity of it was staggering.
Feeling the heavy weight of Haruno's sharp scrutiny, Yukino offered a guarded, clipped reply.
"We've crossed paths. Hiratsuka-sensei previously asked me to assist him with his academics."
"Shizuka personally asked you to tutor someone?"
Haruno's interest spiked dramatically, a brow arching in amusement.
She was well aware of Yukino's secretive little "Service Club" at Sobu High and had quietly looked into it out of protective curiosity when it first started.
Once she realized it was mostly harmless student troubleshooting, she had simply found her sister's stubborn independence rather endearing.
"Yes," Yukino muttered, crossing her arms defensively.
"When we first met, his rank was just outside the top one hundred, so Hiratsuka-sensei wanted me to bring his scores up. Though... it would seem he no longer has any need for my assistance."
Haruno tilted her head, her curiosity thoroughly piqued.
"Oh? And why is that?"
Yukino's expression turned remarkably complex, a mix of lingering disbelief and quiet awe.
"Because... in the recent exams, he managed to secure a flawless, perfect score across every single subject."
"My, my..."
Going from struggling to break into the upper tier of the grade to achieving absolute perfection across the board—such a meteoric, impossible leap was nothing short of astonishing.
Haruto's enigma instantly grew tenfold in Haruno's mind.
The boy who had the sheer nerve to back Shizuka Hiratsuka into a corner with a confession was proving to be remarkably fascinating.
A slow, wicked grin spread across Haruno's face as she tapped her smartphone against her chin.
"Well, well. It looks like this upcoming weekend is going to be exceptionally entertaining."
******
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