[Reina's really playing a Galgame now.]
[I suggest this segment be used directly for the club recruitment video, titled "She Just Silently Took My Hand".]
[Is this club recruitment video going to be played on a loop on the big screen in the auditorium, with people coming on stage to give their blessings?]
[Misaki is still angry; the huffing golden retriever is so cute.]
[Yua, say something!]
Yui didn't say anything.
She simply withdrew her gaze from the white-haired figure in the classroom, lowered her head, and carefully smoothed out her slightly messy uniform sleeve.
Then, she turned around.
She walked toward her seat with steady steps.
Her pace was still composed, still elegant, and still perfectly devoid of any loss of composure.
But for some reason, compared to before, she inexplicably seemed a bit pathetic at this moment.
That duplicitous girl!
Back at her seat, Yui gnashed her teeth in her heart, yet felt helpless.
What happened to the promised full support? To think she had actually given that white-haired figure a certain amount of trust back then... What a clever move of retreating to advance.
...Fine, a loss is a loss.
Next time, I won't let you win so easily.
She sat up straight, her eyes unconsciously wanting to drift backward. She wanted to glare at that untrustworthy woman, but before her gaze could make contact with the target, the memory of her embarrassing side when she fled earlier surfaced first.
"..."
Yui withdrew her gaze somewhat guiltily.
It wasn't because she thought that side was truly embarrassing; it was more that there was no need to cast aside her dignity as the eldest daughter of the Shimizu Family over such a small matter to attack an ordinary classmate with her gaze.
That's right, exactly.
She told herself so.
Withdrawing her thoughts, the preparatory bell that had long since rung finally served its purpose. Whether the teacher had stopped because of the chaos at the classroom door or was simply arriving late, they finally stepped into the classroom.
He adjusted his glasses, walked up to the podium, picked up the chalk, and wrote today's topic on the blackboard.
"Alright, let's begin the lesson."
—————————
For some reason, after agreeing to Rin's invitation, Reina's life at Fujimori Girls Academy suddenly became much more peaceful.
Excluding the morning spent being fought over by various clubs, today was so quiet compared to before that it felt like another world.
When classes ended, she thought she would be blocked by someone, or several of them, and invited to do things she had no interest in doing together...
However, that didn't happen.
It was the same during lunch break and the breaks before school ended in the afternoon.
The four of them stayed in their own seats, reading books, spacing out, or talking to other classmates. Their gazes would occasionally sweep over to her side, but they quickly moved away.
Not a single person came forward.
Not even Misaki.
Reina was not a particularly dense person.
On the contrary, she was quite sensitive to changes in the emotions around her, especially the overt or subtle signals emitted by those four.
This was a survival skill she had been forced to develop during this period of being overly scrutinized in school.
So, when this peace lasted for a whole day, Reina quickly realized what was happening.
The four of them had reached a tacit ceasefire.
Like warlords who had been in a long-term conflict suddenly signing a truce, they stopped attacking each other, stopped competing for the spot next to her, and stopped trying to pull her into their own camps using various methods.
Instead, they adopted a silent and unified external stance.
And that "external" target clearly pointed to one person.
Rin.
The white-haired figure who, yesterday morning, had silently taken her hand in front of everyone and led her away from that chaos.
"..."
Upon realizing this, Reina suddenly didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
She leaned back in her chair, her gaze unconsciously falling to her side. Rin was looking down, seemingly writing something, occasionally stopping her pen as if thinking, or perhaps just simply spacing out.
Putting Rin and the word 'romance' together?
She tried to imagine that scene in her mind.