"Um… Mori Summer-sama?"
Sato cleared his throat twice, trying to communicate with the girl whose mind had clearly fallen into complete collapse.
He sympathized with her. Having such an embarrassingly cringy, delusion-filled past unearthed and paraded under the sunlight for all to see.
Still, it really wasn't his fault.
In such a small room, with this many people present, it wasn't exactly a secret either.
Hearing his voice, Nibutani Shinka froze. Her face was hidden beneath her long, dark hair, which cascaded down like a waterfall, obscuring her expression as though a curtain of violet petals had fallen across her.
The clubroom of the Far Eastern Magical Nap Society of Summer fell into a long silence. All eyes turned to Shinka, whose body was frozen in place.
"Ah!"
Suddenly, another scream escaped her lips though this time much softer.
Before everyone's eyes, the girl named Nibutani Shinka threw her head back with another anguished cry, clutching at her hair with both hands. Her slender fingers tangled themselves tightly into it, almost like they were snapping buttons into place.
Sato could feel how deeply she'd sunk into a spiral of secondhand embarrassment. It was the kind of discomfort that made people pace or do something extreme just to distract themselves.
And Sato got it.
He was the kind of guy who would pause a TV show when a scene got too awkward and just walk in circles in his room until the feeling passed.
"Eek!"
Behind him, Sanae jumped in shock.
Has that imposter lost her mind?!
She instinctively grabbed onto Sato. In fact, she latched tightly onto both sides of his waist with surprisingly strong fingers, squeezing hard in her panic.
"Hisss..."
Sato sucked in a sharp breath.
He turned toward the little creature clinging to his side and flicked her smooth forehead with a finger.
"Huh?"
Sanae looked up at him, confused.
"Let go."
He pointed grimly to the small hands still digging into his waist.
"Oh…"
She quickly released him, then looked up with an apologetic grin.
Tee-hee~That was... totally accidental.
Sato shot her a glare. His sides were burning in pain.
How is she this strong?!
After resolving the Sanae situation, he turned back around—
Only to find himself face-to-face with an expressionless girl, her face suddenly mere inches away.
He reflexively stepped back.
Thunk!
That step sent him crashing into Sanae behind him, who yelped as she landed flat on her backside, clutching her rear in pain.
Unforgivable! Was this revenge?!
Oww... my butt hurts...
"You! What's your name?!"
Shinka glared at the boy who had unearthed her darkest secret, biting back her embarrassment and demanding coldly.
"Just call me Nohara."
Sato smiled faintly, his expression subtly unreadable.
After all, black history counted as personal privacy too. He wasn't surprised at her reaction.
"Alright, Nohara, is it? If you dare tell anyone about what happened today, you... are... dead! Got it?!"
She spoke slowly, each word dropping like a hammer, her cold face now nearly pressed against his.
Admittedly, this position was quite intimidating.
But for Sato, it wasn't particularly scary, he wasn't the type to be threatened by a normal schoolgirl.
However...
She was so close he could see every detail of her face, and even smell the soft fragrance on her.
That made things... awkward. He muttered, "You're way too close."
Shinka blinked, then blushed and stepped back with a flustered huff, turning her head away.
"Remember what I said!"
She turned back almost immediately, clearly worried he might forget, and reinforced the warning.
"Excuse me…"
From behind, the upperclassman's curious voice floated in gently.
Everyone turned to see her raise her hand innocently, like a preschooler asking a question.
"If someone does tell others… what happens to them?"
Shinka froze.
Then she slowly bowed her head. Her face disappeared again beneath her dark curtain of hair.
"Hehehe…"
A low, ominous laugh echoed from beneath the veil, like a sealed demon whispering in the dark.
"If anyone dares to spill this… I'll tear their soul from their body! I'll seal it inside firewood and let it suffer the eternal agony of soul-burning flames!!"
Everyone: "…"
Yeah, this one wasn't just your average case of chuunibyou.
She was well into the terminal stage.
Sato glanced down at the thick notebook in his hand.
After all, if you weren't deeply consumed by delusions, you wouldn't be able to fill this many pages with pure, unfiltered "black history."
"Hand that over!"
"That's never happening, you imposter!"
Whoosh!
Before Sato could react, Sanae snatched the notebook from his hands. She bolted to the door of the clubroom, turned around to stick her tongue out at Shinka, then sprinted off down the hall like lightning.
"You brat! Get back here!!"
Shinka gritted her teeth and chased after her without hesitation.
I'll get it back! I have to!
She had to retrieve that book, no matter what. That notebook full of her humiliating past must never, ever be exposed to the world!
In no time, the clubroom was quiet again. Only Sato, Rikka, and Shouko remained.
With fewer people, the room suddenly felt much more spacious.
Sato glanced out the window at the sky, then checked the time. He turned to Shouko and Rikka and said,
"It's getting late. I'll head upstairs to grab my things. Wait here, and I'll come back down so we can head home together."
"Mm."