"Mm-hm. You don't need to pick me up today. I'm going shopping after school with some friends I just met."
After checking in with Ren, Mahiru hurried to catch up with Yui Yuigahama and Yukino Yukinoshita, who were walking a little ahead.
With Yui's friendship already established as the "first success," Mahiru's connection with Yukino followed naturally. And how do friendships between girls warm up quickly? The answer was simple: shopping and eating together. Mahiru was copying what she'd seen Ren do—learning the fastest way by watching someone who already knew the route.
"Yukinon, Yui, slow down!"
Mahiru grabbed Yukino's left arm, smiling at Yui, who was already clinging to Yukino's right side. Between the girl recognized across the school as an "Angel" and a social butterfly who could make friends anywhere, Yukino was completely trapped in the middle.
"Mahiru… Yui… you're way too close…"
The cold expression Yukino usually reserved for Hikigaya was nowhere to be found. She looked shy, and her voice had lost its usual composure. She often criticized Hikigaya for being socially awkward and friendless—but in truth, she wasn't any different.
Being slightly above average gets you admiration. But being far above the rest—without reaching the absolute top—tends to attract jealousy instead.
Yukino, who had been exceptionally cute since childhood, fell into that second category. Her excellence brought confessions from boys and envy from girls. And when she rejected the boys, that "like" often twisted into resentment—sometimes into something far uglier.
Girls envied her, so they banded together to isolate her. Boys resented her, so they turned her into a joke—using her as a "penalty" in games, forcing whoever lost to go confess to her as a dare.
And the uglier part was easy to imagine. Her indoor shoes disappeared. Sometimes they were thrown away out of spite. Other times… they were taken for reasons that made your skin crawl.
Yukino didn't fight back. Instead, she started taking her indoor shoes—and even her recorder—home every day. It kept her things safe, but it didn't stop anything. When you never push back at all, people who enjoy being cruel usually don't get bored and move on. They get bolder.
It was almost ridiculous: someone with a strong background being singled out by ordinary kids. But school doesn't run on logic. What matters there is the atmosphere—who stands out, who's "different," who looks untouchable.
Yukino was different. And because she didn't know how to deal with that kind of attention, her answer wasn't revenge—it was withdrawal. She learned to keep her head down, avoid conflict, and protect herself in small, quiet ways. Not to win, just to survive.
That was the absurd part.
But now, for the first time, two people had stepped into that space without being asked. Yui, bright and shamelessly friendly, and Mahiru, who understood loneliness far better than she admitted, had walked straight up to the girl who'd been standing apart for so long.
And that alone was enough to change the shape of things.
What kind of change would that bring?
"Mahiru-chan, who were you just talking to?"
Yui deliberately ignored Yukino's weak resistance and shifted the topic. Yukino didn't struggle much either; she made a half-hearted attempt to pull away, failed, and then quietly gave up. Even she was listening now, ears practically tilted toward the gossip.
"My fiancé."
Mahiru didn't try to hide it. In a calm voice, she dropped the kind of answer that hit like a bomb.
"Ehhh???"
Yui's voice shot up in shock. Yukino didn't make a sound, but the surprise in her eyes was just as obvious.
Compared to Yukino—who people liked to call the "Ice Queen"—Mahiru, the "Angel," was even more popular. Everyone knew both of them got flooded with love letters, but no one had ever heard of Mahiru saying yes to anyone.
And now Mahiru was telling them she had a fiancé.
Of course they were stunned. Who was this person—this "hero"—who had quietly taken one of Sōbu High's most admired girls and even secured an engagement?
"Mahiru-chan, how did you meet? Who confessed first? Is he handsome?!"
Yui—fully raised on idol dramas—fired off three questions in a row. She was dying of curiosity. To her, Mahiru really did feel like an angel. She wanted to know what kind of person could possibly pull an angel down into the ordinary world.
"Mahiru… is it an arranged marriage between families?"
Unlike Yui, Yukino's mind immediately went to the most realistic explanation. If it were someone from school, there was no way it would've stayed hidden. And with Yukino's own background, she had more "models" for how these things could happen.
"An arranged marriage? Mahiru-chan…"
Yui's imagination instantly ran wild—straight into melodramatic TV plots. Her face filled with worry almost immediately.
If it was some high-society arrangement… and Mahiru even had to "report in" just to go shopping… then it probably wasn't about love. It was about benefit. One second Yui was gossiping, and the next she was anxious about Mahiru's future.
"Yui, don't worry about me," Mahiru said, amused. "I really like my fiancé."
She poked Yui's cheek and said it plainly, with a soft smile.
Mahiru couldn't honestly say she knew what Ren truly felt yet, or what his "deal" was deep down. But she knew one thing for sure: she liked Ren—genuinely, from the bottom of her heart.
They hadn't been together for very long, and yet she felt like she'd changed so much. She wasn't that girl starving for affection anymore. Now she was surrounded by it.
"Well, that's good then!" Yui exhaled in relief and offered her blessing without hesitation. "I wish you two happiness."
Yui was simple like that—straightforward and sincere.
"Is it only that you like him?" Yukino frowned slightly.
She thought more sharply than Yui. If feelings weren't mutual, the one who loved more would keep giving and giving—until they were treated as "less" by the other.
"Thank you for worrying, Yukinon," Mahiru said, "but you're overthinking it. My fiancé… how should I explain it… he… he…"
Mahiru stumbled over her words for a while without landing the point.
Ren hadn't exactly hidden that "Parenting Manual" he was reading. Mahiru had "accidentally" found it… and "accidentally" flipped through it.
The notes Ren had written in the margins made her furious and amused at the same time. But she didn't hate it.
He really went through all that trouble for me…
"Come on," Mahiru said, cheeks faintly pink. "We said we'd go shopping. Why are we talking about me?"
She tightened her grip on Yukino's arm and hurried toward the mall—leaving Yui behind for half a second, standing there in a daze before she rushed to catch up.
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