"Yui, are you okay?"
Mio leaned in close to Yui Yuigahama, her face full of concern.
Just moments ago, Yui had been whispering with her, but then she suddenly froze up completely. For a split second, Mio actually wondered if Yui might also have a system—and if that system had just dumped some ridiculous task on her at this exact moment.
Because Yui's expression right now? It looked exactly like how Mio looked whenever she got hit with one of those trash-tier tasks.
"It's—it's nothing, really. Don't worry about it." Seeing Mio suddenly so close, Yui's heart, which had just started to calm down, immediately kicked back into overdrive.
Why? Why was this happening?
She was a girl. So why was her heart racing over another girl—over Mio—like this?
"As long as you're okay. But if you're not feeling well, you have to tell me, alright? I'll take you to the nurse's office."
"Mm."
Once she confirmed Yui was fine, Mio turned her attention back to Yumiko Miura. "So from what Yui just told me, basically... you're feeling down because things with you and Hayama haven't been making any progress, right?"
"Pretty much."
Normally, Miura wasn't the type to discuss something this personal with people. But the complete lack of progress between her and Hayama had been eating at her, and she really needed someone to vent to.
"I haven't known Hayama that long, but considering he can stay completely unfazed even when you—the Queen of our class—make a move on him... I have reasonable suspicion that Hayama already likes someone else."
Hearing that, Miura raised one delicate eyebrow. She'd earned that "Queen" nickname from how she ruled their social circle, but apparently even that wasn't enough for Hayama. It wasn't like she hadn't considered that possibility herself. But she'd spent so much time around Hayama, and she'd never noticed him paying special attention to any particular girl.
Even when it came to Mio, Hayama hadn't shown any excessive interest.
"So, what if there's another possibility... what if Hayama doesn't actually like girls at all?"
"!!!"
For just a moment, Miura felt like Mio's theory actually made a disturbing amount of sense. But she quickly shot Mio a vicious glare. "I'm trying to have a serious conversation with you here. Don't mess around."
"Ehehe~" Faced with super-fierce Miura, Mio didn't look scared at all. In fact, she found it kind of cute.
If she'd chosen that Masochist Constitution card back then, she'd probably be enjoying this way too much right now.
Ahem!
Miura seemed to think of something and glanced at Mio. "I remember you said you had a lot of experience with this kind of thing. So why don't you tell me what I should do?"
"A lot of experience?" Yui also looked at Mio with curious eyes, unconsciously twirling a strand of her hair.
If she remembered correctly, Mio had told her before that she'd never actually dated anyone. So how did she get all this so-called "rich experience"?
"My advice? If you like him, just go for it. Playing hard-to-get or acting tsundere won't work. If he's passive, you be proactive. Make Hayama truly realize that you like him. If he realizes it and still doesn't respond... then either he already has someone in his heart, or he's probably gay. At that point, I'd suggest giving up."
"After all, Miura, you're so amazing—you could definitely find a boyfriend even better than Hayama. Or even a girlfriend."
"If you're looking for a girlfriend, you could consider me~"
Of course, that last line was just Mio joking around to lighten the mood.
In the original story, while it never explicitly stated who Hayama liked, you could piece it together from subtle clues—he probably liked Haruno Yukinoshita. And there's no way Hayama hadn't noticed Miura's feelings for him, even if other people could tell.
Even knowing all this, Mio couldn't just tell Miura outright. And even if she did know, Miura probably wouldn't give up anyway. Surrendering without a fight wasn't the Queen's style.
Miura didn't pay attention to Mio's last two sentences, but the earlier part she did take to heart. It actually sounded pretty reasonable.
But as for how exactly to go about it... she didn't have a concrete plan yet.
Just as Miura was about to consult Mio further, the bell rang for class. Reluctantly, she had to shelve her questions for now and wait for another chance to ask.
During lunch break, Mio had originally planned to give Miura some proper strategic advice, but before she could even finish packing up, Eriri appeared at her classroom door.
The petite, cute blonde was standing by the window, waving at Mio.
After catching Mio's attention, Eriri pulled out her phone, waved it, then turned and left.
Mio checked her phone and saw Eriri had just sent a message. The content was simple: meet at the usual place to eat lunch together.
The "usual place" obviously meant the art club's activity room.
Mio pocketed her phone, grabbed her lunch, and headed to the art club door. She knocked.
Like always, Eriri glanced left and right like she was doing something shady before pulling Mio inside.
"Every time I come here, it feels like we're sneaking around doing something... indescribable. Gets me all excited~"
Hearing that, Eriri's face flushed red. "We're just eating lunch together! We're not doing anything weird!"
"Then why do you make it feel like we're having an affair?"
"I—I just wanted to show you my latest work!" Eriri stammered as she pulled a stack of draft pages from her bag and handed them to Mio.
These were all rough line art, but they represented several days of hard work Eriri had poured into them.
The deadline was still a long way off, but she couldn't resist finishing these rough drafts as quickly as possible. Of course, that speed came at a cost.
Her dark circles were getting impossible to hide.
Just as Mio was carefully examining the drafts, the system that had been silent for a while suddenly chimed in with its troublemaking voice: "Please find a way to let Eriri know the color and style of your panties. Success may reward you with an Eriri series card or item. Failure will result in drawing from the punishment deck."
"???"
Seeing this task, Mio's fists clenched. Hard.
It seemed simple enough—she could just lift her skirt and show Eriri—but if she actually did that, she'd die of embarrassment on the spot, okay?!
And according to anime logic, shouldn't Eriri be the one giving her fanservice? How did it end up reversed?!
What kind of perverted task was this?!