“Hey, did you hear?”
“Ah~. If you mean that a transfer student’s coming, I did hear. It is unusual, though. It hasn’t even been that long since a transfer student came to this class, and now another one’s coming right away.”
As Sora and Gain talked, the white-haired girl lying face-down on her desk moved her head slightly and looked at the previous transfer student.
A woman in a golden dragon robe embroidered with dragons, utterly absorbed in her phone. Perhaps because her manner of speaking was so peculiar, when she kept her mouth shut, she looked like a painting.
The previous transfer student. In the end, unable to make up with Inna and unable to make use of the privileges of being a transfer student, she had remained an outsider in this class without a single friend. She ought to have looked lonely, but she did not look lonely at all.
“Mm-mm, this is fun.”
Because the sight of the woman soothing the loneliness of having failed to make friends with nothing but a phone game somehow looked as if everything she needed had been fulfilled.
Just what kind of game was she playing that made it so fun for her?
Though she did not look Chinese, she was, at least in nationality, Chinese. The desire to try a game played by someone like that was a small flame Erika had nurtured in her heart during their group assignment, but Erika never ended up approaching Lao Ha in a friendly way to ask the name of the game.
It was not because the relationship between Erika and Lao Ha had worsened so much over the past two weeks that Erika could not even ask her the name of a game, nor because it was too much trouble to approach Lao Ha and ask.
It was because she knew that if she approached Lao Ha, the girl who had been watching her more intensely than usual—perhaps because of what had happened that morning—would immediately cause a scene.
The thing that had enraged her most was likely that Erika had taken the queen as a companion, but because that had been Erika’s own choice, Erika had come to vaguely understand from spending time with Yu Inna that even if Inna got angry, she would vent it indirectly, by taking issue with something else.
Lao Ha played her game diligently in the classroom until the teacher arrived, Erika watched her with envy, and Yu Inna watched Erika with resentment because the girl would not look at her. As this game of tag between gazes was going on,
the front door of the classroom opened and the teacher entered. The classroom went quiet in an instant. That was clearly less because the students were afraid of their homeroom teacher and more because they were struggling to secure as much free time as possible on next week’s school trip.
“We have another transfer student this time. Transfer student? Would you introduce yourself?”
Knowing this, the teacher smiled bitterly and spoke to the girl who had come in with her. A woman with wavy pink hair, who looked warm and generous.
She would not have seemed strange at all even if someone called her an adult. As if recognizing those who were staring at her especially intently, she met each of their eyes one by one and smiled.
The unusual circumstance of another transfer student arriving not long after the previous one. Lao Ha’s old-fashioned elegance had become a wall that made it hard to approach her, but this woman’s kindly crescent-eyed smile was effective on the students—especially the boys.
“Mm! It’s nice to meet you all~! My name is Gang Yuri. My parents have jobs that require them to move often, so I ended up coming around here with them.”
Gang Yuri.
Even without looking above her head, Erika knew. That woman was someone who had been with her until that very morning.
Was the woman standing up there showing her true form this time, or was this, too, nothing more than one of her usual lies?
Her sacred appearance had transformed in an instant into something bewitching enough to stir men’s lust, and for Erika, who had lived in a world without superpowers, it was honestly bewildering.
If the other students had known about this change in appearance, they would have been bewildered as well, but aside from a few peculiar students, no one knew that the transfer student’s true identity was the woman who had been called the queen of the school.
“I’ll sit here~.”
After she finished introducing herself, and the homeroom teacher told her to take an empty seat, she glanced once toward Erika and Yu Inna, then went straight to sit behind Kim Haneul.
Considering that Kim Haneul was one of the popular figures at school, it was a result the homeroom teacher had more or less expected.
Glad that no unexpected battle of nerves had broken out as it had when Lao Ha transferred in, the homeroom teacher began passing on announcements.
“Oh, right. On next week’s school trip, Gang Yuri will be joining Kim Haneul’s group, so the students in that group should take good care of her.”
With that, she gave them the information about which group the transfer student would be joining.
The homeroom teacher had probably said it without thinking. But it was clearly the omen of the storm to come.
*
“Come out.”
Before the students in the class could flock to the transfer student, Erika sprang up from her desk the moment the first break began, went straight to the transfer student’s seat, and spoke to Kim Haneul, who sat in front of her.
Some students were confused, wondering if she had not been heading toward the transfer student, while others were flustered that she had suddenly told Kim Haneul—the one who had rejected her confession—to come out. Unexpectedly, however, the black-haired boy readily accepted her demand.
“Sure. After what happened yesterday and today, we do have some things to talk about. Shall we go out together?”
Yu Inna’s eyes sharpened as if displeased by their conversation, but unlike usual, it was artificial.
Because she knew Erika would not fall in love with the person who had taken the student council president from her,
and at the same time, it was clear that what the boy wanted was not Erika, but the student council president.
No matter what expression Yu Inna wore, they went out into the hallway without giving anyone else so much as a glance.
They did not exchange a single word until they reached the door leading to the rooftop. Only there did they open their heavy mouths.
“I think I know what you’re going to say, but I’ll ask anyway. What is it?”
“You know that secret you told me before. I think I know what it is now.”
“You only remembered it now, after I mentioned it that many times? Well, I’m glad you figured it out even now. You get why I said I wouldn’t get between you two, right?”
“Yeah.”
For Erika, who had not had much contact with Kim Haneul over the past two weeks, it would not have been an exaggeration to say that she had had no clues to uncover the secret until now. But the moment she met Kim Haneul’s older sister yesterday, Erika’s mind soon arrived at the truth.
This was a dating sim. They said the protagonist was ordinary, but protagonists usually had some distinctive trait. He also seemed to be on very good terms with his older sister, to the point that they talked about trivial little things, yet there was no information anywhere about Kim Haneul having an older sister. All of those clues were, to Erika, no different from keys opening the door to the truth.
“You like your older sister, don’t you?”
“Huh?”
Kim Haneul immediately showed confusion, as if he had heard something absurd, but Erika’s sharp eyes saw through at least the fact that he was flustered.
He had already told her about the secret, but he must not have expected her to say it outright in a place like this.
“Don’t worry. I don’t have any prejudice about that sort of thing. I said it because I don’t hear any footsteps, so no one else is coming.”
Erika was of the opinion that as long as someone liked another person, anything was fine. Of course, it was only fine so long as that person did not cause her harm because of it.
Even if his older sister had a charm that seemed capable of captivating anyone, regardless of age or gender, the fact that Kim Haneul liked his own sister did not harm anyone else. As far as Erika was concerned, she could keep that secret as long as necessary.
“...It’s not that I dislike her. But I don’t think it’s the kind of feeling you’re talking about.”
And through that secret, she instantly understood why Kim Haneul had talked as if the student council president and Erika could end up together. Since his heart already held someone else, he could not embrace the student council president.
Even though Erika understood the whole truth, she did not directly deny Kim Haneul’s attempt to deny the fact that it was incestuous.
As long as someone else could be eavesdropping, if she denied even Kim Haneul’s excuse, then any eavesdroppers would effectively become certain about Kim Haneul’s secret.
“So did you call me all the way here just to say that?”
Erika hated doing meaningless things, both before and after that incident. It was hard to believe she had called him out simply because she had realized again the secret he had told her before.
The boy’s eyes seemed to be telling her that if she had something to say, she should say it now—as though he would not listen if she chose any other timing.
For the moment, Erika gave up on the plan of talking about his relationship with his older sister in order to gain the upper hand in her relationship with Kim Haneul, and opened her mouth.
“I want to meet your older sister.”
“Huh...?”
The composure on the boy’s face shattered as if he had heard something completely unexpected, but Erika paid no attention to that.
After all, it had been obvious from the start that if Kim Haneul, who seemed to like his older sister, heard that someone else wanted to meet her, he would be flustered.
“Have you given up on the student council president...? No, my—no, no, that person is interested in you too, so arranging for you to meet would be easy enough, but why all of a sudden?”
If they could talk about little things, he had seemed to be on good terms with his older sister. But perhaps they were not as close as she thought; when the boy looked as if he was about to say “my older sister,” he hurriedly changed his wording to “that person.” Erika’s eyes gleamed at the sight.
Then again, that made sense. Even if Kim Haneul liked his older sister, revealing that to others was an entirely different matter.
Erika filed away in her mind only that the relationship between Kim Haneul and Isuka was complicated and delicate, then answered him.
“That’s not something I need to tell you.”
“R-right?”
“If that person says she’ll meet me, let me know.”
Leaving behind the boy, who was conspicuously flustered, the white-haired girl, having said all she needed to say, turned her back on Kim Haneul.
With nothing more to discuss, she coldly left first, and Kim Haneul watched her until she disappeared.
“Did she fall in love at first sight or something?”
He had not expected Erika, of all people, to try to meet [Isuka] in person.
Flustered by the unexpected situation, the boy scratched his head with his right hand. A meeting between [Isuka] and Erika. No matter how he thought about it, he could not picture anything good coming of it.