The early morning sunlight pierced through the thin clouds, spilling over the asphalt roads leading toward Sobu High School.
The air carried the refreshing scent of damp earth after rain, mixed together with the aroma of rice balls and bread held by students hurrying to school.
Fujiwara Ai walked calmly up the familiar slope.
However, his steps today felt noticeably heavier than usual.
Last night, because of the cursed “Penguin Walk” image associated with Takamatsu Tomori, he had nearly laughed out loud, triggering the system’s brutal soul-tearing punishment once again.
Although the splitting headache had mostly subsided, the lingering exhaustion still clung to his mind like a severe hangover.
“…Sigh.”
He released a quiet breath while rubbing his temples lightly.
At that moment, a gaze attached itself to him.
Unlike the cold sticky stare of evil spirits, this gaze felt moist, careful, and filled with cautious anticipation.
Fujiwara Ai didn’t even need to turn around to know who it belonged to.
“G-good morning, Fujiwara-san…”
Yotsuya Miko’s voice came softly from behind him.
Or more accurately, slightly behind and to his left.
Today, Miko had arrived unusually early.
In reality, she had been hiding behind a utility pole near the intersection for nearly ten minutes already, waiting specifically for Fujiwara Ai to appear so she could stage a “coincidental encounter.”
Compared to normal, Yotsuya Miko looked slightly different today.
Her skirt had clearly been ironed carefully without a single wrinkle.
Her usually messy bangs were neatly arranged, revealing a smooth forehead beneath the morning sunlight.
Most importantly, the fearful and trembling atmosphere that always surrounded her had weakened considerably.
In its place existed something softer.
Something closer to peace of mind.
Fujiwara Ai stopped walking and glanced at her calmly.
“Morning.”
Only a single word.
Yet Yotsuya Miko’s eyes instantly curved happily while a faint blush spread across her cheeks.
Naturally, almost as though she had practiced this countless times before, she moved to stand beside him.
Thirty centimeters.
A delicate distance.
Close enough for her to smell the clean refreshing scent lingering around him.
Yet not close enough for surrounding students to openly stare.
The two walked side by side toward school.
Around them, students chatted noisily about variety shows, club activities, and exams.
Yet between Fujiwara Ai and Yotsuya Miko, a strangely quiet but comfortable atmosphere lingered.
“Um…
Fujiwara-san…”
Miko gripped her school bag straps nervously while searching desperately for conversation topics.
“Did you…
sleep well last night?”
What she truly wanted to ask was:
Did you dream about me?
Because she definitely dreamed about him.
And the contents of that dream were shameful enough that her face had remained burning hot while washing her underwear this morning.
“It was fine.”
Fujiwara Ai replied calmly while keeping his gaze ahead.
“I just had a strange dream involving a penguin playing guitar.”
“Eh?
A penguin?”
Miko blinked before covering her mouth and giggling softly.
“Fujiwara-san has surprisingly cute dreams too…
You’re more childlike than I expected.”
Fujiwara Ai’s lips twitched faintly.
Cute?
That was psychological torture.
Every time he imagined Penguin Tomori singing abstract Chinese songs, he risked laughing himself into soul pain.
Soon, the two arrived at the shoe lockers.
Just as Fujiwara Ai opened his locker to change shoes—
Plop.
A pink envelope suddenly slipped from inside the locker and fell onto the floor.
There was no sender’s name.
Only a hand-drawn heart on the front.
The surrounding air instantly froze.
Before Fujiwara Ai could even bend down, another hand had already grabbed the envelope first.
Yotsuya Miko.
Her reaction speed was astonishingly fast.
Almost predatory.
Miko stared silently at the pink envelope.
Although her smile remained perfectly intact, the temperature within her eyes instantly plummeted to freezing levels.
Her fingers tightened around the envelope hard enough to nearly crumple it.
Who?
Who sent this to Fujiwara-san?
I was first.
I’m the one who needs him the most.
Those ordinary girls don’t understand anything about him…
They only see his face.
Only I know how gentle he really is.
Only I know how safe it feels standing beside him when facing those terrifying things.
A thick black emotion called jealousy churned violently inside her heart.
If a spirit approached her right now, it would probably be frightened away by her resentment alone.
“Yotsuya?”
Fujiwara Ai looked toward her stiff posture and frowned slightly.
Miko immediately snapped back to reality.
Taking a deep breath, she turned around while forcing a well-behaved smile onto her face.
“Ah…
sorry, Fujiwara-san.
It seems to be…
a love letter.”
She extended the envelope toward him.
However, her fingers stubbornly refused to release it completely.
“W-will you read it…
Fujiwara-san?”
Her trembling voice screamed desperately:
Please don’t read it.
Throw it away.
Fujiwara Ai quietly looked at her expression hovering dangerously close to tears before glancing toward the pink envelope.
After his Charm stat rose to 73, situations like this had finally started appearing.
However, he had zero interest in wasting energy on random side heroines.
“Not interested.”
Fujiwara Ai casually released the locker door without even taking the envelope.
“Throw it away for me.”
The moment those words entered her ears, the darkness inside Yotsuya Miko’s eyes vanished instantly.
She practically came back to life.
“Eh?
It contains someone’s feelings after all…”
Even while saying that, her hands had already stuffed the envelope deep into the bottom of her school bag at lightning speed.
“Too troublesome.”
Leaving behind those two cold words, Fujiwara Ai changed shoes and headed toward the classroom.
Behind him, Yotsuya Miko quietly pressed her hand against her chest while releasing a relieved breath.
Thank goodness…
Fujiwara-san rejected it…
As expected, ordinary girls can’t attract Fujiwara-san at all.
Only me.
Only I’m special.
That secret superiority quietly strengthened the possessiveness growing inside her heart once again.
[Ding!
Yotsuya Miko Affection Value +30]
[Current Favorability: 45/100]
The morning classes passed by slowly and tediously.
Fujiwara Ai sat quietly at his desk while absentmindedly rubbing the fingertips of his left hand.
After last night’s integration of [Soul Resonance Performance], combined with repeated guitar practice, a faint layer of calluses had already formed there.
The unique medals belonging to guitarists.
The roughness remained subtle enough to be almost unnoticeable, yet every time his fingertips brushed the desk surface, the texture gave him a strange sense of reassurance.
“So this is what people mean by skills never being a burden.”
Fujiwara Ai quietly looked at his own hands.
Long fingers.
Clear knuckles.
Enhanced further by his increasing Charm stat.
Yet now, these hands also possessed the ability to produce music capable of resonating directly with people’s emotions.
Since he already possessed the skill, it was time to seriously consider how to conquer that pink introverted creature.
Goto Hitori.
Although giving her the effect pedal had greatly increased affection, they still lacked a natural opportunity for regular interaction.
He couldn’t exactly keep cornering her inside instrument shops forever.
Just then, the lunch bell rang.
Fujiwara Ai stood up calmly.
This time, instead of buying bread from the cafeteria, he removed a homemade bento from his bag.
With his current finances, cooking personally was mandatory.
The moment he opened the bento lid, an enticing aroma spread through the classroom.
Yotsuya Miko instantly turned around from the front row.
Her eyes resembled a kitten staring directly at fresh fish.
“Fujiwara-san…
did you make that yourself?”
“Yeah.”
Fujiwara Ai casually picked up a piece of tamagoyaki.
“S-so amazing…”
Miko swallowed nervously.
What tempted her wasn’t the food itself.
It was the fact that Fujiwara Ai had personally made it.
If she could just eat one bite…
Even one bite would probably make her happy all day.
However, before she could continue fantasizing—
A sudden commotion erupted near the classroom entrance.
“U-um…
s-sorry!
Excuse me!”
A tiny voice resembling a mosquito buzz sounded weakly from outside.
Fujiwara Ai looked up.
There, clutching a bento box tightly against her chest, stood a familiar pink-haired girl.
Goto Hitori.
Her head remained lowered deeply as she awkwardly attempted to squeeze past the crowded hallway.
Every movement resembled a rusty robot moments away from collapse.
Although she belonged to the neighboring class, her severe social anxiety transformed every lunch break into a survival challenge.
For unknown reasons, she had accidentally wandered toward Class 2-F today.
Just as Bocchi attempted to pass beside Fujiwara Ai’s seat—
Snap.
Perhaps because she was too nervous.
Or perhaps because she tripped over herself.
The lid of her bento loosened slightly.
The chopsticks inside slid directly out.
Clack.
They landed perfectly on Fujiwara Ai’s desk.
Silence instantly spread through the nearby area.
Goto Hitori froze completely.
Her face turned deathly pale.
It’s over.
Social death.
My chopsticks landed on someone else’s desk.
Please flush me directly into the sewer already.
Waaah…
I want to disappear…
Just as Bocchi prepared to perform a full dogeza apology before escaping Earth entirely—
A hand calmly picked up the fallen chopsticks.
Fujiwara Ai glanced briefly at the pink cartoon-decorated chopsticks before looking toward the pink-haired girl on the verge of dissolving into dust.
“Here.”
He handed them back.
Goto Hitori tremblingly raised her head.
The moment she recognized him, her pale face instantly turned bright red.
“Ah…
ahh!
I-it’s you!”
Fujiwara Ai maintained his usual calm expression.
However, before releasing the chopsticks completely, his gaze shifted subtly toward Bocchi’s fingertips.
Thick calluses.
The unmistakable marks of someone who practiced guitar seriously for years.
“The calluses are thick.”
Fujiwara Ai suddenly spoke softly.
Then he quietly raised his own left hand, revealing the thin layer of calluses that had only recently begun forming.
“Looks like I still need more practice too.”
His voice remained quiet enough for only the two of them to hear.
Goto Hitori froze.
Her eyes widened while staring at his fingertips.
It was proof.
Proof that they belonged to the same world.
Although Fujiwara Ai’s calluses remained shallow, his words carried a subtle meaning.
Like a quiet acknowledgment.
Like saying:
Let’s work hard together.
“U-um!”
For perhaps the first time in her life, Goto Hitori somehow forced herself to continue speaking despite trembling violently.
“T-the effect pedal…
it’s really useful!
Th-thank you very much!”
The moment she finished speaking, she snatched the chopsticks back before instantly turning around and fleeing at astonishing speed.
She practically left behind a pink afterimage.
Fujiwara Ai watched silently as she disappeared before calmly returning to his own lunch.
The corners of his mouth lifted almost invisibly.
[Ding!
Goto Hitori Affection Value +50]
[Current Favorability: 25/100]
[Current Status: Guitar junior who wants to become closer but is too afraid to approach.]
[System Evaluation: Excellent.
By using the “guitarist calluses” as a shared code, you successfully shortened the emotional distance.]
Unfortunately—
Everything had been witnessed clearly by Yotsuya Miko.
She still held her bread without taking a single bite.
Inside those usually gentle eyes, a dangerous storm quietly brewed.
Who was that pink-haired girl?
Why did Fujiwara Ai show her his fingers?
Why did he voluntarily speak to her?
That subtle gaze…
That feeling of mutual understanding existing only between the two of them…
Crack.
The bread package crumpled violently inside Miko’s hand.
Then she slowly turned toward Fujiwara Ai while revealing an extremely gentle smile that somehow sent chills through the air.
“Fujiwara-san…
was that girl your friend?”
Fujiwara Ai paused briefly while chewing his tamagoyaki.
[Malice Perception] reacted faintly.
Although Miko carried no actual murderous intent, resentment definitely existed.
This was the first time he sensed such aggressive emotional fluctuations from her.
“No.”
Fujiwara Ai swallowed calmly.
“I’ve only met her once.
She’s just someone who’s good at playing guitar.”
“Guitar…”
Miko immediately caught the keyword.
So Fujiwara-san likes guitar players?
That pink-haired girl attracted his attention because she could play guitar?
Miko quietly lowered her head toward her own hands.
White.
Soft.
Completely talentless.
A terrifying sense of crisis suddenly emerged within her heart.
This won’t work.
I can’t lose.
If I don’t do something…
Fujiwara-san will be stolen away.
“Um…
Fujiwara-san.”
Miko suddenly raised her head again.
This time, her eyes carried frightening determination.
“I also…
want to learn guitar.”
“Fujiwara-san…
can you teach me?”
Fujiwara Ai: “…”
He stared silently at the girl who probably couldn’t even read basic sheet music yet currently looked prepared to charge into battle.
Teach her guitar?
Wasn’t that basically inviting trouble directly into his house?
“Rejected.”
Fujiwara Ai answered immediately without hesitation.
“It’s troublesome.
Your hands will hurt, you’ll develop calluses, and it doesn’t suit you.”
Hearing the phrase “your hands will hurt,” Miko froze slightly.
Then she remembered the fingers Fujiwara Ai had shown Bocchi earlier.
So that’s why…
He doesn’t want me suffering…
He feels sorry for me…
Her brain instantly completed the emotional logic circuit on its own.
The previous jealousy faded rapidly.
In its place appeared overwhelming sweetness.
“Mhm!
Then I won’t learn!”
She nodded energetically while smiling brightly.
“I’ll support Fujiwara-san in other ways instead!
Like making bentos!”
Fujiwara Ai silently looked at the girl whose mood had reversed instantly.
Then he sighed inwardly.
Women were genuinely more complicated than advanced mathematics.
Still…
His current objective remained clear.
The connection with Bocchi had already formed.
Next, he simply needed an opportunity involving live houses or band activities.
As for Yotsuya Miko—
Although clingy, at least she remained obedient.
Thus, the school day passed beneath a surface of peaceful calm while hidden emotional undercurrents continued quietly intensifying.
Until after school—
Fujiwara Ai opened his shoe locker once again.
And found another letter.
This envelope wasn’t pink.
Nor did it contain hearts.
Instead, drawn across the front was a bleeding eye.
Fujiwara Ai picked up the envelope expressionlessly.
The moment he activated [Spiritual Vision], faint black resentment immediately became visible around it.
“It seems my romantic rivals aren’t limited to humans anymore.”
Calmly, he slipped the envelope into his pocket before Yotsuya Miko could notice.
This sort of filth was better handled personally.
After all…he was her umbrella.