~ 💎 WEEKLY POWER GOALS 💎🔥 60→1ch | 100→2ch | 200→5ch ⏰ Resets Monday!
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Setsuna Kiyoura had barely finished her protest, voice trembling with embarrassment and irritation.
Then it was swallowed whole by a cheerful shout from the back door.
“Good morning, everyone!” Xenovia Quarta swept into the classroom like a gust of warm spring air, schoolbag swinging, radiating enough energy to light up the room.
“Ancheng, morning!” Her bright eyes swept the classroom once and zeroed straight in on Li Ancheng in the back row.
And on the twin-tailed black cat nestled in his arms, eyes half-lidded in lazy contentment.
“Wow!
What a beautiful kitty!” Her eyes lit up instantly.
She crossed the room in three quick strides and leaned in close, face full of curiosity, staring at Kuroneko.
“What a special breed!
It actually has two tails!” “Ancheng, is she yours?
She’s so well-behaved.
Can I pet her?!” Almost at the exact moment Xenovia Quarta’s arrival set off that small commotion.
At the front door of the classroom.
Kotonoha Katsura slipped inside without a sound, her presence cool and clean as a snow lotus.
She glanced toward her seat out of habit.
Then those clear eyes drifted, almost against her will, to the figure in the back row surrounded by girls.
Her footsteps faltered for just a moment.
A ripple crossed the still surface of her composure.
She pulled her gaze away and walked quietly to her seat.
Kuroneko lazily raised an eyelid.
She swept a glance over the approaching Xenovia Quarta, then looked toward Kotonoha Katsura in the distance, who appeared perfectly calm.
Finally, her gaze settled on Setsuna Kiyoura beside her.
The girl’s body was wound tight, like she was seriously considering folding herself into the desk drawer.
A soft purr rumbled low in Kuroneko’s throat.
[Hmph.
A bunch of small-time girls with no real experience, and they think they can compete with this cat for Master’s attention, meow?] Li Ancheng smiled pleasantly at Xenovia Quarta and declined.
“She’s mine.” “But she has a bit of a temper.
Shy around strangers.
She doesn’t like being touched.” “Oh, that’s a shame.” Xenovia Quarta straightened up, and if anything, her smile got brighter.
She looked at Li Ancheng’s face without the slightest attempt to hide her admiration.
“She really is so cute, though.
So elegant!
She’s an absolutely perfect match for you, Ancheng!” “Meow~” Kuroneko mewed with deep satisfaction.
[This little girl has decent taste!] [Of course we’re a perfect match!] Off to the side, Setsuna Kiyoura sat with her lip pressed between her teeth, head down, fingers unconsciously twisting a corner of her textbook into a crumpled knot.
Her heart felt sour.
Xenovia is always like that.
No matter when.
Always so bright, so bold, so effortlessly direct.
She can just walk up and talk to him like it’s nothing.
And in comparison.
Those small pink bubbles of warmth that had floated up in Setsuna Kiyoura’s chest just moments ago, all because he’d called her cute.
POP!
Quietly, one burst.
Just then.
Issei Hyoudou, up in the front row, snapped to attention like a radar locking onto a signal.
He rubbed his hands together, twisted around, and mouthed urgently at Li Ancheng: “Boss!
It’s happening, it’s happening!” Every head in the class turned in the same direction.
Ito Makoto drew a long, slow breath, the look on his face like a man steeling himself for something terrible.
He pushed out of his seat.
He was gripping two expensive gift bags, both meticulously wrapped at a last-minute mall run the night before.
He glanced at Xenovia Quarta.
Then at Kotonoha Katsura.
And finally.
With the entire class watching like they had front-row seats to a circus.
He walked toward Xenovia Quarta, who was still chatting with Li Ancheng.
“Xe-Xenovia…” He stopped beside her and held out the delicate light-blue bag.
“This…
it’s about the misunderstanding yesterday.
Please.
I really need you to accept this…” The brilliant smile on Xenovia Quarta’s face went cold the instant she heard his voice.
She didn’t reach for the bag.
Instead, she clasped both hands behind her back, tilted her head slightly, and spoke in a tone that was technically polite and absolutely arctic.
“Ito, what happened yesterday is already over.
You don’t need to make any kind of apology gift.” As she spoke, she shifted almost imperceptibly toward Li Ancheng, as if to make the line perfectly clear.
Her voice stayed light.
The edge underneath it didn’t.
“Besides…” “I think rather than worrying about apology gifts, maybe you should take some time to think clearly about what you should be doing and what you shouldn’t.” Those words landed like a slap in front of the whole class.
Everyone heard exactly what she meant.
Ito Makoto’s face went white.
He locked his jaw tight and said nothing.
He withdrew his hand, turned around, and moved toward Kotonoha Katsura’s desk like a man walking to a second execution.
“Kotonoha…” He took a breath and set the pale-purple bag carefully on the corner of her desk, not even able to bring himself to meet her eyes.
“This…
this is for you specifically…
I…
yesterday really was a misunderstanding…” Kotonoha Katsura stopped turning the pages of her textbook.
No expression crossed her face.
She didn’t even glance at the bag.
She spoke in a tone so level it was almost unsettling.
“Ito.” “Please take it back.” “W-Why?!” Panic cracked through his voice.
“I just want to apologize properly.
Yesterday was all Taisuke, it was just a stupid prank, it was a misunderstanding…” “Because I don’t need it.” Kotonoha Katsura’s voice stayed still as standing water.
She offered no further explanation.
She simply turned her head and looked out the window.
A strange, suffocating silence settled over the classroom.
Then came the barely-suppressed whispers.
Then a few low, scornful laughs.
Ito Makoto stood frozen as if struck by lightning.
The last trace of color drained from his face entirely.
He looked like a clown.
Those two gifts, rejected so publicly and without mercy.
Right now they felt like two red-hot branding irons in his hands, the greatest humiliation of his life.
He hung his head.
His whole body shook.
He could actually hear his own teeth grinding.
On the edge of all this drama.
Setsuna Kiyoura watched in silence.
She saw the bright, barbed decisiveness in Xenovia Quarta’s refusal.
She saw the way Xenovia Quarta leaned toward Ancheng without any attempt to hide it.
She saw the bone-deep calm in Kotonoha Katsura’s refusal.
That cool, untouchable pride.
Both of them.
Using clear and decisive action.
In front of the entire class, cutting every tie with Ito Makoto in one clean stroke.
And at the same time, as if quietly announcing something else.
A silent competition no one had officially declared.
Was it…
because of Ancheng?
The moment that thought surfaced.
Setsuna Kiyoura’s chest clenched hard.
Something sharp and bitter, like upended lemon juice, spread quietly through her ribs.
She lowered her head and stared at her knees, pressed together above the hem of her skirt.
That small, private knot of embarrassment and confusion that was hers alone.
Next to Xenovia Quarta’s warm boldness.
Next to Kotonoha Katsura’s cool elegance.
It felt…
So small.
So laughable.
They were both so radiant.
Both so certain of what they wanted.
Only she.
Sitting in the closest seat to him of anyone in the room.
And she couldn’t even work up the nerve to steal one extra glance at him.
She could only sit here, quietly furious at herself.
She bit her lip.
Her fingers crumpled a fold of her skirt into a mess of wrinkles.
Every bit of it was watched by the spectator in Li Ancheng’s arms.
Kuroneko took it all in, a glimmer of amusement moving through her golden eyes.
She tilted her head up and nuzzled against Li Ancheng’s chest, then turned to look at Setsuna Kiyoura’s drooping figure.
“Meow~” [Master, your little deskmate seems to have shut herself down~ Aren’t you going to do something about that, meow?] Li Ancheng had, of course, already felt it.
That aura of dejection from the girl beside him had become almost tangible.
The corner of his mouth curved up slightly.
His fingers left Kuroneko’s back.
Under the desk, he extended his hand naturally.
And gently touched the small hand Setsuna Kiyoura was using to tug at her skirt.
“…?!” Setsuna Kiyoura’s whole body jolted.
She snapped her head up and crashed straight into Li Ancheng’s smiling eyes.
He blinked.
A soft laugh.
“What are you spacing out for?” “Could it be that what I said earlier, about you being especially cute today…” “Was I wrong?” Setsuna Kiyoura froze completely.
Her brain went blank with an almost audible bang.
The back of her hand where he’d touched her felt like it had been pressed with a hot iron.
That heat shot straight up through her bloodstream and slammed into her heart.
The bitterness and self-doubt that had been sitting heavy in her chest scattered into nothing.
All that was left was a wildly pounding heartbeat and cheeks so hot they ached.
“DING-DONG!” The class bell rang.
Like a lifeline, it drowned out the sound of Setsuna Kiyoura’s heart trying to escape through her throat.
Touma Touga walked through the classroom door right on time, teaching materials in hand.
The class, which had been watching the whole spectacle, snapped back into a different kind of stillness.
“Let’s talk after class, Ancheng!” Xenovia Quarta shot him a playful wink, then turned and reluctantly hurried back to her seat.
And Ito Makoto.
Moved like a body with no one left inside it.
Both rejected gifts still in his hands, he drifted back to his corner seat in a daze.
He didn’t understand.
He really, truly didn’t understand.
Sawanaga Taisuke was still flatly refusing to admit he’d swapped the gifts.
Flatly.
Even now.
But.
Even setting that aside completely.
What did any of this have to do with him?!
He was a victim too!
Xenovia Quarta not forgiving him, not accepting the gift.
Fine.
He could understand that.
Honestly, that was fair.
He’d made her cry yesterday.
But.
Why wouldn’t Kotonoha Katsura forgive him either?!
This was a misunderstanding.
It was clearly just a misunderstanding.
The jealousy had been building in his head this whole time, and then, like a bolt of lightning, a scene from yesterday flashed through it.
Kotonoha Katsura, who never spent time with anyone.
Had actually, for the first time anyone could remember, walked into the Kendo Club with that bastard Li Ancheng beside her.
Could it be.
Could it be that Li Ancheng had said something to her yesterday?
Said something to poison her against him on purpose?
It had to be Li Ancheng.
Ito Makoto raised his head, teeth clenched, full of venom, and looked toward the window seat in the back row.
And found Li Ancheng already looking back.
Li Ancheng didn’t look away.
He narrowed his eyes and held Ito Makoto’s glare right there in the air between them.
Then, while Ito Makoto watched in growing dread.
The corner of Li Ancheng’s mouth.
Curved up.
Just slightly.
Into something contemptuous.
Ito Makoto’s breath caught.
He dropped his head immediately, cold sweat breaking out across his skin.
“A-Ancheng…” Setsuna Kiyoura’s face was still flushed red.
She didn’t dare turn her head.
“Y-You…
you clearly have your own textbook on your desk…” “Why…
why are you still sharing mine?” “Oh, sorry.
Force of habit.” Li Ancheng’s apology contained zero apology.
“Does it bother you?
Is it hard to follow along?” Setsuna Kiyoura’s heart was still hammering.
She shook her head slowly.
“N-No…
it doesn’t bother me…” “Y-You can…
keep sharing.” ➤ Next: Teacher Saionji, Can You Demonstrate One More Time?