The residual thermal energy in the room was high enough to trigger a localized weather system.
For the next hour, Haruka and I gave a masterclass performance in
"extreme academic focus," which was code for staring at our history textbooks with the intensity of competitive bomb-disposal experts.
Our faces were still burning, the memory of the pastel-pink lace hanging in the air like a heavy yuri fog.
BUZZ. BUZZ.
The sudden vibration of my phone on the table at exactly 4:23 PM sounded like a gunshot. I flinched, my hand automatically darting out to grab the device.
[Shizuku Fuyumi]: The seminar has concluded. Kurogane, I expect your first-term revision schedule on my desk by Monday morning. Do not let Hinata Haruka distract your focus from your core training.”
"Fuweh,the Ice Queen has logged online,"
I muttered under my breath, my thumbs frantically hovering over the keyboard to write a compliant, non-threatening NPC response before my living room became an archery range.
But I never got to press a single key.
Before my fried reflexes could even compute a movement, a soft, vanilla-scented hurricane violently collided with my left shoulder.
Haruka didn't just lean over—she completely lunged.
With a fierce, uncharacteristic burst of protagonist physical agility, she shoved my shoulders backward against the plush pink floor cushion, pinning me down.
"Eh—Gah?!"
I gasped, my glasses sliding completely crooked onto my nose.
The next thing I knew, the ceiling of her bedroom was entirely obscured by a vision of ivory lace.
Haruka had straddled my thighs, dropping her full weight directly onto my lap.
Her hands clamped down, violently snatching the smartphone straight out of my trembling fingers.
"H-Haruka?!"
I shrieked, my face instantly reaching a temperature that could melt tungsten.
"Be quiet, Mei!"
Haruka huffed, her amber eyes burning with a deep, dark, intensely territorial flash of pure jealousy.
She sat firmly on my lap, her sundress pooling over my knees as she began furiously scrolling through the unauthorized group chat with her thumb.
"Fuyumi-senpai... Shiori-senpai... they just keep interrupting us. Every single time we are trying to have a nice time together, they send these texts"
"It's just administrative oversight! They are micromanaging my existence!"
I pleaded, my hands hovering awkwardly in the air, completely unsure of where it was socially acceptable to put them when the canonical heroine was utilizing me as a luxury couch.
"Administrative oversight?!"
Haruka’s eyes suddenly widened as her thumb froze on the screen.
The absolute, undeniable catastrophe had just occurred.
She had scrolled back to last night's logs.
Right there, illuminated in high-definition glare, was the aggressively cropped, post-bath selfie I had sent.
My wet hair, my bare, flushed shoulders, the smooth line of my collarbone, and the dripping towel clutched over my chest—accompanied by Shiori’s text about saving it to a private cloud and Fuyumi demanding a shot without the towel.
The bedroom went completely, terrifyingly silent.
"Mei..."
Haruka whispered, her voice dropping into a dangerously soft, trembling register that sent a chill straight down my spine.
She slowly looked down at me, her face a fiery, intense shade of crimson, her breathing growing shallow and heavy as she leaned down until her lips were centimeters from my ear.
She shifted her weight on my lap, pressing her soft silhouette firmly against my chest in a way that was entirely, explicitly erotic.
"You... you sent this to them? You showed them your bare shoulders after a bath? But... but you haven't even let me see you without your glasses yet..."
"I was extorted! They held my cellular tower hostage! It was a geopolitical housing crisis!"
I wailed, my heart hammering a chaotic, heavy-metal drum solo against my ribs.
Haruka didn't listen.
Driven by pure, unadulterated overthinking and a sudden, competitive romantic fire, she leaned down further, her warm breath brushing against my neck as her fingers gently traced the collar of my shirt. Read the latest chapters at novelping(.)com.
"Then... I guess it’s only fair if I get the same privileges as the upperclassmen, right? Since I'm the one who makes your tamagoyaki..."
"Wait, Haruka, we can't! This is"
I stammered, my inner lesbian screaming in pure, overwhelming panic as I tried to press myself further into the floor cushion.
Haruka fired back instantly, her amber eyes locking onto mine with absolute, unyielding intensity as she tilted her phone case—displaying the matching pink lily keychain we had bought yesterday.
"Why can't we?! Aren't you... aren't you into girls, Mei?!"
"Cough—Eh?!"
"I saw it!"
Haruka proclaimed, her face burning but her gaze completely unwavering as she pinned my wrists down against the carpet.
"Yesterday at the mall! You bought a manga where two office women were oddly close to each other on the cover! They were literally pinned against a wall, Mei! You like that kind of stuff, don't you?!"
My brain completely short-circuited.
The yuri manga had been weaponized against me in a court of law.
I had no choice but to deploy my ultimate, chaotic defensive rhetoric.
"That was a completely different scenario!"
I fired back in a blind panic, my voice cracking dramatically.
"Those were corporate professionals handling workplace hierarchy and severe logistical supply-chain tension! They were pinning each other against a copying machine because the office printer was malfunctioning, Haruka! It was an allegorical commentary on modern capitalism, it had absolutely nothing to do with the structural anatomy of my lap right now!!!"
Haruka blinked, completely caught off guard by the sheer absurdity of my frantic economic defense, her lips parting in a mix of pure shock and stifled amusement as she stared down at her incredibly red, utterly chaotic background character.
Dear diary: GUILTY!!.
I am officially, undeniably caught.
The heroine is currently sitting on my lap, my yuri manga collection has been thoroughly exposed, and she is using corporate printing analogies to interrogate my sexuality.
At this point Youka Academy is going to experience a full-scale romantic apocalypse!