Lin Ye stared at Yukino Yukinoshita, his gaze so intent that she eventually looked away, a little flustered.
She was composed, she was rational, but underneath it all she still had a girl's capacity for shyness and embarrassment.
Faced with the meaning tangled up in Lin Ye's scrutinizing gaze, how could she not feel flustered, not feel shy?
"Yukino,"
Suddenly, Lin Ye's voice broke the quiet.
"What?"
"What what?"
Lin Ye didn't spell it out, just tossed the question back at her.
"Lin Ye," she said, her voice rising slightly.
Under the pressure of her raised voice, Lin Ye finally explained. "Yukino got a school uniform specially made for me. I was surprised. I'm happy about it."
What's there to be happy about.
In the end, Yukino didn't say that out loud.
It wasn't as if she couldn't guess why Lin Ye was happy.
She knew perfectly well.
It was just that, given how he was asking, she certainly couldn't tell him the truth outright.
"My sister bought it,"
"Should I just call Haruno and check?"
As he spoke, Lin Ye pulled out his phone and waved it in front of Yukino, but the girl stayed perfectly calm, as if she didn't mind at all if he called to confirm.
This actually made Lin Ye start to believe it really had been Haruno's doing.
He felt like there was no need to call anymore.
But...
That was impossible.
How could he not call now?
He needed to call, precisely so he could watch Yukino's expression change afterward.
He figured Yukino was certain he wouldn't actually dial the number, so...
Lin Ye made the call.
And right up to that moment, Yukino's expression didn't change at all, as if what she'd said were simple, unvarnished truth.
"Brrr, brrr, brrr..."
After a few rings, the call connected.
Haruno's voice rang out immediately.
"Lin-kun, oh, I'm so happy, so excited! You so rarely call me on your own, I'm just thrilled. I don't even know how I could repay you."
Because the call was on speaker, Yukino heard her sister's whole spiel perfectly clearly.
So warm, so forward — that saccharine tone was clearly meant to tug at a man's heartstrings.
Yukino knew plenty of men liked it when a girl put on that sweet, helpless act, since it tended to trigger their protective instincts.
But, well, how to put it...
She could never do something like that. Even in the future, she'd never be capable of it.
That kind of behavior repulsed her, disgusted her.
Yukino Yukinoshita would never do anything remotely like it.
"Why don't I just give myself to you, give myself to you!"
Haruno Yukinoshita went right on, undeterred.
In Yukino's eyes, that was utterly shameless — a blatant temptation, using her own body and looks to lure Lin Ye.
Hmph, she thought.
But she didn't let the sound escape her lips; she just forced down her discomfort and stayed silent, careful not to let her voice be noticed.
"No thanks,"
Lin Ye refused flatly.
"How can you say that! When a beautiful girl offers herself, how can Lin-kun possibly refuse! You mustn't refuse!"
On the other end of the line, Haruno protested fiercely, fighting to carve out a chance for herself, to find some opening.
Even though she knew perfectly well Lin Ye basically had no chance of agreeing, she still couldn't resist seizing every opportunity to voice her feelings, hoping to catch that fleeting chance the instant it appeared.
What if — what if it actually worked!
She refused to believe Lin Ye could keep refusing her forever.
Haruno simply didn't believe it.
If Lin Ye really could hold out forever, then fine, she'd accept it — but as long as there was a chance he couldn't, she had nothing to lose by trying.
"There's no beautiful girl here, only an old woman,"
Lin Ye's remark made Haruno's eyes go wide, and beside him, Yukino nearly burst out laughing.
She really hadn't expected Lin Ye to have this joking side to him.
Thankfully her self-control was decent enough to hold it in, or she'd have laughed out loud and given herself away to her sister.
And if her sister found out, she'd never get to hear her true feelings again.
"Who — who are you calling an old woman! Lin-kun, I'm only twenty, how could I possibly look like an old woman!"
"Is that so?"
"Of course it's so!"
Haruno shot back, worked up.
A thought struck her, and she said at once, "Compared to Shizuka, I don't know how much younger I am.
Shizuka Hiratsuka's practically pushing thirty, there's simply no comparison, none at all.
"And of course, there's no comparing me to that little nurse of yours either — next to her, I'm plenty young too, right?"
The moment those words left her mouth,
Lin Ye's expression shifted slightly. He felt the girl beside him staring at him.
Yukino fixed her eyes on Lin Ye, her gaze icy and appraising, as if trying to determine exactly what kind of relationship he had with this "little nurse" her sister had just mentioned.
She'd never heard a single word about this before.
Yukino was desperate to know the answer, desperate to learn about this thing she knew nothing about.
She decided that the moment Lin Ye finished the call with her sister, she'd ask him directly and get the answer she wanted.
And did Lin Ye think he could dodge it?
Think he could avoid it?
Not a chance.
This time, she was absolutely going to get to the bottom of it, to find out exactly what that relationship was.
"Being an old woman is all about mindset, Miss Haruno, and your mindset..."
"Is of course that of an eternally sixteen-year-old girl — younger even than Yukino."
Shameless.
That was the first thought that popped into Yukino's head.
Her sister Haruno really had no shame at all, saying such things out loud, actually claiming to be a sixteen-year-old girl.
And talking about her "mental age" — that really was... shameless.
"Keep fooling yourself, why don't you,"
"How is it fooling myself? Everything I said is true. My mindset, Yukino Yukinoshita's — sorry, Haruno Yukinoshita's — will forever be sixteen, forever a girl,"
She actually knew exactly what Lin Ye meant — that her mindset resembled that of an adult, even one hardened by years of navigating adult social and business interests in the marketplace.
She knew that was true of her, but even with that side of her, she still believed she retained a pure, innocent core.
Well, that was how Haruno Yukinoshita saw it, how she genuinely felt about herself. She was convinced that emotionally, she was still very, very young.
Having settled on this definition, Haruno nodded to herself, confirming she hadn't gotten it wrong.
"Miss Haruno, the thickness of your skin astounds me,"
"Hahaha, if I can astound Lin-kun, then this little display of mine wasn't wasted,"
Haruno's counter had no bite to it at all.
She was long used to Lin Ye's teasing jabs and sarcasm; she'd always chosen to ignore them, to let them roll off her, never taking them to heart.
Only by doing that could she keep her rapport with Lin Ye going as it had been. Otherwise she'd lose, and things with him really couldn't continue.
A few seconds later, Haruno took the initiative and got down to business.
She knew Lin Ye didn't have the free time to call her just for the sake of calling.
This unprompted call of his had to mean he had something to ask her.
Haruno started scheming how she might get Lin Ye to pay some kind of price for this. No, no, not a price — a reward.
"So, Lin-kun, what did you call me for? Go ahead and say it. As Lin-kun's woman, I'll naturally tell you everything I know, holding nothing back."
She'd casually recast her relationship with Lin Ye as something intimate.
Those words should have sparked strong objection in Yukino.
But in reality, Yukino had grown so used to it that she barely reacted anymore, feeling there was nothing worth reacting to.
She'd heard remarks like that so often in daily life,
that even though it used to make her angry at first, by now she genuinely didn't feel much of anything.
Truly used to it.
She could say she'd become unshakable in the face of nearly everything her sister said.
"Yukino has a set of boys' school uniform here. She says she bought it, but I don't quite believe her,"
Hearing this, Yukino's eyes widened — when had she ever said she bought it? She'd said clearly that her sister Haruno had bought it!
How could she have possibly said she bought it herself.
"That's it? That's the whole matter?"
Haruno Yukinoshita was momentarily stunned too, taken aback that Lin Ye would even ask about such a thing — it was such a trivial matter, it left her baffled.
Was it really necessary to make such a fuss over this?
She simply couldn't understand it.
But since Lin Ye had asked,
Haruno's mind started turning, analyzing. Soon, a possibility surfaced in her head:
Maybe Yukino had denied buying the clothes herself — otherwise, Lin Ye would never have come to ask her about it.
So,
what answer should she give?
Should she back up Lin Ye's account and say Yukino bought it, or claim she'd bought it herself?
There was no other option besides those two.
"Of course Yukino bought it,"
Haruno guessed that Yukino must have insisted she'd bought it herself, and the two of them had started arguing over it — otherwise, things wouldn't have escalated to this point.
"When I found that set of boys' uniform at Yukino's place, I thought it was strange too — I wondered why on earth Yukino would buy a boys' school uniform! But then I remembered Lin-kun is already Yukino's boyfriend and fiancé now, the two of you are practically together, and Lin-kun's even been staying over at Yukino's place, so of course Yukino needed to buy some boys' uniforms to keep on hand — and there's plenty of men's underwear too, I know all about it!"
Haruno tacked on even more details.
Every bit of it was meant to make it look like Yukino had been preparing for the two of them to live together — otherwise, why would Yukino have bothered doing any of this at all?
"All right, I get it,"
"Mm-hmm, so, as thanks, how is Lin-kun going to thank me?"
"I'll treat you to a glass of plain water,"
Haruno: "..."
Plain water?
Shouldn't it at least be a meal?
Not even a meal, and now this—
"A glass of plain water is already the absolute limit of my generosity, Miss Haruno. Look forward to that glass of water I'll be treating you to."
"Lin-kun, you have zero sincerity. This is honestly heartbreaking,"
Lin Ye showed no reaction at all, and honestly felt like laughing.
What sincerity did he owe Haruno? None. He didn't need to give her any sincerity at all.
"Sincerity is for people who need it, for people I actually love."
"Hmph, still no sincerity. I'm not helping you out anymore after this,"
Haruno Yukinoshita expressed her displeasure.
But in the end, there wasn't much more she could say or do.
Suddenly a thought struck her,
and it was...
"Yukino, eavesdropping like this is really quite improper! Your sister's going to be heartbroken!"
Haruno had just realized her little sister Yukino was very likely still listening in on the other end of the call.
But aside from mentioning that female nurse, nothing else important had come up, so... there probably wasn't much of an issue with her attitude, right?
Yukino reflexively wanted to respond, but held herself back at the last second.
She figured her sister was just bluffing to bait her.
"Do you really think your sister doesn't know you're listening? There are cameras in your apartment, you know!"
"Sister, you..."
At that, Yukino couldn't hold back any longer.
If there really were hidden cameras in the apartment, it would mean her sister had eyes on everything she did there, knew every single move she made.
How was she supposed to feel at ease with that?
The thought that every intimate moment between her and Lin Ye had been watched, recorded, sent a chill through her, stirring up wave after wave of irritation. She was determined to make her sister hand over every recording and destroy it all.
Otherwise, she probably wouldn't be able to sleep at night.
"Heh heh, so Yukino's finally decided to speak up,"
"Sister, delete every single video file right now, and tell me where the cameras are installed!"
"Before that, shouldn't Yukino explain herself first?"
"Explain what?"
"Eavesdropping,"
"I was listening openly, in plain sight. Lin Ye knew about it, and he didn't stop me."
"So Yukino's learned how to argue her case. Not bad, not bad, Yukino's really grown up, well done,"
Haruno seemed even more delighted by her sister's reaction, though whether that delight was genuine or an act was anyone's guess.
But at least the two sisters hadn't come to blows over this.
"So, sister, tell me about the cameras, now,"
"Why on earth would I install cameras in my little sister's apartment? There are so many hackers out there these days — what if the footage got stolen? What would we do then?"
"There... there really aren't any?"
Yukino wasn't entirely convinced.
"Of course there aren't. I can promise you that,"
Faced with her sister's solemn assurance, Yukino started to believe her a little.
That made sense, actually.
Her sister had probably just been bluffing earlier,
and there really was no need to go to such lengths...
Still, Yukino wasn't entirely certain.
"Understood,"
"Seems like Yukino still doesn't fully trust me. Boo hoo, this really hurts, I'm so upset,"
Haruno Yukinoshita even put on a sniffling voice.
Faced with that mournful, weepy tone, Yukino made sure to keep herself completely unmoved.
No reaction was best, no wavering was best — ignoring that woman, her sister, was always the best strategy.
"Get some rest soon, Miss Haruno. Good night,"
With Haruno still sputtering in surprise, Lin Ye hung up, ending the call right there.
It really was late enough to turn in, and more importantly, the matter at hand was settled — there was no need to keep the call with Haruno going any longer.
Staying on the phone with Haruno any further would only invite more headaches.
"Yukino, we..."
Just then,
Lin Ye noticed Yukino staring at him, her gaze scrutinizing, cold as a December winter, chilling him to the bone.
____
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