Lin Ye couldn't help but admire Iroha Isshiki's willpower and persistence—he had to give her credit for it.
This girl had endured rejection after rejection from him, over and over, and most people simply couldn't take that kind of treatment.
Yukino Yukinoshita, faced with the same degree of rejection—even just half that degree—would decisively choose to reject in turn. As for Yui Yuigahama, she was even further from that mold.
This dumpling-haired girl, faced with his rejection, would accept it after at most two tries, then quietly go off to some empty corner to grieve alone.
No matter how much she liked him, she wouldn't push any further. If she happened to show up in front of him occasionally, she'd probably avoid saying much of anything—and might even go out of her way to clarify things if she worried he'd misunderstand her intentions.
That was Yui Yuigahama.
At least, that was how Lin Ye guessed she would react.
That was about the extent of it.
As for Haruno, given his standing and the interests involved, Lin Ye was confident she'd keep pushing without ever giving up—much like Iroha Isshiki, really.
The two of them really were remarkably similar in personality and habits. No wonder.
"Senpai, senpai, are you moved by my willpower? Has it touched you enough to make you want to accept me?"
Iroha Isshiki asked with a grin, clearly holding out strong hope for the scene she'd just described.
If Lin Ye really had been moved, then today would count as quite the harvest for her—she could even call it a bumper crop.
After days of effort, after all that persistence—she might even call it suffering—she'd finally arrived at her rebirth.
"Not a ripple," Lin Ye said.
His answer was as cold as ever, but it didn't faze Iroha Isshiki in the slightest.
This lively underclassman didn't care one bit. She'd long since gotten used to it.
"Senpai, that's a lie, and lying isn't nice! Hahaha, you're not that hard-hearted, Senpai. Even Yukinoshita-senpai would be moved by my relentless pursuit and confessions of love—wouldn't she, Yukinoshita-senpai?"
Iroha Isshiki tossed the question over to Yukino Yukinoshita.
Faced with her junior's words, Yukino Yukinoshita simply watched calmly, giving no answer—neither confirmation nor denial.
What she cared about most, deep down, was that phrase 'hard-hearted.'
She, Yukino Yukinoshita, was not a hard-hearted woman.
If she really were hard-hearted, would she be reacting this way?
"Senpai's silence means yes—see! I'm right, aren't I, Senpai?"
Iroha Isshiki immediately jumped to the conclusion she wanted. That optimism of hers really was a rare and precious quality.
"Student Isshiki, this kind of persistence of yours—if it were aimed at anyone else, it would probably have worked by now. Even someone like Hayama Hayato would probably have caved."
Yukino Yukinoshita said this, of course, only as a hypothetical—one slightly more likely than the same scenario with Lin Ye, given how firm his stance had remained.
And compared to Hayama, Lin Ye already had two girlfriends—he was, frankly, the more fickle type when it came to romance. Strictly speaking, the odds of him accepting Iroha Isshiki should be even higher.
And yet, even now, Lin Ye still hadn't accepted Iroha Isshiki. That alone proved he truly didn't care for Isshiki, that he truly had no intention of accepting her.
And when a man has no intention of accepting someone, no matter how hard she tries in the future, she'll never get her chance.
Unless something extraordinary happened to turn Lin Ye's feelings about Iroha Isshiki completely upside down.
Otherwise, there was absolutely no chance at all.
"Hayama-senpai? How could Hayama-senpai possibly compare to you, Senpai! There's no comparison at all! Next to you, Hayama-senpai is nothing!"
Iroha Isshiki looked utterly incredulous, as if she'd just heard something unbelievable.
"At Sobu High, the most handsome, most charming boy is you, Senpai. I don't even know where Hayama-senpai would rank."
Her tone sounded exactly like genuine conviction.
Whether Iroha Isshiki was telling the truth or not, no one could really say for sure—it might well be a lie.
Of course, the actual truth of the statement mattered little.
What mattered was the signal and meaning behind her words: her attitude toward Lin Ye hadn't changed one bit.
Now she was outright calling Lin Ye the most handsome.
In reality, though, in the Sobu High boys' popularity polls, Hayama Hayato really did rank first.
Hayama Hayato had always been the number one heartthrob among the girls at Sobu High.
Because of that, countless girls had confessed to him.
In the end, he'd chosen to date Miura Yumiko just to avoid the endless trouble of fielding confessions.
"You can flatter me all you want—I'm still not taking you to dinner."
"Where's the flattery? To me, Senpai, you're number one. Forever number one. Number one in all of Japan, hahaha!"
"Thanks," Lin Ye said flatly.
The sudden thanks left Iroha Isshiki and the others momentarily stunned—something about that gratitude felt off.
"So you're not good enough for me. Don't get any ideas," he added.
Iroha Isshiki: ???
Her lips twitched awkwardly.
She'd complimented him, and somehow that turned into a reason for him to push her away?
She had to admit it—Lin Ye always managed to find some bizarre excuse, one that somehow sounded reasonable, to turn her down.
But Iroha Isshiki would never give up.
"I'll become even better. I'll make you fall for me, Senpai. I believe it'll happen before long, and then you'll be more than willing to date me, hahaha."
Iroha Isshiki laughed again.
She held tremendous hope for that imagined future.
Lin Ye didn't bother continuing the argument with her.
Trying to make Iroha Isshiki give up with just a few words was truly impossible.
He'd even given up on trying to talk her out of it altogether. Let the girl be—someday she'd give up on her own. That was Lin Ye's thinking.
"But speaking of which, Senpai, why did you bring up Hayama-senpai out of nowhere for comparison? Does that mean you think highly of him, deep down?"
Iroha Isshiki's remark made Lin Ye glance over at Yukino Yukinoshita, and he caught a faint, teasing hint of amusement in her eyes.
Yukino Yukinoshita had no idea what Iroha Isshiki was really getting at, but if that was indeed her intention, this cute junior's little plan was about to fall flat.
"Miura Yumiko intends to confess to Hayama Hayato. At Sobu High, Miura Yumiko's popularity is quite high—I imagine you already know that, Isshiki."
Of course Iroha Isshiki knew.
In fact, when she'd first heard about it, she'd gone out of her way to look at Senpai Miura Yumiko in person.
The first time she'd laid eyes on her, she'd been genuinely dazzled.
Even now, she still acknowledged Senpai Miura Yumiko's charm.
Of course, compared to Yukinoshita-senpai, Senpai Miura Yumiko still fell just a little short.
"But that's different from you personally thinking so, Senpai, isn't it?"
In the face of Iroha Isshiki's counter, Yukino Yukinoshita's expression barely shifted. "There's no difference. Judging by how much Miura Yumiko likes Hayama Hayato, I can gauge Hayama Hayato's popularity at Sobu High as a reference point. There's nothing wrong with that logic."
Yukino Yukinoshita kept her tone as calm as possible, careful not to let any fluctuation give the girl in front of her more room for speculation.
"If that's the explanation, Senpai, you're being awfully sly. I'd really appreciate it if you'd just be honest."
But Yukino Yukinoshita still gave no reaction whatsoever.
To her, staying calm was the best strategy.
"Then what about Lin Ye-senpai? Between him and Hayama-senpai, who's better in your eyes, Senpai?"
This question cut much sharper.
Normally, Iroha Isshiki wouldn't ask something like this unless she suspected Yukino Yukinoshita had feelings for Lin Ye—
that suspicion was the only reason she'd bother probing like this,
using the question to test Yukino Yukinoshita.
But—
Yukino Yukinoshita really didn't think Iroha Isshiki actually suspected anything of the sort. Or maybe this was simply Isshiki's habitual way of probing.
Even though Yukino had already turned down Lin Ye's confession multiple times, she still couldn't entirely shake off that suspicion from others.
Iroha Isshiki had a habitual wariness toward any girl who appeared near Lin Ye.
"Do I even need to answer that?"
Yukino Yukinoshita chose to counter with a question of her own.
But that answer was neither here nor there.
Yukino Yukinoshita had no intention of answering directly.
"Of course you need to say it, Senpai! Come on, just say it—who's better in your eyes, Senpai or Hayama-senpai?"
Yukino Yukinoshita's dark blue eyes didn't waver even slightly; she simply kept watching calmly,
until finally Iroha Isshiki gave up asking, realizing she wasn't going to get an answer today. This question, it seemed, wasn't going to be answered at all.
"Senpai, I'm different from Yukinoshita-senpai. I've always, always thought you were the best. You're the most important boy in my life!"
Iroha Isshiki had directly declared Lin Ye the single most important, most uniquely positioned person in her life.
And someone in that kind of position ought to hold the title of lover, really.
Iroha Isshiki watched him with a smile, waiting for Lin Ye's answer.
Lin Ye glanced at her, then spoke. "Isshiki, you can't become my most special person."
"Second most special works too! I know I can't beat Yukinoshita-senpai."
"Not second either."
"Then third."
In any case, Iroha Isshiki's standards were rock bottom.
Lin Ye raised a single hand.
"Fifth place? Well... that's not entirely out of the question!"
"Five hundredth."
The moment those words left Lin Ye's mouth, Yukino Yukinoshita couldn't hold back a laugh, and Yui Yuigahama nearly burst out laughing too.
Only Iroha Isshiki herself froze on the spot.
She pouted, expressing her displeasure.
"Senpai, five hundredth is way too much! No matter how strong your body is, you couldn't possibly handle five hundred concubines in a harem!"
"You don't need to worry about that. My body's plenty strong, plenty capable."
"Senpai, quit bragging. Seriously, quit it."
Iroha Isshiki looked him up and down carefully. "Just looking at your build, Senpai, I alone could wring you dry."
She seemed quite confident in her own abilities. "And even if I couldn't do it alone, there's still my girlfriend, Yuigahama-senpai. The two of us together—dealing with you would be way too easy."
With that, Iroha Isshiki grabbed Yui Yuigahama's wrist.
The two of them held hands, making their stance and position clear.
"Right, Yuigahama-senpai?"
"N-no, I can't do that, I really can't," Yui Yuigahama said, shaking her head frantically in embarrassment.
When it came to things like this, she always refused, as a rule.
"How can a girl say 'can't'? You should say 'don't want to'! Senpai definitely loves it when we say 'don't want to'!"
And with that, the teasing erupted into a full-blown scuffle.
Yui Yuigahama's face turned bright red and stayed that way.
Lin Ye looked over at Yukino Yukinoshita with a helpless expression.
In response, Yukino Yukinoshita's reaction was immediate and blunt—a single eye-roll.
The meaning behind it was clear enough to Lin Ye.
—You just had to go flirting with the underclassmen.
But he was innocent.
He'd never once flirted with any underclassman. When would he even have had the chance?
Iroha Isshiki was the one who kept sticking to him, like some kind of plaster that just wouldn't peel off.
No matter how many times he rejected her, none of it ever worked.
Lin Ye signaled to Yukino Yukinoshita to do something about it,
but the girl gave no response—whether she hadn't caught the signal, or had caught it but simply had no intention of helping, there was no telling.
"Senpai, senpai, this morning Miura-senpai called you over to... uh, never mind, forget I asked, you don't have to answer that."
Even though Lin Ye had already warned her off that morning, Iroha Isshiki's curiosity was still at maximum.
She'd even hoped to use the presence of Yukino Yukinoshita and Yui Yuigahama right now to get what she wanted.
But in the end, seeing Lin Ye's reaction, she decisively decided to drop it.
Iroha Isshiki shot a glance at Yukinoshita-senpai.
In a way, her words had served as a hint to her senpai as well.
She'd figure out how to press Yukinoshita-senpai for the answer she wanted later.
Lunch break was almost over.
All four of them got ready to head back.
Iroha Isshiki and Yui Yuigahama left first.
Now, Yukino deliberately slowed her pace.
Lin Ye obligingly matched his steps to hers—he knew the girl had something she wanted to ask.
Since Miura Yumiko had pulled him aside that morning, Yukino was bound to be curious.
But since Yukino wasn't asking, Lin Ye had no intention of volunteering the information himself.
He was determined to wait until she asked on her own.
And Yukino Yukinoshita, sensing exactly what he was up to,
thinking of this scoundrel's typical style, finally gave in and spoke first.
After all,
historically speaking,
when it came to dealing with this man, it was always she who ended up compromising.
"Tell me. What happened this morning?"
"What happened with what?"
"Lin Ye, we don't have much time."
She reminded him.
There wasn't much time left before lunch break ended, and the walk back to the school building wouldn't take long either.
If Lin Ye kept stalling, she wouldn't get the information she wanted before noon was over.
"I think you need to be especially wary of Miura Yumiko."
Wary? Wary of Miura Yumiko?
Why?
Why would he say something like that?
Yukino Yukinoshita was utterly baffled, completely unable to understand.
Why would he say something like that out of nowhere?
Had Miura Yumiko actually confessed to Lin Ye that morning?
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