With a pretty face set in a cold expression, the young girl's crimson eyes were as deep and cold as ice.
In the depths of her dazed eyes... it was as if something was being torn apart, bit by bit.
The instant she saw Yuzu turn her head, Soga Yura was still thinking in her heart about how to weave an excuse.
Weaving a lie that she just happened to be passing by and came to see this good-for-nothing little sister.
Or perhaps... that Su Yuzu was, after all, a girl of the main Soga family. It would be normal for her to come and visit 'reluctantly' since she was injured.
But...
She never expected, never in a million years... that the reasons and excuses she prepared to weave would be useless from the very start.
Yuzu didn't care.
Yuzu no longer minded.
She herself was no longer the butterfly she needed to chase.
Her current self... was nothing more than a distant... poisonous weed covered in thorns.
Even if, when the seeds were sown, the girl had once liked her to death, had once sworn to always stand before her.
But... after being stabbed by her... so many times, time and again.
She finally knew pain.
"Great—"
"She feels pain now."
"But..."
"It hurts so much."
"I hurt so much too."
Soga Yura stood stiffly in the shadow cast by the building, like a frozen, withered corpse.
She stood there dead still, watching Su Yuzu holding Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi's hand.
She watched that timid, gentle girl nuzzle up to Su Yuzu carefully, glance nervously at herself, and then hug Yuzu's arm as if to embed it deeply into her own chest.
"Hey—" Sakura Mai gently touched Soga Yura's shoulder.
The girl stood frozen there, as if she had fallen into an endless winter.
Sakura Mai suddenly felt a little regret in her heart.
After all, it was she who had scammed, abducted, and forcefully dragged Soga Yura to the commercial street after hearing the report from the school hospital nurse.
If Soga Yura really cut ties with Sister Yuzu because of this and ceased all contact from now on, she... really wouldn't know what to do.
"Stop looking..."
She gently tugged at the short shirt on Soga Yura's body.
Although Sakura Mai really wanted to say... if you care about Sister Yuzu that much, just go Attack her directly.
What is there to be afraid of?
Back then, Sister Yuzu was rejected by you so many times.
Sister Yuzu didn't give up, so what do you have to despair about?
However... seeing Soga Yura's obviously abnormal state, Sakura Mai stifled all those retorts back into her heart.
She stood with Soga Yura until Su Yuzu and the girls bought their crepes, watching the girls surround Su Yuzu as they walked toward the school hospital, their backs disappearing completely into the crowd.
Only then did Sakura Mai somewhat forcefully drag Soga Yura, who was acting a bit strange all over, toward the café.
After flashing her identity card, Sakura Mai requested a private room.
Pressing Soga Yura's shoulders to force her onto the sofa, Soga Yura's crimson eyes still stared blankly out the window, gazing in the direction of the school hospital.
The girl's expression had completely frozen into a glacier.
This was different from what Sakura Mai had seen in the past... where she would deliberately put on a stinking face in front of Yuzu, looking cold as ice, but... would roll around on the bed inside after Yuzu left.
Rejoicing over and over that Yuzu came to visit her, and then panicking over and over whether her expression just now was too distant, too hurtful.
This time... it had truly frozen to the point of cracking.
"Alright... stop looking." Sakura Mai pulled the small square sofa closer and sat face-to-face with Soga Yura.
She cupped Soga Yura's face with both hands, forcing Soga Yura to look at her.
The girl's beautiful crimson eyes were trembling.
With her face forcibly turned by Sakura Mai, the small face Soga Yura had maintained in icy coldness finally couldn't be controlled anymore.
The crimson eyes gazed at Sakura Mai before her.
Whoosh—
It was as if an hourglass had flipped within those crimson eyes.
The coldness that was like ice just a moment ago shattered into ice slag in an instant.
Sakura Mai watched helplessly as Soga Yura, who was an ice sculpture just a second ago, turned into a tearful mess the next second.
Her eye sockets filled with tears, which were pouring out uncontrollably... splashing down.
"Wuu..."
"Wuuuuuaaaaaah!!!"
After she could no longer see Yuzu's figure, Soga Yura finally couldn't control herself any longer.
"Ma..."
"Mai..."
Whimpering and sobbing to the point of constant hiccups, her voice unable to form complete sentences.
Soga Yura threw herself into Sakura Mai's arms, her flooding eyes soaking Sakura Mai's chest through in an instant.
Sakura Mai had never seen a scene like this.
When had the reserved flower of Imperial Capital University ever cried so miserably?
At a loss, Sakura Mai could only slowly... slowly place her hands on Soga Yura's shoulders.
Soga Yura cried with hiccups, her shoulders and chest twitching, the girl gasping for air one breath after another.
Sakura Mai was really starting to panic.
Even last time... on the day after Soga Yura and Sister Yuzu's birthday, when Soga Yura came back from the Soga home, suffering from abdominal pain for some unknown reason to the point where cold sweat soaked her school uniform, yet she refused to go to the hospital or use a "Medical Unit".
She hadn't cried like this.
"This time..."
She really didn't know how to comfort Soga Yura.
"Yuzu..."
"Yu... Yuzu..."
"Wuu..." With a tragic, whimpering sound, Soga Yura, curled up in Sakura Mai's arms, looked up pitifully. "Yuzu doesn't want me anymore."
Although Sakura Mai really wanted to say... before this, you actually abandoned Sister Yuzu many times.
Compared to the number of times you bullied Sister Yuzu, this could only be considered a rare 'little temper tantrum' from Sister Yuzu.
After all... the old Sister Yuzu really seemed to spoil Soga Yura a bit too much.
It even made Sakura Mai feel... that Soga Yura had been spoiled rotten, becoming arrogant because of that affection.
But—
The relationship between Soga Yura and Su Yuzu.
Seemed to be more than just a simple tsundere and a soft-hearted sister.
Seeing Soga Yura cry so miserably, she could only force some comfort, "Maybe Sister Yuzu just passed a life-and-death juncture..."
"And is in a bit of a bad mood."
"Maybe Sister Yuzu will come looking for you tomorrow." Sakura Mai said words she didn't even believe in her heart.
"She won't..." Soga Yura sobbed, her shoulders trembling, her breathing hitched.
Hum—
The hourglass in the depths of her crimson eyes wanted to flip.
"Don't want it."
"I..."
"I don't want it..."
"Wuu..." Curling her body up deeply, Soga Yura hugged her own thighs tightly.
With tears smeared on her thighs, she looked at Sakura Mai pitifully.
"She won't..."
"Yuzu... no... no one... understands Yuzu better than I do..."
"Yu..."
"Yuzu really doesn't want me anymore."
"Waaa—"
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