A new day.
Teitan High School.
"Hoshino, do you really not want to go to school?"
At the shoe lockers in the school building, Sonoko asked as she changed her shoes, looking at Kurosawa Hoshino beside her, who had a sour expression.
"Of course. Not going to school would be the best."
As Kurosawa Hoshino spoke, he opened his shoe locker and found a letter inside.
Before he could take it out, a surprised cry came from Ran's direction.
"What's wrong?"
Sonoko leaned over to look, then said in surprise, "A letter? Don't tell me it's a love letter for you?"
"I don't know." Ran shook her head.
"Actually, I have one here too."
Kurosawa Hoshino said calmly.
"What?"
Ran and Sonoko both came over to his side and indeed saw a letter in his shoe locker.
"How infuriating!" Sonoko shouted, hands on her hips, quickly scanning the other people changing shoes. She said unhappily, "How come you two get love letters and no one gives me one? Infuriating, infuriating, so infuriating!"
"It's not necessarily a love letter."
Kurosawa Hoshino was about to reach for it, but Sonoko beat him to it and snatched it out.
Sonoko didn't mean any harm; she simply didn't believe anyone could win over Kurosawa Hoshino with just a love letter. If he could be won over that easily, he wouldn't be Kurosawa Hoshino.
"Hoshino, I'll read it for you. Ran, give me yours too."
Ran saw that her best friend hadn't received a love letter, so she didn't say anything about the request and handed over her letter.
Of course, they wouldn't read them here.
The three decided to go back to the classroom to read them slowly.
So they quickly went upstairs.
Before long, they entered the classroom.
Each went to their own seat.
Kurosawa Hoshino and Ran both pulled their chairs over to Sonoko's desk, waiting for her to open the envelopes.
Sonoko waved the two letters and asked, "Who first?"
"Me." Kurosawa Hoshino smiled.
"Okay."
Sonoko took a small pair of scissors from her bag, carefully cut open the letter, took out the paper inside, unfolded it, and read quietly: "I apologize for writing to you so abruptly. Please forgive me. The truth is, every time I think of Senior Hoshino, my heart pounds, and I can't sleep at night. Would you meet me? After school, I'll be waiting in front of the fountain at Beika Park."
"She called you Senior Hoshino, so she's a junior, one grade below us," Ran said.
"Definitely." Sonoko sighed, then said with some pride, "Hoshino is famous in our school now, famous all over Tokyo. It's normal for a junior to confess to him."
"No name?" Kurosawa Hoshino asked.
Sonoko unfolded the letter again and checked carefully, even the envelope. "Seems like no name. Looks like a shy junior. Hoshino, what do you say? Want to meet her?"
"Let's see Ran's first." Kurosawa Hoshino didn't answer and pointed to the other letter.
"Okay."
Sonoko decisively opened Ran's love letter as well and read quietly: "I apologize for writing to you so abruptly. Please forgive me. The truth is, every time I think of Senior Ran, my heart pounds, and I can't sleep at night. Would you meet me? After school, I'll be waiting in front of the fountain at Beika Park."
When she finished, Sonoko was dumbfounded, Ran was dumbfounded, and Kurosawa Hoshino rubbed his chin in thought.
After a while, Sonoko said irritably, "Is someone messing with you two?"
"Let me see."
Kurosawa Hoshino took both papers and compared them. He said, "I don't know if someone's messing with us, but these two letters were written by the same person."
Sonoko asked, "So is this person a junior boy or a junior girl?"
"Hiss—" Ran inhaled sharply, feeling that either way it was strange.
Kurosawa Hoshino recalled an episode in the story where Ran also received a love letter. But the girl who sent it didn't even have a name; she only appeared briefly at the end and then was gone.
Yes, in that episode, the one who sent Ran a love letter was a girl.
But if it really was that girl, why would she send him a love letter too? Or had she now fallen for him? Had he turned her straight?
"No." Kurosawa Hoshino thought to himself, "She sent two love letters. Looks like she wants to have both guys and girls. This junior is really—heh—"
"Hey, Hoshino, did you figure something out?" Sonoko nudged him lightly.
Kurosawa Hoshino snapped back and shook his head. "I haven't figured out anything. Whether it's a prank or not, I guess we'll only know if we go to Beika Park after school."
"What about the stage play rehearsal?" Ran still remembered that.
Sonoko waved her hand grandly. "We'll take a day off. I'm the director, so I decide. I also really want to see what this is all about."
Time flew.
After school that afternoon.
Kurosawa Hoshino and the others arrived early at the fountain in Beika Park to wait.
Perhaps because they were early, they didn't see anyone in Teitan High School uniforms—only the three of them.
Sonoko paced in place, chattering, "You guys, don't tell me this is a prank? Actually, there's no way anyone will come. I think it's very likely. If that's the case, don't let me find out who it is. I'll definitely make them pay."
"I'm not worried about that. I'm more worried about what's above us." Kurosawa Hoshino stared at the sky overhead.
Hearing this, Ran and Sonoko also looked up.
There were thick dark clouds in the sky, looking like it was about to rain heavily.
"Oh no, I didn't bring an umbrella." Ran said worriedly.
"There are plenty of stores on the way. We can just buy one then." Sonoko waved her hand, thinking it was a small matter.
Just then, footsteps sounded. They all looked forward and saw a girl wearing glasses and a Teitan High School uniform, carrying two bouquets of flowers, jogging over.
"I'm so sorry. I wrote that I would wait for you, but I ended up making you wait for me."
The girl's cheeks were flushed, and her big eyes darted back and forth between Kurosawa Hoshino and Ran.
Sonoko asked, "Junior, so you sent the love letters?"
"Yes." The girl wasn't embarrassed at all. She boldly said, "I'm a fan of Senior Ran, the karate club captain, and Senior Hoshino, who's amazing at deductions. Here, these are for you."
She handed over the two bouquets.
"Thank you." Ran took hers when she saw it was a junior.
"Thank you." Kurosawa Hoshino took his as well, confirming that this girl was the nameless one from the original story who had sent Ran a love letter.
After thinking for a moment, he asked, "Junior, so did you send love letters to both me and Ran because you just wanted to talk to us, or do you really want to confess to both of us together?"
The girl lowered her eyes and said shyly, "I really like both you, Senior Ran, and you, Senior Hoshino. When I figure out which one of you I like more, I'll come find you and confess. Bye~"
With that, she didn't give them a chance to stop her, nor did she leave her name. She turned and ran off quickly.
"This junior is really—" Sonoko didn't know how to评价, so she looked at the two and teased, "Ran, Hoshino, you two are in danger. This junior likes both guys and girls. Be careful she doesn't take both of you."
Ran's face turned red, and she glared at her best friend.
Kurosawa Hoshino looked up at the sky. "Let's go home. Otherwise, it'll be bad if it rains."
Sonoko sighed. "Then I'll go back too. On a rainy day, shopping isn't fun."