With spring break underway and the graduates gone, ANHS felt noticeably quieter. Losing almost a third of the entire student body all at once made both the cafeteria and Keyaki Mall look a lot more spacious.
Walking out of the flower shop, Yukio felt that change even more clearly. Technically, there were still plenty of students at Keyaki Mall—spring break was still spring break, after all—just… not nearly as many as before.
Waiting outside the shop, Sakayanagi leaned on her cane and came forward to meet him, finally getting a clear look at what he was holding in his arms—a potted plant.
"Aloe?"
The two of them had run into each other at Keyaki Mall by chance. Yukio had come to buy some plants, while Sakayanagi was out to have afternoon tea with Kamuro.
The moment she bumped into Yukio, Sakayanagi told Kamuro to head back first and chose to stay behind and tag along with him.
Once she realized their destination was the flower shop, she had even less intention of leaving, simply waiting outside.
Two first-years with major influence, walking openly together through Keyaki Mall like this—it naturally drew a lot of attention, like a young couple out on a date.
But neither of them cared in the slightest about the stares. To both Yukio and Sakayanagi, those curious glances were basically background noise.
Of course, Yukio wasn't tactless enough to only buy something for himself and not offer Sakayanagi anything.
When he asked her what flowers she liked, though, she turned him down.
Her reason was that she'd been frail since birth, and some flowers' pollen could trigger allergies or make her feel unwell. Since she put it that way, Yukio really couldn't insist on buying flowers for her, and just asked her to wait outside while he went in to pick something out.
"Yeah." Yukio nodded as the two of them started heading back. "Hiyori said yesterday my room looked way too plain, and that I should buy some plants for decoration and air purification."
"I felt like that was a pretty good idea, so I came to buy some."
"Pfft~" Sakayanagi unexpectedly let out a laugh. "I thought you were buying flowers for some girl again, so I followed to see which girl it would be."
"So it was just for decorating your room, hmm. But this aloe… was it Shiina who recommended it?"
Her tone made it very clear she was probing for information on Shiina.
Yukio, of course, heard the implication, but didn't care at all. "Nope. I picked it myself."
"Eh?" Sakayanagi glanced at the plant, at the leaves lined with sharp little spikes at the tips, and couldn't help feeling curious.
"So you chose it yourself… Did you pick it for its versatility? Edible, skincare, medicinal and all that?"
Aloe really was a very healthy plant—you could make edible gel from it, use it externally for skincare, or apply it directly to wounds to disinfect and reduce inflammation.
It had so many uses people called it a first aid kit of the plant world.
"No." Yukio casually popped her theory like a soap bubble. "I just wanted something that doesn't die easily. I'm not the kind of guy who likes fussing over plants."
"I only bought it to decorate the room a bit. As long as it looks okay, that's enough. Aloe only needs watering once in a long while—pretty much the same tier as a cactus. But cacti don't purify the air as well as aloe, so I chose this."
"…"
Sakayanagi blinked, momentarily speechless, feeling a genuine respect for how brutally honest he was.
"I thought you were the type who was meticulous about cleaning," she murmured.
The last time she'd gone to his room to give him Valentine's chocolate, it had been spotless and neat, leaving a deep impression on her.
Now… apparently it wasn't quite what she'd imagined.
"Cleaning's one thing," Yukio said. "That's just a habit I trained into myself. Carefully tending plants is a whole different category."
Sakayanagi's voice was soft and meaningful. "Then you could always trouble someone else to care for it. For instance… Shiina-san."
She was very mindful of Hiyori. In Sakayanagi's eyes, the only one truly worth treating as a rival was Shiina.
"No thanks." Yukio knew Hiyori's personality very well; she would be perfect for this sort of thing.
But his room was his space—he preferred to set it up the way he liked.
"If I let Hiyori look after it," he said, "she'd definitely start buying several more varieties. Then the plants would take up way too much space."
So the only thing that bothered him was the space, not her buying more plants?
Truly, Shiina-san had his favor. Thinking that, Sakayanagi's violet eyes turned just a bit more playful. "By the way, Yukio-kun, they say aloe is good for skincare. How about we go to your room and try it out?"
No matter what, Sakayanagi was still a girl, and girls were naturally drawn to beauty and skincare. Suggesting they test aloe's cosmetic effects wouldn't raise any eyebrows.
"Sure." Yukio glanced down at the potted aloe in his arms. This one had plenty of leaves; cutting off the tip of a single leaf wouldn't hurt it.
"But you might be allergic," he added. "We'll try a little bit on the back of your hand first. If you react, we drop it."
Sakayanagi froze for a second, then her lips curled into a sweet smile. "Of course. I'll leave it all to you."
Before long, the two of them reached the first-year dorm.
Once they entered the lobby, Sakayanagi suddenly slowed her pace—whether on purpose or because she was tired, who could say.
She made sure to walk slowly enough that they caught plenty of attention in the first-year lobby before finally stepping into the elevator together.
Seeing that, a bunch of first-years blinked and looked at each other.
"Hey, that's Yukio and Sakayanagi, right? I'm not seeing things?"
"You're not. That's definitely Yukio and Sakayanagi."
"Then why are they coming back together? And going upstairs together? No way… Are they on a date?!"
"Eh, eh, eh?! Yukio-kun and Sakayanagi-san on a date? Doesn't that title belong to Yukio-kun and Shiina-san?"
Right then, Ibuki—who had just gotten back from watching a movie and was in an excellent mood—stepped into the lobby.
The moment she heard the chatter, her expression froze.
…The hell did they just say? Someone stole my damn man?
…
Yukio and Sakayanagi, oblivious to the stir they'd caused, didn't care about any of the attention.
Back in his room, Yukio just put the aloe down in a corner and called it a day.
He dug out a pair of scissors and snipped off a small segment of one leaf.
At first, he was planning to hold it directly and apply it to Sakayanagi's hand himself, but then he remembered just how frail she was.
If he used too much force, she'd probably be hospitalized after one poke.
Better to be safe.
He hunted down the first-aid kit, took out a cotton swab, and dabbed it in the clear gel at the cut surface of the aloe.
Only then did he gently apply a small amount to the back of Sakayanagi's hand.
They waited quietly for a few minutes. No redness, no itchiness, no discomfort—everything was fine.
Yukio finally handed the little aloe segment to Sakayanagi.
If she wanted to test its beauty effects, she could do it herself. He had no clue about that stuff.
Sakayanagi accepted it with a smile and had just opened her mouth to say something when…
BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!
A barrage of frantic knocks pounded against the door.
"OPEN UP! HURRY UP AND OPEN THIS DOOR!"
"If you've got the guts to steal my man, you've got the guts to open this damn door!"
....
For every 100 Power Stones → +1 extra chapter.
Read 50+ chapters ahead on Patreon! [patreon.com/METARLN]