Back at the banquet, Takashi glanced around. Kotonoha was nowhere to be found, and Eriri was also missing. He didn't bother searching.
Instead, he went to the long buffet table overflowing with delicacies and began eating again.
He didn't attend many elite banquets like this, so today, he was going to make sure he got his fill.
He picked up a plate—beef on the left, lamb on the right. Who cared about the taste? The ingredients were clearly top-tier.
Soon, his small plate was piled high.
"Has no one ever told you that you're only allowed four types of food per plate—and only in small amounts?"
A crisp, cold voice cut through the air. The temperature around him seemed to drop.
Takashi didn't even turn around. "Rules are meant to be broken."
He already knew who it was.
There was only one person whose very presence chilled the air like that—Yukinoshita Yukino.
"You think you have what it takes to break the rules?" Yukino stepped up beside him, picking up the tongs he had just put down.
"I have the courage to try." Takashi still didn't look back.
"Is that so?"
Yukino picked up a slice of golden roast suckling pig with her fork and placed it in her mouth.
She neither agreed nor disagreed—it was like small talk had ended. She simply focused on her food.
Unlike the uncouth Takashi, Yukino took only small portions, returning for seconds only if she liked something.
Takashi watched and could only think—such a fussy eater.
The dance floor lights shifted, shadows crisscrossed, and the crowd changed partners again and again.
But the space around Yukino and Takashi seemed to be in a shielded bubble. No one came near.
No one dared to invite Takashi to dance—everyone knew he was Hitomi's man.
Hitomi's personality was well-known in elite circles—behind that innocent and harmless exterior lay a ruthless and cold-blooded heart. No one wanted to be on her radar.
And now, with Takashi involved in some unclear, ambiguous relationship with Kaguya, no one dared approach him even more.
Nobody wanted to risk offending both the Konoe family and the Shinomiya family at the same time.
As for why no one invited Yukino…
"Is it because your personality is unlikable that no one's asked you to dance?" Takashi voiced the thought in his mind directly.
Yukino shot him a vicious glare. "No one would mistake you for mute if you stopped talking."
"So I was right."
Having successfully annoyed her, Takashi picked up a wine glass filled with fruit liqueur and raised it toward her, mimicking DiCaprio's iconic Gatsby toast.
"You're seriously infuriating!" Yukino stabbed a cherry tomato violently with her fork.
Then, she sighed. "But you're half right."
There were indeed personal reasons why she wasn't well-received.
With her looks, she should be wildly popular.
People clearly didn't understand how hard it was to carry the weight of being a top-tier beauty.
Yukino was stunning—but unfortunately, she had a mouth.
"And the other half?" Takashi asked as he popped a piece of foie gras into his mouth.
"The arrogant Tokyo natives look down on us from Chiba." Yukino replied coldly.
Discrimination.
Even among high society, there were factions.
Every region had its own inner circles.
Trying to break out of your comfort zone and integrate into another circle was extremely difficult.
To use a domestic example: if you were an outsider trying to blend into the Tokyo elite—who do you think you are?
The Tokyo natives weren't specifically targeting the Yukinoshita family. They simply looked down on them.
Even smaller families with less wealth or power acted superior.
It was that innate sense of superiority that came from being born and raised in Tokyo.
If they couldn't even be bothered with the Yukinoshita family, they sure weren't going to befriend her.
Some second-generation elites may have approached her for her beauty, but their real intent was to cage this pretty canary—to make her their personal trophy.
"I see."
Takashi understood immediately.
Big cities tend to make people feel superior by default.
It wasn't hard to understand. Even on gaming forums, though he was just a Silver II, he still looked down on Silver III players.
Of course, Silver I and above looked down on him.
Why?
Because the online world had its own caste system—strictly ranked.
If a simple game was already like this, then how much worse was reality?
Legally, all people are equal. Economically, not so much.
"That's also why my mom asked me to spend more time around you."
Yukino's mother was a very practical woman.
She never wasted time on useless people.
"So your mom sent you to seduce me?" Takashi raised his head and said it with a straight face.
Cough, cough.
Yukino choked mid-sip of water.
What did he mean by seduce him?
She was just here to make normal friends—how did that become seduction?
"If this is some kind of honey trap, then send your sister instead," Takashi said sternly, with a gaze as resolute as a man pledging loyalty to a cause.
Yukino's gaze instantly turned icy.
"Are you saying I'm not as good as my sister?"
Wasn't that obvious?
With her cold personality and thorny words, what normal person would want to get close to her?
This wasn't an anime.
When people meet someone sharp-tongued in real life, they don't think they are kawaii—they just want to get away.
"In what way am I worse than her?"
"You seriously have no self-awareness?"
"You—" Yukino started, but then noticed Takashi's eyes locking on a very specific part of her body—her chest.
Suddenly, she understood everything.
She instinctively crossed her arms over her chest and asked with a hostile tone, "What are you looking at?"
"Your necklace. It's beautiful," Takashi replied truthfully.
"Liar!"
Yukino called him out instantly, then muttered as if to herself, "Only shallow people judge a girl's worth by her chest size."
"Mhm, I agree. Small ones are really cute~"
Takashi nodded in agreement. He would never be that shallow.
Then he added, with a sly grin, "But I still prefer them big."
Yukino's face darkened instantly.
So basically, everything she just said went in one ear and out the other?
She had no desire to keep talking and just quietly continued eating.
After eating until he was full, Takashi turned to Yukino. "I think I'll go for a walk. Want to come?"
"Let's go," Yukino put down her plate.
She never liked the upper-class atmosphere anyway.
If she wasn't worried about getting lost, she would've already gone off to find a quiet place.
And when it came to getting lost, she had full confidence in herself.
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