After a polite greeting with Hiratsuka Shizuka, Yukinoshita also walked into the apartment building.
She didn't choose to wait for Mori Shinra to go upstairs before entering. Since he also lived here, running into him was only a matter of time. Rather than avoiding it now, it was better to walk up and greet him openly.
"Hello, we meet again, Mori Shinra-san."
"Hm? Yukinoshita-san?"
Mori Shinra, who was waiting for the elevator, thought he was hearing things. When he turned his head, he saw it really was Yukinoshita.
"You live here too?" Shinra was a little surprised.
"Yes, it's been almost a year since I moved in," Yukinoshita replied.
'Has it been a year already?' Shinra wondered why, if she had been living here for nearly a year, he had never run into her.
He quickly figured out the answer. She was different from him; she had her own club to stay at after school. As a member of the Go-Home Club, he went straight home the moment school ended. Of course they wouldn't cross paths.
Besides, Shinra didn't go out often, usually staying home even on holidays. Except for going out with friends, the radius of his activities was mostly limited to the surrounding supermarkets and shopping centers.
Even when he did go to the supermarket, his purpose was clear: buy what he needed and go home, never wasting a moment outside.
Ding~
The elevator doors opened.
Shinra gestured for the lady to go first. Yukinoshita took a step back, indicating with her actions that the patient should go first.
A high-level corporate drone, just getting off work, couldn't help but twitch his lips at this scene. A full day of work was tiring enough, and now he had to come home and witness the springtime of youth. Could his day get any worse?
Shinra saw the resentment practically overflowing from the office worker. The man's aura was as black as Sadako emerging at midnight; it was scary as hell.
He immediately stopped being polite and briskly entered the elevator on his crutch. Yukinoshita, seemingly realizing she was in someone's way, also hurried inside.
Perhaps because the aura of death on the middle-aged man's face was too thick, Yukinoshita Yukino subtly leaned closer to Mori Shinra's side. At the same time, she noticed that the floor button he had pressed was exactly one floor below her own.
"Do you need me to press the button for your floor, Yukinoshita-san?" Shinra noticed her gaze and assumed she wanted him to help her.
"One floor up from yours. Thank you." Yukinoshita accepted his kind offer.
After she said this, the elevator became quiet again, with only the hum of the motor audible. With the first 'ding', the office worker who had shared the elevator with them got off.
The elevator doors slowly closed, and they were once again left alone.
Only this time, neither of them spoke.
Yukinoshita's gaze involuntarily shifted to the boy's left leg beside her. She hesitated for a long time, unsure of what to say, and ultimately kept her mouth shut.
Ding~
Shinra's floor arrived. After walking out of the elevator, he suddenly turned back to Yukinoshita and said, "See you in two weeks, Madam President."
Before Yukinoshita could reply, the elevator doors had already closed. Staring at the silvery-white doors, the girl shook her head and whispered as if to herself, "See you in two weeks."
---Two Weeks Later---
Fully recovered and back to full health, Mori Shinra returned to his loyal Class 2-F. Well, the reality was that hardly anyone noticed him.
Due to the class reshuffling in the second year, his friends hadn't been assigned to Class F. Plus, with Shinra being absent from school for nearly two weeks, the small cliques in the class had already formed. He was, unsurprisingly, excluded. Aside from a few exceptionally curious individuals who glanced his way, almost no one else had any desire to interact with him.
The clique culture in Japan is just the worst.
Although Shinra thought this, he had no intention of actively joining any small group.
Mr. Zhou Shuren once said: Fierce beasts are solitary, while cattle and sheep flock together.
Compared to joining a small group, Shinra preferred to form his own with people he found agreeable. If there was no one he found agreeable, then he wouldn't form one at all.
Quality over quantity.
But for some reason, as Shinra sat in his seat, he kept feeling like someone was staring holes through him, a chill running down his back.
Shinra had always trusted his intuition. He immediately scanned his surroundings like a lion surveying its territory. Every time his gaze landed on a person, he would use Emotion Perception on them.
What's the best method? The process of elimination.
How could he let someone get away with staring at him when he had a cheat ability?
And wouldn't you know it, as he scanned the room, he actually caught someone. The moment his gaze landed on the guy, he immediately looked away—a clear sign of a guilty conscience.
And honestly, it was Shinra's first time seeing such a textbook case of dead-fish eyes.
Is he the reincarnation of a salted fish spirit?
He looks pretty familiar, though. Have I seen him somewhere before?
...
Holy crap! Shinra remembered. This was the madman who risked his life to save a dog!
Shinra would recognize the ahoge on his head even if it were turned to ash. Seriously, why would you risk your life for a dog?
A friendly reminder: walking a dog without a leash is the same as the dog walking you.
Thinking of this, Mori Shinra, the victim of that senseless disaster, felt his mood sour. If it weren't for the feelings of shame and guilt he sensed coming from the guy, Shinra would have, one way or another, found a way to give Mr. Dead-Fish Eyes a piece of his mind.
As for now... he would remember this grudge.
However, the matter wasn't over. After confirming that the dog-lover was no longer looking at him, the feeling of being stared at still lingered.
There's another master?
Puzzled, Shinra thought that since he'd already started looking, he might as well check everyone. He could just consider it getting to know his classmates.
...No way, there really is another one?
Shinra's gaze fell upon a pink-haired girl. The distance was a bit far, so he couldn't see her face clearly, but she was probably quite cute. As for his basis? None, just a gut feeling.
But none of that was the point. The point was that he also sensed feelings of shame and guilt from her, and the intensity was even stronger than that of the dead-fish-eyed classmate from before!
You were involved in the car accident too?
Bonnie and Clyde? A dog-loving couple?
The situation was so bizarre that it completely stumped him.
After school, Shinra prepared to pack his things and head to the special building for his club activity. He hadn't been idle during his two weeks at home; he had basically figured out the logic of his system and planned to officially start helping people at the Service Club.
Besides that, Shinra noticed that the two masters seemed to still be staring at him. Seeing him stand up from his seat, they looked like they wanted to come over and talk, but for some reason, they sat back down.
And wouldn't you know it, the two of them were perfectly synchronized. Did they plan it?
Seeing that the pair had no intention of approaching him, Shinra wasn't about to go up and ask them what they wanted. He left the classroom directly.
And after Mori Shinra left, the pink-haired girl hesitated for a moment, then proactively approached the dead-fish-eyed boy and said, "Hikki, what do we do now?"