V3 Chapter 13: "Just what kind of relationship?"

"You meant that's what you meant by 'see you then'?"

Kazami Haru gave the blue-haired menace in front of him a strange look, eyeing her up and down.

"That's right," replied the great Ryo-san casually, handing him a can of orange juice.

"Haru."

Her expression hadn't changed at all, it was the same deadpan as always.

But the way she said his name had the faintest trace of a pouty undertone. Her normally aloof, golden eyes shimmered just a bit with a softer glow, and Haru found himself starting to crumble.

"Gimme that." He snatched the juice from her with a sigh.

Clack.

Once he popped the tab open and handed it back, Ryo gave a small, satisfied smile.

"As thanks, here."

Wearing a rare smirk, the usually expressionless Ryo pulled out a matching candy stick from her pocket and held it between her index and middle finger, like she was offering him a cigarette.

If he didn't know for a fact that she didn't smoke, he'd have assumed this was just a reflex born from habit.

Haru didn't take the candy. Instead, he rolled his eyes and asked with a skeptical tone, "Okay, what do you need from me?"

There was no way Ryo was just giving away her snacks for free. There had to be a trap waiting somewhere down the line. Like once he took the candy, she'd smirk victoriously and say, "That was a beautiful girl's candy, now you owe me."

"There is something, yeah. But can we talk somewhere else?" Yamada Ryo replied, glancing out of the corner of her eye at Chihaya Anon.

Because just now, Ryo had gotten Haru to open a can for her in a very girlfriend-like way, and that had absolutely stunned Anon. Her gem-like gray eyes visibly trembled.

Those gorgeous eyes were filled with disbelief.

How dare another girl, right in front of her, so naturally let Haru open a can for her?

That was supposed to be a girlfriend privilege!

And the pink gremlin… finally lost her cool.

"Um—"

A voice called out from behind, stopping Ryo in her tracks.

She turned expressionlessly, locking eyes with the bright, steely gray gaze of Chihaya Anon.

"You're Ryo-senpai, the bassist from Kessoku Band, right? I heard your name from Kita-chan," Anon said, eyes fixed on Ryo's face, trying to read something—anything—from her expression.

"I am," Ryo replied.

But Anon didn't realize, Ryo could maintain a blank face under any circumstance.

No matter who was questioning her, she stayed unreadable. Even her voice didn't betray much emotion, frustrating Anon, who usually excelled at reading the mood and people's expressions.

This was also the first time Ryo was seeing the so-called "Chihaya Anon" Kita had mentioned.

Just by looking at her bright, sakura-pink hair and that sunlit, popular-girl smile (so much like Kita's), Ryo had already sized up her personality, and her threat level.

"What's going on here…?"

Haru glanced over to Kita Ikuyo, only to see her watching him too.

Normally cheerful and upbeat, Kita now wore an awkward expression, her eyes dodging his.

That guilty look triggered an ominous feeling in Haru.

After all, Ryo and Anon were his "Ex-Wife No.1" and "Ex-Wife No.2" in the simulation.

If they could get all the way to happily ever after with him in the sim, then in real life. if not actual crushes, there were definitely strong feelings involved!

Now, with the two "ex-wives" running into each other in the flesh… even he was starting to panic a little.

"Ah! Sorry if that was too forward…"

"I'm Chihaya Anon, first-year at Haneoka High~ I'm also in a band with Harumi and Tomori on guitar. Kita-chan told me Kessoku Band is performing this weekend, I'll be cheering you on!"

Anon's probing was flawless.

In just a few lines, she conveyed a lot of information.

She subtly signaled that she was friends with Kita and Bocchi to lower Ryo's defenses. She also openly used the nickname "Harumi" to emphasize their closeness.

Her smile looked easy and natural, but beneath it was a faint, territorial edge.

If Ryo reacted to that nickname at all, Anon would know.

"Yamada Ryo, second-year at Shimokitazawa High. Bass."

Ryo replied flatly.

Her expression unchanged, she mentally marked Chihaya Anon as a B-level threat.

Honestly, she didn't seem nearly as dangerous as Kita.

"This is tricky…"

Anon felt a ton of pressure just standing in front of Ryo.

Even though someone like Shiina Taki, who had a knockout figure didn't intimidate her, Ryo's sheer beauty made her feel completely outclassed for the first time.

Still, she was not about to lose.

"Ryo-senpai seems really close with Haru~ Are you two just… bandmates?"

Huh?

Haru hadn't expected Anon to throw him under the bus like that. The question made him hesitate.

Strictly speaking, yes, they were just bandmates.

Given that…

Haru glanced at the poker-faced Ryo. Then, almost in unison, they responded—

"Yes."

"No."

They gave completely opposite answers.

Haru stared at Ryo, dumbfounded.

Just as he was about to ask what she meant, Ryo met his eyes with a slight curl at the corner of her lips. Her golden gaze held a kind of reassuring confidence.

Seriously? She looked so smug.

That weirdly comforting look somehow made Haru want to believe her. After a short pause, he decided to let her handle it.

He wanted to see what kind of "reassuring" answer she was about to throw out.

Ryo looked straight ahead, adopting the most serious expression she could muster.

"We're in a purely physical relationship."

Whack!

A knifehand chop came crashing down on her head a second later.

Of course she couldn't be trusted to say anything remotely helpful. If she just shut up for once, that'd be a miracle.

Even though Haru had reacted at lightning speed, Ryo's words had already dropped like a shockwave, stunning Anon like the impact of an earthquake.

"Ph-phy-physical…"

She stood there, mouth open, mind blank, her head spinning with Ryo's calm, direct declaration.

"Ryo-senpai, what are you even saying?! That's totally not true, right?!" Kita shouted, face flushed red, rushing over and slapping a hand over Ryo's mouth.

She was terrified Ryo might follow up with another outrageous line just for fun.

Aside from Haru, she probably knew Ryo best.

Ryo did whatever she wanted, with a free-spirited attitude that ignored any kind of common sense. She said whatever was on her mind, no matter how insane it sounded.

To keep this from spiraling out of control, Haru quickly jumped in.

"Don't listen to her. She's just a weirdo bassist with a bizarre sense of humor."

Chihaya Anon, still stunned, slowly began to recover.

"I-Is that so…? Y-Yeah, that makes sense…"

Her scalp still tingling, she nodded, clearly still rattled.

Now that she thought about it, of course! Haru had always been by her side!

If some scheming vixen had tried to get close to him, there's no way she, who was constantly nearby, wouldn't have noticed. Believing that line so easily, she must've been a total idiot.

"Damn it…"

Chihaya Anon had truly never met a girl with a personality as strange as Yamada Ryo's.

It was one thing to be that emotionless, icy-cool type, but to then suddenly drop a line so full of "implications"?!

Because of that one comment, Anon had completely lost her composure. She'd even considered doing something as extreme as confessing under a bridge that very night, and not going home afterward.

But thinking about it more calmly, Ryo probably really was just… a weirdo.

Maybe whatever she felt for Kazami Haru wasn't the kind of closeness Anon had imagined.

"Kita, I'll leave this side to you. I'm taking Ryo and getting out of here!"

Noticing the growing crowd of onlookers, Haru didn't hesitate. He grabbed Yamada Ryo by the wrist and pulled her away, leaving behind a stunned Anon and a thoroughly embarrassed Kita, rubbing her temples with her face still flushed red.

"A-Anon-chan, please don't misunderstand!"

"Ryo-senpai says weird things sometimes even during band practice. Stuff like 'drinking, smoking, and sleeping around,' or 'a real rock band needs to be chaotic' and so on…"

Even Kita, who had originally been hoping to "use a tiger to scare off a wolf," was now desperately trying to do damage control.

She never imagined Ryo-senpai would just drop something that explosive in front of everyone.

Her battle power was on a completely different level than the pink gremlin's.

"Kita-chan…"

Still flustered, Kita was startled as Anon suddenly addressed her directly, regaining her composure.

"Please tell me more about that Ryo-senpai."

Anon clenched her fists tightly. Whatever pride or smugness she had earlier had now completely vanished.

Was it the shift in the worldline? First Wakaba Mutsu suddenly appeared, and now Yamada Ryo.

Troublesome rivals were popping up like bamboo shoots in spring. And with them, the danger only kept increasing.

If she wanted to secure her future "good ending," Chihaya Anon knew she couldn't afford to let her guard down anymore.

One small slip-up, and someone else might swoop in and steal her man right out from under her!

…

Haru dragged Yamada Ryo into a dessert café with a minimalist black-and-white interior.

The moment they sat down, Ryo casually flipped through the menu on the table and immediately ordered several desserts and a proper Blue Mountain coffee from the server, without so much as blinking.

No doubt about it—Yamada Ryo was a rich girl.

Her food instincts were top-tier. The few random desserts she picked? All the café's top-rated items. Her taste was unreasonably on point.

When the sweets arrived, her golden eyes lit up ever so slightly.

But just as she was about to dig in, Haru reached over and swiped the entire plate of caramel pudding.

"Mind explaining what the hell you meant by 'purely physical relationship'?" Haru said, rolling his eyes.

Ryo's gaze remained fixed on the pudding now in front of him. Slightly annoyed, Haru took a silver spoon, scooped out a big chunk, and shoved it into his mouth—right in front of her.

That shameless act of dessert theft added a hint of pouty grievance to her already stunning face.

But Haru, having long since seen through her act, wasn't moved.

"Haru, bullying me."

"The new episode of Kagaku Sentai Dynaman is about to start. I'm heading home," Haru said coolly, glancing at the 'air' watch on his left wrist with mock seriousness.

He got up as if to leave, but of course, he had timed it perfectly.

Not even a second passed before Ryo grabbed the hem of his shirt.

"Haru~ If you leave, I'll really have no choice but to wash dishes to pay."

She was broke and yet, she'd boldly ordered dessert after dessert the moment they sat down.

She obviously counted on Haru to cover for her.

In her mind, they were going to get married eventually anyway. So dipping into her "wifely privileges" a little early didn't seem like a big deal.

Wasn't that just common sense?

"You still haven't paid me back from last time, have you?"

"I just bought the newest bass model," Ryo said, gently placing a hand on her stomach. Her voice turned faintly pouty. "I've been eating weeds by the roadside for lunch ever since… If it's Haru, you'll let me delay it a bit, right?"

"Haha, absolutely not."

"…Then I'll really have to settle the debt with a 'purely physical relationship.'"

Her pale, slender fingers wrapped around the spoon, stirring the Blue Mountain coffee with its sugar cube.

While Haru was caught off guard by her bold line, she sneakily retrieved the caramel pudding. With perfect poise, she began to eat it, savoring each bite elegantly and slowly.

After swallowing the final spoonful, she even instinctively licked the corner of her lips.

The steam rose from the coffee cup beside her, and her beauty seemed to glow in the warm café light.

That indirect kiss from earlier? At this point, neither of them seemed to treat it as anything out of the ordinary.

"…"

Haru took a deep breath. His temples ached.

He'd almost fallen for it again.

He could clearly tell, this version of Yamada Ryo was already dangerously close to the one from the simulation. If he let himself be swayed now and confessed, she'd probably accept on the spot.

After all, Ryo was one of only two girls who had said "yes" to his confession in the simulation.

But if he did that now, he wouldn't be able to continue the sim.

"So? Didn't you say you had something you needed from me today?"

"…?"

A rare flicker of confusion crossed Ryo's face before realization dawned.

"Wait… don't tell me you forgot?"

Yeah… she totally did.

Haru sighed, just as he'd suspected.

He was about to bring up the song adjustments when Ryo suddenly spoke—

"Haru, let's start the performance."

"Right now. Immediately."

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