CH 13

“―Well then, let’s go back to class.”

After finishing his yogurt and confirming that Marin’s condition had returned to normal, Yō turned to leave his seat.

The cafeteria is large enough that there are plenty of seats available, so there’s no need to rush out, but Yō wanted to get out of here as soon as possible, as he was being gazed with jealousy from all directions. 

But when Marin heard Yō’s words, her expression became cloudy.

“We’re going back to class…?”

From the look on her face, it was clear that she didn’t want to leave, and she looked like a spoiled puppy who wanted to be taken care of.

Seeing the expression on Marin’s face, all the students around her gasped and paid attention to Yō’s answer.

Then, Yō thought for a moment and returned to his posture.

“‘Isn’t it uncomfortable?’

“‘But the class is more…”

“…I see.”

When he heard Marin’s words, Yō thought about moving to a different location for a moment, but judging from the surroundings, there was a good chance that they would probably follow them.

In that case, he decided it would be better to stay in the cafeteria, where there were chairs and no need to worry about drinks.

However, it was still uncomfortable― Yō fell silent and took out his phone.

“That …….”

As for Marin, she couldn’t help but feel awkward when the person she was talking to, Yō, became silent, so she tried to talk to him to see if there was something she could say.

However, when Yō gave Marin a meaningful look, she shut her mouth.

When she looked into Yō’s eyes, his gaze shifted to his phone again, and wondering if it was possible, Marin looked at her own phone.

She looked at her phone and saw that she had received a message from Yō.

‘We’ll talk here.’

It seems that Yō doesn’t like to be overheard by others and decided to communicate via message.

(As expected, he’s very attentive…)

Marin tapped her phone while thinking about this.

“Roger that.’

“Hmm.”

(…Eh, it ended already!?)

He was going to message her, so she was expecting him to give her something to talk about, but he didn’t seem to be sending her anything more.

When Marin looked up to see Yō, he had already put his phone down on the table.

(Does he have no intention of talking at all…!?)

Marin wanted to complain, but she knew that he would respond if she sent him a message, so she decided to respond with that.

‘Hazakura-kun is a tease.’

The message from Marin said that, and Yō tilted his head to look at Marin.

Then, Marin’s cheeks puffed up in disapproval.

‘What’s wrong with you all of a sudden? I mean, your personality of always smiling is broken.’

‘Please don’t call me like that. I’m just smiling because it makes people happy.’

‘So why the puffy face now?’

When Yō asked her that, she stopped her hand from operating her phone.

She didn’t realize it until he pointed it out, but she certainly found herself showing her true emotions to Yō.

For Marin, there was only one person who had ever done this to her so far, so she wondered why she was acting this way.

However, there was one thing that she could be sure of.

It was not because she was in love with him.

‘Is it because you saw me cry…?’

‘Why are you asking me back?’

Although Yō was struck by this, even Marin herself did not know what to make of it.

So she stared at Yō’s face as if she was troubled, and Yō turned away as if he was troubled as well.

And then he started tapping on his phone.

‘Well, okay.’

The words came back to her in a simple and short sentence.

But when Marin realized that the blandness actually had the opposite meaning, she couldn’t help but smile.

(I knew it! Hazakura-kun is like a tsundere.)

Marin taps on her phone while smiling.

‘Thank you very much.’

When she sent that, Yō looked at Marin’s face as if he didn’t like it.

So when Marin dared to smile back, Yō immediately tapped on his phone.

‘Are you thinking about something weird?’

(Weird thing―well, what is it?)

Marin replies to Yō with a smile that fascinates everyone around her.

‘I’m not sure, but you’re very kind, Hazakura-kun.’

When she sent that, Yō looked even more displeased and operated his phone again.

Then, he left it on the table, but no message arrived on Marin’s phone.

(Delayed, is it…?)

Marin didn’t know how such a sudden signal failure could happen, but she waited for a little while for the message to arrive.

However, even after staring at her phone for five minutes, no message arrived at all.

Wondering why, Marin looked up to ask Yō if the message had been sent properly.

Then, she realized.

Yō was staring at Marin with a dumbfounded look on his face.

(No way―!)

What did Yō do on his phone earlier―- Marin had an idea, and hurriedly operated her phone.

Then, she sent a free stamp to Yō’s account.

However―

‘Cannot send messages to this person.’

The message came back.

When Marin received the message, she shook her body and looked at Yō’s face again as if she was sulking.

However, Yō did not seem to be paying attention to her and was already looking at his phone.

Marin understood that this attitude was deliberately aggravating her, and she smiled at him even though he was not looking at her.

The boys who were staring at Marin and the others would have gone crazy at that, but for Marin right now, she didn’t care about the reaction of the people around her.

Instead, she was preoccupied with the tormentor in front of her.

(Hee~, I see. So you’re going to do that huh. In that case, I have an idea.)

At this time, Yō didn’t know.

Marin Akimi is a girl who is loved by everyone and is kind to everyone― but in fact, she is also a girl who shows no mercy to those she deems to be unforgiving.