Chapter 8: Love letter, that’s vicious

Day 14 of the school year.

There are countless surprising things in the world, but there probably aren’t many as shocking in my life as what’s happening right now.

I could feel my heart nearly drop to the floor as I confirmed the object in front of me.

There was a love letter.

“……”

There was a love letter.

In my shoe locker.

Before I could even let out a sound like “Huh?”, I was so shocked I nearly dropped the bag I was holding and collapsed.

My legs were trembling and the strength drained from my entire body, and at the same time, I thought—

What the hell?

Did my eyes finally go bad?

But no matter how many times I blinked and tried to deny reality, it was clearly a love letter.

Ah. Maybe I opened the wrong locker. Oops, what a mistake.

Then that means someone’s confessing to someone else?

That’s so exciting from a yuri perspective.

I wonder who the girls are. I’d love to at least see their faces.

I want to secretly watch the girls create a sweet and innocent yuri romance…

…Nope, it’s my locker.

Then why is something that absolutely shouldn’t be there—there?

Ah. That can happen. Someone might’ve mistakenly put it in the next locker over.

But then why does it say “To Lily” at the start of the letter?

Is there someone else with the same name as me?

Wait, there’s actually someone named Lily in this world?

She must be a super cute girl with overflowing yuri potential, right? Huh?

“…..”

Yeah, no way.

Even so, I didn’t let go of that thin strand of hope.

Even if it looked like this, it could still be something like a bill or a debt notice.

Not that either of those would ever be delivered to school, and I’d already paid off my debts anyway, so both are impossible.

At that point, I gave up on denying reality.

I was starting to feel sorry for myself.

Wait… so it’s really a love letter?

Directed at me?

What is this, some kind of new form of bullying?

What are we, middle schoolers? Who messes with people’s emotions in such a childish way?

There had been times when dead mice or maggot-ridden bugs were placed in my locker, sure—

But I swear, this was my first love letter.

And this one square piece of paper shook my mental stability far more effectively than all those immature tricks.

Note to self: the culprit is extremely smart, cautious, and malicious.

But if the culprit made one miscalculation,

It’s that I’m pretty used to bullying.

If this is just another odd form of bullying, I can handle it.

After all, reacting intensely to bullying only makes it more fun for them.

Just like how it’s more fun to step on something that squirms than something still.

So, my course of action was already decided.

Ignore it.

I crumpled up the love letter disguised as a new bullying tactic and shoved it into my bag.

I’ll just throw it in the trash later. Tch.

…

Even now, thinking back, it’s really a shame. I mean, the love letter.

If it hadn’t been addressed to me, I would’ve squeezed every last drop of joy from it.

A love letter at this age is so fresh and sweet. Ugh, just imagining it rots my teeth.

Who was the first person in history to write a love letter? A genius, I bet.

I even started humming as I let my imagination run wild.

A girl receives a letter asking her to come somewhere after school.

Half-excited, half-nervous, she shows up—only to find out the one waiting is her best girl friend.

They’d always been close, but she only thought of her as a friend…

At first, it’s awkward, and she coldly rejects her, thinking it’s better to stay friends.

But after that, she can’t stop noticing how cute and lovely that friend is.

Every touch, every bit of skinship makes her heart flutter.

She finds herself constantly looking her way.

Eventually, she admits she likes her too and decides to write a love letter herself—

But it’s too late.

The other girl’s heart has already moved on.

She gets rejected instead—and that’s the end of the prologue.

“Ugh, heh, heh, just imagining it is delicious…”

Now, sure, it could continue with them getting together soon after, which would be fine.

But if I had it my way, I’d want the main girl to suffer and regret her rejection like crazy.

She’d get all clingy, like, “Why? I like you too…”

The degree of clinginess would be so bad, she’d get scorned by the other girl.

A pitiful, rejected yuri girl—so sad and cute!

Ahhh, I just wrote a whole yuri story in my head!

As I wiped the drool dripping from my mouth, I noticed Dana looking at me from afar with an expression that screamed “pathetic.”

But as usual, I ignored her.

She’s always looking at me. Creepy.

“Something good happen to you?”

“Oh, Alicia.”

I felt a little uncomfortable being interrupted in my happy yuri daydream by her.

But I’d gotten so much free food from her over the past few days, I couldn’t bring myself to be cold.

“……”

So, uh, what happened is… hehehe… she kept buying me all sorts of tasty stuff…

Ugh, like, “Lilyyy this is yummy, that looks fun, buy me that toooo…”

And it just… happened.

Don’t call me spineless or anything, okay?

I seriously had zero intention of trying for any yuri setup with her.

I just see her as… like, a walking wallet. That’s all!

If she ever gets tired of me and stops giving, we’ll go our separate ways cleanly…!

…Wait, am I trash?

Anyway, that’s not the point!

What matters is I just have to make sure this promising young yuri talent doesn’t get contaminated with TS vibes.

If I stay strong, it’ll be fine.

In fact, she could even be the bridge to open yuri possibilities with other girls.

Like those characters who connect others.

Yeah. Call me the yuri cupid. I’ll find her the perfect girl to smooch.

So yeah, Alicia’s an exception from now on. Bam. Case closed.

It kind of feels like I’ve turned into a puppy tempted by treats, but that’s obviously just my imagination.

Sure, surrendering to money and food hurts my pride and is risky from a yuri standpoint.

But it wasn’t all bad.

One perk is that I get to see that doll-like face up close.

Those long eyelashes brushing against her blue eyes—so beautiful it’s hard to describe.

Sometimes I’d just stare at her, totally mesmerized.

Don’t get the wrong idea. It’s just aesthetic admiration, okay?

Not like I mean anything lewd. If I couldn’t call something pretty when it’s pretty, I’d have died of frustration ages ago.

“I asked if something good happened.”

“Huh? Oh. Not really. I was just thinking by myself, and it made me happy…”

“Tell me too.”

“Nope—no can do.”

How could I say I imagined a whole yuri scenario from a love letter?

When I firmly refused, Alicia surprisingly backed off right away.

Huh. She’s pretty stubborn, so I didn’t think that’d work.

What’s with that satisfied smile?

She’s impossible to read.

…

“Should we go separately today?”

“Huh?”

I’d naturally—no, unconsciously—been waiting for Alicia after school like usual, since I’d been fed to bursting lately.

But then she said that.

“I have something to do.”

“Got something important?”

“Not exactly busy… just something important.”

Something important?

Well, if it’s for love or something, then that’s more than okay—go ahead!

Who cares if I don’t get a free meal?

If it’s for that, I could go hungry for days and still be happy.

I imagined Alicia rubbing cheeks and burning with youth and romance, and I was so pleased I got ready to let her go without complaint.

Just make sure to donate a bunch to a polar bear charity or something, okay? You seem rich.

Whether she knew I was imagining weird things or not,

Alicia spoke again.

“Don’t you have something to do too?”

“Huh? Nah, nothing.”

“…Really?”

I mean, if you count going back to the dorm and organizing my yuri angle notes about classmates, then sure, I have something to do.

Alicia tilted her head at my answer, then said she’d better get going and walked off first.

Guess I should head out too.

As I adjusted my bag, I suddenly remembered the fake love letter from this morning.

Right, I should deal with that before I go.

Doesn’t matter what the intention was—if Dana saw something like that, it’d be a whole scene.

I pulled out the crumpled letter, ripped it into pieces, and tossed it in the nearest trash bin.

Maybe I should’ve read it before tearing it up?

Nah. No way.

Anyway, it’s the weekend again starting tomorrow.

Last weekend flew by thanks to dealing with that damn sly fox Serina.

But for someone like me, whose only joy in life is watching yuri sparks fly,

Not being able to go to school feels like torture.

The golden weekdays are already over, and now hellish weekend begins?

Time moves too fast!

Maybe I should go out.

Preferably to a place full of cute girls.

Well, I’ll think about it once I get back to the dorm.