A few minutes passed, and she even forgot what she was planning to say earlier. She only remembered that Hoshimi, this jerk, deliberately stalled for time. He deserved a beating!
She lost again... and very badly...
Two kisses... one fleeting, the other lasting three seconds...
If not for her sister's sudden arrival, she would never have given Hoshimi such an opportunity...
Sister, sigh~
"Hoshimi-kun, Yukinoshita-san, it's your turn."
The girl in the referee uniform from before shouted from a distance.
"Let's go." Hoshimi poked Yukino's side.
"Don't poke my waist!" Yukino coldly warned before picking up her tennis racket and following Hoshimi.
...
On the tennis court, mixed doubles preliminary round.
"Bang!"
Yukino delivered a powerful smash, sending the tennis ball hurtling aggressively between the two opponents.
Their spirits crushed, the opponents stood dazed on the court, not even knowing what they were doing.
"40:0."
"The Hoshimi-Yukino team wins."
"Class 2-J's Hoshimi-Yukino team leads 5:0 against Class 2-B's Yamada team."
"Change sides for the final set."
With a cold expression, Yukino walked to the opposite side of the court with her tennis racket. Hoshimi, who had been idling in the back, shook his head and followed.
As he passed the opponents, he apologized softly, "Sorry, Yukino's in a bad mood today. I hope you don't mind."
The two opponents nodded blankly, not sure if they had heard what Hoshimi said.
After being completely defeated in five sets, they were starting to question their lives. They even wanted to throw down their rackets and leave in tears, but there were too many students watching, so they couldn't...
No matter what, they had to finish the match...
The final set began, and Hoshimi continued to stand in the back, doing nothing. The opponents were too weak; Yukino didn't need his cooperation and could win alone.
Watching Yukino, who continued to dominate the court, Hoshimi gradually narrowed his eyes and discreetly scanned the surroundings.
He was looking for Yukino's sister. He wasn't sure if she was still around, but he suspected she might be.
From the moment he hadn't seen Yukino's sister, he had already constructed a rough personality model of her based on Yukino's attitude and the information she had shared.
Yukino's sister, Haruno Yukinoshita, had an intense and almost pathological desire to control Yukino.
This was evident from the way the sisters interacted.
Typically, siblings might bully or play pranks on each other when they were young, but such behavior usually decreased significantly by middle or high school.
However, Haruno Yukinoshita still enjoyed "bullying" Yukino.
He remembered clearly how Yukino had recounted all the times Haruno had bullied her in her dreams.
Among those incidents, one during Yukino's first year of middle school particularly demonstrated Haruno's pathological need for control.
"When I was in middle school studying abroad, during my first year, not long after school started, my sister sneaked into my apartment and hid behind the door. When I came home, she used a handkerchief soaked in ether to knock me out."
"When I woke up, my sister, disguised with a criminal's mask and using a voice changer to make her voice hoarse, tried to scare me."
"When I was almost in tears, my sister took off the mask, shouted 'surprise,' and gave me a gift, telling me to be careful when living alone."
"Since then, I've developed a habit of pressing the door against the wall when I come home to ensure no one is hiding behind it."
"During the first year of middle school, right before the midterms, my sister sneaked into my apartment again. This time, she didn't hide behind the door; she hid under the bed..."
When Yukino recounted this part, he couldn't help but laugh.
But what's important is the pathological control Haruno's behavior revealed.
Haruno was only in high school when Yukino was in middle school, yet she went abroad to play such malicious pranks on her sister. Although the pranks seemed harsh on the surface, they were actually intended as warnings.
Moreover, these pranks were frequent—at least twice a semester, according to Yukino.
No matter how you look at it, this behavior is strange.
What normal siblings would interact like this?
Under Haruno's relentless "guidance," it's no wonder Yukino became so cold and wary.
After determining Haruno's pathological need for control over Yukino, he knew that Haruno would eventually appear in front of him.
He just didn't expect it to be so... late.
Indeed, Haruno Yukinoshita's arrival was unexpectedly late.
He originally thought she would show up at Sobu High when rumors of him and Yukino dating began to spread.
But it took this long for her to appear.
Was Haruno too busy? Or had the informant at the school not reported the situation to her?
As for who the informant might be, even without much thought, it was obvious—it had to be the Service Club advisor and Class 2-J's Japanese teacher, Shizuka Hiratsuka.
He suspected that Hiratsuka-sensei might have realized that he and Yukino weren't actually dating, so she hadn't reported it to Haruno.
Until recently, when he and Yukino genuinely became closer, Hiratsuka-sensei might have hesitantly informed Haruno.
Another guess was that Haruno might have already known about the rumors and observed them secretly, finding them inconsistent with the rumors, and thus hadn't shown up.
Until he went to Yukino's single apartment, Haruno couldn't hold back any longer.
This guess seemed less likely because knowing he went to Yukino's apartment was difficult.
He lived in the same apartment building, after all. Coming and going every day, who could tell if he was going to Yukino's place or returning to his own?
To confirm his whereabouts, someone would have to be stationed at both sides of Yukino's 1507 apartment or place a camera inside her apartment.
The former was too costly and unreliable.
The latter seemed unlikely because placing surveillance in her sister's apartment would be more than just pathological; it would be perverted!
If exposed, the sisters would completely fall out!
No matter how he thought about it, the controlling Haruno Yukinoshita wouldn't do something so perverse and risky.
"40:0"
"The Hoshimi-Yukino team wins."
"Final score: 6:0, a complete victory for the Hoshimi-Yukino team!"
While pondering, the final set ended.
After the score was announced, a sweating Hoshimi and an exercise-induced sweating Yukino returned to the bench to rest.
In the distant shadows, Haruno Yukinoshita moved to another shadowed area to continue watching.
...
Meanwhile, Kotoko Iwanaga was sound asleep.
===
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