Yukinoshita Yukino was born.
There were no natural phenomena, but she was loved by everyone in the Yukinoshita family.
Generally speaking, when a family has a second child, the older child is often neglected, and the family's love is divided among the younger siblings, causing the older sibling to feel dissatisfied. But Yukinoshita Haruno didn't feel this way; she also loved her cute little sister.
Watching the little girl playing with her sister, a sweet smile on her face, Hayashizaki couldn't help but smile.
Yukinoshita Yukino was sensible and cute, and more importantly, she hadn't yet developed her sharp tongue, making her much more likable than the grown-up Yukino.
As the little girl grew older and started elementary school, her parents' friends brought their child to visit, a cute blond boy named Hayama Hayato.
The three children were close in age and quickly became friends.
The oldest, Yukinoshita Haruno, was excellent in her studies and had a cheerful personality, quickly becoming the leader of the three. Wherever she went, the other two followed, even the kids playing in the nearby park looked up to Haruno. She became the leader of the children at a young age.
Children at this age are generally happy, especially in a wealthy family like the Yukinoshitas. They had no worries and didn't have to think about anything, just enjoying themselves. Even though their mother was strict, she would still indulge the children because they were young.
As Yukinoshita Haruno got older, she started learning various things at her mother's request, aiming to become a more outstanding person worthy of the Yukinoshita name. This meant she had less time to play with her sister and Hayama Hayato.
The family often held parties, and Yukinoshita Yukino admired her sister Haruno, who handled conversations with adults effortlessly. To Yukino, her sister was like a dazzling sun, planting the seeds of admiration and aspiration in her heart.
Compared to the praise for her sister's excellence, the adults' comments about Yuki-chan were more about her being "cute" and "sensible" rather than "excellent."
This made Yukinoshita Yukino work harder in her studies, wanting to catch up to her sister and become as good as her.
This was probably the starting point of Yukinoshita Yukino's journey to excellence.
"So, Yukinoshita's sister's perfect fake smile was cultivated from a young age," Hayashizaki reached out to pinch Yukinoshita Haruno's cheek, but his hand passed through like a ghost.
It was obvious he couldn't interfere, as this was just an illusion made up of Yukinoshita Yukino's memories. However, this didn't stop Hayashizaki from embedding his head with Yukino's head to observe the structure inside.
Time continued in the illusion, and Yukinoshita Yukino and Hayama Hayato had reached the fourth grade, while Haruno, three years older than Yukino, had started middle school.
One day, Yukinoshita Yukino arrived at school to find her indoor shoes missing from her shoe locker.
Although Hayashizaki existed as an observer in the illusion and could move freely, he couldn't stray too far from Yukinoshita herself. If he did, he would be forcibly transported back to her side, like a bound spirit.
Even though he didn't see who took Yukinoshita Yukino's indoor shoes, he could easily tell who the culprits were.
"Seriously, you little brats think you're perfect crime masterminds? You even like to return to the crime scene for fun?"
Hayashizaki looked helplessly at the three little girls gathered together, sneering at the flustered Yukinoshita Yukino who couldn't find her indoor shoes.
The hiding place for the shoes was also amusing. Hayashizaki only had to take a few steps to see the white indoor shoes thrown on top of the hallway cabinet, but with Yukinoshita's height as a grade schooler, she couldn't reach them even if she jumped.
Soon, Yukinoshita Yukino also saw her shoes on top of the cabinet. After asking a passing teacher for help, she managed to get them down. Even so, the little girl waited in front of the school building for a long time, enduring the strange looks from other students while waiting by the shoe locker for the teacher to pass by.
Holding her bag with both hands, standing in front of the school building like she was being punished, Yukino looked both pitiful and stubborn.
If it were Hayashizaki, he would have boldly walked to the classroom in his own shoes.
And this was just the beginning.
Besides having her indoor shoes hidden, Yukino also experienced various forms of exclusion and bullying, like having her recorder spat on during music class or no one willing to team up with her for group projects.
At school, aside from Hayama Hayato, almost no one wanted to talk to her, and he had his own circle, so they spoke less and less. At home, her sister Haruno was busy with tasks assigned by their mother and had no time to be close to her.
Even when she talked to her mother about her situation at school, her mother would say,
"A daughter of the Yukinoshita family shouldn't be so weak,"
and told her to fight back on her own.
Maybe in her mother's eyes, this was to train her daughter's independence, but she didn't realize a very important issue—how could a fourth-grade girl fight against the "atmosphere" alone?
Just like fish can't survive out of water, once a person does something against the atmosphere, they will find it hard to move in society. School bullying is not something that can help someone grow.
She did nothing wrong, yet everyone inexplicably hated her.
Every time Hayashizaki saw Yukino curled up in a corner of her bed hugging a stuffed toy, he wanted to slap those little brats, including Hayama Hayato.
Speaking of Hayama Hayato, Hayashizaki thought this kid had a big problem.
When he played with the Yukinoshita sisters as a child, he would blush just from a little teasing by Haruno. Normally, kids in kindergarten or first and second grade shouldn't have any concept of gender issues. Boys play with boys, and girls play with girls. That's the usual way.
Even if they played together, why would he blush so easily?
This kid had a vague crush on Yukinoshita Haruno from a young age, making Hayashizaki sigh at how mature Japanese kids are.
But what made Hayashizaki want to slap Hayama wasn't his crush on Haruno.
As an observer, Hayashizaki noticed that Yukinoshita Yukino was initially excluded by the girls because she was close to Hayama, which made the girls jealous.
He bravely stood up during Yukino's isolation, clumsily imitating Haruno's social skills with adults, trying to mediate between Yukino and the others, hoping to reconcile them.
The result was that his attempt to help backfired, making things worse—a classic case of good intentions gone wrong.
Yukinoshita Yukino's situation didn't improve; it got worse. Finally noticing something was wrong, Yukinoshita's mother sent her abroad for middle school after she finished elementary school.
After seeing this, Hayashizaki could only applaud. In the Yukinoshita family, only the father, who was a live-in son-in-law, was normal and cared for both daughters. But because of his status, he didn't dare to oppose Yukinoshita's mother's educational methods.
Haruno and Yukino turned out differently. One was trained as an heir and became a rational monster who shut off her emotions, while the other was given the heavy task of fighting the atmosphere, failed, didn't grow, wasn't happy, and ended up as a prickly hedgehog with a wall around her heart.
It's really quite sad.
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