Chapter 67: The Angel’s Smile

  "Hikigaya-kun, please wait a moment!"

  Just as Hachiman Hikigaya was leaving the courtyard, someone called out to him from behind.

  Kushida?

  "Hikigaya-kun, what a coincidence!"

  Kushida expined that after finishing her lunch, she had gone for a walk alone and happened to run into Hachiman, so she decided to greet him.

  She tidied her hair and fshed what she considered to be her sweetest and cutest smile. Her voice was soft, and her tone had an adorable touch to it. If it had been any of the boys from Css D, their hearts would likely have started racing, their eyes filled with hearts, perhaps even imagining a beautiful married life with Kushida.

  Unfortunately, Hachiman merely responded with a ft "Oh" and said nothing more. This left Kushida, who had already prepared a script in her mind, stunned for a moment. However, as an experienced social butterfly, she quickly realized that Hachiman was different from guys like Yamauchi and Sudo. She immediately abandoned her usual approach and switched to a different tactic.

  "Is… is it just my imagination? I feel like Hikigaya-kun is being very cold to me. If I did something to upset you, please tell me. I’ll do my best to change, so please don’t hate me."

  Her eyes welled up with tears, and she lowered her head, looking truly heartbroken.

  She was the very picture of vulnerability, making people instinctively want to comfort her. However, Hachiman remained indifferent. In fact, he couldn’t help but grumble inwardly—why does this girl always look like she’s about to cry? So troublesome.

  At the same time, he compared Kushida to Horikita in his mind. Their personalities were worlds apart. He simply couldn’t imagine Horikita ever acting like this—teary-eyed and weak.

  "Lunch break is almost over. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going now."

  With that, Hachiman turned to leave.

  Seeing this, Kushida panicked and quickly stepped forward, grabbing his arm. She even pretended to stumble, as if she were about to fall. The soft and full curves of her body pressed against him.

  "S-Sorry! I-I didn’t mean to!"

  She quickly pulled away, looking like a shy girl experiencing her first romantic encounter. Her flushed cheeks were as red as a ripe apple, tempting one to take a bite.

  Hachiman stared at her with a strange expression, feeling that the "steamy" scene just now had been entirely staged.

  "Kushida, what exactly do you want?"

  Kushida was growing frustrated—Hachiman wasn’t following the script at all! Seeing his dead-fish eyes completely devoid of emotion, an inexplicable fury rose within her. This guy took advantage of me, and he still looks so innocent?!

  Suppressing her anger, she maintained her shy-girl act.

  "Actually, I saw you arguing with Horikita earlier. I was a little worried about her and wanted to check if everything was okay. I was hoping I could help somehow."

  Horikita?

  So she had been tailing Horikita and ended up finding him here?

  "If you’re that worried about Horikita, why not go to her directly? You girls should be able to get along better, right?"

  Hachiman was puzzled. Given Kushida’s social standing in the css and her ability to make friends, was there really someone she couldn’t handle?

  After all, when she first decred that she wanted to be friends with everyone in the css, she had already achieved that goal with most students. Both the boys and girls admired her.

  In Hachiman’s impression, Kushida was never alone. She always had people around her and even maintained good retionships with students from other csses.

  Kushida let out a perfectly-timed wry smile.

  "Hikigaya-kun, you wouldn’t understand since you’re not a girl… but there are a lot of things between girls that are hard to talk about."

  She waited for Hachiman to respond, but when he remained silent, her eye twitched slightly. Taking a deep breath, she sighed.

  "To be honest, I don’t know what I did to upset Horikita. It feels like she dislikes me for some reason. That’s why I wanted to ask for your help."

  "Me?"

  "You sit next to her, don’t you? Other than Ayanokouji-kun, you probably talk to Horikita more than anyone else in css. I want to understand her better and become friends with her. Please, this is really important to me."

  Kushida csped her hands over her chest, tilting her adorable face upward, gazing at him with pleading eyes.

  This was the kind of request that was hard to refuse.

  "If you agree to help me, I… I’ll grant you one request."

  Kushida seemed to have mustered a great deal of courage to say that, as if she was willing to do anything to befriend Horikita.

  With those words, the air around them suddenly became thick with pink-colored hormones, creating a highly suggestive atmosphere.

  If it had been anyone else, they would have long since fallen for this little angel’s charms.

  But Hachiman wasn’t so easily fooled—because when he was talking to Horikita earlier, he had already noticed this little "angel" hiding in the distance, eavesdropping.

  "I—I object!"

  Suddenly, a furious voice shattered the atmosphere Kushida had so carefully crafted.

  Ike and Yamauchi appeared out of nowhere, standing on either side of Hachiman like guardian deities, completely cutting off the interaction between him and Kushida.

  Yamauchi looked especially livid as he roared, "Hikigaya, you bastard! How dare you steal my girl?! I get it now! You were afraid Kikyo-chan wouldn’t be able to resist my manly charm, so you decided to sneakily confess to her first!"

  "C-Confess?!"

  Ike gasped in shock, then gred at Hachiman with fury.

  "You sly dog! You stole my angel! If anyone was supposed to confess, it should’ve been me!"

  Yamauchi was about to chime in, but after hearing Ike’s words, he suddenly got defensive.

  "Wait a minute! What do you mean, ‘you first’? I was the one who found my little angel in distress when I had a stomachache and went to the bathroom! So if she picks anyone, it should be me!"

  "You—did you even wash your hands?!"

  Ike immediately took a few steps back in horror.

  "H-Huh?! O-Of course, I washed my hands!"

  Yamauchi averted his gaze suspiciously.

  And just like that, the two idiots started arguing with each other.

  "By the way… they’re already gone."

  "Huh? Where’d they go?"

  Ike and Yamauchi finally snapped out of it and turned around—only to find that Hachiman was long gone.

  All that remained was a little angel whose smile was on the verge of turning dark.

  Bckghosts