16: Chapter 16 The Little Follower

After taking three days off, Kaiwen returned to school.

Before going out, she applied that uncanny valley makeup on her face as usual, and put on the oversized black hoodie brought by Kiana.

Although her ribs still hurt a bit, it no longer affected her walking.

When she arrived at the door of her classroom, she felt that the atmosphere was wrong.

Although usually wearing this strange set of clothes would garner some weird looks, it was definitely not like today.

A few classmates in the corridor saw her with very strange gazes, as if they were holding back laughter, or as if they were sympathizing with someone.

However, Kaiwen didn't pay much attention to their gazes, pushed the door open, and walked in.

Then she saw someone dressed exactly like her right beside her desk.

That person was wearing Kaiwen's previous style of black hoodie, lowering her head and lying on the desk, even trying hard to imitate Kaiwen's usual stay away from strangers aura in her sitting posture.

Kaiwen walked over, bent down, and took a look.

Hiss~

Even though she was fully prepared, Kaiwen was still startled by the person under the hood.

Huge lipstick occupied half of her face, like the urban legend Slit-Mouthed Woman, paired with heavily drawn black eye bags.

I don't know what others think, but Kaiwen was startled anyway. How come my painstakingly thought-out uncanny valley disguise wasn't as startling as your sudden flash of inspiration?

Miyuki felt someone looking at her, raised her head, and flashed a brilliant smile at Kaiwen.

"Classmate Kaiwen! Good morning!"

Kaiwen stared blankly at her face for a few seconds.

"Miyuki, your face..."

"This is anti-harassment armor!" Miyuki whipped off her hood and puffed out her chest righteously, "Didn't you say that not wearing makeup would get me harassed by punks? I put on this makeup, and it's much better. The punks on the road stay far away when they see me!"

"..."

"I practiced for an hour last night. Do you think my drawing is scary or not?"

Kaiwen looked at her exaggerated face and felt the back of her head starting to ache again.

"You... your makeup is a bit blinding to the eyes," Kaiwen pointed at Miyuki's face.

"Blinding is fine too; this way I won't be harassed, and even less will I let anyone get hurt because of me!"

Looking into Asakura Miyuki's eyes, Kaiwen found that she didn't seem to have a way to persuade her, and could only turn her head back helplessly.

Miyuki contentedly laid back down on the desk, covering her face with the hood.

But she raised her head again in less than ten seconds, leaned close to Kaiwen's ear, and whispered, "Classmate Kaiwen, what did you use to draw those dark circles on your face? I used my mom's eyeliner, but it doesn't seem to last very long."

"..." Miyuki, class is starting.

"Oh."

Five minutes later.

"Classmate Kaiwen."

"What."

"My lipstick seems to have smeared."

Kaiwen turned her head and glanced; that red blob had indeed spread from the lips to the chin, looking even more terrifying.

"Scarier than before."

"Really? Then I won't wipe it off."

Kaiwen decided to ignore her.

At lunchtime, when Kaiwen packed her bento and prepared to go find Mei.

Miyuki naturally followed along. Seeing her follow, Kaiwen didn't say anything.

Behind the teaching building, there was a row of benches against the wall, usually deserted, but today Raiden Mei was already sitting there early.

When she saw Kaiwen, she even smiled and nodded.

Then she saw the Slit-Mouthed Woman following behind Kaiwen.

Raiden Mei's originally faint smile froze on her face.

That's right! Exactly like this, I brought her here just to see your expression, Raiden Mei!

But unfortunately, she recovered too quickly.

Kaiwen didn't see much of what she wanted to see on her face.

"Classmate Miyuki is here too, let's sit together."

Miyuki had no idea how much of an impact her face brought to others, sat down happily, took out her bento, and began to eat.

The three of them sat side by side, chatting about this and that. By this time, the lipstick on Miyuki's face had completely smeared into a mess. Unaware of it herself, she was still telling Mei how she practiced makeup facing the mirror last night.

Kaiwen couldn't help admiring Raiden Mei; as expected of someone who practices martial arts, her composure was truly strong.

...

Regarding the matter of Kaiwen being Raiden Mei's strategist, Miyuki learned about it on the way to the small garden.

Originally Kaiwen didn't plan to tell her, but since noon Miyuki could tell there seemed to be some little secret between her and Mei, chasing and asking countless times along the way, using methods from acting spoiled, begging, to sulking without speaking, and finally turning into "if you don't tell me, I'll keep following you."

Kaiwen really had no way with her and surrendered.

"You should know that Mei likes Kiana."

"Hm? What?"

"Raiden Mei likes Kiana, and I am helping her figure out a way."

Miyuki stopped, turned around, and looked at Kaiwen.

"I know."

This time it was Kaiwen's turn to be stunned.

"You know?"

"Last time in the corridor, Senior Raiden walked several steps slower when passing Classmate Kiana, and even secretly looked back," Miyuki counted on her fingers, saying, "And the time before last, Classmate Kiana was buying coffee in front of the vending machine. Senior Raiden had clearly already walked past but turned back, standing behind for a long while before leaving."

"..." Your observation skills are quite strong.

"Of course." Miyuki looked smug, "So Classmate Kaiwen, you're helping Senior Raiden chase Classmate Kiana, right? I want to help too!"

"What can you help with?"

"Come up with ideas! I've read a lot of shoujo manga!"

Kaiwen felt her head starting to ache again.

Arriving at the pavilion in the garden, the setting sun filtered through the eaves, casting a warm layer of light on the stone table.

Mei sat opposite, fingers pinching her phone, her face slightly flushed.

"That Kiana person," Kaiwen leaned against the pavilion pillar, "Going straight to confess definitely won't work. She will dodge."

"Mm." Mei nodded; she clearly had personal experience with this point.

"Her grades are not very good, English and math are basically hovering around the passing line," Kaiwen said, "Senior can use the excuse of tutoring her to approach her. Just bring some sweets and place them aside during tutoring, no need to say they're for her, she'll take them herself."

Mei earnestly recorded a line in her phone's memo.

"Also, don't be too enthusiastic," Kaiwen thought for a moment, "If you are too good to her, she'll be wary instead. So maintain a distance similar to usual, occasionally showing care is enough, and let her slowly approach on her own."

"Then what if she just doesn't approach?" Miyuki asked from the side.

"She will," Kaiwen said, "If you treat her well, she won't say it out loud, but she remembers it all."

Mei raised her head and glanced at Kaiwen: "You seem to know her very well..."

"We worked part-time together." Kaiwen casually brushed the topic past.

At this point, Miyuki had completely entered the state, beginning to contribute various tricks she learned from shoujo manga: "We can fake an accidental encounter! Pretend to drop something in the corridor, and happen to have it picked up by Classmate Kiana!"

"And then?" Mei asked.

"Then your hands will touch! Just like that—snap!" Miyuki clapped her own hand, "The moment when your heart rate speeds up!"

"...Classmate Miyuki, that seems like it would only be effective in manga."

"Then buy two cups of milk tea and say you bought too much!"

"Kiana doesn't drink milk tea much, she drinks coffee." Kaiwen said.

"Then just buy two cups of coffee!"

"Who would buy an extra cup of coffee..."

"Don't discourage me!"

Laughter rang out in the pavilion, and even Mei couldn't help laughing out loud.

Kaiwen looked at the two of them as the setting sun slowly retreated from the pavilion, casting long shadows.

When coming out of school, it was already dark.

After saying goodbye to them, Kaiwen slowly walked toward her apartment.

Probably because she was injured previously, she hadn't gone to work part-time during this period, but the boss Miyazaki didn't deduct Kaiwen's pay.

According to what he said: "There aren't many people around recently anyway. One more of you isn't much, and one less of you isn't missed. Just take good care of your injury."

But hearing from Kiana, she was almost driven crazy busy over there, to the point that even Miyazaki had to step up to make drinks.

Climbing up to the fifth floor, she walked to the door of 503.

Someone was squatting at the door.

Kiana was hugging a white cotton pillow, with a travel bag stuffed to the point of bursting placed next to her, looking down and scrolling on her phone.

Hearing footsteps, she raised her head.

"You're back quite late today."

Kaiwen looked at that travel bag and that pillow, opening her mouth.

"What are you..."

"Moving in to live here." Kiana stood up and picked up the bag, "You can't manage alone."

"I'm almost—"

"Open the door."

Kaiwen looked at her matter-of-fact face, remained silent for two seconds, took out her keys, and opened the door.

Kiana walked in carrying the bag, and began skillfully finding a place to put things.

Kaiwen stood in the entryway and glanced at her phone.

In the group chat, Mei had just sent a message: "I've organized the content discussed today, everyone take a look to see if there's anything to add."

Followed by a string of cheering stickers sent by Miyuki.

Kaiwen silently locked her phone screen, stuffed it back into her pocket, and then looked up at Kiana, who was arranging her pillow onto the bed.

Not bad, she was just discussing with Raiden Mei how to chase Kiana a moment ago, and in the blink of an eye, she coaxed her back home herself.

How is this not a kind of Nendoroid?

Looking at Kiana, who was full of girlfriend power and tidying up the room, Kaiwen thought secretly.

Raiden Mei, let me taste Kiana's goodness on your behalf first~