Chapter 46: Stop!

Chapter 46: Stop!

Because of Asagiri Rin’s sudden appearance, the visual beauty critical hit she brought made most people stand there in stunned silence and stare at her, as if a newly unearthed jewel naturally ought to receive everyone’s attention. This was very normal.

Only, Yatsuno Gen quickly noticed that after the initial shock and astonishment, many people’s next instinctive action was to take a step back.

Some took large steps, some small, and some trembled slightly.

This meant that in their hearts, there was another emotion toward this girl, and that was fear.

No matter how many halos surrounded her, no matter how unique her appearance and temperament were, she was still just a high school girl, an ordinary person. Why would people feel fear the instant they saw her?

This did not seem to be something brought about merely by appearance. Her image in their eyes seemed wrong. Had something happened, leaving an indelible impression, which was why their instinctive reaction was to protect themselves immediately?

Yatsuno Gen’s gaze quickly shifted to the pretty girl with medium-short hair. It seemed that only she was accustomed to all this, and the smile she gave Asagiri Rin became even brighter.

“It’s little Rin.”

She was like the sort of girl who could make people feel as though they were bathed in a spring breeze from the very first meeting. It seemed as though one glance was enough to see all of her distinctive qualities, making people think of her as a gentle, generous, approachable girl who would help you solve many problems.

How to put it? She was like the first ray of light that an introverted and weak male protagonist saw in a youth-themed anime.

Moreover, she did not seem afraid of Asagiri Rin at all. On the contrary, there was an indescribable closeness.

Would Asagiri Rin become friends with someone like this? Not that it was bad, but happening to her, it seemed somewhat strange and suspicious.

The girl called Saionji walked up to Asagiri Rin, then looked past the cold-faced girl and saw Yatsuno Gen standing slightly behind her. Her eyes widened a little.

“Oh, Yatsuno is here too?”

But Yatsuno Gen did not remember knowing this girl.

“You know me?”

“Of course. Is there anyone in this school who doesn’t know Yatsuno? There aren’t many boys as handsome as you. Of course, little Rin is one of a kind too.”

She walked over intimately and easily linked arms with Asagiri Rin, as though they were close friends with no distance between them.

But Asagiri Rin’s brow clearly furrowed, and she shook off the other girl’s hand.

“Didn’t you ask me for help before? I’ve brought the person.”

Saionji was not angry after having her hand shaken off. Instead, she placed her index finger against her lips and made a thoughtful expression, a rather cinematic gesture. Only, when it happened on her, it did not feel out of place.

“Oh, right. You’re talking about the thing I mentioned last time, how our Photography Club was going to shoot the cover for the Literature Club’s new magazine? But I remember I invited you to be the model.”

Asagiri Rin’s cold, keep-away-from-strangers aura did not improve much even in front of Saionji.

“I’m not shooting it, so I brought someone suitable.”

“Huh? Last time, you rejected me very decisively. I thought that matter ended there. I was already looking for someone suitable...”

“Stop saying so much useless nonsense. Just say whether you’re using him or not.”

Asagiri Rin directly interrupted the other girl’s attempt to keep reminiscing. There were some things she did not want the boy behind her to know. He was so smart that he would definitely guess something.

Saionji sized up Yatsuno Gen, then smiled until her eyes curved.

“If it’s Yatsuno, of course I want to use him. If he appears on the cover, the Literature Club’s issue will definitely sell like crazy.”

From behind, Yatsuno Gen looked at the two of them, then said softly,

“Excuse me, but is nobody going to ask for my opinion?”

Without turning her head, Asagiri Rin said, “You followed along yourself. Are you backing out now?”

“It’s not exactly backing out. Mainly, I don’t think this counts as something very interesting. Does it count as a club activity?”

“Club activity?”

Saionji’s gaze moved back and forth between the two of them. It was magical. The two of them were not speaking face-to-face, yet they seemed so natural.

Asagiri Rin said coldly, “Club activities are doing things that aren’t interesting. If you don’t want to, do as you like.”

At that moment, Yatsuno Gen took a step forward.

Then he looked at Saionji with a harmless smile.

“No, I agree.”

“Huh? Yatsuno agreed?”

Saionji seemed very surprised.

The boy nodded. “I’ve never been a model before. Trying it out seems pretty good.”

Saionji seemed pleasantly surprised, and she lightly clapped her hands together in front of herself.

“That’s wonderful. Yatsuno will definitely be the best model. Shiratori, the heroine, get ready. Your partner is Yatsuno!”

“Huh? Ya-Yatsuno? Really? Senior, you’re not lying to me, are you?”

A somewhat chaotic sound came from inside the activity room, as if a delighted, flustered girl had knocked over some equipment.

“Do I need to prepare anything? Clothes or something?”

Yatsuno Gen asked.

Saionji smiled and shook her head. “No need at all. It’s a campus theme to begin with, so the school uniform is fine. Besides, I really don’t think Yatsuno’s face needs any makeup or hairstyling. Just cooperate with us and pose a few times later.”

“That simple?”

“Only for you, it is. Please come with me.”

Saionji turned around and led Yatsuno Gen deeper into the activity room.

Asagiri Rin, standing where she was, seemed to have been inexplicably ignored by the two of them.

Her expression seemed unchanged, but only someone especially familiar with her could tell that her unfriendly aura had grown even denser.

Didn’t this bastard dislike taking photos? Why did he agree so readily?

He did it on purpose, didn’t he!

Forget it. As long as he put on some affected expression later, this young lady would save the photo and mock him mercilessly in the future.

Acting all day long, did he really think nobody could ruin his disguise?

Asagiri Rin silently followed them inside, and nobody stopped her.

She did not care about other people’s gazes either.

Only, Yatsuno Gen seemed more popular than she had imagined. As long as girls saw him, they would come up and greet him with slightly flushed faces.

Including that smaller girl who looked very pure and carried an especially girlish air.

“H-hello, Yatsuno. It’s nice to meet you. Please take care of me! You can just call me Shiratori!”

The girl in front of him greeted him somewhat stiffly.

The slight blush on her cheeks was very natural. At first glance, Yatsuno Gen understood why Saionji had chosen her as the heroine. She was not the type who looked stunning at first glance, but she became more pleasing the longer one looked, and she felt very comfortable. She suited most boys’ imagination very well.

They did not dare hope for beautiful girls on the level of Asagiri Rin or Kazama Sakura, because those girls were too distant from their world. Instead, this kind of image could perfectly fill the role of an imaginary girlfriend.

Yatsuno Gen was also very polite.

“Hello. Please take care of me too.”

“Mm!”

The girl nodded vigorously.

She seemed filled with anticipation and motivation for everything that was about to happen.

She could take photos together with Yatsuno Gen? Unbelievable.

Once the photos were taken, she would carry the pictures of herself and him around with a spring in her step and show them off everywhere. She would let her friends and besties see what a high-quality man truly was!

The Photography Club’s activity room looked quite professional, whether it was the lighting, the backdrop, or some preset backgrounds. Even the camera did not seem ordinary.

Unfortunately, Yatsuno Gen did not understand much about this field. If he had to talk about his interest in photography, it only extended to candid photography sections... no.

Saionji quickly took control of the situation, ignoring Asagiri Rin beside her, then began giving instructions.

“Come, stand in front of the white backdrop. Photographer, lighting, get into position! Start preparing for the shoot right away. Shiratori, part your bangs a little in the middle... Leave one strand down. Don’t press them too tightly.”

Yatsuno Gen and Shiratori stood in front of the white backdrop just like that. The lights shone on the two of them, and the photographer began looking for an angle.

Asagiri Rin watched coldly. At first, she thought it was nothing. It was just taking a photo, and perhaps it would become this boy’s dark history in the future.

But once Saionji beside her began directing their movements, things started to feel wrong.

“Come, move closer together. Mm, a little closer. Shiratori, don’t be shy. It’s just a photo. A little closer!”

Shiratori’s face seemed to burn, and that redness was more obvious than the blush applied to her cheeks.

“I-is it okay to be this close?”

Yatsuno Gen seemed not to notice and only stood there facing her.

“It’s fine.”

“Sorry...”

Tsk.

Did a magazine cover shoot require standing so close?

Anyone who did not know better would think they were taking wedding photos.

Wasn’t this just like the current trend online? As long as it attracted attention, any kind of suggestive bait was fine. No lower limit, and she was so ordinary-looking too.

She took out her phone, making herself appear very busy and indifferent to all of this. She was merely waiting for it to end so she could take the boy away from this place.

Click.

The sound of the photo being taken brought her no sense of satisfaction.

On the contrary, it made her eyes unable to focus on the phone screen. Saionji beside her was still continuously giving instructions.

“Give me a slightly ambiguous feeling. Yatsuno, look at her eyes. Eye contact. Yes, yes, that’s it!”

An ambiguous feeling?

Did taking a photo make things ambiguous?

She was calling him Yatsuno now, when just a moment ago it had still been Yatsuno.

This woman was just another face-obsessed dog.

And eye contact too.

Her gaze unconsciously drifted away from the screen, and from the corner of her eye, she looked toward the white backdrop.

The boy and girl stood together, face-to-face.

Their eyes met.

The girl’s gaze was very natural, as if it carried a genuine inner flutter and shyness.

It also seemed to contain an indescribably youthful affection.

What a disgusting look.

And Yatsuno Gen?

His eyes were deep, his expression calm, but his gaze, which usually seemed somewhat cold, had now softened, as though he really were looking at some childhood sweetheart with mutual affection...

Tsk.

Click!

She did not want this photo.

Because it was too disgusting, and completely beyond the range of affectation.

It was physically uncomfortable to look at.

“Maintaining this state is very good. Come, give them an umbrella. Yatsuno, you hold it!”

Still shooting?

And an umbrella?

Now there was scene acting too?

No, wait. How many photos were they planning to shoot for one magazine?

Her hand kept tightening around her phone, and the faint blue veins on the back of her fair hand became more visible. If someone saw it, combined with her current expression, where her teeth had unknowingly clenched together, they would probably think this unbelievably beautiful girl was trying to crush her phone bare-handed.

An umbrella was placed in Yatsuno Gen’s hand.

He raised it above the shy Shiratori’s head.

Asagiri Rin had completely stopped looking at her phone now. It was no longer a matter of glancing from the corner of her eye. She was staring straight over there.

Saionji’s voice echoed beside her ears.

“Hold it a little lower, but don’t cover your faces. Yes, that’s very good!”

The other Photography Club members watching this scene kept sighing with emotion.

“Just looking at this scene gives me such a strong feeling. Has Yatsuno really never been a model? He’s so natural.”

“It’s one thing to take photos by yourself, but there’s another person too. Shouldn’t he seem a little awkward or weird? But he really looks like he’s acting in a drama.”

“I feel like this shouldn’t be a magazine cover. It should be a TV drama theme cover! I can already imagine Shiratori and Yatsuno’s youthful romance story. No, I ship them so hard I’m having trouble breathing.”

Those voices were like ghosts, circling around Asagiri Rin.

Even she did not realize that her own breathing had become a little quicker and more obvious.

As for the so-called purpose from earlier, the plan to humiliate him, the scheme to obtain his dark-history photos, all of it had vanished from her mind.

She heard those voices, both distant and close.

She also heard Saionji say,

“Come, Shiratori. Reach your hand up. Hold the lower part of the umbrella handle, beneath Yatsuno’s hand.”

Shiratori froze for a moment.

“Is it really... okay?”

Her heart was pounding wildly.

Although she was not being told to hold his hand, just sensing his presence like this, and seeing that flawless face even from such close range...

She felt as though she were about to faint.

She reached out, moving her hand upward little by little. The other person seemed to have deliberately left a space for her.

But she was thinking.

Should she pretend not to aim properly... and cover the back of Yatsuno Gen’s hand in one go?

Yatsuno looked so gentle. He probably would not think anything of it, right? She only needed to apologize immediately afterward.

Just once.

She would only touch him once...

Hehe.

At the instant she made up her mind and sped up the swing of her arm, about to immediately place her hand over the back of his.

“Stop.”