"Could this person be someone my family specifically arranged?"
Yukino frowned deeply. Her thinking wasn't entirely unfounded paranoia.
Because before this, the Yukinoshita family had held banquets and invited some businessmen.
In their conversations, there was a faint idea of a marriage alliance.
No, to call it a marriage alliance was an overstatement. It should be said that the Yukinoshita family wanted to climb higher.
The Yukinoshita family has always yearned to move overseas for development.
Marrying a foreigner to obtain residency is undoubtedly the best method.
But the thing is, those businessmen were very needy. They asked for phenomenal amounts of dowries.
There were even more outrageous families who actually demanded that the two daughters of the Yukinoshita family marry one husband.
This is just ridiculous!
The key point was that Yukino's mother didn't explicitly object, saying she needed to consider it.
Fortunately, on this matter, her sister, who had always been very submissive to their mother, showed an unusually strong attitude of opposition.
Yukino was fed up with the endless arguments at home and suggested living elsewhere.
At first, her mother didn't agree, but later, after Haruno said something, she reluctantly agreed.
Yukino had already suspected that they might be hiding some unspeakable secret.
Now, a transfer student from a foreign country suddenly appeared and is coincidentally living next door to her.
It was only human nature for Yukino to have suspicions.
The next day, early morning
It's unclear if it was a coincidence but Tenya and Yukino's doors opened at almost the same time, and the two looked at each other.
"Good morning, Yukinoshita-san."
Tenya greeted the other party politely.
Yukino paused for a moment, but out of politeness, she still responded, "Morning, Yoshida-san."
The two entered the elevator simultaneously.
"The weather is really nice today."
"Yukinoshita-san, have you eaten?"
"Yukinoshita-san, do you like cats?" Tenya played his trump card.
As a heavy cat lover, Yukino blurted out the answer without thinking when faced with such an easy question.
Only then did she realize she had misspoken. Yukino reached up and brushed the strands of black hair from her forehead to hide the turmoil in her heart, and her face quickly returned to its expressionless state.
"That has nothing to do with you!"
Yukino couldn't help but glare at him. She had already suspected that the Tenya in front of her was someone her family had specifically arranged for her.
Now, she suspected it even more.
"I just want to make friends with you."
Tenya no longer beat around the bush to get close to the other party and directly stated his ultimate goal.
After speaking, he also extended his hand to the other party, indicating a friendly handshake.
Yesterday, Yukino used the excuse of taking out the trash, saying her hands were dirty and it was inconvenient to shake hands. Now there's no excuse, right?
Woman, quickly hand over the treasure chest!!!
Yukino's expression turned cold.
She thought to herself, 'Hmph! As expected of a man, he's finally showing his true colors, right?'
"Yukinoshita-san, I feel like you might have misunderstood something."
Tenya could roughly guess the misunderstanding in the other party's heart and was about to explain something.
Yukino said with conviction, as if stating a recognized fact, "Because I have been very cute since childhood!"
As soon as she opened her mouth, Tenya couldn't hold back.
Although he had heard this classic line from Yukino in the anime in his previous life, hearing a real person say it still made Tenya unable to help but laugh.
"What are you laughing at?"
Yukino raised an eyebrow.
"Nothing, you continue."
Tenya's mouth twitched. He really wanted to complain.
The two walked out of the elevator and headed towards the bus stop in the same direction.
"From childhood to now, boys who got close to me would develop feelings for me."
Yukino was right about this.
A good-looking girl can indeed attract the affection of boys.
"In elementary school, my indoor shoes were hidden sixty times."
Yukino's tone was calm, her voice normal, as if she was talking about someone else's experience.
"What's so good about hiding shoes?"
Tenya muttered casually, then subconsciously looked at the other party's slender feet wrapped in black stockings.
The proportions were very well-balanced, without an ounce of excess fat, a perfect work of art.
Under the sunlight, they shone with a faint sheen, like smooth chocolate, giving him the urge to hold them in his arms and savor them carefully.
(T/N: FREAKY ahhh!!!)
"What are you looking at!"
Yukino stomped her foot and glared at him with icy eyes.
"Uh, nothing, you continue."
Tenya silently withdrew his gaze.
"Fifty of those times, it was done by girls of the same grade."
"Three times were boys."
"Twice, they were done by the teachers."
"Five times they were carried away by dogs."
A deep haze appeared in Yukino's azure eyes. That unbearable experience had left a deep childhood trauma.
"Girls are too jealous, aren't they?"
"There were even teachers involved, that's outrageous!"
"Speaking of which, why would even dogs be interested in your shoes?"
Tenya couldn't help but complain repeatedly.
"To this day, I'm still puzzled by this."
"So, I really hate dogs!"
Yukino couldn't help but let out a long sigh, and the frown on her brow unconsciously relaxed.
"Doesn't it feel much better to say it out loud?" Tenya smiled.
Yukino was startled at first, and then she belatedly realized that she had actually revealed her inner thoughts to the other party.
This was too embarrassing!
"Keeping your frustrations bottled up for a long time without a way to release them can easily lead to depression." Tenya said earnestly.
In his previous life, he had a classmate whose family was extremely strict. He was forced to attend cram school every day, and wasn't allowed to make friends. Eventually, he was diagnosed with severe depression, and later, he was never heard from again.
"And Yukinoshita-san, you don't have any friends, do you?" Tenya hit the nail on the head.
Yukino's eyes slightly shifted. After a two-second pause, she slowly opened her mouth and mused, "First of all, we need to define what constitutes a friend..."
"Alright, I already know the answer. People who say things like that usually don't have friends."
Tenya interrupted the other party's casting and delivered a fatal blow.
Yukino instantly became speechless. She wanted to argue, but her straightforward nature made her hate lies.
In the end, she reluctantly chose to tacitly agree.
Looking at Yukino's deflated appearance, Tenya couldn't help but show a joyful smile.
"Speaking of which, what about you?"
"It must be hard for an ill-tempered person like you to make true friends too, right?"
Yukino bit her pearly teeth tightly. She wasn't someone who easily admitted defeat, especially when she emphasized "true friends" at the end.
"I don't need fakes that are called friends but are actually hollow."
Tenya knew what the other party was referring to.