Yukinoshita's POV

Boy meets girl. They are polar opposites. They fall for each other. After all, opposites attract! Ah, well, isn't that just lovely?

No. In hindsight, it is not. It is just what is supposed to happen. In fiction. In reality, such cliché situations don't occur.

Whenever I watched or read such a romance in the past, it always seemed to be a ridiculous concept to me. People from extremely different upbringings are bound to clash. Short of willfully ignoring each other's true opinions, it's a given that arguments will break out. Such a relationship would surely be unhealthy, and cause discourse as opposed to romance.

Or so I thought.

Upon becoming acquainted with Hikigaya-kun, my opinion has changed slightly.

Allow me to explain.

I come from an exceptionally wealthy, influential family. It wouldn't be too far of a stretch to say that I had been born and raised with the explicit purpose of continuing and expanding the Yukinoshita family's reputation.

To my relatives, I was blood, but I was not family.

This nuance has constantly nagged at me for the better part of my life. Even with Onee-chan becoming the new face of the family, there was still an overwhelming amount of pressure set upon my shoulders.

Do I hate my family? Yes. No. I do not know. What can I do? What should I do? How will my future play out? Am I free to choose?

All these questions swirl around in my head constantly and are impossible to silence.

Well, except when I am with Hikigaya-kun.

There is a certain calmness present when he is in the room. It is as if he is an unbreakable beacon of light, visible only to those that need him.

Well, I viewpoint might be a bit skewed, but…

People can be manipulated. Pushed and prodded into acting a certain way. It is because of this that it is hard to truly trust people. You never know when they might change.

And honestly, I do not know if Hikigaya-kun might change in the future. But for now, it is refreshing to have a steady baseline. Someone who is unaffected by the people around him.

An anchor to tether to.

Whenever he is present, I feel as if time stops. All my worries fall away as I allow myself a brief respite from their torment. They will always return upon his departure, but for a moment, they are gone.

Now, why might I be having such an internal monologue? Well, in my excitement for the aforementioned brief respite, I have arrived at the club room quite a bit earlier than I usually do.

How embarrassing.

And so, only a couple weeks after our first meeting, here I am. Waiting for him.

Hearing the door slide open, I knew who it was without looking up.

Only Hikigaya-kun could make opening a door sound so incredibly lethargic.

Glancing up to confirm my suspicions, I had to stop myself from smiling when he met my gaze. I would be lying if I said I hadn't been secretly waiting for this all day.

I tried to greet him, but the words got stuck in my throat.

How elegant.

Instead, we simply nodded at each other before Hikigaya-kun made his way in.

Okay. I should say something. Make conversation… was never my strong suit.

Ah, yes. Where is Yuigaha—

Before I could finish my thought, the aforementioned girl flung open the club room door.

What followed was Yuigahama berating Hikigaya-kun for being late to club. I refrained from calling her a hypocrite. It seems Hikigaya-kun was called in by Hiratsuka-sensei for his workshop submiss—

Pfft!

What? Seriously?

House husband? What kind of aspiration is that?

Ah, they are looking at me. Keep it together.

"What? Don't tell me that you two also think it's a bad idea."

Bad? Not necessarily. Ridiculous? Yes. Very much so.

"W-well, it is certainly—" I started.

"I-I, uh, think it's a good idea, Hikki! It's a… really good idea…" interrupted Yuigahama, drawing the attention of Hikigaya-kun and I.

I had not noticed that Yuigahama-san had moved closer to Hikigaya-kun, but she did. In fact, she was quite far into his personal space.

I felt something start to rise from deep within me. A familiar emotion, yet one that I could not quite name. Then, as soon as it came, it was gone upon seeing Hikigaya-kun's emotionless response to Yuigahama-san's rather obvious approach.

Really, Hikigaya-kun's reactions were quite laughable.

"No, it's quite a ridiculous idea, Hikigaya-kun. While relying completely on others is very much like you, I believe such a plan has no solid basis to build upon…"

Or does it?

"… but I suppose, with the right partner, it might not be impossible."

Eh? What did I just say…? What did I just say!? It came out before I could stop it!

What is wrong with me today!?

Yuigahama-san was looking at me. Hikigaya-kun was looking at me. Surely, they are about to question my odd respons—

*knock* *knock* *knock*

The loud, yet polite knocks captured our attentions.

Thankfully.

I had no idea how I would respond to such a question.

Yui's POV

Ah, it's Hayato. What's he doing here?

Seeing my confused expression, Hayato shot me his usual smile.

"Uh, I wanted to ask a favor. This is where the service club meets, right?"

I looked over at Hikki and Yukinon. Hikki was resting his chin on his hand, staring blankly up at Hayato. Yukinon looked like she was still getting herself together.

"Hiratsuka-sensei told me to come here if I had a problem. Man, I had such a hard time getting out of my club meet—"

"We do not need to hear your story" Interrupted Yukinon. Ah, it seems she was back to her normal self.

"So, what's up, Hayato?" I asked in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Oh, yeah, about that…" Hayato responded while pulling out his phone and pointing the screen at us.

"… you got this as well, right?" He continued, showing me what I now recognized as an email. Giving it a quick glance, I quickly saw that it was a stereotypical chain mail.

Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I found that my top notification to be the chain mail, re-sent to my phone for the fifth time in the past week. Honestly, I was too busy… searching… to pay attention to my phone. I must have missed it.

Looking back up at Hayato, I gave him a quick nod of confirmation.

"Toby is a delinquent from Inage. Yamato dates three girls at the same time. Ohoka takes out rival aces with dirty plays." I read out for my club mates.

"… A chain mail, huh?" Yukinon said after a moment of silence, bringing a hand to her chin.

"Since this started going around, it's been really uncomfortable in our class. It makes me really mad to see that someone is writing this stuff about my friends" Hayato explained.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Hikki shift slightly.

"Oh, but I don't want to find out who sent it. I want to know how to settle this thing peacefully. Can you help?" Hayato finished.

"Hmm. I believe we can" Yukinon answered, standing up from her chair. "However, in order to do so, we must find the sender.

"That's what I thou—eh, why?" came Hayato's confused response.

Eyeing Hayato for a moment, Yukinon then turned around to stare out the window, crossing her arms at the same time.

"Chain mail is a despicable act that tramples upon the dignity of others. The senders aim to slander others, all staying protected behind a wall of anonymity. Such behavior must be stopped at the root in order to be dealt with effectively. The source is me."

A moment of silence passed between us four as we thought about Yukinon's words.

"I will find the culprit. I'll let you decide what to do with them afterwards" Yukinon declared, breaking the silence.

To her declaration, Hayato looked shocked. Yukinon was pretty adamant, and Hikki… looked really bored. He was slumped in his chair, leaning on his right hand, reading something in his left hand.

"Is that alright with you?" Yukinon continued.

"Ah, sure. That works, I guess" Replied Hayato.

"So, when did the message first appear?" Asked Yukinon.

"Ah…" Hayato said, looking at me "It was around last weekend, right?"

"Mmm" I confirmed, nodding my head.

"Did anything happen in your class around then, Yuigahama-san, Hayato-kun?"

"Nothing in particular, I think…" replied Hayato.

"Yeah, it was the same as always" I confirmed.

Yukinon stopped for a moment, hand on chin. Then, she turned to Hikki.

"What about you, Hikigaya-kun?" she asked.

Faced with all our attention, Hikki glanced away from his book and over at us.

"What about me?"

"Did you notice anything different around that time?" Yukinon repeated.

Staring at us for a moment longer, Hikki turned his head slightly.

"Well, it's gotta be the workplace observations, right?" He replied as if it were obvious.

Ah!

"That's it!" I shouted out "It's because we're supposed to be split into groups!"

Seeing Yukinon and Hayato give me questioning looks, I explained.

"How people are grouped affects their relationships afterwards. Some people get really sensitive about that stuff."

"And…?" Yukinon asked.

Still looking at his book, Hikki cocked his head to the side and letting out a small sigh.

"We're forced into groups of three. Hayato's clique consists of four. One is bound to get kicked out." He said, his expression monotone, but his voice with a slight edge to it.

Which surprised me, as I've only ever heard Hikki speak in something other than monotone a couple times…

Yukinon seemed to have realized this too, as she quickly turned back to Hayato and I, leaving Hikki alone.

"S-so, for starters, we can assume that one of those three is the culpri." Yukinon told us after clearing her throat.

"W-wait a minute. I don't want to think that one of them is the culprit. The message said bad things about all three of them. I don't think any of them di—"

"Are you stupid?" Came a cold voice from the table. A voice that I recognized, yet I hadn't ever heard before.

All three of us looked in shock over at Hikki, who had closed and placed his novel on the table. Still leaning on his right hand, his body posture was just as lazy as normal. His expression was also the usual blank one, but…

… his eyes. They had a slight sharpness to them. They were laser focused on Hayato, intent on portraying some sort of message.

Was this how he looked when saving Totsuka? Or… Sable? I never really got the chance to see.

"Everyone knows the culprit just did that so he wouldn't be suspected. It's the simplest cover, and it's one of the most effective ones."

"A-ah, but—" Hayato started saying, his smile faltering.

"There are no buts. Nine times out of ten, that's the situation. Probability wise, it's one of them. Case closed. Just because you want all your buddies to be innocent doesn't make them so."

And with that, the edge in Hikki's demeanor was gone, replaced by his usual self. He picked back up his novel and started reading as if nothing had happened.

And to someone that didn't know Hikki, it might seem as if what just happened was no big deal.

But it was. It was rare for Hikki to ever put effort into something, and even rarer for him to get worked up about it. Especially something that didn't really affect him.

It was odd, very odd. And also…

… kinda hot.

Following the canon plot line for now. We'll see where it leads us.