After I Picked up a Notebook Filled With Intense Emotions, the Girls Started Acting Strange

After finishing the coffee, I placed the cups on a tray and walked to her room.

I carefully switched to one hand so I wouldn’t spill anything, then reached out to turn the doorknob.

“─What!?”

But my hand met empty air. I almost spilled the coffee and barely managed to keep my balance.

When I looked forward, the door was already open, and there stood Yukina, staring at me with wide eyes.

“Um…”

The moment our eyes met, her cheeks turned bright red. She let out a tiny sound like a mosquito’s buzz.

“Hey, don’t scare me like that. What are you doing just standing there?”

“Ah… ah… I…”

“…?”

“I’m going home! I’m sorry about the coffee!”

“Eh, huh? Hey!?”

Before I could say more, Yukina grabbed her bag, slipped past me, and ran straight to the front door.

I couldn’t even chase after her, not with a tray full of hot coffee in my hands.

“…What on earth just happened?”

I stood there, dumbfounded.

Did she see something she wasn’t supposed to?

Something weird that would totally creep a girl out?

“No, no way. I don’t have anything like that, right?”

I’m a modern high school guy, no way I’d leave any embarrassing magazines lying around. Even so, a drop of cold sweat ran down my back.

I felt uneasy, so I went into my room and looked toward my desk.

“…Ah.”

And there it was.

…That notebook.

I hadn’t left it right on top of the desk.

It was sticking halfway out of the shelf above it. The notebook on ethics. The one that isn’t even mine.

“You’ve got to be kidding me… Did she see it?”

If there’s only one notebook left out like that, anyone would get curious.

“…Huh? But something doesn’t add up?”

What bothered me wasn’t just the notebook; it was Yukina’s reaction.

If she’d seen that creepy thing, her reaction didn’t make sense.

If that notebook really was hers, she would’ve confronted me about it, asked why I had it, if I’d read it, or something like that.

But she didn’t. She just looked flustered and panicked.

“Was she surprised by what was inside…?”

If it were someone else’s notebook, then it made sense she didn’t accuse me. But even then, running away like that? That didn’t feel right either.

She could’ve just asked, or acted a bit confused.

“Then, what was that just now…”

When she looked at my face, I remember that moment clearly.

The instant our eyes met, her ears turned red too… It was almost like─.

“…Damn it. What was that supposed to be…”

I scratched my head and let out a small sigh.

That look on her face… It was like she had just found something precious.

◆

“Haa, haa, haa…”

Yukina ran out of Yuu’s house, her footsteps echoing through the dimly lit street.

The rain that had been falling just moments ago had stopped, and through the gaps in the clouds, the moon peeked out, fighting to light the darkness.

“Ah, what’s happening to me…”

Once the apartment building was no longer in sight, she slowed down and tried to catch her breath.

Her head was still spinning.

“That charm…”

The thing she had seen on Yuu’s desk. It was a small star-shaped charm.

It was cheap, something they could buy anywhere. But one of its edges was chipped, and the metal hook was worn down.

It looked exactly like the one she’d lost back in middle school, on the day “he” saved her.

If Yuu had picked it up back then.

If he’d kept it all this time.

That familiar feeling.

That strange sense that something was off about the boy who claimed to be her “savior.”

Everything was finally clicking together, piece by piece, like parts of a puzzle snapping into place.

Her heart was pounding so hard she could barely breathe.

When she touched her face, it was burning hot.

She couldn’t stop the smile spreading across her lips.

Her feelings burst out and overflowed from her chest like a flood she could no longer hold back.

“…I found him.”

I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him, I found him.

Her whole body trembled with joy, her heart bursting with pure excitement.

“Shiomin…no, Yuu-kun was ‘him’ all along. Ah, I have to calm down.”

Trying to steady herself, Yukina reached into her bag and took out a plastic ziplock bag, tightly sealed to keep the air out. Inside it was something wrapped carefully in cloth.

She pressed it to her face.

“Haa─”

She took a deep breath.

Her body trembled.

It was a dangerous and intoxicating motion. The scent spread through her entire body, flooding her mind.

She had spent years studying every detergent and fabric softener she could find, all to recreate that scent. She kept that scrap of cloth sealed away so the smell would never fade.

And every time she breathed it in, the memories and emotions from that day came rushing back.

“Haa… Haa… Haa…”

Yukina was breathing unevenly as she slowly began to calm down. Her eyes drifted to the handkerchief in her hands.

It smelled different from the towel she had borrowed earlier. But that didn’t matter; it was a small thing.

Maybe the detergent or fabric softener had changed since then. Even so, her instincts could still pick it up, not the artificial scent of soap, but the faint and familiar smell of that household hidden underneath.

That was it.

That was why she had always felt a strange closeness to “him.”

The warmth she felt in Yuu’s house… that nostalgic feeling. It all made sense now.

“If it’s been two years, the fabric softener would change… I’ll have to find the same scent again.”

She pressed a hand against her chest while trying to calm her racing heart and felt something strange there.

“…?”

She carefully reached inside and pulled it out.

What slipped free from her chest was a damp towel, the one she’d borrowed after getting caught in the rain.

“Oh no… I took it with me…”

She must’ve left in such a rush that she forgot to give it back.

Yukina stared at it for a long moment. Then she brought it up to her face and breathed in deeply.

“~~~~~~~”

Her body trembled. She nearly melted on the spot, forgetting about everything and everyone around her. Her usually perfect makeup was ruined, her expression soft and hazy.

There was a faint trace of her own scent mixed in, but she could clearly smell him beneath it. A new scent, but one she could never mistake.

She knew she should return it. She should.

But… maybe just a little longer. Just a little longer wouldn’t hurt…?

Drawn in by that sweet temptation, Yukina’s mind went blank. Her thoughts and her restraint, everything was gone.

“…Ah.”

Then, she suddenly came back to herself.

There was one thing she couldn’t forgive.

“You lied to me… No, you took advantage of ‘his’ kindness. I can’t let you get away with that.”

What was written in that “notebook”… it really was true.

“This can’t ever be forgiven, right?”

In her eyes burned something close to hatred.

“I’m sure you have already suffered enough today but… hehe. Hehehe. I’ll make you regret it even more.”