The Protagonist's Sister Loves Me, But She's Definitely a Yandere. - Chapter 04: No Clue Who the Culprit Is

Chapter 04: No Clue Who the Culprit Is

That day during lunch break, I set off on a mission to find out who sent the letter.

But the only clue I had was the elegant handwriting. I had no idea where to start.

Honestly, my circle of friends wasn’t anywhere near as wide as Hinata’s.

I couldn’t imagine someone sending me a letter like that as a joke. To be blunt, even as a prank, there was nothing funny about it.

So that meant… the letter was serious.

(They know everything about me… Is this a stalker?)

The thought sounded ridiculous, even to me.

I’ve always lived a decent, drama-free life. Affairs or messy love triangles were something that only happened to other people. If anything like that ever happened, it’d be because of Hinata, not me. My self-esteem wasn’t high enough to think I was attractive enough to have a stalker.

For someone to stalk you, whether out of love or hate, there should be some reason they got attached. No matter how far back I searched my memories, nothing came to mind.

Putting all the information together, a few possibilities came up:

A prank —not funny, but for some reason, someone decided to mess with me.

A stalker —someone I didn’t know was actually watching me and sent a threatening letter.

An acquaintance I forgot —maybe I knew the sender but just couldn’t remember.

If it’s the first one, the fact that it’s such a dumb prank makes it more likely a guy friend did it.

I barely had any female friends. The most I interacted with girls was for quick, practical stuff like schoolwork or casual questions.

The second possibility is that someone’s stalking me out of some strong emotion.

And, to make it worse, it’s someone I don’t even know. This option wasn’t far-fetched.

If that’s the case, it’s definitely dangerous, and I need to be on guard.

The third possibility is similar to the second one —that I actually know the stalker.

In other words, maybe I forgot or didn’t notice, but there’s a reason why someone’s stalking me. It might not even be a close acquaintance, just someone who knows me vaguely.

…But like I said before, my interactions with girls are practically zero.

…Wait, what if it’s a guy who uses “I” in a formal way? Now that would be a nightmare. Please, no.

“Man, I have no clue.”

Ever since I got that letter, I was suspicious of everyone.

I couldn’t help but wonder who gave me that threat letter.

But, of course, I had no solid leads. I was completely stuck.

During lunch, I stretched my back and let out a groan. My spine cracked in a satisfying way.

As I quietly chewed on my sandwich, Hinata, sitting across from me, tilted his head.

“Hey, you okay? Got something on your mind?”

“Nah, it’s nothing. Just stressing over the exams.”

I gave a vague response to the words of the brown-haired, good-looking guy.

Despite having his own personal harem, Hinata often chose to spend lunch breaks with me.

I glanced at the lunchbox he was eating from —it was colorful and perfectly balanced, nutrition-wise. Even someone like me, who doesn’t cook, could tell it took a lot of effort to make.

At some point, Rika had started making those lunches for him.

Speaking of Rika, she had left the classroom earlier with her group of girl friends. She was super popular with both guys and girls, but only Hinata could be this oblivious to her obvious feelings.

That lunchbox alone would make most guys jealous.

As his childhood friend, I wished they’d just get together already or at least come to some sort of conclusion. I didn’t care if Hinata was doing it on purpose or not, but his cluelessness was starting to make her —or rather, them— look pitiful.

“Ugh, don’t talk about exams. They suck.”

“Easy for you to say. You’re always at the top of the rankings.”

“Well, yeah, but still. I hate what I hate.”

Of course, this guy was a top student, too. God gave him way too much.

And it wasn’t just Rika —even that upperclassman was a high achiever. If Hinata asked for help, they’d tutor him without complaint. Meanwhile, I had no choice but to study hard on my own.

Watching Hinata’s grumpy expression, I decided to ask him something.

“Hey, didn’t you get confessed to a while ago?”

“Oh yeah, I did. I just turned her down. No reason to date her.”

“…You say that so casually.”

Hinata was popular. Of course, he was. With his looks and social skills, how could he not be?

Besides the girl who mixed up our lockers yesterday, a first-year had confessed to him recently, too. I’d always wondered how that went down.

But turning someone down was just business as usual for him. He probably handled it so lightly because he was used to it. Rejecting someone is supposed to take some emotional energy, but this guy seemed immune to that.

Still, that wasn’t what I really wanted to ask today.

“Someday, someone’s going to hold a grudge against you. Maybe it’s time you started dating someone.”

Nice one, me. While sounding like I cared, I was really trying to figure out Hinata’s survival strategy.

I needed to know how to avoid someone’s hatred. Right now, I was dealing with a stalker (?) sending me threatening letters. There was a chance it was fueled by some sort of grudge. If Hinata had any advice, maybe I could resolve things peacefully. I waited for his answer.

“If they’re going to hold a grudge, there’s nothing I can do. I don’t want to date anyone right now. If something happens, I’ll deal with it then. Besides… love and stuff? I don’t really get it.”

“Man, you’re so careless. Go ahead and get stabbed already. I’m not going to your funeral.”

“Wow, rude! And here I was going to leave you my insurance money.”

“I’ll handle your funeral.”

I joked around, but I was disappointed by the half-baked answer I got.

Despite being so popular, when it came to his own love life, Hinata always gave these vague, noncommittal responses. He played Cupid for everyone else, but he had no plans of dating anyone himself. I felt sorry for his harem of admirers.

Seriously, popular guys like him should just explode. I prayed for it silently.

“Hey, Shinji.”

“What now?”

Just when I thought our conversation was over, Hinata suddenly called out to me.

I washed down the last bite of my sandwich with some tea and turned to him. Hinata was rummaging through his bag. After a moment, he pulled something out and handed it to me.

“Can you give this to Runa? She forgot it at home, I think. I meant to give it to her, but I completely forgot. Sorry, but can you take care of it during lunch?”

“Runa-chan? Why don’t you give it to her yourself?”

“No way. She’s annoying and always yelling at me.”

He handed me a smartphone. It belonged to Runa.

Honestly, their relationship was the definition of “the worst.” She was always butting heads with Hinata. She was nice to me, but I guess being siblings meant there were just some things they couldn’t agree on.

Because, you see, Runa Ichinose was Hinata’s little sister.