Inside The Bus Home

The conclusion of the club’s ski trip.

The interior of the bus home was completely hushed in silence. Every single person on board was thoroughly exhausted.

Yuu Isshiki and Touko Sakura-jima were seated together near the front of the bus. Uncharacteristically, Touko had refused to let Yuu out of her sight. Before anyone could even speak up, she had declared, “Right, we’re boarding the bus now!” and pulled Yuu along tightly by the hand. Her attitude explicitly screamed that she had absolutely no intention of leaving an opening for Honoka, Meika, or even Yuu’s best friend, Ishida, to step in. Her forceful, unapologetic demeanor—completely unbothered by what the people around them thought—left even her best friend, Kazumi Kanou, staring blankly with her eyes wide with shock.

Meanwhile, Touko’s younger sister, Honoka Sakura-jima, and Meika—the younger sister of Yuu’s best friend, Ishida—were seated together near the very back of the bus.

“This is bad…” Meika murmured under her breath, biting her nail with a sharp, tense expression.

Honoka cast a worried glance at Meika. Noticing her gaze, Meika explicitly laid out the meaning behind her previous murmur.

“I honestly never expected Touko-san to adopt such an aggressively proactive, forceful stance. Touko-san’s habit of ‘refusing to make a move on her own’ was our single greatest tactical advantage…”

“Yeah, that behavior really wasn’t like my sister at all,” Honoka agreed.

“We need to scramble and devise a fresh strategy to turn the tables on this…”

In response, Honoka spoke up with a rare, distinct lack of confidence. “But, given what happened during this whole incident… I really don’t have the right to complain to my sister.”

At that, Meika turned a cold, detached gaze squarely onto Honoka. “Does that mean you’re officially giving up on Yuu-san, Hon-chan?”

Honoka fell completely silent.

“I mean, it simply means one less rival for me to worry about, so I don’t mind either way…”

“I didn’t say… I was giving up…”

“Exactly. If you were the type to throw in the towel over something like this, you should have backed away the exact moment you realized he was ‘your sister’s boyfriend’ to begin with, right?”

Honoka gave a slow, compliant nod. Watching the younger-looking Meika thoroughly out-argue the far more mature-looking Honoka would have undoubtedly struck any outside observer as a remarkably bizarre sight.

“You’re entirely driven by your moods, Hon-chan, so you’re probably just feeling depressed and overshadowed by Touko-san right now. Once some time passes, you’ll snap right back to your usual self anyway. If you suddenly change your mind down the road and say, ‘I actually still want to make a move on Yuu-san after all,’ I won’t be partnering up with you again, just so you know.”

“I get it… I get it, alright? I have absolutely no intention of giving up either.”

“In that case, we need to start looking forward and calculate our next steps!”

Meika’s eyes flashed sharply as she went back to biting her nail. “We need to execute a fundamental overhaul of our core strategy.”