The spacious room was filled with the soft, warm glow of wall lamps, spreading gentle light evenly.
On the surface of Lake Toya, a deep gray-blue shimmered under the blue tones, the shoreline outlined by snow into a hazy silver edge.
Yuki Asahi stood frozen at the entrance.
The bed, clearly meant for couples, made his voice tense as he tested the waters quietly.
“Sen…Senpai shouldn’t mind, right?”
As soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted it, hurriedly adding,
“After all, before we also…”
Forget it, better not say anything!
Jiang Jian Yue felt as if this statement was a provocation.
She replied with a faintly forced calm.
“Of course.”
That goes without saying.
Bro, it’s fine to share a bed—what’s the big deal?
If you make a fuss and go find someone (referring to a certain girl) to switch rooms, you’ll just seem overly sensitive.
But…
The presence of that bed was just too strong.
Deliberately ignoring it, she looked toward the mini bar by the entrance, her gaze sweeping over the tea bags placed there.
Darjeeling Black Tea…
She remembered a certain blond, blue-eyed tank commander who loved tea—she’d have to try it after dinner.
The two of them silently put their luggage away.
Yuki Asahi’s movements were stiff, as if he was purposely avoiding looking at the focal point of the room.
Jiang Jian Yue walked to the huge floor-to-ceiling window, turning her back to the room to look out at the quiet Lake Toya.
The LINE group notification sound broke the silence.
It was Kaori Onishi summoning them:
Everyone~Gather in the Main Hall is complete!
Only you two left!
My stomach is growling! (2~~<)
“Let’s go.”
Jiang Jian Yue turned first, her voice flat.
When they reached the Hotel’s Main Hall, sure enough, the other four were already waiting.
Kaori Onishi’s eyes immediately locked onto Yuki Asahi, then quickly swept past him to Jiang Jian Yue behind.
The girl’s eyes mixed obvious grievance, envy, and a trace of unwillingness.
She pouted and muttered softly, her sleeve being gently tugged by Yamanoi Yayoi beside her.
Jiang Jian Yue turned her gaze away expressionlessly, pretending not to notice the burning stare.
Nothing could be done—if you couldn’t see through Koji Hattori’s little tricks, that was your problem.
Love is a battlefield, and war has never been about fairness.
—Of course, Jiang Jian Yue had never instructed Koji Hattori to cheat; it was all his own doing!
Jiang Jian Yue was just an innocent civilian swept into the conflict.
“All right, everyone’s here, to the Restaurant!”
Koji Hattori energetically waved the Hotel guide map, pointing in a direction.
“It’s in the Western Wing of the main building, the buffet’s reviews are really good.”
As the group was about to move, Jiang Jian Yue’s gaze caught two figures at the front desk, checking in, their backs to her.
Their builds and hair colors looked familiar.
She paused, quietly slipping away from the group and walking straight to the front desk.
“Excuse me, are you Da Zhuang Niu, Niu-san?”
The receptionist maintained her professional, sweet smile, confirming with the tall man with short red hair.
Jiang Jian Yue, close enough, clearly heard the question, her red eyes narrowing slightly.
Da Zhuang Niu?
“Yes.”
Long Yin nodded naturally, then as if sensing something, turned his head to meet Jiang Jian Yue’s probing gaze.
“You?”
Standing beside him, Beiye, who was trying to stuff a stack of Hello Kitty postcards from the gift shop into his backpack, looked up at the sound.
The moment he saw Jiang Jian Yue, he froze, his face equally surprised.
“Miss…Miss Jiang Jian?”
Seeing the two’s genuine shock, the tension in Jiang Jian Yue’s heart eased a little.
So…at least they didn’t come here because of us?
She stood quietly in place, waiting for them to finish checking in.
Long Yin turned around with the room card, the surprise still not fully gone from his face, and smiled awkwardly.
“What a…coincidence. Didn’t expect to meet here.”
He pointed to himself and Beiye.
“We…came out traveling.”
Wait, you guys are an ‘evil organization’ and you’re out traveling?
Aren’t you supposed to be plotting big evil deeds all day?
Is this some kind of light-hearted OVA side story? Did the worldview auto-switch to slice-of-life mode?
Hiss…
That’s…actually possible.
Maybe her suspicion and ‘Are you kidding me?’ were too obvious, because Long Yin looked even more embarrassed.
He rubbed his hands together, lowering his voice.
“Before, we were always hiding and on edge, so we didn’t really have a chance to go out.”
“Recently things have been calm, and Beiye said the snow scenery in Hokkaido is nice, so we thought…we’d come out and relax.”
Is it really just travel?
Jiang Jian Yue remained a little wary, then coughed lightly, her expression cool as she spoke in Chinese.
“Da Zhuang Niu?”
“…That’s a fake name.”
Long Yin explained.
“There was a guy in GPRI who could kill people remotely with just a name and face, so we pretty much all used fake names.”
Yagami Light? When did you show up?
Jiang Jian Yue suddenly remembered something important.
“Did you bring Light Bugs?”
Jiang Jian Yue typed the question into her memo.
The Light Bug energy was depleted, and in the rush before, she hadn’t left any as backup.
Her own Light Bug Ability could absorb Mind Bug System-related corpses to gain energy—but only if some energy was preserved to multiply.
“Stuff like that, we usually carry with us.”
The three of them quickly moved to a more secluded area, and Beiye took a small jar from his backpack.
A few unlucky Light Bugs were shaken out, landing in Jiang Jian Yue’s hand.
The Light Bugs trembled, then silently shattered, turning into streams of light that flowed into her body.
“Thank you.”
“It was nothing. Well…we’ll go drop off our luggage now? Enjoy your trip!”
Long Yin dragged Beiye, who seemed to want to say something else, toward the elevator.
Jiang Jian Yue watched them enter the elevator before turning to rejoin her group.
However, at the corner, a silent figure made her stop.
Yuki Asahi, who had somehow left the group, stood there quietly.
His gaze, just drawn away from the closing elevator doors, now locked onto Jiang Jian Yue, his eyes complex and hard to read.
There was confusion—and a trace of youthful unease.
He pressed his lips together, his voice low.
“Senpai…who exactly were those people?”
Yuki Asahi had seen that red-haired man before—and the impression was deep.
It was the guy he’d run into during his first official date, at the Meiji Shrine.
Jiang Jian Yue tilted her head slightly, her red eyes meeting his without evasion, but also with no intention of explaining.
She only spoke softly, succinctly.
“It’s nothing.”
—Undeniable, because she didn’t want Yuki Asahi to know.
After speaking, she averted her gaze, naturally passing by his side.
Yuki Asahi stood where he was, watching her slim figure melt into the crowd, his brow unable to relax.
***
In Hokkaido’s December, the sky was nearly dark by just four o’clock.
The Hotel’s buffet Restaurant was spacious and quiet, with huge floor-to-ceiling windows showing the dreamlike snow coast and nearby lake lit by carefully designed lights.
A dazzling array of Hokkaido seafood was enough to make diners forget their worries for a while.
Kaori Onishi transformed her sorrow into appetite, piling her plate into a small mountain.
She gnawed crab leg meat viciously, shooting resentful glances at Yuki Asahi at the next table, as if blaming fate’s unfairness.
Every time Yuki Asahi felt her gaze and tried to say something, Kaori Onishi immediately turned away, focusing on the food, her cheeks puffed like an angry hamster.
“Here! Heyo-chan, eat!”
Seeing Yamanoi Yayoi’s worried look, Kaori Onishi quickly offered her a plate of crab leg meat.
At the same table, Jiang Jian Yue picked up a sea urchin elegantly, then sighed.
As expected, she didn’t really like seafood.
The home-cooked Grilled Eel Yuki Asahi made last time was already the top seafood in Jiang Jian Yue’s mind; nothing else she’d tried could compare.
Even Hokkaido’s famous specialties, cooked by renowned chefs, didn’t help.
At another table, Saori Saiyonji also took a lot of dishes—he still had no sense of taste.
He’d bring a richly-flavored dish to his nose, smell it for a moment, then stuff it into his mouth with a despairing face, chewing it like wax.
The manager patrolling the Restaurant looked at him nervously.
Not because he recognized Saori Saiyonji the superstar, but because he looked too much like a hidden gourmet critic.
He’d take a small portion of each dish, examine it carefully, sniff it—then eat it with a dissatisfied expression.
It was over.
He was going to write a bad review.
Yuki Asahi himself found the food tasteless.
His mind kept replaying the scene at the front desk: two mysterious men, and that cold “it’s nothing.”
Those two were definitely not ordinary tourists.
Who were they?
What was their relationship with Senpai?
Why was Senpai deliberately hiding it?
Countless questions circled in his mind, leaving him unsettled.
He wanted to ask, but seeing Jiang Jian Yue’s “don’t ask, silence is the answer” look, he swallowed the words back down.
Koji Hattori, on the other hand, ate heartily.
While enjoying the food, he shared about the Lake Toya fireworks show he’d found online, trying to lighten the mood.
“They say it’s every night at eight—though small in scale, watching fireworks over the lake with the snowy scenery must be a unique experience!”
His suggestion only earned a few half-hearted responses.
Yamanoi Yayoi couldn’t help asking,
“But I heard there’s no fireworks in December?”
“Really?”
Koji Hattori was surprised, taking out his phone to check the Hotel website, and found there really were no fireworks shows in December.
“Mmm…”
He suddenly felt the urge to make some mischief.
How could they not see fireworks?
Fireworks are romantic—maybe they’d help Miss Jiang Jian and Asahi-kun’s relationship progress!
***
Stepping out of the warm Restaurant, the chill of the outdoors instantly enveloped them.
The winter night at Lake Toya was silent and cold, only the faint sound of wind sweeping over snow and pine branches.
Streetlights cast hazy glows on the snow, marking the path back to the main building.
Jiang Jian Yue purposely slowed her pace, falling to the end of the group, holding her camera.
Yuki Asahi hesitated, then also slowed, walking beside her.
The snow creaked under their feet, extra clear in the quiet night.
Silence hung over them like an invisible net.
“Senpai…”
Yuki Asahi finally gathered his courage to break the silence.
“Those two earlier—are you sure there’s nothing wrong?”
“They didn’t seem…like ordinary tourists.”
Jiang Jian Yue suddenly stopped, then raised her camera, pointing the lens at Yuki Asahi.
“Cheese.”
Still no answer…
Yuki Asahi panicked, making a ( ^—^ )v gesture.