When the girls surrounded Chu Xuan in the middle and happily ate lunch together, in the fourth-class classroom next door, Yan Ye was silently bowing his head and filling out a stack of forms.

And her lunch box was tightly placed on the edge of the table, not opened at all.

"What are you laughing at......"

Otome Kato pretended to be dissatisfied, and protested to Minami Obuchi, Natsumi Koizumi, and Mori Raimi, who were always with her.

――Just behind Yan Ye, across a row of seats, Kato Otome and her three friends had finished their little bento and were now gathering to chat.

"We're going to start talking about the school festival."

Among the three, the "atmosphere maker" Minami Obuchi took the lead in proposing a bill, and then Natsumi Koizumi, the "gossip information communication", immediately raised her fist happily and responded:

"In order to make Otome's love successful~"

"I don't need it......"

Kato Otome's face was slightly red, and she said helplessly to the three guys who loved to coax.

"Otome is so cute~"

Sen Laishi, who has a more stable surname, also coaxed at this time.

Kato Otome and the others were talking about the school festival, but the four of them didn't have the slightest intention of helping Katsura Yanye, who was working hard to prepare for "their" school festival, to share something.

Even they often cast contempt and ridicule at the hard-working and bad comments, as if they thought that this was the punishment that the "little three" deserved.

It seems that they have forgotten that the reason why there are false rumors about Yanye in the school is not only because of the jealousy of those girls, but also because they openly spoke ill of Yanye in the classroom at the beginning.

However, they were not the initiators of the rumors about the "third party", and Natsumi Koizumi, the "gossip information passer", didn't know who he heard it from at the beginning.

Anyway, there are many rumors in the school, such as who got along with whom, who went out to open a house on the weekend, and who broke up with whom...... Although these rumors were circulated among the students, no one except the first person to release such rumors could not say exactly where the news came from.

"Boom!"

Just when Kato Otome was blushing and fighting with the three heckling friends, Yan Ye, who was sitting not far in front of them, suddenly stood up and startled them.

Then Yan Ye picked up the lunch box on the edge of the table and hurriedly walked out.

The four Kato Otome, who were stunned and looked at Yan Ye, pouted at her back rather unpleasantly, as if to cover up their gaffe just now.

At this time, Yan Ye held the lunch box in his arms, as if he was incarnated as a race walker, and quickly walked to the rooftop upstairs.

Along the way, some of the students who had already finished eating pointed at her as soon as they saw Yan Ye, but her eyes were always fixed on the ground in front of her, not making contact with these eyes full of all kinds of bad feelings......

As he approached the top floor, Yan Ye's face involuntarily showed an expression mixed with urgency and anticipation.

Because of the hurry, she finally completed the work of the school festival when a little more than a third of the lunch break passed, and now if she rushes to the rooftop, Chu Xuan and the world should not have completely finished their lunch.

After all, Chu Xuan's bento was oversized, and he had to eat some fruit after eating the bento.

And at this time, it is the turn of the lemon tea or other flavors of tea drinks prepared by Yan Ye.

She, Chu Xuan, and the world would each hold a cup of tea in their hands, sipping slowly, chatting and eating, and sometimes listening to Chu Xuan say some cold jokes with an expressionless face that was actually not smiling at all, or listening to him seriously analyze how a certain swordsmanship in "Rogue Kenshin" should be realized from a scientific point of view.

Every noon when I was in school, it was the precious time for Yan Ye to recharge himself.

But because the declaration form for the school festival was delayed by the classmates in the class until the last minute, it was handed in.,And a lot of the content is filled out or irregular.、Or incomplete.,She still needs to check and revise one by one.,So she had to take up her most precious lunch break today.。

However, with the strong motivation of "wanting to join Chu Xuan and the world as soon as possible", she finally completed all the work at a speed that was nearly twice as fast as the scheduled plan.

- Of course, fortunately, there were not as many places and time that she needed to be corrected, as expected.

After walking quickly to the stairwell to the rooftop, Yan Ye finally couldn't hold back his urgency, violated the school rules slightly, and ran up this staircase with a "swoop".

But when she smiled and reached out to unlock the door to her happy heaven, she was surprised to find that the door was locked.

"Huh?"

Yan Ye's smile froze on his face, and he tried to twist the door lock again.

But even with a "click" protest, it stubbornly refused to open.

So Yan Ye took out the key from his pocket and inserted it into the lock cylinder.

"Click!"

With a slight twist, the door lock was opened, but Yan Ye seemed to have suddenly lost the strength to push open the door at this time, and just stood there silently holding the big lunch box.

After a few moments, she gently pushed the door open, sticking out half of her head through the crack, as if hesitating to face the reality she didn't want to accept.

"Hoo ......"

A gust of wind blew, carrying with it a swirling leaf.

Sure enough, Chu Xuan and the world were no longer on the rooftop.

――Even though the three of them are still here drinking tea and chatting at this time.

(Maybe it's because they thought I wouldn't be able to come at noon, so they quickly finished their lunch box and left...... Yan Ye thought this in her heart, but it didn't make her mood better.

However, there is no way around it...... It's just not a coincidence.

Yan Ye lowered his head and slowly walked back with the big lunch box in his arms, while not forgetting to lock the door that led to the secret base that belonged only to the three of them.

Maybe it was because he was walking too fast just now, Yan Ye felt a little tired in his body, and the lunch box, which he usually didn't feel weighed much, seemed to have become a lot heavier.

Just as she was silently walking back alone in the strange eyes of more students who had finished eating, she heard laughter coming from the next classroom at the door of the classroom.

“…… Na...... Other...... Chu Xuan...... Come ......"

Although the voice was almost indistinguishable, Yan Ye still keenly captured the name "Chu Xuan".

Her face hesitated, but her feet moved towards the third class classroom.

The closer I got to the door, the clearer the sound of the girls laughing in the classroom, and the lively voice of the world in it.

Yan Ye cautiously stretched out a nod from the open door and hurriedly looked inside.

In the classroom of the third class, Chu Xuan, who was expressionless, was surrounded by several girls in the middle, and the world was sitting next to him with a happy face.

“……”

Yan Ye quickly retracted his head, gently stroked the bento box in his arms, which had been covered with body temperature, and then silently returned to his classroom, and stuffed the bento box that had never been opened back into the hole in the table.

(To be continued)