Under the moonlight, two girls faced off.
Eriri gave Miura a strange look.
"About Hikigaya? What do you mean?"
Miura met Eriri's eyes head-on and got straight to the point.
"Sawamura-san, do you like Hikigaya?"
"!!!"
Eriri's petite body instantly stiffened. Then… her pretty face visibly flushed red, and she hurriedly stammered a denial:
"Hikigaya? Who… who would like him?! I have no feelings for Hikigaya, n-not in the slightest! I'm not even interested! I-I only see Hikigaya as… as just a normal friend! I-I don't even think of him as a guy, hmph!"
She blurted it all out in one breath, then crossed her arms, pretending to be calm.
"..."
Miura was silent for a few seconds, then spoke calmly:
"Why are you so worked up?"
"Eh? Y-you're accusing me of liking Hikigaya, of course I… I have to refute it!"
"The more you care about someone, the easier it is to lose control of your emotions."
Miura stepped closer, still looking Eriri directly in the eye. "Sawamura-san, I can feel your emotions toward Hikigaya."
"!!!"
Faced with that ever-approaching, intimidating bust, Eriri's face turned redder as she gritted her teeth and kept backing away.
"You like Hikigaya, don't you?"
So close they were almost nose to nose, Miura pressed her calmly again.
"I, I… ugh… don't like him…"
"No, you do like him, don't you?"
"Ugh…"
"There's nothing to admit or deny here. Liking someone is liking them, not liking is not liking. Saekawa-san, stop hiding your feelings!"
Miura's tone turned solemn.
"I… fine…"
In the end, under Miura's pressure, Eriri was finally forced to admit it.
"So, why are you asking me this? What… what's it got to do with you?"
After saying that, Eriri bit her lip and looked at Miura, her blushing face full of embarrassment.
"Ahem, my friend Yui likes Hikigaya too. So… that makes you Yui's rival."
Miura said this coolly. "Maybe you'll try chasing after Hikigaya later, but I'm telling you now—I will absolutely not hand him over to you!"
"Eh? Your friend?"
Eriri was surprised for a moment, but after hearing the second half, she couldn't help feeling something was off.
"Is it really just for your friend?"
"Hm? What's that supposed to mean?"
Miura immediately shot back:
"Of course it's for my friend. Don't tell me you think I have feelings for Hikigaya? Hmph, who would have feelings for that guy? Just a plain old Hikigaya!"
"..."
Eriri was instantly speechless.
For some reason, she felt like she'd heard these exact words somewhere before… uh… weren't they what she had just said earlier?
Well, well—looks like she'd met a kindred spirit!
Her mouth twitched slightly. Eriri took a deep breath and looked seriously at Miura.
"Miura-san, you can drop the act. You say it's to help your friend Yui, but actually… you like Hikigaya yourself, don't you? And you're pretending you're just helping a friend, tsk…"
"Ha?"
Hearing that, Miura's face instantly flushed red.
"Who likes him?! I'm not like you guys!"
"Hmph, you dare say you don't have any feelings for him? Alone with him every night, exercising together in the park, you expect me to believe you two haven't sparked anything? Stop pretending to be all pure in front of me!"
Eriri wasn't the type to back down, so she raised her voice,
"If Hikigaya got stripped naked, I bet you'd be the first one to pounce on him!"
"You…"
Miura's heart started pounding wildly. She opened her mouth, wanting to refute, but for a moment, no words came out… If Hikigaya really were standing naked in front of her, sh-she might… wait!
"I knew it…"
"Hmph, let's not even talk about me. If Hikigaya were stripped naked, I bet you'd go wild like a beast and start licking him!"
"I—!"
The two girls were now blushing furiously, locked in a heated argument, both glaring fiercely in the direction of Hikigaya.
And just then, there was a faint rustling sound from the ginkgo tree by the roadside.
"Hm?!"
In an instant, both girls' thoughts were yanked back.
"Who's there?!"
The sharp-eyed Miura immediately turned toward the tree, suspecting someone might be eavesdropping on their deeply embarrassing conversation.
"Someone there?"
Hearing that, Eriri also tensed up, staring fixedly at the ginkgo tree.
The atmosphere froze for a few seconds.
Just as the two were about to step closer, a faint little cat's meow came from behind the tree:
"Meow~ meow~…"
"Phew, it's just a cat."
Miura let out a breath of relief. Eriri also relaxed slightly.
If anyone had overheard that shameful conversation, for two girls as thin-skinned as them, it would have been utter social death.
"Hikigaya… he has a girlfriend now."
Blushing, Eriri was the first to break the silence.
"I know…"
"..."
And with that, the two fell into silence again.
After all, Hikigaya was already taken, and here they were squabbling over him—it was honestly a bit disgraceful, downright indecent.
"Sawamura-san, how about I take you for a run next? We need to cool off."
"…Alright."
And so, the two girls stopped arguing, composed themselves, and then turned to jog off into the distance, continuing their exercise.
—Ten minutes later.
Behind the ginkgo tree.
"Auntie, are you okay?"
Hikigaya supported Sayuri's trembling, delicate figure. The mature woman's fragrance mixed with a hint of sweat drifted over, making his heart race.
"Hikigaya-kun, you were just… cough cough… Auntie's about to faint here, ugh, honestly…"
"Auntie, I'm sorry…"
"Ah, it's fine, you don't need to apologize. Auntie doesn't blame you at all—it's Auntie's own fault. Those two girls were fighting over you, and yet this old Auntie here was… hehe, this feeling of secretly having you all to myself is just too delicious~!"
Sayuri wrapped her arm around Hikigaya's, licked her lips, and smiled sweetly.
"Hikigaya-kun, you've made a lot of progress today. Auntie is very pleased. I hope you can keep surprising Auntie even more~ Now, let's move to another spot, okay? It's too dark here—not good for filming."
"?"