After breaking up, my ex asked me to win her back

Kiryu Hina stood waiting in the stairwell.

She knew he would come.

Her heart was filled with anticipation.

Tap, tap, tap...

The familiar footsteps echoed from above and then gradually halted.

Kiryu Hina lifted her gaze, her lips curving into a slight smile.

Kagura Hikaru stood there, frozen in place as if he had seen something unbelievable.

She could read shock, confusion, and regret in his eyes.

She was glad that he still remembered her.

Just like the first time they met, Kiryu Hina lifted her right hand and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear, whispering softly, "Long time no see, Mister Hikaru."

For a moment, he wore an expression as if someone were choking him.

Indeed, he was still hung up on the past.

Kiryu Hina curled her fingers and slowly walked toward him, pretending not to see his subtle attempt to back away, moving closer and closer.

Yes, be patient like a hunter on the prowl, don't scare him.

She told herself this.

She stood one step below Kagura Hikaru, tilting her face slightly upward: "How have you been lately, are you doing okay?"

"Hina? You..."

The boy in front of her looked bewildered.

"You're free after school, right?"

"...I, I've got a part-time job."

"At the live house, right? Can I join you?"

Upon hearing this, Kagura Hikaru once again had that alien-gazing expression.

No wonder, the sudden approach from an ex-girlfriend he hadn't spoken to in nearly two years would leave anyone at a loss.

Perhaps he suspected she had ulterior motives.

Kiryu Hina skillfully flashed an innocent smile.

It was something she learned from someone else, and it might have seemed out of place in the past, but now she had perfected it.

Truly nauseating.

Just thinking of imitating that woman made her want to vomit.

However, she knew Kagura Hikaru liked that type.

Seeing her display an expression highly reminiscent of that woman, Kagura Hikaru's face softened for a moment, then twisted again due to a strong sense of discomfort, trying to avert his gaze but unable to do so.

Kiryu Hina narrowed her eyes and drew closer, her rosy lips parting and closing as if coquettishly yet earnestly saying, "You know, I can leave the past behind, I just want to see you at work."

Kagura Hikaru agreed.

They went to the live house together, where it was crowded, loud, and stuffy, but Kiryu Hina was content to watch Kagura Hikaru perform from down below.

Afterward, they visited the family restaurant they used to frequent.

From then on, the atmosphere between them slowly improved, and they could even share small jokes.

Perhaps, they had successfully reverted to their previous relationship.

Months later, she teamed up with Kagura Hikaru to crush Ayakoji Chiyoko, the idiot, in the Student Council elections, and they rolled Kohinata Motoyo, who had returned from overseas, right back to where she came from.

In their final year of high school, as the graduation ceremony concluded successfully, she pulled out a bunch of roses backstage and confessed to him, stepping into the shrine of marriage after graduation.

Everything was perfect.

Just by having taken a different approach at the beginning, all problems were smoothly resolved.

When this thought flashed through her mind, the dream ended.

Kiryu Hina opened her eyes in bed.

She glanced at the time, slowly got up, hugged her blanket, and tugged at her hair in annoyance.

Did she really have such a dream?

"Dammit, bitch." She cursed herself in self-derision.

Regret was an emotion she was utterly unworthy of.

All of this, every single bit of it, was her own doing, wasn't it?

Because of that damn dream, Kiryu Hina's morning was unpleasant.

She brushed her teeth with a sullen face, ate her breakfast with a sullen face, and left the house with a sullen face.

She was wearing a gloomy expression when she met Kagura Hikaru and Suse at the school gate.

The two of them, shoulder to shoulder, heading to school just like yesterday.

That bitch was still holding his hand.

Kiryu Hina's dark eyes swept over the woman opposite her.

From the moment she first saw them, it felt as if it had started raining from the sky, cold droplets hitting her hair and shoulders.

When scrutinized, she felt no different from a drenched stray dog.

Already having a girlfriend, she had no face to approach any further, yet that Virgin-Mary-act woman took the initiative to come to her.

"Good morning, Hina."

"Morning."

Suse and Kagura Hikaru greeted her one after the other.

As if compelled, Kiryu Hina also nodded reluctantly, intentionally saying "Good morning" only to Kagura Hikaru, giving the woman an unfriendly look.

Suse, completely unaffected, cheerfully started talking about this month's exams and some interesting stories she heard from classmates.

Acting as if they were still friends.

Sometimes, Kiryu Hina really couldn't understand this person—was she thick-skinned or just dense? After all that had happened, how could she still come up to her as if nothing was wrong?

What's even more infuriating is that she couldn't detect a hint of malice.

Is this woman really an angel?

Fuck that.

Kiryu Hina actually believed that conclusion; after all, they had been friends, and she knew what kind of person the other was.

If Suse were really hypocritical, she wouldn't have liked her from the start.

But Kiryu Hina didn't believe that conclusion either because it made her out to be an old witch consumed by jealousy, spiteful and ugly in face and heart.

So why had things turned out this way?

Could it really be like in that dream where, if only she had shown Kagura Hikaru a different attitude back then—just that one small change—everything could have been...

Kiryu Hina stopped that thought; she dared not think any further.

This was called daydreaming, and people who think about such things every day have no future.

Everyone knows that there's no such thing as a time machine or a pill for regret in this world.

Had she really sunk so low?

Ridiculous.

Mocking herself, Kiryu Hina couldn't help but look again at the couple walking ahead.

Yes, they could only be described as 'that couple.'

The sour stench of their love could be smelled even twenty meters away.

Kohinata Suse shamelessly used the "Free Love Law" that Ayakoji Chiyoko had used to crush her during the Student Council elections, announcing her sovereignty over Kagura Hikaru in front of Uka students.

But to Kiryu Hina, it looked more like Kagura Hikaru was being dragged along passively.

His personality was such that you couldn't see that sense of youthful shyness typical of teenage boys on him—completely placid and undisturbed.

That look of someone truly in love—he had only shown it to her, Kiryu Hina alone!

Thinking this, Kiryu Hina felt a hint of pride.

With this mindset, she looked again and finally shed the inferiority filter, suddenly offering a new perspective.

Kagura Hikaru seemed... somewhat not normal.

He paid too much attention to Kohinata Suse, a bit too clingy, even following her when she went to talk to a female classmate, standing by her side, unmoving.

Of course, this wasn't something incomprehensible, given that the two had just started dating.

But if such behavior occurred with Kagura Hikaru, it was abnormal.

Kiryu Hina considered herself someone who understood him; her ex, after coming to high school, became a guy with no sexual interest at all. He shouldn't be fawning over anyone, not even his girlfriend.

His actions clearly didn't match his lack of enthusiasm for Kohinata Suse, which was inconsistent.

This dissonance led her to think of some kind of... dependency disorder? She wasn't sure.

Thinking back to Kagura Hikaru's insomnia that had suddenly improved, she felt she was on to something.

Kiryu Hina was smart, far smarter than her peers, and she wasn't lacking in insight, spotting Kagura Hikaru's hidden issues with her bare eyes.

Her gaze flickered, planning to talk with Ayakoji Chiyoko later.

That woman seemed to have used some tactic to bind herself to Kagura Hikaru.

If she found out Kagura Hikaru was being threatened again, she swore she'd give Kohinata Suse an unforgettable lesson!