Chapter 757 - 757: Love Letter or Threat?

'I'm just a nobody, no-one notices, a background extra in the corner of the classroom, right?'

'What if somebody sees this? It'll definitely get passed around behind my back! Definitely!'

'Waaah... just imagining it makes me so embarrassed I want to crawl into the shoe locker...'

Nonohara Yuzuka had never been through anything like this. To her, a love letter stuffed in a shoe locker was something that happened in another world.

It could only happen in books and movies, and had nothing to do with her, not in this life.

So right now, Nonohara Yuzuka was so flustered that her fingers were trembling.

But... Somewhere deep in her heart, a tiny spark of delight was secretly flaring up.

After all... this meant someone had recognized her, didn't it?

At the very least, it meant... she wasn't completely without charm.

Boys and girls in their teens all love the feeling of being admired by someone, and Nonohara Yuzuka was no different.

And besides... besides... A name suddenly crashed into the girl's mind.

'H-Hikari?'

He was pretty much the only boy who'd talked to her lately.

And he'd recognized her from a video online, even though her face was never shown...

'Eek!'

'Could it be that the cold face he put on while lecturing me on the rooftop today was all an act?'

'That he couldn't hold back after school and came to hand me a love letter?'

'Wahahaha... isn't that hilarious!'

'I knew it. After all, this young lady is...'

'Er... okay, I'm usually pretty invisible, sure.'

'But look at this impressive bust of mine!'

'No way that Hikari guy could be totally unmoved!'

'Hold it in... don't laugh... people will notice!'

Nonohara Yuzuka forced down the corners of her mouth, which kept rising with excitement and hope.

She looked around one more time like a thief, then yanked the letter out and stuffed it into her bag with a "swish."

Then she hugged her bag, hunched her shoulders, lowered her head as far as it would go, and scurried toward the bathroom, sneaking along.

Even she thought her creepy, ridiculous posture made her look like a twin-tailed cockroach scrambling blindly for cover.

But Nonohara Yuzuka had no time to worry about that now. All she wanted was to tear open the envelope in her hands and see what was inside.

She ducked into a stall in the girls' restroom and locked the door.

Only when the world went quiet did Nonohara Yuzuka let out a long breath.

"Who... could it be?"

"Writing me a love letter, of all things..."

Nervously, she pulled the pink envelope out of her bag and opened it, her hands trembling nonstop as if she had Parkinson's, and slowly reached inside.

"Huh?"

"Why are there some photos in here besides the letter?"

After taking everything out of the envelope, a puzzled look came over Nonohara Yuzuka's little face.

She casually picked up the photos, and then... her beautiful eyes went wide, and she froze completely.

"W-Why?"

"Isn't this me... during my livestream yesterday?"

"And my Twi-ter account... how... how did they even print out my toy review posts?"

Staring at what was on the photos, Nonohara Yuzuka was falling apart.

These secrets she kept buried deep in her heart, the ones nobody was supposed to see, had come out of what she'd thought was a love letter. The letdown was just too brutal.

By now, the twin-tailed, big-bosomed girl could barely hold it together, her eyes red, little pearls about to fall.

Fighting the urge to burst into tears, Nonohara Yuzuka picked up the thin sheet of letter paper.

There was only a single line of crooked handwriting on it.

[Come to the Film Research Club in the clubroom building, or else you know what happens!]

"D-Does this mean... they'll expose it if I don't go?"

"Isn't this... a threat?"

"H-How could this happen!"

"Why is this happening to me!"

Looking at the threatening letter and the threatening photos in her hands, Nonohara Yuzuka's dainty little face went pale. Her fingers were ice cold, and her heart was full of regret.

She was doomed.

She started regretting it: why had she ever become an online streamer, and why had she posted those reviews?

At the same time, she felt deep regret for how stubborn she had been with Hikari on the rooftop today when he warned her.

Back then, Hikari had urged her to stop streaming this stuff online, and she had brushed it off, even talking back.

And now look. Karma had come faster than a baton in a school sports festival relay.

Now she knew everything.

She knew that every word Hikari said was right.

Right now, Nonohara Yuzuka wanted to kneel down and bow her head to the floor in front of Hikari, apologize with tears streaming down her face, and wish that time could be turned back.

But obviously, regret was too late now.

Nonohara Yuzuka had also wondered whether Hikari might be the one who sent the letter.

After all, she'd gotten a threatening letter not long after he warned her. That was too much of a coincidence.

But after thinking it over carefully, Nonohara Yuzuka realized how unlikely that was.

If Hikari really wanted to threaten her, he could have done it at noon today. There was no need to go to all this trouble and take such a roundabout way.