Source
https://kakuyomu.jp/works/822139844261747978/episodes/822139844981286174
Following Tomoka and Mitsuki, Yukina soon became distant too.
This hit me the hardest.
After all, Yukina was the one who looked after me the most among the three sisters.
She stopped coming to wake me up in the mornings and helping me with homework.
Naturally, I felt resentful.
(What the hell? Just stopping like that? How heartless…!)
When I pressed her about it… she explained that, like Tomokaand Mitsuki, her manga and illustration work had gained traction on social media, and she’d started pursuing it seriously.
The sisters told me, “Please don’t get in the way of Yukin’s dreams.” I didn’t fully accept it, but I swallowed my frustration.
At the same time, I thought…
(…Drawing, huh. Yeah, if I could actually draw, that’d be pretty cool. This could work.)
…That feeling that maybe, just maybe, I could do this.
So I jumped right in and tried…
Of course, it didn’t go well.
But… I learn too. I never expected to be perfect from the start. Thinking you can just whip something up and create a masterpiece? That’s only for geniuses of legendary caliber.
I’m a humble person. I’m not that arrogant.
So I kept at it. I studied improvement techniques, learned from Yukina herself—who happily taught me—and pushed myself a bit, thinking I’d soon be drawing amazing pictures…
Even after a month, I hadn’t improved at all.
Pictures I thought were genius while drawing them looked utterly terrible when I looked back. I couldn’t feel any sense of progress…
Then my motivation plummeted.
Even the sketching and drawing meant to help me improve felt like monotonous work. My drive just faded away.
(…Today, I’ll skip… No, maybe I’ll just take a day off. Yeah, that’s it. Forcing myself when I’m not in the mood will never lead to improvement.)
And so, a day of doing nothing came.
One day turned into two. Then I started forgetting the feel of drawing. When I finally drew again after so long, I’d gotten worse, and that made me lose motivation again…
Naturally, Yukina caught me.
…Next to her, piled high, were traces of effort—more than double mine—that she’d kept up steadily while I was slacking off.
The moment I saw that—something, an emotion I couldn’t admit to, exploded.
“! Yukina can put in that effort because she has talent! If improvement came just from doing it, I’d put in that much effort too, of course! Stop pushing that on me!!”
Saying that, I shook off Yukina’s voice and ran away from the spot.
After that, I stopped drawing altogether.
No. This can’t be right.
This is definitely wrong. I’m not just this.
I’m special. I’m the childhood friend of the genius beauty triplets, and they’re fond of me.
So I must have… something, some incredible talent too.
From there… Ryota’s search for ‘it’ began.
Something that would make him special. Something where his hard work would make him incredibly skilled, something no one else could match, something that made him feel like he was born to do it.
If he found it, everything would be solved.
The sisters would cherish him even more than before, everyone would acknowledge he was worthy of being their childhood friend, worthy of being their special someone.
Something that would let him show up those idiots who called him “the sisters’ bonus” or spat out jealous remarks like “Why the hell should you get to?” Something that would make Ryota the protagonist, the strongest.
There absolutely had to be something like that out there for him.
He searched, convinced of it… but found nothing.
Nothing felt right. Those who lectured him with such arrogance infuriated him.
As time passed, the sisters spent less and less time with him… and that only fueled his frustration further.
(What the hell?! Everyone’s too cold-hearted! If you’re childhood friends, you’re supposed to be there for each other at times like this!!)
Accelerated by frustration, the resentment bubbling inside him spills out.
(They’ve really got it made, don’t they? Tomoka, Mitsuki, Yukina! They’ve got the talent to become the strongest, and they just effortlessly succeed because they worked hard! They don’t know the pain of someone who hasn’t found it yet! I’m suffering like this! They succeeded so easily without any hardship, so they could at least help me out a little!!)
With that thought in mind.
He started clinging to the three sisters, who had been ignoring him.
Only then did they finally seem to understand, and they all rushed to worry about him.
That eased his frustration a little. He was still special to the three sisters. All that was left was to slowly find something worthy of him giving his all…
Or so he thought.
“…Huh?”
He saw it.
During lunch break, behind the school building. Mitsuki was hugging some guy he didn’t know.
(Who the hell is that guy──!!)
A fierce jealousy flared up inside him.
Who the hell does that guy think he is? Pushing aside me, the childhood friend closest to the three of them.
Even when I confronted Mitsuki herself, she wouldn’t reveal his identity.
Then… I had to find out myself.
Just as I was thinking that… during a break between classes.
I saw Mitsuki get called away for a sudden duty as class monitor. She left her smartphone on her desk and walked out of the classroom.
The power was barely still on.
What was displayed was—a message exchange between the three sisters.
The screen automatically shut off almost immediately, but two things remained etched in his mind.
First, the three sisters had declined his invitation for this Saturday and were going out somewhere.
And second—the name ‘Yui-kun’.
“…Yui…?”
Ryo muttered the familiar name—and instantly realized.
(Right! The streamer Tomoka kept mentioning—that guy was ‘Hiyui’. I’m sure he was a guy the same age as us—!!)
In that instant, everything clicked into place.
It was him. Definitely him. All of it.
A guy the same age who streams—it wouldn’t be strange for him to be at Asahi given his nature. Plus, since he supposedly does singing and composing too, he’d have plenty of topics to get close to Mitsuki.
No doubt about it. That guy—he messed everything up.
The one Mitsuki was clinging to was surely the same person. He used his shamelessly diverse creative pursuits to worm his way into Tomoka and Mitsuki’s lives.
And this Saturday.
The three sisters are apparently going out. If it’s just the three sisters going out, there’s no reason to exclude me.
Which means… he’ll almost certainly be there. That man named Yui.
And what’s more. If all three sisters are coming…
(No way… he’s planning to deceive Yukina too! It has to be!!)
A burning sense of mission ignited within me.
I absolutely must go there too.
I have to go there, uncover Yui’s true identity, and find undeniable proof of just how evil he is.
I have to bring him to justice. I have to free the girls from him.
Only I can do this.
If I can do that—then absolutely, my relationship with the three sisters should return to how it was before.
It’s all that guy ‘Yui’s’ fault.
(I’ll save both Tomoka and Mitsuki! I won’t let Yukina be deceived either! Just wait—!!)
His mission and sense of justice ignited, his course set.
Ryota immediately began planning how he would handle himself at his confirmed destination on Saturday.
◆
At nearly the same time, in the second-year classroom.
“…………”
Minasumi Yukina was lost in thought during a break between classes.
What she was thinking about…
(…Yui-kun, huh)
Needless to say, it was about the boy she’d met the other day.
She’d met him through her sisters’ introduction. Invited him home as someone who’d take on the role of the pseudo-boyfriend she was seeking—
“!”
Recalling what happened after that, her stunning beauty—one that drew the gaze of the entire class—flushed crimson.
…Well, yeah. Even she had to admit she’d gone way overboard back then.
He was right; she’d been panicking.
Her first-ever commercial serialization had been canceled, ending in failure.
Not knowing what to do next, unable to be a guiding light for my sisters as their big sister, I desperately wanted to fix this worthless version of myself as soon as possible.
So… I didn’t want to lose him, someone who’d seriously take on this fake boyfriend role. I just made the most extreme choice I could think of as repayment.
…But.
He saw right through all my inner turmoil. He told me I didn’t need to rush things in front of him.
But he didn’t dismiss the urgency itself. He said he valued the very attitude of striving for solid results—he gave me the words I needed most right now.
He’s incredibly calm and observant. I realized he’s someone who truly listens.
And yet… he also blushed at my provocative appearance, showing that age-appropriate shyness.
After that. When I lightly hugged him and pressed my lips to his cheek…
(…I wondered if I’d gone too far. But I was also incredibly nervous. A girl in love would do something like this, right…? My body moved with surprising naturalness.)
Recalling that moment—my chest warms. I squeeze that full part, feeling it tighten.
That was the moment her ‘resolution for romantic feelings’ had increased.
Just that alone made asking him worth it.
So now, I genuinely want to try all sorts of things.
Saturday’s date is part of that.
Since it felt like things might get awkward alone, I invited my sisters too. Even with that… I’m nervous, but excited.
… And then, if.
He—who I knew was such a great person just from yesterday’s interaction—were to see me now.
Me, in the professional world, where my desperate efforts fall short. Me, crushed by failure, suffering and in pain, unsure how to move forward.
If he could somehow manage even that for me.
Then…
“…………Really. Even if I get deceived, maybe it’s okay.”
Almost unconsciously.
Those words spilled out in a whispering, sweet tone—
“!?”
Immediately afterward, she writhed in shame, realizing what she’d said.
She had no way of knowing that her unexpectedly adorable, ‘love-struck’ expression had dragged several classmates watching her even deeper into the swamp.
And so—
(Saturday is the day. I’ll expose that villain Yui’s true nature, and I’ll save Tomoka, Mitsuki, and Yukina—!)
(A date with me and Micchan too, huh? Of course, Onee chan comes first… but if there’s a chance, maybe I’ll enjoy myself too♪)
(A date with all four of us, I’m really looking forward to it. Things with Ryota and everything else weigh heavily on my mind… but just for Saturday, it’s okay to forget about that and have a blast, right?)
(Dates, doing lover-like things on dates… all sorts of things come to mind… b-but, should I try this on Yui-kun too…? B-but, it’s to understand romantic feelings…!)
Various intentions… or rather, the clash of one person’s misguided intentions and the hearts of many sisters thinking of each other.
Some were saved, some learned about feelings, some found relief.
And some… would receive further retribution.
That Saturday arrived.
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