Reiji lay in his bed, sinking into his ridiculously soft mattress that he'd now gotten used to.

Even though he hadn't fallen asleep yet, it washed away the tiredness through pure comfort.

It was hard to resist the urge to turn over since he couldn't put pressure on the wound.

*RING*

His phone buzzed with another notification, and he picked it up from his bedside table to see if it was Beardy hounding him not to go over to Arata's place again.

But the account that popped up gave him a pleasant surprise, as an affectionate smile grew on his face.

***

[~Yui~]

ChocoLover: Hello hubby o((>ω< ))o

ChocoLover: Are you mad that I haven't messaged you lately?

Chefalicious: A little ಠ╭╮ಠ.... nah I'm jk

Chefalicious: I know you've been busy with midterms, just like me

ChocoLover: .....don't do that, i got scared for a second

ChocoLover: anyway, i'm done with midterms!! so let's meet up!

Chefalicious: uh sure, i guess we can meet tomorrow, I have nothing planned

ChocoLover: that's too late, i mean now!

Chefalicious: but it's so late? i'm in bed already

ChocoLover: that's fine, we don't have to go anywhere \^o^/

ChocoLover: I'll come over ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Chefalicious: well, how long will you take to get here?

ChocoLover: 5

Chefalicious: 5 minutes? already?

ChocoLover: 4

ChocoLover: 3

ChocoLover: 2

ChocoLover: 1.....

***

*DIIING-DOOOONG*

Reiji froze, lifting his head slightly towards his front door through the walls.

'.....Well, I got myself into this.'

He slowly stood up and hobbled over to open it up, rubbing his eyes to brush off the sleepiness that was threatening to take over.

It wasn't exactly comfortable, the fact that he hadn't seen Yui ever since they'd made it somewhat official.

But he'd sent her a few text messages over the weekend, and she'd only responded with brief acknowledgements, saying that she was busy with something

So despite the fact that he was exhausted, his expression radiated happiness as he opened the front door.

Only to be punched in the gut by a cannonball.

Yui torpedoed into him, sending him tumbling back a few steps as he supported her weight to prevent them from tipping over.

"OOMPH!"

"Reiiiijiiiii! I missed you!" she giggled, hugging him so tight that he started seeing white spots in the air.

"M-Me too, so don't kill me, please!"

He managed to pry her off of him, but not without great difficulty, since she was clinging to him like a koala.

Her glowing face came into view as she glanced up at him, her skin almost perfect if not for the dark circles under her eyes and the obvious fatigue hidden behind her joy.

Reiji frowned at this, his mind conjuring up the worst possible scenarios according to his knowledge of the game, so he gently cupped her face and rubbed the sunken parts carefully.

"What happened to you? Why do you look so tired?" he asked with worry.

Yui seemed to almost melt under his touch, her knees bending slightly as she transferred her body weight under his control, and a faint blush spread across her squishy cheeks.

Reiji had to pull her closer out of fear that she'd just collapse then and there, but that only managed to make things worse.

So he clicked his tongue and pinched her cheeks on both sides, just enough to snap her out of her daze.

"Ack!" she squealed, pouting at him after she stood up straight and massaged her face.

"Come in for now."

Reiji closed the door behind her and walked into the living room, the redhead following along with a silly grin.

He made her sit on the couch before joining her, his frown still expressing his confusion at her condition.

"Now tell me, what happened to you?" he asked.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Yui tilted her head as if she didn't understand the question.

"You look like you haven't slept in a while."

"Oh, that. I've slept for 4 hours every day since Saturday," she clapped like it wasn't a big deal.

"....But why?"

Yui froze slightly, avoiding his questioning stare while she twiddled with her fingers.

"Well..... I saw how you were teaching that annoying girl so seriously, and I just thought..... Maybe you liked smart girls? So... I stayed up late to study for the midterms, so that my ranking would go up," she whispered quietly.

Reiji blinked once, and then twice, trying to process what he'd just heard.

While OG Reiji's role as the main villain in the game stemmed from the fact that he was supposed to outshine the protagonist in almost every physical way, so that the players would get an immense sense of satisfaction whenever they beat him, Yui's role wasn't quite the same.

She was more or less a 'tool' to show that the protagonist wasn't a magnet to women, to show various conflicts that didn't have to be logical, but most importantly, to show a complete contrast to the female leads.

All of the heroines were kind and incredibly smart, a recurring trait amongst the vast differences between them.

Yui, on the other hand, was proud, somewhat unstable, and relied on brawns over brains, which was another reason why she started clashing with the heroines later on.

They were just too incompatible.

So, Yui moving away from that assigned role and actually making an effort in her academics was never a plot point in the games.

And that's why he was so surprised.

Seeing that she didn't get an immediate response from Reiji, Yui looked up at him, full of insecurity.

"So.... I was right?" she mumbled.

'.....God, she's just too cute!'

Reiji leaned forward, grasping her chin with one hand as he kissed her softly, enjoying the fact that her eyes had become as wide as saucers.

But she instantly reciprocated, throwing her arms around his neck and nibbling on his lips due to her inexperience.

This led to Reiji breaking out into light laughter while still conjoined with her mouth.

Yui pulled away with an aggrieved glare.

"What's so funny!"

"Nothing, I just wanted to make sure you didn't mistake me for a macaron," he smirked.

"....No," Yui smiled, getting close to his ear in a very quiet voice. "This is much sweeter."

It was Reiji's turn to be caught off-guard, the tips of his ears reddening as he pushed her away teasingly.

"You got that line from a movie as well?

"Nope, that's all natural!"

Reiji shook his head and leaned back on the couch as he watched her tenderly.

"But...." Yui continued. "You still haven't answered my question."

"Hmmm. Think about it this way. If I cared about whether or not you were smart, would I have agreed back then?"

Yui's face lit up with relief.

.....Before morphing into puzzlement as she fell into deep thought.

"Wait..... Are you calling me dumb?"

Reiji turned to the clock on the wall, showing great interest in the intricate carvings on the outer shell.

"YOU!"

Seeing that amused expression, Yui pounced on him and punched his shoulder playfully.

But since she was sitting on his right side...

"Fuck!"

Reiji shot up to his feet and staggered away from her, clutching his shoulder as the sudden pain made him bite his tongue to hold back the remaining string of obscenities that wanted to fly out.

Yui stared at her clenched fist and then at the boy who was writhing in agony, wondering when she'd gotten strong enough to hurt him with a light smack.

"Hey, stop messing around. I definitely didn't hit you that hard," she chuckled awkwardly.

Reiji tried to regain his composure, trying to force on a brave face, but even that felt so forced that Yui's confusion turned to nervousness as she stood up as well.

"H-Hey, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, haha. What was I expecting from a future black-belt?" Reiji joked.

But Yui wasn't fooled; her fear growing as she pointed at his shoulder.

"W-Why does your arm look darker?"

He quickly looked at the place she was referring to and saw that the bandages underneath his white t-shirt seemed to have a tinge of red, suggesting that some blood had leaked through.

'Shit.'

It's not that he was comfortable lying to Yui either, but he knew her reaction would be far more chaotic than even Haruna's unexpected wrath.

So, he'd decided to wait until Thursday and show her the bandages at the MMA club and brush it off as a light injury, which was now ruined.

Before he could think of what to say, Yui lunged forward and tore open his t-shirt, with absolutely zero regard for whether or not it could be fixed later.

And when the bloodied bandages came into view, shit hit the fan.

She raised a trembling hand and caressed the outer part of his shoulder, her bright red eyes somehow darkening into a shade of maroon as she asked him with a shaky voice.

"W-What happened?"

"....It's not that bad, I just grazed it on a fence on my way home yesterday," he groaned in exasperation.

She raised her head and locked eyes with him.

"You're lying."

".....I-I'm not!"

Yui stayed silent, and after a staring contest that lasted about ten seconds, she refocused on the injury and slowly started unwrapping it.

".....Fine. I'll change the bandages since this is my fault."

'Huh? She believed me??'

Reiji didn't think so, but seeing that she didn't seem to have the intention of probing, he exhaled and allowed her to help him.

Over the next fifteen minutes, Yui didn't say a word as she changed the bandages, only showing a reaction when she first saw how large the cut was.

He thought that maybe she'd started interrogating again, but she surprised him again by simply continuing to stop the bleeding and rewrapping it with new strips.

A task she seemed to be very experienced with.

Most importantly, she didn't even make a single lewd remark, even though he was completely shirtless.

And that was the final nail in the coffin that made him start overthinking things.

When a pervert isn't acting perverted, it can be quite scary.

"....I'm gonna go home and sleep now. You should get some rest, too," Yui stated.

"....Okay. I'm just letting you know that it's nothing serious, okay?"

Reiji walked her down to the apartment entrance, the whole journey filled with the sound of absolutely nothing.

Before Yui got into the taxi he'd booked, she stood on her tiptoes to give him a light peck, closing the door without waiting for him to get a few more words in.

As he watched the car drive away, his brows furrowed in contemplation at the sudden change in her demeanor.

'....Why do I feel like she's gonna do something?'

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