Chapter 117: You gave me.

They laughed together for a while, sometimes pretending to be angry.

In the gentle air that filled the space between them, Yuran’s words gradually grew fewer.

Was he troubled? Hesitant?

His gaze wavered unsteadily.

“Is something wrong?”

Violet set down the cup she had been cradling in both hands and turned her body halfway toward him.

Seeing her fully prepared to listen, Yuran seemed to give in.

He pressed his lips tightly together once, then—slowly, reluctantly—parted them and began to speak, the words coming out stiffly.

“Um…… earlier, during the break…… your sister came to see me.”

“Eh……”

“She asked if we could study for the tests together.”

The unexpected blow pierced straight through her, stealing her voice.

She had asked, yet she apparently lacked the resilience to withstand the shock.

She had never—even in imagination—pictured Mary June and Yuran growing close.

No—she hadn’t wanted to imagine it.

Frozen like ice, her expression still tinged with surprise, a flood of long-avoided, unpleasant thoughts burst through the dam in Violet’s mind.

The very first moment she became aware of her own feelings.

It was Mary June’s words that had made Violet realize the deep, hidden desire buried in her heart.

In other words—the wound had been that severe.

An anxiety stronger than that day surged inside her.

Her palms grew clammy.

Her throat, which had felt moist just moments ago, now stuck together, refusing to move properly.

And somehow—that felt like a mercy.

If it hadn’t, she might have selfishly cried out.

No.

Don’t go near her.

Driven by an unspeakable terror, she had nearly lost control.

“So…… about the test papers—I’ll borrow mine from someone else. Violet-chan, you can lend yours to your sister.”

“Eh—but, at this point—”

“As long as she has the papers, she can probably manage on her own somehow.

She probably doesn’t have any other connections for them.”

“What about you, Yuran? If you try to find some now, hasn’t everyone already decided who they’re lending to?”

“Ahaha…… well, I’ll figure something out.”

Even so—it surely wouldn’t be that easy.

This method of relying on past exam papers wasn’t officially encouraged to begin with.

Most people without underclassmen connections either discarded them early or lost them.

And those who still had them usually already had someone they planned to lend to.

Moreover, the percentage of people who could keep last year’s question sheets in pristine condition wasn’t especially high.

“But if that’s the case…… wouldn’t it be better to just study with Mary June?”

“——Is that really okay with you?”

His stare was so earnest—so piercing—that her words caught in her throat.

He couldn’t possibly have missed the faint tremor in her shoulders.

His gaze refused to let her evade.

Yet it never felt frightening.

Perhaps because this person had always protected her until now.

Perhaps because she could declare with absolute certainty that Yuran would never hurt her.

“I didn’t like it.”

“Eh……”

“Thinking of you and…… Claudia together. I didn’t like it. It made me feel lonely.”

He let his shoulders droop.

Like a child whose mischief had been discovered, waiting to be scolded, he gave a small, pained smile.

She had known about Yuran’s discomfort toward Claudia.

Even so—she had been grateful that he still acted for her sake.

She hadn’t known how to repay that kindness.

She had thought she understood—how she had forced him to endure, to worry, to wrestle with so many conflicts.

But until she heard it from his own mouth, she had never imagined that she herself—not Claudia—was the one causing him pain.

To think that so much time had passed and yet she had only now understood—it was unforgivably arrogant.

And the fact that he had still acted for her sake despite harboring such feelings made her happiness all the greater.

How arrogant. How ugly.

Her heart pounded fiercely.

If this was what it meant to flutter, then how fickle, how shameless.

Just moments ago she had been suffocated by terror so intense it felt as though the ground beneath her would collapse.

“I…… also”

“Mm.”

“I also…… don’t like it.”

To leap through an open door required the courage to bare oneself as well.

More important than stubborn pride born of embarrassment or fear.

Her spilled true feelings were met with gentle affirmation—nod after nod.

She could tell they were truly reaching him.

Even without raising her voice, he would catch them.

He would accept them.

“I feel lonely…… and I think it’s unfair…… I want to study together with you too, Yuran.”

With each word she spoke, it felt as though her emotions were taking shape—not for anyone else, but inside herself.

She was realizing: so this was what I was feeling.

This was the very possessiveness she had once feared and hated so much.

Unfair. Enviable.

She had felt the same back then—similar emotions.

The initial envy and obsession that had led to her imprisonment.

Yet this jealousy was far softer—far gentler—than before.

“But I hate the idea of you struggling even more. So I won’t lend the papers to Mary June, and I won’t let the two of you study together either.”

Her expression clearly showed she wasn’t convinced—yet her words said the opposite.

It wasn’t bravado, nor had she fully accepted it.

But it wasn’t quite endurance either.

If anything—it was the same as when Yuran had asked Claudia for help.

She simply wanted the best possible choice for this person.

It wasn’t some grand selfless love.

But she believed these small accumulations would one day lead to something greater.

“And if it’s all right with you, Yuran…… after the exams are over, I’d like to talk a lot.”

She wanted to hide the heat rising in her cheeks—yet she also wanted to face him properly.

After that internal struggle, her gaze drifted slightly downward, stopping just below his eyes.

She had always thought he smiled often and wore his emotions openly.

But looking at him from the nose down to the mouth, she realized Yuran often spoke with his eyes.

His tightly pressed lips alone gave no hint of what he felt.

“…………”

“Um…… is that no good?”

“It’s not no good. Not at all no good…… but”

His silence made her worry she had been too selfish.

Had she let her desires run too wild?

Embarrassment sent strange sweat trickling down her back.

Under the weight of emotion, her gaze dipped—his outline blurring slightly at the edges.

Then she saw it.

His cheeks—and the ears peeking through his hair—were dyed bright red.

“Sorry…… could you not look over here for a second?”

A large hand rose to cover his face.

Yet it wasn’t enough to hide the flushed corners of his eyes or ears.

His glossy pupils looked almost teary.

The usual sharp, handsome figure wrapped in adorable charm had vanished—replaced by something purely lovable that stirred an urge to protect.

His face seemed faintly tense, yet the pout-like expression made him look just like he had when they were small.

He was the man she loved—yet at the same time, he was still the little brother she had spent so many years with.

“Fufu.”

“……Don’t laugh. I’m surprised too, you know. I never thought you’d say something like that.”

“I’m sorry for startling you. But it’s my honest, heartfelt feeling?”

“I know. Violet-chan isn’t the type to say empty pleasantries. ……Geez, you were the one blushing earlier.”

“It’s so rare to see you turn red that it just…… blew my mind.”

“I didn’t hear that. Forget it.”

“You’re really cute, though.”

“I’m not happy about that.”

“Fufu, sorry.”

“That ‘sorry’ has no heart in it. If you laugh again, I’ll make you eat this chocolate.”

“If you do that, I’ll make you eat a cookie too.”

“That’s not punishment for me at all.”

Their shoulders drew close.

Their laughter overlapped.

A happy space.

Until the time came to leave school, the two of them remained wrapped in that gentle air.