My stepmother's burden is my ex-girlfriend.

"No. We always decide in advance who will use the bathroom or toilet first."

<But you did steal my underwear.> - 12:43

<I told you I just found it.> - 12:43

<That would be best.> - 12:43

She keeps bringing up old grievances, when will this woman ever stop... that matter is clearly over.

Just as I was about to criticize her persistent and dark nature...

"Who taught you to lie?" - 12:44

An additional message appeared with a pop.

...A liar? Me?

This guy is spouting nonsense again... When have I ever lied?

I glanced diagonally across the street and saw Jie turn her head away, her gaze drifting to the window. This meant she had been watching me the whole time.

Including my middle school years, I shouldn't have ever lied to this girl. To be honest, there was never a situation between us where we needed to lie, and we never forgot any promises and made up excuses. Not to brag, but no matter how small the matter, I never forget any promises. For example—

At that moment, a current surged through my entire body.

"Ah!"

When I suddenly shouted out, Kawanami and Minami looked at me with surprise.

"What's wrong? What happened?"

"Did you forget your textbook for the afternoon class?"

"N-no... I'm sorry. It's nothing, I think I made a mistake."

While I tried to gloss over the situation, I repeatedly went over the known information in my mind.

...So that's how it is... At that time, what Ayai wanted to say was...

I stole a glance at Jie's face, and saw her continuing to chat with everyone as if nothing was wrong. But I... only I felt that her expression looked stiff and cold.

...I think this is...

Ugh, well, damn it. There's nothing I can do.

I admit defeat.

Starting today, I am voluntarily resigning from the title of "the man who understands the psychology of people with communication disorders".

Class meeting – it's time to change seats.

"Then, let's start by drawing lots, beginning with Irito—I mean, the boys."

It seems that even after moving from junior high to high school, the way seats are changed hasn't evolved at all. It's still the same old-fashioned method: everyone draws a handmade slip of paper in order.

I pushed back my chair, stood up, and picked up a sheet of paper from the folded papers scattered across the lectern. According to the rules, we couldn't open it until everyone had drawn their lots.

"Let's switch to Irito, the girl. Everyone, hurry up and draw one—"

"OK."

Before I could return to my seat, the girl in seat number two stood up.

After I finished drawing lots, I brushed past Jie, who was also drawing lots on stage, in front of the lectern.

—In that very instant.

Without making a sound, I reached out and lightly touched the girl's left little finger with my left little finger.

“──!”

The girl immediately stopped and turned to look at me.

Her expression revealed intense astonishment.

I glanced at her expression, but returned to my seat as if nothing had happened.

"Irito? What's wrong—?"

"...No, no, I'm sorry. I'm fine."

After drawing a lot from the lectern with her right hand, Jie Nu returned.

She brushed past the student with seat number three, and in the brief moment she passed by my seat, her gaze fell on me.

--What do you mean?

I know exactly what she's thinking without even sending LINE messages or letters.

no other meaning.

I just want to be a person who keeps their promises.

...The truth is, it's just a trivial matter.

Back in junior high, during the one month we spent sitting next to each other, we mentioned this incident in the notes we passed to each other.

I've forgotten the exact details of the text—but I remember Ayai initially wrote something like this:

—I really hope we can sit together next month.

I had already calculated how low the probability of this happening was, so I answered as follows:

—It would be a miracle if it came true.

In other words, I was hesitant to bluntly say it was impossible, so I used euphemisms. Of course, a miracle is a miracle precisely because it's impossible—that's my definition—but Ayai doesn't seem to think so. She gave this answer:

—Then let's use magic to make a miracle happen.

According to her...

It seems there really is a kind of magic that allows you to sit with the person you like.

As a seasoned middle school student at the time, I genuinely thought, "This is just kidding," but Ayai surprisingly got into it. Even though she clearly loves reading novels about people being beheaded or dismembered, this part is actually quite girly.

When I first saw Ayai's personality, I (disgustingly) found her adorable and thought, "Okay, maybe it's a boyfriend's duty to play this kind of game with his girlfriend," so I readily agreed. But she couldn't find a magic spell to get couples to sit together, so she created an original spell based on what we had done before.

The method is to secretly touch your little fingers together when drawing lots so that no one notices.

I don't know what's so fun about it, but we've already pretended to pick up erasers several times during class to sneak a touch on each other's fingers, so this magic trick is like a derivative of that one.

Then, when the actual draw took place, I completely forgot about it.

...Let me find an excuse for myself.

The notes we passed in class, of course, couldn't be seen by anyone else. Because anyone could tell we were talking. So, like spies, we always quickly disposed of these pieces of evidence.

Of course, notes with magic written on them were no exception.

Humans need to repeat information to turn short-term memories into long-term memories. Who could remember something that happened only once, and in a classroom setting where it was a furtive, forced conversation (at least that's my opinion)? No, you couldn't!

...Okay, excuses are just excuses after all, and in the end it's still my fault.

Now, I can really understand Ayai's feelings.

The two of them had agreed to use magic, but I didn't make a sound. She had no choice but to muster the courage to call me, but I acted as if I had completely forgotten.

Ayai must have been thinking at the time:

"Ah, so I was the only one who took that kind of thing seriously. Hmm, I see. How embarrassing, talking about magic when I'm in middle school. Luckily he doesn't remember, I'll just pretend nothing happened, that way neither of us will get hurt, right? Ahahaha..."

They simply accepted their loss and bad luck.

Ayai Yui back then wasn't like she is now; she was that kind of girl.

—Even though it was more than a year ago.

—Even though I hate her to death right now.

My dignity still doesn't allow me to remain silent about this matter.

That's why I'm taking this opportunity to fulfill the promise I made back then—

I can feel her watching me from behind. Maybe she's trying to poke me with her mechanical pencil again.

...Today, I will say goodbye to this gaze.

Because magic is just something to fool children.

◆

I think everyone has already guessed the ending.

"........."

"........."

I didn't even glare at her; we just looked at each other with eyes devoid of all emotion.

-- We were separated by seats one in front of the other.

"Hey, hey, the two from the Irito family are sitting one in front of the other again! It's practically a miracle!"

"Wow... there really is such a thing."

Kawanami and Minami gathered around my and Yui's seats, which had been moved from the front row by the window to the back row in the center, and exclaimed in unison.

That's right.

Through a rigorous and fair lottery, my seat and Jie's seat were once again positioned one in front of the other.

"…………0.325%…………"

The woman's gaze fell on my seat, and she murmured in a voice so soft that no one could hear her.

...This number sounds familiar.

I took out my phone and quickly typed in a string of text.

<The first time was an inevitable result of the seat number, so the probability isn't that low.> - 14:56

As a result, Jie also took out her phone, and glared at me fiercely as soon as she saw the screen.

<To even calculate probabilities, how disgusting.> - 14:57

Ha! Curse me all you want.

Being called disgusting by disgusting people doesn't bother me at all.

And so, that damn God came to ruin things again, preventing me from taking the opportunity to get away from this woman when we changed seats.

However... putting that aside for now, I have achieved my goal.

—Although we were supposed to be sitting one in front and one behind, this time it was my turn to sit in the back.

In other words, the positions have been reversed.

This means I can control what's behind this woman.

Let me think... how should I retaliate against the physical abuse I've endured over the past month...?

"Hmph hmph hmph hmph..."

"Why...why are you smiling so sinisterly...what are you trying to do...?"

Ask yourself.

Thus, although I was not freed, I gained the opportunity to take revenge.

Is this also an effect of magic?

impossible.

That magic is unlikely to work on us now.

Logically speaking, isn't that how it is?

Because that kind of magic only works on two people who are dating.

Volume Two: Even though they are no longer lovers, former couples rely on each other. "...Who taught me to be the older sister now?"

Looking back, I can only say it was a mistake I made when I was young. However, I had what is commonly known as a boyfriend between my second and third years of junior high school.

The story began with books. I was in the school library and couldn't reach the book I wanted because I was too short, and he offered to help me—that's how we met, and we hit it off because of our shared interests.

Having said that…

Actually, our tastes are slightly different. I specialize in classic mystery novels, while that guy is a casual reader who reads indiscriminately regardless of genre. Middle school students tend to think everything except what they like is terrible (a prejudice), so that guy's reading preferences seem very unprincipled to me.