My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected: After Story ―And So, the Snow Falls Quietly― - The Cage Beneath the Mask

The air in the high-end event hall was saturated with a thin, gaudy brilliance. Gold leaf covered the walls, countless crystal lights hung from the ceiling, and the marble floor was polished to a mirror sheen. But with no one there, the place was as silent as a grave, its hollow radiance asserting itself with a harsh, glaring intensity. Hikigaya Hachiman stood at the center of that strange space. This was Yukinoshita Haruno's location, which he had pried out of Hayama Hayato. The venue, near Makuhari Messe, was one of the candidates for the "Graduation Commemorative Party" hosted by the Yukinoshita family, scheduled for tomorrow. The woman who had crushed the prom with a school-wide broadcast was now here, alone in this gaudy space, basking in the sweet wine of victory—what could she possibly be thinking? "Oh my, welcome. Hikigaya-kun." The voice descended from the very back of the hall, atop a slightly raised stage. Beautiful black hair that reached her waist. A jet-black, tinged with more blue than her sister's, flowed smoothly, unresisting to gravity. Clear, blue eyes, identical to Yukino's. But the unfathomable darkness lurking in their depths eloquently proclaimed that she was a "fake." She wore a perfect smile, as if she had known from the start that Hachiman would come here. Hachiman narrowed his eyes, like those of a rotting fish, even further, and took one step, then another, closer to her. Only the sound of his shoes echoed mechanically through the silent hall. "...This is a pretty lonely party venue. Are you the only guest of honor?" "Hehe. Isn't it funny? Tomorrow it'll be decorated much more beautifully and filled with lots of students. It would be a waste not to have it all to myself now, don't you think?" She hopped lightly off the stage and stood directly in front of Hachiman. Her high heels made a clear, sharp click on the marble floor. A glamorous yet unapproachable aura emanated from her entire being. But Hachiman did not yield a single step to that pressure. "I'll list, in purely external terms, what you've done to Yukino." Hachiman began, his voice flat, his emotions suppressed. "Freezing the prom budget. Hijacking the project by proposing an external venue. Inciting Hayama to hurt Yui. Exploiting Shiromeguri-senpai's goodwill. Then, the formal cancellation announcement over the school broadcast, and forcing your party through. Finally, canceling the lease on Yukino's apartment." He paused for a beat, then put anger into his words. "Every single one of these is an underhanded, filthy method. What's so fun about going this far to thoroughly rob your own sister of her place and her future?" Haruno showed not the slightest concern at his condemnation. Instead, she narrowed her eyes as if amused. "Because, isn't it interesting? Everything is moving in the palm of my hand. Yukino-chan, Yuigahama-san, Hayato-kun, Meguri-chan, and—you too. All of you, with just a little poke of my fingertip, roll around so amusingly." She laughed, a clear, ringing sound, as if affirming every bit of her own malice. An ordinary person would likely be driven to fury by that ridicule. But Hachiman was different. He continued to observe Haruno's reaction coolly, with his rotting-fish eyes. (Her root isn't a desire for control.) Hachiman sensed it intuitively. Haruno's behavioral pattern was far too distorted. What she truly desired wasn't to make Yukino unhappy. It was a terribly childish, twisted love: wanting Yukino to look only at her, the one making her unhappy. "No. You're not enjoying a game." Hachiman's tone changed. Not condemnation, but analysis. The blade he excelled at, one that saw through the deceptions of others, was now turned on Haruno. "The reason you want to monopolize Yukino is because you are alone. Inside the cage of the Yukinoshita family, bearing the full weight of your mother's expectations, having completely abandoned your freedom—you are lonelier than anyone. That's why you wanted to lock Yukino inside the same cage as you. Because then, you wouldn't be alone anymore." He continued his words, as if seizing her heart with his bare hands. "You love Yukino, don't you? More than anyone. That's precisely why you can't forgive her for rejecting your mother's control, leaving even you behind, and trying to step outside the cage to become free. Because the freer Yukino becomes, the more it proves that you alone are eternally trapped in that cage." Haruno's perfect smile froze, with a crack. A minute fissure, invisible to anyone else, ran across its surface. "All your harassment of Yukino is the flip side of a twisted codependency. You don't want to make Yukino unhappy. You just want to lock her in the same cage as you and feel secure that you're 'not alone.' Because Yukino tries to leave you behind, you trip her up and try to drag her back every time." "...Shut up." For the first time, the lightness vanished from her voice. It was a cold voice, like a sharp knife. She glared at Hachiman as if to pierce him through. In the depths of her blue eyes, a murky jealousy and hatred began to swirl. "What could you possibly understand? What could you understand about me?" "I don't understand. Not a single thing about your life. But, as someone who's also let loneliness fester inside them, I understand the shape of the hole in your heart painfully well." Hachiman didn't back down an inch. He reflected on his own family environment—though he had his sister Komachi, he had somewhere given up on deep connections within the family, those days of twisted self-sacrifice. He, too, had been someone hugging his knees in a dark cage until he found the light that was Yukino. "Yukino-chan was mine. Ever since we were little, she was my cute little sister who always followed behind me. Even when I was about to be crushed by Mother's expectations, she was the only one outside my cage. I thought she, at least, could be free. And yet...!" Haruno's voice trembled for the first time. The mask she had worn was crumbling away. Her perfect posture collapsed, and she slumped down on the spot, as if all strength had drained from her. "That girl, with someone like you, away from me...! Don't leave me alone...!" It was the first and last raw scream of the woman called Yukinoshita Haruno. Sitting on the floor, she began to cry out loud like a child. "Ever since I was a child, it was always like that. Study as Mother says, behave as Mother says, perfectly meet Mother's expectations. That was my way of life. What is freedom? What is my own life? I never even thought about such things. But... Yukino-chan was different. She wouldn't listen to me, and kept walking her own path more and more. That made me happy, and hateful... and scared." Her sobs echoed through the empty hall. It was the helpless, lonely truth hidden beneath the mask. "Then, what was I supposed to do...? There was no right answer anywhere. I just... wanted someone to see me. Someone, please, see me...!" That question had been nesting in her heart for years. Hachiman could understand that pain alone. He knew better than anyone the weight of a loneliness no one understands. But he couldn't afford to show her pity here. "...I don't know. What you should have done... I'll never know, not in a lifetime." Looking down at Haruno collapsed in tears, Hachiman declared clearly. "But, even so—I will protect Yukino. I won't hand her over to your cage anymore. Your twisted affection, your loneliness, all of it included—Yukino is no longer yours. No matter how you struggle, no matter what your mother does, Yukino's future will be decided by me and Yukino herself." It was a declaration of Hachiman's absolute resolve: understanding Haruno's suffering, yet never being consumed by her poison. Haruno lifted her tear-stained face and looked at Hachiman. The hatred, the jealousy, the ridicule had vanished from her eyes. All that remained was a deep sense of exhaustion, and—a faint smile, almost like resignation. "...I see. So that's how it is." She murmured that, let out a deep breath, and collapsed backward onto the floor. Her beautiful black hair spread across the marble. The crystal lights illuminated her wet cheeks with mechanical indifference. This was Yukinoshita Haruno's complete defeat. --- At the same time, the Service Club room at Sobu High School was wrapped in a quiet tension. Outside the window, the winter sun had completely set, and the room was ruled only by the white light of the fluorescent lamps. Yukinoshita Yukino simply stared intently at the smartphone placed on the long table. Lustrous black hair reaching her waist, translucent white skin, cold, clear blue eyes. Her hands were clenched tightly on her lap, trembling faintly. In front of the clubroom door, Isshiki Iroha and Yuigahama Yui watched with bated breath. Iroha's flaxen medium bob swayed anxiously. Yui clasped her hands in front of her chest, gazing at Yukino's back with a prayer-like expression. "...She'll be okay, right, Yuigahama-senpai?" "Yeah... If it's Yukinon, she'll definitely be okay." Yui's voice trembled slightly, caught between her faith in Yukino and her fear of the massive wall that was her mother. After a long, long silence, as if taking a decisive step, Yukino tapped the screen with a trembling finger. The preset word: 'Mother.' She pressed the call button and put the smartphone to her ear. The ringtone echoed crudely through the quiet clubroom. —Click. '...What is it, Yukino. At this hour.' What flowed from the speaker was the voice of the absolute ruler of the Yukinoshita family, devoid of all emotion. Yukino's entire body stiffened. The blood drained from her face, her lips turning pale. Yui and Iroha swallowed hard and froze on the spot. "...M-Mother." Yukino's voice seemed about to fade away. But she put strength into her clenched fist and squeezed out the next words. This was her first battle, staking her life on it. "I... I will no longer... do as you say." The air on the other end of the phone froze. A few seconds of painful silence. Yukino continued. The words spilled out as if a dam had broken. "I will decide my own life. Who I live with, and what I do from now on. After graduation, I will not return to the family home. I... will live together with Hikigaya Hachiman, who sees me as my own person. This is not a request, nor a consultation. This is... my resolution." A single tear traced down her cheek. It was not a tear of fear or sadness. It was a tear of liberation from the curse of the "Yukinoshita family" that had bound her for so many years. After another long silence, her mother on the phone uttered just one phrase, in a voice colder than ice. '...I see. Do as you please.' —Click. Beep, beep, beep... The call was cut off, one-sidedly. Only the mechanical electronic tone echoed in the clubroom. "...It's over. I... said it. To Mother, in my own words, I said it." Yukino murmured in a daze, and the smartphone slipped from her hand. Standing there, she covered her face with both hands and began to cry, stifling her voice. "Senpai! You did it!" Iroha rushed over as if a dam had broken. Tears glistened in her large eyes too. "Yukinon...! That's amazing, that's so amazing...!" Yui also embraced Yukino. As if wholeheartedly rejoicing in her best friend's liberation from years of bondage. Wrapped in the warmth of the two, Yukino sobbed like a child. It was the first time she showed herself completely disarmed. The three of them held each other tightly in the center of the clubroom, crying and laughing. There was no trace of Iroha's calculating mask, Yui's awkward smile, or Yukino's perfect bravado. There was only pure friendship, honoring each other's decisions and courage. However, it was not yet a complete victory. --- Having confirmed Haruno's total defeat, Hachiman was walking back to school with heavy steps when his smartphone vibrated violently in his pocket. It was a mess

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Episode 6

Name: My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected: After Story ―And So, the Snow Falls Quietly―
Author: Novelia

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