Chapter 12

“You seem pretty chummy with Minoru and Oshiro,” you told Satou one morning as you laid in bed watching her get ready for the day. She didn’t answer you at first, too busy painstakingly writing XOXO under her eye in felt-tip black eyeliner.

“What can I say? They love me! Love me, love me, love me…” She sang to herself like some sort of Disney princess.

“Don’t get a big head,” you warned, wagging your finger at her. “You still have three more girls to seduce and-“

“Four.”

“What?”

“I still have four more girls to seduce. You’re not seduced.” She turned around in her vanity chair and gave you a long look, dragging her eyes over your form from head to toe. You scowled openly.

“You seem to be forgetting that I’m a real fucking person, just like you. I’m not some achievement or trophy.”

“I didn’t forget-“

“Then stop treating me like Aina!” You hissed at Satou. A tense silence settled over you both. You wanted to leave it at that, try again another day… But the sooner she got the harem ending she wanted, the sooner you could leave this awful place. “I’m sorry, okay?”

Really you were just saying sorry in the hopes she would say it back. She didn’t. Instead she said, “I’m not trying to treat you like Aina. I just don’t know enough about Y/N to seduce her. You’re a closed book. I’m working with what I know.”

No silver star for you, you thought to yourself with a deep frown. “Let’s not discuss it-“

“How are we supposed to move past it if we don’t talk about it?”

“Let’s not discuss it right now,” you seethed. “Let’s focus on the three new girls.”

“I want to focus on Y/N.”

Your patience ran out. She was behaving like an absolute child, throwing a tantrum because she didn’t get what she wanted when she wanted it.

You got up from the bed, grabbed some clothes from the dresser without bothering to see if they were even yours, and left the room.

“Y/N!” Satou called after you.

Somehow, that made you even angrier. It was just a name, but it was your name. You gave it to her. And she was still treating you like her favorite character, not a human being who’d been through hell.

…

“I’m sorry,” Satou later apologized, after your third class of the day together. It had been an awkward day following your fight that morning. You tried to walk to classes alone but she clung to your side like a silent, stubborn barnacle.

You waited for her to explain why she was sorry. You weren’t convinced she understood why you were mad. Instead, she cut to the chase and said, “I’m ready to start working on the other girls.”

You sighed through your nose. Close enough. Holding a grudge was exhausting anyway. “Where do you wanna start?”

“Probably with Yuma or Aoi. Himari is the most dangerous, being so possessive, so we should save her for last. Yuma will probably be easiest.”

“How so?” You would describe yanderes as a lot of things, but easy was not one of them. Satou was basically tempting someone into madness. That shouldn’t be easy.

“Because she’s so fucking weird!” She exclaimed before taking out a compact and a tube of pink lip gloss that smelled like candy. Looking into the miniature mirror, she applied a thin layer of lip gloss before rubbing her lips together and making a kissy face. “Who else would love her besides moi?”

Being the main character was really starting to go to her head. “You can’t coast through life on your good looks alone,” you snapped at her. “Remember, if you fail to seduce one of these girls, you can’t get your harem ending.”

She was quiet for a long moment before saying, “I know, I know… It’s just, I’m not like you, Y/N. This isn’t my original body. This isn’t my original face. I used to be an ugly little nobody that even my own parents struggled to love. Now everything’s so easy. This world was built around me! These girls were programmed to love me wholly and unconditionally-“

“And obsessively. Don’t forget obsessively.”

“I don’t care. I just… I just want to be loved.” She said suddenly, lower lip trembling and eyes starting to flood with tears. Before you could comfort her, she pulled a tissue out of her purse and started dabbing her eyes. “Damn it! This mascara is designer.”

“You will be loved,” you told her, reaching over to rub soothing circles into her back. She already was loved by Minoru and Oshiro. Now you two just needed to get the rest of the gang on board. “I just hope you will be happy once you get the ending you want.” You sure as hell weren’t happy with your harem ending.

Suddenly she turned and threw her arms around your neck. You allowed her to hug you close and sniffle in your ear. If this was what she needed, you were willing to give it to her.