Unwanted Attention
The cafeteria buzzed with the usual lunchtime chatter, but the conversation at our table had taken a distinctly academic turn.
"Coupling phase coherence? Resonance index? How the hell am I supposed to memorize crap like that? My head hurts just listening to it."
One of Yuzuki's friends pouted, poking at her side dishes with her chopsticks. She'd barely touched her scrambled eggs, and the chicken breast salad beside it remained completely untouched, fork marks and all.
"I heard the seniors say the exams are brutal too..."
Another friend sighed, her expression still haunted by the PowerPoint slides that had clearly burned themselves into her brain.
"I mean, our main job is piloting anyway. Why do we have so many theory classes? What do equations have to do with operating a Dracore?"
"Right? Shouldn't it just be about feeling it out?"
The girls' collective grumbling floated over the lunch trays, mingling with the clatter of utensils until the air around us warmed with the cozy hum of casual complaints.
Yuzuki sat among them, but she was strangely quiet.
Her movements were slow as she brought food to her mouth, and her smile seemed forced—thin and fragile, like it might crack at any moment.
"Hey, Yuzuki, how was your morning? You were with Yuto oppa the whole time, right?"
The friend beside her gave her a sly sideways glance. Her tone was light, but there was something probing in her eyes.
Yuzuki set down her chopsticks and picked up her water cup. She took a small sip, tilted her head slightly, and smiled.
"It was... nothing special. Even with my brother there, class is still class. Nothing really changes."
"Aww, come on~ Weren't you excited at all? Like, 'I have to work harder since it's in front of oppa'? You two looked so close the entire morning. It was honestly kind of cute."
"Yeah, yeah. The way you walked into the lecture hall together, and how you came out after practice... It just looked so natural."
"It was nice to watch. Even though you're siblings, there's this real team vibe between you two. I hear some families have siblings who fight like cats and dogs."
Yuzuki let out a slightly flustered laugh at that.
"...D-do they?"
Then the friend sitting across from her set down her spoon and leaned forward over the table.
"Okay, I'm genuinely curious. When your synchronization rate goes over 80, can you really feel the other person's emotions?"
The question made the air at the table cool noticeably.
Yuzuki blinked, then turned her head slightly to gaze out the window. Beyond the glass stretched a gray sky, the dim sunlight casting hazy shadows across the cafeteria.
"...Well, to some extent?"
"Ooh... So what did you feel during coupling?"
"..."
What did I feel?
How was she supposed to explain that? The words nearly slipped out, but Yuzuki simply smiled instead.
"...It was just normal. Like, affection toward me? We've been close since we were kids, so... haha..."
Her friends' eyes widened.
"Whoa... I'm so jealous. I want to experience that kind of connection too."
"But isn't it dangerous? I heard if you connect too deeply, it builds up neural fatigue."
"Yeah. There was a senior who passed out for days after pushing past 70 percent."
"That explains why Yuzuki looks a bit tired today."
"N-no, I'm fine. I just didn't sleep much, that's all."
She forced a smile, but her fingertips were trembling. Maybe it really was exhaustion. She had no appetite either. She reached for her spoon, then stopped and simply fiddled with her water cup instead.
That was when someone appeared at the cafeteria entrance.
It was Yuto.
Tray in hand, he tilted his head as he spotted their table and started walking over. He looked a little awkward, glancing around hesitantly as if searching for an empty seat. One of Yuzuki's friends immediately shot her hand up and called out.
"Yuto oppa! Over here! Sit with us!"
She even waved him over enthusiastically. Yuto's face relaxed into a smile, and he began heading their way.
He naturally scanned for an empty chair and started moving toward one on the opposite side of the table, tray still in hand.
But at that moment, the friend sitting next to Yuzuki suddenly stood up.
"Oh, sit here! It makes more sense for you to sit next to Yuzuki since you're her brother~"
She quickly moved her own tray to the other side and offered her seat. Laughter rippled through the group, laced with playful mischief.
Yuto looked momentarily flustered but nodded and carefully took the seat beside Yuzuki.
Yuzuki let out an internal groan at the sight.
Why did she have to do that...?
She pressed her lips together and gripped her spoon tightly. Her gaze flicked toward her friend with clear resentment.
But the friend in question simply blinked with an innocent, sunny smile.
"You're welcome, right? I purposely left the seat open. Family should stick together~"
"...Thanks."
No, I'm not thankful at all.
Her true feelings clashed violently with her words as Yuzuki silently picked up her utensils again. Her insides felt like they were slowly burning up.
This is going to end with me stuck walking around with oppa all the time from now on.
If she'd known this would happen, she never would have smiled and said things like "We practiced together" or "The coupling was nice" in front of her friends.
Even acting a little more affectionate toward her brother during practice had been for their benefit.
She hadn't wanted to ruin her image, so she'd forced herself to look like they had a great relationship.
But looking back now, that had been the worst possible decision.
The half-joking, half-serious stares were starting to feel like they were closing in on her.
She felt trapped inside the frame labeled 'close siblings.'
"What do you have this afternoon?"
Yuto asked carefully as he set down his tray. Trying to ease the awkwardness, he glanced around before naturally turning his attention to Yuzuki's friends.
One of them answered brightly.
"We have P.E.! Thank goodness—no more boring lectures!"
"Actually, physical training is really important here. It goes hand-in-hand with combat simulations."
"I think today's class is swimming?"
They all chimed in, faces full of excitement.
Yuto's spoon froze mid-air. His expression stiffened slightly—though he tried to hide it, the discomfort was written all over his face.
He was the only male student in the entire academy. Swimming class meant being surrounded by girls in swimsuits.
He knew it was just physical training, but the thought of standing there awkwardly while everyone else wore swimsuits made him feel strangely unsettled.
This is going to turn into another embarrassing situation, isn't it?
As Yuto had that thought, Yuzuki's friends noticed his expression and immediately surrounded him with mischievous grins.
"Hehe. Oppa, are you starting to look forward to P.E. now? Thinking about seeing us in swimsuits?"
"Totally. Since you're the only guy, you must be super excited~ You can be honest. We'll understand."
"Wow, Yuzuki's brother just made a perverted face. Busted!"
The girls' teasing poured over him. Yuto cleared his throat and turned his face away slightly.
Yuzuki, who had watched the entire exchange from the seat beside him, swallowed a deep internal sigh.
This idiot brother... He's just making things worse with all these misunderstandings...
Her eyes narrowed. Under the table, she quietly extended her foot and stomped hard on the top of Yuto's foot, channeling all her frustration into the motion.
Yuto flinched but didn't cry out. He only turned his head in surprise. Yuzuki, pretending nothing had happened, continued aggressively shoveling rice into her mouth.
Yuto stared at her for a moment, then asked quietly.
"...What was that for?"
"Stop making those stupid faces in front of a bunch of girls. If you keep acting all dazed like that in front of my friends..."
"....."
Normally, Yuzuki would have played dumb and brushed it off with a fake smile, saying something like "What are you talking about?"
But she couldn't do that this time.
The lingering heat from the morning's practice and coupling with Yuto, the endless comments from her friends during lunch—it had all piled up in her head.
So the words slipped out before she could stop them.
"...It just pisses me off to see it."
The moment the words left her mouth, the table fell into dead silence.
Yuto stared at her blankly. One of the friends across from them froze with her spoon halfway to her mouth, blinking in confusion.
"Huh...? Yuzuki? What did you just say...?"
"...What?"
Only then did Yuzuki realize what had come out of her mouth. The spoon in her hand trembled slightly, and the tips of her ears began turning red.
She quickly lowered her head, staring hard at her tray as she added hastily.
"...It was just a joke. Like, it could happen, you know."
She tried to laugh it off, but her voice shook noticeably. Her friends grew quiet, watching her carefully. Even Yuto lowered his gaze cautiously.
Only then did regret wash over Yuzuki.
...Why did I say that here, of all places? We're not even at home...
In her mind, it was all Yuto's fault. Getting flustered by the girls' teasing like an idiot...
But then, someone at the table let out a small giggle.
"Kyaa~ What is this? Is Yuzuki jealous right now?"
"Oh my god, she totally is. Did you see her face? That was pure jealousy. So cute!"
"They really must be close. Acting all indifferent in front of us, but then looking out for each other behind the scenes."
The teasing jokes flew out one after another, and the previously frozen atmosphere quickly thawed back into laughter.
Yuzuki kept her head down, glaring at her tray while biting her lip hard.
...Ugh, seriously. This is just making the misunderstanding worse...
Lately, it felt like the entire world was out to get her.
And she thought to herself:
...No matter how she looked at it, letting herself keep getting swept along by her brother like this wasn't her style at all.
She needed to find some kind of solution.
---
"...That girl Yuzuki really stepped on me with everything she had, huh?"
It wasn't serious, but my foot still throbbed with a strange, lingering ache. I let out a small sigh and muttered to myself.
But what disappointed me more was something else entirely.
Today's P.E. class.
The very class everyone had been so excited about because it was swimming—I ended up not being able to participate.
The golden opportunity to see the girls in their swimsuits had slipped through my fingers.
Of course, I didn't have the proper attire prepared in the first place, so joining in would've been difficult regardless. But it wasn't just about the clothes.
Right as lunch was ending, a summons popped up from the academy's system. The sender was my father.
I had no idea what it was about, but surprisingly, he was currently inside the academy.
The message contained no explanation beyond a simple instruction: "Proceed immediately to Research Wing, Section 3, C-04."
The official name was the Pilot Bio-Synchronization Records and Aptitude Analysis Department.
It was the division responsible for long-term storage and analysis of students' response patterns, neural reactions, and feedback metrics. It was also commonly known as the Deep Data Link Center.
Why on earth had my father called me there?
I walked with a slight limp.
The academy was far larger than I'd imagined.
It made sense—it wasn't just an educational institution. It was a complex structure that combined military design with experimental functions. Including the underground sections, it was easily the size of two or three average universities put together.
Following the navigation on my terminal, I passed several staircases and corridors before finally arriving at the designated location—C-04.
In front of the entrance, framed in gray metal and reinforced glass, the terminal performed an automatic authentication. The door slid open with a soft click.
And inside, a familiar face was waiting.
"You've arrived, Yuto."
It was my father, Hideo. Dressed in a lab coat, he looked at me with his usual stoic expression.
But standing quietly beside him was another student.
Long silver hair tied high in a side ponytail. Between the smooth strands, striking, deep crimson eyes gazed directly at me.
The moment our eyes met, I instinctively stopped in my tracks. It wasn't that my body had frozen or that I was afraid. It was simply that some part of my mind couldn't keep up with reality.
A face that had only existed in pixels.
A silhouette that had only appeared in animation was now standing right here, in the flesh.
Sakuragi Luna.
I had never once imagined I would encounter her during my father's summons.