The school festival wrapped up with a sound and light show, along with exhaustion.

While students crowded the courtyard, laughing and joking, the sound of fireworks was being prepared outside the school.

The school festival is the best time of the year for most people.

But for Kuro Kurogane?

It was living in survival mode with more decorations.

He was near the vending machines, holding empty boxes from the maid café and trying to avoid being near people for five minutes.

Only five minutes.

But he couldn’t even get five minutes of peace professionally.

"Kuro-kun!"

Mina was waving at him from across the hallway.

Behind her was Rika with some paperwork.

Then he heard Akari’s voice somewhere close by:

"Where did he go!?"

Kuro turned and headed in the other direction.

Cowardice is being smart.

When the sun set, the celebration was entirely different. The roof of the school and the courtyard became illuminated by the lanterns hanging above, and students came together on the street to watch the fireworks display.

Couples could be seen everywhere.

Everywhere there was a romantic vibe.

Kuro hated this already.

He pulled at his collar while trying to find the twin girls through the throngs of students.

More specifically, he was attempting to verify that the twins weren’t up to their usual troublemaking antics.

As he searched for the twins, someone clutched onto the sleeve of his jacket. Kuro stopped.

A second-year student (from another class) stood just behind him, fidgeting and peering at him shyly. Kuro recognized her vaguely.

Her hair was short, she had crimson cheeks, and she was holding a small piece of paper.

This was trouble.There is an immediate threat here.

"I..."

She couldn’t muster the courage to complete that statement, so instead, she stared at the floor to see if it would yield a useful response.

"I wanted to let you know..."

Kuro silently screamed (internally) that she wasn’t doing anything creepy or hideous, yet at the same time, he was experiencing an extreme fight-or-flight response due to his advanced intuition kicking into high gear.

He could feel the presence of the twin girls bearing down on him like two well-aimed tornadoes.

She collected herself and looked into his eyes, fully prepared to say, "I like you."

Silence.Kuro could faintly hear the sounds of fireworks outside.

The romantic timing is unbelievably annoying.Kuro opened his mouth with caution.

"I—"

The temperature in the hallway dropped to sub-zero.

The girl immediately froze.

Kuro turned his head slowly.

He quickly understood the reason for her freezing.

At the far end of the hallway stood Akari with a huge smile on her face.

Too bright of a smile.

Aoi quietly stood next to Akari and watched them both stare at the embarrassment of the confession scene, unable to take their eyes off the poor girl trembling before them. It seemed like there was a big ball of danger in the air.

Akari tilted her head as she looked at the poor girl. "Oh?"

Aoi’s eyes looked calm on the girl’s face, then on the letter she held in her hands, and back up to the girl’s face.

And then silence. Silence 100%.

Kuro basically wanted to bolt out of the area immediately.

The girl took a step back and said, "I-I am sorry!" Then she took off like a rocket.

Kuro watched her go.

Honestly, understandable.

Akari continued to smile and said, "Kuro-kun~"

"’... What.’"

"You were very popular today."

"That was not my doing."

Aoi moved slightly closer to Kuro. "’... What are you going to say to her at the moment?"

Kuro knew that this was a trap.

’"A normal answer."’

’"Sounds vague,"’ questioned Akari.

"Because I enjoy living."

Neither girl laughed.

This was somehow worse for Kuro than when he was at that moment.

Then there were big bang sounds of fireworks outside.

BOOOOM.

The students outside in the courtyard cheered.

Then, out of nowhere, Akari grabbed Kuro’s wrist and pulled him with her, saying, "’Come on."’

"’Where?"’

"’You will see."’

"That statement has never led to anything positive before."

It was too late for Kuro; Akari and Aoi were dragging him upstairs to the roof.

The upside of the roof was bare now.

Only the faint light from fireworks lit up the sky.

Reflected colors filled the dark, dark sky with beautiful hues.

Kuro barely had any time to say, "What’s up?" when Akari suddenly hugged Kuro’s arm tightly.

He immediately felt warm, soft warmth on all parts of his body.

"Kuro-kun," she said.

"...What?" he responded.

"You need to stop talking to girls alone."

"I didn’t do anything."

"You existed in an attractive way," she stated.

"That isn’t a crime," Kuro replied.

"It should be," Akari said back.

Aoi came beside him quietly.Then she leaned against his shoulder gently.

Kuro froze slightly.

This is unusual to see this kind of behavior.

Especially from Aoi.

The wind wrapped around them lightly, and fireworks were blasting off above them.

For a moment, no one said anything.

Then Akari mumbled quietly, "I didn’t like that."

Kuro looked at Akari to see if this was true.

Confessing?

Akari nodded slightly against Kuro’s arm.

Aoi said in a quiet voice beside him, "I didn’t like it either."

Kuro looked back and forth between Akari and Aoi.

Something is different tonight.

Less teasing.Less chaotic.More honest.

And somehow making things feel that much more dangerous.

Akari held on to Kuro’s arm a little more tightly.

"Don’t let any other girls take you away from us," Akari said.

Aoi closed her eyes briefly on Kuro’s shoulder.

"You belong to us," Aoi said.

Kuro was silent.

The fireworks were exploding brightly above.

But he hardly noticed them anymore.

His entire mind was focused on those words:

You belong to us.

Not joking.Not teasing.Not playful.

Everything was completely real.

For the first time since they started living together.

The twins had done an awful lot to make Kuro feel uncomfortable, but at this moment, he finally realized how frightening the situation was.

They really weren’t pretending to be possessive anymore, and they were truly serious.

Akari gazed gently into Kuro’s eyes.

"You understand what I mean, don’t you?"

Aoi continued to silently stare at him.

He was still waiting too...

Kuro suddenly realized he felt trapped but didn’t know how... yet he could hear the sound of his heart pounding in the silence.

It felt like the air was much colder outside than usual.

Deep in Kuro’s subconscious...

A warning alarm went off.

THIS IS NOT GOING TO END WELL!!!

Another firework exploded in the night sky!

The only thing the twins could do was watch their facial expressions evolve into being part love and part possession.