Prove Your Eternal Love. There Shall Be No Heroine Correction. - Chapter 3 Part 7

Shirase-kun played a six of hearts and Akikusa-kun played a four of hearts.

Why did Shirase-kun do so? He should have gotten back what was important to him, even though he outperformed Akikusa-kun in the out-of-board game. After all, he was playing the game. He even threw away the strategy he had made.

But I understood. That was who Shirase Suguru was, and he was the boy I love.

“Shirase, you lied to me! It’s not between four and six!”

“Yeah. Because the rule says you can tell a lie up to two times, right?”

Shirase turned over one of the picture cards in the corner of the field. It meant that he had finished using it.

“Damn, damn you, Shirase…”

Akikusa-kun looked irritated and bited his knuckles. That was Akikusa’s fault. It seemed that Shirase-kun’s out-of-board game from earlier was still lingering in his mind, and he was losing because he was too afraid of Shirase-kun and played too many backstage moves.

The balloons haven’t broken yet…but it was time to end the game. If the balloon held up until it was about to break, one would lose even if they fold. In other words, it depended on the luck of the cards.

“Yuuhi, you should switch over and calm down a little. The next round is quite important.”

Shirase, who was in the flow of the game, talked to Akikusa with a relaxed attitude. Of course, this must be his strategy too. Shirase pointed out that Akikusa was not calm, placed pressure on him, and it shaken him..

“I-I know that much.”

But I understand. Tokiwa Nagisa, who was next to me, muttering worriedly, “Suguru-senpai,” was also aware of it. Shirase’s hand was trembling with nervousness as he drew a card from the deck.

Shirase checked Akikusa’s expression before his own hand. He looked reluctant. Akigusa was relieved to see that, but it was too early to rule out a bad move. He had never made such a blatant facial expression before, even though he kept making reading mistakes. It may have been a look he made on purpose.

“Now what do we do?”

With a mysterious expression on his face, Shirase-kun spited out. He concentrated his gaze on the cards in his hand and remained motionless for a moment. There were two points in the “Questioner” turn. The first was to guess the opponent’s number by “Questioning”. And when you think your number was high, don’t let your opponent go down. He must be thinking about how to do that now. I don’t know, but I think a big number was coming.

“Hey, Shirase, thinking long and hard?”

“Yeah, of course.”

Shirase answered calmly. But no. It was not long thinking. Shirase-kun’s eyes were now aiming at something. He was timing it. Beyond his gaze, there was a table diagonally behind Akikusa-kun.

“Yuuhi—.”

Yes, that was the moment he opened his mouth. There was a sound, and then, just like before, a surprised “kyak” and “awww”. A balloon burst on the table Shirase was staring at. In time with that.

“—10, 9, or 8?”

“N-No…well, as long as there are ifs, of course I’m going to answer that way.”

Akikusa immediately answered Shirase’s rapid-fire question. Probably, he was not lying.

It seemed that to tell a lie required a surprisingly complex thought process. I have read in a book that many people reveal their true feelings when they were surprised. That was what Shirase was aiming for.

But…What stuck out to me was that he just called out the numbers in descending order. I got the vibe that he had a plan. Was it a trap? Or is it a flaw? I wonder if Akikusa-kun was aware of it. How would he interpret it? That would probably be the deciding factor.

“So what are you going to do, Yuyo? You can fold if you want.”

Akikusa looked at his own hand and Shirase’s hand and hesitated.

“Shirase. Your hand is 8, right?”

Suddenly, Akikusa-kun presented the numbers to Shirase-kun, even though he was not the ‘questioner’. Of course, this was not prohibited by the rules. Shirase-kun snickered. Akikusa was trying to extract some information from Shirase’s reaction. He was playing psychological warfare with all his might.

“Heh. What makes you think that?”

“You even went so far as to wait for the balloon to pop make sure you knew my cards. I don’t think those numbers are a bluff. So you must have a big number… And Shirase, you made one mistake. Hey, why did you put 8 last? Maybe you were subconsciously afraid to be the first to mention the number you have?”

It was quite an interesting theory. The evidence was somewhat, weak. However, I also thought it was highly likely, given what I could read from the situation. But was it really Shirase’s mistake?

“…That’s what you think, why don’t you just fold right away and check?”

“You don’t have to say that.”

Yes. Shirase-kun threw back a question that did not need to be answered. If Akikusa-kun answered this, he may inadvertently give away information.

“Yuyo. I’ll tell you one thing, I know you’ve been acting like this for a while now. Misreading things and trying to look annoyed. You were really calm the whole time. Because your eyes were shining with joy the whole time.”

When Shirase-kun revealed this, Akikusa-kun instantly said happily, “Hahahahaha, you found out.” …No way. Really? I was surprised. Tokiwa-san also let out a voice, “Eh?” So, Akikusa-kun’s attitude was to make Shirase-kun let his guard down?

“But now I understand. Shirase. You set me up, didn’t you? You act like you read me and are trying to lead me into the fold. That is why your hand is not an 8. You tried to make me think it was a big number. I’m not folding. It’s on.”

Akikusa-kun played the card face down on the table with a thud. And Shirase responded by putting his cards face down on the table. This was surely how the game was going to be won or lost. Shirase-kun’s precious thing — Shirase-kun himself — was at stake in this fateful game.

“Please—”

I found myself praying with my hands folded. I meditate. I was too scared to see the result.

Quietly, I hear the sound of gulp. Tokiwa-san gasped next to me. Which one of them won?

“Damn, you got me!”

I heard Akikusa-kun’s frustrated voice… So, does that mean Shirase-kun won? When I opened my eyes, I saw that the score was 8 and 7, a very close margin. I was so relieved that I fell and grabbed onto Tokiwa’s shoulder.

“Heh? Um, are you okay, Aogashima-senpai?”

“…Sorry. I still don’t feel secure.”

The final result was not yet known. Akikusa-kun slowly inflated the balloon, biting his lip, his face tense with fear of popping. Once, twice. Still inflating. Three times, four times. The balloon inflated larger and tighter, but still, it does not break. Five times, six times — still no pop.

“”Please—””

The two pleading voices combined to send air into the balloon for the seventh time, and at that moment — the bright red balloon burst with a loud noise. The red color of the flying balloon was clearly visible in my vision.