The next morning.

The moment I opened the door to Class 1-1, I felt something like an unusually sharp “killing intent,” and I instinctively stopped in my tracks.

"...Hmph!"

In my line of sight.

The red-haired queen standing in the center of the classroom with her arms crossed—Hojo Anju—snorted loudly on purpose the moment she saw my face and turned away.

Her profile seemed to be shouting with her entire body, “It’s not like I care about you at all!”, yet the glances she kept sneaking toward me were far too obvious to hide.

'...What’s with her all of a sudden? She’s in a bad mood this early in the morning.'

During yesterday’s PE, she had been so quiet while drinking my sports drink and turning bright red, yet after just one day, her tsun-ness had increased by thirty percent.

It seemed the emotions of a six-year-old changed even more easily than the autumn sky.

Sighing internally with a “good grief,” I started walking toward my usual seat by the window.

Then, Anju deliberately stepped into my path, lifting her chin and looking down at me.

"Excuse me, Nanase-san. Good morning."

"Mm, morning."

"...That greeting lacks spirit! Don’t you think you’re lacking awareness as a girl in this class? Are you planning to greet the boys like that when they arrive with such a sloppy face!?"

At the back of the classroom, a chubby rich kid had already arrived, and a hellish scene was unfolding where over ten girls were taking out the contents of his randoseru for him.

If I gave a spirited greeting to something like that, my pride as a man from my previous life would shatter with an audible crack.

"Not really. I’m not their caretaker."

"Wha—! You’re as unlikable as ever... A-Also, yesterday at the school gate, you were acting all lovey-dovey, it was disgraceful! Honestly, how indecent!"

Anju’s face turned bright red as she brought up what happened after school yesterday.

It seemed she had seen me perfectly when I left with Aoi who came to pick me up.

"Ah, you mean Aoi. She’s just clingy. Wait, were you watching us?"

"I-I wasn’t watching! It just happened! You just happened to enter the edge of my vision, and it was so unsightly that as a fellow classmate, I thought I’d warn you!"

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Sorry for making you worry."

As I brushed her off and tried to walk past, Anju hurriedly reached out, saying, "Wait, I’m not done talking!"

But at that moment.

"Ah..."

Because she moved too suddenly, the red ribbon on her uniform, which had been neatly tied at her chest, slipped loose.

"A... no way..."

For her, who imposed on herself the role of the “perfect daughter of the Hojo family,” a disheveled appearance was fatal.

Anju hurriedly tried to retie it, but because she had been flustered trying to stop me, and because my gaze was fixed on her hands, her small fingers trembled and she couldn’t tie it properly.

"Ah, geez... Don’t look!"

After failing multiple times, the ribbon ended up completely tangled.

Tears welling in her eyes, the small queen desperately tried to fix it.

Seeing that clumsy dishevelled look, memories from my previous life flashed back in my mind.

Right before an important presentation, there was that cheeky but endearing junior who had been on the verge of tears because he couldn’t tie his tie properly from nervousness.

That image overlapped perfectly with the red-haired little girl in front of me.

"...Stay still."

Letting out a short sigh, I stood in front of Anju and gently held her trembling hands, lowering them.

"W-What are you doing? I can do it my—"

"Just be quiet for a second."

When I said it firmly in a low, husky voice, Anju’s shoulders trembled, and as if under a spell, she fell silent.

I reached toward her chest and completely untied the tangled ribbon.

The same hands that had tied my own tie every morning in my previous life, and sometimes handled the clasps of necklaces or the ribbons of dresses for my girlfriends.

Even though they were now the small hands of a six-year-old, with efficient, refined movements, I neatly retied it into a perfectly symmetrical ribbon.

"Alright, done. Perfect."

I adjusted the knot with a small tug and nodded in satisfaction.

Then, I lightly placed my hand on Anju’s fiery red hair as she stood frozen at close distance.

"You’ve got a really pretty face, you know. It’d be a waste if you mess up your appearance by panicking. A princess should always carry herself with confidence."

The “comforting words to a junior” from my past life, multiplied by my ikemen-like voice and the appearance of a beautiful girl, became a lethal-level bomb.

Anju’s face turned red in an instant, from the tips of her ears down to the base of her neck.

The perfectly tied ribbon swaying on her chest, the lingering warmth on her head, and those mysterious purple eyes staring straight at her from up close.

"A... u... I-I..."

Completely exceeding her capacity, Anju covered her bright red face with both hands.

And then.

"I-I hate you so much!!"

Letting out something between a parting shot and a scream, she bolted back to her seat like a rabbit fleeing.

From her back as she collapsed onto her desk, burying her face in her arms and trembling, her agitation and the “heat of first love” rose like steam, impossible to hide.

'...Seriously, she's been noisy since the morning. She could just say thank you. Well, I guess that’s what six-year-old pride is like.'

Completely unaware that he had just shattered the “tsundere armor of a proud noble young lady” into pieces and planted a massive, lifelong flag, I cracked my neck with a “good grief” and sat down in my seat.

Today as well, Class 1-1 continued to quietly, yet surely, descend into madness—driven by ugly disputes over boys and the unconscious sweet poison I kept spreading.