“Huai Xian, why do you look so down lately?” During break, my friend Fang Liancheng strolled to my desk and lightly punched my shoulder. I propped my cheek on my palm, lost in thought, and ignored him.
“Huh? Someone cheat on you?” He grinned mischievously.
“You should be worried,” I shot back, shifting my posture and rolling my neck. “I don’t even have a girlfriend. But you—why haven’t you mentioned your girlfriend lately?”
My eyes briefly met Lin Muke’s—the class beauty. Probably a coincidence; she looked away instantly. I stared blankly at her retreating figure, then turned to Fang Liancheng.
—“Uh… I think I’m being followed by a little girl.”
No surprise Fang didn’t believe me. I called it nonsense because even *I* barely believed it. But… how else to explain that little girl who kept appearing around me?
He ambushed me from behind, locking his arms around my neck in an X-shaped chokehold.
“Yeah, I knew you were a lolicon,” he declared, “but I never thought you’d actually go after a little girl! Not even sharing the ‘fun’—wait, no! I shall deliver justice in the name of righteousness!”
…He totally just voiced his own fantasy. Damn lolicon, lumping me with you.
Walking home under the sunset glow, I rubbed my sore neck. *How hard did he squeeze?* Headache. Still—if someone told *me*, “A little girl’s been following me,” I’d call them a hentai or delusional too.
I slung my single-strap backpack over my shoulder. Boys in crisp suits, girls in lovely JK uniforms with short skirts. If I hadn’t heard how stylish this school’s uniforms were, I’d never have pushed so hard to get in… or met my good-for-nothing buddy Fang Liancheng.
…Actually, maybe I *shouldn’t* have enrolled. That delicate-looking musclehead with freakish strength—how did we even become friends?
Reaching the familiar street corner, I whipped my head around, expression sharp with caution.
Nothing. Empty. The mysterious little girl who’d haunted me for days was nowhere.
Was I just overreacting? But her image was too vivid—I refused to believe it was all a hallucination.
A meticulously styled Lolita dress, black and crimson woven with vivid red spider lilies. Dark yet gorgeous, like an abyss of allure and dread. Her gaze held no childish innocence—only gloom, as if a dark crimson river flowed within, bones drifting on its surface.
Once, our eyes locked. She froze for a heartbeat, then fled. That fleeting glimpse still chilled me.
Her silhouette? A crafty fox. Those fox ears on her head must’ve been my imagination—I’ve never met another fox-ear enthusiast. Probably just cat ears… or dog ears. Not boring, but… a hint of disappointment lingered.
Yeah, I get called a weirdo sometimes. I won’t deny it.
Being “followed by a little girl” was really just me feeling drained—mostly because that game I’d been waiting for dropped recently. Battling until dawn every night…
But today? No little girl haunting me. Time to load yesterday’s save and dive back into the fray!
I pushed open my apartment door.
A knife.
Cold steel gleaming in a small hand.
*Her.* The Lolita-dressed girl who’d been following me. Eyes dark crimson.
For the first time, she spoke—voice clear, melodic. Then the blade thrust forward: precise, elegant.
—“For Mother… please die.”
