Yukinoshita’s Method of Correction [12]

“Eh—?!” Yuigahama Yui stared in shock. “Wait, what? What just happened? How did that...?”

Just moments ago, Yukinoshita Yukino had been so confident.

“It was my mistake—I misjudged your situation based on my own assumptions.” Yukinoshita exhaled deeply.

“Being cold to you from the beginning, and becoming colder after realizing you were the owner of the plushie—those are two completely different things.”

“…They are?” Yuigahama blinked, clearly puzzled.

“If she was cold to you, then the issue was with you personally. But if she became colder after learning you were the one who lost the plushie, that means her hostility was directed at the owner of the plushie.”

Higashigumo picked up the thread, repeating what he had told Hiratsuka earlier.

“I have a friend who was constantly targeted by his boss. It wasn’t until he was forced to resign that he found out—the boss had it in for him simply because he’d chatted a bit too much with the woman the boss had a crush on.”

“So Sagami thought I…” Yuigahama’s eyes widened.

“No, she thought the owner of the plushie was too close to someone she liked. That’s why she got mad when I asked about it.”

She followed Higashigumo’s reasoning quickly, but something still didn’t sit right.

“But why would she think that?”

Yukinoshita cut to the heart of it. “The plushie can’t speak. Someone had to tell her.”

“Satou?” Yuigahama frowned.

“But how would he know who Sagami likes? And why would he tell her?”

“Satou didn’t know who Sagami liked. He just wanted to get the plushie Sagami had picked up.” Higashigumo mentally reconstructed the scene.

“‘This is my girlfriend’s plushie. Can I take it?’—he probably said something along those lines. That’s how Sagami found out the guy she liked already had a girlfriend.”

“So Sagami…” Yuigahama gasped, then quickly lowered her voice, covering her mouth.

“She likes Satou?! But I’m not even close with him!”

“Kaori, who’s in the Crafts Club with Satou, is close to him—or rather, they’re already dating.” Higashigumo recalled the flash of hostility in Satou’s eyes when he spoke to Kaori.

“And she has a plushie that looks a lot like yours. Yours had a broken strap, right? Chances are Kaori’s plushie had the same problem and was lost earlier.”

“Wait—hang on, this is getting confusing.” Yuigahama clutched her head. “Let me think...”

Her plushie had gone missing. While looking for it, she ran into Sagami Minami.

When she told Sagami she was the owner, Sagami’s attitude suddenly turned cold. Sagami said Satou had picked it up.

Yuigahama later saw the plushie in Satou’s bag. But when she asked, he claimed he’d never seen it.

All of that still held true—but now, there were three new variables:

Sagami liked Satou.
Satou was dating Kaori.
Kaori’s plushie might’ve also gone missing.

So, while Yuigahama was looking for her plushie, Satou was also searching for Kaori’s.

The plushies were similar. When Satou saw Sagami had picked one up, he assumed it was Kaori’s and said, “That’s my girlfriend’s.” So he took it.

Sagami, who liked Satou, later heard Yuigahama was looking for the plushie. She assumed Yuigahama was the girlfriend Satou had mentioned. Her attitude turned cold—maybe even hostile.

“Wait a second,” Yuigahama suddenly realized something. “I can understand Satou mistaking the plushie… but Sagami said she saw Satou pick it up, not that Satou saw her pick it up!”

“That’s just a matter of framing.” Higashigumo explained patiently, “Before I asked you to recall the details, you only said she seemed kind of down—you didn’t describe how her attitude changed.”

He continued, “Someone already hostile toward you isn’t going to give you the whole story—like ‘I picked it up and Satou took it from me.’ She just skipped to the end: ‘Satou picked it up.’”

“Then why didn’t Satou just give it back to me?” Yuigahama pressed. “He didn’t give it to Kaori either. And he let me see it, like on purpose…”

Higashigumo blinked. “There’s this thing in relationships—it’s called the ‘silent treatment.’”

“…Silent treatment?” Yuigahama repeated.

“In romantic relationships,” Yukinoshita chimed in, “the silent treatment refers to emotional withdrawal—one or both parties ignoring the other. It’s a form of passive-aggressive behavior, and yes, it qualifies as emotional manipulation.”

“I mean… yeah, I knew that,” Yuigahama blushed.

“Not in such technical terms though… So Satou and Kaori were in that phase. And he thought if he brought the plushie, she’d be the one to talk to him first?”

“But instead of Kaori,” Higashigumo said pointedly, “you were the one who came.”

“If I were Satou… I’d probably think, ‘Kaori doesn’t want to talk to me, but she can’t bear to lose the plushie. So she sent her friend to get it back…’” Yuigahama trailed off, then her eyes lit up. “That’s it! That’s why he let me see it and claimed he didn’t! He wanted me to tell Kaori so she’d come to him!”

Yuigahama couldn’t help recalling Yukinoshita’s earlier observations.

“She wasn’t in a bad mood. She was jealous.”
“If he didn’t want to return it, he’d have hidden it—not let you see it.”
“Just some dumb boy’s way of getting attention.”

All of it had been spot on.

“Just call out how childish it is. Point out how cruel it is. He’ll hand it over.”

Yukinoshita’s solution had been correct too.

It had just… missed the mark a little.

Because really, if Yuigahama had followed Yukinoshita’s advice from the start—if she’d broken her habit of reading the room and instead just spoken her mind—the problem might’ve been solved on the spot.

Even now, all she had to do was learn to speak up for herself, and the whole issue would resolve easily.

Yukinoshita had the right method.

But Higashigumo had the better one.

Knock knock knock.

A knock echoed at the door.

Yukinoshita turned to Higashigumo.

“Come in,” he called.

The door slid open. Satou stood on the threshold, froze slightly at the sight of everyone inside, then glanced awkwardly at Higashigumo.

“I… I came because I need some help,” he mumbled. “Thought I’d… drop by.”

“If you mean the silent treatment between you and your girlfriend,” Higashigumo brought his fingers to his temple—index and middle together—and tapped twice, “I just thought of a pretty good fix.”

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T/N: ooooooooooooh

This is a fan translation of 雪之下的矫正方式 by 微凉温热 All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!