Every story has a danger arc.
For most protagonists, it's when the villain appears.
For me?
It's when the teacher says, "We're going on a class trip."
Natsuki-sensei delivered the news during homeroom with a perfectly innocent smile.
"We'll be spending the weekend at a traditional ryokan-style inn. For bonding. And learning. And definitely not for accidental hot spring scenes."
I flinched.
The class cheered.
I felt a disturbance in the plot.
Aya poked her head into my classroom after homeroom.
"I heard about the trip," she said. "You packing emotional trauma or just clean underwear?"
"Is it too late to pretend I'm allergic to tatami mats?"
"Maybe. But if you really want to be safe, just don't think anything."
"You say that like it's easy!"
Aya shrugged, sipping her juice box. "You managed it last chapter."
"That was a fluke! Kokoro was weirdly calm, and Sensei only semi-threatened me."
"And you still hallucinated cheese sticks."
"They were powerful metaphorical symbols!!"
Day of the Trip.
I had one goal:
Don't imagine anything.
Don't think about towels, hot water, shared rooms, or romance flags.
Just think about rocks.
Safe, plain, geological rocks.
The bus ride began.
Kokoro was sitting beside me, scribbling in a notebook.
I glanced. It said:
If the school trip arc begins, does that mean a swimsuit scene is statistically inevitable?
I paled.
"W-What are you writing?"
"Field notes," she said flatly. "For future researchers studying your life as a cautionary tale."
"You talk like I'm some doomed protagonist in a bad dating sim!"
She shrugged. "I mean, you did summon me just by thinking about yogurt."
"Why does everyone act like that was my fault?!"
At the inn, we were split into rooms.
I was supposed to be with two other guys, but one mysteriously got sick and the other "got promoted" to the teachers' room.
Which left… me. Alone.
That is, until Sensei walked up with a clipboard and said, "Room assignments changed. You're now sharing with Kokoro."
I immediately reached for the sky. "I SWEAR I DIDN'T THINK THIS!"
Sensei tilted her head. "Sure. But maybe don't scream that in front of the inn staff."
Kokoro stared at the room key. "We're not even pretending anymore, huh?"
We entered the room.
It was nice. Too nice.
Futons on the floor. Warm lighting. Windows that opened to a scenic mountain view that definitely looked like it belonged in an emotionally vulnerable confession scene.
Kokoro placed her bag down and sat cross-legged.
"Okay," she said. "Let's set rules."
I blinked. "Rules?"
"Rule one: No thoughts after 10 p.m. Your brain goes feral."
"I—what?!"
"Rule two: No accidental eye contact during brushing teeth. That's how tension builds in anime."
"I—That's not a real thing!"
"Rule three: If I sleepwalk and try to confess something in a dream, ignore it. I'm probably processing trauma."
"…Kokoro, are you okay?"
She looked me dead in the eyes.
"I was fine until I got cast in this romcom."
Dinner was chaos.
Everyone wore yukata.
I tried not to look at anything.
But Aya appeared out of nowhere in a purple yukata that made her look like she belonged in a historical romance drama.
She sat beside me like it was totally normal.
"You okay?" she asked sweetly.
"I'm having a panic attack about fabric folds."
"That's fair."
Natsuki-sensei walked past and dropped a piece of tempura on my plate with a wink.
"Hope you survive until dessert."
I made the mistake of glancing toward Kokoro.
She had tied her yukata in a weirdly chaotic way, like a sleep-deprived samurai, and was trying to eat rice with chopsticks backward.
"...You good?"
"I'm actively resisting character development," she mumbled.
Back in the room, the air grew tense.
We sat in silence.
Kokoro on her futon. Me on mine. Two meters apart.
She stared at the ceiling.
"I feel like the curse is waiting."
"Don't say that."
"Like the moment we relax, a trope will trigger."
"I'm actively un-relaxing!"
She turned to me.
"If this were a light novel, what title would this chapter have?"
I sighed. "Something dumb, like... 'I Swore I'd Be Safe on the Class Trip, But Then She Said Goodnight in a Way That Made My Heart Explode.'"
She nodded. "Accurate."
Then, very softly:
"...Goodnight, Kazuki."
I didn't move.
I didn't breathe.
The room was silent.
Until—
Kokoro snored.
Immediately. Like a switch.
I lay there for hours.
Staring at the ceiling.
Afraid to move.
Afraid to think.
Until, finally, sleep took me.
And I dreamed of:
Yukata malfunctions
Futon-based misunderstandings
Natsuki-sensei narrating with jazz music
And worst of all—
A title screen that said:"Route Locked: You Can't Escape the Ryokan Arc."