"Weren't we all going to the cafeteria together?" Ike asked.
They were going to the cafeteria together, but eating was not their goal.
"Ike, you're such a pain. We have other things to do," replied the gyaru named Satsuki Shinohara, one of Karuizawa's friends.
"Other... things?"
"Do you not understand when I say I can't explain it?" Shinohara seemed a little irritated. "We're doing girl stuff. Could you stop getting in the way?"
"Uh..." Ike had apparently not expected to be so directly told that he was in the way, and he stood there blankly.
"..."
As someone skilled at reading the atmosphere, Little Kushida immediately realized that Classmate Ike had deliberately followed them out for reasons more complicated than merely being a nuisance.
His target was probably Classmate Shinohara.
Ike's emotional intelligence was not as low as that of his former friend Yamauchi.
If anything, his emotional intelligence was actually quite high.
That was why he had immediately become so nervous after Yamauchi dumped so much blame on him before. He had clearly thought of the terrible consequences of being made the scapegoat.
And since morning, some of the girls in class—especially the pretty ones—had seemed absentminded.
While it was surprising that all six girls in the class had been invited to join the Student Council—
What would truly unsettle girls was probably romance and the like.
So Ike had realized that, besides the Student Council's new roster, there was also the Student Council President Sakayanagi Arisu's public relationship.
Classmate Oreki had visited their class after enrolling, and he could be said to be on speaking terms with several girls in the class.
So Ike had wondered whether one of the girls in class might have feelings for Classmate Oreki.
And judging by the looks of things... he had