Seeing that listless look on his face, thoughts like, Ugh, Hayama has this melancholy aura about him. So cool, so dreamy... floated through my mind. At the same time, I couldn't help wanting to tell him to actually listen when his friends were talking, but Hayama Hayato wasn't such a simple guy.
At the perfect moment, he gave an appropriate response, complete with a smile, making it clear that he absolutely wasn't ignoring anyone. Judging by how perfectly his reactions hit the beat, he was probably good at rhythm games.
The female members, however, didn't seem like they played rhythm games.
They probably had no interest in what Ooka and the others were talking about, scrolling through their phones as they tossed out utterly perfunctory responses like, "Ah—yeah, right, totally."
Their attitude was so casual that I wanted to point out they clearly weren't even looking at the game screen.
One person hadn't responded at all.
That person was Miura Yumiko. Today, too, she lazily twirled her blonde hair around a finger, her entire body leaning against the back of her chair. Every now and then, she shot annoyed glances at Tobe and Ooka.
Perhaps intimidated by Miura's gaze, Ooka deliberately cleared his throat and tried to change the subject, speaking to Hayama as though something had just occurred to him.
"Ah—right, Hayato. I heard you're dating Yukino. Is that true?"
"What?"
Led by Miura, everyone present opened their mouths in shock. Even I might have been staring blankly.
What the hell was this guy suddenly talking about?
How could that be? No way, no way. No way... right? It couldn't be... could it? Right? Was it?
The ball thrown from such an unexpected direction stopped everyone's time.
But then time began to move again.
Note
Note: A famous line