"Not bad."
"The weather now isn't nearly as cold as it was during that heavy snowfall in January. Don't you think you're overreacting a little?"
"Huh? What the hell are you talking about?!"
"That's not the point at all!"
Karuizawa Kei jerked her head up.
The eyes she'd carefully made up for their date were now burning with anger.
"Shouldn't the point be that you made a girl wait around for you like an idiot?"
Faced with her slightly pouty accusation, Kazehara Tetsu barely even lifted an eyelid.
He turned his head slightly and looked at her with an almost-smile.
"Not bad..."
Kazehara Tetsu sounded so infuriatingly calm that it was enough to drive anyone crazy. He didn't even try to make excuses. "Strictly speaking, I'm only five minutes late."
"Five minutes!"
Karuizawa Kei was so taken aback by his brazen answer that she caught her breath, her chest rising and falling sharply.
"Five minutes isn't long for the person making someone wait. But do you have any idea how long it feels to stand here in the cold, counting down the seconds..."
She muttered under her breath, looking away from Kazehara Tetsu's face and glancing resentfully at the couples inside the shopping mall, chatting and laughing together.
"Honestly..."
"I really don't know how someone as awful as you, who has absolutely no idea how to treat a girl considerately, managed to get so many women swarming around you."
The first half of her complaint was pure venting, but the second sounded almost bitter.
As someone caught up in the complicated social web of This School, how could she not know about the ridiculous scene outside First Year Class A today?
Just thinking about all the chocolates stuffed into this man's bag by those shameless little foxes made her heart