A week had passed. Mizuno Yasuo was highly efficient, and Yeyue had obtained Ten Thousand Private Points from the upperclassmen in total. Unlike the Third Years, most students in the second-year B, C, and D classes had chosen to exchange Private Points with Yeyue. Under the pressure of Vice President Miyabi Nagumo, they had already lost their chance to compete for A Class that morning.
Many things had changed in First Year D Class, too.
The most obvious change was...
The class had clearly split into several groups.
Yeyue had also noticed what was happening around him. Most noticeably, his relationships with the girls in class had grown much more distant.
With some confusion, Yeyue sought out Kushida Kikyo. After school, the two arranged to meet at the Palette Cafe.
"Yeyue, what's wrong?"
"Hm? What do you mean?"
Yeyue took a sip of his coffee, looking puzzled.
Kushida Kikyo quickly got up and sat down beside Yeyue. She pressed a hand to her chest, looking worried.
"You've been acting a little strange today, Yeyue. You keep spacing out by yourself. Did something happen?"
"Ah..." Yeyue sighed dejectedly, set down his coffee, and said bitterly, "It's just that the atmosphere around me has felt a little strange lately. I wonder if I did something wrong, so it's been bothering me."
"That's not it at all. You're really popular, Yeyue."
"Is that so? Then why do I feel like everyone's avoiding me?"
"Well..." After a moment's hesitation, Kushida Kikyo leaned close to Yeyue's ear, shielding her pretty face with a small hand as she whispered, "I heard that Matsushita likes you."
"You're kidding, right?"
Yeyue looked surprised.
During this time, he and Kushida had grown closer, but she was almost always the one to initiate things. It was hard to tell from the outside whether her feelings were genuine.
"Honestly, Yeyue, you should have a little more confidence in yourself."
Kushida Kikyo took her phone out of her bag and held it up in front of Yeyue. "Look."
[Matsushita Chiaki: I think Yeyue is really great.]
The message appeared in what seemed to be a chat group just for girls. Below it, a few girls were praising Matsushita for having good taste.
The chat was perfectly harmonious, but Yeyue caught a glimpse of the group list by chance. There had to be at least thirty of these groups. And it hadn't even been long since the school year began. Girls really were scary.
"I really didn't expect that."
Yeyue awkwardly scratched his cheek.
He'd already suspected as much, and now he was even more certain.
This was how girls laid claim to someone: first, one of them announced who she liked, and the others found it much harder to make a move.
No wonder Karuizawa and the others always excused themselves when Matsushita was around, leaving the two of them alone.
Seeing Yeyue's awkward expression, Kushida Kikyo giggled. "Yeyue, don't you like Matsushita? She's so cute."
"Well..." Yeyue gazed into Kushida's eyes with an expectant look. "Little Kikyo, do you think I should date Chiaki?"
Whether a person was exceptional or not, their popularity inevitably took a hit once they started dating someone. Even celebrities made a point of presenting themselves as single.
Matsushita Chiaki was a talented person with potential, but no genius. She wasn't a high priority for him. But rejecting her outright might make him seem aloof, or too picky, and hard to approach.
After all, Matsushita Chiaki was genuinely beautiful, and in other people's eyes she was outstanding in every way.
Avoiding Yeyue's expectant gaze, Kushida lowered her head and fell silent for a moment. Then she looked up and jokingly chided him, "Yeyue, this concerns your future happiness. You should think it over carefully yourself."
"That's true."
Looking a little disappointed, Yeyue picked up his coffee again and took a sip.
Kushida couldn't answer the question directly. If she wanted to earn the trust of the whole school, she couldn't date anyone either.
But she hadn't agreed with him, and that slight pause suggested she might be conflicted, too.
Yeyue put down his coffee and asked worriedly, "But Little Kikyo, was it really okay to tell me what the girls were talking about? Won't it cause trouble for you?"
Kushida suddenly covered Yeyue's hand with both of hers and leaned toward him, looking concerned. "So this is our secret, just between the two of us. You'll keep it for me, won't you, Yeyue?"
Kushida had certainly worked up the courage to tell Yeyue about the girls' private conversations. If the news got out, people might think she was a gossip, making it even harder for her to earn anyone else's trust.
Still, considering how uneasy Yeyue had been, she thought it was worth taking a little risk.
"Of course. You were only trying to help me, after all."
Yeyue smiled brightly, then asked with a clear hint of probing, "By the way, Little Kikyo, you seem to have gotten pretty close to Ayanokoji lately. Did something happen?"
This was what puzzled him most.
Matsushita Chiaki was a minor issue. He'd already had his suspicions, but he couldn't figure Kushida out.
If Kushida wanted to get close to Horikita, it would have made more sense to use him, since he was already closer to her. It would have been more likely to work, too. That had always been how Yeyue planned things.
And yet...
Kushida had approached Ayanokoji instead, hoping to use him to get close to Horikita.
Yeyue didn't believe in any so-called protagonist's aura, but he couldn't fathom Kushida's intentions. A woman's heart really was as unfathomable as the sea.
"Nothing happened," Kushida Kikyo explained with a smile. "I just want to be friends with everyone in class. Ayanokoji is a member of D Class, too. That's all."
She doesn't want to tell me?
Yeyue gave her a penetrating look.
With such a direct probe, Kushida, clever as she was, couldn't have missed his meaning.
Even her words "That's all" were worth pondering. But it seemed she'd taken his question as a sign of jealousy.
Wanting to befriend Horikita wasn't something she needed to keep secret. So why hide it from him in particular?
Was she trying to keep him from noticing her true nature?
If so, Kushida should have tried to stop him from interacting with Horikita, or even gone out of her way to ruin their relationship.
On the first day of school, Yeyue had spread rumors about Kushida. By helping her afterward, he was sure he'd stirred something in her heart.
Kushida trusted him, too.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have told him about Matsushita so easily. That had given Kushida leverage she could be held accountable for, which showed that she must trust him to some degree.
Without a doubt, so far, his plans had worked.
And yet...
What was going on with this strange behavior from Kushida Kikyo?
"Ring, ring."
Kushida Kikyo's phone rang. She glanced at it, then pressed her hands together apologetically. "Sorry, Yeyue. I actually have a get-together with some friends from B Class later, so I'll head out first."
"It's fine. I'm the one who should apologize. I invited you without knowing your plans. Besides, you made time to comfort me even though you already had something to do. Thank you, Little Kikyo."
"That's not a problem at all." Kushida shook her head, a warm smile on her face. "If anything else is troubling you, be sure to tell me. See you tomorrow, Yeyue!"
"Yeah, see you tomorrow!"
Yeyue waved with a smile. The two went back and forth for a while, then Kushida picked up the bill and headed to the register.
If Kushida wanted to be friends with everyone in the school, she'd have to spend more time and money maintaining those relationships. Her way of life couldn't be easy, either. Yeyue wondered how often she paid for other people.
It was certainly difficult to read Kushida's true feelings from her expression.
Had she been trying to earn his trust so she could learn his secrets, or was it just a social nicety? Or had she meant it?
Where had things gone wrong? He'd been so close to gaining complete control over Kushida.
Or...
Yeyue couldn't help having a theory: perhaps Kushida saw him as someone who needed looking after, and was thinking of him like an older sister would.
Even if there was some risk, it was within what Kushida could tolerate.
Whether it was the information about Matsushita or paying the bill...
Then everything made sense.
She didn't want to use him to get close to Horikita because it would make Kushida feel guilty!
For Kushida, who had never felt guilt before, this must have been a difficult experience to understand.
And there had been that silence just now.
Perhaps Kushida didn't want him to date Matsushita, either. But when she weighed the trust of the whole school against Yeyue, he still didn't measure up.
"This is getting interesting."
Yeyue couldn't help smiling. Kushida's development had taken an unexpected turn, but she seemed to be heading in an even more perfect direction...
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