The whole "campus dating pool" thing was just wishful thinking.
The man in front of her really was impossible to get through to.
Even after hearing that he might be popular with girls, he still didn't react at all.
Most guys would at least ask who was interested in them.
Kushida Kikyo gave him a sweet smile.
"You're always like this, Kageya."
"You seem so weighed down, like you've got a lot on your mind."
"Come on, be a little more confident and energetic. You're a boy, after all."
"You're so handsome, and you're great at both sports and academics."
"Keep it up!"
Kushida praised him in a soft, sweet voice, looking at him with admiration.
She wanted to help boost Kageya Shinjitsu's confidence.
It would be best if he realized just how great it felt to have a beautiful girl cheering him on.
"If you ever need help, don't hesitate to come to me."
She was the third person to say that.
The first had been the outgoing Hirata, and the second had been Ichinose Honami.
The contrast between their interactions was strange: one was utterly perfunctory, while the other was incredibly enthusiastic.
"Sure, sure."
"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm."
"I will, I will."
"I'll be counting on you, then."
Amid his perfunctory replies and the surrounding chatter, swimming class came to an end.
Kageya Shinjitsu had certainly attracted plenty of attention during that lesson.
It wasn't just the girls' attention, which had supposedly earned him a place in the campus dating pool...
He'd also drawn plenty of hostility from the boys.
A lot of them were hostile toward him.
He wouldn't have been surprised if they were already trying to figure out how to humiliate him.
After the teacher dismissed the class and left, Kageya Shinjitsu headed for the changing room.
"Kageya!"
As soon as the teacher left the pool area, Kanji Ike led a group over and surrounded Kageya Shinjitsu.
The commotion caught the attention of the others.
"Kushida-chan, what are the boys trying to do?"
"Are they going to fight?"
"Boys can be so awful."
The girls had been about to go change, but they were caught off guard by the sudden commotion among the boys.
Kushida Kikyo followed their gaze.
"What are you doing?"
"Don't do anything stupid."
Seeing how they were already getting physical, Kushida Kikyo hurried over.
Her voice drew the attention of everyone who hadn't left yet.
The boys noticed, too, and thought Kanji Ike was being unusually bold.
He really dared to go for it?
Had he taken such a crushing blow?
But they didn't approach.
At first, only Kushida Kikyo went over from the girls' side. Then the girls who'd been with her followed.
They didn't think there was any real danger. Surely the boys hadn't gone so crazy that they'd attack the girls, too.
Among them, though, a girl named Karuizawa Kei, who looked like a delinquent gyaru, seemed a little anxious.
She watched the crowd nervously, but still forced herself to step forward.
In just a moment,
Kanji Ike and the others had already accomplished what they'd set out to do.
"Ah, Kushida-chan."
"It's nothing. We were just fooling around."
"Kageya's just too shy and introverted, so we thought we'd use this chance to mess around with him a little."
"But Kageya resisted too much, and we accidentally tore his clothes."
"Sorry, Kageya. We'll pay you back."
Noticing Kushida Kikyo and the others approaching, Kanji Ike and his group quickly stopped and explained. They seemed a little startled, too.
But their movements were oddly coordinated. They weren't startled because Kushida Kikyo and the others had arrived.
It was more like they'd planned this in advance. They were even holding a piece of Kageya Shinjitsu's swimsuit.
The group stepped aside, revealing Kageya Shinjitsu.
His muscles were full and well-defined. She'd already gotten a good look at them.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have been such a good swimmer.
But there was something else: wounds? Bruises in several places, and even a scar from a knife wound. It was hard to tell if it had healed completely.
"Kageya, are you okay?"
"If you don't mind, you should cover up a little. It might be better that way."
Seeing this, Kushida Kikyo was taken aback. There were wounds on his abdomen, waist, and back.
She took the white towel she'd been using to dry herself and placed it directly in Kageya Shinjitsu's hands.
He saw a few strands of Kushida Kikyo's hair on the towel, along with a faint fragrance, probably from her conditioner. He hadn't wanted to take it, but when he saw how Kanji Ike and the others looked ready to swallow him whole, he kept it—and gave it a shake.
To be honest, he was a little bewildered himself.
"You guys went too far. Even if you were just playing around, you tore his swimsuit."
Kushida Kikyo rarely looked angry, but now she did.
The school swimsuits were definitely sturdy. They must have used a lot of force to tear one.
The girls who'd come over without a care in the world now looked at Kanji Ike and the others with disgust.
"Exactly! That was too much!"
For some reason, everyone felt that Kageya Shinjitsu was so pitiful.
He must have been bullied all the time before, which was why he'd become so withdrawn at school.
Maybe he'd always kept his "sinister gaze" fixed on others because he wanted to make friends but was too afraid to approach them.
Quite a few girls had already imagined a million-word novel in their heads.
Especially as they took a closer look at Kageya Shinjitsu's handsome face and well-defined physique.
He wasn't overly muscular, just fit and strong, with a normally slender, clean-cut build.
That was actually exactly the kind of look girls liked.
It explained Kageya Shinjitsu's usual isolation and his "sinister gaze."
The girls' compassionate instincts erupted.
"Ah, ah..."
"I said it was all a misunderstanding. Kushida-chan asked us earlier to go hang out with Kageya."
"We didn't mean to do it."
"Exactly! We didn't know he was hurt like this. We'll keep it a secret."
"Kageya, were you in a delinquent gang that got into fights all the time? That's a knife wound, right?"
Kanji Ike started to panic when he saw the girls all turning against them.
He looked to the others, and the calmer Yamauchi tried to explain.
They'd agreed on this beforehand.
As they went back and forth, they even made Kageya Shinjitsu sound like a delinquent.
But when the girls heard that Kushida Kikyo had asked them to befriend Kageya Shinjitsu, they didn't say much more.
"Is that so?"
"But you still went too far. Do you boys normally play like this?"
Kushida Kikyo hadn't expected them to pin the blame on her.
She asked them.
"Well, of course."
"Boys are different, you know. Just think about how intense Sudo gets when he plays basketball."
"We only tore his clothes by accident. The material's just bad."
"It was a misunderstanding."
"If you don't believe us, ask Kageya. We didn't fight—we were just taking him along to play and accidentally tore his clothes."
Kanji Ike and the others replied.
"..."
Kushida Kikyo turned to the other person involved.
It seemed like they'd all overlooked him.
"Is that true?"
"Are you okay? How do you feel? Should we go to the nurse's office?"
He looked rather embarrassed, perhaps because Kanji Ike had said they'd come over because of her.
So Kageya Shinjitsu's secret being exposed was partly her fault.
"It's fine. There's no need."
"You don't need to worry about it. These things are nothing."
Before you continue