"Utaha Kasumigaoka is Toyogasaki's aloof honor student..." For some reason, Sogo Doma felt that Utaha was drifting farther and farther away from him. He might enjoy courting death, but he would never make someone who cared about him sad!
"If we're talking about aloofness, Yukinoshita is far more aloof than I am..." Utaha Kasumigaoka stopped typing, her face darkening. "And if we're talking about honor students, Yukinoshita's temperament suits that title far better than mine. That's why you fantasized about her, isn't it, Sogo-kun?"
"What are you even thinking?"
"And there's that golden-haired junior..."
"What does Eriri have to do with this?"
"Sogo-kun took on the reputation of being a doujin artist for her sake."
"Didn't you tell me to do it?"
"Wasn't that what you were thinking?" Utaha Kasumigaoka countered. "If you hadn't already been considering things for her sake, why would you have been able to imitate her art style?"
"Is imitating that girl's art style difficult?"
"At the very least, even Mashiro can't do it..."
"Just because Mashiro can't doesn't mean I can't. Forget Eriri—even Mashiro's art is something I can imitate..."
"Eh!?"
"Utaha, have you misunderstood something?" Sogo Doma shot her a sidelong glance.
"Sogo-kun, when you imitated Sawamura's art back then, it was to...?"
"To crush her confidence a little, while also telling her that as long as she stubbornly denied it, everything would be fine. After all, her art style was easy to imitate. That was the first step, called 'digging a pit.' If Eriri believed it, things would get entertaining. That club president would immediately realize that Eriri was afraid of others finding out about her hidden identity..."
"Then there'd be one more person bullying that little blonde. Unfortunately, Utaha, you made me take responsibility for it instead." Sogo Doma looked thoroughly regretful.