"EMMM..." Faced with Yukino Yukinoshita's plummeting affection rating, Sogo Doma finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Yukinoshita, do you think I'm not qualified to regard other people as ants? I thought someone who considered herself exceptional like you would understand what I meant..."
"..." Yukino Yukinoshita choked again at those words. Fortunately, she had probably gotten used to being left speechless. It couldn't be helped—someone always managed to "twist" her words, and sometimes he did not even need to twist them—he could use her own words to shut her down. But perhaps precisely because of that, she had become increasingly sly... eloquent.
"What does this have to do with being exceptional?" Well, complaints aside, Yukino Yukinoshita had never denied her own excellence.
"So..." Yet just as her voice fell, Sogo Doma said, "Your excellence is nothing more than something you talk about."
"Huh?" Yukino Yukinoshita refused to accept that. "You..."
"In fact..." Before she could say anything, Sogo Doma said, "The moment you said that the more exceptional someone is, the harder their life tends to be, it already proved that you aren't exceptional enough."
"..." After remaining silent for a while, Yukino Yukinoshita said, "I just don't want to..."
"Actually..." Sogo Doma cut her off. "You should know perfectly well that words like that are merely meant to comfort yourself, right?"
"..."
"Actually..." This time, before Yukino Yukinoshita could speak, Sogo Doma continued, "Being excluded, isolated, and so on already proves that your level of excellence is only that much."
"I told you, I just..."
"Shouldn't truly exceptional people be leaders who point the way and drive others forward? If they are meant to guide people, then how could they be isolated or excluded?"
"..." Yukino Yukinoshita was rendered speechless. "So, you think someone like Hayato is more exceptional?"