Haruki Kitahara panicked.
As a man with fairly high emotional intelligence, he knew better than anyone what it meant when a girl looked at a boy with such complicated eyes. He had never expected the withdrawn Kazusa Touma to have had a friend in the past—and a male one at that! If things continued this way, wouldn't it turn into the plot of some melodramatic romance light novel?
A man and a woman who had been forced apart by all sorts of misunderstandings finally reunited by chance, cleared up those misunderstandings, got back together, and everyone lived happily ever after, everyone was happ—
Happily ever after my ass! If the story developed like that, then what would Haruki Kitahara be? Kazusa Touma was prey he had already set his sights on. There was no way he would let himself become a supporting character in someone else's story!
In the past, Haruki Kitahara had thought Kazusa Touma's proud personality was somewhat troublesome. Now, though, he was immensely grateful for her pride. If she had put aside her reserve and gone over to strike up a conversation with him, perhaps today would have been the day they cleared up their misunderstanding. But Kazusa's awkwardly turned-away head...
Haruki Kitahara believed there was still a chance to salvage things. The first thing he had to do was improve his own image while damaging the image of the boy Kazusa Touma had her eye on. Of course, he did not expect to accomplish everything at once. He needed to gradually make it happen through subtle influence!
When it came to emotional intelligence, Haruki Kitahara, who thrived at school, believed he would not lose to anyone. As for the boy Kazusa Touma was watching, Haruki Kitahara took a look at him. A guy who was still