She’s the Cutest… But We’re Just Friends! - Volume 1 - Chapter 2

Episode 002 - Since Our Class Is Full of Normies, I’d Like to Live Life My Way 

“DAMN YOOOU, KISHIMOTOOO! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING” 
Kai’s angry voice bellowed throughout 2-A’s classroom, where only about half of the students had arrived for school. 
“Hm? What’re you on about Nakamura? You’re full of energy for this early in the morning,” asked Kousuke Kishimoto. 
Fastidious about his appearance, Kishimoto was a stylish guy who fortified his average build and utterly forgettable face with a keen sense of fashion, which gave him a leg up. Kishimoto was also second to none at getting girls. His success rate for asking girls out wasn’t all that high. They’d often bring up breaking up shortly after tentatively getting together, but throw spaghetti at the wall and yada yada yada. He was the kind of dude unpopular guys everywhere despised because there were very few stretches of time when he didn’t have a girlfriend. Kishimoto’s reputation wasn’t all that bad, either, since he absolutely never cheated by trying to date two girls at a time. 
Kai didn’t hate him. Which is to say, he’d probably even count him as a friend. They had pretty similar tastes in manga. Kai had also been in the same class as Kishimoto all through middle school, making them friends by proximity. Although they didn’t particularly plan it that way, they both picked the same high school as their first choice and took the entrance exam together. He and Kishimoto fell out of touch since they were in different classes during their first year of high school. Now that they were in the same class this year, though, he was stuck with him again. 
He forcefully grabbed his middle school pal by the collar and asked in a barely contained whisper, “Kishimoto... you knew my real name, yeah?” 
“And what about it, Ash?” 
“I told you not to tell anyone, didn’t I?” Kai threatened, his temple twitching. 
Back in middle school, a group of people—including Kishimoto—found out his real name. It was something Kai wished he could forget. It went down exactly the way it had with Jun: they became friends, he invited them over to his house to hang out. Then, his mom and sister referred to him as ‘Ashie’... 
“I asked you not to spread it around though, didn’t I?” 
“Oh, uh... I still remember.” 
“Kishimoto. You’d do anything to get in a girl’s pants, but I know you’re a good dude... So why would you go and break our promise now?” 
“I honestly have no idea what you mean~” 
“Don’t play innocent with me.” Kai growled. “I’ve got evidence that you started it.” 
“Grk!” Kishimoto let out a cry that sounded like a chicken being strangled. 
That’s right. Kai had evidence. Everyone in the class had just introduced themselves during homeroom on the first day of school, two weeks prior. Afterwards, while everybody else was mingling, this guy apparently hit on every single one of the hot girls in their class. 
It seems like he never had the chance with Jun (because she went to Kai’s house right after school), but she’d heard all about his impressive... drive. That’s because Jun was already friends with pretty much all the girls in the class, who’d constructed their own info network on the messaging app LINE. And the juicy morsel that their widely-cast net fished up was...

“I heard Nakamura’s name is ‘Ash’!” 
“Kishimoto told me.” 
“I laughed.”

Kai made a big show of clenching his fist. “Which would you prefer: being punched on the right cheek, or being punched on the left cheek?” he asked menacingly. 
“K-Knock it off,” said Kishimoto, cowering. “Aren’t you a pacifist, Nakamura?” 
“Did you know, there’s no telling what an otaku will do when you piss them off?” 
“I couldn’t help it! I had my reasons!” 
“Oh yeah?” Kai said in a hushed voice, with the implication that he’d let him off easy if he provided details. Sure enough, Kishimoto desperately pleaded his case. 
“Reina told me she really wanted to get to know you better!” 
“You only did it to look like a big shot in front of a girl?! YOU THIRSTY-ASS SON OF A BITCH!!!” Kai grabbed Kishimoto by the collar and shook him like a rag doll. He wouldn’t do much more than that, though. It went without (Kishimoto) saying that all otaku were indeed pacifists. And despite the fact that he was now a 10,000-punch-a-month guy, lethal weapons Kai’s fists were not. (He’d never had the chance to find out for sure outside of Fitness Boxing.) 
“I’ve had it with you. Our friendship is OVER after today,” spat Kai. 
“Man, zip it,” Kishimoto shot back. “You’re the double-crosser for nabbing a pretty girl like Jun behind my back!” 
“J-Jun isn’t my girlfriend or anything, though!” 
“I’m just jealous that you go home with her every single daAAAaYNGHRNGHK! I don’t want your friendshiiPPppHGNRHK!” 
“Consider that bridge BURNED!” 
After they were done hurling insults at each other, Kai let go of Kishimoto’s collar. He wasn’t satisfied, but there was no use crying over spilled milk. He saw no point in charging this skirt-chaser with his crimes. 
Kai went back to his seat at the tail end of the middle row. From there, he glanced over at the window situated at the front of the classroom. All the popular girls were camped out there, chit-chatting. The whole group (including Jun) had yet to show up for school, but the “core” group of Class 2-A girls—and the key figure their group was centered around—were already there. 
Reina Fujisawa. 
Yup, the girl Kishimoto had blabbed his real name to. If Jun was the prettiest girl in their year, then Reina was the prettiest woman. She possessed such a mature beauty, it was hard to believe she was actually a high school student. Reina was breathtakingly fine, not to mention stylish and also tall. There’d been a bit of a commotion last year about a girl who was modeling when she enrolled at their school. She wasn’t quite front-page material, but she was still a knockout. An absolute knockout. Nobody else in Asagi High came close. 
 

There was also a rumor going around that Reina had a totally outrageous boyfriend, too. He was a young entrepreneur (to the cops, and a yakuza thug to everyone else) or something like that. Regardless of whether it was fact or fiction, it seemed possible for a scary girl like Reina, who wore her intensity—or rather, her intimidating aura—like beautiful armor. 
Kai stared at her scary but gloriously beautiful face, trying to be stealthy about it. But he’d been discovered, and he and Reina made eye contact. Reina immediately shot him a stunning smile. That’s right, stunning. 
Jun’s smile was carefree, without a single ounce of girlish flattery, and allowed her cheerful disposition to shine through. On the other hand, Reina’s smile was a 100% exquisitely manufactured smile. It took everything both good and bad about girls and turned them into weapons to arm Reina with. 
Terrifying... 
Rather than feeling overjoyed that a beautiful girl had smiled at him, Kai averted his gaze, shaking in his boots. At the same time, he wondered, Why would someone as great as her want to know anything about ME? 
Does she like me? He was 10,000% certain that she didn’t. 
Did she want to torture me? There was about a 1% chance of that... 
Reina might have liked Kai or hated his guts, but they’d met so rarely that Kai didn’t have much evidence to suggest which side she landed on. But if he had to push himself and hazard a guess... 
I’m Jun’s friend, and she’s friends with Jun too, so maybe...? 
She and Jun weren’t from the same middle school, but it seemed like they knew each other before entering high school. Although Reina had been in the class next to theirs last year, he’d seen her acting quite chummy with Jun in the halls and cafeteria during breaks. 
However, he’d heard from Jun that she was pretty busy with modeling jobs outside school, so they hardly ever hung out. If Reina had had a lot of free time on her hands, Jun would’ve never started hanging around Kai’s place, and she would never have accepted his invitation to come over and play MHW at the beginning... 
Stop it. Reina was the kind of girl who made him fully aware of how spineless he was for even thinking that. 
Would it be too far-fetched to think that maybe... she thought the same of me? Kai couldn’t come up with an answer. He peeped over her way, careful not to make eye contact with her this time. But... Reina wasn’t standing directly in front of Kai anymore. 
A guy named Matsuda had started hitting on her and the other girls as soon as he showed up to class. He was accompanied by his friends—no, his cronies Takeda, Umeda and Fukuda. They were now being a little bit too friendly with Reina and her group. These four were Class 2-A’s resident cool bros. If Jun and Reina were at the top of the female totem pole at school, then Matsuda and his crew were on their way to being at the top among the males. They all had colored hair, their uniforms had lost their shape from being worn so much, and they were way thirstier than even Kishimoto. Brains, totally fried. The common denominator among the four was that they were all on the basketball team. 
What’s sooo great about being able to play a sport that gives them so much confidence? Kai felt. Or at least, he did in middle school. The guys on the baseball and soccer teams at Asagi High School were really good, though. Good enough to go to nationals. They were as disciplined as soldiers because the coaches for both teams were very thorough with training. Although a few of the players were in Kai’s class, they were always humble, polite, and never made a peep. 
Even from a guy’s point of view, Kai honestly thought they were pretty cool. He had a lot of respect for them. It had been a wake-up call for Kai, who used to be prejudiced toward jocks. Kai figured they’d be more like Matsuda and his crew, acting like they were hot shit even though their grades were nothing to write home about. 
In comparison, the Asagi High basketball team was a joke. Now that his eyes had been opened to it, they seemed more and more asinine to Kai by the day. 
“Ayyyy, Reina!” 
“Wanna do some karaoke with us today?” 
“Come listen to me sing some Kanjani songs!” 
“There he goes again. Okay but for real though, Matsuda kills at Kanjani!” 
Matsuda and his gang yammered on like simpletons who probably couldn’t even tie their own shoes (in Kai’s biased opinion) while hitting on the girls. 
“Say what now?” 
“Take a look in a mirror and try again.” 
“Can’t you tell? We’re saying, ‘Yeah right’ about you and your boy band crap.” 
“Way to dunk on him, Shou.” 
The girls turned their noses up at them. V-Very scary... particularly Reina, who was leaning against the bottom pane of the open window. She truly did have the bearing of a yakuza mistress standing there with her arms folded and her penetrating gaze. She really was a high schooler, though... right? 
But since Matsuda and his crew brazenly refused to back down, Reina and her girls just continued to give them the ice queen treatment. Pitiful. 
Most of the time in manga, the normie characters at the top of the class totem pole would form a single group of hot guys and girls, and they’d get along splendidly. In Kai’s year, however, there was also a third group of mean girls headed by popular chick Suama Sakakibara. People in class formed friend groups regardless of gender and occasionally hung out together, but Kai had never seen any of them hang out 24/7 with someone they weren’t boyfriend or girlfriend with. Reina’s group—which Jun was also a part of—was especially leery about this. 
Reina herself had mad normie energy too, but at the same time possessed a firm, ‘I keep men at a distance’ attitude. She’d been famous for this since their first year. Hence, the ‘Reina has an outrageous boyfriend who doesn’t go to this school’ rumors that were going around. 
The warning bell for the short morning homeroom period finally rang, and Matsuda’s posse retreated with their tails between their legs. They were replaced by Jun, who came barging into the classroom just in time to not be counted late. She turned right to Reina’s clique and said, “Hiya! Did you watch the video I texted you guys yesterday?!” 
“Kiiiitty cat slaaaap!” 
“Oh my gooood, it was so cute! ” 
“Wow, that video really blew up.” 
“Nobody can resist kids or animals!” 
The girls were having a lively conversation about the video Jun had shared... even though Kai was the one who found the video. 
It was clear that everyone was supposed to sit down at their desks when the warning bell rang, but Jun and Reina’s group stayed by the window yakking away until the teacher appeared. Even when the teacher showed up on time and gave them all a lecture, the girls just smiled and said, “Oopsies!” as they took a seat. That wasn’t out of character for Reina, either. Though she normally presented the smiling facade of a high schooler, one could catch a good, long glimpse of her natural face when—and only when—she was with Jun. Wait, maybe that was fake too. But to Kai, at least, it seemed like a genuine smile. 
 
Kai had made plans to go to the cafeteria with the guys during lunch that day. He headed to the cafeteria, which was on the first floor of a separate building, with another classmate named Seiji Satou. 
Satou was a friend he’d made after starting high school. They were in the same class together last year. He was an otaku friend who read manga too, but was much more passionate about watching late-night anime and collecting merch. Kishimoto wasn’t much into those things, however, so the topic of conversation shifted exclusively to manga. The three of them got super psyched talking about yesterday’s new issue of Manga UP!. 
Unlike after school, or their days off, Kai and Jun didn’t hang out much at school. One reason was that the “Isn’t it weird that they hang out 24/7 even though they’re not boyfriend and girlfriend? What a fuck boy/slut” vibe hung over the entire school like a thin layer of smoke. To Kai, Jun was his best friend in the whole wide world. But, well, the second reason was that—like Kishimoto and Satou—it wasn’t like he didn’t have other friendships besides her. Same for Jun. So at school, Kai mostly hung out with his guy friends, and Jun hung out with her girl friends. 
The school cafeteria at Asagi High School was pretty snazzy, as you might expect from a private high school. They had the usual system where a machine dispensed meal tickets in front of the entrance. Students then lined up in front of the open kitchen holding their trays, and a nice lady would give them food. 
However, the interior design was so hip it sorta felt like a Starbucks (or as Jun would say, “Nuh-uh! It’s like Doutor!”). The eating area also didn’t look like your average cafeteria. The long tables were arranged in a very precise manner—it had none of the usual ‘Okie dokie, squeeze yourself in, eat, then leave!’ vibes of a school cafeteria. There were square tables seating two and four, in addition to round eight-person tables and chairs. The seating had been perfectly arranged in a tasteful way, much more so than a family restaurant. 
“Eh, the interior might be super swank. I’m still just gonna order a sweet and sour pork combo, though,” said Kai. 
“I’m getting the Meat Lover’s combo.” 
“I’ll have the pork cutlet bowl.” 
Kai and his friends staked out an open four-person table, and picked up where they left off on their manga conversation now that they had their food. 
As one might expect from a private school, the lunches here were more expensive than other school cafeterias in the area, but they didn’t cut corners. Although “restaurant” might be a stretch, the flavor of their food was good enough for a “popular eatery in the neighborhood.” 
The sweet and sour pork combo Kai ordered was fried to a perfect crisp, maintaining its texture despite being covered in a generous amount of sauce. The soggy outer breading and perfectly untouched inner layer came together in delicious harmony. It beautifully trapped in all the juices, meaning every bite filled his mouth with unctuous flavor. 
Kai used to be in the “it’s wrong to put pineapple in sweet and sour pork” camp, but eating it here converted him. Did they use an extra acidic variety in the dish? This dish could be pretty one-note once your tongue got used to the sweetness of the sauce, but the pineapple served as a striking palate cleanser. 
“This sweet and sour pork is FIRE!” 
“So’s my pork cutlet bowl!” 
“I’m glad I picked Asagi High, just for the cafeteria!” 
“Same!” said the three growing boys to one another while chowing down. But they wouldn’t get the chance to finish their food. 
“Mind if we sit here?” said a voice out of the blue. 
It was Reina Fujisawa. 
Although her tone of voice was polite and ladylike, it had a seductive ring to it. Her voice was almost dripping with sex appeal. Behind her was Jun, looking apologetic and trying to make herself as small as possible, and another diminutive girl whose constant flirtiness annoyed Kai. 
Kai looked Reina straight in the eye and answered, “...Can’t you tell by looking?” Three of us. Three of you. The table seats four. Though he wasn’t quite sure what she was planning, even a kindergartener could tell whether they had any open seats. 
“It’s not nice to be combative with a girl, Ash,” Reina responded. 
“Girls don’t like when you do that, Ash~?” 
“Knock it off! That name really kills me inside!” Kai surrendered. The sheer violence of what Reina and the short girl were saying immediately made him raise a white flag. 
Kishimoto, on the other hand, was positively thrilled. “Yoohoo! Reina, Jun, Momo, come sit over here! I’ll move all this stuff outta the way for you right now!” he called out to them. 
“Satou and I aren’t things in the way,” whined Kai. Were these the words of a man who just accused somebody else of being a traitor this morning? 
“Much appreciated.” 
“Oh, you know me, I’m a real considerate guy!” he boasted. “It’s ladies first all day, every day with me!” 
“All right, enjoy your lunch with Satou then. Somewhere else,” Reina said. 
“Huh?” 
“Oh? Is something the matter, ‘ladies first all day, every day,’ Kishimoto?” 
“N-No, ma’am,” he stammered, trembling. Pressured by Reina, Kishimoto got up from his seat and made a run for it with Satou. 
Kai expected no less from a yakuza’s sweetheart. Reina was simply standing there smiling, not looking intimidating at all. And yet, the look in her eyes was so scary it sent a chill down his spine. 
“Don’t ditch me, guys!” Kai objected, but Kishimoto and Satou were long gone. 
Jun put her tray down and cried out to them as they hightailed it out of there. “Sorry Reina’s being so demanding, guys!” she apologized.

Anyway. Kai was unexpectedly boxed in by Reina and company at lunch. 
Jun sat to his right, while Reina had taken up the seat on his left. The other short girl, infamous for being Reina’s shadow ever since middle school, was a member of Reina’s group named Momoko Mihara from Class 2-A. Looks: cute, in the way small animals are. Personality: annoying as hell. That was all there was to say about her. 
“So? What did you want from me, Fujisawa?” Kai asked, picking at his half-eaten sweet and sour pork without bothering to hide his caution. 
“Oh my,” Reina replied. “Do I need to have a reason to eat with a classmate of mine?” 
“We just thought we’d come say hey ’cause we bump into you from time to time~? BoOoo~? You’re soOoo full of yourself~?” Reina covered her hand with her mouth and laughed daintily while Momoko talked smack in a cutesy way. 
“I must be hot shit for you to chase off Kishimoto and Satou just because you, quote, ‘bump into me from time to time,’” Kai said tersely. “Bar none.” 
“I’m really sorry about that. Just stay, Kai. I’ll go and apologize to them later,” Jun pleaded, her hands pressed together in apology. She still hadn’t touched her food. 
I know. It’s okay. If you don’t eat now, you’ll run out of time, Kai told her through eye contact. 
Relieved, Jun began eating her teriyaki chicken plate (which also looked delicious). Reina, on the other hand, watched Jun and Kai with a radiant smile on her face. “Ash, I just—” 
“It’s Nakamura to you!” he corrected Reina. 
“Ash, I just wanted to have a nice, long chat with you.” 
“What, you big bully?” 
“You and Jun have interests in common, yes?” Reina inquired. “What have you found interesting lately?” 
Kai was hesitant to say anything even though he didn’t mind the question itself. He never went out of his way to hide the fact that he was an otaku; he didn’t think for a single second that it was the sort of embarrassing hobby he needed to hide. Even if somebody talked about him behind his back for being an otaku, he would actually laugh at them for being uncultured and embarrassed enough to point fingers at people for it. 
But he could take a hint. It wasn’t rocket science: babbling about his otaku hobbies in front of people who didn’t know anything about them would be extremely cringey. He just had to accept that his one hobby—which wasn’t outlandish in the slightest—came off completely unorthodox to others. Kai could keep a conversation about makeup going despite having no interest in it, for example, but that would be a terrible time. It is what it is. 
There were no “classes” or “ranks” when it came to hobbies: they were something you enjoyed on your own, or shared if you were blessed enough to have friends with the same interests. You never pushed them onto other people. Or at least that’s how Kai felt, which is why he hesitated to say anything. He had no way of telling how far he could go, how much to say, or whether or not it would even make sense to her. 
Jun gave him a helping hand. “Right now we’re really into this video game where you fight 15-vs.-15 using tanks. Co-op mode gets pretty intense.” 
“Yeah, yup,” Kai nodded along, flustered. 
Reina was blatantly startled upon hearing this—another rare glimpse of her raw, unfiltered emotions. It wasn’t long, however, before her absolutely flawless smile returned. “Yes, it’s fun playing co-op,” Reina nodded along as if she thought it was wonderful too, pretending (well, probably pretending) to relate. She really was terrifying. 
Momoko, on the other hand, was laughing her head off. “HAHA~? Tanks?? Like, whaaat You gotta be kidding me~ You think that crap is fun? Ewww~?” she cackled. Annoying as hell, no? 
“DO. NOT. Make fun of WoT,” Jun snapped. 
“You went too far, Momoko,” Reina chimed in at the same time. She and Jun pinched her by the cheeks, with Reina pinching her in an especially nasty way despite her uncannily angelic smile. 
“JEEZ, I’M SORRY. I’M SORRY!” Momoko yelped, on the verge of tears. Eventually they took mercy on her and let go. She’d been asking for it, though. Moron. 
But... Oh well. There was one thing Kai knew for damn sure. Reina may have been startled and probably clueless about the whole tank thing. But this gorgeous, terrifying chick had the intelligence and wherewithal to hide her inner thoughts, and not abruptly reject another person’s interests. Actually, it was precisely these traits that made Reina so pretty. It’s not just the face they’re born with that makes a person beautiful. Momoko was a perfect example of this. Her sweet appearance was wasted on her, thanks to her complete lack of intelligence and awful personality. 
“Soooo, Myaakawaaa~?” Annoying AF Momoko began to say as she rubbed her cheeks. They were still red from being pinched. “Never mind that tank crap. Wanna karaoke with me today~?” 
“I told you, I think it’s fun!” Jun protested. “Also, I already have plans to hang out with Kai today.” 
“SooOoo~?? Who’s more important to you, me or Ash~?” 
“Ummm...” Jun made a troubled face from being picked on. Annoying AF Momoko might just be nastier than Matsuda and his posse, even. 
“Knock it off, Momoko,” Reina admonished her in an even more forceful tone than before. “I keep telling you: a lady only teases to delight others. Teasing only to bother or embarrass somebody else is a real bitch move.” 
Despite the extreme phrase she used at the end, it was an incredibly adult opinion. Kai couldn’t help but be impressed. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to have any effect on the moron in question. 
“Hee hee? Not true~! All a girl needs is a pretty face~?” said Momoko, who hadn’t learned her lesson at all. “Come karaoke with me, MyaakawaAa~? Come ooon, aren’t we friends~?” 
“I told you, I already have plans!” Jun stood her ground. “The route campaign for the T-62A Kai’s been leveling up ends today. Can we go to karaoke tomorrow?” 
“NoOo, I wanna sing todaaAaay!? I’m in the mood for karaoke, no thanks to Matsuda?” Momoko whined, continuing to throw a tantrum like a little kid. 
Sigh... Your hands are tied, Kai said to Jun via telepathy again. Just go to karaoke. There’ll be another campaign soon. 
Hold on... 
It’s fine! It’s not like I can’t beat it on my own! 
He wasn’t a brat like Annoying AF Momoko. He’d never ask a stupid question just to put Jun on the spot like, “Who’s more important to you, me or Mihara?” He had no intentions of hogging her all to himself, either. Furthermore, Kai would feel incredibly guilty if things got awkward between Jun and her girl friends as a result of her prioritizing their plans together. Friendship was important, and Kai was kind—and thoughtful—enough to know that. 
Sure enough, his feelings on the matter seemed to make it through to Jun. 
“Sorry, Momoko. I’m hanging out with Kai today,” Jun said firmly. 
Momoko’s jaw dropped at Jun’s unexpected response. Kai shot her the same exact look. 
“Eheheh!” All Reina said after bursting into laughter was, “Lovely.” 
Kai couldn’t even react, nor could he really tell how he felt about all this. But he was definitely embarrassed. He felt self-conscious, and his cheeks were hot. He couldn’t bring himself to look directly at Reina. 
On the other hand, this put Momoko in a dour mood almost instantly. She growled like a puppy who woke up on the wrong side of the bed. 
Her face then suddenly lit up as if something had just dawned on her. “You should come with us to karaoke then, Ash~!?” she exclaimed. “Then Myaakawa can come too~!” 
“Huh?” Kai blurted out. 
“Wha?” Jun said at the same time. Both their mouths were hanging open. Yet another unexpected idea. 
Kai couldn’t even begin to picture a dork like himself in a den full of social butterflies. Jun also looked ready to give Momoko a piece of her mind. 
A bubbly person like Jun could easily party along with Reina and the girls, and also feel right at home doing a 100 Anisong Marathon with Kai. Kai definitely wasn’t a ‘party’ kind of guy, though! He had no idea what songs were popular. All he could sing were songs from anime. 
Turn it down, Kai. No need to force yourself, Jun told him via eye contact. 
That bit of kindness was exactly why it was Kai’s turn to impress her back, though. “Sounds good, Mihara. Let’s go,” he replied, which was the most amicable response he could give in this situation. He could ride out the partying with a little bit of patience. 
“Kai...” Jun sighed as if she were calling him a big dummy. Then, her expression changed. “Thanks,” she added, expressing her gratitude while beaming in his direction. There was the carefree, warm smile Kai loved so much. 
Reina’s reaction stood in stark contrast with Jun’s. She also beamed in his direction and, quite apologetically, said, “I’m sorry, Ash.” The vibe she was projecting implied she didn’t mean for this to happen when she asked if they could eat together. Was she really a high school student...? 
Kai found himself forcing a smile. “Fine by me, but what about you, Reina? You turned Matsuda and the other guys down when they asked you out. I’m a guy too, though... Won’t I be in the way?” he pointed out. 
“I only hate men who make it clear what they’re really after,” she stated. “You’re Jun’s friend, which makes you a friend of mine in a way. Or do I have it wrong?” 
“I guess... not?” Kai wondered aloud, though he didn’t take what she said at face value. Half of him was distrustful because Reina was a scary girl he couldn’t quite read. But the other half was awed by the idea that the “queen” at the top of his class considered him a friend...! 
“’Kay! We’re going right after school,” Momoko confirmed. “See you then, Ash!” 
“Got it. Mind if I follow you guys there?” 
“Just so you know, true gentlemen pick up the tab~?” 
“You mean I’d be paying for everybody on my own?!” Kai asked incredulously. 
“She’s just joking, Kai,” Jun warned. “Don’t take everything Momoko says seriously.” 
“O-Oh, okay.” 
Things had taken a strange turn...