Chapter 5: Spreading Rumors
The weekend passed by and it was now Monday morning.
After getting out of the shower, I dried my hair with a toothbrush in my mouth. I had spent some more time relaxing than the usual morning. The plan was to wait until I was a little late before leaving to school.
I remembered that I had turned off my phone before I went to bed last night, so I turned it back on.
My phone screen lit up immediately and displayed all of the messages that had accumulated over the night.
[Kiyotaka-kun, do you have a bit of time this morning? Is it fine if I come by your room?]
The message was from Airi, and it seemed to have arrived just after I got in the shower.
There was also a missed call from Kei, but I’d get back to her later.
[Sorry. I was in the shower so I didn’t notice your messages. There isn’t much time right now. Can we talk at school?]
[That’s fine. Don’t worry about it. It can wait for later.]
Her response came back immediately after I sent the message.
The speed of her response made me wonder if she had just happened to have been looking at her phone, or if she was waiting for me to respond.
Nonetheless, her response told me that it probably wasn’t an emergency.
That being the case, I concentrated on straightening up my appearance first.
I didn’t have time to slow down. I finished my preparations for the day and called for the elevator to take me down to the lobby. Many students commute to school in the morning, so the elevator is pretty busy and doesn’t come immediately after calling for it. I had waited until the last possible moment to leave for school, but I still wasn’t able to avoid the wait.
In the meantime, I took out my cell phone and sent a message to Kei.
[What was your call about? If possible, I’d like to meet up with you this evening.]
The message was marked as read immediately after I sent it.
[I didn’t call for any reason in particular, just forget about it. Anyway, I’m fine with meeting up, but can you make it earlier? I already have plans to go out with my friends tonight.]
In which case, I decided to suggest a time around five o’clock.
[Does 5 work? Anytime before 6 is fine.]
[Okie~ 5 o’clock then. What’s it about?]
[I’ll explain when we meet.]
The elevator arrived as soon as I sent the last message.
Hirata was the only one onboard.
“Hey. Good morning Ayanokouji-kun.”
“How unusual, Hirata. We’re both pushing it to the last minute, aren’t we?”
Hirata was an honors student, so he usually left for school in the mornings with quite a lot of time to spare.
It would be unusual for him to be one of the students leaving late, but it was even more so for him to be pushing it to the utmost latest time possible like this.
“To be honest, I had planned on leaving earlier, but…”
As his words trailed off, his expression changed to a somewhat complicated, bitter smile.
“But?”
I questioned Hirata as we got off the elevator on the first floor, only to find several girls waiting there.
They weren’t all from one class. Instead, the girls standing before us were from Class A all the way to Class D. I had to think for a moment about why they had all gathered together, but I quickly caught on to the situation.
“Good morning, Hirata-kun!”
“Yes. Good morning.”
He had a refreshing smile on his face, but it still appeared somewhat strenuous.
“This… is for you!”
In a chorus, all six girls presented him with Valentine’s Day chocolates at the same time. This scene had probably already repeated itself many times. As he went back to his room with the chocolates, I figured that he was probably pushing it so late due to having already made a few trips back to his room.
I parted ways with Hirata and decided to hurry to school.
It would’ve been easy to wait for him, but I lost out to the pressure of not wanting to get in the way of the girls.
So today is Valentine’s Day, huh?
“I’ve never been given chocolates before…”
I accidentally muttered such a thing.
Before I consider whether or not I want a girlfriend, I think it’d be nice to receive chocolates.
I was surprised that I even had such a desire.
It seemed that I wasn’t the only guy excited at the idea of receiving Valentine’s day chocolates.
As soon as I stepped into our classroom, I noticed that Class C was steeped in a strange atmosphere.
Many of the boys were gathered together in one place.
Valentine’s Day was the culmination of an entire year’s excitement.
It was, along with Christmas, a day that highlights the romance between boys and girls.
“Oh, there you are Ayanok?ji. You come over here for a moment.”
Sud? called over to me, so I approached the group.
“Did you get any chocolate?”
“Huh?”
Sud? asked me with a somewhat tense expression, a glare in his eyes.
“To explain, it seems like he’s really asking if you’ve gotten any chocolate from Horikita.”
Ike added with a sly grin.
“Don’t say weird stuff like that, you idiot. It has nothing to do with that.”
Contrary to what he had said, Sud?’s eyes weren’t smiling at all.
They were practically filled with demonic intensity, demanding an answer.
“I didn’t get anything from her. There’s no chance she’d give me anything.”
“…For real?”
“Yeah.”
Sud? nodded a couple of times before freeing me from his stern gaze.
“Well, I can understand why Ken is nervous. After all, that Ayanok?ji is a monster, you know~?”
With that, Ike drew the outline of something resembling a plastic water bottle in the air with his hand.
“…Ayanok?ji, you little shit, don’t assume you’ve won just because of that, got it?”
“No, I’m not at all…”
Ever since the training camp, I’d occasionally hear annoying stuff about what happened.
“Come to think of it, how are things doing on your end, Kanji? Things still doing okay with Shinohara?”
“H-huh? Why bring up Shinohara now?”
“Honestly, you should stop trying to downplay it. Everybody knows already.”
“E-everybody knows… D-do you know, Ayanok?ji?”
He somehow ended up trying to confirm by asking me about it.
I understood the flow of the conversation by now, so I responded to him with a light nod.
Ike groaned in shame and crouched down to hide his reddening face.
“See? Even a stick in the mud like Ayanok?ji knows about it. So what happened? Did you get anything from her?”
I didn’t notice any envy in anyone’s voices, probably because Shinohara didn’t seem to be very popular within the class. His friend Yamauchi might’ve shown a poor display of irritation about it, but he was nowhere to be seen at the moment.
“I didn’t get anything…”
“You and I are in the same boat then.”
Sud? rested his hand on Ike’s shoulder sympathetically.
“No, it’s fine. I got chocolates from Kushida-chan, after all.”
As he spoke, Ike proudly flaunted a box of chocolates tied shut with a pink ribbon.
“You say that, but didn’t all the guys get something? She gave me chocolate too.”
“Same here. Of course I’m happy about it, but in the end, it’s just obligation chocolate.”
I hadn’t expected Kushida to give chocolates to every single male first-year student at all. It made me wonder how she went about doing that.
Though, for Kushida, I suppose it wasn’t that surprising.
Regardless, the only thing I could see was a bunch of boys stewing in their own hot air. This kind of childish behavior felt like the reason why none of them could get closer to girls, but there was nothing that could be done about that.
It was inevitable that it would turn out this way for a class like ours with barely any experience with love.
Getting something or getting nothing. It all depends on how someone usually handles themselves.
Being desperate isn’t going to get them what they’re really after.
I stood back and thought about this, watching as a girl from Class B offered a box of chocolates to Akito.
“Tomorrow on the 15th, all of you will be expected to complete a comprehensive provisional test. However, just like with the test earlier this year, it won’t have any effect on your grades. The goal is to thoroughly test your current strengths. Furthermore, it will help you prepare of the final exams coming at the end of the year. While the tests won’t contain identical questions, the provisional exam will have similar questions to those found on the final exams. Do not be negligent with your studies simply because you’ve been promoted to Class C.”
Chabashira’s appreciated explanation finished, marking the end of today’s lessons.
As the girl in the seat beside me began her preparations for returning home for the day, I opted to ask her a simple question.
“How’s it going with Kushida?”
“What are you getting at?”
“I’m asking if you’ve been successful with her lately.”
“I wonder. I’m hard at work planning out how to improve my relationship with her. Are you looking to cooperate?”
“I was just asking.”
“Kushida-san has been changing, little by little.”
“In what way has she been changing?”
“Today, after we wrap things up here, I’ll be having tea together with her at Keyaki Mall. The Kushida from before would’ve turned down such an offer without hesitation.”
As it turned out, these unexpected developments seemed to be nothing more than superficial.
“In other words, you’re expecting to see results?”
“If we communicate, we might be able to come to a mutual understanding.”
“Glad to hear it. See you.”
After giving a brief reply to Horikita, I got up from my seat.
“…What was that?”
In response to my ridicule, Horikita looked at me with a slight trace of contempt in her eyes before looking away.
Shortly thereafter, Horikita stood up as well.
“Ah, Suzune. Uh… When’s a good time for you to help me with my studies?”
“That’s quite proactive of you, Sud?-kun.”
“That’s… well, I don’t wanna drop out, ya know?”
Despite what he said, he gave off a somewhat nervous appearance.
His true aim was, of course, to receive valentine’s chocolates from Horikita.
“Any time works for me. Even today.”
However-
“Your club activities still haven’t gone on break yet, have they? We’ll have time for studying after the provisional exams.”
With that, Sud?’s dreams were shattered.
I left the classroom.
The Ayanok?ji Group was making plans to meet up, but I decided to refuse this time.
There were other matters that required my attention at the moment.
“Kiyotaka-kun!”
I heard my name reservedly being called from the hallway behind me.
“What’s wrong, Airi?”
“Are you really not joining up with the group today?”
“That was the plan.”
“I-it’s fine if you’re late, so could you still try joining up with everyone?”
“I suppose… Maybe sometime after 6?”
“Sure! I think everyone should still be together then!”
“Alright. I’ll get in contact with you then, okay?”
With that, Airi’s firm expression changed into a beaming smile. I parted ways with her and started moving towards my destination. Class B’s classroom was strangely quiet by the time I arrived there.
Because there were only a few Class B students who I could reliably talk to, speaking with Kanzaki would’ve been my first choice. Sumida and Moriyama, who I had been lodging together with at training camp, would’ve also been fine.
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