“Very well. I suppose I could give my jealous, lonely partner a bit of my time.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll give you the honor of hanging out with me at the school festival when I’m free. So you better show me a good time, okay?”
She then swiftly turned her back to him, dashed up the rest of the staircase, and disappeared down the hallway, leaving Masachika to watch in mute amazement for the next few seconds. Once she was out of sight, he staggered back so he could lean against the wall, then slid all the way down until his butt touched the floor.
“Gaaah… What the hell?” he groaned, and ran his hands through his hair. “…It should be illegal for her to do that,” he muttered, his voice trembling.
Even he knew that his cheeks were burning red, and there was no way he could deny that he probably looked like a blithering idiot in his excitement. He couldn’t deny how much it made him feel better, either. His racing heart was so loud that it was almost too much to bear. Alisa had accepted him and his revolting jealousy—which even he was disgusted by. Moreover…
“…!! Gyaaaahhh!!”
Touching his cheek reminded Masachika of the sensation, causing him to uncontrollably writhe as he twisted his body violently and ground his forehead into the wall. That was when he could suddenly hear voices coming from the bottom of the staircase, which instantly brought him back to his senses.
“Ngh…”
After standing back up in a fluster, he brushed his pants off, then escaped straight into a nearby restroom, where he spent the next few minutes cooling off. When he finally managed to calm down somewhat, he awkwardly tottered back to the music room.
“Oh, you’re back.”
Masachika tilted his head, wondering why Takeshi made it sound like they were waiting for him.
“…Did something happen?”
“Not exactly. We were just talking about calling one another by our nicknames or preferred names from now on. You know, make things more casual and act more like friends.”
“Oh… Yeah. Why not?” Masachika nodded, making sure to show no signs of his heart rate increasing. Immediately, Takeshi’s face lit up with a beaming smile.
“Right?! It makes us really feel like a band!”
Masachika couldn’t help but wryly smirk back at his friend’s innocence, but Hikaru soon chimed in as well.
“That includes you, Masachika.”
“Huh?”
“What do you mean, ‘huh’? You’re part of Fortitude, too, right?”
Hikaru’s comment caught Masachika off guard for a moment until he was finally able to process what was said, and he laughed nervously.
“Yeah… I am.”
He then casually glanced at Alisa, who shrugged back so subtly at him that only he would notice. It was that gesture and what she said to him earlier that finally put him at ease.
Yeah… What was I so jealous about?
He instantly felt embarrassed for having such negative feelings toward these incredible friends. As if to shake off the embarrassment, he faced Sayaka and Nonoa next.
“So, uh… Are you two fine if I start acting more friendly with you, too?”
“Sure…”
“Yeah. Whatever.”
For Masachika, this moment was almost bittersweet. Never had he imagined that one day he would become this close to former rivals he used to work with in the student council, and before he even realized it, the dark feelings burning inside him were gone.
“Mmm… So, Masachika… Buddy?”
“Uh… Sure?”
“…No, that sounds weird.”
“Ha-ha-ha! Yeah, I know what you mean. We spent so much time together in middle school that it feels kind of weird that we’re just now trying to get to know each other better.”
That was when he started to feel extremely hot again for some reason.
What the…? Is it just me, or is it getting hot in here?
A cold sweat slowly dripped down his back while he shifted his gaze in Alisa’s direction…and he noticed her chilling glare. However…
Hold up… This might be my chance to get back at her.
Memories of being at her mercy earlier tickled his mischievous heart. It made him move toward Alisa’s side, where he softly whispered so that only she could hear:
“Wait… Don’t tell me you’re jealous?”
Alisa immediately averted her gaze in utter embarrassment—
“Shut up.”
—or at least, that was how Masachika imagined she would act, but her reaction ended up being far nastier than he could have ever imagined.
“Ouch. Harsh.”
In the end, his plan backfired and broke nobody’s heart but his own.
“Really? I’m glad to hear everything is going smoothly.”
Yuushou was standing in a room in a high-rise apartment with a smartphone in hand.
“Yes, I am sure a few people will get injured…but it would be pointless otherwise, right?”
His casually wicked comment was met by backlash from whomever he was speaking to on the phone, but Yuushou didn’t care a single bit, and the corner of his lips curled upward.
“Don’t tell me you’re planning on backing out now. If you quit, then your dear vice president will… I don’t need to continue, do I?”
Yuushou’s beautiful face twisted maliciously while he cackled as if he were laughing at all the fools beneath him. And yet there was a hint of kindness in his voice as well when he sweetly whispered like a demon luring someone onto a dark path…
“I’m counting on you to follow through with the plan…Mr. President.”
The ulterior motives of countless people intertwined as the week went by…until the day of the school festival finally arrived.
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