Act 10: Scene 4

"I regret this... so much."

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka only had a blank look on his face as he and his female classmates walked through the mall in search of the brand-new ice cream parlor that opened recently. See, his face wouldn't give off the impression that he's done with life if it wasn't for Suzune and Kikyo.

What were those doing?

Well, both girls were holding on to each of his wrists. Now, while this was a pretty normal occurrence for him since they do this every time they head to school in the morning, he tolerated it because it was early in the day and there weren't many people around yet during this time.

Right now, though?

They were literally in a public place where people could see them, and it's during the time of the day where it was filled with many people. In conclusion, these two girls were unknowingly causing a scene, but he doubted that they even cared in the slightest.

Honestly, the only saving grace was that their arms weren't linked with his as if he was in a relationship with the two of them, which would make things infinitely worse. The last thing he wanted was for someone to spread a rumor around the school about him being a shameless playboy who's out to seduce every girl around here.

Of course, this was only a mere scratch on the surface, though... because it wasn't just the three of them. There were two other girls who were following closely behind them and through the corner of his eye, he was able to get a good look at their expressions.

Airi was the same as always, too shy to even think of doing anything else. Although every few seconds, she would glance at his hand for some reason, and then look away with a blush on her face. On the other hand, Kei's eyes darted solely towards Suzune's hand that was holding on to his wrist.

He couldn't tell what was on her mind right now, but it's clear that it wasn't filled with happy thoughts.

"Karuizawa-san," said Horikita, speaking for the first time since the group left their classroom. "Would you mind enlightening me a bit? How did you find the examination? Was it easy? Challenging?"

"Why do you want to find out?" asked Karuizawa as she tried, but failed to hide the growing jealousy in her tone. It didn't help that she was sending a little glare at how Horikita and Kushida were grabbing his arms as if it didn't mean anything.

"Karuizawa's not bothering to hide how jealous she is, huh?" Kiyotaka thought as he easily noticed the passive-aggressive tone that she used.

On the other hand, Suzune was oblivious to the strange edge in her tone. "As a tutor like Ayanokouji-kun, I wish to know if you were able to handle the exams with any sort of difficulty."

"It was fine, I guess. I didn't really have a hard time," she replied, still keeping her attention towards the other girl's hand and where it was placed.

Suzune nodded in acknowledgement. "What about you, Sakura-san?" she asked, turning her attention to the redhead who jumped in surprise at being called.

"Uhm... u-uh... i-i-it was... uhm... i-i-it was o-okay, I... I guess..."

Kiyotaka was surprised that Airi answered right away, even though she was stuttering the whole time. He initially thought that he would have to make the save for her and answer Suzune's question in her stead, but it looked like there was no need for him to do so.

"I see. Thank you for your answer," Suzune gave a satisfied nod despite Airi's near-incoherent words.

Okay, it seems like nothing bad is going to happen on Suzune's end, so Kiyotaka shifted his attention to the other girl.

What met him was the sight of Kikyo giving him an eerie smile, one that looked cute and innocent on the outside, but actually translated to anger and annoyance on the inside. It's no question that this girl could explode at any moment due to jealousy. He was only lucky that they were in a public place so Kikyo can't reveal herself.

"These four girls being in the same place with me at the same time is definitely bad news..." he said to himself. "Best to get this over with as soon as possible. Buy ice cream, give it to the two girls behind me, then leave the place and head back to the dorms."

As soon as they reached the ice cream shop, he separated from the two girls who were grabbing on to him before asking Kei and Airi what flavor they would like. The blonde gyaru chose rocky road as her flavor, while the redhead opted for the green tea option. With that, he stood at the back of the line at the counter and waited for his turn, with Suzune and Kikyo right behind him.

After buying three cups of the frozen treat, Kiyotaka chose to wait for his two other classmates to be done claiming their orders before walking out. He had chosen the mint chocolate chip option for himself, Kikyo chose the butterscotch flavor, while Suzune went with cookies and cream.

Kei and Airi waved to them. She and her red-haired friend were standing just outside of the spa/massage parlor, seemingly observing what was going on inside. The trio of students walked towards them as Kiyotaka called out their names.

"Here you go," he handed Karuizawa her cup of ice cream from the plastic bag that he was carrying.

"Thanks. I really appreciate this," the blonde flashed him a cute smile but before she touched the cup, she raised an eyebrow at him. "It's your treat, just to be sure?"

"I already paid for it," he assured her. With that, Kei smiled at him again before taking the cup and digging in. He then turned towards Airi next, "This is a reward for your efforts, Sakura. Keep it up."

The girl kept her head low in order to hide her flustered look, but nodded nonetheless. Upon taking her cup of ice cream, Airi felt the need to verbally thank Kiyotaka for doing something like this, even though she personally felt that she didn't deserve it. However, she couldn't get herself to open her mouth and say something, and she hated herself for it.

With his little quest done, Kiyotaka was able to heave a sigh of relief as he began to eat his own share. That didn't take longer than what he feared, and now the only thing left for him to do was to get home to his room and retire for the day. He was also very fortunate that nothing bad happened that involved his heroines, even though he could literally feel the jealousy that emanated from Kikyo and Kei...

"Let's head back already. There's nothing else for us to do here," he told his female classmates who all nodded in agreement. "Okay, that's done. Now to get home to—"

"Fufufu, I never thought it would take this long for us to meet again... even though we only live across one another~"

It was only through sheer force of will that Kiyotaka didn't throw his ice cream to the floor out of frustration. Well, that and he didn't want to waste a perfectly good ice cream cup that he bought with his own points.

"...if I run away now, I can make it to my dorm and lock the door until the next day arrives..." he thought to himself as he felt the growing desire to make a run for it, but his legs refused to move.

He and his heroines turned around to see who it was, and Kiyotaka wasn't surprised to find a certain lilac-haired student grabbing a walking stick standing in front of them.

Sakayanagi Arisu had her usual smug expression as she focused her gaze solely towards the 'Masterpiece'.

"It's nice to meet you again, Ayanokouji-kun. You know, after our first meeting, I was afraid that we would never get to meet again."

His classmates looked at both him and this new girl repeatedly, taking in the fact that they knew each other. No, it's not even that... it felt like this girl knew him on a deeper level, and it was something that bothered Horikita, Kushida, and Karuizawa.

Just who was this anyway?