Act 14: Scene 3

"Ayanokouji! What the hell was with that girl last Friday?!"

Rolling his eyes to himself, Kiyotaka turned his head to see that his least favorite classmate was stomping over towards him with a look of anger and pure jealousy on his face.

If Kiyotaka was an impatient man, Yamauchi would have had his face caved in long ago.

"Girl? You're gonna have to be specific, Yamauchi," Kiyotaka replied in the calmest tone that he could muster at the moment.

"Don't play dumb with me! I'm talking about that cute girl who hugged you last week! There! By the door!" he yelled, pointing towards Amasawa before donning a look of confusion. "What was her name again?"

A heavy fist then came to smack Yamauchi in the head, causing a massive bump to appear and causing the poor guy to begin nursing his little injury while letting out a few tears of pain.

"Her name's Amasawa, dumbass. You can't even remember a girl's name because your attention changes almost every second," Sudo scowled at him dangerously.

Kiyotaka turned his attention to his red-haired friend. "Is there something you need from me, Sudo?" he asked, wondering if their resident basketball player was just here to save him from Yamauchi... or was he here for something else?

Sudo immediately turned his attention to his friend. "Ah, I just wanted to ask you something, man."

"I wonder what it could be..." Kiyotaka thought to himself sarcastically. "What is it, then?"

"Are you really not dating one of those three girls? I was really surprised when Kushida kissed you, but then those other two girls did the same. And I don't know, but for some reason, I really expected Horikita to do the same..." asked Ken, genuinely curious about the whole situation unlike Yamauchi who demanded answers. "I always thought you two were the closest, you know?"

Kiyotaka stared at him for a moment, before realizing that his friend was just curious and wondered if he could have an answer.

"That's because Horikita isn't like Kushida and the other girls," Kiyotaka said in his thoughts. He honestly felt bad for her, if he had to be honest. "She only found out that it's normal for friends to hug each other a few weeks ago."

"Oh no, not Horikita too! I'll die if Ayanokouji keeps on stealing girls from us!" cried Yamauchi as he held his head in despair.

Ken sent him a look of disgust. "You're pathetic."

"At least it's just these two..." the young man sighed in relief as he stared at his two classmates.

"Ayanokouji-kun! I have a question for you!"

*THUD!*

Kiyotaka let his head hit his desk hard, knowing that yet another wave of headaches was about to take its hold on him.

"It was too good to be true..."

Several of his classmates then began to form a little crowd around him with curious looks on their faces. It's clear that the question that was in all of their minds was related to last week's events.

"Hey, no fair! I wanted to ask him first!

"Ask him later! I want to know what's his relationship with Kushida-san, Karuizawa-san, and Matsushita-san!"

"Well, I wanted to ask him about Amasawa-san! He seems close with her and they even arrived together!"

"You're forgetting about Horikita-san! He's always around her, isn't he?"

"We can just ask him together!"

"Uh, girls? I think you're making Ayanokouji-kun uncomfortable..." Hirata said as he approached the females and tried to stop them from bothering

Well, at least he was trying to play peacemaker.

Meanwhile, right next to the door, the roommate of Kiyotaka found herself surrounded by four of her senpai's classmates, and all of them didn't look like they were going to introduce themselves or anything.

In fact, they didn't look happy at all. Kushida, Horikita, Matsushita, and Karuizawa all looked pretty serious about something, and the scarlet-haired girl knew exactly what it was. She hid her knowledge behind an innocent-looking smile, of course.

After all, she knew exactly how her actions from last week affected these girls.

"Is there something you need from me, senpais?" she asked, feigning innocence.

Suzune was the first to speak, putting on her usual cold expression. "Nothing big. We simply have some questions that we want you to answer, Amasawa-san."

Ichika smiled and bowed her head politely. "Then by all means, ask away, senpais. We don't have much time until sensei arrives, do we?"

Kei didn't waste any time and decided to go straight to the point. "What's your relationship with Kiyotaka?!" she asked, sending a fierce glare towards Ichika.

Despite being entirely on the same side, the girl's classmates can't help but look at the blonde girl in complete surprise. Did she really just refer to Ayanokouji using his first name...?

"Wow, Karuizawa-senpai. I didn't know you call senpai by his name now~" Ichika teased.

Kei continued to glare at the younger girl. "How I call him is none of your business. Now answer me!"

"My relationship with senpai?" Ichika mused as she thought of what to say to them. "Well, you can say that I know him very well... but what happened last Friday, that was actually the first time I've met him."

"First time you met him?" the blonde asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion. "What, does that mean you've just been following him around?"

"Hmm... I guess you can say that? I've only heard of him at first, but it developed into an interest that only grew bigger as I learned more about senpai. I was really pleased when I got sent to this school, because I heard it's where senpai is! I'm happy now that I'm finally here and that I got to meet senpai for myself."

"What exactly do you know about Ayanokouji-kun?"

"Ah, ah, ah, Horikita-senpai~" Ichika wiggled her finger in front of Suzune. "What I know about senpai is strictly confidential. If you want to know more about him, then you'll have to ask him yourself."

"I have a question for you, Amasawa-san. If you don't mind?" asked Kushida, a blank look present on her face.

If she had to be honest, Kikyo wanted nothing more than to grab the younger girl by the hair right now and demand answers regarding her connection to Kiyotaka, but still remained calm... at least as calm as she can be. It was taking every ounce of her to not drop her mask and lose her cool.

"What do you want to know, Kushida-senpai?"

"Why did you hug Ayanokouji-kun last week?"

"I suppose that's the only question that matters, isn't it?" Ichika remarked, earning frowns from all four girls which caused her to chuckle. "Hmm, I wonder though... is hugging my senpai a bad thing? I was just so happy about finally meeting him and I wanted to express my joy by hugging him."

"Did it really have to involve tackling Ayanokouji-kun to the ground as if you are claiming him for yourself?" asked Chiaki, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Can you really blame me for feeling happy to see him, Shameless-senpai? I was just so excited that I couldn't help myself..."

Chiaki blinked several times in confusion. "Shameless?"

"Don't think I don't know, Shameless-senpai," Ichika smirked, sending a cheeky wink towards the brunette. "I know that you were Ayanokouji-senpai's first kiss."

"W-What about it?" asked the brown-haired girl, feeling a wave of nervousness wash over her because her instincts were telling her that this girl was bad news...

"I also know how you kissed him the first time~ I have to say, just thinking about it makes me really envious of you because I want to do something like it!"

Chiaki was unable to prevent a blush from taking over her features, which was something that has never happened before. She was always so calm and composed that nobody could catch her off guard but this time, Chiaki couldn't stop herself from feeling embarrassed.

She had no idea how Amasawa found out about that, but she wasn't going to comment on it... otherwise she might get caught red-handed if she slips up.

"I have no idea what you are talking about, Amasawa-san."

Ichika giggled, finding it funny how Chiaki could still deny the truth. "If you wish to keep lying to yourself, Shameless-senpai, then I won't try to convince you."

Matsushita couldn't do anything but look away, completely left silent because she didn't want to be embarrassed any more.

Kikyo clenched her fists, finding it even harder to stay calm and keep her mask up in front of this girl... she didn't know why, but Amasawa was just pissing her off with that smug look she had on her face.

"Still... you didn't have to hug him like what you did. Ayanokouji-kun was hurt when you pretty much tackled him to the floor!" Kikyo cried.

"If you were worried about that, then I apologize. I didn't mean to hurt senpai, you know~?"

Kei's frown deepened, her suspicion regarding Ichika growing more and more. "Why are you really here, huh?" she asked.

"Whatever do you mean, Karuizawa-senpai?"

"Like, why were you sent here in the first place? Why aren't you a student instead? Why do you have to be some kind of 'VIP guest' here?"

"Not even I can answer that, Karuizawa-senpai. I was just told that I'll be sent here one day and that's it. It wasn't my choice that I'm not a student here, either. The chairman and the administration makes that decision, right? I was just told that I'll be a 'guest', and nothing more."

Kei let out a "Tsk!" before looking to the side. She was completely sure that there's some kind of special reason why Amasawa was here which would explain why she was here, but she was wrong. The younger girl made some pretty good points, especially about having no knowledge regarding the reason she was here.

After all, she did arrive with the school chairman himself last week... when Chairman Sakayanagi invited Kiyotaka to his office to talk about why Amasawa knew him but then again, it was only because she apparently knew him and wanted to know why.

Of course, Amasawa could be lying about being here without any clue as to why, but Kei had no proof of that.

"Why did you walk to class with Ayanokouji-kun? It seems like your relationship with him is more than just a kouhai and senpai," asked Kikyo, finally letting go of her calm look to narrow her eyes at the younger girl.

"Oh my... I think I can see where this is going..." Ichika said in mock realization, before giggling in amusement. "You are all jealous of me, aren't you?"

Kei narrowed her eyes at Ichika as well. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You four all approached me with questions about senpai. They were all about my relationship with him and what I did last week. I think that's enough to say that you're jealous and curious about me~" Ichika continued to laugh, before shaking her head. "Don't worry, though... it's not like I'm planning to take senpai away~"

Matsushita kept her gaze elsewhere out of embarrassment, while Karuizawa and Kushida continued to glare at Amasawa. The only one who remained unphased was Horikita, who only stared at the scarlet-haired girl with her usual cold look.

"And what makes you so sure about your claim?" asked Suzune, speaking up for the first time in several minutes.

"Horikita-senpai, I know that the three girls with you have kissed Ayanokouji-senpai last week," Ichika remarked. "I saw it with my own eyes and it was amusing. I'm honestly confused why you didn't kiss him too, Horikita-senpai."

For what seemed like the first time, the expression on Suzune's face changed and was replaced with a look of uneasiness, as if she wasn't expecting such a thing to come out of Ichika's mouth.

"W-Why would I do such a thing?"

"Don't tell me you haven't realized it yourself, Horikita-senpai. It's quite obvious that you also harbor feelings for Ayanokouji-senpai."

Upon hearing that, Suzune immediately folded her arms and looked away with a blush in traditional tsundere style.

"Ridiculous. Do not assume such things, Amasawa-san. It would cause misunderstanding with other people," she huffed as Kushida, Karuizawa, and Matsushita stared at her in confusion.

"You can be as stubborn as you want, Horikita-senpai~" Ichika chuckled. "But I can see and notice things a lot better than a normal person could."

"Your words are preposterous," Suzune said stubbornly, continuing to deny Ichika's words, causing both Chiaki and Kei to send her a deadpan look.

If Kikyo had to be honest, despite hating Suzune's guts for being a thorn in her side, she couldn't help but shake her head in disappointment.

"I wonder why she's even hanging out with Ayanokouji-kun if she's like this..."

The world may never know.