Act 13: Scene 2

"NO! WAY!"

"Oh my..."

"You've gotta be kidding me..."

"He actually got Kushida-san to fall for him?"

"I mean, he does spend a lot of time with her and Horikita-san."

"It still feels surprising that Kushida-san likes him! I always felt like she's the type of girl who only wants to be friends and nothing more."

Kikyo took initiative in their kiss despite being inexperienced, moving her lips around like she was supposed to. She even moaned in his mouth, a clear sign that she was enjoying it. Compared to Chiaki's passionate kiss and Arisu's hungry liplock, Kikyo was more possessive, like she was a cat that was marking its territory.

Kiyotaka didn't do anything to stop her but he made no effort to return the kiss either, because he didn't want their classmates to have a front-row viewing of a possible makeout session. He would, however, admit to himself that being kissed by Kikyo wasn't bad and it was enjoyable... just like Chiaki and Arisu.

Kikyo continued the kiss for about twenty seconds before finally pulling away. For a brief moment, she dropped her mask in order to give Kiyotaka a sultry wink, something that made him blush momentarily before shaking it off.

[You have gained 20 Affection Points with Kushida Kikyo!]

And with that, Kikyo stepped back and faced everyone else, her usual smile present on her face but not saying anything more.

"Does this mean you are dating Ayanokouji-kun, Kushida-san?" asked Yosuke as everyone in the room looked towards the beige-haired girl for a confirmation of sorts.

"Hmmmm~ who knows?" she said innocently, taking a step back and putting on a thoughtful look which didn't do anything to calm anyone down.

"EEEHHHHHH?!" was the collective reply from their classmates. That wasn't a confirmation but it sure as hell wasn't denial, either.

Suzune watched the interaction that happened with eyes of interest and a bit of longing. It bothered her to see Matsushita and Sakayanagi kissing Kiyotaka a few weeks ago at the bathhouse and she knew it, but she didn't exactly know why. And now it felt the same with Kikyo, but on a different scale because she was her friend and Kiyotaka was... someone important to her.

"Do I... want to do the same thing as Kushida-san? And everyone else?" the girl thought to herself with a conflicted expression.

On the other side of things, everyone else had varying reactions to what just transpired. Most of the girls were already gossiping about the possible relationship between Kushida and Ayanokouji, particularly how it could have blossomed. The rest of them were too taken aback to say anything but they were of one thing: there's more to this issue than meets the eye.

The boys were a different story, with some of them kneeling over in despair at seeing Kushida kissing another man and the rest. However, there were also a few of them who had different reactions from everyone else.

Koenji only threw a little glance at what was happening, yet it was enough to make him smirk in amusement. Sudo grinned; the red-haired teen was surprised like everyone else, but now he could have an edge over Ayanokouji by teasing him about this. It did make him wonder what Ayanokouji's relationship with Horikita was, though... because it seemed like those two were closer than Kushida.

Yamauchi had the most prominent reaction, as he felt his soul shattering into a million pieces from seeing Ayanokouji scoring big with a cutie like Kushida.

It was supposed to be him! He should be the one who's kissing Kushida-chan, not that bastard Ayanokouji!

"Ike! You're not gonna react to this? He just kissed Kushida-chan!" he barked at his partner-in-degeneracy as anger slowly began to grow within him.

To Yamauchi's surprise, Ike only let out a sigh and shrugged his shoulders. It's as if all the life had been sucked out of him.

"I'm not really surprised. Even someone like me could see how Kushida-chan was close to him. That just confirmed it."

Yamauchi looked horrified. He felt like he had lost a valuable ally. "What, so you're just going to give up like that?! We can still get Kushida-chan back if we try!"

"Dude, I know the moment I lose. I'm not gonna chase an impossible dream," Ike shook his head and tore his gaze away from Kushida. He may be giving up on the girl, but it hurts him to even look at her right now.

"Oi, dumbass."

The boy quickly turned to the side, where he saw Sudo standing there with a menacing look on his face.

Ike was already shaking in fear of what Sudo could be thinking at the moment. "W-What do you want?" he stuttered.

"Don't think I haven't forgotten that bet we made after our first month here," Ken grinned madly.

"NO, I WAS HOPING YOU FORGOT ABOUT THAT!" Ike shouted, horrified.

He thought he lucked out when their midterm results were announced. Ike immediately saw that Sudo got a higher overall score than him and feared that the red-haired athlete would bring up the bet they had weeks before but to his surprise, his classmate never said anything. It's like Sudo was too focused on his massive improvement to even remember the wager they had, and Ike felt grateful for it.

Until now, of course.

Ken smirked. "I never forgot about it. I just wanted to make it seem like I did to give you false hope."

"C-Come on, Sudo-kun..." Ike said nervously, raising his hands in defeat. "We're friends, aren't we? Let's just call the bet off and move on from it!"

"You better send me a photo of those burning magazines, or you won't like what's going to happen."

Ike immediately assumed a dogeza position on the floor and started begging for forgiveness. "Have mercy on me, Sudo-sama! Don't make me do it!" he cried.

Ken only let out a laugh before returning to his seat, ignoring the wailing boy who was pleading for mercy.

"Seems like you got what you deserved, huh?" Shinohara commented with a smirk of her own, feeling great satisfaction at seeing her neighbor experience some well-deserved karma for his stupidity.

She'll make sure to watch him burn those porn magazines that he had just for the fun of it.

While everyone else was more or less losing their minds from seeing the cutest girl in class give the resident loner a full-on kiss on the lips, Kiyotaka shifted his attention to the girl who just made things even more complicated for him.

"Why did you do that?" he deadpanned.

"I just wanted to," she smiled innocently.

"You gave them the wrong idea."

Kikyo smirked at him. "Maybe it wouldn't be wrong if we went out for real."

Kiyotaka tried to say something in return, but stopped himself. She definitely had a good point about a kiss not pointing to the wrong sign if they were just dating. However, again, he had to consider all of his other heroines too and not just Kikyo. She may not like it, but it's what he has to do.

"Hold it right there," a voice said from behind them, causing the two to turn their heads towards the girl who spoke.

Matsushita Chiaki stood there with a blank look on her face, as everyone else turned their attention to her this time. No one could tell what she had in mind but it was different for Kikyo and Kiyotaka. They could already tell that the brunette had something mischievous up her sleeve.

A smirk then took over her features. "Maybe I have to remind you who Ayanokouji-kun's first kiss was, Kushida-san~"

Clenching her fists, Kikyo felt the sudden desire to bash this girl's face with a rock, as their classmates began whispering about what Chiaki just revealed.

Like with Kushida, the young man did nothing to stop Matsushita from approaching him while she kept her eyes on him the whole time. By now, he had learned to simply let things run their natural course instead of trying to stop it.

As a wise tortoise once said, "One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it."

He wasn't surprised when the girl leaned down and kissed him on the lips as well, but it did not mean that he didn't like it. Kissing Chiaki again felt just as good as the first time.

[You have gained 10 Affection Points with Matsushita Chiaki!]

The girl ended the kiss after a few seconds of enjoying it. Kiyotaka didn't bother scolding her or anything, because Kikyo already caused everything to fall apart. Chiaki did end up making it worse though, and it was evident from the new reactions on everyone's faces.

Oh, he could already tell that the whole school will know about this. He'll have to start preparing for that outcome starting now.

"E-Even... Matsushita-san..."

"T-Two... he's got two girls falling for him..."

"How... How does that guy do it...?"

Unfortunately for them, their jaws would reach past the floor and likely end up going underground when Karuizawa suddenly spoke.

"Oh no, you don't!" she cried.

The girl had been watching ever since Kushida kissed him and seeing that made her jealous. It became worse when Matsushita went ahead and kissed Ayanokouji for the second time, which was when she realized that she did not want to be left behind anymore.

Consequences be damned! She may not be successful in making Kiyotaka her fake boyfriend, but being her real one? That's one thing that she won't let anyone else have, not Kushida, Matsushita, or Sakayanagi, or any other girl.

"I'm not being left out this time!"

With that declaration, Kei rushed towards Kiyotaka and closed the distance between their lips. For a few moments, she stayed like that because Kei had no idea what to do and only moved when Kiyotaka did it first. He brushed his lips against hers, taking initiative and prompting Kei to do the same. After a few seconds of teaching the blonde girl how to properly 'kiss', she started doing it on her own.

The brown-haired teen was actually surprised that she gave him her first kiss, not that he did not see it coming, but it was just unlike her to do such a bold thing in front of the whole class. Then again, it may likely be the system's influence again.

A few more seconds passed, and Kei finally separated from him. "Y-You... You better take responsibility, alright...?!" she pouted while blushing, trying to hide her embarrassment from kissing him in front of other people as well as to mask how she felt about the kiss they shared... which was heavenly.

[You have gained 25 Affection Points with Karuizawa Kei!]

"I guess..." he muttered, knowing that the girl will only get angrier if he doesn't say anything. "Will the headaches today ever end...?"

Kikyo glared at Kei, while Chiaki merely smirked. This was the second time she had kissed Kiyotaka, so she knew damn well that she was in the lead ahead of everyone else. In Suzune's case, she turned her head away from the scene with a conflicted look on her face, but it's clear that she was thinking deeply about something.

For everyone else, it took them about ten seconds to finally snap out of their trance and react properly to what happened.

"K-K-Karuizawa-san..." Airi mumbled, feeling both shocked and sad that not only her friend, but three other girls all had their eyes on Kiyotaka.

"He's got three girls after him..." said Hasebe, feeling half-interested and half-hesitant about knowing more regarding Ayanokouji and how this all came to be.

"I want to be like him for real!" Okitani grinned, feeling envious of Kiyotaka's insane luck with the opposite sex but also felt motivated to be the same as him.

"He legit has a harem! I knew he was the protagonist from the start!" said Sotomura, pushing up his glasses as light shone on them as if he was an anime genius.

Amongst all of them, Yamauchi once again had the most noticeable reaction, standing up from his seat and stomping over towards Kiyotaka's desk.

"That's it! I want answers!" he shouted, pointing at Kiyotaka in an accusing manner. "Since when were you that close with the girls, Ayanokouji?! I've seen you talk with them but I've never seen you do anything! What the hell's your secret, you bastard?! How do you keep on attracting these beautiful girls?!"

"Yamauchi-kun?"

"Yes, Kushida-chan?!" Yamauchi quickly turned towards the girl, dropping his anger completely just from Kikyo paying attention to him. "Have you finally realized how I'm better than him? Don't worry, don't worry, I'll forgive you. I'm not someone who'll get angry at a girl for making a little mistake, hehe..."

The boy waited for Kikyo to apologize for choosing Kiyotaka, who was completely lame compared to his totally awesome self, but never received anything. All he got was a cold aura from the girl that was anything but friendly.

"If you talk like that to Ayanokouji-kun ever again, I won't hesitate to cut them off," she then made scissor gestures with her fingers all while retaining the smile on her face.

Almost immediately, Yamauchi retreated back to his seat like a coward while covering his crotch out of shame and fear, especially fear. He felt like his pride as both a student and a man had been shattered completely.

Nobody felt bad for Yamauchi Haruki... at all.