Act 18: Scene 7

After a short trip with Haruka around the campus, Kiyotaka ventured to the place where he would meet Honami. She had sent him the location several hours ago and he told her that he would be there once the school day is done.

First, he told Haruka that he wouldn't be able to accompany her for the whole afternoon because someone was asking him to lend a hand with a personal matter. Thankfully, the blue-haired girl understood his stance and chose to end their search early. Even though there were only three days left (including today) before Akito's hearing and they haven't made any significant progress, she was still optimistic that they would be able to prove her friend's innocence.

The meeting place was behind the school building, near the gymnasium. It was a pretty isolated area and there weren't any people around. Whether it's because the sun was starting to go down or it's simply not a place where students liked to hang out, this was an ideal place for two people to be alone.

"Ah. Ayanokouji-kun. Over here, over here!"

While standing by a bench and keeping an eye out for the leader of Class B, Kiyotaka then heard her voice calling out to him. Upon turning his head, he saw her gesturing for him to go to where she was, hidden in the massive shadow of the school building. It's like

He immediately went over and waved his arm in greeting. "Good afternoon, Ichinose. What do you need help with?" I asked.

Honami looked around for any potential witnesses, before taking a deep breath to steel herself. Like earlier, she looked nervous and desperate for help.

"I think... someone will confess their feelings to me here," she told him.

He was right. Someone was planning to confess to his heroine. That won't happen while he was here, though.

"Are you sure?"

With that, the girl took out a letter and showed it to him. It seemed to be love letter because of the heart sticker that was on it.

"You want me to read this?" he asked in confusion. Although he had every intention of not letting this confession come to pass, Kiyotaka still felt that it was rude to look at something that wasn't intended for him.

Honami only nodded, and that was enough for him to go ahead and read the contents of the letter despite his qualms about it.

The first thing he noticed was that the handwriting was pretty, much like the letter's exterior. It was also cute, definitely not like a boy's, but who knows? Maybe the one who wrote this took his time and made sure to give Ichinose the best love letter he could come up with.

The next thing that he noticed was the meeting time and location that was written in the letter. It was set for Friday evening at 6:00 PM, behind the school building. That was about 10 minutes from now, upon checking the time on his phone.

"So why am I here? If anything, this is between you l" Kiyotaka asked, wondering what she even wanted from him in the first place. It couldn't have been to seek his help in rejecting this person, right? Ichinose doesn't seem like the type of person to do that, even if he wanted that to happen.

Honami looked down, hiding her face from him. "Love is kind of alien to me. I don't really know how to respond without hurting her feelings. I also don't know if we can stay good friends afterwards. I need your help, Ayanokouji-kun."

"'Her'? Wait a minute, the person confessing to her is a girl?" Kiyotaka thought to himself in confusion and surprise. "And how is it alien to her? I'm pretty sure she avoided me for two weeks because of what she feels towards me... or is it purely because she was embarrassed that I washed her back?"

Was this girl actually dense towards romance as a whole? For someone who's as beautiful as her, it sounded completely ridiculous.

Kiyotaka shook his head. "I don't really think I'm the right person you should ask for this. There are probably other people in your class who could help."

"The person confessing her feelings to me is from my class," Ichinose informed him. "And you're the only one I can turn to for this, Ayanokouji-kun. Three of your classmates have confessed to you, right? You've already gone through this before."

"Ichinose, that may have happened, but I haven't answered any of them. You have to deal with this on your own because I can't help you. And why are you even asking me in the first place? If anything, you must have done this before, dealing with people confessing to you."

Honami looked up at him, flabbergasted at that assumption. "Huh?! N-No way. Not at all! I've never experienced this before!"

"She has to be kidding. How has she not been confessed to before?" he asked himself.

With how beautiful she is and how much of a popular figure she is around her and possibly her old school as well, it wouldn't be surprising for her to have gone through a confession in the past. If anything, it's surprising that no one has confessed to her yet. Maybe no one just had the balls to do so?

Honestly, if Honami hadn't told him herself, then he never would have believed it.

The pink-haired girl shook her head, unable to wrap her head around this whole thing. "I really don't understand why this is happening, really."

"Even so, I don't know what I can do to help you, Ichinose. I'm just as clueless in this area as you are," he shrugged.

"I understand that you don't know what I should do to turn down my friend without hurting her, so I've settled on the other idea I had," she looked up at him again, a cute blush adorning her cheeks. "Will you please pretend to be my boyfriend?"

That made his eyes widen for a brief moment, before they immediately went back to normal. Did he really just hear her say that?

"Where did this come from?" he asked, utterly confused with what the girl was planning.

"I did a bit of research earlier, and I discovered that the rejected person hurts less if the object of their affection is already in a relationship..."

With that explanation, things started to click in the young man's mind.

And he had to say, he wasn't a fan of her solution.

At all.

As if a lie can actually make things better. Utterly ridiculous!

Was he really hearing this from Ichinose Honami, who was one of the kindest people he knew in this school?

"Okay, I understand that you don't want to hurt your classmate, but won't it be worse if they find out you lied?" he asked in a subtle attempt to make the pinkette think twice about what she was planning.

Ichinose registered that question for a moment, before coming up with the quickest answer she could think of. "I could say that you and I broke up, or that you left me or something."

"Are you hearing yourself, Ichinose?" he asked in his mind, almost refusing to believe that the good-hearted Honami would even think of doing such a thing.

Did she turn her brain off or something?

"If you want my honest opinion, I think it would be much better for you to talk with this person yourself. Tell her the truth. I'm not going along with your plan at all," he told her firmly, deciding to be straightforward this time.

"But— ah!"

Honami tried to say something as a response, only to stop when she seemed to have noticed something behind her companion. Kiyotaka frowned slightly and turned around, coming face-to-face with the person whom Honami was supposed to meet with.

Kiyotaka could give her credit, she's pretty beautiful herself. And yes, she was definitely a girl, but one could easily mistake her for being a boy if they had watched too many anime with crossdressers and feminine-looking guys. No, this was a girl, and her handwriting made it obvious. That love letter she wrote was cute and full of effort, he could admit that at least.

Still... to think that a girl would be the first person to actually confess to Honami... shame on the male population for not having big enough balls.

"Um, Ichinose-san... who is this person?" the girl asked, a bit unnerved by the unexpected appearance of a male student at their meeting place.

Being left with no choice, Honami forced herself to look composed before gesturing towards the brown-haired teen. "This is Ayanokouji-kun, from Class D. I'm sorry for bringing someone that you don't know, Chihiro-san."

"Is he by any chance... your boyfriend, Ichinose-san?"

"Ah... well..."

Surprisingly, Honami didn't answer right away. She was probably thinking of saying yes, but it seems that the thought of lying to one of her friends was eating away at her conscience. The words that she wanted to let out got stuck in her throat.

"So why is this Ayanokouji-kun person here?"

Confused by this unexpected situation and unable to think clearly, tears began welling in Chihiro's eyes. After looking at shifting her gaze alternately between the two people before her, she looked down on the ground and began to cry.

This boy must be Ichinose's boyfriend, huh? Why would he be here if he wasn't? Chihiro already had a feeling that the answer she would receive from her classmate wouldn't be a positive one, but to see her being with another person this whole time... it was a whole new level of hurt.

Honami, seeing Chihiro's tears, grew flustered. Uncertain of what to do, she started to panic. Her body turned towards every direction, as though she was looking for a possible solution somewhere.

"Even after all the times that I've inadvertently flirted with her because of the , she has no idea what to do in a time like this," Kiyotaka thought while he watched the two girls who were completely different in their thought processes. "Either Ichinose thinks I was only teasing her during all those times, or she actually knew that I was flirting with her but was never serious about it. Or perhaps she doesn't feel comfortable with

The young man couldn't help but sigh. This little meeting had turned out to be a disaster for both parties involved.

Yeah, he had every intention of putting a nail in the coffin of a confession but after knowing what Honami had in mind to put a stop to it herself, Kiyotaka couldn't help but feel bad for Chihiro.

Honami could easily end this on her own by turning her classmate down in the most gentle of ways, but the fear of hurting her friend had somehow twisted her mind into thinking that establishing a fake relationship was the answer.

To put it simply, this girl doesn't deserve to be lied to.

"Um, do you mind going somewhere else, please? I have something important that I need to talk with Ichinose-san about," Chihiro told Kiyotaka after calming down from her moment of sadness.

"P-Please wait a minute, Chihiro-san. That's, um... Well, to tell you the truth, Ayanokouji-kun is..." Ichinose tried to make the first move and turn her down now, having a feeling that this would be way harder if Chihiro finishes her confession first..

"He"s ?" Chihiro asked.

"About Ayanokouji-kun, he's... well, he's my—"

Refusing to play any part in this farce, Kiyotaka quickly spoke up and faced Chihiro with an impassive look.

"I'm just Ichinose's friend."

Chihiro's eyes widened as she turned towards the young man. Meanwhile, Honami was in disbelief. Was he really going to tell Chihiro everything just like that?!

"Ichinose. I came here with the intention of helping you, but I see now that I was wrong to even be here. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to be part of something that will only hurt your own friend in the end."

After hearing his reason, Honami looked disappointed, but she knew she couldn't really blame him. Even though she was aware that the outcome of her plan would be cruel towards Chihiro, she still wanted to proceed with it. It was the only solution she could come up with in so little time.

"What's going on...?" Chihiro asked, completely clueless on what was happening.

"Confessing your feelings isn't easy to do, Ichinose. You spend every day in complete anguish, thinking about the perfect scenario to convey what you feel in your head over and over. And yet, you still can't confess your feelings. Even when you think the time has come to actually do it, you can't say the three words that you've longed to say. They get stuck in your throat. That's what I think," Kiyotaka explained. "Don't you think you should answer someone properly when they have worked so hard to muster up the courage needed to tell you what they feel? If you make the situation unclear, both of you will only regret it later."

"I..." she tried to speak, but couldn't get anything out of her mouth at all. She had nothing to say, because there was nothing to defend.

Yeah, he could definitely see why this girl tried to resort to doing this. As hard as it is to believe, Ichinose had no clear idea what it's like to develop romantic feelings for a person and therefore, she didn't really know what to do, or if she was doing something wrong. It was ironic, considering someone like Horikita was aware of romance and one's own feelings for another person.

Trying to prevent someone's pain was useless. Turning someone down will always result in their feelings being hurt, no matter what.

Even with an excuse like focusing on studies or liking someone else or, like what Ichinose had attempted to do, which was being in a relationship with someone already, the other person would definitely be hurt.

More so if the excuse was built on a lie, something that Honami failed to realize.

Having said what he needed to say to the pink-haired girl, he turned his attention towards the other person who was with them. Chihiro watched them the whole time, but she couldn't really understand any of it. What were they talking about, anyway?

"Chihiro, right? Forgive me for using your first name, but I have no other way of referring to you," he spoke while bowing his head slightly. "Ichinose wanted me to come here because she wanted to ask if I could pretend to be her boyfriend, because she thought it wouldn't hurt you as much if you saw that she was already in a relationship."

Chihiro almost felt her heart stop upon hearing that last statement. "W-What...?"

"Wait, Ayanokouji—"

Honami tried to stop him from driving the nail in the coffin even further, but one serious glance from him made her stop right away.

"I'm sorry, Ichinose. What you did was wrong. And if you can't own up to your mistake and admit the truth, I'll do it."

Once again, Honami tried to get something out of her mouth to explain what she actually wanted to do, but she didn't know what to say at all. And so, with a heavy heart, she opted to keep her head down and face whatever consequence that was heading her way.

"I shouldn't have been here in the first place, Chihiro. For that, I'm sorry. Because of my presence, I ruined your plan to confess what you felt for Ichinose here," he scratched his neck, feeling a bit unsure of what he should say next. "If you want, I can leave and you can continue with what you were supposed to do."

However, it seemed like Chihiro wasn't listening to him anymore. It's like she had stopped listening to everything that was around her after she heard from Ayanokouji that Ichinose tried to ask him to pretend to be her boyfriend so that she wouldn't be hurt as much by a flat-out rejection.

The worst part about it... was that Ichinose didn't deny it. All she did was try to stop Ayanokouji from getting it out in the open.

"I-Is this how low you think of me, Ichinose-san...?" the girl muttered after what felt like an eternity of silence, her voice laced with hurt and betrayal. Chihiro felt as if her heart had been shattered into a million pieces. "You thought I would be hurt too much by a rejection that you thought it would be better to pretend you're in a relationship?"

Hearing those words, Honami looked up to tell her friend what she was trying to do and maybe explain that she didn't intend for things to be this way, only to be horrified at Chihiro's crying face. It was not only because of heartbreak, though. Through her eyes alone, there was the feeling of betrayal and agony from what she just learned.

"N-No, Chihiro-san, that's not what I think—"

But the person whom that apology was for was already gone.

With tears in her eyes, Chihiro turned away and ran off to who-knows-where, not wanting to stay there any longer. Seeing her leave, Honami's first instinct was to chase after her and apologize, but Kiyotaka grabbed her shoulder before she could go anywhere.

Just as she was about to tell him to let go, Kiyotaka stopped her from doing so with his next words. "I think it would be better if you leave her alone for a bit, Ichinose. I may not be as much of a sociable person like you, but I know that you're the last person she wants to see right now."

"You're right..." she murmured, a look of devastation evident on her face. All she wanted was to turn down her friend without hurting her too much, and it somehow spiraled into this disaster. Honami knew that she had no one to blame for this but herself "This is my fault."

"Don't worry, I'll look for her. Maybe try to talk some sense into her too."

A few tears escaped Honami's eyes, unable to keep herself together knowing that she caused her own friend's misery. The moment he saw those tears, his own eyes widened in shock.

"Please find Chihiro-san, Ayanokouji-kun. I... I have to apologize for hurting her."

['To Protect Her Smile' has been Activated!]