Lunch Date

"Wow, this is a really nice place." As promised, Arata had joined the members of the student council for the farewell gathering of its former members. The two brothers, Rukaya and Rakuyoshi.

"Since this will be the last time we see each other." Said Misei. "I figure it's worthwhile to treat ourselves one more time." Luckily for Arata, he wasn't poor. While he may have made meager money with his odd jobs. He actually had an allowance from his parents as well.

It was just that they made it so that he couldn't use said allowance on any otaku items. So he took jobs to make money to fuel his hobby. Turns out Arata actually didn't spend all that much outside of manga, so he had quite the savings now.

"Hello, party of five?" Their waiter took them to their tables. Arata found himself sitting across from Misao, with the brothers taking up each side of him. Rukaya was on his left, right across from Misei, while Rakuyoshi was on his right. It was kind of odd to him that the brothers didn't sit besides each other.

"So, I hear that you fainted before the play." Rakuyoshi teased him. "Guess that my job's not as easy as it sounds."

"Heh, yeah." Arata returned with a nervous laugh. With the incident behind him, it was kind of embarrassing to look back on it now. Especially knowing that Akaki carried him the way he did in front of everyone.

"Nice that everything worked out though." He was given a head rubbing by the dude. The boy was acting as if they were close friends, when they hardly knew each other. "that would've been a pretty bad gift to send us off with."

"So Misao." Once Arata was free from the guy's grip, he turned to his actual friend here. "How was the show anyway? You know, since I didn't catch the entire thing."

"It was all right. Good thing the crowd enjoyed." That was a much more subdued reaction than he would've expected from her. Was there something wrong with what she saw?

"Hello, and what will we be having?" The waiter came up to them. Most of them were sure of what they wanted. However, since Arata had never eaten here. He was still confused by the choices set before him.

"How about the two of us share a kaiseki?" Misei offered him. "We can split the price." He looked at the menu to see what she was referring to. It was 5000 yen. If he was doing it by himself, it would be too much. Splitting it wasn't that bad, it would be the same as when he paid for his and Erina's dinner that one time.

"Sure. If you think it's good, then I'm sure it'll be great." He accepted her offer. What he didn't see was the glares he was catching. "I guess if we're sharing a meal, then I should switch seats with you." He pointed to Rukaya.

"Switch seats?" This guy seemed a bit concerned with the idea. That was not the response that Arata was expecting.

"Yeah?" He replied to him. "I mean, shouldn't you sit next to your brother?"

"It's not like the two of us are in elementary school…" Clearly whatever Arata said to him was enough to get him flustered.

"I'll switch with Misei then." Misao was annoyed by this interaction. Except, that still didn't feel right with Arata.

"I have a better idea." He offered, picking up his seat. Then Arata placed himself on the table side, between the two. "You can take my old spot," He pointed to Rakuyoshi. "Then we can all be a bit more closer to each other." He was very proud of himself for thinking of this arrangement, but some weren't.

And so, food eventually entered their table. Eating, chatting. It was just normal talk between friends. Well, unless you were Arata. Since the others were reminiscing on things they did together as student council members. He was lost on the details for that.

"Say this food's really good." There was one thing he felt good on discussing. What was right in front of him. It was some high quality stuff, the fancy stuff served at restaurants. "It's a shame the portions are so small. It makes it a little hard to share with you." He laughed.

"Then perhaps, you could feed her some? To make sure it's fair." Misao offered. Arata laughed at what he thought was a joke, but no one else felt it was.

"Hehe, that would be a little silly, right?" He chuckled nervously. His eyes ran across the table, like he was misreading the room somehow. "Right, Misei?" He attempted an appeal with her, but she averted her gaze away from him.

"I… wouldn't mind if you did that." She responded simply. That wasn't what he was expecting her to say to him. Doing something like that, wouldn't it be considered romantic? At least that's what he thought when he tricked Akiba to do the same with Akaki.

"Um…" He with everyone looking at him, there was an expectation to see what his answer was going to be. "I guess, if you want some…" He slowly grabbed a piece of food with his utensils. Holding a bite for her to take. Maybe this was going to be a joke across these friends. To make him uncomfortable, but it wasn't that at all.

She accepted it, opening her mouth and taking what he gave to her. This was a strange feeling, even if it was just between friends. Quickly, he retracted his chopsticks, nervously nibbling on them from this.

"Geez, that felt weird." He muttered to himself. Wait a second… He just put these in his mouth the instant he got them back. Arata shuttered from the realization of what he just did. If she just put her mouth on his chopsticks, then this was what you'd call an indirect kiss. The bigger problem was that he just put them right in his mouth as soon as she let go of them.

Very quietly, he placed his tools down. Hoping that no one noticed what just happened. Too bad they all did.

"Here, you should have this then." She took some shrimp and offered it to him. Unsteadily, he accepted her gift. Why was she acting like this? Wouldn't she rather do this with Yogi, he thought.

"That was rather delicious." He said in response to her. She did the same as him when he was finished. Putting her utensil to her lips. Seeing it like that made him realize how weird it was when he did it.

Wait… Why did she just do that? This girl was sending him a strange message. Nothing made sense to him, the boy she loved was Yogi. Not him.

"Hey, Arata." Rakuyoshi got his attention. "You should go to the bathroom with us."

"Hmm?" He looked at the two brothers. "I mean, we're not in elementary school or anything…" Taking some time to make sense of this request. He realized the meaning for this. It wasn't for getting some relief, they wanted to talk. "But I guess I can join you." He got up and followed them.

What was going on here, why was everyone acting so strange today? The biggest question on his mind, was what the subject they were going to talk about was. It's not like he really knew either of these boys, and now he was going to be alone with the two of them.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" He asked them, once they were confident of being alone within the men's restroom. "Because if I'm doing something wrong, I just want to say-" He wasn't given the chance to preemptively apologize. Before Arata knew it, Rakuyoshi slammed a hand over his shoulder. Asserting his domination over him.

"What's your relationship with Misei?" Now he was cornered by these two boys. A tight situation, with no escape.