An hour in at the consolation-party-for-Shou café and the topic had drifted.
(I’d done the consolation, but unlike Kenji and Kaito’s pure empathy, I’d also delivered the harsh-but-fair: flirting while dating is unfaithful. When I think a friend is wrong I say so.)
My words had landed and Shou had immediately gone to apologize at her house. Whether she’d forgive him was on him. So now it was Kenji, Kaito, and me.
“So when do you start dating Yuki-senpai?”
“Yeah, not dating looks weirder than dating at this point.”
“Y-yeah?”
Since Shou left, the two had been on this exclusively. The closeness had been visible — fair conclusion.
“Something definitely happened with Yuki-senpai.”
“What are you hiding from your best friends, Yuito?”
“Nothing.”
“That reaction is sketchy.”
“Spill, get it over with.”
I tried to deflect — they wouldn’t relent. The wall wasn’t going to hold.
”…Actually, Kano-san confessed to me a while back.”
“What?!”
“For real?!”
I’d cracked. Kaito leaned in.
“Not dating means — you turned her down?”
“No, just on hold.”
“Even Yuki-senpai — flashy as she is — couldn’t be normal-friends with someone who rejected her.”
If I’d been turned down by Kano or Suzuno, I couldn’t go back to normal either. The thought ached.
“Why are you sitting on the answer? Seems obvious — if I were you I’d say yes on the spot.”
“Right — unless you have someone else you like?”
“T-that’s…”
I stumbled. They went huh. The reaction had given me away.
“Who is it?”
“We won’t tell the class — spill.”
Kenji and Kaito stood up and pressed in. Compact Kaito alone, fine — huge Kenji approaching has different pressure.
“O-okay, okay — I’ll tell, sit down.”
I got them seated and opened up.
”…Suzuno. I like Suzuno.”
“What — Yuki-san in 1-1?!”
“That’s Yuki-senpai’s sister?!”
Bigger explosion than the confession reveal. The couple at the next table glared.
“Got it — Yuki-senpai likes Yuito, but Yuito has eyes for the little Yuki.”
“Classic love triangle.”
“More or less.”
(Actually a square — my brother is also in this — but if I bring that up things get complicated. Suppressed.)
“Never saw it.”
“Yeah, even after years of friendship — surprise.”
“I don’t usually talk about it.”
I’m not into discussing my romantic life. Kaito asked:
“What do you like about Suzuno?”
“Same, curious.”
They were waiting. I started listing what I liked about Suzuno — and noticed something off.
I can’t articulate it, but the reasons I like Suzuno felt… thin. Different in some fundamental way from how Kano feels about me. Kenji and Kaito didn’t notice.
“The Yuki older sister confesses but you like the younger? Yuito, you’re a light-novel protagonist.”
“I want a beautiful older woman to confess to me, too.”
They were ribbing me but it bounced off. I was stuck on the discrepancy in my own feelings — and didn’t fully tune back in for the rest of the conversation.