“My friends are waiting — back I go.”
“Aw — Yuito’s prioritizing friends over me?”
“W-where is that coming from?!”
I stammered. Past-me wouldn’t have reacted like that.
(Realizing my Suzuno-feelings were camaraderie and not romance — that flipped a switch on my old admiration for Kano. What I’d categorized as admiration was romantic feelings. Probably since elementary.)
(I’d crashed the upper-classmen’s room for her — pure admiration wouldn’t have been enough. And talking to her makes my heart race — Suzuno never did. When I’d caught Suzuno’s near-fall from the side I didn’t react that way; Kano’s scent-overwrite hug had me overheating. Different in kind.)
I went red and quiet — and Kano’s face turned a little pink too. (She’d teased on routine and gotten an unexpected reaction.) We were just standing there silent — Mayo broke it.
“Kano, underclassman — flirt all you want, but don’t forget this is a public space.”
She was enjoying it. We snapped back. (Without her interrupting we might have stayed frozen.)
Back at the table, Shou:
“Took you forever. I was about to call you.”
“Kenji’s beyond me and Shou — losing you halfway is a crisis. I thought you’d ditched.”
Kaito chimed in. Kenji’s bad at math/sciences and is humanities-track because of it; teaching him is labor.
“Sorry — got drinks.”
I lied — full explanation = trouble. Shou and Kaito squinted at me.
“Yuito’s face is a little red. Shou — agree?”
“Yeah.”
“What did you actually do?”
”…Vending machine is outside — it’s hot out, even today.”
(My face was still hot from the Kano moment, residual.) Kenji perked up to join the interrogation.
(Honest would compound into nightmares.) Going with the outside heat lie was cleaner. Today was 35°C+ — sweat genuinely came pouring from a brief outside trip. I gestured at my T-shirt sweat patches to sell it. All three bought it.
(Three-versus-one Kenji-Kaito-Shou team interrogation gets brutal — from experience.)
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Author’s table:
Yuito’s feelings for Suzuno:
Romantic ✗ → Camaraderie / security ✓
Yuito’s feelings for Kano:
Admiration ✗ → Romantic ✓