"Amane, what did you just say?"
Horikita Suzune bent down to pick up her chopsticks, trying to sound casual as she asked. But the chopsticks in her hand were gripped perfectly straight.
Amane felt a chill seeing it.
"N-nothing… I was just asking, just a random question," Amane stammered.
Just as she reached for the rolled omelet, Horikita seized her hand.
"You wouldn't keep anything from me, right?"
She knew speaking up would put her at a disadvantage. Yet, Horikita lasted only three seconds before she couldn't hold back from questioning Amane.
Amane's gaze wavered. "I was only joking, Suzune, don't take it so seriously."
Amane's smile seemed perfectly normal. That only made Horikita Suzune even more uneasy.
"Um… I've got to go out for a bit. If you're tired, Suzune, you should go to bed first."
With that, Amane stood up and quickly headed for the door.
It wasn't until the sound of the door closing reached the living room that Horikita snapped out of her daze.
To think Amane was actually starting to keep things from her.
Was she doing it to annoy her on purpose?
Horikita had considered that Amane might be putting on an act, just to get a rise out of her. But Amane's reactions felt too genuine, and she had indeed seen someone messaging Amane.
Could Amane really be going behind her back…?
Horikita slowly stood up, went to the coat rack, and changed into a black overcoat, planning to tail Amane and see for herself.
Just who was the shameless person trying to steal her loved one?
The moment Amane stepped out of the elevator, she broke into a light jog, heading outside the dorm.
Under the dim glow of a nearby streetlight, Ichinose was standing there, scrolling through her phone.
She seemed to be waiting for a message from someone.
Amane rushed toward Ichinose without hesitation.
Meanwhile, Horikita, who had dashed down the stairs, reached the dorm's back entrance. After circling around, she finally found a hidden spot to discreetly observe the two.
"Amane, you finally came down! I saw the message was read, but you didn't reply. I thought maybe you weren't free tonight."
Ichinose patted her chest lightly, as if a weight had been lifted from her mind.
"Something held me up. So… Ichinose, what did you want to tell me, calling me out so late?"
Amane shyly turned her face away.
For a moment, the atmosphere between them grew increasingly ambiguous.
Ichinose had originally intended to explain something about the afternoon's events, but she hadn't expected Amane to ask such a misleading question right away.
Technically, Amane wasn't wrong—Ichinose had been the one to ask her out this late, saying she had something to tell her.
But Amane's bashful demeanor gave the whole situation a different flavor.
Ichinose immediately sensed the shift in mood.
She grew anxious to clarify herself.
Frustratingly, no matter how she looked at it, she couldn't find anything wrong with what Amane had said. Yet the mood was already set.
Even if Ichinose hadn't planned to confess, if she didn't say something now, they'd both be stuck in an awkward silence.
Especially since Ichinose couldn't justify her reason for calling Amane out—she was the one who asked, and she'd chosen the evening.
Putting herself in Amane's shoes, if someone asked to meet her alone late at night, the first thing she'd assume was a confession!
Realizing Amane had misunderstood, Ichinose started racking her brain for a way to end this encounter without embarrassing either of them.
For someone with zero dating experience like Ichinose, this was nearly as tough as leading Class B to Class A right now.
She couldn't very well say, "Hey, Amane, I'm not about to confess to you, so don't get the wrong idea," or "Please stop blushing, I'm here to talk business."
Ichinose ran those responses through her head—any sane person would know better than to say something like that. Either one would probably make Amane turn and leave on the spot.
Although she and Amane weren't particularly close, Amane had willingly helped Class B before, and she had a good personality—someone worth being friends with.
Ichinose liked the idea of becoming friends with her.
That was one reason.
The second reason: at the meeting that afternoon, Amane had shown remarkable ability. Plus, she'd already made Ryūen eat his pride.
Ichinose was fairly certain that if Class D could make good use of talents like Ayanokōji and Amane, moving up to Class C was only a matter of time.
Rather than scrambling to build class relations later, it was smarter to befriend Amane now.
Amane had saved Hirata, so it was likely Hirata would listen to her in the future.
That way, Ichinose felt she could maintain friendly ties with Class D through Amane.
Admittedly, thinking like this right now felt a little rude.
But besides being a student council member, Ichinose was also Class B's leader. She had a duty to act in her class's interest, and she judged that making an enemy of Amane now would be downright foolish.
Just then, an idea flashed in Ichinose's mind.
If she couldn't reject this directly, why not make Amane back off on her own?
"What do you think of me, Amane?"
Ichinose decided to use herself as bait to feel out Amane's intentions.
"Ichinose-san, you're really cute."
Cute? People often said that about her.
Ichinose had always thought it was just polite small talk, but now, for the first time, she found herself seriously wondering if she really was all that cute.
"Is… there anything else?"
The moment she realized she was actually asking someone else's opinion of her, Ichinose couldn't help but blush.
That only thickened the already ambiguous atmosphere—at this point, if one of them confessed the next second, neither would be surprised.
"Anything else… Well, you're still really cute."
???
Ichinose wasn't sure how to respond.
Amane had said the same thing twice. Was "cute" really all she was?
Ichinose knew dragging this out would only make things worse.
Time for the ultimate move.
"What kind of guys do you like, Amane?"
Ichinose gave herself a mental thumbs-up.
If she'd asked whether Amane liked boys or girls, Amane might've joked "girls," and that would've made everything messier.
Better to lock the answer in—ask what kind of boys she liked.
"Boys? Hmm, let me think… What about someone like you, Ichinose-san?"
Ichinose had a gentle temperament, so lots of people liked being friends with her.
But here was Amane, clearly understanding what Ichinose was trying to say, yet deliberately not addressing it directly.
This wasn't working. Looks like there was only one thing left to do…
"If someone confessed to you, Amane… would you turn them down?"
Hearing Ichinose ask something so blunt, even Amane froze where she stood.
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T/N: Its been a while since i seen this so i can't remember if Amane called Ichinose by her first name... but after this chap she'l call Ichinose by her first name, cause i prolly just forgot by accident
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T/N: I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.