Ding ding ding, the lunch bell finally rang.
The teacher on the podium pushed up his glasses. "Alright, that's all for today. Class dismissed."
"Ugh, finally over."
"Let's go eat. I heard the cafeteria has new dishes today."
After class, many students stood up and headed to the cafeteria.
Izumi Yuu glanced at Saiki Kusuo, who was still sitting at his desk, then turned to pull a bento box out of his bag. He was about to turn back and invite Saiki to eat lunch together.
"Hey, Izumi-kun, have you seen Saiki-kun? Where did he go?" The voice came from Shikimori and Akazawa Itsuki.
Izumi Yuu picked up his bento and slowly turned, pointing toward where Saiki Kusuo had just been sitting. "Saiki-kun? Wasn't he sitting right he...re?"
He looked back, but Saiki had already vanished.
"What? No way. He was just here a second ago. How did he disappear so fast?"
Kubo Nagisa, sitting nearby, raised her hand and answered, "Um, Saiki-kun already left a while ago!"
"Ohh~"
Itsuki turned to look at Kubo Nagisa.
www.
"Ah!" Izumi and Shikimori both looked disappointed.
(Did I miss him by a step? I didn't expect Saiki to move so fast. Does he have something urgent?)
The wind blew gently, the road stretched long. Today the sun was bright, the sky clear with not a single cloud. The warm sunlight shone down, making everything feel bright and cheerful inside.
Up on the rooftop of Sobu High, Saiki was sitting on a bench, eating while enjoying the northern breeze.
(Yare yare, sorry, Izumi... Today I still want to enjoy this quiet lunch by myself.)
Just as Saiki Kusuo finished his bento slowly, chewing carefully, packed it away, the rooftop door opened, and a head poked in. It was Akazawa Itsuki.
"Hello, Saiki! I knew you'd be here. You disappeared right after class ended. I couldn't find you anywhere."
[So it's Itsuki. How did you know I was here?] Saiki Kusuo looked up in confusion.
He remembered slipping away very discreetly, blending into the crowd heading toward the cafeteria and vanishing.
"Ahaha, Kubo-san told me."
[Kubo-san?]
(Who was that again?)
Saiki shook his head. [So, what do you want from me?]
"Hehe, after school later, do you have any plans?" Itsuki slung an arm around Saiki's shoulders.
[None. What's up?]
Truthfully, he really didn't have anything. Living alone now, after school he'd probably just go home, sit around reading novels, watching TV, eating coffee jelly. That was pretty much a whole day.
"Perfect! Then after school, wanna hang out with me?"
[Just the two of us?]
"There's one more. With you, it'll be three. So it's a deal. After school, don't rush off too fast. Bye bye."
...
After school.
[So this is the person you said was coming?]
Saiki looked at the girl playfully bantering with Itsuki.
The short-haired girl with brown hair looked very lively and mischievous, clearly the energetic type.
Then the girl walked up to Saiki, waved, and introduced herself. "Yahho! Saiki-kun, nice to meet you! I'm Shirakawa Chitose, Itsuki's girlfriend. Just call me Chitose."
[Hello, I'm Saiki Kusuo.]
Itsuki nudged Saiki with his elbow from the side. "So? That's my girlfriend. Pretty cute, right?"
Saiki gave Itsuki a sidelong glance. (So you just wanted to show off your girlfriend to me.)
Seeing Saiki's look, Itsuki smiled. "But don't get any ideas about little Chi, okay? She only likes me."
Saiki turned to look at Itsuki, his mouth twitching.
[Do I look like that kind of person?]
Itsuki put a hand on Saiki's shoulder comfortingly. "It's fine, Saiki. Finding a girlfriend is easy! With your qualities, if you wanted to, tons of girls would line up to date you. How about it? Want me to introduce you to some?"
[No—thank—you. I don't want a girlfriend right now.]
Hearing Saiki say that, Chitose unconsciously pulled Itsuki's arm back a step, looking at Saiki with a strange expression.
Saiki's face stayed neutral, but inside he was completely speechless.
[Hey, I'm not a pervert. I don't have weird ideas like that.]
Shirakawa Chitose asked curiously, "Eh, Saiki-kun, have you ever been confessed to by a girl?"
Confessed to by a girl? Saiki thought back to the past...
Saiki turned to Itsuki to change the subject.
[That's not important. Where are we going?]
Chitose poked Saiki and said, "So there have been some, huh? But Saiki-kun doesn't seem interested in romance. Then what if a cute girl confessed to you? What would you do?"
[I'd refuse.]
Chitose immediately followed up. "What if it was a really cute girl who cooks well and has amazing grades? What then?"
[I'd refuse.]
"Saiki-kun is really decisive."
[Yare yare, even though I'm not interested in romance, I still know you can't just casually accept someone's confession.]
Then Saiki turned to Itsuki.
[You still haven't told me where we're going.]
Itsuki grinned mysteriously at Saiki. "That's a secret. You'll find out when we get there."
Akazawa Itsuki [Hehehe, Saiki definitely won't guess that I'm taking him to the game center.]
(Oh, so it's the game center. It's been a while.)
He remembered his favorite thing there used to be Whac-A-Mole. Once he hit the moles, they stayed down and never came back up.
Thirty minutes later.
At the game center, Itsuki looked at Saiki. "So? Surprised, right? You probably don't come to places like this often. Pretty shocking, huh?"
[Yeah, I really didn't expect it.]
"Right? Told you! Then this time, it's on me."
Saiki didn't refuse the kindness.
[Then I won't hold back.]
Saiki looked around left and right, checking out what games there were to play.
"Then, Saiki, let's settle this once and for all."
Saiki turned to Itsuki.
[Settle what?]
Itsuki pointed at the bowling lanes nearby. "Let's compete with this."
Saiki smiled.
[Sure, no problem.]
(Young man, it looks like you don't know what real cruelty is.)
Itsuki picked up a bowling ball, took a couple steps, aimed carefully while bending down, and rolled. Strike—all pins down.
"Yah, how's that? Not bad, right?"
Saiki said nothing, picked up a ball, rolled it forward. Also a strike—all pins down.
"Oh, looks like you're pretty good too, Saiki."
At this point, Itsuki still hadn't realized how serious things were about to get.
Then Saiki got two strikes in a row, three, four...
Itsuki's expression changed dramatically.
"No way."
Itsuki was completely defeated.
Chitose laughed. "Haha, looks like you're no match, Itsuki. What's up with that?"
"Hey Chitose, whose side are you on?" Itsuki turned to look at his girlfriend who was mocking him.
Chitose blinked, held up a peace sign with her left hand over her left eye. "Of course I'm on the side of the strong one."
Itsuki looked at Saiki unwillingly, then said calmly, "Come on, Saiki. Let's go try something else. We'll settle this once and for all."