Fortunately, he would be saved by another voice coming from inside her dorm unit.
"Kushida-san, is that Ayanokouji-kun?" asked a voice that Ayanokouji could tell belonged to Horikita.
"A-Ah, yeah it is! He just got here!" replied Kikyo, separating herself from the young man almost immediately out of panic. As much as she wanted to boast her superiority over Suzune by being close to Kiyotaka, the bitch wasn't the only one inside her unit. "Damn bitch just had to ruin things when I was already making progress, huh? She's lucky I even thought of inviting her..."
"Then why don't you let him in?"
Kikyo rolled her eyes hard in annoyance as she opened the door and gestured for Kiyotaka to go in. The young man chose not to comment on her behavior and simply went inside like what she wanted.
He blinked in surprise upon seeing several of his classmates there, including Suzune, Kei, and Ken. Most of them were gathered at the center of the room and when they noticed his arrival, they immediately reacted.
"Yo, Ayanokouji!" greeted Ken.
"Welcome to the party, Ayanokouji-kun!" Kayano cheered with her arm slung over her teammate's shoulder.
"Hey," Maya waved her hand with a smile.
"Tch. Why the hell is he here? He's gonna steal the girls from us again!" Yamauchi grumbled in annoyance, obviously not pleased with Ayanokouji's appearance. They were having such a good time by themselves, they didn't need this lucky bastard to rain on their parade!
"Oi, be quiet. Kushida-chan is just there, you know?" said Ike out of worry, a bit nervous about being heard by the girl who invited them. She might even kick them out of their dorm room if they mess up!
Yamauchi began to wail. "I don't care! It's just unfair that Ayanokouji gets to have the girls to himself while we're here suffering!"
"I know, Yamauchi! I know!" cried Ike, joining his friend in shedding anime-like tears out of jealousy. "Almost all of the most beautiful girls in the class live on this floor too... oh, if only I could live here..."
"Would you quit it already? At least be grateful that you were even invited by Kushida-san."
Kiyotaka weakly waved at Ken and Kayano, before turning his attention to Suzune. The girl was sitting on the bed, quietly reading a book and ignoring everything else around her in typical Suzune fashion.
He quickly approached her for some context on what was happening. "What the hell is going on?" he asked,
Suzune let out a sigh. "To put it simply, Kushida-san wanted to host a little celebration with her friends for passing the midterm exams. She talked about it earlier on the phone and asked me if I could come over to her dorm room to be present for it."
"I'm surprised that you actually accepted the invitation. Staying in your dorm room and being away from everyone else seems more of a Horikita move to me," he commented, taken aback at how this girl agreed to do something that he couldn't really see her doing. Well, it was getting her to change for the better, at least... so he wasn't really going to complain about it.
"Because Kushida-san is my friend, and I would be a fool to decline such a thing when she went through the trouble of planning a celebration... something that you are incapable of understanding for some reason."
Kiyotaka raised his hands in surrender the moment Suzune glared coldly at him. It looks like she still hasn't moved on from what happened a few days ago. No, it wasn't because he left them out of nowhere, it's because he didn't invite her to go to the new ice cream shop with him.
He could only hope that the girl doesn't hold a grudge against him for what happened, because he was sure that he didn't want to see her get angry. "I'm sorry about that, okay? Inviting you and Kushida just wasn't on my mind at the time, that's it."
"Hmph," she huffed before shifting her attention back to her book.
Kiyotaka sighed. He had no idea what to do to get this girl to forgive him. He could invite her to eat ice cream with him alone as an apology, but he had a feeling that it would only make things worse. He could also try to approach her about class-related affairs to show that he was now willing to work with her in order to get to Class A, but that would have to wait when they're completely alone.
He was just thankful that the system wasn't punishing him or anything for making one of his heroines angry.
For now, he should leave her alone.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kikyo beckoning for him to join her at the balcony. Since he had nothing else to do, he followed after her. Perhaps talking to the person who arranged this little 'party' would be interesting, because he was becoming more tempted by the moment to just head back to his dorm room for an early rest.
"I'm surprised you were fine with those two guys being in your room," he told her as soon as he stepped out onto the balcony.
"You wish," she groaned while closing the patio door so that no one would hear them. "You don't know how much I want to kick them out right now and make sure that they won't be able to attend classes tomorrow."
"Then why don't you? Not that I'm saying you should," he asked.
"Because they were planning to use your room as the place where we'll be doing this," she scowled at him, as Kiyotaka blinked a few times in surprise. "I suggested that they should use my room instead because I know how they'll react if those two perverts find out that you live on the same floor as me. They were even planning to surprise you outside of your room."
Yeah... that would have been disastrous. He could only imagine the reactions that the perverts would have if they found out that he lived on this floor. The worst possible scenario would be that they spread the news to their class and in turn, the whole school will find out eventually.
Although, why the hell would they want to hold a party in his room of all places? Couldn't they have suggested their own dorm units? The minds of those two idiots were things that he would never be able to comprehend.
In the end, all he could do was bow his head in apology.
"Sorry about this."
"You owe me for this, Ayanokouji-kun~" she said in a sweet voice, which only hid her growing annoyance and frustration regarding this whole situation.
"You don't have to tell me twice," he sighed, before noticing that Kikyo was approaching him the same way as she did earlier when he got here. The same seductive look was present on her face, and that wasn't a good sign. Kiyotaka quickly glanced to the side and fortunately for him, none of their other classmates had noticed them. "What are you doing?"
"Ayanokouji-kun, do you know that Horikita-san likes you?" she asked.
He shrugged. "Well, of course she does. If she didn't, she wouldn't have been friends with me."
"Still trying to act like you're dense..." she shook her head and sighed. "Well, it doesn't matter. You won't be acting dense for very long, anyway."
"What are you talking about?"
All of a sudden, Kikyo grabbed his uniform tightly and pulled him down so that they were eye-level. He was caught off guard by the sudden action and kept his guard up for whatever she might be planning to do, but all the girl did was send him a smile. It wasn't a fake one born from the mask she puts up, but rather a genuine one.
"I really like you, Ayanokouji-kun. You're not like other boys in this school. Even after finding out what I really am under this mask I put up, you never treated me differently. Do you know you're the first one to do that for me?"
"I didn't," he answered calmly despite his current predicament.
Kushida let out a sigh of bliss as she recalled the first time she laid eyes on him. "Ever since we met, I've had my eye on you, you know? We're friends, but you're so mysterious and there's a lot of things I don't know about you... though that just made me want to learn about you even more. You're just so... endearing in my eyes, Ayanokouji-kun."
"If this is your attempt in confessing your feelings, Kushida, then I can say that it's not the right way," the young man pointed out, referring to how this girl was grabbing his uniform in an almost-threatening way.
He could understand her words and feelings but seriously, what kind of girl confesses her feelings while grabbing the collar of the boy she likes as if she's choking him?
"Oops, sorry about that. It's just that I really wanted you to know what I think about you," Kikyo giggled as she let go of him.
Kiyotaka shook his head while fixing his uniform. Between her and Suzune, Kikyo was harder to handle for obvious reasons. "Then I want you to know that I can't answer your feelings right now."
It's not that he wanted to reject this girl, really. Ignoring the issue with her fake personality, Kikyo would be a good choice as a girlfriend for any lucky guy out there. The girl was cute, pretty, good in academics, a socialite, and she can be friends with almost anyone.
However, Kikyo wasn't the only girl who had eyes on him. At the moment, there are eight girls who are also his heroines and to choose one of them could have devastating effects on the other girls, and he didn't want to invoke the wrath of his superpower should that happen. Plus, the system was clearly setting him up for the harem ending, which means that choosing one is already out of the window since day one.
Kikyo rolled her eyes in amusement, not even surprised with her answer. "I expected as much. You still can't choose between me and Horikita."
He was already panicking on the inside as he listened to her. "Please don't be the wrong answer, please don't be the wrong answer..." he said in his mind, hoping that what he said wouldn't have the opposite effect of what he hoped.
Luckily, Kikyo didn't explode in anger or anything. She only giggled in response to his response while shaking her head. It wasn't enough to calm him down, though.
"Well... that just means that I'll have to work hard in order to get your attention, Ayanokouji-kun. I'll prove to you that there's no need to choose between us, because I'm the only choice you have."
"I can tell that this won't be good," he said to himself. He won't regret rejecting Kikyo for now, though. He didn't need to be an expert in love to know that it would have been the worst outcome not only for him, but for his heroines too.
"You can be guaranteed that I won't hold back, Ayanokouji-kun," Kushida looked out into the open, taking in the breeze. The sun was starting to go down and in an hour or two, the moon would take over. "I'll make you mine, no matter what."
"Is that all you wanted to talk to me about? I'd like to head back to my room and rest," he asked, wondering if this 'declaration of love' was the only reason why Kikyo invited him to this little party at her dorm unit.
Kikyo shrugged. "Well, you could leave if you want, but we just ordered two pizzas and a bucket of fries over the phone earlier. Sudo-kun brought three large bottles of soda with him when he got here. If you stick around for a few more minutes, you can eat with us."
That put a halt in his desire to go home.
Hmm... well, free food was definitely something he wouldn't object to... even if he was starting to feel tired.
"All right, I'll stick around for a bit."
As he went inside, Kiyotaka chose to sit beside Kei, who was busy using her phone. However, she quickly noticed his presence and smiled upon seeing him. It honestly amazed him how her perception of him changed from being someone she couldn't trust into a good friend but then again, it's just the nature of his eroge superpower. The same basically happened for Suzune as well.
"Hey, Ayanokouji-kun."
"Hey," he greeted in return. Unsurprisingly, a certain redhead was nowhere to be found despite the blonde girl's presence. "I see that Sakura's not with you."
"Well, you know how she is, don't you? I would have been more surprised if she actually accepted and celebrated with us," she joked.
Another thing that surprised him about Kei was her relationship with Airi. The two were like night and day in terms of how different they were, but they became friends nonetheless. Even though he could attribute that to Kei's insistence to be friends with the shy girl, it can be said without question that Airi was also doing her best to change herself.
He nodded in agreement. "That's true. That would be a more surprising outcome, but it would be good for her, nonetheless."
"Yeah, I really hope she can change eventually..." she mumbled, the smile on her face disappearing in favor of a gloomy one for some reason.
He immediately noticed the change in her expression. "Are you okay?" he asked out of concern, wondering what could have made her sad out of nowhere.
Kei's eyes widened in alarm, realizing that she had been caught in the act.. "Y-Yes, of course I'm fine...! It's just... I'm... I have a lot on my mind right now," she quickly covered it up with a nervous chuckle before flashing a weak grin.
Kiyotaka didn't believe that excuse one bit, but he decided to leave it alone for now. Trying to get this girl to talk would be a challenge with how stubborn she could be.
