It didn't take long for the food to arrive and once it did, the 'celebration' began. The Class D students shared the two pizzas and soda amongst each other and celebrated today's accomplishment, while also reminding each other of the upcoming finals. They may have survived their midterms, but their final exams were a different story. That didn't mean they couldn't celebrate, though, because their victory today was still a victory!
Of course, Suzune didn't join them for that, simply choosing to eat her share on her own despite Kikyo's attempts to get her to join them. Kiyotaka only shook his head in amusement at that interaction. Even after all the changes she exhibited in the past two months, old habits still die hard for Horikita Suzune.
After a while, right when Kiyotaka was feeling tempted to head home to his dorm room, the young man felt someone tapping him on the shoulder, making him turn around to see Kei looking at him with a conflicted expression on her face. Looks like he was right in thinking that she wasn't feeling well, and now she was going to tell him about it.
"Can I talk to you? It's important," she asked.
"What's the problem?" Kiyotaka sounded so concerned for her that it surprised even himself.
"No, not here..." Kei shook her head as she glanced at everyone else, before turning back to him. "Can we go to your room?"
Kiyotaka thought about it for a moment, wondering if there would be any risks in doing such a thing, before he shrugged mentally. It's not like the others would know that he and Kei would be having a private conversation, unless they leave together in front of everyone's eyes.
In response to her question, he brought out his phone and typed in a quick message before sending it to the blonde girl. Kei felt her phone vibrate and immediately read the text he sent.
Ayanokouji: I'll head out first, then you follow. If we leave together, it'll raise some questions. I'll leave the door unlocked for you.
Kei turned to him and nodded in agreement. He must have thought that whispering things to each other, no matter how quiet they are, they would be caught in the act and their classmates would start questioning them.
Kiyotaka then stood up, gaining everyone's attention. "Thanks for the food, everyone. But I want to head back to my dorm. It's been a long day for me, and I'd like to get an early rest."
"Come on, stay for a while longer, Ayanokouji!" Sudo insisted, and Ayanokouji only shook his head at that. "Ugh, where do you live, anyway?"
"I'm not obligated to answer that," he told his friend as he headed for the door. Before leaving though, he turned his head to glance at everyone inside. "See you tomorrow, everyone."
"See you, Ayanokouji-kun!"
Kikyo waved her arm in farewell, with Maya, Kayano, and Satsuki doing the same. Suzune still looked like she was angry at him, but sent him a weak wave nonetheless. The only ones who didn't react were Ike and Yamauchi, who looked happy more than anything now that he was leaving.
After closing the door behind him, he quickly went inside his dorm unit before anyone else could see him and left the place unlocked so that Karuizawa could get in without a problem.
He dumped himself on his bed after kicking his shoes off, before waiting for Kei to arrive. Luckily, it didn't take the girl more than five minutes to step inside his room. Any longer than ten minutes, and he would have been asleep.
"Thanks for letting me in here, Ayanokouji-kun," Kei smiled as she opened the door and went inside.
"No problem," he replied while sitting up from his bed. "Make sure you lock that, by the way."
[Congratulations! You have unlocked the Achievement: 'My Place is Free Tonight'! You gained +5 in Aura!]
Kiyotaka blinked a few times at seeing that system notification which came out of nowhere. He was first confused on what it was about when nothing has happened with any of his heroines yet, until he got a good look
"'My Place is Free Tonight'? What does that mean?" he asked in his thoughts, feeling completely stumped at first with a total lack of possible answers, until he looked at Kei who had taken off her shoes and turned to him afterwards.
"Can I sit there?" she pointed to the spot beside him on his bed, to which he nodded.
Now that he thought about it, Kei is literally the first girl to step inside his room. Within the two months that he spent here in this school, even after weeks of spending time with Suzune and Kikyo, none of them have gone inside of his room. As a matter of fact, Kikyo's unit was the first dorm he had been to that's not his own.
It feels weird that there's an 'achievement' for this scenario but then again, there's nothing 'normal' about his broken superpower in the first place. He shouldn't be surprised that there's an achievement for the first time that a girl steps inside of his dorm room.
"What did you tell everyone else when you left?" he asked the girl as she sat beside him.
"I just told them I was feeling sleepy and I wanted to go home early to sleep. Luckily, they didn't ask any suspicious questions like if I was going to meet with you or something," the girl sighed, feeling relieved that everyone else didn't ask those kinds of questions.
"Basically the same excuse as mine," he commented in his thoughts, feeling a bit amused at her decision. Karuizawa must not have thought of a good reason to tell them, so she did the same thing as him. "So what's the problem? It must be pretty serious if you wanted to talk in private."
"It's... uh... it's... kind of embarrassing to say..." Kei muttered, looking so ashamed that she had to look away, even though she was pretty determined to talk to him a while ago.
"Well, if you don't say anything, then I guess we're going to be like this the whole night," he joked. Kiyotaka had no problem helping her out with whatever problem she had, but Kei needed to say something first before anything else.
[A Special Event has been Triggered!]
His eyes widened slightly upon seeing the new notification from the system, before resisting the urge to groan. It just couldn't resist, huh? Of course the system would do this right when he's completely alone with Karuizawa.
"What the hell is this 'special event' going to be about this—"
"...would you be my boyfriend...?!"
That snapped him out of his thoughts.
Kiyotaka looked at his companion, whose cheeks were bright red in embarrassment as she struggled to keep her gaze locked towards him. The girl definitely said something, but his attention was drawn to the notification just now and because of that, he couldn't catch on to what came out of her mouth.
"Come again?"
Kei blushed even more at realizing that he didn't hear her, so she had to say that embarrassing question again! She felt the urge to snap at him for failing to listen to her, but thought against it. She was trying to seek his help, and yelling at Kiyotaka won't do her any favors.
And so, despite the great embarrassment that she felt upon asking it the first time, Kei spoke again.
"W-Would you please b-be my boyfriend, Ayanokouji-kun...?"
Kiyotaka could only stare at her with his mouth hanging open.
What the hell was going on today? Seriously, was it his lucky day or something? It was crazy enough that Kushida confessed to him earlier, and now Karuizawa too? And that's not even counting the encounter he had with Chabashira-sensei at the rooftop—
"W-Wait, before you think of anything else, I don't mean that literally...!" she added, which snapped the young man out of his thoughts again. Compared to her usual fiery and tsundere demeanor, it was weird yet interesting to see Kei in a state like this. "Uh... what I mean is... will you be fine if you... p-pretend to be my boyfriend for a while?"
Kiyotaka took a moment to absorb her words and let them register in his mind. "You want me to pretend to be your boyfriend?" he asked, completely stumped at the nature of her words.
The girl nodded weakly, feeling the heat in her cheeks continue to rise as she tried her best to keep her gaze towards him.
...okay, so he was wrong. This wasn't a confession at all, but he was left confused at what Kei's intentions were. If she's not confessing, then what is she trying to accomplish? To have him as a fake boyfriend? For what, though? What does she need a fake boyfriend for? To show off to the girls that she had a boyfriend, albeit a fake one?
Ugh, if only the system could give him a clue or some context in such situations...
"Wait a second... " he thought as he had a moment of realization.
When he first saw Kei's 'heroine summary' about a month ago, it stated how the girl had been bullied ruthlessly in her old school and what she was planning to do here in this new school.
She had intended to look for someone who could protect her as a fake boyfriend, only to hold back on that plan when the dorm arrangements were changed. From there, she didn't do anything more to advance on that plan because she grew distrustful of the boys and didn't wish to talk to any of them. That changed completely when he and Kei talked for the first time at Keyaki Mall and from there, their relationship only became better to the point that she didn't become angry when she found out that he lived on the same floor as her, despite her opinion about the dorm arrangement months ago.
"She's trying to get me to be her fake boyfriend," he concluded in his thoughts while rolling his eyes. "Of course she would. I'm the only guy she talks to, anyway. I'm also the only guy she trusts, so it shouldn't be a surprise that she'd ask me that question."
Kiyotaka wanted to slam his head against the wall. He felt angry and frustrated with himself for not realizing it sooner, to the point that he actually thought that Kei was actually confessing to him for real!
Instead, the young man sighed mentally.
Well, as much as he wanted to help this girl, he can't really accept anything without learning the truth from Kei herself. Sure, he may know about her past thanks to the system, but that was from his point of view. In the blonde's eyes, he had no idea about what happened to her in her old school. If he agrees to her ludicrous request without context, it would only end badly for them both.
"Why?" he asked her.
"L-Look, just give me an answer, okay? Will you or won't you?" she pleaded, looking more embarrassed by the moment.
"Well, that's not fair. You invite me for a talk in my own room, and you're not going to say anything? How am I supposed to help you when I have no idea what's going on?" he argued, wanting the girl to be honest with what she wanted from him.
"I...I'd rather not say..." Instead of embarrassment, she now looked gloomy. The same expression she had for a moment in Kikyo's room was back.
"I won't force you to tell me anything. But if you want me to even hear you out, I need to know the reason why you're asking me to do such a thing for you."
Kei became quiet after that, and Kiyotaka only stared at her. The girl seemed like she was contemplating what to do and he simply waited for what she would say. If she tells him the truth regarding this whole thing, then good. If not, then that would be a shame, even though he already knew why she was doing this.
"You're my friend, right? You're someone I can trust... right, Ayanokouji-kun?" she asked, her voice going from flustered to nervous in an instant.
"Do you even have to ask?" he asked rhetorically.
The girl let out a massive sigh of relief at his reassuring words. "All right, I'll tell you... but... you have to promise not to tell anyone. Please," she pleaded.
He nodded. "I promise."
...and tell him, she did.
Everything that he already knew about her past, Kei explained it to him with more detail. He already felt bad for the girl when he saw her 'summary', but now he felt a bigger need to protect her after she told him her first-hand experiences at being bullied. Several times during her re-telling of her life in her old school, Kiyotaka felt murderous intentions that he had not felt in a long time, and it was directed to the people who pushed her around and targeted her.
It was probably because of the system. No doubt that it was influencing him and caused him to feel bloodlust towards Kei's bullies, not that he minded it. As a matter of fact, he was tempted to ask the girl for the names of the people who bullied her and pay them a visit, but thought better of it. As much as he would like to do that, it required a lot of effort and he already had his hands full with a lot of things.
It even reached the point where a few tears began to leak out of her eyes, causing him to offer her a clean handkerchief, which she accepted gratefully. Kiyotaka told her afterwards that if she didn't feel comfortable telling his story to him, she could stop but to his surprise, Kei insisted that she'll tell him everything.
After saying everything that she had to say about her life in her past school, Kei remained quiet and only used the hanky that Kiyotaka gave to her in order to wipe away her tears.
"So let me get this straight... you were bullied in school your whole life..."
She nodded.
"And on the first day of school, you were planning to ask a boy from our class if he could pretend to be your boyfriend..."
She nodded again.
"But then, the chairman announced the new dorm arrangements, so you backed out on that plan for a while out of fear..."
Kei nodded yet again.
"But then, we became friends and you started to trust me... you even saw me teaching Yamauchi and Ike a lesson at the library," he finished his own little summary of everything she said, while also feeling surprised that Kei witnessed that particular moment.
How did he not detect her presence that time...? Hmm, probably because he was too focused on teaching those two idiots a lesson they would never forget.
"That's why I asked you... because you looked like someone who could protect me if something bad happens..." she said quietly, remembering that particular moment at the library. She didn't mean to spy on him, but it's what solidified her decision to ask him if he could pretend to be her boyfriend.
"I see," he muttered.
"Well, now you know," Kei brought her legs up to her chest and hugged them together, as she rested her head on top of her knees. A few more tears escaped her eyes, which she wiped away. "Now you know why I'm asking you for help. Because I don't want to get bullied again. I don't want it to happen again. I just want... I just want to have a normal life here... is it too much to ask for?"
Kiyotaka stared at her for a moment, as he tried to figure out what to say. Should he reassure her that everything will be fine? Hold her hand? Give her a hug? Tell her that he'll be there for her? He still sucked when it came to this subject, damn it!
Before he could do anything though, three pink screens appeared in front of him as the world froze completely.
A. [Why didn't you fight back? Or better yet, why didn't you report the people who did those things to you?]
B. [I'm sorry to hear that. If you ever need someone to lean on, I'm here.]
C. [...I know what it feels like.]
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