Daichi Itakura:

"...... So this is how that b*tch has almost won over Rintaro... Wait, Daichi-kun, are you listening?"

"Hmm... the pickled veggies are so damn tasty. You're so good at this, Otosaki-san."

"Really? Thanks... N-No! You're not listening at all!"

Otosaki-san pouted at me which was honestly really cute. However, she then pulled my right ear... which was rather painful.

Right now, both of us were sitting on the stairs. This side of the building was surprisingly less crowded than other areas.

"O-Ouch! I'm listening you, Otosaki-san!"

"You better be! It's really embarrassing if only I keep talking without anyone listening."

She sighed and began eating her food. I thought about some ways to cheer her up.

"By the way, I'm pretty sure Yumiko's cooking is nowhere near Otosaki's. Shirogane is losing such a tasty food."

My praises worked, as Otosaki's eyes sparkled. She responded with a smug look.

"Right! Right! Rintaro is an A-grade idiot since childhood. Otherwise who in the blue hell, would like any other girl when they have such a cute childhood friend."

Nevermind... looks like my praises worked a little too excessively. And now she has become annoying.

"Oh... by the way, what about Daichi-kun?", she asked me curiously.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean till now, only I have talked about my relationship with Rintaro. But I didn't hear anything about your relationships."

"Oh... my relationship... haha... I... never had one.", I somehow answered while remembering all the pain I have suffered.

"Is that so? So Daichi-kun does not have any interest in love?"

"Honestly... I have interest... but I got rejected... four times."

"...."

Silence...

"....Pfft"

After few moments of awkward silence, Otosaki-san burst into laughter.

"H-Hey, don't laugh like that!", I protested to the apparently heartless girl.

"Sorry, but this is too funny."

She continued laughing, and I sighed in disappointment. Even the losing childhood friend here was laughing at me. After some time, she calmed down.

"Don't be angry, please. I'm sorry for laughing.", she then gently poked one of my cheeks and said, "No but seriously, Daichi-kun is a wonderful guy. I'm happy to be friends with you."

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Watching her smiling, I remembered the most important thing. My primary work was to make her forget about Shirogane and Yumiko for some time. For sure I had to become the laughing stock but I still got my job done in the end.

"Well, Otosaki-san is also a wonderful friend. Especially her cooking. By the way, if someone watches us here, he would definitely be misunderstood about our relationship haha.", I joked.

"Misunderstanding huh? Yeah that's possible. Wait..."

Suddenly Otosaki-san looked at me with curious eyes.

"That means, if Rintaro saw us, he would also misunderstand right?"

"Huh? Probably... why though?", I wasn't getting any good vibes on this question.

"I see! So Daichi-kun, let's go together to my class okay? I want to see the reaction of Rintaro seeing us together."

"Ehhhhh..... Is it really good idea?"

Intentionally creating a misunderstanding, what is really her plan?

"I just want to see his reaction. As in manga and anime, if he doesn't like seeing us together, that means he has feelings for me. If he remains indifferent... then that's it."

"This is... not anime or manga you know..."

She really got fired up here. However, this may not be a great idea. If he remains indifferent, then Otosaki is going to get hurt... very badly. In the end, I couldn't convince her to stop.

Otosaki dragged me along with her towards her class. She was walking very close to me, almost clinging to me.

We didn't even have to go inside her class. Shirogane was standing outside the class. As he saw Otosaki, he was about to call her, but then he saw me with her, and got surprised.

Otosaki pretended to not see him and started talking to me.

"I'm glad Daichi-kun, that you liked the lunch."

I had to play along with her...

"Oh yes! Your cooking is fantastic as usual."

I had to say it a little louder just to make sure Shirogane hears this.

Shirogane greeted us in the end.

"Oh Rei, I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Oh Rintaro, what's that?", Otosaki answered with a smile.

"Umm... you?", Shirogane looked at me with curiosity.

Otosaki winked at me to give me the green signal.

"Oh I'm Daichi Itakura, Otosaki's very good friend. We were eating lunch together. And I'm here to walk her to class. You're Shirogane, right? Nice to meet you."

I quickly shook hands with him. This time, Shirogane really didn't expect my answer. However, he somehow kept his composure and answered,

"Nice to meet you too, Daichi. Thanks for always taking care of Rei."

Now, Shirogane was surprised, but his reaction was far from what Otosaki may have hoped. It was not really a reaction of someone who was jealous or pissed off.

"Ah what I wanted to talk to Rei was that Yumiko has decided to hold a study session for three of us this weekend on her home."

Suddenly Otosaki's face got darker. Sweat popped up on my face. This situation was not ideal. I was familiar with it.

"So Saturday you're free right, Rei? Our midterms are from next week so it's good for us to have a group study.", Shirogane smiled as usual.

"I'm sorry."

"Eh?"

Shirogane didn't quite understand what she said. Otosaki looked up at him and then suddenly grabbed my arm.

"I have already decided to have a study session with Daichi-kun on Saturday."

"Huh?"

"What?"

Both I and Shirogane got surprised at Otosaki's words. However I immediately remembered that I had to play along with her.

"Is that so?", Shirogane looked at me.

"Y-Yeah. We have decided to study together.", I answered.

"I see...", Shirogane looked a little disappointed but immediately followed up with "No worries then. I'll tell this to Yumiko. Bye Rei." and left.

♡

Otosaki covered her face in her hands in sadness. I was still beside her.

"It's okay, Otosaki-san. But why did you say you had a study plan with me?"

"I-it's because I didn't want to go with them. If I join them, I only had to see both of them flirting all the time!"

"I see..."

That explained everything...

However, how could I make her feel better right now?

"Umm... Otosaki-san, do you want to go somewhere after school?"

"Eh?", Otosaki, who was almost in tears, looked at me in surprise.

"Yes... probably going somewhere will improve your mood."

"But don't you have your club after school, Daichi-kun?"

"Yeah I have. But I'll leave quickly from there today. How about this?"

"You're... going that far... just to cheer me up?"

"Eh not really? I too want to have fun after all sometimes."

Otosaki could only smile at me and said,

"Then... I'll wait after school. Don't make me wait too much, Daichi-kun."

"Yes ma'am."

"Fufu..."

[To be continued]