Fushimi had been gloomy for the past few days, ever since we went to the library.

“Hey, Fushimi, we gotta do the greetings.”

“Ah.”

I had to remind her to do her job of class rep, which was a real role reversal.

Everyone followed Fushimi’s lead greeting the teacher, and class began.

Her expression would shift from spacey to serious to sometimes even sad. I asked what all that was about, but she only ever said, “It’s nothing.”

If it was truly nothing, you’d be acting like normal.

What if whatever was bothering her wasn’t something a guy would understand?

Maybe I should get Mana to talk with her.

“For this next problem…Fushimi, can you show us how to solve it?”

“Huh? Ah, um…”

Her eyes were going from her textbook to the blackboard and back. She hadn’t been paying attention.

“R-Ryou…do you know?” She begged me for help.

I smiled.

Sorry, Fushimi. I wasn’t paying attention, either.

Good luck, I wrote in English.

“Why in English?”

“Were you not listening, Fushimi? Please pay more attention in class.”

“Ack… Y-yes… I’m sorry…”

Now that you don’t see every day.

Had something happened with her followers? Like…

“Let’s go to the physics room for lunch from now on!”

“W-wait, no… Let’s not go there again.”

“No way! Why?”

Or something. Maybe they’d gotten in an argument?

In her attempts to protect the original inhabitants of the physics room, maybe she’d ended up upsetting them.

Yeah, I can see that happening.

Fushimi still seemed absentminded when break time started, so I tried to get her attention. “It’s fine if they want to use the physics room, you know. Torigoe and I will look for another place.”

“Torigoe and you…” Her eyes seemed almost wounded as she stared at me, slightly pouting, her eyebrows upturned. “……Oh… Okay…”

What is it? You want to say something, don’t you?

“If there’s anything you need to get off your chest, I’m happy to listen.”

She glared at me with suspicion. “See, Ryou, that’s the problem. I have said it. All of it. I’ve been saying it all this time! But you—! You just neeeever listen!” She started hitting me.

“Wait! Wait! What’s wrong with you, Hina? Calm down!”

Everyone was staring at us, wondering why the princess was acting like a pouty little kid.

You’re ruining your entire image, so stop hitting me! Or at least turn off your hamster face.

“Are you drunk or something?”

“I would be if I could!”

She’s maxed out her sulkiness level…

She buried her puffy face in her desk. Without raising her head, she asked, “Hey, Ryou. Where are you having lunch today?”

“At the physics room, same as always.”

“…Do you like Torigoe?”

“How did you get all the way there? Tell me, would you fall in love with someone just because you’re in the same classroom as them?”

“That wouldn’t be enough, but…”

I would’ve understood if we always had lunch sitting close together. It would’ve been easy to misinterpret our relationship that way. But we didn’t. We sat around three desks apart from each other. We sometimes talked, but we weren’t so close that things would be awkward if we weren’t having a conversation.

“Ryou, you dense… You can read a room and then ignore it, and yet you don’t get this… God, agh…”

“What’re you going on about…?”

Fushimi is super tetchy today.

“Want a candy?”

“Ryou…you can’t bring candy to school, you know?”

“C’mon—it’s the fruit kind. Which one do you want?”

“Grape.”

I knew that warning was just to keep up appearances—she still wanted it.

I took the candies out of my bag, placed the one Fushimi had requested on her desk, and picked out a lemon one for myself.

Fushimi grabbed hers. “It’s good.”

“I know, right?”

“You better eat them all before break ends.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I popped candy after candy into my mouth.

“Ryou, do you like large breasts?”

“Blugh?!” I almost spat out everything. “Where’s that coming from…?”

“Do you not like them small?”

“I don’t dislike them.”

“R-really?”

Huh? Did her voice just suddenly get cheerier?

“I like all shapes and sizes.”

“So you’re saying you don’t care whose they are?”

Uhhh? I mean, I guess…? But why are you staring at me like that? I’m pretty sure most guys feel this way…

The other classes went by until lunchtime came.

“Takamori, let’s go.”

“Huh?”

Torigoe came to my seat. She’d never done that during first year.

We weren’t exactly having lunch together, so I didn’t feel the need to invite her.

I guess if we’re in the same class, and we’re both going to the physics room, it wouldn’t be weird for us to walk there together…?

“Ah, yeah…”

I was a bit puzzled internally, but I gathered my stuff and stood up. Fushimi was watching me with abandoned-puppy eyes.

“…”

She looked as if she wanted to say something but couldn’t.

Torigoe glanced at her, and their eyes met.

Fushimi shook her head, slapped her cheeks, and stood up. “Sorry, guys. I’m having lunch with Ryou and Torigoe today.”

Her eyes had suddenly blazed up with fighting spirit for…some reason. The energy was so intense that it apparently even kept her followers from coming after us.

“Ryou, let’s go.”

“W-wait…”

She grabbed my hand and stomped her way out of the classroom, pulling me with her.

Torigoe followed, walking gracefully beside her.

“I won’t hesitate anymore,” Fushimi said.

“Heh. I see.”

Wh-what’s up with you two? Didn’t you become friends just the other day?

They sure didn’t feel like friends anymore. That much I could tell. But…what was going on…?