Kane stares at Satoshi with widened eyes, it has seemed that he was taken off-guard with that statement of his; he looks down at his hands.
It seems that he had yet to understand the fact that he had been indeed acting somewhat strange ever since his third year in junior high school up to now.
Kane had unknowingly let himself be consumed in grief and lament due to that incident including Erisa.
"I-I guess you aren't wrong, Ryūzaki-san... I have indeed been hiding these emotions for quite awhile, huh? Thank you for pointing that out now..."
He looks back up at his red-haired friend, who has now begun to look at him strangely. Kane gives him a warm and genuine smile, "Thank you, Ryūzaki-san."
Satoshi — who has yet to learn the art of mind reading — looks at his friend with a confused expression.
He leans forward slightly while muttering, "H-hey, what are you thanking me for? Stop acting so weird, dummy."
Kane tries to stop himself from laughing, but he just can't seem to close the flood gates with the expression that Satoshi is making. "Pftt~! You look like a complete tsundere[1], Ryūzaki-san!"
As he puffs up his cheeks due to what Kane said, he straightens his back and crosses his arm, "S-shut up already, you're making a fool of yourself infront of a gorgeous lady..."
His friend falls on his back as he holds his stomach due to the pain his extreme laughter is causing him, "Hahaha~! Y-you should see the look on your face, man!"
The silver-haired girl scratches her cheek, clearly embarrassed to be in this current situation. "E-eto[2]~, I don't mind that much, it clearly seems like he's enjoying himself."
"You aren't wrong..." Satoshi remains silent as a confused expression forms on his face.
"...?"
He begins to scratch his cheek and apologizes out of nowhere, "O-oh? I seem to have made a very big mistake, my apologies."
The silver-haired girl blankly stares at him and tilts her head, unaware of what his mistake was. She intently waits for what he is about say as he smiles at her politely.
"May I kindly ask: what is this fair lady's name?"
"M-my name?"
"Yes, your name."
The girl who was taken away by the sudden shift of character from tsundere to gentleman, feels herself growing shy. She stares at his smile, before looking at his dark-red eyes. Their eyes lock, and she sees her own silver eyes.
She begins to fiddle with her hair before looking away. She then mutters under her breathe, clearly flustered by Satoshi's advances, "A-Ayumi... Okawa..."
At her response, he places his right hand on his chest before bowing his head slightly as if he was a prince from another kingdom greeting the princess. "You have a lovely name, Okawa-san."
His eyes widen as he remembers one last thing. He straightens his back once more to tell her, "Oh right, I nearly forgot. My name is Satoshi Ryūzaki, pleasure to meet you."
Ayumi's eyes light up, she looks down at her hand which has been fiddling with her hair in embarrassment as she feels her cheeks getting hot, "A p-pleasure to meet you, Ryūzaki-sama."
Satoshi waves his hand infront of him after hearing Ayumi use the honorific "sama" on him, "You don't have treat me like your superior, just use 'san' when you address me, okay?"
As if she wasn't embarrassed enough, she feels herself getting more embarrassed due to her saying Satoshi's name with the most formal honorific that is available in the Japanese honorific system.
"A-ah~! Sorry about that, R-Ryūzaki... san..."
"Good! You got it right, Okawa-san."
The both of them share a sweet chuckle. By the time they finish chuckling together, Kane finishes laughing his ass off.
As soon as he pushes himself up, he wipes a tear below his eyelid.
The two of them stare at Kane with a blank gaze, which unexpectedly hits him the wrong way. He feels a vein pop out of his head as he grumbles, "W-what?"
"Nothing, don't worry."
Satoshi answered while waving a hand infront of his face and kindly staring at Kane. After a few seconds of getting stared at aggressively by him, Erisa and Kazuo, who had been talking away from the group, finally merge back with them.
All three who had been sitting down turn over to the two who are currently standing. The faces of Kane, Satoshi, and Ayumi, hold a confused expression while waiting with bated breath.
Kazuo sighs deeply as he holds both his forehead and hip. Erisa is standing behind him while fiddling with her thumbs and looking down, seemingly embarrassed.
Something crosses the mind of Kane as soon as he sees Erisa, his heart sinks as he recalls the time before winter vacation had started.
His judgement becomes clouded with frustration, sadness, and confusion. "S-she's doing the same thing she did before she..."
Kane closes his eyes. He tries to stop these thoughts from overwhelming his head. It was suffocating — he didn't want to suffer anymore... nobody would want to suffer this long.
"N-no! This isn't right... I shouldn't really think of such bad memories while she's infront of me! Hold it together, Kane!"
Erisa performs quick glances at Kane, and every glance she takes makes her fiddle her thumbs even faster.
Kane reopens his eyes and looks over at her, which causes her to act surprised. She looks somewhere else as she gets noticed, before puffing up her cheeks.
Since Erisa was now looking awau, Kane had no other point of focus.
In an unexpected turn of events, a voice rings out sounding tired, "...And that's the reason why Fujikawa-san hasn't been around lately... is what she said."
"Eh? What?"
Kane looks on with confusion. It had seemed he had completely missed out on a very important information dump quintessential to his goal of finding out why Erisa had left so suddenly.
"Oh~ Is that so? Fumu[3]~ fumu~, I suppose that explains a lot."
Kane looks over desperately at Satoshi who had just said that with an understanding expression all over his face while nodding and rubbing his chin as if he had fully accepted the situation.
"Wahh~! That is such a noble yet sad tale!"
Kane then turns over to Ayumi, even more desperate than before, staring at her impressed expression. Her mouth agape, holding both her now red cheeks with her two hands as stars begin to form in her eyes.
He then turns over to Kazuo with a crooked smile as shadows form over his eyes, before asking in a low voice, "C-could you repeat what you said, Kazuo-san? I seem to have missed quite alot..."
"What's with that scary expression?"
Kazuo remarks in a flat voice, before letting out a deep sigh, before turning over to Erisa as he noticed a small problem with this rooftop scene, "Right, it seems that you two arrived here first before the three us."
"...?" Erisa looks up at Kazuo with a surprised expression, visibly curious as to what he is about to say.
Kane on the other hand — due to being ignored by Kazuo — is now waving his arms violently behind him in an attempt to catch his attention while saying some... rather rude words that can remove the PG-13 rating of this novel, which thankfully get ignored.
"I suppose you chose the rooftop for the peace and quiet. We'll respect that choice, so we're gonna take our leave here." He glances over his shoulder for a moment to check up on Kane, before continuing, "Maybe some other time, we can eat lunch together as a group."
As soon as Kazuo finishes speaking, he bows deeply before straightening his back. He then turns to Kane, and grabs him in a way that may resemble carrying a cat under his arm. He turns over to Satoshi and nods his head as a sign for them to leave.
Satoshi nods in response and stands up, gathering up all their food before walking toward his two friends. Before he makes his way out of the door, he turns over to Ayumi and Erisa with a warm smile.
"Well, it was great seeing you again Fujikawa-san," he then turns his head over to Ayumi, his red eyes glistening with an ethereal vibe. "And also... it was great to meet you too, Okawa-san, I hope we get see each other more in the following days."
He then bows toward them, before leaving with all his friends. With the sound of a door closing, it also concludes the rooftop arc these five have been experiencing, leaving the two ladies on the rooftop to their own thoughts.
"W-what was that all about... By any chance, was that your ex-boyfriend? Fujikawa-sama?"
"So, tell me, did you experience the rom-com event where the protagonist finds themselves in a love triangle, Kane-san?"
Both Ayumi and Kazuo asked in their respective groups, and both of the questioned individuals reacted the same way even though they are a doorway and a staircase apart: with a pout while crossing their arms.
"It's none of your business."
In response, the two who had given the question awkwardly laughs. It had come to their surprise that there was no use to questioning these two since they are unwilling to budge in the slightest.
"Nevermind..."
⋆｡°✩
As the final bell rings to signify the end of the cleaning time that happens at the end of the school day, Kane pushes his chair inward before looking out the window, his eyes tracking the students currently participating in the various sports clubs.
"Sports, huh?"
He looks down at his hands which are currently holding on to his chair loosely, he smiles with a solemn expression attached to his face.
"I've never been too active in sports..."
His grip tightens as he feels something he hasn't felt in quite a long time: Jealousy. He snickers at the thought of feeling such a petty emotion.
"What is this? Am I going insane or what? This isn't characteristic of me..."
Kane looks outside once more and watches the track and field members running along the lanes marked for them.
He then shakes his head, before solidifying his stance on the matter, "Definitely not for me..."
"Ya-ho[4]~! Koyasu-san♪~!"
His eyes widen as an unfamiliar yet feminine and playful-in-tone singsong voice calls out to him, he looks over to where the voice came from, and is met with an unexpected sight.
"Inari... Kuroki-san?"
"Hai♪~! Inari Kuroki de-su♪~."
"Oi, you know some of the readers can't understand Japanese; just say, 'Yes~! The name's Kuroki Inari!' or something along the lines, ttaku[5]."
"W-what? Was that fourth wall break really necessary, Koyasu-san? Look, you even used a Japanese word as well!"
With that sudden fourth wall break, Inari waves her hand infront of her face while laughing awkwardly.
Afterwards, while she stands infront of Kane's desk, she places a hand on her hip before looking out the same window Kane has been looking out of from time-to-time.
"So... I guess we're partners now, Koyasu-san~!"
"Y-yes, I suppose so..."
An awkward silence is then shared between the two, even the distant conversations of their fellow classmates isn't enough to erase the standoffish mood these two are emanating.
"Mouu[6]~, is that all you're gonna say? Lame~."
"A-ah! My bad, Kuroki-san!"
Inari puffs up her cheeks cutely. She begins pouting as she crosses her arms below her chest while staring at Kane intently.
She begins tapping the ground using her feet as she gets impatient with Kane's temperament.
"I-na-ri desu! Just call me Inari-chan for crying out loud!"
"Oh... there we go again with the 'desu' word, did you forget what I said already?"
"Mouu~! Stop with the fourth wall breaks already! Haven't you had enough?!"
She sighs, both defeated and at a loss for words, she slams both her hands on the table as she grinds her teeth.
A vein pops out of her head as she thinks while looking down at the table, "This guy...!"
Kane clears his throat, seemingly done with playing around with the pink-haired girl infront of him.
He begins speaks in a more calm tone than usual, "So, what is it you want, Inari-chan? What do you need from me?"
Shockingly, with the sudden change of environment, Inari utilizes this moment to straighten her back and cover her mouth with her palm before clearing her throat.
She looks the boy infront of her directly in the eye with her pinkish gaze, her expression now serious, completely different to what kind of person she displayed herself as earlier and this morning.
"Koyasu-san, is it true?"
"What's true?"
"The fact that you harassed a girl during lunch time on the rooftop?"
His eyes widen as those words enter his ears, completely taken off-guard by her accusation; he looks around the room and watches as his classmates who chose to stay or other students who had come from other classrooms to visit their friends in this class are now staring at the two of them.
"W-wait, what do you mean by harass? I would never do such a thi-"
"Liar..."
"Hold on, let me explain-"
"DO YOU THINK I'M STUPID?!"
Inari screamed as she slams the desk infront of her with her palm. The sound of students muttering follows after this sudden motion.
Kane stares at her with both a tinge of confusion and anger, he knows that he did nothing wrong, yet he was being accused by someone who had no idea about the bigger picture.
"I saw everything, so did you or did you not?!"
"Damn it, why won't you let me explain..."
He begins to feel sick at his stomach, considering the fact this was his first time ever being confronted like this.
He looks down as a shadow forms over his eyes as he feels a sense of defeat nearing.
However, before all hope was lost for Kane, a third voice cuts in…
"That's enough, you two."
[1] A tsundere (ツンデレ) is a character archetype found in most anime and manga. These types of characters usually act cold, harsh, or aloof but underneath that is a rather affectionate person.
[2] The term "Eto" (えと) is a filler word, similar to the "Uh", "Er", or "Um" in English. It is used when the speaker is pausing or thinking about what to say.
[3] The term "Fumu" (ふむ) is yet another filler word; although if you are to search it up on Google, the results would say otherwise. When used in Satoshi's way, it is more so akin to "I see," or "Hmm," as it is simply just an expression.
[4] The term "Ya-ho" (ヤッホー) translates to "Yoohoo" or "Hey". It is an informal and casual way of greeting someone, and it is especially used by girls.
[5] In this situation, the term "Ttaku" (ったく) is a shortened version of "Mataku" (まったく) and is usually used in a colloquial form of speech, expressing frustration or annoyance; this roughly translates to "Good grief."
[6] The term "Mou" (もう) is an adverb that means alot of things. However, in Inari's case, it expresses irritation and frustration. Basically, "Mou" can be used to express dissatisfaction with something or someone.