COTE Fanfic(lol)

Girl Talk(?) [A Secret Relationship?]

A continuation of Volume 11.5 Chapter 5, Matsushita's Suspicion. The events take place after Y2V1.

Matsushita POV

"Over here Matsushita-san!"

The voice of Sato Maya called out to me as I made my way to our designated rendezvous point. Right now, I was at a Café in Keyaki mall looking for my usual small group consisting of Sato, Shinohara, and a bit more rare, Kariuzawa.

"Heyyy! Sorry I'm late..."

"It's alright, come sit."

When I arrived, I could confirm the presence of all 3 girls, it seems I was the last to arrive. 3 days have passed since the end of the first special exam along with the reveal of a certain student's secret. Although we came on the premise of playing like usual, my main reason for coming was something else.

"So Shinohara-san, I've noticed that you and Ike-kun have gotten closer recently."

To start things off, I decided to initiate the talks on love, much like last time.

"!!.. Why do you always start with this?"

"Oh come on, what's the harm? As girls, we're interested in these types of things, right Sato-san?"

Sato, who seems to be on board nodded.

".. I-I mean what's the point of talking about him, we just argue like always, and..."

Shinohara was flustered and immidiently went silent. The other girls and I looked at each other with a twinkle in our eyes.

"What what?! Something special happened didn't it?"

"Tell us, tell us!"

"Come on Shinohara-san!"

Her gaze began to swim around trying desperately to avoid the topic. This however, was alright as it was what I was hoping for. In these situations, Shinohara would always...

"Forget about me, w-what about you Matsushita, you said that your taste in guys changed a bit before, did you have someone in mind?"

"What? I never heard anything about this!"

Karuizawa was absent from our last meeting, so it wouldn't be wierd for her to ask about this.

"Lets see, what was it you said again? 'I'd prefer a senpai, but if a student in our grade met the criteria, I wouldn't mind.'"

"Criteria?"

"Yeah, she said something like that they had to be first class in looks and personality, as well as top tier with grades and athleticism with a good family."

The girls were deep in thought trying to remember what I said at the time with the exception of one.

"But isn't that like, impossible? How would anyone fit those requirements, not even class A guys could right?"

Contrary to her words, Karuizawa who said her opinion, looked to be in a daze, as if she was thinking of someone. This was an opportunity to start the route of conversation which I had been aiming for since the beginning.

"Ah- speaking of being top-tier in academics, do you all remember who got first place in math?"

"Y-yeah..."

Shinohara, who had brought up the topic was reluctantly followed by Sato. The atmosphere suddenly changed as I noticed that both Sato and Karuizawa averted their gaze from each other.

I guess it wouldn't be a surprise for Sato to do so as the person she still liked had rumors going around that he liked the girl sitting in front of her, but what caught my attention was Karuizawa's movements.