An Anthology of KiyoKei

After the Harsh Summer Exam

As for the rest of the time, if you're not required to attend a session, you were free to do what you wanted. Even Horikita acknowledged that to keep motivation high, they needed breaks.

To compensate for the time used, we were given a day of break after every three days of physical training and study sessions to recuperate and refresh ourselves.

Today was one of those break days.

Despite the fact that the sessions were on break, Kei and I had decided to just spend the day indoors. Currently, we were in my room, studying a bit to get Kei's academic work caught up.

"Ahhh mouuuu! Ne~, Kiyotaka, why are we spending the day indoors? And studying at that!? We've already revealed that we're dating. We should take the opportunity to finally go out on a real date!"

Kei was slumping over the small table I had in my room. Right now, books and notebooks were flipped open and papers were scattered all over the table.

As Kei had said, we revealed to the class that we had been dating in secret. The reason for that had to do with what happened during the special exam. 

Right after the exam had ended, once Kei had found out about what had happened, she had hugged me out of relief, both for herself and me. She was so concerned for me that she ended up crying into my chest. At that time, I couldn't help but be moved by her concern, so I ended up hugging her back.

Unfortunately, we ended up being spotted by Sotomura. Kei was so out of it from relief that she didn't notice him, and I couldn't let go of Kei, so when we were spotted, I couldn't stop Sotomura from leaving.

At first, I hoped Sotomura would keep it to himself, but he apparently ended up bumping into possibly one of the worst people to bump into in this case: Ichihashi Ruri. Although they weren't really close, he ended up spilling the beans about what he saw.

Soon enough, rumors started going around, and once I told Kei about it, she said she didn't care anymore. 

She didn't want to hide our relationship anymore. She wanted to be able to stay by my side always, without having to keep it secret. She wanted to let people know that I was taken and she won't let anyone get between us.

Because of that, we ended up having to explain to the class how we got together after Horikita's strategy meeting, leaving out most of the important details of our relationship, of course.

That was how we ended up revealing our relationship to the class.

"I'd like to do that, but do you really want to go outside and get roasted by the heat?"

It was currently 40 degree Celsius outside. It was arguably one of the hottest days Tokyo has seen in recent times. No sane person would stay outside an airconditioned room in this temperature.

"....No, but why are we stuck studying!? I just finally got a break from being forced to study and exercise too."

Despite being known as the leader of the girls and having high social skills, Kei had comparably poor academic and physical skills as shown by the OAA app, thus she was forcibly conscripted into the training programs by Horikita.

"Well, this is for the future, Kei. Considering the special exams we have been encountering this year and the rate at which the difficulty is spiking, if another exam like this occurs, we can't guarantee we'll pass safely." 

"Still... we can finally be open with our relationship. I really wanted to do stuff together as lovers..."

I could understand Kei's frustration. After having dated in secret for so long, avoiding meeting up in public, not going on any dates, and being forced to keep a distance for the sake of appearances, we ended up in this situation where we weren't doing anything couple-like.