Ayanokouji POV
After the final race, Tokugawa-sensei let us use the remaining twenty minutes to play around and do what we want. Before I could do anything though, I was immediately swarmed by the girls and started asking me questions. As a matter of fact, the boys did the same and I actually felt overwhelmed.
It felt like last week all over again, when I became a popular discussion within the classroom, all because I got a perfect score in the entrance exams. But this time, it was way worse.
Hirata tried to help me by putting some distance our classmates and I, but it did nothing because he was swarmed by some of the girls as well.
I was only able to slip away when I told everyone that I needed to go to the restroom, causing them to turn their attention somewhere else that's not me.
Of course, instead of doing that, I went to the locker room to be alone. It's a shame that I won't be able to enjoy the remainder of our swimming class at the pool area, but it's nothing big. This obviously won't be the only time that we'll be having this class, anyway.
I grabbed one of the clean towels that were there and headed to the showers. Since I won't be returning to the pool anytime soon, I might as well clean myself up and get dressed before everyone gets here.
After having a quick shower, I put on my school uniform and sat down on one of the benches. There was still at least five minutes left before swimming class ends, so I'll just wait things out right here. Once everyone else arrives, I'll tell them that I'll be heading back to our classroom first. For sure, if I stay here, I'll be flooded with questions from my eager classmates once again.
My phone then vibrated from inside my pocket. I gave it a quick check and noticed that Matsushita had sent me a message.
[Matsushita:] Are you sure you can handle being popular, Ayanokouji-kun? I saw you being overwhelmed earlier by our classmates.
Hm, I don't recall Matsushita being one of the people who were eager to ask questions about me. If my memory serves me right, she was only swimming in the pool when I got hounded by our classmates.
How thoughtful of her.
[Ayanokouji:] If I wasn't sure that I can handle this kind of attention, then I wouldn't have given my all in winning the race. I knew it was going to happen from the start.
[Matsushita:] Still, what you did was an amazing feat. So you can't really blame everyone for asking you questions.
[Ayanokouji:] Yes, I know. I've been hearing that a lot today. I only hope this is temporary, and everything can go back to normal by tomorrow or the next few days.
[Matsushita:] Hopefully. I wouldn't want to go through that if it was me.
Hm, this is curious. Why would Matsushita send me a message right now, of all times? I don't think she has ever sent me a message that isn't a simple greeting. Of course, I could be wrong and the truth is that Matsushita really wanted to speak with me, but I think there's a particular reason why she's instigating a conversation between us through the phone.
She could always talk to me later on because we still have another class after this, yet she chose to send a message. She could have tried to speak with me earlier as well, but she was busy swimming in the water. I may be wrong, but I think that she has something to say to me that she doesn't want anyone else to hear.
[Ayanokouji:] Cut to the chase. What is this about?
[Matsushita:] Aw, come on. I'm just trying to see how you're doing after that fiasco earlier. It's natural for friends to check on each others' well-being, right?
[Ayanokouji:] Then if that's the case, I'm turning off my phone now. I'm perfectly fine, as you may have noticed. See you at the classroom later.
[Matsushita:] Wait, wait, don't go just yet!
Would you look at that? It looks like I was right. She does have another intention behind all this, though now I'm wondering what it could be.
[Ayanokouji:] I thought you only wanted to check on how I'm doing?
[Matsushita:] Okay, you got me. I really wanted to check on you, but I also want to ask you something.
[Ayanokouji:] Which is?
[Matsushita:] Are you free tomorrow after class?
I raised an eyebrow slightly out of curiosity. This is something that I never expected to come out of Matsushita but then again, she already surprised me earlier with those suggestive looks that she was giving me.
[Ayanokouji:] I believe I am. Why are you asking?
[Matsushita:] Do you want to hang out at the cafe for a bit tomorrow? If you're not up to it, it's fine. I know I'm asking this out of nowhere, so I understand if you don't want to.
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Is she asking me out on a date? It feels like she is, but now I'm confused..... isn't the guy supposed to be the one who asks out the girl on a date? Why is she doing it instead of me? Not that I would mind asking her out myself.
In any case, if the events earlier wasn't enough to prove it, I guess this conversation does.
Matsushita has a crush on me, and she's rivals with Karuizawa and Sato for my feelings, I suppose..... along with other girls in this school. Because of that, she's trying to get ahead of them by asking me to hang out with her. I can't say I'm surprised, because she wasn't exactly being subtle about her advances earlier.
Should I accept, though? I know that if I do, it will only create more problems, especially if Karuizawa and Sato find out about it. The worst case scenario would be my classmates making a big deal out of it.
[Ayanokouji:] I have no problem with that arrangement. Are there any other people included?
[Matsushita:] Nope. It's just the two of us.
So it really is a date. My first date with a girl who happens to be my classmate and I'm not even the one who asked her out. How embarrassing.
[Ayanokouji:] Wouldn't that make Karuizawa and Sato angry? You three looked like you were about to fight each other earlier, honestly.
[Matsushita:] Ah, don't worry about them. We were just bantering around earlier, nothing serious. Besides, I'm sure that they're planning to ask you if you want to hang out with them, just like me. Did one of them message you already?
[Ayanokouji:] No, they didn't.
[Matsushita:] Then that makes me the first! Are we good to go tomorrow then?
I thought about what to give her as an answer. On one hand, going on a date with Matsushita is a one-way ticket to more problems, especially now that I am aware of my popularity with girls.
I don't even want to think about what might happen if someone sees me on a date with Matsushita tomorrow..... it would probably cause chaos between her and her friends, not to mention the possible rumors that would circulate around here like the one about me and Horikita dating.
On the other hand, I would be a fool to turn down Matsushita. She's one of the most beautiful girls in our class, and she just asked me out on a date.
Admittedly, I haven't thought of what it would be like if I had her as a girlfriend yet. But, I'm sure any guy would be lucky to date her, just like Ichinose.
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Hm, I suppose I'll deal with the repercussions of my actions when they happen in the future. I'll also be figuring out how to deal with all of this later on, so I'll simply give her an honest answer right now.
[Ayanokouji:] Sure, why not?
[Matsushita:] Great! Thanks for agreeing, Ayanokouji-kun. See you later at the classroom. ♥️
With that, our conversation ended right there. I turned off my phone and leaned back, staring at the ceiling in deep thought. Any minute now, my classmates are gonna arrive and most likely go back to bombarding me with questions, but I don't really care anymore.
There's no going back now. I already gave her my word, and it would leave a sour taste in my mouth if I back out all of sudden.
I'm going on a date tomorrow, which will more than likely end up causing more problems for me. However, I couldn't let myself pass up on the opportunity to be able to go out with a girl.
Tomorrow, I'll be going on my first date, and it's with Matsushita Chiaki.
3rd Person POV
After their last class for the day ended, Kiyotaka immediately headed back to the dorms while ignoring everything else that was going on around him. Like what he expected, his classmates tried to surround him and ask questions regarding what happened during today's swimming class, but he declined answering any of them and simply excused himself before walking away.
As soon as he reached his dorm room, Kiyotaka took off his shoes and immediately lied down on his bed. The young man felt pleased and relieved that he was finally able to get some rest after a tiring day in class, only for it to get interrupted when he felt something vibrating in his pocket.
Sighing to himself, he brought out his phone and looked at whoever sent him a message now, of all times.
Matsushita C.: 1 new message!
Kiyo: Matsushita? I wonder what she wants to say now. Probably has something to do with our little meetup tomorrow.
Speaking of which, when classes resumed after their swimming class, Chiaki didn't talk to him and only sent him a smile when she saw him. It's like they didn't even talk through the phone about spending time together tomorrow after school, but he could understand her reason why. Talking to him will only make Kei and Maya suspicious of her and cause them to do the same.
With that, he came to two conclusions. She either chose to stay quiet to save him from having to deal with her friends, or she simply didn't want to draw attention to herself by talking to him, especially if they talked about their meeting that was due tomorrow.
[Matsushita:] I hope you're already back in your dorm while reading this. We won't be heading straight to the cafe tomorrow, by the way. Maya-chan and Kei-chan will surely try to invite me to hang out with them, so I'll have to make up an excuse to tell them first. I'll meet you somewhere else before we head to the cafe together. Sounds good?
[Ayanokouji:] I'm fine with that arrangement. Why don't you decide the place where you'll meet me?
[Matsushita:] Are you sure about that? I think it'll be better if you choose the place instead.
[Ayanokouji:] I don't really feel like thinking right now. I want to rest.
[Matsushita:] Ah, I think I know why. Sorry for bothering you then. I'll just send you the place later, so you can have some time to yourself for now. Sweet dreams, Ayanokouji-kun!
And with that, Kiyotaka turned off his phone and placed it on his drawer before going back to his earlier position, sprawled on the bed and staring up at the ceiling.
Kiyo: I can't say I'm not looking forward to tomorrow, but I just know that it'll be a huge issue among my classmates when word gets out that I was on a date with Matsushita.
If only he had nothing to worry about tomorrow, Kiyotaka can safely say that he would end up enjoying a date with Chiaki. Why wouldn't he? Matsushita was a beautiful girl, and she's a cool person to hang out with. If there was a chance that she would confess to him, he might even think of accepting it and go out with Chiaki for real.
Unfortunately, the universe had a certain problem with him and refused to give him a day's worth of peace, even for just a few hours.
Kiyo: Even if we try to be secretive, there's no way I can prevent other people from knowing, especially since a lot of students are aware of what I look like now. The only way I can think of to prevent that would be to wear a disguise, but that's ridiculous.
The young man continued to stare at the ceiling while drifting away in his thoughts, with nothing but his current situation in mind.
Kiyo: All right, time to think. Going on a date tomorrow means that it's gonna bring in problems with other girls, because I'm popular with them. Sato and Karuizawa are two of them, but I'm sure that there are more.....
Sitting up from his bed, Kiyotaka grabbed a sheet of paper from his bag and began to write down a list of names off the top of his head.
1. Horikita Suzune
2. Matsushita Chiaki
3. Kushida Kikyo
4. Karuizawa Kei
5. Ichinose Honami
6. Himeno Yuki
7. Sato Maya
After one week of being in this school, these seven girls were the ones who stood out the most in his mind, in terms of who spent the most time with him. Or at least, in terms of who were the people who expressed an interest in him of some sort.
Kiyo: I'm not sure about some of them, but these are the girls that I've encountered whom I feel have an interest in me at the very least.
Suzune was a complete mystery. For sure, she doesn't see him as a potential romantic partner since she was clearly focused on her goal, but she did go as far as referring to him as her friend. That's already a big thing for someone like her. Plus, out of all the names he listed, she was the one whom he talks to the most.
Chiaki was the first person he met who was a student of this school, and they were actually classmates. There's no need to think hard on her, because it's clear that she's interested in him in a romantic sense. She wouldn't have asked him out on a date if she didn't.
In Kikyo's case, he had no idea if she was even interested in him, but she did ask for his help when she wanted to befriend Suzune. He wasn't going to deny that he thought of her as someone cute and beautiful, someone who could probably command the boys of the class to kneel before her if she wanted to. Plus, giving her a headpat was a very pleasant experience.
Kei was a weird case, if he had to be honest. She tried, but failed to get him to pretend to be a boyfriend, after which she proceeded to tell him about her traumatic past. While he felt bad for what the girl had to go through, he still didn't give in to her wish. Despite that, she proceeded to claim that she'll continue to try and make him her boyfriend. A real one, that is. Out of all of the people he's met in this school, she was the only one who calls him by his name.
Honami may be a student from another class, but didn't mean she meant little in his eyes. Right off the bat, she was kind and friendly to him but those weren't her only qualities. She also showed great potential as a student, which was proved by the fact that she was also a class leader like him. For that, he chose to help her by opening her eyes to the obvious flaws in her ways and was pleased when she listened to him. She was also a beautiful girl, one of the most beautiful ones he has ever met even, and he wouldn't mind at all if she became his girlfriend.
Yuki was another weird case, though more on the bizarre side. From the moment they met, she never stopped scowling at him to the point that he actually thought he did something wrong to her. However, he was proven wrong in his assumptions when she kissed him out of nowhere, and proceeded to suck his face off which he enjoyed deep down. He wasn't sure if she liked him romantically but since she blatantly admitted that she wanted to kiss him ever since they met, he could safely say that Yuki was interested, at the very least.
Lastly, Maya. She was a cool person to hang out with from all the times they ate lunch together with Kei and Chiaki, but he never would have guessed that she had a crush on him. Since she didn't deny what Kei said earlier, there's no reason for him to think otherwise now. Perhaps all the times that they ate lunch at the same table was her tactic of getting closer to him, who knows?
And that's not even all of them. If Kikyo's words and the results of that 'Ikemen rankings' poll were to be believed, then a lot of the girls who are in the same grade had their attention towards him.
Ayanokouji stared at the sheet of paper in his hands, especially at the names that he just wrote. In the instance that he gets a girlfriend, he had a feeling that these seven people will react strongly to it, and possibly in a negative way too. There's no telling how other girls would react to it, though.
Kiyo: My current situation is eerily similar to the events that happen in the novels I've read..... where the main character is surrounded with girls who have feelings for him. In other words, a harem situation.
As a matter of fact, it was exactly like the High School DxD and Infinite Stratos novels which he has read. The main characters were surrounded by girls left and right who all had feelings for them, but neither one didn't do anything to deal with their situations most of the time, and he wasn't like that. Kiyotaka wanted to resolve his problem right away and he wasn't going to sit around without doing anything.
Kiyo: If only I could ask Hirata how he deals with this, but he would be unreliable. Unlike me, he can properly convey his emotions and he can smile. The best thing I can do is smirk and that won't do anything.
Although not as much as him, Hirata was also dealing with the same problem. The only difference between them was that he continues to smile and treat his situation like it wasn't a bother. Sure, it may be because he didn't have as many girls chasing after him, but Ayanokouji felt that he knew how to handle them. That being said, Hirata was unlike him in the sense that he can show his emotions openly.
Kiyo: I don't regret all the decisions I've made in this school so far, but why me? Hirata can handle this thing far better than I could. Why can't he be the one with a harem of girls following him around? I never asked for this, even. All I wanted was to be able to learn how to love another person and perhaps get girlfriend along the way. I didn't want a harem like a full-fledged protagonists from one of the novels I've read.
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......and then, it hit him.
There were already three of his classmates who basically revealed that they had a crush on him, a girl from Class-B who kissed him, and several others who were surely interested in him. Because of the goal that he had for himself, he can't retreat into the shadows and he wasn't going to give up on what he wanted. He could literally choose to go out with any of those girls, however, it would incite problems from those who liked him.
For instance, if he dated Matsushita, her friends are going to be jealous of her. It might even cause a rift in their relationship and he didn't want that to happen. Who knows how other people would react to that scenario? One thing's for sure, dating a girl will bring him both attention and more problems after it happens.
But what if he went for another approach?
Kiyo: What if..... I simply embrace this situation for what it is?
What if he were to simply accept his fate and treat this like it wasn't a problem, but rather a way to accomplish his goal? What if he were to simply accept that he was no different from a typical harem protagonist now, and accept his fate as one?
His goal was to learn about love, wasn't it? He could do just that with the amount of girls who were interested in him. If one of them couldn't provide him with the answer that he wanted, then he could try with another one, then another, then another, and so on.
To his own surprise, Kiyotaka wasn't against the idea at all. In fact, he was interested in thinking about this deeply.
Kiyo: That's right. Why should I settle for less, when I could have more?
He wouldn't have to choose anyone, no one gets jealous, and everyone would be satisfied. The only problem he'd have to deal with would be the inevitable attention it would bring him, having a harem of his own, but he was already getting used to being famous.
That wouldn't even be the best part. The most enjoyable thing about it would be the fact that he can enjoy the benefits of having multiple girlfriends. No, he wasn't thinking of anything perverted about that idea (at least not yet), just the fact that he would be surrounded by people who were all romantically involved with him. As a matter of fact, the normal boy in him was already hooked at the thought of Matsushita, Ichinose, and Kushida being his girlfriends.
Of course, he knew that harems can only happen in fiction (Oh, you poor innocent soul) and not in real life because that would be a social taboo, but was that really a good reason for him not to do this? He was the masterpiece of the White Room, something as insignificant as a taboo was below him. He could do this if he wanted to, and nobody can stop him. Not even that man.
Speaking of which, that man would even lose his mind when he finds out that his masterpiece has a flock of girls following him around and didn't mind it. Then he would go crazy when he finds out that his masterpiece has actually fallen in love.
Kiyo: I like the sound of that..... what I wouldn't give to see the reaction on that man's face when it happens.
Kiyotaka's lip curled up slightly into a smirk as he imagined the look on that man's face when he sees his son having a harem of beautiful girls. The more he thought about it, the more comfortable the idea became, and the more he actually wanted it.
Kiyo: I guess that settles it. To think I would be no different than the characters that I have read about. It even feels like that I'm inside a light novel myself. What a wonderful feeling that would be.
On the outside, the young man's face remained neutral but on the inside, he was laughing in amusement at the sheer absurdity of this situation and the fact that he was going through with what he had in mind.
Ayanokouji then grabbed his bag, pulling out an unused notebook before beginning to write.
Kiyo: .....starting today, my Harem Plan begins.
~XoX~
And...... it's official! Our boy finally accepts his fate as a harem protagonist and even embraces it. Now he's going for the harem route and getting the girls one-by-one, wouldn't that be a sight to see? Imagine Ayanopapa seeing him surrounded by girls and Kiyo kisses them each without a care in the world. His dad might have to commit seppuku if that happens, lmao. Not only that, he's also going on a date with Matsushita while having the harem plan in mind. Wonder if that's gonna go well, or will they get interrupted? Hopefully not, but we'll see! Oh, who am I kidding? We all know he'll easily have her at the palm of his hand, lol.
愛しています！