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Part 4
Lunch break arrived and students in Class B began packing their stuff to either head to the school cafeteria or restaurant, or to just eat in the classroom. The classroom still felt heavy and a few of the students still distanced themselves. For example, Shinohara, who would usually eat with Kei, Satou, Matsushita and Mori, still distanced herself and decided to eat with Ike.
Some of the usual friend groups still remained, but it was obvious that a large gap was still currently in formation in the classroom. However, the recently newly formed KiyoKei group, even without Shinohara at the moment and Haruka in an extremely bad mood, was still roaming strong at least in theory.
"Ayanokouji-kun. Do you have any time to spare at the moment?"
Just as the group were getting ready to head out to Pallet Cafe for lunch, Horikita approached Kiyotaka asking if he had a moment. Naturally, since Kiyotaka was with his group, Horikita not only grabbed his attention but the rest of the others around him. It was notable that Horikita was doing her best to ignore the cold glare from Haruka.
"Well-"
"We're going to eat, sorry. I can't lend you Kiyotaka."
Kei immediately got between him and Horikita, effectively stopping her advances. She spread her hands and put her palms up at her.
"Also, I don't think it's a good idea to ask out a boy who has a girlfriend..."
"Yes, whatever. But it's not me who wants to borrow him, it's someone else. And it's not a girl either. So would you still allow me to do so?"
Undeterred by Kei's intervention, Horikita tried to push for the meeting. She pointed her phone at Kiyotaka which likely held information about the meeting. Kei, Satou and Matsushita pushed themselves in front of Kiyotaka to see what was on Horikita's phone.
"Yagami... Takuya? Who?"
"It doesn't matter who's sending the message. What's important is the text."
Kiyotaka managed to push through and see the message on Horikita's phone. It seemed to have been sent to her about an hour ago.
Can you call Ayanokouji-senpai to the student council room during lunch break? The student council president has requested it. If it's too difficult for you, please let me know and I'll come to you.
[Yagami Takuya, 11:37am]
"As a member of the student council, I have a role to perform. If a member says they have something for me to do, I can't refuse the request. It seems that the student council president Nagumo-senpai wants to see you. Did you do something to him again?"
"I haven't done anything. At least not recently..." Kiyotaka mumbled the last part quietly, ensuring no one would hear him.
"If you refuse, Yagami-kun will come here. If you still refuse, maybe the student council president Nagumo-senpai will come here. So, how should I respond?"
Horikita was just a liaison. Regardless of how Kiyotaka responded, she would just proceed with the job without hesitation. When he thought about it, there really was no choice but to just accept and go see Nagumo Miyabi in the student council. He turned back to face his group.
"Sorry guys. If I ignore the student council president's orders, the rest will be troublesome."
He apologised to them. There was not much else he could do. He knew they would understand and have no choice but to accept the current situation.
"I guess we really have no choice then. Come see us in Pallet Cafe when you're done, Kiyotaka. We'll save a seat for you."
Reluctantly, Kei led everyone out of the classroom to have lunch. Kiyotaka then turned to Horikita who he saw mumbling something quietly in either astonishment or disgust.
"I'll be on my way there then. It's the student council room, right?"
"Yes. I'll report that to Yagami-kun."
"If you're exchanging contact information at the student council, wouldn't it be faster if the student council president Nagumo contacted you directly without going through Yagami?"
"The only person who exchanged contact information on the chat app in the student council is Yagami-kun because Yagami-kun requested it directly."
It sounded weird for a student council to not exchange contact information with its members. If there was ever a situation where each member needed to contact the other member, it would make sense to contact them directly if they had shared that information. However, it seemed that couldn't be done here. However, that wasn't Kiyotaka's problem so he didn't think too much of it.
He left the classroom with Horikita in tow. But when they got to the hallway, the two parted ways but not without Horikita adding: "I don't know what kind of reason you have, but I recommend that you try not to make him angry as much as possible."
As he walked through the school's hallways, Kiyotaka went back to his thoughts. For some reason, this reminded him of back when his father would randomly call him in the middle of his White Room curriculum activities. Before his change, he would usually be hanging out with Suzuki Shizuku, Ryuugo Tatsuya and Tousaka Haruno either playing a game of children's tag or reading some books they managed to snag from the White Room's library.
Every time he would be called by his father, the two would cause a dark atmosphere that his father's attendant would always dejectedly point out. He knew the exact same atmosphere wouldn't happen with him and Nagumo, but Kiyotaka couldn't help but wonder if something similar might happen.
A couple minutes later, Kiyotaka arrived in front of the student council room and knocked softly on the door. Soon after, the voice of Nagumo saying "come in" was heard from inside and Kiyotaka turned the door knob, opened the door and entered giving an "excuse me" before doing so. As he looked around, as expected, there was no other figure inside the student council room except for Nagumo Miyabi himself.
"Yo, Ayanokouji. Have you noticed any changes in your life lately?" Nagumo asked with a smirk as Kiyotaka stood near the front desk.
"Nothing in particular has changed... or I'd like to say so, but well, I do have some issues here and there."
Constant stares on Kiyotaka were nothing new to him. Being the "masterpiece" of the White Room, he was prone to constant stares from his peers and from people behind the glass. So the constant stares he was getting from the third years only felt like a fly just buzzing around his face and wouldn't go away.
Kiyotaka also intentionally didn't mention the information Nanase Tsubasa handed him about the revival of the "expel Ayanokouji Kiyotaka" special exam that should have ended already.
But when Kiyotaka mentioned the problems, he wasn't exactly talking about being the most famous junior who challenged and poked Nagumo to the upperclassmen. Rather, he was more talking about the instances that happened recently in his class. Of course, unless Nagumo actually went and investigated it, he wouldn't know about this.
"As the student council president, I can help you with those problems, you know?"
"It may just be a passing issue. I'll ask for your help when I'm really in trouble."
"Hmm hmm." Nagumo's smirk didn't waver as he continued staring at Kiyotaka. After the small pause, he spoke again. "I bet you've already heard about the rules of the sports festival, right? It's time for our direct confrontation, Ayanokouji. I want you to be your class's commander and fight me in the commander events."
[So this is why he called me here?] Kiyotaka thought as he raised his eyebrows at Nagumo's provocation.
"I don't want to waste my time on you too much, so I want to make sure we battle as soon as possible. If you manage to win against me in the commander events, I'll stop everything that I've been doing against you since the start of the year."
It seemed that Nagumo was quite confident that he would win. Being the student council president and a previous football club member, it would be safe to say he was fairly adept at winning against many top players in the school, even the previously elected student council president Horikita Manabu.
"Win against you in the commander events, huh?"
"You seem to think that is a simple task. Is it that easy for you?"
"Saying it's too easy would be a lie. However, I do have confidence in myself to think that I won't exactly lose."
At this point, it wouldn't make sense anymore to just hide his abilities and confidence. It was too late to continue playing like an idiot. Nagumo right now was an enemy he did not want to deal with, especially with his father on the horizon, the second White Room student and, of course, Kushida.
"I see. Haha. I look forward to our battle then. I'll use a bit of influence to ensure your class nominates you as the commander. After all, they'll just nominate Suzune since she's your leader."
"There will be no need for that Nagumo-senpai. I have already been chosen as Class B's commander by our very own class."
Nagumo was surprised for a moment, but his smirk soon returned back to his face and he laughed again.
"If that is all Senpai, may I be excused here?"
"Don't be so hasty. Or do you have plans after this? Since I called you, you didn't make any promises to be anywhere, did you?"
"Well..." Kiyotaka paused for a moment. He didn't want to just say he had a meeting with his girlfriend, especially after what Nagumo said on the cruise ship when he crashed Kiyotaka's meeting with Ichinose.
"You should introduce me to your girlfriend sometime. I'd like to see her face at least once."
While quite innocent words to say to someone, with the way Nagumo was acting that day, it was an obvious cheap provocation to say that he would target Kei if he needed to. Kiyotaka remembered how dark his eyes went after he was left alone from that meeting, but that wasn't important right now to remember.
The important fact was Kiyotaka wanted to protect Kei as much as possible. Giving Nagumo any information that he doesn't already have, such as how much he hangs out with Kei or how much he loves her would be a devastating blow against him in the future. He decided to just keep quiet on meeting up with Kei and the rest of the KiyoKei Group.
"I don't exactly have any plans."
"Aha, that's a relief to hear."
Nagumo was talking while occasionally checking something on his phone. He had no intention of releasing Kiyotaka yet, but Kiyotaka couldn't help but wonder what Nagumo was doing on his phone.
"Excuse me."
From the other side of the door, a sweet voice was heard. The last time Kiyotaka heard this voice was just last week. The opened door revealed a pink haired girl known as Ichinose Honami. She was carrying a plastic bag in her hand.
"Sorry for the wait, Nagumo-senpai."
"Ah, don't even worry about it. I'm sorry I couldn't come with you to buy lunch today."
"Don't worry about that... Oh Ayanokouji-kun. I didn't know you were having lunch with us today."
Ichinose glanced at Kiyotaka, who was comparatively standing next to Nagumo, and, unexpectedly to Nagumo, she gave a warm smile to Kiyotaka.
"Lunch?"
"Oh. Nagumo-senpai and I have been having lunch almost every day in the student council room." Ichinose explained to Kiyotaka, who was a little confused about the lunch part, with her smile still present.
"Ah- ...Well I've been keeping my right-hand man busy." Nagumo stuttered a little bit, but recovered quickly and sent a wink to Ichinose.
From what Kiyotaka could understand at this moment, Nagumo's plan was to show Kiyotaka that the rift between him and Ichinose, which Nagumo had caused, had allowed Nagumo and Ichinose to get closer. Nagumo wanted to show off that relationship and show Kiyotaka that now that he had broken off his and Ichinose's relationship, he would use his own to take control of Ichinose.
However, what Nagumo didn't expect was for Kiyotaka and Ichinose to fix their breaking relationship. The two were not exactly back to the old relationship they had, but it was close enough to the point where it seemed that Ichinose seemed to enjoy his company. Seeing that he couldn't make use of that, Nagumo looked a little annoyed but he kept that to himself.
"Nagumo-senpai said we had a visitor today. Ayanokouji-kun, since you're here, are you going to join us for lunch?"
Ichinose appeared to be carrying three lunch boxes in the bag in her hand, at least from what Kiyotaka could see when he grabbed a small peek. He needed to meet up with Kei and the rest soon, but if it was for a short conversation during lunchtime, it wouldn't be problematic for him to stay here. Nagumo's plan had already been foiled the moment his very own "weapon" entered the student council room.
Plus, with how Ichinose was currently, it was probably best that he accepted the invitation to stay and have lunch with her and Nagumo.
"If you're alright with having me for a bit. Please excuse me."
Kiyotaka reluctantly took a seat at the meeting table. Ichinose sat opposite him while Nagumo took the presidential seat. Ichinose began handing out the lunchboxes. Opening the lunchbox, Kiyotaka found a healthy Tonkatsu Bento Box seemingly prepared by the supermarket. It consisted of pork tonkatsu, potato salad mixed with ham for freshness, tomato and cucumber slices, lettuce and rice combined with black sesame seeds.
"Itadakimasu," they all said before digging in.
"The rules are very different from last year. You've heard about them now too, right Ayanokouji-kun?"
Ichinose started up a conversation as Kiyotaka and, surprisingly to her, Nagumo were a bit silent.
"Yes. The new rules seem to make this year's sports festival both more engaging and more intense. It seems Senpai has done a good job in pushing for the school to adopt a new sports festival."
"I'm glad and rather grateful that they accepted my idea. If we had held the sports festival with the exact same rules as last year, my win would have been too easy."
The three of them conversed while eating. Despite taking moments to talk with Ichinose and Nagumo, Kiyotaka was far ahead with his bento box. As he was getting close to finishing, he felt his phone vibrate, indicating he just received a message. It was most likely Kei asking if he was still on his way.
As Kiyotaka finished the last part of his bento box, he looked at Ichinose and Nagumo only to see they were just getting to three quarters of their bento box.
"I apologise, but something just came up and I need to get going. Should I leave the lunchbox here?" Kiyotaka said as he stood up from his seat.
"Oh? You seem like a busy man, Ayanokouji. Well either way, you can just leave the box there. Honami and I will deal with it."
Kiyotaka nodded at Nagumo's orders and left the lunchbox on the desk. As he made his way towards the exit, he gave a glance to Ichinose and she smiled back at him.
"I wish you could've stayed a little longer Ayanokouji-kun, but if you're busy then I can't really do anything about it. We should have lunch again some time," she said.
Kiyotaka only barely saw Nagumo grip the table a bit, probably a little annoyed that his plan to control Ichinose failed yet again.
"I don't mind doing this again. Excuse me."
With that said, Kiyotaka left the room, giving a wave as he did, and closed the door behind him. However, before he closed the door, he saw another third year student who gave him an "interesting" look before passing him and entering the room.
Kiyotaka couldn't help but wonder what that look was all about. It wasn't like all the stares all the other third year students gave him whenever he just existed in their presence. For some reason, Kiyotaka couldn't help but feel that the student's look felt like they were calling out to him.
[Perhaps I'm thinking about this too much.] He thought.
As he began walking towards the entrance of the school to head to Pallet Cafe, Kiyotaka went back to his thoughts. His relationship with Ichinose was now better, but it seemed that Ichinose was hanging around Nagumo a lot more now.
Will becoming a part of Nagumo lead to the growth of Ichinose Honami? This question kept coming up in his head. Back in first year, Kiyotaka prevented Nagumo from taking control of Ichinose during the class vote exam. That was the best option available to her, better than becoming the romantic partner of Nagumo just so she could save her class.
But now, he wasn't sure if sticking around Nagumo was such a bad idea after all. Even if Nagumo was absolutely obsessed with Ichinose, if it led to her growth, then it may not be a problem.
"I'm thinking about it too much..."
Ichinose was the only one who could come up with the answer. Right now, her relationship with both Nagumo and Kiyotaka were good. Whether she would seek help from either of the two, or grow by herself, only she would be able to figure out what her future held.
[But I do need to think about what she could do with the student council... Perhaps...]
Kiyotaka continued on his way to Pallet Cafe. He didn't need to think about that now. Right now, his focus needed to be on what he would do for the sports festival. With an upcoming battle with Nagumo, he needed to prepare himself for what the Commander Events would hold.
A/N:
Nagumo challenged Kiyotaka finally and Kiyotaka accepted. Nagumo also tried to show his superiority over Kiyotaka here too, but failed because Kiyotaka's relationship with Ichinose improved even after rejection. How will this affect their battle in the sports festival? And who is this person who gave him an interesting look upon entering the student council room? Maybe we may find out?
- rainy26541 (G-String)