"Yoshino Shizuka-san." It wasn't a question or an exclamation but simply a statement that acknowledged that she was present.
Shizuka stood still in her place gazing at Madoka, not knowing how to react to what she had just discovered.
Outside of the cheery music from the game that sounded quietly through the headphones, the room was silent.
Up until now, I've won so many speech contests but why is it that whenever I am in front of this guy, I am always struggling to find the right words to say?
Shizuka awkwardly pulled at her sleeves as she slowly retracted her gaze. "Um, you see, well I was sort of in the vicinity and had to do um, a thing." As the words left her mouth Shizuka could feel her embarrassment rising.
Why the hell did I say that? He didn't even ask!
Shizuka's eyes were nervously locked on a spot on the floor. "What are you doing here, Semi-san? Didn't you leave for the infirmary earlier?
"I did but after resting for a while, I felt better and wanted to go back to class. On my way back, I ran into Towa-sensei who needed some help sorting files. By the time we finished, it was already lunch time so I just stayed here while sensei went to get his lunch."
After Madoka finished speaking, their conversation halted to a stop.
Shizuka couldn't discern how Madoka felt in the moment but she was almost certain that she hadn't felt this awkward in her entire life. However, just before she could conjure up a reason that would allow her to exit, her phone vibrated from inside her pocket.
Shizuka immediately whipped her phone out and prayed for a miracle.
Mika: [Have you sorted things out yet? TT]
Fuyuki: [Hurry and get your butt to the courtyard! D: Mika's making us wait for you to eat. I'm DYING of hunger!!!!!! x_x]
The prayer worked! To all the ancestors, gods, and/or deities that made this happen, I thank thee with all my heart!
Shizuka hurriedly texted back a short reply of: On my way now.
After putting her phone away Shizuka glanced at Madoka. When she realized that he had been quietly observing her, she felt a tinge of embarrassment. "Well, um I guess I should go now."
A faint smile appeared on Madoka's face. "You don't have to do that thing in the vicinity anymore?"
Neither his question nor his face held hints of mockery but somehow, Shizuka couldn't help but feel even more embarrassed. "I finished it. Just now."
Then, without daring to look at his reaction, she sprinted out of the room as if she had wings on her feet.
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"The universe definitely ships you guys," Fuyuki declared whilst sprawled out underneath a large tree in the courtyard leisurely eating grapes. The three friends had made it a habit since first year to have their lunch together in the courtyard whenever the weather was nice.
Shizuka whose head was buried in her knees could only wail miserably, "In my past life I must've owed him something! That must be why he's so keen on ruining my life now!"
Mika who was searching for something in her backpack tried to comfort Shizuka by saying, "Your life isn't ruined. So you lost the first place ranking. So what?"
"So what? So everything! I've lost everything! I lost to Semi Madoka in real life and now I've lost to him in game! There's nothing left for me!"
"Which means you're going to give up on trying to beat him in the future?" Fuyuki asked.
"Of course not! I have to win something back to make up for all my previous losses! We still have a few months until graduation. Before that happens, there has to be something I could defeat him at!"
Propping herself up to a more comfortable position, Fuyuki lazily remarked, "Yeah but realistically speaking, if you had the ability to do so, you would've already beaten him don't you think?"
Shizuka tugged on the ends of her hair. "He surely can't be good at everything?"
"Oh, and yet somehow he is," drawled Fuyuki. "That's why so many girls and even some guys find him so attractive. On top of being insanely smart, athletic, and gorgeous, did you know he's also good at home ec?"
Mika who had finally found the bag of handmade cookies she was looking for in her backpack added, "Yes, I've heard about that too. When he first transferred in the second semester of first year, a bunch of girls showered him with homemade cookies, cakes and other handmade presents every day, but he never accepted any."
"Mhmm. One day one of his admirers from the home ec club got so upset that he was "denying their goodwill" that she exploded and asked why he never received anything handmade even though his fans spent so long to make them. You know how he responded?"
Seeing Fuyuki deliberately drawing out the story for unnecessary suspense, Shizuka nearly shook her friend by the shoulders. "Out with it, lady! I don't have the patience for this right now!"
"He didn't say a single word. He only briskly walked to the home ec room and pulled out baking supplies. Then, with a whole crowd watching, he began whipping up a perfect batch of cookies. While the cookies were baking in the oven, he pulled out a needle and some thread and embroidered a lifelike rose onto a nearby dish towel. His baking method and sewing techniques were so pro-level that afterwards, all his admirers lost the confidence to give him anything handmade." After completing her story, Fuyuki slowly clapped in appreciation. "A true legend."
"I heard the cookies he made were so tasty that when one girl secretly snuck one home, even her mother who was a celebrity chef praised them," added Mika.
"Yup, yup and that dish towel was auctioned off online and sold for about $500."
Shizuka's head hung low as she process what her friends were telling her. How can one person be so perfect? The heavens were truly unfair when creating Semi Madoka.
"I think there was an exam question that described this situation perfectly," mused Fuyuki."It was like fill in the blanks. What happens when an uncontrollable thing meets another thing? Something like that?"
"It's called the irresistible force paradox. It's formulated as, "What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?" Shizuka replied off-handedly.
"Right," Fuyuki nodded. "You're like the unstoppable force and Semi-san is the immovable object."
Shizuka sighed. "This is why you're ranked in the bottom half, Fuu-chan. It's called the irresistible force paradox because it's flawed. Logically, the two things can't co-exist. Though really, at this point, I'm more like the completely stoppable force being repelled by the immovable object."
The corners of Fuyuki's lips lifted. "That's true but it may not be for long. Praise me. I just came up with a shockingly great plan for how you could rival Semi Madoka."
"Really?!"
"Yup."
As she listened to the rundown of Fuyuki's plan, Shizuka's expressions rapidly changed from dumbfounded to shock to displeased to incredulous.
When Fuyuki was finished, Shizuka shouted, "Are you insane? That was your brilliant plan? Your brilliant plan is to have me actively court Semi Madoka? What sort of god awful trope filled dramas have you been filling your head with lately?"
"It's a brilliant plan!" Fuyuki huffed angrily. "If you'd ever paid attention to an otome game or read a shoujo manga, you'd know that. Don't you know the one who falls in love first always loses?"
What?
"It's a fact," Fuyuki stated as she stood up and began pacing in front of the tree like a professor giving an important lecture. "People who are in love let their guards down. You know what happens when people let their guards down?"
Shizuka and Mika simultaneously shook their heads.
"They end up making bad decisions," Fuyuki proclaimed as she knocked at the tree as if it were a chalkboard for emphasis.
"Remember Nina-senpai? Everyone thought she would get into Todai but to everyone's surprise, not only did she not get into Todai, she even failed to get into her third place choice. Would anyone like to venture a guess as to why that was?" queried Fuyuki as she gestured towards Shizuka and Mika.
Mika timidly raised her hand. "Um wasn't it because she neglected her studies?"
Fuyuki nodded. "That was partly it, but do you know why she neglected her studies?"
The two shook their heads again.
"It's because she was preoccupied with her college-aged boyfriend," answered Fuyuki. "Nina-senpai was a high ranked student but she was no genius. Without hard work and persistent effort, her results fell drastically. Thus, when exams rolled in, she bombed them. When her boyfriend found out she couldn't get into university, he didn't wait a week before dumping her for a college girl."
"Poor Nina-senpai..."
Shizuka tilted her head then, after a beat she opened her mouth. "Okay, hypothetically, even if your ridiculous logic was somehow sensible, and I'm just saying if, the plan itself only works if Semi Madoka falls in love with me."
Knowing that she had half-convinced Shizuka, Fuyuki grinned triumphantly. "See the beauty of this plan is that even if he doesn't fall heads over heels with you, as long as you're able to date him, you'd be able to dig out some of his weaknesses. Couples tend to spend a lot of time together after all. Think about it in terms of one of your games. Before conquering enemies you must first know their weaknesses."
That does make sense. Wait—am I really starting to buy this plan?
Mika, dusting her skirt free of cookie crumbs, supplemented, "I think it'd be ideal if you guys actually dated."
"There is that option too," Fuyuki acknowledged with a slight nod. "If you were going out then you'd probably lose the urge to compete with him and we'd be able to enjoy the eye candy that is Semi-san as your friends."
"Ugh. You're hopeless." At this point Shizuka stood up and began pacing. "But okay, back to the plan. How would I even to get him to date me in the first place?"
As the first warning bell rang, Mika stood up elegantly and smiled. "Leave that to me, Shii-chan. I have some ideas. Just meet me by the back gates after school."
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"Uh, what is all of this?" Shizuka asked confusedly as she peered at the piles of CD cases and manga that were arranged into small but organized towers in Mika's expansive bedroom.
After school, Mika had whisked Shizuka and Fuyuki to her estate in her family's imported vehicle and led them to her room without explaining anything.
Mika cleared her throat. "Maria-san, if you'd please."
At her call, a thirty-something year old woman dressed in a French maid outfit appeared from behind one of the mountains of items holding a clipboard. "At your service, ojou-sama."
"Thank you. Did you get all of the items I requested?"
"Yes, I've gathered everything. I took the liberty to divide them into "otome games" and "manga" and then I sorted each into their respective genres."
Mika smiled. "Thank you, Maria-san. You're reliable as always."
"It is my honour to be of use to you, ojou-sama. I will take my leave now. Please summon me if you need anything else."
Mika nodded and other woman promptly disappeared behind another tower of items.
Shizuka rubbed her eyes. It's amazing no matter how many times I see it. Are these people lowkey ninjas or what? They come and go like gusts of wind.
"Can you tell us what's going on now?" Fuyuki urged.
"Ah, right. We're going to conduct research."
"Research? On what?" questioned Shizuka.
"On the romance of high school students," informed Mika.
The what?
"You want to look at all of these, Mii-chan?" By liberal estimates, Fuyuki reckoned there must've been at least a thousand books and games in the room.
Mika giggled. "Of course not. I had them all assembled just in case but I have a list here of the bestselling otome games and shoujo manga romances of all time. We can just narrow our focus to these ones."
Shizuka frowned. "Is that practical?"
"Why wouldn't it be?" replied Mika. "After all, the plan itself was devised from otome games and shoujo manga. We're simply consulting the original source material."
"Uwah, so clever! No wonder you're ranked twentieth overall, Mii-chan!" Fuyuki gushed as she ran over to give Mika a back hug.
Mika smiled and held up a fist. "Alright, let's get to work!"
"Wait!" Fuyuki cried out suddenly.
"What is it?"
"We can't keep calling this "the plan" it's too generic. We need to give the plan a cool name."
"The plan itself is uncool," Shizuka retorted as opened a random game box.
"Actually, that's not a bad idea, Fuu-chan," responded Mika after a beat. "Every good plan needs a suitable name. Hm, while we're at it why don't we switch from calling it an operation as well? It sounds more dignified somehow."
"That's brilliant, Mii-chan. We can call it something like "Operation Shizuka Seduces the Seriously Sexy Semi!"
Shizuka glared at Fuyuki. "If you call it that, I swear to heaven and earth that I will post that picture of you from our Christmas party 3 years ago online for the world to see."
Fuyuki held up her hands. "Touchy. Touchy."
After a pause, she cried, "I got it! How about, "Operation Stealing the Heart of the School's Most Precious Eye Candy!"
"Rejected."
"Hmm, why not "Operation Capture the Flower" since Semi-san spells his given name with the characters for circle and flower and we're looking at otome games?" Mika pitched.
"Hmm, it does have a certain ring to it," said Fuyuki as she thoughtfully stroked her chin.
Shizuka grimaced. "Anything is better than "Operation Shizuka Seduces the Seriously Sexy Semi."
"Okay! From now on, Operation Capture the Flower is a go!"