Volume 17, Chapter 4: Part 3  

After escaping from the electronics store just before, Satou stopped in front of the girls’ restroom to catch her breath.

“Ughh, why did I run off!”

Her dear friend was going out with the guy she liked. There was nothing wrong with that. She knew that, but when she saw them arm in arm, an unspeakable urge had hit her. She didn’t know what kind of attitude she’d end up taking if she’d stayed there any longer. That thought had made her run off so suddenly, but now she felt terribly guilty about it.

She sat down there, hugging her knees.

“I’ll have to try not to panic next time…”magic

Since she was like this, there was no doubt that Kei-chan was also toning it down with Ayanokouji-kun in the classroom. Otherwise, she would have wanted to cling onto him, so, so much more. So she thought, and when she stood up a shadow fell on her.

“Excuse me for butting in, but are you Satou Maya-senpai?”

Faced with an unfamiliar student calling out to her, Satou was flustered.

“Yes, I am, but… Erm, who are you? You must be a first-year, right?”

“I don’t think who I am matters very much right now. The thing is, there’s an urgent message I have to pass onto you, Satou-senpai. Can you please spare me some of your time?”

“E-eh? What do you mean?”

She was confused by this unfamiliar junior who said they had something to tell her. The sight of Ayanokouji and Karuizawa clinging to each other wasn’t fully out of the back of her mind yet, so she wasn’t able to calm down.

“It has to do with Ayanokouji-senpai.”

But when she heard those words, she stopped shaking.

“… Ayanokouji-kun?”

“Yes. With him, and his girlfriend, Karuizawa Kei-senpai.”

When they named the two people who were taking up 99% of her brain’s processing capacity, Satou subconsciously turned to look at them. As they slowly closed on her, she grew slightly nervous.

“Can you please come with me, so we can go somewhere else and discuss this comfortably, just the two of us?”

“That’s…”

The first year student nimbly drew up to her, until they were so close their lips were almost at her ear.

“If Karuizawa-senpai were expelled─don’t you think you’d have a chance, Satou-senpai?”

The closest friend she had right now, Karuizawa, and the person she liked, Ayanokouji. They spoke of changing the relationship between those two, and Satou’s own position.

A range of emotions overflowed from her.

“Wh-what are you saying?”

“Whether you want to hear me out or not is up to you, Satou-senpai. However, if you choose not to, I’m sure you will come to regret it for the rest of your life. If you don’t want to be seen by others, I don’t mind meeting in my dorm room either.”

Seemingly satisfied after telling her their dorm room number, the first year student turned away from Satou and left.

Left alone, Satou remained confused, unable to process the situation. However, just one thing remained stuck in her memory.

“You’d have a chance.”

Those words, which implied she had a chance to date Ayanokouji. Her chest tightened, and simultaneously an emotion she didn’t want to know crawled out of her.

“I─”