A New Masterpiece (COTE x OC)

Chapter 36.5 - Small Talk

"Akio!!" Kei, Chiaki, and Maya all greeted me as I made my way back to the Class D tent. The first year's had a break for a couple of minutes as the upper years were competing in their own events.

"What were you doing at Class C's tent?" Maya asked, wanting to collect any gossip possible from me.

"Nothing. I wanted to speak to Ryuuen about something that happened during the boy's calvary event. Nothing more."

"Was it about some cheap trick he pulled?" Chiaki questioned.

"Along those lines... He wouldn't say any specifics, but it was fairly easy to interpret what he meant."

"We watched the event," Kei continued. "Your team did well in the beginning. But once you fought Ryuuen's team, it went kinda bad for you guys. I mean, Yosuke-kun had such a good opportunity to steal Ryuuen's headband, but just missed it."

It was a bitter defeat for Class D. More specifically, myself. Not a memory I wanted to re-live right now.

"Kei! Don't be so hard on your boyfriend. It was just some bad luck," Maya swiftly reprimanded Kei.

"Ah, sorry, sorry. I just expect the best out of him, you know," Kei responded rather sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her neck.

"All in all, the festival hasn't gone in Class D's favor. I'm sorry to say but I don't expect us to win this one," I said.

"We understand," Chiaki replied. "We can't win them all, but I think the class really trusts you know as our leader. Especially because of the performance you've been putting on."

"What performance?"

"You're not that dumb, right, Akio," Maya said with a disappointed face. "You're literally the only hope of Class D right now. You're probably going to be the athlete of our year."

"She's right," Kei added. "No one's really come close, besides Shibata-kun, this award is as good as yours."

I knew my performance in this festival was above average, but winning best performing student for the first year wouldn't be too bad. An extra few Private Points could go a long way.

"Wasn't my intention, but I guess it will be an added bonus."

"Hehe~," Maya snickered in response.

"What?" I asked, rather annoyed.

"Oh, nothing. You're probably doing this well for your super-fan, am I right?"

Kei and Chiaki both snickered at Maya's statement.

"What is she talking about?" I directed my question to Chiaki and Kei.

"That's not for us to share," Chiaki said.

"Even though we are very close friends, there are some things we can't tell you," Kei continued.

"Then why mention it?" I asked.

"Because we wanted to see how you would react," Maya answered. "You are so cool and collected all the time. Even when we told you this, you didn't react differently at all."

"What, was I supposed to turn all red and have steam come out of my ears?"

"That would've been the appropriate response," Chiaki replied.

"Since you didn't react, though, I guess I'll explain it to you," Maya said. "There's been a rumor floating around the school that a girl in our year will confess to you sometime soon."

"Why haven't I heard of this rumor?"

Kei walked closer to me and slapped the back of my head. "Why would the person being confessed to be told about this, it's supposed to be a surprise. You're lucky we even told you."

"She's right," Maya continued. "This is very sensitive information, you're lucky we disclosed it to you."

"I thank you for the information, but it's not something I need right now. We need to focus on this festival."

Teenage drama and romance aren't something I need to focus on at the moment, it's what lies ahead of this festival that should be my focus.

"You are rated as one of the best-looking guys of our year, so it is to be expected someone might confess to you. But, you're not one bit curious as to who it might be?" Chiaki asked.

"Well, could you at least tell me what year or class they are from?"

Kei, Maya, and Chiaki looked at each other before answering me.

"We have no clue, not even Maya knows," Kei said.

For not even Maya to know, who is considered the Queen of Gossip, is rather shocking.

"So it could be anyone? From any class or even an upper year?"

"Yep. Could be anyone, you'll only know who it is once they confess," Kei responded.

"But..." Maya said as a devilish smirk formed on her face. "I bet you'd be pretty happy if a certain girl from Class B was going to confess to you."

A smile similar to Maya's appeared on Chiaki's and Kei's faces.

"Wouldn't that be amazing!" Kei replied eagerly. "I'm sure even mister cool over here would show some emotion."

"Who are you talking about?" I asked.

Chiaki palmed her face in disappointment at my response. "It's pretty obvious that it could be Ichinose who's going to confess to you."

Ichinose?

I hadn't given that much thought.

Ichinose was one of the most popular and beautiful girls in our year. What did I do to deserve this confession, then?

I never really saw romance as the main focus of my high school journey. But maybe as an added bonus if everything worked out properly.

Maybe, with Ichinose, it could work out.

"Woah! Wait!" Maya said excitedly. "Did you guys see that?! I swear Fukumoto smiled a little bit."

"Must've been your imagination," I replied.

"What, no, I swear you did!"

I guess a small smile did accidentally leak out at the possibility of who could be confessing to me.

But it seemed like I played it off well, as Maya tried to desperately convince the Kei and Chiaki I had smiled earlier.

As I watched them all talk aimlessly, though, I couldn't help but notice something different.

Especially with Kei.

Her eyes, her vision. It seemed to wander all over the place.

But if you paid enough attention, you'd notice they weren't wandering around aimlessly at all though. They always passed one point.

One person, to be precise.

Every time her eyes wandered around, they always glanced toward.

Kiyotaka.

I had noticed that ever since the cruise ship, they seemed to interact or be around each other more.

But what could have happened to make Kei so fixated on the man known as, Ayanokouji?

That was definitely something I would have to investigate further.

But my current objective is this festival.

All those superfluous thoughts are only distractions from my goal at the moment.