Tobe Kakeru froze in his tracks, momentarily unable to recall who this person even was.
He scrutinized him for a few seconds before finally recognizing him as the guy who had previously come to crash their class for free food.
”Someone else is sitting here?” Tobe Kakeru was clearly unconvinced, his tone dripping with skepticism.
“Who?”
Hiroto Tachibana ignored him, his hand still resting casually on the back of the chair with absolutely no intention of lowering it.
A fire of resentment burned in Tobe’s chest, but he couldn’t easily throw a tantrum in a public venue like this.
Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to appear magnanimous:
”Is there really a need for this?
What happened before was just a minor incident.
Don’t harbor such a grudge over a verbal dispute.
It’s all in the past; if you hadn’t brought it up, I would’ve completely forgotten who you even were.”
”You don’t possess the credentials to make me lie,” Hiroto finally lifted his head to cast a flat glance at him.
”How about this: walk over here and let me punch you twice, and by tomorrow, I’ll forget too.”
Tobe’s face stiffened instantly.
The others at the table also had varied reactions.
Yui Yuigahama offered a deeply awkward smile, at a loss for words as her fingers twisted together beneath the table.
Yumiko Miura furrowed her brow, choosing not to speak up on Tobe’s behalf; she had never particularly liked this noisy guy to begin with.
Hayato Hayama looked as though he wanted to say something to diffuse the tension, but after catching a glimpse of Hiroto’s expression, he swallowed his words back down.
Yukinoshita Yukino never once lifted her head from start to finish, acting as though the events transpiring right beside her had absolutely nothing to do with her.
The atmosphere grew deathly quiet.
Tobe Kakeru didn’t leave; he remained rooted to the spot, determined to see exactly who this person was.
Since Hiroto was reserving the seat, it was bound to be a friend of his.
Once whoever it was arrived, he would just directly drive them away.
He schemed this way in his mind, even harboring a shred of anticipation—what kind of big shot could possibly be mingling with someone like Hiroto Tachibana anyway?
”Make way, make way—”
A familiar voice echoed from behind.
Tobe subconsciously stepped aside.
Shizuka Hiratsuka walked over carrying two meal trays, both piled incredibly high with food.
She cast a glance at the crowded table, then at the empty spot next to Hiroto, and without a single word, plopped herself straight down into it.
”Here, yours,” she pushed one of the trays in front of Hiroto.
“And this one is yours, Yukinoshita.”
Yukinoshita gave a subtle nod.
“Thank you, Hiratsuka-sensei.”
The table fell completely silent for a split second.
All eyes locked onto Shizuka Hiratsuka.
Yui Yuigahama’s eyes went wide.
Yumiko Miura’s chopsticks froze mid-air.
Marin Kitagawa lifted her head, looking from Hiratsuka to Hiroto, her eyes carrying a stark wave of surprise.
Tobe Kakeru stood frozen in place, feeling as though he had been nailed to the floor.
The other party truly hadn’t been lying.
But where was he supposed to sit now?
His eyes frantically swept across the table; the only empty spot left was the one right next to Yukinoshita.
But he didn’t dare go there.
That was Yukinoshita Yukino!
Tobe stood there, caught completely between a rock and a hard place.
Continuing to stand made him look like an absolute idiot, yet turning around to leave would mean completely losing face.
He desperately did not want to be excluded from this social circle.
Just as he was racking his brains for a solution, his gaze landed on the bottle of cola sitting in front of Hiroto.
An idea.
He turned around and strode toward the cafeteria’s vending machines, shelling out money to buy a whole bag of cola before returning.
”Here, here, here, drinks are on me, everyone,” Tobe said with a plastered smile, placing a bottle of cola in front of each person one by one.
“We’re all classmates, don’t stand on ceremony.”
He bought one for everyone present, without a single exception.
Even Hiroto Tachibana received a bottle.
This way, he could legitimately stay at the table.
Furthermore, Marin Kitagawa wouldn’t be able to easily reject it either; since everyone else was drinking, she wouldn’t publicly humiliate him, right?
Tobe calculated his moves in his mind, thoroughly convinced that this strategy of his was brilliant.
Hiroto glanced at the extra cola placed before him but said nothing.
Why reject a free hand-out?
He pushed his bottle to the side and continued eating.
Since Yumiko was still sulking and Yui couldn’t easily leave her side, Marin, Hayato, and Tobe had no choice but to head off to get their food first.
Hiroto used this window of time to absolutely inhale his meal.
By the time his tray was completely empty, Marin Kitagawa returned with her food.
Shizuka Hiratsuka had already departed at some unknown point, leaving only Hiroto and the three individuals sitting across from him.
Marin Kitagawa took her seat right next to Hiroto.
She glanced at the table; two bottles of cola were positioned in front of Hiroto.
Not paying too much attention and assuming the one closer to the edge was hers, she casually picked it up, twisted off the cap, and took a swig.
Only after swallowing did she notice Yui Yuigahama staring at her with a slightly dazed expression.
”Is something wrong?” Marin felt a bit puzzled.
Not just Yui, but even Yukinoshita, who witnessed this scene, lifted her head.
Yumiko Miura’s hand paused right as she was accepting her meal tray, her eyes darting back and forth twice between Marin and that bottle of cola.
”Marin,” Yumiko set her chopsticks down, her tone direct.
“The drink you just had belongs to the person next to you…
uh…”
”Hiroto Tachibana,” Yukinoshita Yukino calmly supplied from the side.
”Right,” Yumiko nodded.
“You just drank from this Tachibana-kun’s bottle.”
Sitting in an adjacent empty seat, Tobe Kakeru—who had just twisted open his own cola—felt as though he had been struck by a bolt of lightning upon hearing those words.
An indirect kiss.
Isn’t that an indirect kiss?!
He stared deathly at the bottle of cola in Marin’s hand, his eyes practically tearing at the sockets.
Yet, Marin Kitagawa’s expression remained perfectly tranquil.
She glanced at the cola in her hand, then at the unopened bottle still sitting in front of Hiroto, her face completely devoid of any discomfort.
In fact, her mind subconsciously felt that it wasn’t a big deal at all.
She looked at Yumiko with an air of complete nonchalance.
”So, is there a problem?”
Yukinoshita Yukino silently observed the scene.
Nothing more than some adolescent restlessness, she concluded in her heart.
But even with adolescent restlessness, it was impossible to display absolutely zero reaction, right?
She had seen girls scream for half a day just from sharing a single straw with a boy; those reactions were half-genuine and half-exaggerated, but a reaction would always exist.
Yet Marin Kitagawa’s demeanor didn’t look like a forced show of composure at all.
Rather, it was a deep, subconscious feeling that it truly wasn’t a big deal.
Yukinoshita saw right through it.
But Yumiko and Yui evidently did not.
The two exchanged a glance, reading the exact same interpretation in each other’s eyes.
Marin must be forcing herself to act calm, right?
It has to be.
Sitting in the corner, Tobe Kakeru felt an agonizing pain in his chest.
But on second thought, if Marin had frantically waved her hands or offered a blushing excuse, wouldn’t that be even more terrifying?
That would mean she actually cared about the implications.
An indifference like this…
meant she simply hadn’t realized it yet.
Yes, she just hadn’t registered it.
Letting out a sigh of relief, he chugged a mouthful of cola, desperately trying to calm himself down.
Hiroto Tachibana maintained a completely expressionless face from start to finish.
He hadn’t intended to have excessive interactions with her to begin with.
Given what she had said to him previously, and considering everything was an absolute force majeure, the two of them merely shared the relationship of having met once.
Nothing more.
In truth, her lack of an immediate reaction couldn’t be blamed on her.
Science supported this phenomenon: after a profound physical experience occurs, an individual’s psychological threshold significantly increases.
Having already faced each other in an extreme intimacy, the sense of taboo on a psychological level naturally drops.
However, this habituation is a visceral, biological response; it doesn’t automatically equate to deeper romantic affection.
Hiroto understood this perfectly, so he didn’t take it to heart.
But right at that moment, Marin Kitagawa’s brain finally seemed to finish processing.
She stared at the cola bottle in her hand, the rim still glistening with a faint trace of moisture.
Was that…
what he drank from?
She blinked.
Then, her brain finally connected the dots.
”No, wait, it’s not like that!”
She slammed the cola bottle down, her voice suddenly spiking in pitch.
”I—I…
I just didn’t pay attention, I thought it was mine!”
She began to stutter, the words failing to form smoothly.
A vivid, visible crimson blush dyed her cheeks, spreading all the way to the tips of her ears.
Panicking, she darted a frantic glance at Hiroto before swiftly tearing her gaze away, her entire being turning profoundly uncomfortable.
Yui blinked.
See?
A forced show of composure indeed.
The corner of Yumiko’s mouth tilted up slightly, though she remained silent.
Sitting in the corner, Tobe Kakeru almost lost his grip on his cola bottle.
It’s over.
His mind buzzed with static.
How could the absolute worst-case scenario still manage to happen?!
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