“Oga-kun, good morning.”

Sorata, who was chatting with his classmates in the class, suddenly noticed Shishio who walked to the classroom together with Nana. He could see that Nana seemed to be very happy, and Shishio didn’t have that much of a change in his expression. He raised his eyebrow, but he didn’t think too much about it since both Nana and Shishio might meet each other by coincidence, but when he greeted Shishio, he showed a tired expression after what had happened last night. ​​

Last night, Ritsu wanted to find Shishio for something, and Misaki was also the same, but unlike Ritsu, Misaki searched for Shishio because of the hot pot two days ago since it was probably the most delicious thing that she had ever eaten.

In fact, not only Misaki but all the people who had tasted Shishio’s food were probably the best things that they had ever eaten.

However, last night, Shishio didn’t return and Chihiro told them that he was visiting his grandfather’s friend, which somehow made them feel quite disappointed since they couldn’t taste his food.

“Good morning, Kanda-kun.” Shishio nodded at Sorata.

Nana didn’t talk with Sorata since she didn’t know much about him, and after saying goodbye to Shishio, she rushed to both Mea and Maiko since she was very excited at that moment.

Shishio was about to sit down in his seat too, but he stopped when Sorata had something to talk about with him.

“Um… Oga-kun, Kawai-senpai searched for you for something last night, and it seemed that it was related to Shiina-san. Then Chihiro-sensei also asked me to tell you to meet her in the teacher’s room when I met you,” Sorata said.

“I see.” Shishio nodded and said, “Thank you, Kanda-kun.” He didn’t think too much and sat down in his seat.

However, Sorata who saw Shishio who was very nonchalant about it, gritted his teeth, after all, yesterday, when Ritsu looked for Shishio, he was also there. He thought at that time, it was his chance to get closer to Shiina Mashiro by taking advantage of Shishio’s absence, but the reality made him unable to accept it.

Recalling what had happened last night, Sorata’s face began to turn depressed.

—

Last night.

“What’s wrong, Kawai-senpai?” Sorata and Mitaka, who were sitting in the dining room, were surprised when they saw Ritsu who came while holding Shiina’s hand, looking around for something.

“…..”

Ritsu looked around and found that apart from Sorata and Mitaka, no one else was there so she decided to leave, but she found that Mitaka’s expression was quite unnatural.

“What are you guys doing?” Ritsu looked at Mitaka with a strange expression since Mitaka was holding cabbages in both of his hands, sitting there blankly.

“Misaki…” Mitaka looked at the cabbage in his hands, sighed, and said nothing.

Ritsu looked at Mitaka for a while with a question mark on the top of her head, but she suddenly remembered that this scene was quite familiar, and after a short while, she suddenly remembered something.

“Mitaka-senpai, is today your birthday?” Ritsu looked at Mitaka who was sluggish and tired with a weird expression on her face since she knew that there was only one person who could make Mitaka this way. She also had lived in Sakurasou for a long time and she knew most of the things that happened on Sakurasou.

“Kawai-senpai, do you know what happened?” Sorata looked at Kawai in surprise.

“Yeah.” Ritsu glanced at Sorata, but there was not much contact between the two, so the communication between the two was very limited, after all, she also wasn’t used to talking with unfamiliar people.

“Was it Misaki-senpai again?” Ritsu thought about what had happened on the same day last year when she had just moved in. She accidentally saw Misaki and Mitaka who were together, but the problem was Misaki only covered her sensitive parts with a cream!

Ritsu thought that both of them were perverts, so she almost called the police at that time, although she had heard Misaki-senpai’s explanation, she put down her phone in her hand with suspicion.

As expected, after a few months living in Sakurasou, Ritsu knew that Mitaka was a pervert and he was a playboy, giving a very bad evaluation on her mind.

“Yes, when I just came back, I saw a path that is made from cabbage on the entrance of the dorm and according to Mitaka-senpai, Kamiigusa-senpai always did this kind of thing for his birthday every year. I heard that she put herself on a cake and cream last year and he was almost arrested by the police. This time Kamiigusa-senpai wrapped herself in a ribbon and gave herself to Mitaka-senpai,” Sorata said with a blush on her face, especially when he remembered Misaki’s body that was covered with a ribbon a moment ago.

When Sorata returned after school, he happened to see Misaki who had just come out from a box, exposing herself to the world, Mitaka, who saw what had happened, quickly reacted by locking her inside his room.

After that, the two of them came to the dining room and sat there until now, and by the way, they cleaned up the cabbages that were brought by Misaki.

“It was me who almost called the police last time,” Ritsu said with a blank expression on her face.

“….”

Sorata looked away and felt a bit embarrassed since he didn’t expect that Ritsu would be the witness last year.

“Pervert!” Ritsu looked at Mitaka with disgust.

“It’s not what I ask for!” Mitaka quickly explained since it wasn’t his fault, and it was also the reason why he quickly returned to Sakurasou since he was afraid that Misaki might do a lot of exaggerated things that make him be arrested by the police.

Mitaka was really scared, after all, he had a lot of bad memories about Misaki from his childhood time, and every year of his birthday, she would do something special, it was so special that no sane person would understand her.

Although Mitaka knew about Misaki’s feelings, the gap between genius and mortal was too big. He knew that he might be a genius in the eyes of others, but he knew that after a lot of hard work and dedication, he could barely follow Misaki.

What Misaki could do casually, was something that Mitaka needed to do by sacrificing his blood and sweat, which was why he felt inferior toward Misaki and he didn’t dare to accept her feelings.

Mitaka could only shake his head, sighed, and stopped talking again.

Ritsu looked at the silent Mitaka and didn’t say anything.

Basically, anyone who had lived in Sakurasou for a long time knew what had happened between Mitaka and Misaki, but no one could help them with this kind of problem. In particular, Mitaka had a problem with his self-esteem, especially when he compared himself to Misaki, however, none of them was a problem for Ritsu, or rather Ritsu didn’t want to get involved in this matter, she turned her head and looked at Shiina behind her since she had something more urgent.

“Kanda-san, you should be in the same class as Oga-kun, right?”

Ritsu looked at Sorata next to Mitaka. In fact, she didn’t have that much of an impression of Kanda Sorata, and she didn’t even say a few words to him. In her eyes, Kanda Sorata was similar to all boys that she had ever met, and there was nothing worthy that caught her eyes or worthy of special attention from him.

“Ah, yes, Kawai-senpai.”

Sorata also wasn’t used to talking with Ritsu, although, he had a feeling that both Ritsu and Shiina were somewhat similar, Ritsu was quite intense sometimes, especially in her eyes, when she was serious, the light on her eyes, made people afraid to look straight at her, which was why he wasn’t good with Ritsu.

“I’m looking for him, do you know where he is?” Ritsu turned her head and glanced at Shiina next to her, and looked at Sorata again.

“Hmm… I’m not sure, but he has gone out with Sunohara-san earlier.”

Sorata remembered that Shishio was going out with Nana before, but he didn’t know where they were going, but he thought that it might be good, especially when both Shishio and Nana were going out to each other, then no one would bother him, trying to get close with Shiina. He wanted to say something again, but…

“Sunohara-san?” Ritsu looked at Sorata with confusion.

“It’s a girl from our class,” Sorata said.

Mitaka quickly looked at Sorata and raised his eyebrow, and then, looked at both Shiina and Ritsu, who showed a frown on their faces. He shook his head again and didn’t say anything since he didn’t want to get involved either.

“A girl?”

Ritsu raised her eyebrow, but she didn’t think too much since it was only the second day for the new students to enter the school so there was no way for Shishio and this Sunohara-san to become a couple, but at the same time, she was wondering why she needed to think too much about him and why she felt uncomfortable at this moment when she knew that he was going out with a girl somewhere.

“Mashiro, what do you think?” Ritsu ignored this feeling and asked Shiina.

“…..”

Shiina only lowered her head in frustration.

“What? Shiina-san has something? If you’re in hurry… then… if… if possible, then I… I can help.”

Sorata looked at Ritsu and Shiina, and he finally understood that it wasn’t Ritsu who was looking for Shishio, but it was Shiina who was looking for Shishio.

Shiina turned her head to look at Sorata who stood up suddenly. She was quite puzzled, and she didn’t say anything. She looked at Ritsu next to her again, and gently pulled the corner of her clothes.

“Shishio.”

Shiina shook her head at Sorata and said to Ritsu without hesitation.

“Well, then let’s wait for Oga-kun to come back.” Ritsu nodded when she heard Shiina’s request, took Shiina’s hand, and left the dining room.

Sorata looked at Shiina who was leaving, and her figure hadn’t looked at him from the beginning to the end. He clenched his fists tightly, his expression full of unwillingness, and jealousy.

‘Why was it always Shishio?’

Sorata and Shishio met Shiina on the same day, but Sorata met her more often, but why had she never looked at him?

Mitaka looked at Sorata in silence and sighed helplessly. He could understand the feeling in Sorata’s heart to some extent, but this wasn’t the reason why Sorata should be jealous of Shishio, and if Sorata continued like this, Sorata would go crazy later.

However, Mitaka then showed a self-deprecating smile since he also didn’t have a qualification to judge someone since what he had done was the same thing, and he was also worse since he became a playboy to make Misaki hate him, but he knew himself that he couldn’t let Misaki away from him.

Mitaka let out a sigh and felt tired. He looked at the cabbage on his hand and felt a pain in his heart.

Looking at Sorata, who was next to him, Mitaka realized that the two of them were a pair of losers.

Mitaka stood up and patted Sorata on the shoulder, and left the dining room without saying anything.

“…..”

Sorata looked at the back of Mitaka and wondered why Mitaka showed such an expression toward him earlier. He looked at the empty dining room, and suddenly he was startled, his face turned white, sweat burst out on his forehead, thinking of Mitaka’s departure just now…

“Does Senpai know what I’m thinking?” Sorata panicked, became nervous, and bit his lips subconsciously.

“What kind of expression did I just show before? What did Mitaka-senpai know? Why didn’t he say anything to me? What did Senpai’s last expression mean?”

Sorata’s brain was messed up, and his heart was beating very fast. he finally woke up and remembered what he said just now.

“What did Mitaka-senpai know? Will he tell Chihiro-sensei? Will he tell Kamiigusa-senpai? Will he tell Oga-kun? Will he tell… Shiina-san?”

Sorata’s brain was completely blank, he leaned on the table with both hands, his head was full of sweat from excessive panic and nervousness.

Sorata felt that the secret that he had been hiding for a long time was suddenly discovered. His feeling at this moment was like when he ran naked with a mask on his face, but his face was taken off, and he was surrounded by acquaintances, which made him panic and nervous.

“I…”

Sorata’s face became more and more ugly.

“Nyaa~~”

“…..”

Sorata woke up instantly, he burst into a cold sweat again, felt something rubbing on his feet, and looked down.

“Hikari (Sorata’s cat)!”

Sorata was surprised, then let out a long sigh. “Are you hungry?” He picked up Hikari at his feet, slumped on the chair as if he had lost his strength. He had to admit that after he moved to Sakurasou, he started to change, and he felt that he wasn’t himself anymore, maybe, it was really a mistake for him to come here.

Thinking of this, Sorata looked at the small light on his hand, and the memory began to drift away.

“Maybe I should listen to Aoyama…”

—

Sorata, who recalled what had happened last night, looked at Shishio with a complicated expression, but what could he do?

Nothing.

Somehow Sorata wanted to move away from Sakurasou as soon as possible now.

Shishio didn’t know what Sorata was thinking, or rather, he didn’t think too much about him since he thought it was better to open his rewards now since the class would be boring after all.