Chapter 72: Well Done!
Although Kitamura Yusaku could sometimes be unreliable, he wouldn't speak carelessly without basis. Since he said he saw it, the incident could be basically confirmed as true.
"Emmm~~~ But I really didn't see any love letters in my shoe locker. When I opened it, there was only one pair of indoor shoes."
Takasu Ryuji and Kitamura Yusaku exchanged a look, and Takasu Ryuji speculated, "Could it be that after Kitamura saw it, another girl came to deliver a love letter, saw that someone had already been there, and just took all the previous ones away?"
Congratulations, you guessed half right.
Kitamura Yusaku immediately shook his head and said, "That's unlikely. Even if she didn't want Asakura to see other people's love letters, she wouldn't take her own away too, right?"
"You're right!"
Takasu Ryuji also realized the flaw in his speculation, nodded, and looked at Kaede.
Looking at the two people in front of him, Kaede spread his hands and said, "Why are you looking at me? If there aren't any, there aren't any. It doesn't affect me anyway. Dealing with these girls I don't even know is a huge hassle."
Kitamura Yusaku: "I'm inexplicably detecting a hint of superiority."
"You're simply overthinking it."
Glancing at Kitamura Yusaku, Kaede said without much concealment, "You both know what kind of mindset I have. This kind of thing, for me, the less the better."
"Understood, understood." Patting Kaede's shoulder, Kitamura Yusaku said with a smile, "Then you better try hard. No one knows yet that you like Sawamura-san. If you manage to win her over, I bet a lot of the first-year boys will be howling in despair."
Hearing this, Kaede recalled that Eriri was indeed very eye-catching normally.
Should he worry that after he wins her over, someone else who secretly admires Eriri might come to challenge him?
Hmm... Should he spend some time exercising more recently? At the very least, he should practice fighting well. He should look for a gym this weekend.
Just then, the homeroom teacher walked in, and the three stopped talking, sitting properly to prepare for the morning class meeting.
After the morning classes ended, since he hadn't brought a bento, Kaede went to the cafeteria to eat with Kitamura Yusaku and Takasu Ryuji. However, Takasu was the same as usual; he had brought his own bento and was purely accompanying the other two.
After buying a plate of pork cutlet curry rice, he went and sat down next to Takasu Ryuji, who had already found a seat.
Looking up, he happened to see Eriri and Usami entering the cafeteria together.
He was just about to say hello, but Eriri, who had clearly seen him, actually quickened her pace and dragged the wanting-to-talk Usami past without saying a word.
What was wrong?
Thinking back, Kaede didn't feel like he had done anything to upset Eriri, had he?
Kitamura Yusaku had also seen it and asked curiously, "Did you two fight?"
"How could we? I don't get it either."
Scratching his head, Kaede could only say, "Let's eat first. I'll send her a message later to ask. If not, I can see her during Art Club activities this afternoon."
Takasu Ryuji, with an amused expression, said, "Isn't this a case of speaking things into existence? You just said this morning that you weren't interested in other girls and didn't want trouble, yet at noon, Sawamura-san suddenly refused to acknowledge you."
"Just eat your food!"
After glaring at the slightly gloating Takasu Ryuji,Kaede took a bite of his pork cutlet, his expression still utterly confused.
Meanwhile, Eriri, who had ignored Kaede, was feeling a little regretful. There was nothing she could do; after doing what she did this morning, she was unusually sensitive, terrified of anyone noticing anything, let alone Kaede, the person involved.
Usami also looked at Eriri beside her, asking, "Eriri, I saw Asakura-kun just now, why didn't we go over and say hello?"
"Eh? Did you? I didn't notice."
Eriri could only resort to pretending ignorance to gloss over it, but she was still met with Usami's suspicious gaze.
"I'm not lying to you, I really didn't notice!" While saying this, Eriri picked up her chopsticks. "Let's hurry up and eat."
Although Usami still felt that Eriri was fooling her, she had no choice but to pick up her chopsticks and start eating lunch.
"I'm starting now."
After lunch, Kaede returned to the classroom, picked up his phone, thought for a moment, but ultimately chose not to message Eriri.
Never mind, he would ask her face-to-face this afternoon. Asking via message felt strange.
As for Eriri, after leaving the cafeteria, she separated from Usami and called Utaha, who was catching up on sleep in the classroom, to come out.
Having her sleep disturbed put Utaha in a bad mood, but since Eriri had called, she could only come out to see what the matter was.
On a bench below the school building, Utaha found Eriri.
After sitting down next to her, Utaha went straight to the point: "You disturbed my sleep, so buy me coffee later."
"I know, I'll buy it for you later!" Looking at the sleepy-eyed Utaha, Eriri asked, "Did you stay up late again yesterday? Writing?"
"Of course." Utaha confirmed, "I looked at a lot of online reviews for my novel yesterday, and many people gave high ratings, which gave me a lot of motivation. I ended up pushing too hard and wrote until almost four in the morning, so I didn't sleep well and have to catch up during the day."
"You don't sleep during class, do you?"
Utaha did not deny it: "Only having this little time at noon is definitely not enough. Luckily, my grades are good. As long as I say I stayed up late studying, the teacher won't say anything."
Was this the privilege of being the top student in the grade? Eriri felt genuine envy, but that was all she could do.
Who told her she couldn't rank first in the grade?
Waving her hand, Utaha said, "Alright, enough about that. Why exactly did you call me over?"
"Uh... well..."
After looking around and confirming no one was nearby, Eriri leaned close to Utaha's ear and whispered, "Well, when I arrived this morning..."
After finishing, Eriri's face was completely flushed, and even her ears beneath her golden hair were red.
After listening, Utaha looked at the embarrassed and regretful Eriri in astonishment, then gave her a thumbs-up: "Putting everything else aside, just for daring to do that, I have to give you a good compliment. Well done."
"Uh... are you serious?"
"Of course!"
Utaha nodded, "Love is war. It's not just between you and him; naturally, you need to defend against external threats. Well done, keep up the effort!"
"I didn't come here to hear you say that! I came here for help!!!"