Boys' Locker Room.
Stripping off his uniform, just about to change into his gym clothes, Tooru suddenly froze. He turned to Miyahito beside him.
"Miyahito."
"Hmm?"
Miyahito, doing the same, didn't turn his head as he replied.
"What were you doing in Class C just now?"
Closing his locker door, arms crossed, Tooru leaned against it. He watched Miyahito fold his uniform, looking puzzled.
"It's rare to see you proactively talk to girls other than Hori or Yoshikawa."
The moment Tooru said that, every boy in the locker room instantly looked over.
"What! Miyahito talked to a girl!?"
"Am I dreaming? That Miyahito actually hit on a girl?"
"From Class C? Don't tell me it's Kasumigaoka-san?"
"..."
In an instant, whether they were halfway changed or had just taken off their jackets, every boy except the two of them swarmed over, chattering excitedly.
"Miyahito, which girl was it? Spill."
"Yeah, yeah. Never thought I'd live to see the day Miyahito chatted up a girl."
"Just tell us, Miyahito. Don't make us force it out of you!"
Scanning the crowd of eager gossipers closing in, the corner of Miyahito's mouth twitched.
Good lord, I haven't even said anything yet...
As the boys grew more agitated, practically ready to tie him up and interrogate him, Miyahito was steadily backed into a corner. He shot a desperate, pleading look at his bro.
Tooru, catching the SOS look, nodded in understanding.
Then, to Miyahito's immense relief, Tooru turned around, faced the mob seeking the truth, and then turned back, leaning against them with a mischievous grin aimed at the cornered Miyahito. He deliberately dragged out his words:
"As the people are saying..."
"So, confess already, Miyahito-kun."
Guh... You damn traitor! I misjudged you, Tooru!!!
Betrayed by his own best friend, Miyahito internally raged.
Meanwhile, hearing Tooru's encouragement, the mob grew even more fired up.
"Give up resistance! Surrender peacefully, Miyahito!"
"You don't want to be hung upside down and interrogated, do you! Now, spill it!"
"Don't make us get rough! This is your last chance!"
Bullshit! If it weren't a 1v-many, I'd wipe the floor with you! How dare you say that!
Miyahito gritted his teeth, mentally blacklisting the vice class rep who dared threaten him.
Seeing his so-called brothers-in-arms cornering him, ready to hang him up for answers, and spotting someone in the back actually holding a rope, Miyahito's heart sank into "despair."
Just at this critical moment, a voice rang out from outside the locker room.
"Boys! How much longer are you gonna dawdle!"
"Hurry up and come out! Are you making us girls clean the sports field by yourselves!?"
The moment the voice echoed, everyone in the locker room froze.
Seizing this split-second opportunity while everyone was stunned by Class B's "boss," Hori Kyoko,
Miyahito bent down, covered his head, and whooshed through the gap in the crowd.
Then, moving at lightning speed, he flung the locker room door open and bolted into the hallway.
"Eh? Miyahito?"
He didn't even greet Kyoko, who stood outside with hands on hips, face full of fury. He just sprinted away.
Still processing Miyahito's bizarre, life-or-death escape, Kyoko heard angry shouts erupting from the boys' locker room.
"Miyahito got away!!"
"What's wrong with you guys at the front! How'd you let him slip?!"
"Quick! Chase him! He couldn't have gotten far!"
"Change your clothes, hurry!"
"....."
Right after urging them to hurry up, Kyoko watched a mob of furious boys burst out of the locker room, immediately splitting up to chase in every direction.
"Hey, Hori."
Still slightly dazed, Kyoko heard Tooru call her name and instinctively looked over.
"Did you see which way Miyahito ran?"
"That way."
"Thanks!"
Getting the escape route from Kyoko, Tooru turned to his comrades with a solemn expression.
"Move! We have to catch Miyahito!"
"Yes, sir!"
Meanwhile, as Class B's boys launched their epic "Capture Miyahito Operation,"
First-Year Faculty Office.
"Tachibana-sensei's students really are full of energy."
"Haa....."
Listening to her colleague's teasing, Tachibana-sensei took a sip of her coffee and sighed helplessly. Glancing out at the Class B boys darting across the campus, she spoke with mental exhaustion, "During class, they're all dead on their feet. But the moment this happens..."
"Haha, boys will be boys," the middle-aged female teacher chuckled comfortingly. "From the noise, it's your student Aragaki-kun again, isn't it? He's a good kid. With him around, the atmosphere in Class B is just different."
"Tell me about it."
.....
In the end, Miyahito was caught exactly as expected.
On the soccer field.
His hands were bound behind his back with clear tape, his torso wrapped in hemp rope, the other end securely tied to the goalpost. Suspended in mid-air, Miyahito looked at the boys surrounding him with an expression of utter despair.
"I already told you I didn't hit on anyone! Why won't you believe me! You know I hate gossiping behind people's backs. I was just reminding those girls not to badmouth others. Besides, I don't even know their names!"
While talking, Miyahito silently cursed in his head: 'Those girls are completely average. I have zero interest. Besides, Utaha is in Class C... Running to hit on other girls right in front of the girl I actually like? That's literally a death wish.'
Seeing his utterly defeated expression, the boys exchanged glances.
Hmm... what he's saying does sound true.
The next second, the mob turned their attention to Tooru, who was standing front and center.
"Ahem." Feeling his friends' doubt, Tooru cleared his throat, adopted a stern expression, and asked, "Then explain this: if it's not true, why the hell did you run?"
"My dear classmates..." Miyahito's expression instantly shifted to pure grievance. "You guys didn't even give me a chance to explain! You just cornered me immediately. What was I supposed to do, just stand there and let you 'interrogate' me?!"
Instantly, every boy present, including Tooru, froze.
Umm... didn't he actually try to explain just now?
"Ahaha, misunderstanding! Just a big misunderstanding!" someone suddenly blurted out, breaking the silence.
The others quickly piled on. "Yeah, yeah, total misunderstanding!" "Oops! Quick! Get our prince down!" "Right, right! Ninomiya, help him out!"
Just then.
Yuki, pushing an equipment cart, looked up in confusion at the commotion on the soccer field. She blinked and asked Kyoko, who was gathering basketballs nearby, "What are the guys doing?"
"Looks like Tooru caught Miyahito red-handed hitting on a girl from Class C."
"Oh, I see." Yuki's brain processed the information with a half-second delay before she instinctively nodded.
The very next second.
"EH?!!!"
"MIYAHITO WENT TO HIT ON KASUMIGAOKA!?"
A short while later.
"I'm telling the truth! Tooru saw it with his own eyes!"
Watching Yuki swear up and down as she gossiped with the other girls, Kyoko slowly manifested a giant question mark in her mind.
Wait... did I actually say Miyahito hit on Kasumigaoka?
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