“Thank you very much, Sakuraba-senpai”
A cup of tea was put down in front of Koutarou, on the table. Looking at Koutarou and the others go back and forth, Harumi figured that the tea would be needed soon.
“Still, I'm impressed you noticed that Kiriha-san was feeling down”
Harumi sipped on her own tea as she smiled at Koutarou, feeling admiration for him. He had been far quicker to notice how Harumi was feeling than she was.
“Kiriha-san is normally so calm, so seeing her show a different expression shows just how down she was feeling”
“I see... that might be another side to it”
Harumi nodded satisfied and her smile grew brighter. Harumi loved people who could be kind to anyone, so this was something she greatly respected.
“You're wrong, Sakuraba-senpai”
However, Yurika who was sitting next to Koutarou objected. She pouted and stared at Koutarou with grudge in her eyes.
“Satomi-san just favors Kiriha-san”
“That's not my intention”
“You're lying. Because you never show me any consideration”
“That's not true”
Hearing Yurika's protest, Koutarou sprung into action right away.
“Fugyu”
Koutarou forcibly pulled Yurika to him, and began playing with her cheeks like he had with Kiriha. As a result, the puffed-up cheeks withered in his hands.
“I'll do it to you too. There, take that”
“S-See, you're just playing with me! Do it when I'm feeling down please!”
“Even if you say that, you only feel down about trivial stuff. Like forgetting to buy a manga or breaking a plate. I can't comfort you every time”
“They're important problems to me!”
“I don't care”
Yurika showed her dissatisfaction, but Koutarou continued playing with her cheeks.
The truth is, this is your fault too, Yurika. You always try to solve your real problems yourself...
In contrast to his words, Koutarou treasured Yurika. He was only playing around with her cheeks as a sign of that.
“Geez! Satomi-san is always bullying me! You only do the painful stuff to me!”
Yurika continued to frown with dissatisfaction.
Can't you be a little kinder, geez!
The truth is that Yurika knew that Koutarou was treasuring her as well. But her outlook on men and women was a bit old-fashioned so she had complaints about how she was being treasured.
“Oh, are you sure you should get so aggressive, Yurika?”
“You're not going to fool me anymore!”
“I see. What a shame~... I even got you new cup noodles~”
“Cup noodles?!”
However, her anger didn't last for long.
“I-I won't be fooled by a single cup”
That said, she at least tried to resist. But the way she would sneak glances at Koutarou let him know that she had already been moved.
“It's not just one. Since you've been working so hard on your studies lately, I bought all three new flavors”
“... Satomi-san you bully... Why didn't you just say so from the start... geez!!”
Yurika pouted once more.
As a reward for her efforts, Koutarou had bought three flavors of her favorite food. Though the question whether cup noodles was a fitting present or not remained, if he had just said that from the start then everything would have played out the way Yurika imagined it. Yet he had been very vague about it on purpose and teased her.
Why doesn't Satomi-san act more like a lover... eh, a l-lover?!
“Hau?! Auaah~!!”
Yurika was at a loss for words when she realized what she wanted of Koutarou.
“Hm? What's wrong?”
Yurika turned red and started to violently struggle.
T-This is a k-ki... aaahhh!!
An unimaginable thought popped into her head and she became desperate to escape.