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Takagi greeted Mashiro at the door with such enthusiasm that it instantly lifted a weight from Mashiro’s heart; one he hadn’t even realized he was carrying. So the suspension hadn’t dampened Takagi’s spirits at all! In fact, he seemed more energized than ever.
But there was also something tense about him… Mashiro couldn’t quite place his finger on what might have caused it, considering his very positive mood from before, but when he saw the two pairs of girly shoes arranged in the genkan, he had a suspicion that they could belong to the culprit.
And yet... There was something tense about him. Mashiro couldn’t quite place it. Takagi’s mood was undeniably positive, so where was this unease coming from? Then, as he entered, he spotted two pairs of girly shoes neatly lined up in the genkan. He had a suspicion they belonged to the culprits.
“I don’t have any slippers, so you can just leave your shoes on,” Takagi said, sliding the fusuma open.
“Huh?” Mashiro couldn’t help but blurt out.
Inside the room were Miyoshi and Iwase. He stared at the situation before him, mouth hanging open. Both girls sat in silence that was occasionally broken by the sound of Iwase turning a page. The atmosphere was so dense it was ringing in his ears. He cast a confused glance at Takagi, who seemed completely unfazed, acting as if the girls weren’t even there.
“S-Sorry for the intrusion…” Mashiro mumbled, cautiously stepping into the room behind Takagi.
As they moved toward the desk, Mashiro’s eyes widened in awe. One quick look over Takagi’s desk and the stacks of papers surrounding it made Mashiro stop in awe. Shuujin was such a hard worker! He wrote so many drafts, yet only deemed a select few good enough for Mashiro to see. Both of them perfected their craft so that the story, along with the drawings, would be on par with each other.
“It’s still just prose, but I feel pretty good about it.” Takagi shuffled through the papers on the desk searching for the notebook. “If you don’t like it, just say so. I still have a lot more.”
“Sure, let me see.”
Mashiro stepped closer, lowering his voice to a whisper tinged with panic. “Can you tell me what these two are doing here?” He shot a nervous glance at the girls, who remained as motionless as when he’d first entered.
“I guess I’m suddenly popular ‘cause I punched Ishizawa… I guess it’s true that bad boys have a certain charm?”
Mashiro grimaced. “Should you really be saying that right now?”
“I’m glad you came ‘cause I had no idea what to do!” Takagi hissed back. “I think Miyoshi came ‘cause she was worried about me.”
“I can see that, but what about Iwase?” Mashiro’s eyes lingered on her, filled with unease.
Takagi wavered, casting a glance at the girl from the corner of his eye.
“Apparently, Iwase and I are somehow dating.”
Mashiro let out a stunned sound. Then he hesitantly asked, “ Apparently? ”
“I don’t remember this at all, but at the end of seventh grade, she approached me and declared me her academic rival. Said we’d push each other to do better. To seal the deal, we shook hands, supposedly.”
“So, just ‘cause of that, she thinks you’re a couple?” Mashiro frowned.
“Yeah.” Takagi turned to face him. “According to Iwase, that handshake was my formal acknowledgement of the relationship.”
Mashiro gaped at him with disbelief pasted all over his face.
“I just thought we were agreeing to be rivals who compete with each other…” Takagi muttered, still trying to wrap his head around it.
“I guess someone as serious as Iwase could have interpreted it differently.”
Takagi’s lips curled into a scowl. “You and Azuki haven’t even held hands yet, so Iwase and I have gone farther than you.” He let out a dry laugh. “Haha.”
“Don’t ‘haha’ me, it’s serious.” Mashiro deadpanned. Lowering his voice, he added, “Wait, did Miyoshi hear this debate about being in a relationship?”
“Yeah, she asked why I confessed to her if I was dating Iwase and got angry. That’s when you showed up and saved me.”
Mashiro looked at the other with shock etched all over his face. He whisper-shouted. “I have terrible timing! This place is like a war zone!”
“Hey. What are you two whispering about? Man up!”
Miyoshi’s irritated voice snapped them out of their hushed panic. Both boys quickly turned to face the girls. Takagi straightened up and stammered, “R-Right!”
Miyoshi crossed her arms, her glare sharp. “Who are you going out with, me or Iwase?”
Takagi flinched slightly, taken aback at the question. He looked between the two girls - Iwase, composed and unreadable, her usual stoic expression never faltering, and Miyoshi, radiating irritation. The room seemed to shrink under the pressure of their gazes.
He took a breath and lifted his hands slightly in a gesture of peace.
“Wait! I never said I would date any of you. I only shook hands with Iwase. I didn’t know that meant we were dating. I only said I wanted to talk to Miyoshi. I didn’t mean that as a declaration of love.”
He looked between them again.
“Any objections?” he added, trying to defuse the situation with a touch of logic.
The room remained quiet as everyone stared at Takagi, dumbfounded.
Out of nowhere, Iwase, who had sat quiet and motionless throughout the exchange, closed her book with a soft but deliberate snap. The sound cut through the heavy silence, startling everyone. Slowly, she raised her eyes to meet Takagi’s.
“Do you hate me, Takagi?”
He arched his eyebrow, surprised at the sudden question.
“No, I wouldn’t say that…” he replied honestly.
“Do you like me then?”
“If I were to choose between like or hate, I guess it’d be like,” he said after a pause.
At these words, Miyoshi snatched her bag from the floor, stood up, and turned toward the door in one fluid, angry motion.
“Goodbye,” she said sharply, her voice clipped and seething with hurt.
“Wait up, Miyoshi,” Takagi called out. “It’s the same with you. If I had to say like or hate, it’d be like.”
The girl stopped mid-step, then spun around to face him, her brows furrowed. “What?”
She marched back toward him, her eyes blazing. She raised her clenched fist in a threatening gesture.
“How can you cheat on both of us, right in front of each other?!”
“Uhh…” Takagi leaned back slightly, a nervous smile flickering on his face as sweat beaded on his temple. “T-That’s what you think this is?”
Mashiro, still standing awkwardly off to the side, could only watch in stunned silence, thinking yet again that he had walked into a battlefield. Now he wasn’t sure anyone was going to leave unscathed. Still, he had to admit that Miyoshi wasn’t wrong to be angry.
‘What are you doing, Shuujin?’ he thought, looking for an explanation. He never imagined Takagi could get himself into this kind of mess.
“Let’s end this stupid debate.” Miyoshi snapped, pointing at Takagi, challenging him to finally make a decision. “Who do you choose: me or Iwase?”
Iwase stood up too, her calm yet piercing gaze putting even more pressure on Takagi. Her eyes felt like daggers.
‘I’ll end up dating whoever I say I like, won’t I? ’ he realized with growing panic. The two girls had cornered him completely, offering no way out.
‘I don’t even want to think about love right now…’ he thought. ‘ Dating someone would just be a distraction from becoming a mangaka. And I don’t even have time to go out on dates… it’ll become disastrous after a while and make the relationship fall apart sooner, rather than later.’
Takagi bit his lip in thought. This situation was such a headache. As things stood right now, he saw only one way out. He could only hope that his friend would forgive him for what he was about to do.
Straightening up, he adjusted his glasses with a subtle push and raised his hand. With all the confidence he could muster, he pointed directly at the one who stood beside him.
“Mashiro.”
Everyone froze. All eyes shifted toward him in stunned silence, looking at Takagi as if he had grown a second head.
A bright blush covered Mashiro’s face. He blinked rapidly, unsure if his friend really meant what he said. The implications of his words were clear, though.
Iwase’s expression turned into one of shock, while Miyoshi looked like she was seconds away from exploding. Her clenched fists trembled by her side. ‘Now of all times, he wants to act silly?’
Takagi, sensing the growing rage in Miyoshi’s expression, quickly added, his face now tinged pink, “I’m actually dating Mashiro.”
He turned his head slightly, locking eyes with his stunned friend, his gaze practically begging. He pleaded silently that Saiko would go along with this story.
The room erupted with a collective scream of “What?!” coming both from Miyoshi and Mashiro.
“Shujin?!” Mashiro gasped, frozen in place. His mind flooded with confusion, heat rushing to his ears. Even though he could guess this was all a desperate ploy to get the girls off Takagi’s back, that did little to calm the storm of emotions rising in him.
Takagi stepped closer, a sheepish grin on his face. “We didn’t want to tell anyone, but… I guess the secret is out now?”
He gave Mashiro a nudge with his elbow, which brought the other back to reality.
“Uh… yeah,” Mashiro murmured, barely audible. He stared at the floor being unable to look either of the girls in the eye.
The room fell silent once more.
Iwase lowered her head, trying to hide her face. Tears unwillingly started to flow, showing at the corners of her eyes.
“I see…” she managed to murmur out, her voice cold. She grabbed her bag and quickly left the room, and soon the house as well. The loud bang caused by how hard she closed the door made Takagi wince. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings. Maybe just rejecting her would have been the better option?
Miyoshi watched Iwase leave and debated whether she should as well, but she found herself frozen in place. She looked between the flustered pair before her, rage replaced by confusion.
“But I thought…” Miyoshi struggled to push the words out of her throat. “Why didn’t you say so right away that you weren’t into any of us?”
“I-I just… didn’t want anyone to know about us?” Takagi replied hesitantly. “But when you pushed me into a corner like that… Wanting me to declare one of you my girlfriend… I couldn’t hide it anymore,” he sighed.
Miyoshi narrowed her eyes. She felt like what Takagi was saying wasn’t fully true, but then, looking at Mashiro, she couldn’t deny that the claim certainly looked true.
“I guess…” she murmured, looking off to the side, lost in thought. She raised her hand up to her head, running her fingers through the strands of her hair in a nervous gesture.
She gave a tentative look to the pair in front of her. Somehow, it all made sense now, when she put all of the little things together. The things she noticed but never before questioned: how close they were, the way the two seemed to reach each other’s thoughts, how they’d light up when talking to one another, how Takagi never quite looked at her the way she hoped he would. It was like puzzle pieces falling into place.
Mashiro grew more tense with each passing moment. Without warning, he delivered a swift kick to his friend’s shin; harder than he meant, maybe, but emotions were high. He shot Shujin a sharp look, nodding toward Miyoshi, practically begging him to fix this before it went too far. There was still time to explain.
Takagi winced, rubbing his leg, but the gesture was clear. He looked at Mashiro, noticing his scowl, his urgency, and realized: if they didn’t come clean now, the consequences would only get worse. Staying silent would be selfish. Using Saiko just to get out of an awkward situation wasn’t right.
“…I see,” Miyoshi finally said, softly.
There was no sarcasm or anger in her voice, merely a hint of hurt coming from the realisation that ultimately her feelings would not be reciprocated. Mashiro was not someone she could compete with.
Takagi opened his mouth, but she held up a hand.
“It makes sense now,” she said, more to herself than to them. “All those times you two disappeared together… how you understood each other without even speaking…”
Her eyes flicked to Mashiro, who couldn’t meet her gaze, and then back to Takagi.
“You could’ve told me sooner,” she added, her voice barely above a whisper. “I wouldn't have… I mean-”
She stopped herself, forcing a small, strained smile. “I hope it works out for you two.”
Miyoshi reached for her bag with slow, deliberate movements, like she was running on autopilot. Her body acted out the motions, but her mind was elsewhere; trapped in a whirlwind of confusion, disbelief, and quiet heartache. She didn’t look at Takagi again, afraid her expression might betray more than she wanted to show.
“Good luck, Takagi, Mashiro,” she said, her voice wavering ever so slightly. “I mean that.”
Then she turned to leave, trying to hold herself together, not to fall apart in front of them.
As the front door clicked shut behind Miyoshi, the silence that followed was deafening. For a long moment, neither of them moved.
Mashiro stood stiffly in place, staring at the floor, his hands balled into light fists at his sides.
“…You’re unbelievable,” he finally muttered.
Takagi turned toward him, backing up a little to give Mashiro his personal space. He dismissed the fact that he had found their proximity, although in such a tense situation, quite comforting and enjoyable. “Saiko-”
Mashiro looked up sharply, his cheeks still flushed, though now from frustration more than embarrassment.
“You could’ve warned me. Just- anything would’ve helped. I know there wasn’t really any time, but- Ugh… I don’t know!”
“I panicked,” Takagi said quickly. “I know I shouldn’t have dragged you into this, but at that moment, it seemed like the only way out of the situation.”
Mashiro ran a hand down his face, sighing. “So your ‘way out’ is declaring we’re dating in front of the two girls who actually like you?”
Takagi rubbed the back of his neck, his voice sheepish. “I mean… it technically worked, right?”
Mashiro gave him a deadpan look. “You might be a genius when it comes to writing, but that was the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.”
There was a long pause. Then, softer, Mashiro added, “Miyoshi was really hurt. Iwase too.”
Takagi’s shoulders slumped. “I know. I didn’t want that.”
“Then why lie?”
“…Because choosing either of them felt worse. I don’t want a girlfriend right now, you know that. I want to fully focus on making manga. I want this to work.”
Mashiro looked away. He couldn’t deny Shujin’s words because he, too, felt the same. Their shared dream was everything.
Still, after another moment of tense silence, he muttered, “You owe me for this. Big time.”
Takagi smiled weakly. “So you’re not actually mad?”
“I’m furious,” Mashiro said without missing a beat. “But I’m too drained. Don’t feel like it’s worth fighting over.”
He finally dropped onto the floor, arms crossed. “…I just hope it doesn’t reach Azuki.”
That got a visible shiver from Takagi. “…Please no.”
“Anyway, I think you should at least talk it out with Miyoshi. Or Iwase… But I feel like you fit better together with Miyoshi,” Mashiro chuckled.
“Why do you think so?” Takagi turned his head in a questioning manner.
“Just a hunch. Besides, she seems like a nice person. She’s Azuki’s friend for a reason!”
Takagi sighed, but couldn’t help smiling at Saiko’s usual Azuki talk. “Maybe you’re right. That’s something to think about someday in the future, though. And just as a warning: you know that if I tell her we’re never hearing the end of this?”
Mashiro glanced sideways at him, then let out a small, reluctant laugh. “Yeah, I know. I wish you had told her today, but I’ve seen how that conversation played out…”
“Yeah…” Takagi trailed off before speaking again. “So… Boyfriends, huh? Seems we’re stuck in that status for a while.”
“Don’t even start.” Mashiro was stone-faced, but a slight blush covered his cheeks that Takagi didn’t miss noticing.
“You’re blushing again! You know, I don’t think the story would have been believable without it. My acting is terrible,” Takagi laughed. Quieter, he added. “You look kinda cute like this.”
“Uhh… I-” Mashiro was at a loss for words. He felt his cheeks grow even hotter and tried to hide his face with his hands. “Shujin!” he groaned out.
“Alright, alright, I’ll stop,” he said, moving to his desk once more. “So, want to finally see what I’ve been working on?”
