Chapter Text
The class 3-E boys sat on the floor of their room. They were currently on the last night of their trip to Kyoto, so they decided to savor it by staying up a bit later than usual.
There was a piece of paper with each of the class 3-E girls' names written on it, ranking them by popularity. The conversation mainly was about what girls in the class they found to be attractive or had a good personality. But obviously the conversation switched to discussing who they thought had a crush on who.
“...Excluding Okajima-kun from this discussion, I think that Sugino-kun and Kanzaki-chan totally have a thing for each other.” Maehara mentioned offhandedly.
Sugino looked shocked but blushed, not necessarily denying it or confirming it. He had a tendency to get nervous when she was brought up. That reaction, in the other boys' minds, solidified that Maehara’s comment was correct.
“Hmm.. So, Nagisa-kun, what girl would be your top pick?” Maehara asked while turning to face Nagisa.
Nagisa was stunned for a moment before speaking, “I, uhh.. I'm not so sure…!”
Sugino eventually recovered from his temporary nervous paralysis, “C’mon Maehara-kun, if you're gonna ask you've got to tell.”
“No can do, sorry Sugino-kun… A gentleman always keeps his secrets!” Maehara smirked mischievously as that made the other boys particularly angry, especially Mimura.
When Karma entered the room they asked who his top pick was. His answer was Okuda. Despite how different they were, Karma's explanation made a lot of sense given his priorities.
Turning to Isogai, Sugaya asked, “So, Isogai-kun, do you have any girl you like in particular?”
Isogai thought for a few moments before shrugging, “If I'm being entirely honest I haven't given it much thought.”
“Seriously? You haven't thought about any girl? With your luck you could literally get any girl you wanted.” Mimura gasped.
Isogai smiled sheepishly, mentally preparing himself for another one of his friends' lectures about him needing to get a girlfriend. He always had to listen to this, “No, really I'm more focused on the class and our goal…”
“C'mon, you have to like someone, y’know.” Muramatsu poked at Isogai, really wanting to get this information out of him, “And you too, Maehara-kun!”
“Yeah, Isogai, you'd probably be great in a relationship, any lady would be lucky to have you.” Maehara added, deciding to ignore the comment thrown his way just moments before.
“Oh, really? Thank you, Maehara.” Isogai smiled, looking down at the ranking paper, “Hey guys, we're agreeing to keep these rankings just between us? Whatever was said here stays here…”
All of the boys nodded in agreement, not wanting to know what would happen if the girls figured out what they had been up to.
Maehara even remarked, “Of course, we're not stupid.”
“If this got out, it could cause a real problem….” Isogai trailed off, staring at Koro-Sensei’s head peeking through the door to their room.
While the other boys ran off to go chase Koro-Sensei, Maehara and Isogai stayed back. Isogai walked out to the balcony to get some fresh air and Maehara ended up following him.
They were just sitting in silence before Isogai started to talk.
“Hey, Maehara?” Isogai mumbled, sleepiness lacing his voice.
“Hmm? Yeah? What's up, Isogai?” Maehara turned to look at the brunette.
“Did you really mean it when you said any girl would be lucky to have me?” Isogai asked.
Maehara hummed and nodded in confirmation, “Obviously.”
Isogai looked up, a faint flush on his cheeks. “If I'm being honest I kind of hate it when the guys drill me about getting a girlfriend, or about which girl I find the most attractive.”
“Oh, I get you. But instead it's my mom. My mom's always like, ‘Hiroto, when are you ever going to start taking your relationships seriously?’ and always introducing me to her co-worker's daughters in hopes of me, I dunno, liking her or something.” Maehara frowned, sympathizing with Isogai.
“I kind of wish there was a way for them to stop bugging me about it.” Isogai shrugged, not expecting much to come out of it before they fell into another comfortable silence.
That comfortable silence was short-lived as suddenly Maehara piped up with an idea, an evil smirk on his face, “call me crazy…”
“Oh god.” Isogai mentally prepared himself.
“But what if we like, fake dated for a while, so then people would get off your ass about having a girlfriend and my mom would chill out?” Maehara smiled, like his plan was full proof.
Isogai sat there stunned for a bit.
“C'mon it'll be fun, like a prank on the whole class. And, you know how Koro-Sensei is, he'll try his hardest to not separate us. You know how much he wants a romance to blossom between two of his students, so then that'd make him happy.” Maehara started rambling. The more Maehara went on the smarter the plan sounded to Isogai who genuinely started to consider it.
“...Okay, but wouldn't we have to act like a couple? I'm not sure I know all too well how to do that…” Isogai asked.
“We’ll just have to hold hands and occasionally kiss. We should also probably use eachothers first names. Nothing I haven't done before. I can help you,” Maehara added. “... And, I can give you a cute nickname.”
That was enough to convince Isogai to agree to the fake dating plot. At first they would be subtle than get a bit less as time went on.
Eventually the craziness died down and it was time for everyone to go to sleep. Maehara pulled the blanket up a little more to comfortably cover himself up before turning on his side to look at Isogai.
“Goodnight, Yuuma.” Maehara smiled before closing his eyes.
“Night, Hiroto.” Isogai mumbled as he was already falling asleep.
That was part one of their plan, to start accidentally slipping up mid-conversation, using each other's first names or, later, a nickname. While it was common for friends to use their first names on each other, they rarely did, hoping that this would signify something changed in their relationship.