Sakayanagi's change of heart

Keisei's suspicions

It was just a few days after the results of the first special exam of their second year at Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing School had been announced.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was currently at a café with his fellow members of the Ayanokoji Group. It was after 6 PM already, which was why even Akito was present after having finished with his after-school club activities.

As usual, Kiyotaka preferred listening to his friends' conversations instead of actively participating in them. When he was addressed, he responded adequately, but he was enjoying their time spent together enough as it was.

He wasn't even sure what it was that made it enjoyable. It was obvious, after all, that he didn't actively gain anything from it.
He could be trying to gain their trust to use them as his pawns, but he had no intention of doing that. And not just because their usefulness as his tools would be limited; he simply enjoyed their company most of the time.

Perhaps it was interest, he mused as he took a sip from his tea. Perhaps he was interested enough in what it meant to be a high school student for different types of people that he liked having more people to analyse.

He answered Haruka's question on whether he agreed with Keisei on the matter of romance with a response that wouldn't lead to his further involvement in this part of their conversation.

No, that wasn't right either. He found that he wouldn't exchange these four people for four different, new kinds of people to examine. If he could do that while maintaining contact with the Ayanokoji Group simultaneously, that would be fine. But Ayanokoji Kiyotaka realised that he wouldn't give up his friends for the sake of obtaining valuable information for his research unless absolutely necessary for different reasons.

He nodded along with Akito's explanation on how to run faster. He had interesting ideas.

What's more, he probably wouldn't sacrifice his friends for his own gain either. Of course, that might change depending on the situation, but if it was between getting Akito, Haruka, Airi or Keisei expelled due to the situation with that man versus himself, he would drop out. They had nothing to do with his troubles.

He took another sip of his tea.

What had prompted his newest examinations of his own feelings on friendship was Keisei's temporary decision of leaving their group after Kiyotaka's perfect math score. He had stayed in the end, but Kiyotaka came to the realisation that it would have been... troublesome to him if Keisei had left. The moment Keisei mentioned that he had considered it, he had felt something that he couldn't identify. Concern? Fear? Regret? He didn't know. Furthermore, Kiyotaka didn't know why he would feel such things when Keisei's reaction had been perfectly predictable. And afterwards, he had been relieved when their friendship had apparently been repaired with a handshake.

Only that it hadn't.

Currently, he could feel Keisei glance at him again. Kiyotaka pretended not to notice, but he was aware that Keisei had repeatedly done so, trying to be inconspicuous. Keisei had also spoken up considerably less often so far than he usually would, so much so that his overall number of words said so far was 78 % below his average.

It most likely had to do with the math test. The announcement of the results had only been 3 days ago after all. It was only natural for Keisei to still be affected by it. It didn't help that there were other recent events that contributed to his rising suspicions.

Kiyotaka didn't think it was necessary for him to interfere yet. If Keisei's behaviour continued for their subsequent 2 meetups, he would address the issue. For now, he would give him some time.
Hasebe, however, didn't seem to share that sentiment.