Story of a Rhythm Game Couple

Chapter 22. Confession gone wrong

"As discussed, Noguchi will be in charge of the content, while Imai-san and I will be taking care of the presentation. If anything comes up, please bring it up in our group chat, okay?"

"Sure thing, Sajou-kun."

"Aight. Time's tight, though."

It was the end of November.

Their midterm presentation topics were handed out today. Once again, the sequence of the topics was determined by the raffle. This time, however, Asahi's group was assigned to present first, leaving them with only one week to prepare for everything. Since it was a hefty assignment, some first-group presenters would get bonus points for their work, so there were generally no complaints.

Although they received the highest grade in class for their previous assignment, there were significant inconsistencies. Asahi made the content clear and detailed, but his presentation design was poor. Sousuke and Kaori, on the other hand, excelled in design but struggled with content. To address this, Sousuke, the group leader, decided to let each member focus on their strengths for this assignment, effectively minimizing unnecessary and pointless discussions.

"Don't overwork yourself, you hear?"

Since there wasn't much time, Sousuke patted Asahi's shoulder, encouraging him to keep up with his work while also taking care of his well-being.

"I won't." Asahi answered as he closed his workbook. "What are you both doing after this?"

"Wow. How rare of Noguchi-kun to ask such a question."

Asahi was just asking out of curiosity about how well they both had been going, so he wasn't content with how Kaori reacted to it.

"We'll follow up with club activities, I guess. There's a competition coming up, after all."

"Good luck, Sajou-kun." Kaori patted Sousuke's back. "By the way, how are things between you and Katou-chan?"

"Yeah." Sousuke added. "I think I saw you both going to school this morning..."

"I'm going home."

With an annoyed expression, Asahi snatched his backpack and stormed out of the classroom, disregarding whatever Sousuke and Kaori were talking about.

"I wonder how Sa-chan is doing."

That reminded him of Sana. It had been two weeks since that night at her aunt's house when she shared her sorrowful stories with him, enduring a long-overdue emotional breakdown. The following day, although she appeared to have returned to her usual self, Asahi couldn't help but still worry about her.

It was no surprise that Sousuke and Kaori had noticed them together at school at some point. Given their identical school schedules and the fact that she often stopped by his apartment for meals, he made an effort to accompany her to and from school whenever possible, which Sana didn't seem to mind.

Asahi walked across the yard to Building B, where Sana was enrolled in class. Building B was off-limits to Asahi's student ID, so he had to sneak in by enlisting the help of other students to confirm his access.

Due to the nature of their courses, Sana's class concluded about five to ten minutes later than Asahi's. Her classroom was on the second level, whereas he usually waited for her on the first.

Normally, if they had both morning and afternoon classes, Asahi would wait for her at their regular seats in the cafeteria. But today, without an afternoon lesson, Asahi came over to building B to pick up Sana and take her home with him.

By picking her up in building B and not waiting for her at the front building, Asahi was able to discover new things about Sana. Even though he was aware of the sociable and cheerful image she had been portraying in front of everyone, he was still surprised to see her surrounded by so many girls almost all the time. Truly a first-hand experience beats a second-hand knowledge moment, he thought.