Ayanokouji What If: Popularity Time

V8 Chapter 5: Midnight Rendevous

                          Kiyotaka Pov

It was the evening of the 7th day of the exam, meaning we were right ahead of the final examination.

The previous few days were quiet, but still physically taxing. Lately, the school has been forcing us to run marathons alongside the Zazen lessons. This combination of physical activities has been wearing the group down greatly, causing the arguments to decrease because of it.

Simply put, nobody wanted to exert energy to get angry when their bodies were in constant pain.

The group had begun to unify by bonding with the shared pain that had been inflicted upon them. Koenji's inability to cooperate has also caused the group to unite in talking about him behind his back.

Even in this comradery that we had made, there was still an underlying tension.

Tomorrow we would see if all of our efforts would produce results enough to avoid expulsion.

Right now, I was walking to my table with my tray of food as I recounted the events of this exam.

On the far side of the room, I spotted Ichinose. She stared down at her tray, a sad look in her eyes.

"That's strange." I thought to myself.

Not only is Ichinose alone, which is incredibly rare, but she seems incredibly sad. Has her group encountered some more troubles?

On the first few days of the exam, she had issues controlling her group, but she claimed she was past them and found a good way to make sure everybody got what they needed.

I decided to approach her, and said, "Hey Ichinose!"

She perked up and turned to me, "Oh, hi Ayanokouji-Kun! How are you?"

"Good, but what about you?" I asked, moving next to her with my tray full of food.

"Pretty good! Not a lot has been happening recently, which I suppose is for the best," she said with a nervous chuckle.

Behind her sweet facade, I could tell a sadness lurked hidden there.

"Are you in trouble?" I asked suddenly, shocking her.

"Trouble? Not at all. Why do you ask?" she asked nervously.

"When I saw you just now, you seemed disappointed about something," I replied, "You can tell me anything if something is bothering you."

She hesitated, her eyes meeting mine before darting away, "It's nothing too big. Besides I don't want to burden you, Ayanokouji-Kun."

I waited for a moment, allowing a silence to pass between us both. All the while, her fingers nervously traced the edge of her tray as if trying to commit its shape to her memory.

A conflicted look passed on her face and she nervously looked around as I said nothing.

Ichinose is somebody who is very sociable, and so is my persona. She must be off-put by my silence, maybe not very experienced in an awkward situation like this. I'm sure she knows what I'm doing because of that, forcing her into an uncomfortable silence to crumble her.

Finally, I said, "Has your group run into a roadblock?"

"In a way, yeah. It's not that we've begun to argue with each other, but the burden from this exam is dragging down our morale and strength," she explained while gripping the tray firmly.

"That's understandable. The strength required for this exam is such a great amount so it's no wonder that everybody is starting to struggle."

"So those are your thoughts on the matter?"