The remaining days of Golden Week were spent in the academic trenches of the Nakano household. If the first day's power-assisted cramming was a success, the subsequent sessions were a masterclass in pedagogical despair.
But Sakurai Saki wasn't bothered. The foundational knowledge was locked in. Passing the monthly exams was a given. He was, after all, cheating with superpowers. A normal tutor would have been driven to an early grave.
Monday, May 9th. The first day back.
The sky was a neutral gray, promising light rain—perfect weather, in his opinion. The forecast warned of potential downpours, but Sakurai Saki only listened idly. Today, he was the Weather Child, a 100% Sunny Boy. He could clear the skies with a thought.
He had no qualms about using his power for personal comfort. But he liked the rain. So he left the clouds alone, donned a raincoat, and cycled to school.
At the gate, he saw Miko Iino standing guard in a transparent raincoat. After ten days without her daily dose of friendly torment, Sakurai found he'd actually missed her.
He quickly dismounted, slowing his approach.
"Sakurai-senpai! Good morning!" Miko's greeting was oddly… enthusiastic. Perhaps a form of Stockholm Syndrome had set in during the break.
"Good morning, Miko." He nodded, noticing her expectant, almost hopeful look. It was amusing. He decided, magnanimously, not to tease her today.
Watching his retreating back, Miko felt a strange emptiness. She shook her head violently. It's a good thing! A very good thing he didn't tease me!
After parking his bike, Sakurai faced his first real challenge of the day.
He was, ostensibly, dating Hayasaka Ai.
The problem was, Sakurai Saki had no operational manual for 'dating.' He understood it meant increased intimacy, but as a romantic novice, the specifics were a mystery. Was hugging intimate? Probably. Holding hands? Sure. But he'd done both with Fujiwara Chika and Hayasaka Ai before any confession. Their only kiss happened before they were official!
He needed to gauge Hayasaka's current stance. If she'd accepted his tacit agreement, shouldn't their dynamic have shifted?
With a heart heavier than the impending rain, he reached the shoe lockers, changed, and offered stiff 'good mornings' to passing classmates. He arrived at the classroom door… and froze.
"Sakurai? What's the holdup?" Toyosaki Saburo clapped him on the shoulder. "Already strategizing how to take the top spot this month?"
Sakurai turned. "Do I look that shallow? I don't obsess over rankings." The school's top four had been static for half a year: 1. Shirogane Miyuki, 2. Kaguya Shinomiya, 3. Sakurai Saki, 4. Shijo Maki.
"Gonna finally dethrone Kaguya Shinomiya this time?"
"Without a doubt," Sakurai declared, the automatic response of a perennial third-place finisher.
"You said that last time, too. Maybe we mortals should just stay out of the genius bracket." Toyosaki, a respectable 6th place himself, offered this sage advice.
"If I quit, you'd move up to 5th. Clever thinking," Sakurai replied with a thin smile.
"I can't beat Kaguya. And when I went up against Shirogane last year, it was a massacre." Toyosaki's eyes then darted to where Hayasaka Ai was watching them. He gave Sakurai's shoulder a final, meaningful pat and made a tactical retreat to his seat.
Sakurai felt the weight of that gaze. This was their first meeting since the confession-that-might-not-have-been.
He forced nonchalance, walking to his window seat.
"Good morning, Hayasaka-san."
"Good morning, Sakurai-kun."
The air between them could have been cut with a ruler. The formality was glacial.
'She's… not acting like my girlfriend.'
'He's… not acting like he accepted me.'
Otherwise, why the stiff honorifics?
Hayasaka Ai & Sakurai Saki, in unison: It's over. We're finished.
"Sakurai-kun, how was your Golden Week?" Hayasaka ventured, voice carefully light.
"Tutoring."
"At the… Nakano quintuplets'?"
"Yes."
Silence. A yawning chasm of it.
"That—" they both blurted at once.
"Never mind," Sakurai mumbled, looking down. He despised his own cowardice.
"Hayasaka-san, did you… have something to say?"
"No. Nothing."
Hayasaka Ai equally loathed her own reticence.
'JUST SAY SOMETHING!' their minds screamed in perfect, miserable harmony.
Finally, Sakurai Saki gathered the shards of his courage.
He walked over to Hayasaka Ai's desk and, without preamble, wrapped his arms around her.
"…"
Hayasaka Ai didn't move. Her brain short-circuited.
Eh? Eh?! Why the sudden hug?!
The entire classroom's attention snapped to them.
Heat flooded Ai-chan's cheeks. She made a weak, token attempt to push him away, but her arms refused to cooperate. The truth was, she wanted this hug. That's why she had no strength.
The realization made her burn with even deeper shyness.
"Long time no see," Sakurai Saki mumbled into her hair, his excuse feeble. "Got a little carried away. Sorry."
Ai-chan didn't speak. Instead, she finally allowed her own arms to rise, returning the embrace for a few, fleeting seconds.
Then, as if by silent agreement, they released each other almost simultaneously. Sakurai Saki retreated to his window seat, staring fixedly at the rain-streaked glass. Ai-chan bowed her head, studying her desk as if it contained the secrets of the universe.
Around them, the classroom's quiet hum crescendoed into whispered speculation.
On the aisle side, Kaguya Shinomiya's sharp ears caught the fragments.
"Did they get together over Golden Week?" one voice hissed.
"But Sakurai-senpai is always hugging Fujiwara-chan too…" another countered.
"Hayasaka has won."
"How can you be so sure?! Until there's an official announcement, I refuse to believe it! What gives you the right to say that so confidently?!" The protesting girl then did a double-take. "…Eh? Shinomiya-san?"
The Ice Queen herself was participating in gossip?
Kaguya offered a small, practiced smile. "I am also a girl. Is it so strange to be interested in romance topics?" She had been consciously softening her image lately. Perpetual frost commanded respect, but it also built walls. To gather intelligence and influence, one had to occasionally step into the common fray.
"Which… which ship are you on, Shinomiya-san?"
"The Hayasaka-san and Sakurai-kun faction," Kaguya replied without hesitation. After all, she had been actively, if clandestinely, engineering that very outcome.
At the window, Sakurai Saki watched the rain trace slow paths down the pane.
The hug had been warm. Her returning it had been… something.
But the silence afterward, the return to formal distance…
'…So, are we dating or not?'
The question, more confusing than ever, hung in the air, as unresolved as the gray sky outside.
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