If choosing meant someone would be hurt… then perhaps the answer was to choose them all.
No matter how messy it became, Sakurai Saki couldn't bear to hurt Fujiwara Chika. If she had given up, he would have forced himself to let go. But her stubborn vow to wait left him profoundly conflicted.
"Hayasaka-san and I… probably won't break up," he stated frankly, looking down at Chika, who now rested her head in his lap. Even if Hayasaka Ai were the one to end it, he wouldn't allow her to leave. The selfish Superpower User would not relinquish what was his.
Fujiwara Chika didn't want to hear that right now. She stared up at his face. "Why tell me any of this? Shouldn't a Superpower User stay hidden?"
"Probably… because I wanted you to know the boy you like is more extraordinary than you imagined." It was also a demonstration—proof that he possessed the power to defy conventional rules.
"Saki-kun was already amazing to me," Chika murmured, still processing. She adored him—his intellect, his character. She loved most that he indulged her even when he was reluctant.
But he had a girlfriend now.
At the very least… her chance was gone.
Outside, the dark clouds regrouped with a vengeance. Rain lashed the windows once more, washing away the earlier miracle as if it had been a fleeting dream.
"It seems even superpowers can't hold back the clouds forever," Sakurai observed wryly. "Not so amazing after all. Can't even manage to date two girls at once."
Chika managed a soft chuckle. "Eh~? Is Saki-kun hinting at something? But I won't accept you two-timing! So give up!"
At least for now, she couldn't accept sharing him. Hayasaka-san surely felt the same. No girl wanted to share.
"A real pity," Sakurai sighed, half-joking. He hadn't expected easy acceptance.
Chika's expression grew hesitant. "If… and I mean if… if Saki-kun could really make me agree to it…"
Sakurai cut her off gently. "…Don't force yourself. Let's just keep things as they are for now."
"Mm." She nodded, a wave of relief and sadness washing over her.
"Then… can I still ask you to play games with me?" she ventured.
Sakurai looked baffled. "What kind of question is that? Of course."
"What about holding hands?"
"Sure."
"And… hugs?" Her voice was a whisper.
"Only as friends."
"…Kisses?" The word was barely audible.
"No. That crosses the line."
Chika's eyes lit up with a sudden, mischievous loophole. "Then… what if I'm only your girlfriend during the kiss?"
Thump. Sakurai gave her a light chop on the head.
"Ow~!"
"That's for saying something so silly." Was she trying to exploit a glitch in the system? A 'kiss-only girlfriend' was even more absurd than a rental.
"Saki-kun~ Can you do it again?" Excitement suddenly overtook her melancholy. She scrambled off his lap and, under his utterly embarrassed gaze, struck his earlier pose against the window. "Now… the sky is going to clear up!"
Past the initial shock, Fujiwara Secretary was now in full curiosity mode about the supernatural!
"A superpower isn't a toy," Sakurai groaned, wanting to sink through the floor.
"But I wanna see it! Pleeease~"
A few minutes later, for the second time that day, the student body of Shuchiin Academy witnessed a meteorological miracle.
Fujiwara Chika pressed her hands and face against the glass, staring in awe at the new, perfect circle of blue torn in the gray expanse. "Superpowers are… so amazing!" Her vocabulary failed her, leaving only the simplest, most genuine praise.
She turned to him, a new thought dawning. "Am I… the first to know?"
"Yes. The first at Shuchiin to know."
Chika-chan's heart swelled with a strange, possessive satisfaction. That meant even his current girlfriend, Hayasaka-san, didn't know.
"What about Shirogane Miyuki?"
"Why would I tell him?"
"I thought you two were really close." A tiny flicker of jealousy colored her voice. Their bond had always seemed uniquely intense.
"Superpowers are dangerous. The fewer who know, the safer it is." His expression grew serious.
"Then… why tell me?" Her look turned sly, like a kitten who'd found a secret stash of catnip. It was oddly endearing.
"You would have found out eventually. If I want you to accept all of me… it's better to be honest from the start."
Having resolved to walk a morally ambiguous path, Sakurai Saki saw no point in half-measures. He would need to speak with Hayasaka Ai soon, too. They would be in each other's lives for a long time. He could hide the truth for a season, but not forever.
"I won't let you be a two-timer!" Chika repeated, her declaration a fragile shield.
"…" Sakurai Saki felt the weight of the paradox. How did those harem protagonists in stories make it look so effortless? Was this the brutal chasm between fantasy and reality?
"Quick! The hole is closing!" Chika pointed, disappointment coloring her voice as the sunlit circle in the sky was devoured by the returning gloom.
"Never mind. Saki-kun, what other powers do you have?" Her curiosity was a welcome distraction.
Her gaze then fell on the scattered UNO cards, remnants of her emotional collapse. A look of deep suspicion crossed her face. "Saki-kun… did you use your power to win all those games against me?"
"Hmm, I can neither confirm nor deny," he deflected.
"Eh?! You cheated! And you—!"
"Chika. Weren't you cheating too?"
"But I still lost even when I cheated!" she wailed, as if this was the greatest injustice of all. Cheating and still losing was an offense to her competitive spirit!
"You did win once," Sakurai corrected softly.
"Huh? I did? I don't remember…" She tapped her chin, genuinely puzzled.
"A year ago. You beat me. Once."
If falling in love was a game, then that had been his first and most definitive loss.
"Mm?" Chika's face was a canvas of pure confusion.
"The first day of school…"
"Did we even meet on the first day?"
"You really did forget everything," Sakurai sighed, a mix of amusement and a faint, old hurt. So, he hadn't been special to her from the very beginning after all.
"Eh! Don't just trail off! Tell me properly~!" She grabbed his shoulders, shaking him lightly.
In her memory, their story began in the second week, when Sakurai approached her at the Tabletop Game Club.
"Does the great 'Love Detective Chika-chan' need me to spoil the mystery?" he teased.
"…Fine. Never mind, then." She pouted, too proud of her detective title to accept help.
Sakurai checked his phone. "Huh. It's already this late?" The emotional storm had warped time. "We should head back."
Perhaps because of the earlier supernatural interference, the rain had dwindled to a gentle drizzle.
The two of them cleaned up the Student Council room in a comfortable, familiar silence. Then, as they always did, they parted ways at the bottom of the stairs in the main building—two friends walking separate paths home, a newly shared, impossible secret hanging between them, and the ghost of a forgotten first meeting lingering in the damp, twilight air.
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