"Amane-san, what did you just say?"
Horikita Suzune bent down to pick up her chopsticks, intending to ask discreetly.
But the chopsticks in her hand were gripped so tightly they were straight.
It made Amane-san feel a little scared.
"N-nothing... I was just asking, just asking casually."
Amane-san was about to pick up an egg roll, but her hand was grabbed by Horikita Suzune.
"You're not hiding anything from me, are you?"
She knew that as soon as she spoke, she would be at a disadvantage.
But Horikita Suzune only held out for three seconds before she couldn't resist asking Amane-san.
Amane-san's gaze darted away.
"I was just joking, Suzune, you don't need to take it so seriously."
Amane-san smiled very normally.
But this made Horikita Suzune even more uneasy.
"Um... I have to go out for a bit. If you're sleepy, Suzune, go to bed first."
Amane-san finished speaking, stood up, and quickly walked towards the door.
It wasn't until the sound of the door closing reached the living room that Horikita Suzune snapped back to reality.
She didn't expect that Amane-san was actually starting to hide things from her.
Was it to deliberately annoy her?
Horikita Suzune also considered that Amane-san might be putting on a show to deliberately annoy her.
But Amane-san's reaction was too real, and she had indeed seen someone sending Amane-san messages.
Could Amane-san really be... Horikita Suzune slowly got up, went to the coat rack, changed into a black trench coat, and decided to follow Amane-san to see.
Who was the scoundrel who dared to poach her corner.
As soon as Amane-san exited the elevator, she jogged all the way to the outside of the dorm building.
Under the dim light not far away.
Ichinose was standing there looking at her phone.
She seemed to be waiting for someone's message.
Amane-san ran towards Ichinose without hesitation.
At this moment, Horikita Suzune, who had just run down the stairs, arrived at the back door of the dorm building.
After circling around, she finally found a hidden spot to secretly observe the two.
"Amane-san, you're finally down. I saw the message was read, but there was no reply, so I thought you might not be available today."
Ichinose patted her chest.
It was as if a huge weight had finally been lifted from her heart.
"I was delayed by some things. Um... Ichinose, is there something you want to tell me, calling me out so late?"
Amane-san shyly turned her head away.
The atmosphere between the two gradually became ambiguous.
Originally, Ichinose intended to explain about the afternoon's events to Amane-san, but she didn't expect Amane-san's first words to be such an ambiguous question.
Amane-san was indeed telling the truth.
It was Ichinose who had asked her out late at night, saying she had something to tell her.
But Amane-san's shy demeanor immediately made the situation take on a different nuance.
Ichinose immediately noticed the change in atmosphere.
She wanted to explain eagerly.
But to her dismay, no matter from what angle, she couldn't find any fault with Amane-san's question. Yet, the atmosphere was already like this. Even if Ichinose wasn't going to confess, saying nothing would only make both of them awkward.
Especially since Ichinose had no way to defend her reason; she was the one who made the appointment, and the time she called Amane-san out was at night.
Even putting herself in Amane-san's shoes, if someone asked her to meet alone late at night, the greatest possibility Ichinose could think of was undoubtedly a confession!
After Ichinose realized that Amane-san had misunderstood her intention, she began to ponder how to end this meeting without embarrassing either of them.
And for Ichinose, who had no romantic experience, the difficulty level was comparable to being asked to lead Class B to Class A right now.
She couldn't just say, "Hey, Classmate Amane-san, I'm not confessing to you, don't overthink it," or "Please don't blush, I want to talk about serious matters."
Ichinose simulated it in her mind. Any person with a normal brain wouldn't use either of the above two answers, because no matter which one she used, the likely outcome would be Amane-san turning around and leaving immediately.
Although Ichinose and Amane-san's relationship wasn't particularly close right now.
Amane-san had initially helped Class B, and her personality was good, making her suitable to be a friend.
Ichinose also had the idea of becoming friends with Amane-san.
This was one reason.
The second was that in the afternoon's meeting, Amane-san displayed extraordinary abilities, and Amane-san had previously made Ryuuen stumble.
Ichinose could basically conclude that if Class D could make good use of talents like Ayanokoji and Amane-san.
Rising to Class C would only be a matter of time.
Instead of suddenly trying to improve inter-class relations then,
It would be better to become friends with Amane-san in advance.
Amane-san saved Hirata, so it's likely that Hirata would listen to Amane-san's words in the future if anything happened.
This way, Ichinose was confident she could maintain a relatively friendly relationship with Class D through Amane-san.
Although in the current environment, thinking about such issues was somewhat rude.
But besides being a Student Council member, Ichinose was also the leader of Class B and had an obligation to consider her class, so she judged that making an enemy of Amane-san at this time would definitely be a foolish act.
Just then.
Ichinose's eyes suddenly lit up.
Since there was no way to directly refuse, why not just make Amane-san retreat in the face of difficulty?
"Classmate Amane-san, what do you think of me?"
Ichinose decided to use herself as bait first to test Amane-san.
"Classmate Ichinose is very cute."
Cute? Everyone seemed to praise her that way.
Ichinose, who originally thought it was just polite talk, for the first time seriously pondered whether she was really very cute.
"And... anything else?"
The thought of actually asking someone for their opinion of her.
Ichinose couldn't help but blush.
This made the already ambiguous atmosphere even more so, to the point where if a confession happened the next second, neither of them would be surprised.
"Anything else, huh... still very cute."
...???
Ichinose was a bit at a loss for how to refute.
Amane-san's words were the same twice. Was she really only cute?
Ichinose realized that dragging this out would lead to big problems.
So she directly used her ultimate move.
"Classmate Amane-san, what kind of boys do you like?"
Ichinose gave herself a thumbs-up in her heart.
If she asked whether Amane-san liked boys or girls, Amane-san might jokingly say girls, which would only make things worse.
It was better to directly pinpoint the answer to the question.
It turned into directly asking Amane-san what kind of boys she liked.
"Boys, huh? Hmm, let me think. Someone like Classmate Ichinose, would that work?"
Ichinose had a very gentle temper, so many people liked to be friends with her.
But with Amane-san, Amane-san clearly knew what she wanted to say, yet deliberately didn't point it out.
This couldn't go on, it seemed there was only one way... "If someone confessed to you, Amane-san, would you reject her?"
Seeing Ichinose ask such a direct question, even Amane-san couldn't help but freeze on the spot.
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