Kotori was still thinking about Yurina and the way she locked Mari in the storage room when she came across Hiroki.
Originally she was making her way to the gardens to explore, as she hadn't yet taken a good look around. She was only there once after she followed Mari, but she wanted to take a better look at it.
Then she saw Hiroki, standing near one of the plants, and as she still remembered the way Yurina treated Mari, she figured it would be better if she avoided Hiroki for the time being too.
Abruptly, Kotori turned back around and walked back the way she came, not noticing that Hiroki had seen her and was confused by the way she so very clearly avoided him.
Something strange happened while Kotori was walking up the stairs. She thought she heard a quiet laugh, but when she turned around she didn't see anyone. She frowned, and continued walking, but then started to hear whispering. She turned around again, only to see nobody.
She felt a chill go down her back. There weren't... ghosts here, were they? She didn't believe in ghosts, but...
Kotori walked faster, rushing into the classroom and getting a bit out of breath as she did so.
"What's up with you?" Takeo asked.
Kotori shook her head. "I don't know, I... do you think this school might be haunted or something?"
"What? Haunted? Why?"
"Well... I was walking up the stairs just now and I kept hearing voices, but when I turned around there was nobody there!"
Takeo only laughed, which made Kotori huff in frustration.
"I'm being serious!"
"No, no, I know you're being serious. It's just that you're wrong, it's not ghosts or anything, that's just your fan club."
Kotori gaped. "My... fan club? I have a fan club?"
Takeo nodded. "Should I show you?"
He didn't give Kotori any warning before he suddenly stepped forward and took her hands in his. Kotori frowned in confusion at him, before lots of paper balls came out of nowhere and hit Takeo on the side of his head, making him stumble back and drop her hands.
Kotori turned in surprise to see a bunch of girls huddled in the opposite corner of the classroom, glaring at Takeo, with a bunch of papers in their hands.
"There's your fan club." Takeo whispered.
Kotori had no idea what to think about the fact that she had a fan club. She couldn't help but think that she really messed up the storyline of this otome game. Who had ever heard of the villainess getting a fan club?
Takeo took one of her hands again, making her fan club go crazy and hurl even more paper balls at him. He was laughing, seemingly having fun with provoking them.
"Hey... don't rile up my fans like that." Kotori protested.
The comment only made Takeo more shameless, because he then blew an air kiss to Kotori, something that made her push him away, laughing, and only made her fan club even angrier.
"Don't you dare defile Ueda-sama!" One of them screeched, before running towards Takeo.
Takeo laughed even as he ran out of the room, being chased by six very angry girls.
"He's crazy..." Kotori mumbled, shaking her head.
Chidori came in after they left, looking harried. "Jeez... was Takeo provoking your fan club again?"
"Does he do that a lot?" Kotori asked, surprised.
"All the time. Before, they tried to warn him about being friends with you, saying that a boy like him didn't deserve to be around someone like you, but obviously he said that was stupid, and ever since then they've had a bit of a... rivalry I guess you could say. He's always trying to rile them up and make them mad, and they're always trying to chase him away from you."
Kotori was a little worried about her fan club, but couldn't help being flattered at the same time. At least it seemed like Takeo was doing a sufficient job reigning them in. She was glad that he wasn't scared away by them. Maybe she should talk to them, try to explain to them that Takeo was his friend and that they shouldn't treat him like that, but then again Takeo seemed to purposefully be making them angry all the time, so she wasn't sure he didn't at least deserve a little retaliation.
"I didn't even know I had a fan club..." Kotori sighed.
Chidori giggled. "You're not supposed to. Fan clubs are meant to be secret!"
"But..."
"Of course the other students are allowed to know, but fan clubs are not usually supposed to be seen by the people the clubs are made for. Hayama senpai still doesn't know about his!"
"He doesn't?"
"No!"
"Wow..."
"If it wasn't for Takeo you probably wouldn't have found out about yours either."
Kotori didn't know why, but that sounded infinitely scarier than knowing about it.
She wondered just how many fan clubs there were, and how many people were completely clueless about their own. She thought about it, and thought that it might make sense if all the capture targets had one, except for Sota maybe. He was a lot less approachable than the other capture targets, though maybe that also made him more appealing to some people. While Kotori personally didn't like tsundere types too much, she knew of many people that did.
She would never have thought that she herself would have a fan club, though. Having a fan club seemed like a capture target privilege, or even a heroine privilege.
Actually, with the existence of fan clubs, and people like Yurina, was there even a need for a villainess in the plot? Yurina was harassing Mari anyway, it seemed like even if Kotori didn't do a thing there would be someone else to pick up the slack.
Kotori felt a little pleased at that thought. She was a villainess only in name, and that was fine with her.