As they were walking home, Kei noticed that Mai seemed to be in a good mood for some reason. He had many things going on inside his head at the moment. Mainly the fact that he had never seen or imagined that the Mai beside him was the same girl who barely talked and was so shy at school and that she had such a devilish side to her. 'Is this her true self? Was all her shyness and behaviour at school just a façade?' So many thoughts were flowing through his head at the moment.
"Hmm~ Hmm~…? what is it?" Mai asked as she found Kei unintentionally staring at her.
"I was wondering, were you always like this when no one is around?" Kei's normal expressionless demeanour had returned.
"Eh…?"
It seemed that Mai was caught off guard by that question as she just realised that she was acting oddly out of character. It was as though even she didn't know how she was acting earlier that when she thought back on how she was earlier, her face became increasingly red.
"Did you purposely go for the couple's pro—"
"It wasn't! I-I just thought it would be good if we could save money! Yes, that's it!"
Mai had her hands in an 'X' shape trying to deny the suggestion completely. However, the look on Mai's face turned to worry as she started wondering whether she had upset Kei.
"Are… are you mad…?" Mai asked as she looked down on the ground.
"Haah… well, it wasn't all bad. At least I got to see a different side to you today… A weirdly devilish side."
"Ah…"
When Kei said that, Mai's face instantly turned red again, wishing that Kei would just forget about what he had seen in the restaurant. As Kei looked at her change of expression, he felt slight relief that she is back to her normal self. He didn't know what or how he would be able to handle the Mai that he saw today if that was her true normal self.
"Then again… I… also managed to see a new side of Kei… that I haven't seen before…" Mai said as she was smiling while blushing slightly.
When Kei saw this, he also tried to look away while he was blushing slightly and awkwardly.
"By the way, this has been troubling me for the whole day now… do you mind if I ask you a question?"
"Umm… sure…?"
"How did Kei actually manage to score full marks on every test during last term?"
"Ah… that's…"
Kei wondered if it was fine to reveal anything more about himself to a person that he has barely known for a few months. When he wondered, he thought, 'It should be fine if it's her right?'. Like many other things about himself, Kei was very secretive about his personal life and information. The people who actually knew about him could be counted with his fingers alone.
"Hmm… mind keeping this a secret?"
"Mmm…"
"I have a photographic memory. Because of that, I can remember every detail the teacher teaches clearly."
"I see… but why does this warrant keeping a secret from everyone?"
Mai thought that him having a photographic memory was only logical since he basically got every single answer correct, but she did not know why he wanted to keep something like this a secret from everyone. After all, it wasn't as though people could imitate his methods of studying or anything.
"I mean… you saw what happened today right?"
"R-right…" Mai thought back about the chaos that erupted in the classroom in the morning and after school had ended. If Yanagi-sensei hadn't stepped in, who knows what could've happened in the classroom.
"It's not that I want to share anything about myself with others in the first place, but it'd be troublesome if word did get out."
Mai thought about all the things that could happen if word were to get out. Even though she thought it was not exactly a big deal if word were to get out that he had photographic memories, it would still be troublesome nonetheless. 'Not to mention if word were to get out… he would get so much attention from the other girls—'. Mai suddenly shook her head as if to snap herself out of her thoughts.
"Well, in any case, I'm glad you trust me enough to tell me this…" Mai smiled while blushing.
"Well, Chihaya is the only other person who knows about it so I think I chose carefully enough."
"It must be nice to have such a blessing, I thought I could at least snatch the top place in the rankings…" Mai was now slightly pouting.
When Kei looked at the pouting Mai, he thought she looked kind of cute and let out a slight smile before looking away to divert his attention to the streets in front of him as he headed home.
"Blessing… huh…?" Kei let his thoughts slip out of his mouth as he accidentally whispered those words.