"Come friend, I shall join you for lunch." Keigo said to Kei as he put his hand around Kei's shoulders.
It was clear to Kei and perhaps the whole class what Keigo was trying to do. By having lunch with Kei, he would essentially be joining Chihaya, Azusa, and Mai for lunch as well.
"…Keigo… I don't know whether I should say you're shameless, or that your skin is so thick nothing gets into your head."
"Come on, we're friends, right? What are friends for?"
"We're not." Kei said immediately after Keigo said they're friends again.
Before Kei could say anything else, he could feel Keigo's palm grabbing Kei's shoulder harder as if he is trying to threaten him with strength. However, Keigo did not get the reaction he wanted out of Kei like he hoped. Instead, Kei grabbed Keigo's palm, squeezed it tight that Keigo almost screamed in pain while masking it as him just trying to get an annoying person's hand off his shoulder.
Before Keigo could do anything else, the door slid open and Shiki-sensei entered the classroom while signalling everyone to get back to their seats. Shiki-sensei had actually witnessed the back end of the exchange between Keigo and Kei but seeing as Kei already managed to handle the situation, she decided to let it slide.
As the students returned to their seats, so did Azusa whose seat was right next to Kei. When she sat down, she looked over at Kei with an impish smile as if saying that there was no way out for him. As Kei looked at Azusa, he couldn't help but wonder how he got roped into this. The rest of the classes till lunch was staring out the window distracted and not paying any attention to his classes.
***
When lunchtime came, Kei tried his best to sneak away from the class. He quietly stood up from his seat while Azusa wasn't looking and tiptoed his way to the back door of the classroom. However, he found Chihaya with a menacing aura standing beside the door looking at him. As he thought, Chihaya and Azusa thought things through as Azusa proceeded to put her hand on his shoulder.
"You… Both of you planned this… didn't you…?"
"Give it up, Kei-chin. One way or another, we are having lunch! Now, where should we go?"
As Kei finally gave up and started following them, he could feel the stares of envy, or mostly bloodlust from the boys as they walked through the hallways looking for places to eat. Each of them packed their own lunchboxes so they didn't need to go to the cafeteria to have their lunch.
Everywhere they went, hordes of students either had that place occupied, or they couldn't enjoy their lunch in peace because of all the gossips and insults that Kei was receiving from the boys. On the other hand, the girls didn't receive any insults from the other girls because they were more on the side of plotting on how to get into the group to get close to Kei. Everywhere they went, they were approached by students asking to join them for lunch.
"Hmm… Doesn't look like we're gonna have a peaceful lunch at this rate…" Chihaya said as she looked kind of down.
"It can't be helped; we have the most popular boy and the most popular girl with us." Azusa added on.
"Haah… follow me…" Kei finally spoke up to the girls and asked them to follow him.
Kei brought them to his usual lunch spot where he would eat alone. When they arrived at that place, it was total peace and no students in sight. The three girls were amazed that such a spot actually existed within the school compound and wondered why no one found it before.
"This place… how did you find it, Kei?" Azusa spoke up.
"Hmm? Oh, I found it in the first semester. Everyone kept following me everywhere so I thought I would waste a few lunch breaks looking for an actual place to eat."
"And you found this place?"
"Mhm."
"…Wait… Isn't this spot, near that usual confession spot?"
Azusa had just realized that Kei's appearance during Keigo's 'confession' on her first day of school was no coincidence, or rather a coincidence since she was probably disturbing his lunch at that time.
"Kei-chin? Does this mean you saw all the confessions we had been receiving?"
"Hmm… Not that I want to, but yes. Keigo is on a hot losing streak."
"He's still trying to pick up girls here?"
"Because of him, I can't even have a peaceful meal sometimes…"
"That Keigo, if he would just change his attitude then maybe people won't dislike him so much. But that arrogant attitude ticks off so many people…!? Kei-chin? Does this mean you saw me rejecting all those boys?!"
"Hmmm… Maybe the first ten? I stopped counting.
As the three of them were chatting and Chihaya hanging her head in embarrassment, there was one figure among the group who had been staying silent the entire time. Mai didn't actually know what to do in that situation since she didn't know how much Chihaya and Azusa knew about how close she was to Kei. Kei seemingly noticed this and tried to get her to join the conversation.
"So how did you three get to know each other?" Kei said looking at Mai.
"…Eh? Ah… uhmm…" Mai was caught off guard and didn't know what to say.
"Mou~ You don't have to be so nervous Mai-chan. The reason Azusa and I dragged Kei along was because we wanted you to have someone you're comfortable with nearby."
"Eh? You know about us?"
"Come on, even if Kei doesn't want to admit it. I'm close enough to him to notice you to frequently walking home together."
As she said that, Mai panicked with her head and thoughts spinning. She didn't think that their closely kept secret would be so easily found out.
"But I have to hand it to you. Managing to snatch Kei from the other girls and dating him in just your second semester together, I have nothing but respects for you."
""!!""