When the two of them entered the classroom, both of them were swarmed by their classmates the moment they sat down on their seats. Both of them had to face similar questions and both of them had different difficulties answering them. Kei was in his usual emotionless self and showing no interest in answering the questions whilst Mai was getting hounded by more questions continuously piling upon each other as she struggled to even answer one of them.
Answering one or two girls were easy enough for her, but having to face multiple students and questions at a time really seemed to make her life extremely difficult. Mai was close to panicking when Chihaya appeared through the crowd.
"Mou… You all need to give her some space. She's clearly having trouble with you guys just surrounding her like this."
"Saki…san…"
"Haah… Come, Mai-chan." Chihaya grabbed her by her hand.
"Eh?"
Chihaya proceeded to drag Mai out of the classroom. When they finally stopped, Chihaya had brought her to the infirmary where there was no one but the nurse, Chisato-sensei, around. Here, Mai could get the opportunity to calm down.
"Haah… you really have to get over your fear of talking to people, Mai-chan."
"But there was too many of them…"
"It's the downside of being popular. Take Kei-chin for example. He's so popular everyone flocks to him but he pays them no mind and ignores almost all of them."
"But… Kei-kun is Kei-kun… He is amazing… So amazing that I sometimes envy him…"
"It takes time, but don't worry. You will get used to it. Kei-chin has been dealing with this since middle school so I guess he also had the time to adjust."
When Mai finally calmed down once again, the two of them returned to their class. When they returned however, Shiki-sensei was already in the classroom when Chihaya proceeded to walk up to her and started whispering something into her ear. Shiki-sensei nodded as if she was saying she understood what Chihaya was saying. Chihaya then whispered something extra to Shiki-sensei in which Shiki-sensei replied with a small wink in Chihaya's direction. Kei noticed this and had a really bad feeling about this.
"Alright, everyone is here now. Chihiro-san, Saki-san, please return to your seats so we can get homeroom started."
The two of them nodded at their teacher and proceeded to their seats.
"Alright, first of all, let me congratulate Saki-san for her contribution in the recent girls' Inter-High School Basketball Championships! Please give a big round of applause!"
The whole class proceeded to clap for her, Kei included. However, when he thought that it was over, Shiki-san started speaking again.
"I would also like to extend my gratitude on behalf of the school to Amane Kei-san."
"!" Kei, who was starting to space out suddenly became alert once more.
"We would like to thank Amane Kei for his guidance and coaching in the final game, where his tactics helped the girl's team overcome a huge defeat to come from behind and snatch the championship title from them. Please give him a big round of applause as well!"
When she finished, the classroom erupted in cheers and applauses. Everyone's gazes, Mai and Chihaya's included, were now fixed upon Kei who was unsure of how to react at this.
"…E-ehhh?"
"Also, for the first time ever in the history of this school, our boys' basketball team has qualified from the group stages and made it to the playoff stages! It is all thanks to their new captain, Amane Kei!"
Once again, loud applauses erupted in the classroom. Kei, on the other hand, wondered why they were celebrating over something like this. It wasn't as if they had won the title itself.
When homeroom was finally over and during the interval before the next class, Kei was once again surrounded by his classmates. This time, even more classmates before had surrounded his table where he was just trying to take a short nap.
"Amane-kun! Is it really true that the girl's team had won the championship thanks to you?!"
"Amane-san, will you help the girl's netball team too?!"
"Does this mean that Amane-san is the reason Saki-san got the championship and the applauses just now?"
Kei was used to dealing with the crowds that always surrounded him and usually paid them no mind. However, hearing the comments coming out of the girls' mouths had snapped something inside him, causing him to instantly stand up in silence.
"The girl's team had won the championship thanks to their hard work. Making it to the finals and winning it. All I did was provide a small aid to them. I don't think it's right to disregard their hard work like this."
Saying that, Kei now had an extremely annoyed face on him. Seeing this new expression on him that they had never seen before, the girls fell silent.
"O-of course! But we can't disregard how Amane-kun had helped them win the final and the championship itself in the first place!"
Hearing that last sentence, Kei couldn't hide his expression anymore and leaked out a slightly more annoyed but angry face that he couldn't keep it in anymore. Before he could say anything more, he walked out of the classroom in silence.
"Baka! Why did you go and say that last thing earlier?"
"Eh?!"
As Kei stormed out of the classroom, Mai witnessed this. Mai was unsure whether she should follow Kei since the topic wasn't concerning her. But as if it was an instinctive response, her body felt that it needed to follow Kei. She had promised herself that she would help Kei whenever he was troubled or had something on his mind. She quickly got out of her seat and chased after Kei.
When she exited the classroom, she saw Kei turning a corner in the hallway and chased after him. As she was chasing him, she noticed that this direction he was heading was the same way that Chihaya dragged her this morning. True to her suspicions, she watched Kei enter the infirmary.
Inside the classroom, Chihaya was looking down and was thinking out loud to herself. She had already seen what had happened in the classroom but paid no mind to it. However, she knew Kei would react like he did because she knew his personality. She knew that there were only a few people he would get angry for and that she was one of them. This made her extremely happy, but extremely sad at the same time.
"… Haah… Why…? Why can't you ever get angry for yourself, Kei-chin? What would you do, Mai-chan? What would you do when you see what you are about to see…?"
Standing beside the infirmary door that was slightly opened, Mai was listening to a conversation between Chisato-sensei and Kei. Seated on the patient's chair was Kei and in front of him sat Chisato-sensei.
"Hmm… it's really not good for you to be taking too much of these."
"The smaller doses aren't working anymore…"
"You have to start managing it yourself…"
"Soon… I'll try…"
"I will try to control your intake from now on, okay? I won't give you your own prescription. Come to me when you need it and I will see whether you really need to take it, okay?"
"Yes, ma'am"
Mai's eyes blinked in confusion as she watched Kei eat multiple pill tablets in one go.