Finally, I heard a knock. Two guys greeted me when I opened the door.
"Yo," Miyake raised his hand.
"Yo," I replied with an imitation.
Miyake high-fived my palm lightly as he walked in.
"Sup, Ayanokouji." Sudou follows with a grin.
"How was it?" I asked, closing the door.
"It was a'ight. The seniors were surprised when I appeared, but they welcomed me to practice regardless." Sudou narrated.
"Oh, you two are already here?" Miyake commented, seeing Hasebe and Sakura in their seats.
"Nope. We were here the whole time, hard at work!" Hasebe replied with a smug grin.
"Hmm... Maybe I should buy a larger table..." I muttered while looking at our cramped state.
"Eh? You don't have to do that, Ayanokouji-kun," said Sakura.
"Yeah. We can just use your dining table, anyway." Sudou added.
After we arranged our things on the dining table, the study session officially started. As expected, they were improving steadily. I've hammered a lot of fundamentals onto Sudou for the past week. Combined with his motivation, he finally reached the level of a second-year middle schooler.
"Hnnn~..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
After an hour passed, Hasebe stretched her arms with a rather feminine moan. Even in our periphery, the movement of her bountiful chest was noticeable. As guys, Miyake, Sudou, and I couldn't help but become conscious of her. After all, Hasebe was an extremely attractive girl. We tried our best not to lose eye contact with our papers. Reacting in any sort of way would mean instant death, hence we maintained our stone-cold expressions.
"Well, why don't we take a break and grab something at the convenience store?" Hasebe suggested.
"O-Oh, good idea," replied Miyake.
"Y-Yeah, I was gettin' kinda hungry, too." Sudou also agreed.
It was 6:30 PM. The five of us were clad in our uniforms as we headed out of the building. After buying what we wanted, our group walked slowly back to the dorms.
"Three sandwiches? What a glutton..." Miyake criticized Sudou's purchase.
"Shut up, Miyake! I told you I was hungry, didn't I?!" Sudou immediately got pissed off.
"This is yummy! Here, Sakura-chan. Have a taste." Hasebe handed her ice cream to Sakura.
"A-Alright... You can have a taste of mine, too." Sakura happily returned the favor.
At the moment, everything seems to be going well... Not just about our group, but my high school life in general. I have friends, and we're all working together towards a goal. If I'm gonna be honest, I've had more fun in the last one and a half months here than I ever did for the past fifteen years inside the White Room...
"What's with that look, Ayanokouji-kun? You want a taste of our ice creams, too?" teased Hasebe.
"If you want to have some of mine, just say it. You don't have to tease me like that," I replied.
"W-Wha-?! I didn't expect you to be such a self-conscious guy, Ayanokouji-kun!" Hasebe glared at me.
"Heh. 'You think I didn't notice? You were agonizing between choosing the flavor you bought and the one I bought. C'mon, Hasebe-san. Your motives were clear from the start," I teased back.
This was the first time I've ever tried to tease someone without stopping at the first exchange. Seeing Hasebe fume in silence, I guess it worked well.
"Grrr-! Your stupid monotone voice and deductive reasoning are making me look like the villain here!" Hasebe's mad expression was amusing, but she skillfully shifted them into something else.
"Sigh... Fine, you win this time, Ayanokouji-kun." Hasebe replied with an expression of defeat before swiftly grabbing my ice cream cup. "Now let me have some!"
In the end, the four of us, including Miyake, tried out each other's ice creams while Sudou munched on his sandwiches.
When we were nearing the dorms, Hasebe suddenly leaped ahead before facing the four of us.
"You know, I always thought I'd stay distant from you guys even with this study group thingy," narrated Hasebe. "I'm sure I would stay as a loner if I was assigned to Hirata-kun or Kushida-san's study group. But here, I felt really comfortable after a few days. Hey, Miyacchi! don't you feel the same?"
"Yeah, I get what you're saying. Hirata and Kushida-san—... they're just on another level, I feel. Well, I thought Ayanokouji would be the same, but he turned out to be a pretty chill guy." replied Miyake.
"Heh. Ayanokouji sucks at talking with girls, you know? Hey, don't you deny it, Ayanokouji! You always ask for my help whenever girls invite you out!" Sudou shouted at me.
"I'm not. It's the truth, after all. Thank you for always helping me, mister smooth operator Sudou-sama," I replied while shrugging my shoulders.
"Heh!" Sudou snickered, thinking that I genuinely complimented him.
Miyake and Hasebe laughed out loud in response. Even Sakura chuckled a little.
"Well, my point is... Why don't we make this group an official friend group? Apart from Ayanokouji-kun, all of us were just a bunch of loners, anyway."
"You're wrong on that, Hasebe-san. Despite my position in class, I'm just like you guys. You can consider me "a loner who's noticed by everyone" if that makes sense," I explained.
"Now that I think about it, you're not really in any other group, ain'tcha?" Sudou mused. "You get along with Kushida's group and Hirata's group, but I don't really see you stick with them."
"Their social skills are too high, after all. I just can't keep up," I said.
"Isn't this perfect then?!" Hasebe exclaimed with a smile. "From this day on, we shall be called 'The Ayanokouji Group'!"
"Does it have to be my name?" I asked.
"Why not? You're the one who brought us together, right?" Miyake poked me with his elbow.
"Do you mind being in this group, Sakura?" I turned to Sakura, who was quietly watching things unfold.
"Not at all." Sakura shook her head. "I'm happy to be part of this group."
"Oh! I'm getting all giddy and excited! Why don't we change how we call each other as a first step?" Hasebe advocated. "Miyacchi, what's your first name again?"
"It's Akito," Miyake replied before turning to Sudou and me. "If I remember correctly, it's Ken and Kiyotaka for the two of you, right?"
Sudou and I nodded in unison.
"Alright, I'll call you guys by your first names. You can call me Akito in return," he smoothly relayed to us.
He's different from Hirata, but Akito is a pretty cool guy, isn't he?
"Sakura-chan, your first name is Airi, right?" Hasebe asked, inching closer to Sakura.
"Yes... Please correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't yours Haruka?" Sakura tilted her head with a smile.
Airi and Haruka, huh? Those are nice names.
"Oh! You remembered! I love you, Airi!" Haruka exclaimed, hugging Airi tightly.
Both of them were beautiful girls blessed with healthy developing bodies, so it's only natural for their sizeable chests to collide when one embraces the other. The three of us instantly looked away to avoid having any awkward thoughts.
"Ken... I feel like punching Kiyotaka right now. He's too calm," said Akito.
"Yeah, same. Just where is he hiding all those nerves?" Ken agreed.
"That's not it, you two. It just doesn't show on my face," I replied.
"That's a pretty useful face then." Ken bit back.
"Hey, you oafs!" Haruka called out to us. "I have an awesome idea! I'll call you by nicknames!"
"N-Nicknames?" Ken was surprised. He was obviously alien to the idea of nicknames, or at least those given by friends.
"Yeah!" Haruka grinned.
"Kiyotaka will be... Kiyopuu...? Kiyopoyo...? Hmm... How about Kiyomaru?" Before I could protest, Haruka raised her finger like she had a eureka moment. "Kiyopon! Your nickname will be Kiyopon! At the same time, Miyacchi will be Miyacchi, and Ken will be Kenchin!"
Well, there goes the first nickname I ever had. Kiyopon.
"Why the hell am I a vegetable soup (Kenchin-jiru)?!" Ken yelled in retaliation.
"Just deal with it, Kenchin! It's cute, isn't it?" Haruka's decision didn't seem like it could be changed.
"You didn't even change mine..." Akito complained.
While the three got noisy, I turned to Airi, who was smiling warmly at them.
"It's nice to meet you again, Airi." I exchanged courtesy.
"Same here... K-Kiyotaka...-kun..." Airi replied with flushed cheeks.
A friend group, huh? I guess it wouldn't be bad to have a place you can return to from time to time.
When we got back into my room, we used the remaining time to sum up everything we'd learned thus far. As expected, their scores increased by quite a good amount. Akito and Haruka are pretty much ready. They'll just have to prepare for the new lessons now. Airi needs a bit more improvement, but with our current pace, her results were more than enough. Lastly, I can probably prevent Sudou from failing at this point, but I'll try to improve his performance if time permits it.
After they all left, I talked with Hirata and the other tutors via group call. After hearing everyone's reports, we all sighed in relief at how well our class was taking this midterm exam.
Amidst all the positive events happening around me, I muttered a question that was probably brought on by that place, the White Room's effect on my way of thinking.
"I wonder when things will start to go wrong?"