"Make me a real man!"
Naoto faltered, her eyes widening in dismay. She goggled at him, rendered speechless.
"Woah-ho! Kanji!" Yosuke rattled with laughter, giving the much taller guy a sly wink.
Kanji suddenly felt everyone's eyes turn on him; his face instantly swept with red.
"W-What! I… I didn't mean it like that!"
"Sureeee, Kanji." Rise chirred, before giggling along with Chie and Yukiko.
"I-I told you! It ain't like that!" Kanji tried to glower at them all at once, until his eyes finally fell pleadingly on to Souji.
The silver-haired upperclassman sat stony faced as usual, "That was very forward of you."
Kanji's pulse raced frantically. He hadn't counted on Souji jumping to the wrong conclusions; but at least he wasn't laughing too. His eyes had finally wandered back to Naoto, who was rooted to the spot in front of him. She'd pulled the brim of her hat over her eyes, so he couldn't see her face… and he was quite thankful for that at the moment.
"You two are so cute!" Rise squealed; Kanji's sudden look of horror caused Yosuke to roar again into laughter.
"Jus'… shut up!" Kanji yelled, putting everything into making his voice sound threatening.
"Aww, they're just teasing you Kanji-kun."
Chie sounded concerned, but there was no way she was hiding that grin on her face. It quickly faded though, once she fixed her glare back on to Yosuke.
"Hey! Don't think I haven't forgotten already!"
"Aw, c'mon!" Yosuke threw his hands up, "It was just a bit of fun!"
Chie's expression had flipped upside down. She uttered every word through her teeth, as if each could kill, "Entering us in a beauty pageant, without our consent, is not my idea of fun!"
"I'm alright with it!" Rise beamed, while bouncing over to Souji, "You wanna see us up there too, right sempai?"
She latched herself on to Souji's arm, before he could even give a response. Rise's cheery smile turned back on to Naoto, "Come on, Naoto! I know Kanji would reeeeeally love to see you in the beauty pageant!"
The thought of Naoto up on stage… Kanji hurriedly fought off a nosebleed. He scowled worthlessly back at Rise, before his eyes fell again on the pint-sized girl below him. Her hat was still covering any glimpse of her face. Kanji coughed awkwardly, shuffling about on the spot, "So, uh… y-you gonna do it?"
Naoto didn't say a word. Figures. Everyone was looking at her now though, and she knew it. Casting her eyes over to the side, she looked aimlessly over the end of the school roof… and a quick glimmer of pink revealed on her cheeks was enough to send Kanji's heart pounding.
"…J-Just do it, dammit!" he blurted out, "I need to… clear up any doubts I still have…"
Kanji's clean-cut confession sent Yosuke barreling over with even more uncontrollable laughter. It wasn't for long though, as Chie had started chasing him around screaming threats and something about getting him back for this. This started Yukiko into one of her fits, and she doubled over watching the chase scene ensue. Rise was busy clinging to Souji, which left Kanji standing – for perhaps the third time that afternoon – blankly in front of Naoto.
"…'s really n-no big deal… you know…" Kanji gazed restlessly up at the sky; he replayed what he had just said to himself and realized he hadn't even known what he'd meant. All the same, he was surprised when he heard an almost inaudible grunt from her.
"…there's really no way out of it, is there?" she finally said. Her face lifted, but her eyes were still off to the side.
"S-So you'll do it!"
Naoto sighed. At last she looked at him, squinting a little from the sun behind his head. What she wore wasn't exactly a smile… or a frown.
But it was certainly an answer enough for Kanji.