p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Today is the day?" Kaguya sighed, having a mix of disappointment and hope. Both parties were doubtful about Ishigami getting a second chance to talk with Tsubame, but they still knew that it would probably go out well in the end. Ishigami had prepared extensively for this day, the day where he can sort out his feelings and know if he truly loves "her"./p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 14px;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Yes, but please don't look so gloom. Ishigami has really been trying hard these past few days to improve his social skills. Letting Miko get along with him really did him good, don't you think?" Shirogane said, trying to lift up Kaguya's mood./p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 14px;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""His social skills are the least of my concerns. But what I'm most worried for is her." Kaguya said solemnly, looking over at Miko. Shirogane was quick to pick up on this, and tried to think of a plausible explanation for her worries before questioning her on the matter./p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 14px;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Miko? Why would she be in any danger? If anything, they're getting along more better than how they used to." . Kaguya remained silent, as she knew her worries needed to be addressed fast. She edged Shirogane to come closer, to which the latter was confused and perplexed, but Kaguya needed to talk with him secretly anyways. "Listen, this might hurt her. Really, really hurt her. Have you ever wondered how she felt about Ishigami?". Shirogane gave himself a moment to think. How she felt? How would he know that? He wouldn't say he was completely oblivious to how Miko really felt about him, but he there was occasions where he felt he could've understood the both of them more. But before he got more time to think, he quickly answered the question./p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 14px;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""On a surface level, they both seem to have a disdain for each other. But now I can see that they both truly care for one another." Shirogane replied, remembering a time where Ishigami told what he "felt" about Miko. Of course, the majority of it was basically what you would see in a hate comment of a video, but there was some moments where he had slipped up and revealed some better aspects of his feelings./p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 14px;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""I'm going to ask you bluntly. Have you ever thought MIko liked Ishigami?" Kaguya asked. Shirogane was taken aback, the possibility to him was astronomical, and he wasn't sure how to properly reply to that. Despite this, he quickly summed up his opinions and delivered them in the most logical way possible./p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 14px;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""U-Uh, the possibility…does exist. But even if it did, I'm not sure if Ishigami would like her…back, you know?" That was terrible, Shirogane thought. This was definitely not what he really wanted to properly convey, but as long as Kaguya understood the gist of it, it was fine. Besides, he wasn't really mentally prepared before he spoke. He then heard Kaguya mumble silently to herself, as if lost in thought./p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 14px;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""That's why I'm worried for her."/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 14px;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Kaguya POV/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 14px;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"What would be the best approach to deal with this? It was 4pm, and it would be 3 more hours until Ishigami finally "confesses". Should she help Miko or Ishigami? Does she even know if Miko liked him? Too many questions left unanswered. But she really did want to help them. She had helped Ishigami before, so this affirmed her belief that should still try to help him, as a friend, but even before that, as a fellow member of the student council. Her relationship with Miko was firstly a little rocky. Miko was always trying to compete with Shirogane previously, and she felt a little ticked off occasionally. But she understood that she was really just trying her best to do what she could, even if it did put off a lot of people. Miko is a good person, and her personal feelings shouldn't let her think otherwise. Just before she could finish her thoughts, her best friend suddenly came bursting through the door./p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 14px;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Sniff…sniff…I smell trouble over here~!" Chika. Why now? Just…why? When she was about to finish her thoughts? This was definitely an example of how Chika could occasionally get on her nerves. But before she could berate her for not even knocking before she enterd, she always remembered that she was a self-proclaimed "love detective" and frequently gossiped about issues relating to love. Taking a quick glance around the room, she noticed that Ishigami and Miko had already left, and Shirogane told her he would be helping Ishigami for today. Chika, of all people, was her only way to solve this issue. She sighed and told Chika to sit down on the couch beside her. She would have a lot of explaining to do./p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 14px;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"5 minute timeskip…./p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 14px;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Whattttttt? Are you sure about this? I mean, I thought you really wanted Tsubame and Ishigami to get together?" Chika asked. "Firstly, I didn't "really want" to. I just said what I thought at the time, and I didn't really think through it. But aside from that, it's already 4:07, so I need you to resolve my first issue. To see if Miko really likes Ishigami. What are your thoughts?" Kaguya asked, having a mix of irritation and relief in her voice. "Hmm…I was, and still am a supporter for Miko. I think she really likes him. See those?" Chika pointed to the controller that Miko used previously for gaming with Ishigami. Kaguya peered over and noticed some wear and tear on it, most notably on the class="Apple-converted-space" /span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 14px;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""She practised quite a few times after she lost quite a few times. She always wanted to be first, you know? Not just in the game, I mean." Chika class="Apple-converted-space" /span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 14px;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""How did you know she frequently practised on them? It could just be wear and tear from simple gaming." Kaguya class="Apple-converted-space" /span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 14px;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Not in this case. If you look closely…" Chika went over and fiddle with the buttons. "…This "A" button is loose, which makes sense as M*rio K*rt needs you to press "A" to accelerate, so she was probably doing that for quite some time." Chika answered. Kaguya was impressed by her detective skills, but there was still one more question to be answered. "What was Miko trying to achieve by doing this?" Kaguya asked. Chika was in deep thought for a second, with a look of uncertainty in her eyes. But the love detective finally gave an answer, looking to satisfy her audience./p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 14px;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""She loves him. Really. She's kinda jealous that Ishigami would spend a lot of time with Tsubame. As for why, I did a little digging, and found out that Miko has actually helped Ishigami quite a lot in the past, and admired him for being able to come this far even with his past setbacks. Admiration turned to love, and now she's all jelly-jelly that Ishi-Ishi devotes his time to another girl." Chika replied with aspan class="Apple-converted-space" /spanplayful tone in her last sentence. This somewhat annoyed Kaguya, but she was satisfied with that answer. She made up her mind, she was going to help them both. But first, she had to convince a certain someone to stop helping the opposition. That would be Shirogane himself./p