Surprisingly, Hayama Hayato Was Not The Fox's First Choice

"I believe this is the third café we've visited this week."

I grumbled as I directed a look at my peach-haired friend sitting beside me.

"It should be, yeah."

Her casual remark paired with her look that seems to say; isn't that obvious? made me realize that Yui did not seem to understand what I was trying to imply at all so I turned towards the person sitting in front of me next.

A certain bespectacled fujoshi who had a faint knowing smile plastered on her face.

"So far, all of you girls have said is that their cakes are nice, their coffee is nice and the ambience is nice on all three cafés, yes?"

"Yep, that's all correct, Hikitani-kun."

The bright yet obviously fake smile that Ebina put on instantly gave away the fact that she was feigning ignorance.

It just so happened that today I wasn't in the mood to entertain her so I proceeded to direct a look to the third person on the table.

To everyone's surprise the long-haired girl sitting opposite Yui was not the jet-black haired Yukino but was instead the blonde Miura.

Incidentally, today was a day that Yukino was called by her family to discuss some personal matters. Even someone as involved in her family as me was not privy to what they were going to talk about but I had my ideas.

However, this was not the time for those kinds of discussions.

Contrary to everyone else, Miura was wearing an expression that rightfully told anyone that she was displeased.

Although that may not have sounded anything like good news, it did at least mean that she understood what I was trying to say, or rather, what I meant not to say. However, she still waited for me to personally bring my complaints to her face. She was playing her entitled queenly role magnificently as usual.

As such, I decided to be direct with her as well.

"In that case, can you please explain to me why we had to go through each café individually when what you've said so far basically means they're all the same?"

"Huuuhh?! Don't you get it, Hikio? Let me explain it to you. This-"

And it didn't even take me five seconds listening in to Miura's rant before my brain automatically filtered out everything. The art of appreciating cafés was a concept that was far too riajuu-like for my cynical brain to comprehend.

Loner Skill No. 20: Selective Hearing Hikki.

It was a technique I honed back in my middle school years where name-calling and the like was much more prevalent, especially after they gossiped about my botched confession with Orimoto.

At any rate, this was one of my most helpful Loner skills, on par with Stealth Hikki even. Although, the downside of reopening old wounds exists, the benefits it provides still outweigh its price.

This is not only a technique to clear out unnecessary auditory information. This is a skill that also allows me to organize the auditory data that I receive and immediately classify them as useful or not in the span of a few seconds.

This allows me to be able to listen in on my teacher's lectures while I hear some of my classmates' gossip in the background. Another application is when I can listen to someone talk while I read a book or do my homework, something I had a lot of practice with quite recently.

"…Do you get it now?"

It seems that while I was occupied in my own mental explanation, Miura was also done with her rant.

Too bad for her though, I didn't listen to a single thing she just said. I wouldn't be able to understand it anyways. The difference in standards between a gal and a loner is as wide as the ocean after all.

"Yes, Miura. I completely get it."

Despite my affirmation, the blonde Fire Queen didn't look happy at all and was instead glaring at me. If looks could kill, I would've been dead ten times over.

"Hoh, really?"

But even amidst that pressure which was synonymous to killing intent, I was left unfazed.

This kind of glare was easier to deal with for me after all because of all the exposure I got from it during my younger years.

The cold gazes that I receive from the Yukinoshita family were much more uncomfortable than this.

I can even go as far to say that her current attempt at making me scared was cute but there was no way anyone was ever going to hear me say that out loud, especially not in front of her.

"Yep. I understood that I didn't need to understand it."

"Now listen here you little…"

Miura was about to stand up to try to prove her point but I raised a hand to make her stop preemptively.

"Look, seeing as we are a little short on time, how about I ask you some questions related to this date attempt and you try to give your answers and/or suggestions afterwards?"

This plan of visiting every potential date spot really had a lot of logistical holes on it.

I didn't say a word about it before because it was an opportunity to spend more time with this clique and understand the hidden intricacies behind it more due to Miura's pending request, but since there are literally only two more days remaining for the actual date, it was time to get serious.

Incidentally, after the trip to the arcade went down its chaotic end due to the boys getting carried away, the girls decided that we should go ahead and visit different cafés and compare what each had to offer.

That trip was supposed to have been done in one day however for each café we went to in the past two days, the girls all got carried away with the atmosphere and ended up just chattering nonstop until it was dark.

I couldn't believe it.

How can you have that many topics to talk about? On a daily basis as well. It was insane. They even managed to hook Yukino, of all people into it as well. I almost saw Hayama's mask crack for the first time in pubic when we witnessed the event the first time.

But anyways, enough of that. Now that we were on the third day, I needed to take charge and make sure it wasn't going to end once again in vain.

As a side note, the other boys were not with us because they were still at their respective sports clubs. We went earlier than usual today to try to save more time. Time which we were severely lacking.

Now, truthfully while I did say that the past two days were useless, I was at least able to scrape off a little bit information so it was not like we got absolutely nothing.

Eh, who am I kidding? It was a complete waste of time and there was no sugarcoating that but thankfully my superb observation skills were able to salvage something out of nothing.

You see the thing about being a pessimist was that you tend to notice even the smallest amounts of gains you can get from something simply from the fact that you weren't expecting anything in the first place.

It all comes back to their three comments about each café.

Their cakes are nice.

Their coffee is nice.

The ambience is nice.

Normally, these simple statements wouldn't say anything except for their literal meaning but in this case, what should be focused on here would be the speaker.

The speaker of each statement is Yui, Ebina and Miura respectively. All of which could be said to be just as expected based on their personality.

Yui was fond of sweets. This time however it was not just because she liked eating them. It's also because she liked to try a hand on making them as well. She still had the itch of trying to bake some treats everyday at least and let me tell you one thing; this girl was improving.

She may not have had the smoothest of starts but at the rate she was going, it wouldn't be farfetched to say that she'll be close to Yukino's level by the end of this term, although only if it's strictly just baking sweets.

Ebina had these moments to her where she acted refined and mature for our age. It was very subtle and hard to notice too especially given the fact that she always acts on her fujoshi antics too much. However, if you notice it once, it's hard to miss it again. Because it stood in stark contrast with her usual self.

Anyways, what I'm trying to say here is that it's not surprising for that kind of person to prioritize the coffee a café makes over its other elements, simply because of practicality. Coffee could be said to be the backbone of a café after all. If one wanted to drink good coffee then going to a café would usually be their first course of action. As a side note, this woman drinks her coffee black. I have no idea how she can stomach that bitter fluid without flinching at all.

Miura, as our resident expert in anything fashionable and trendy, was the type to fuss over a café's ambience often to the point that she'd likely not come back to the same café whom she found had atrocious taste in their designs. It also seems like how the place looks and feels like affects her mood and this in turn changes how chatty she becomes. This was my observation to her behavior in the past two days at least.

Truthfully, Miura was probably the hardest one to understand between the three simply because her preference was just too abstract compared to the others. Aesthetic sense was a much more difficult parameter to gauge over something like taste and smell after all. It also didn't help that I just couldn't give a damn about it at all.

At any rate, what I needed to focus on was Isshiki's preferences. She was the one I had to bring over to a date after all.

"Sure Hachi. You can ask us anything."

"In that case, I won't hold back."

Upon Yui's urging, I began to organize the questions I came up with on my head.

"Which do you think does Isshiki prefer in a café? The cakes, the coffee or the ambience?"

The three girls pondered for a few seconds before Yui finally gave an answer although she was wearing an apologetic expression before saying anything else.

"Hmmm, it's hard to say with Iroha-chan though. It's because she always tries to agree with whatever the current speaker is saying."

Ah, of course that sly fox will be all affirmative in that kind of situation. As expected of Isshiki. But this only makes my job more difficult though. If it was any other day, I wouldn't have minded screwing up a little in the minor details but it would make me feel a little guilty if I slack off during her birthday of all days. As such, the only thing I can do right now is hope that the other two girls with me have more useful ideas.

"Well, I at least don't think she's as fond with coffee as me, so you can cross that out from the list of possibilities."

Is what Ebina said while making a vague smile. I already had my suspicions on that part but Ebina's additional comment confirmed it for me.

"I see. Thanks for that, Ebina."

"You're welcome."

I turned once again towards Miura's direction to prompt her to speak. She did look a little sulky about the fact that I just ignored her earlier but after understanding the urgency of the current situation forced her to cooperate.

"Iroha doesn't seem like someone as passionate on a café's ambience as me but you should at least make sure to take her to someplace not too tasteless in terms of aesthetics."

Despite her unwillingness, Miura's opinion was actually the most useful and detailed one amongst the three. You can really count on the mother hen to look much closely to her chicks more than the others.

"Duly noted, Miura."

From this, I made a conclusion. That by process of elimination, it was more likely that Isshiki prefers the sweets more than the other three. Okay, that was the easy part done. Time for the nitty-gritty details.

"Do you think she'll prefer going to her favorite place or a new one for her birthday?"

"I don't think Iroha-chan would mind to visit new places any time, Hachi. Especially if it's close to the last place you just hung out with."

"Understood, on that note, is there anything else I should pay attention to? Potential sweets suggestions, perhaps?"

"I've heard Iroha mention a type of dessert that she wanted to try but it was a little expensive for her. Maybe you should buy that for her on the day. It was a Mont Blanc, I believe."

Now, I can only wonder how much this expensive dessert would really be. But I kept that thought to the side and focused on taking mental notes of what every girl said so far.

"Well, that's essentially everything I need to know about lunch aspect, I guess. Depending on how long the preparations on your side will take, I'd need some suggestions on places we can go to."

As expected, this was way faster. Why didn't we do this brainstorming much sooner? A lot of time and money would've been saved if that was the case.

While I was grumbling on my thoughts, Miura and Ebina were sending curious looks my way once again. I don't know why but they've been doing such a thing quite recently for some reason. I would've ignored it if it wasn't for the fact that I was in a little hurry right now and they may have a point of concern that they found difficult to raise earlier.

"Is there something on my face?"

My inquiry snapped the two of them back into attention.

"No, it's just that I'm surprised you're taking this quite seriously, Hikitani-kun."

The nodding Miura beside Ebina told me that she was thinking of the same thing.

It was quite likely that they were probably thinking of some kind of misunderstanding here so I had to nip those kinds of ideas on the bud before they even begin to bloom.

"Well, this is essentially a request, which in my book means it's work. Just work. Nothing more, nothing less. Now, can we please get back on topic? It would do well for all of us here to go home before it gets dark."

The baffled expressions they wore after hearing my reply looked like they still had something to say but the latter half of my statement prompted them to set aside their thoughts for the time being.

After 30 minutes give-or-take, we finally had a rough idea of how the date this Saturday will go. With a little more polishing tomorrow (input and approval from Yukino basically), this might even end up into a spectacular plan even if I do say so myself.

Since we finished much earlier than our previous adventures, we decided to all go home separately for the day.

I can only say that I was the one most thankful for that arrangement. As composed as I was back in the café, it didn't change the fact that I was just one boy encircled by three girls who could easily turn heads in a crowd.

Sitting together on a café was okay because it was more of a private setting however if I had to walk together with these three women back to their homes even I'm not sure if I can keep my neutral face on.

The main reason our group was composed of those three girls in the first place was because they were the only people I know who knew Isshiki best among the small circle of acquaintances I had.

But that was enough thinking of those three for now. I'll just be content with the fact that I escaped from the scenario that I was dreading from earlier. Seriously, what am I? A harem protagonist? Please don't. I was done with those fantasies a few years ago.

The more appropriate girl to think about right now was Isshiki.

While I can say that I understand Isshiki's overall character to a certain extent, there was still one thought lingering in the back of my head this entire time.

And because of this itch that I can't scratch on my own, I was forced to do something that would normally make me want to strangle myself first.

I made a call to Hayama Hayato.

"Hello?"

"Hayama, it's me."

I say in a reluctant tone which I'm sure the person on the other side of the phone didn't miss.

"Who?"

The surprised tone of voice he adopted made me sigh in displeasure. I could easily imagine him smirking as well just as a way to spite me but I didn't bite into the bait.

"It's Hikigaya."

"Ah, Hikigaya, what's up?"

I wasn't sure if he wanted me to do some small talk or something with that kind of opening but I of course, immediately decide to go into the heart of the matter.

"It's about Isshiki."

"Iroha?"

He didn't sound surprised at all when I cut to the chase. It was quite likely he expected me to do so all along. In that case, this would make things faster.

"Yes. Did she ask you to go on a date with her this coming Saturday?"

"That is oddly specific…"

He commented while clearly being a little amused.

"But to answer your question, no, she didn't ask me anything like that at all."

His answer made me stop in my tracks.

Okay.

Now this makes thing even more complicated.

Great. Just great.

"Hikigaya?"

Hayama's voice pulled me back to reality. It seems like I forgot to end the call just when I was about to dive deep into my thoughts.

In that case, I decided to end the call for now before I suddenly start monologuing any further.

"I see. Thank you for telling me and sorry for disturbing you. Now, if you'll excuse me."

"Hey! Wa-!"

I ended the call there before he could say another word. You could even say it was my own petty attempt of a revenge. I'm sure Hayama was dying of curiosity right now however, he was similar to me in the matter that he'd rather drop dead than make a call to me just to try and sate that curiosity, unless of course if it was an emergency.

But now that I've gotten my answer from Hayama, I began to once again sink in my thoughts but because I was still outside, I didn't go ahead and accidentally use Hikki Zone just yet.

If my assumption that Isshiki asked Hayama first for her birthday date before coming to my direction was wrong then why the heck did she decide to ask me out of all people? Surely, she should have better candidates in mind, right?

I was not being dense. I was well aware that there was a possibility that Isshiki can see me in that light but to ignore Hayama altogether didn't sound logical to me at all.

At the end of the day, Isshiki's actions always had a certain objective to them, however this one move betrayed her usual methodology altogether.

I didn't understand at all.

But upon admitting that fact, I was also faced with a realization.

So, what if I didn't understand?

The premise I came up with might've been wrong but it didn't really change what I had to do this Saturday.

If Isshiki entrusted me the task of letting her have a good time for her birthday, then I should at least answer half of her expectations.

Yes, I didn't need to think about anything else.

Isshiki, I can't promise to give you the time of your life but at the very least I'll try not to disappoint you on your special day.

Well, I'm your most reliable senpai after all.

Author's Note:

Ah, is that the smell of the main ship in the air being in development or am I playing with the hearts of my readers once again?

In my defense, so far all of this has been because of spontaneous writing on my part.

So until that sort of development everyone is waiting for happens, we'll (yes, including me) all have to keep second-guessing.

By the way, I forgot to mention that Hikigaya's motorcycle is strictly for work or emergency purposes only. As such, he can't use it for his upcoming date with Isshiki.

The Miura scene before was only possible because he picked up Haruno before and he dropped by the mall on his way to his house. In other words, back then he was bending the rules a little bit,

Anyway, that's all from me. Please look forward to the next chapter when it comes. Thank you all very much for reading.

At the end of an indistinct day, outside the walls of my regular room, I hope the usual day-to-day dullness can bring in even a speck of inspiration for my part.

Mori Hikiko