Changed Perspective
The First Move
1-2
"Yo, Ayanokouji," Sudō's booming voice came from the entrance. "Afternoon class starts soon, get your-"
He stopped when he saw the sight of Matsushita sitting on his bed, starting to gap at her with wide eyes and an open mouth instead.
"Oh, Sudō-kun has a spare key to your room, Kiyotaka? I didn't know you were so close!"
Oi, why was she calling him by his first name now? Didn't she know what kind of impression that will make? Oh, wait, he thought. She probably calls me that exactly because she knows how that would look.
"'K-kiyotaka'," Sudō repeated her words incredulously. "I, eh, am sorry for interrupting you guys." He gave a nervous laugh and scratched the back of his head while he slowly backed away. "T-take all the time you need, alright? No hurry, no hurry. Have fun!"
Before he had the chance to correct the misunderstanding, Sudō hurried out of the room.
Well, he though. At least he remembered to close the door behind him.
"Sorry, did I say something wrong?"
Turning back around, he came face to face with a confused looking Matsushita, though after having witnessed her skills as an actor earlier, he could tell that she didn't even try to be convincing this time. So that's how it feels to be teased by a cute girl, huh? I thought it would make me happier if that ever happened to me. How disappointing.
He chose to ignore her question and ask one of his own instead. "Didn't you tell me you saw Sudō walking to the mall just shortly before you approached me?" They might be what you could call friends, but they weren't close enough to justify Sudō walking back all the way to their dorms just to get him for class.
She giggled nervously. "Ehm, I lied?"
Of course you did, he thought. Regardless, now that the situation was as it was, he could just as well make the best of it. It was fortunate that Sudō's appearance actually allowed him to move things much quicker than he had initially planned.
"We started to talk with each other during the cruise," he said. "Afterwards we started to write and irregularly meet each other and became friends."
She blinked, visibly surprised by the sudden turn of events. "Eh, what are you talking about?"
"I'm explaining what we're going to tell the rest of the class," he said, intentionally speaking very slow as if he was talking to a child or an especially thick person. "Sudō has doubtlessly already told everyone about how you were in my room and even called me by my first name, or did you think he would keep that to himself?"
To be honest, it was hard to say whether she just wanted to tease him or if she had any ulterior motives. His guess was on the later, but the odds were about 50/50.
"Probably not, no…"
"And that's why we go with my story, Chiaki."
Although she had done the same just a moment ago, she blushed a little when he called her by her first name, though she otherwise maintained her composure. "So that means you accept my proposal?"
He considered teasing her by denying it when he saw the hopeful glint in her eyes as revenge for her own teasing earlier, but he ultimately decided against it. Besides, she would be less suspicious of his future moves if he let her think she won, making things all the easier for him. "As long as you can keep your part."
"Yes!" she exclaimed happily, throwing her fist in the air.
It was surprisingly adorable.
"But wait," she suddenly said. "Aren't a few weeks a bit quick to call each other by our first names? I mean, I met my other friends in that time a lot as well, so there wouldn't be much time for us to meet in secret in the first place. Isn't that a bit suspicious?"
"Well, you're the one who created that problem, not me." Rather than offering her a solution to the problem, he blamed it on her. It wouldn't be unexpected for anyone in that situation to become defensive as a result, quite the opposite, actually. However, to his pleasant surprise, she immediately understood that this was some sort of test and started to consider the problem with furrowed brows.
"I guess I could have been teasing you by calling you by your first name while we were still on the cruise," she said slowly. "You decided to not back down and then did the same to me, and we kept doing it ever since because both of us are too stubborn to be the first one that stops."
He nodded approvingly. With very few exceptions, it was always the best strategy to keep your lies as close to the truth as possible to make them more believable and harder to uncover. "Very well done."
She kept her head high and put a confident smile on her face. "Hmph, don't underestimate me. Coming up with a lie like that is nothing."
"I agree," he said before throwing a glance at the clock, ignoring her indignant glare. "We're already a bit late, so we should probably get going before we miss the entire period." The penalty for that would be rather annoying.
By the way she suddenly jumped up, he assumed she had entirely forgotten about the time. "Right! Oh, and thank you for cooperating with me. I promise that you will not regret it!"
"As I said earlier, I don't mind as long as you keep your part of the bargain." After all, her cooperation would come in quite handily in the future too.
"Of course!" she exclaimed confidently. "Just tell me what to do and I will do it, no matter what!"
While that was great, the way she phrased it was, well, misleading, so he decided to tease her a bit more as punishment for earlier. "Are you sure you should say something like that to a boy? Especially when you're alone in his room with him?"
Her eyes went wide and she took an instinctive step back while her head flushed crimson. "W-what are you saying?!"
He turned around, ignoring her question. "Aren't you coming, Chiaki? We're going to miss the entire period if we don't hurry."
While he couldn't see her face any longer, her voice becoming shriller was more than enough to tell him that she was even more embarrassed now. "Hey, don't just ignore me!"
However, he did just that while he walked out of the door, knowing she would inevitably follow him.
Teasing a cute girl is as funny as they say, I think. The image of a black-haired beauty came to his mind. Especially when they don't use violence as retribution.
In all their time at this school, her seat neighbour hadn't been sick even once, so it was only natural that she would find it a bit suspicious. That being said, it wasn't as if it couldn't happen. He was only human, after all. On the other hand, him not giving any notice to Chabashira-sensei was highly unusual and completely out of character for him, especially if you considered his desire to not stand out.
As if that wasn't enough, there was also what Sudō had said earlier when he entered the classroom, claiming that he had seen Ayanokouji in his room with a girl -what was her name again? Matsushita?- doing who-knew-what. She hadn't believed it, of course, for why would he let a stranger he had to her knowledge never even talked to into his room, but when class started and both students in question failed to make an appearance, well...
She was obviously not the only one who thought this behaviour highly unusual as several students glanced repeatedly at the two empty seats. For all that she was rather inexperienced in regards to inter-human relationships and -to her chagrin- a bit blind to such things, even she understood what everyone must be thinking. After all, a boy and a girl being not only alone in a room but also too distracted to come to class in time didn't leave too many possibilities.
Such a thing would have annoyed her severely at any other time too, but that this idiot chose this day of all times to be so irresponsible bothered her even more. Sure, he didn't know that Chabashira-sensei would explain their next special exam today, but still! Couldn't he be a bit more considerate?
Then, the door to the classroom opened and the two students in question entered.
Ayanokouji appeared as calm as always, enduring the attention of the room with the same expression he wore ever since she had first met him before giving a short bow. "Apologies for our tardiness, Sensei."
"We were talking and kinda forgot the time," the girl at his side added with a bow of her own, appearing mostly composed aside of a small blush on her cheeks. "It will not happen again."
Interestingly, Chabashira-sensei appeared to be a bit confused for a second before she masked it. Probably because she knows Ayanokouji's real capabilities, she though, unable to think of any other possible explanation. "Expect it to be put on your record, you two. Now sit down, you have interrupted the class enough as it is."
They promptly did as they were told.
"So," she said once Sensei had turned back to the board, "what exactly were you two doing?" It was impossible that he would miss class without good reason, that was what she thought. Or, at least she hoped for his sake that this was the case.
"It's as Chiaki said," he replied without looking at her. "We were just talking and forgot about the time."
He's calling her by her first name? "Talking about what exactly? It's better something important."
"Only this and that, you know?" He shrugged. "Some chitchat between friends."
"You have friends?"
"Wow," he said while finally looking at her, although his expression was bland as always. "That hurts. I thought we are friends."
"You don't invite me to your room to chitchat, though."
"Would you accept if I did?"
She scoffed. "Of course not. I have better things to do with my time."
"Then why bring it up?"
"Because I didn't know you were acquaintances with her," she said while pointing at the brown-haired girl. "Knowing you, I would naturally become suspicious."
"You know, you just sounded like a jealous girlfriend scolding her boyfriend."
She did resist the urge to hit him just by a hair. It was probably fortunate that they didn't have maths class at the moment; the attention it would gather to stab him with her compass needle wasn't worth the moment of satisfaction it would bring her.
Henceforth, rather than punishing him for his inappropriate comment, she turned her attention back to the ongoing lesson. He obviously didn't want to tell her what really happened and she had no way to force him to do so. As much as it pained her to confess, she simply couldn't make him do things he seriously didn't want to, at least not this easily, so she would let the point rest for the time being while she thought of a new strategy.
She had known that they would get a lot of attention the moment they stepped through the doorframe, but the onslaught of questions was nonetheless a bit overwhelming. The stares she could feel on her during the remainder of the lesson was still bearable, but the moment the ringing of the bell signalled the end of the class, most of the girls jumped from their seats and rushed towards her, crushing every hope she had had of escaping the room before she got swamped.
The only bright thing about the entire thing was that Ayanokouji -no, wait, I should probably try to get used to calling him Kiyotaka even in my head- was in a similar situation with the boys of the class and seemed just as overwhelmed as she.
"Hey, hey, Chiaki-san," Kushida said with an excited grin, bringing her attention back to the present. "I didn't know you and Ayanokouji-kun were so close. When did that happen?"
"Exactly," Satō said while Shinohara nodded vigorously from beside her. "You never even mentioned him before! And didn't you say you were more interested in seniors anyway?"
She raised her arms in surrender. "Kiyotaka-"
"You're calling him by his first name?" Wang-chan squealed from behind her in surprise.
"-and I kinda met during the cruise and kept contact since? It's nothing, really, we just-"
"Wait, wait," Shinohara stopped her forcefully. "You have known him so long and never told us? And you even call him 'Kiyotaka'!"
She made the intentional effort to cower a bit in her seat to appear smaller, as well as embarrassed and a bit uncomfortable, before she replied with a more quiet voice. "Well, uh, I was a bit embarrassed, I guess? I mean, he has no real presence in the class, does he? And I didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea. "She bowed her head to Shinohara and Satō, her two closest friends in the class. "Sorry for keeping that from you."
"And the thing about you calling him by his first name?" Karuizawa chimed in, sounding oddly suspicious. She thought that might be because she knew at least some of Kiyotaka's real side.
She shrugged and put a small smile on her face. "I called him that once to tease him and then he did the same to get back at me. Both of us were too stubborn to be the first one to stop and it kinda stuck since then, I guess?"
Suddenly Kushida clapped her hands in front of her and leaned conspiratorially forwards before whispering loud enough for everyone to hear. "But you also stayed in his room with him, right? You even came late to class too! That and calling him by his first name... hey, you didn't do anything lewd, did you?"
Her indignant "Hey!" was drowned out by a mix of excited and embarrassed squeals from all around her.
"You would tell us if you did, right?"
"I want to hear every detail!"
"C'mon, tell us, tell us!"
Her face was burning. "Hey, stop it, guys! We were just talking, you hear me? Just talking!"
"Just talking?" Satō asked with a big grin. "Must have been a very, eh, intimate conversation for you two to forget the time like that."
She buried her head in her arms. "You guys are impossible..."
Kushida had the nerve to giggle at her discomfort, though she did at least sound apologetically. "Sorry, Chiaki-san. We didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, right guys?" There was a chore of agreement. "However, just so you know, I will fully support you no matter what! Also, Ayanokouji-kun is actually rather good-looking, isn't he? I mean, he's no Hirata, but he's really fit!"
Her groaning was ignored by the masses as they started to talk about the pros and cons of the various boys in their class compared to Hirata. Well, she thought, at least they leave me in peace now.
I really didn't expect this to get as much attention as it did. I mean, sure, it's not much compared to most stories in other, bigger fandoms, but it's still a lot for a story in such an inactive one! Thanks for your interest so far :)
I'd also like to mention that I'm not a native speaker and part of the reason I write fanfiction is to improve my English, so feel free to point out grammar mistakes if you spot them. After all, I can only improve if I know what I'm doing wrong.
I love reading your thoughts, so please leave a comment! While I'm currently unable to reply to them of even write private messages for some reason, I assure you that I'm reading every single one of them :P
