Here's the second chapter! I had fun writing all their interactions and endless teasing. :D Enjoy~

I awoke to the sound of two voices arguing. Oh, please be back to my reality, I wished in vain even as I recognised the two male voices. I kept my eyes shut, hoping they would leave me alone, but they appeared to notice I had awoken.

"Stop pretending and open your eyes already," came an irritated voice.

"That snarky attitude is why people misunderstand you," retorted the other voice. "She needs some peace and quiet, so we should leave."

"Nuh uh, I'm not leaving until I get my answers," said Niou, flicking me on the head.

"Hey! Don't do that to a lady!" scolded Shiraishi.

I ended up rubbing my head from the pain and cranking my eyes open. "I already told you it was just my imagination."

"Oh, are you all right, miss? You fainted and we brought you to the infirmary," said Shiraishi, his brow creased in concern.

Now there was a sight for sore eyes. So I landed up in the infirmary in the end. I was a little curious as to which of them carried me here, but I wasn't sure I really wanted to know. I might just end up dying of embarrassment. "Uh…I'm sorry about the inconvenience."

Niou clicked his tongue. "Will you just come out with it already?"

Shiraishi turned to him in annoyance. "Why are you so hung up on that?"

"Are you kidding? I've finally found something interesting to spend the time. You're not gonna take it away from me," said the grey-haired young man.

"Don't you have to go back to man the stall? Sanada's going to be furious," said Shiraishi, shaking his head, his light brown hair glinting in the sunlight.

"No problem. I already messaged him that I'm helping a poor girl who fainted in the heat," stated Niou with a grin. "You're the one who needs to mind his own business."

Shiraishi rolled his eyes. "Who knows what you'll do to this poor girl if I leave you two alone."

Niou gave him an appraising look and snorted. "So Mr Perfect has a dirtier mind than I expected."

"What?! No! I wasn't—" sputtered Shiraishi, his ears turning pink. "I-I mean, no offence, miss, but this could be an elaborate trick on you, Niou-kun."

"Hey!" I couldn't help butting in. "Leave me out of your argument. Or rather, please don't fight over me?"

The two of them stared at me incredulously. "Ok, ok, that was going a little too far," I admitted. I wished for the umpteenth time that I could save a screenshot of their faces. Even their candid expressions oozed handsomeness from every pore.

"Just tell me who the protagonist is and be done with it," said Niou with a sigh.

"He gave me the gist, but I'm still not sure I know what you're talking about," said Shiraishi, giving me a sceptical look. "What's this about an isekai and protagonist? Is it some sort of game?"

Oh boy. This was going to take a lot of explaining. Niou appeared to have the same thought I did, as we exchanged glances and sighed. "Well, look, I came from a world in which you all are fictional characters," I started saying, deciding to come clean with them. It was unlikely they would believe me anyway. Might as well play along.

"…And that's how it is," I ended my story. Shiraishi's eyes were wide open while Niou was tapping his feet in irritation. "We've wasted enough time as it is," he grumbled. "Let's go find the protagonist already."

"Finding her is going to be a needle in a haystack with that crowd," I pointed out. "Do you at least have a clue who she is? Either of you could have met one of the school helpers, right?"

"Are you saying that there could be more than one?" asked Shiraishi thoughtfully. "I do remember a girl helping us out when we were preparing for our stall."

"We had a couple of girls helping us too, since Rikkai has several stalls," added Niou. "Don't tell me that any of them could be the protagonist?"

"We'll only know for sure tomorrow once someone confesses to them," I told them. "Until then, they're only possibilities."

"Well, we can only get clues as to who they are if we head back into the fray, so let's go," said Niou, pulling me out of the bed by the wrist.

"So rough," I complained, inwardly not unhappy with the attention.

"Oh? I could ask Shiraishi to carry you again, you know?" Niou stated with a smirk.

"Ah, so he was the one who—"

"Niou-kun, don't mislead her," demurred Shiraishi. "And I'm going with you two. Your story has made me curious."

Niou clicked his tongue, but then shrugged and said, "Whatever. Just don't get in my way of getting in the way of the protagonist."

"Why would you do that?!" Both Shiraishi and I were shocked.

"Because it sounds fun, duh. For someone who looks so intelligent, you sure like to say dumb things."

The brown-haired boy bristled, but kept his peace and helped me off the bed too. I nearly swooned. An ikemen on each arm? I had been wrong about this dream. It was perfect! Getting in the way of the protagonist didn't sound like a great idea though. I had to think of a way to prevent him from doing that, but meanwhile, I could just enjoy the situation while I could.

"You certainly look like you're enjoying yourself," noted Niou as he peered at my face. "You're grinning too much."

"I can't help it," I muttered. "Having two gorgeous guys beside me is just awesome."

"Aw, you're far too honest," smirked Niou. At least Shiraishi had the grace to blush and look away, clearing his throat.

We made our way back towards the stalls and stood on the sidelines, watching the crowd. "Now then, where should we start?" said Niou, thinking aloud. "If there are more than one protagonist, maybe we should go for a school that only has one stall first. That would be St Rudolph, Fudoumine, Rokkaku or Yamabuki."

"I could point out the girl at Yamabuki for you if you like," suggested Shiraishi. "On the condition that you don't interfere with her love life."

"Spoilsport. What if she's after you?" asked Niou. "The other options are the Jimmies, Sengoku, Akutsu and Dan, right?"

"Uh, the Jimmies aren't romanceable," I told him.

"Oh, hmm. I'm not sure whether to pity them or not," mused Niou. "Regardless, we could use her as an example to find the others. Lead on, Shiraishi."

The Osakan nodded and took my hand. Needless to say, I was stunned. "Eh?"

"There are too many people. I don't want to lose you in the crowd," he explained with a smile.

"Good idea," said Niou, picking up my other hand with a mischievous glint in his eye. This one definitely was just doing it to spite me. Oh well! It couldn't be helped. Lalala~

Shiraishi led us to the Yamabuki stall and told us to wait outside while he went to check if the girl was in. She was, and he quietly tilted his head in her direction while glancing our way. Niou gave her a glance and then looked back at me. "Well? Can you tell? She just looks like an ordinary girl to me. Brown hair, brown eyes, Yamabuki uniform…"

I squinted and observed her for a while. She was talking and laughing with Dan, who had a slight blush on his cheek. I shrugged and said, "I'm not a hundred percent sure, but she could be."

"Hey, since you guys are already here, why not stay for an okonomiyaki?" suggested Shiraishi. "I'll whip one up for you in double-quick time."

"I'll love that!" I accepted eagerly. I adored okonomiyaki! And having it cooked by an ikemen was even better!

"You sly dog," snorted Niou. "Fine. It's almost lunch time anyway. We'll need the energy to run around later."

"We can observe her longer while we're here too," I added.

We suited word to action as Shiraishi showed us to a seat and proceeded to prepare the okonomiyaki on the spot. As we waited for it to cook, I cast surreptitious glances at the girl and Dan. They were busy serving customers across from us.

"You're being too obvious," came Niou's voice right beside my ear. His breath tickled the hairs at the back of my neck. Eep! I froze instantly.

"T-t-t-too close!" I whispered back. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

He snickered in reply. "Your reactions are funny. It makes me want to tease you more. Are you sure you aren't a protagonist yourself?" he asked, giving me a sceptical look.

"O-o-of course not! I'm just a background character!"

"Too bad, you're certainly pretty enough to be one," he commented with a snort.

Me? Pretty? He had gotta be pulling my leg. I wasn't ugly, but no one had called me pretty to my face before. On the other hand, I still hadn't seen my face since I came to this place. Maybe… Nah, it was too much to hope for.

Meanwhile, Shiraishi was watching us thoughtfully as he cooked the dish. Then he seemed to have an idea and a corner of his mouth quirked upwards. Cutting the okonomiyaki into bite-size portions, he picked one up with a pair of chopsticks and blew on it. I tilted my head, wondering what he was doing. Wasn't that supposed to be my share? Don't tell me…

My worst fears came true as he turned to me with a brilliant smile and said, "Say 'ah'."

Nooooooooooo! What kind of public execution was this?! Niou burst out and then stifled his laughter behind his hand. Shiraishi feigned a puzzled look. "What's the matter? Didn't you want me to feed you?"

I shook my head frantically, still speechless with embarrassment. He sighed in disappointment. "I would feed Niou instead, but that would probably cause too much of a commotion."

That statement caused Niou to choke on his tea. "T-thanks for refraining," he said dryly.

This Osakan looked like such a goody-two-shoes, but I feared for his future girlfriend. At least one knew what they were getting themselves into with Niou. The former was giving me such puppy-dog eyes that I finally acquiesced and allowed him to feed me just one bite. My face was burning up to my ears. And then Niou had to jump on the bandwagon. I was tempted to just run away, but I was fenced in on both sides. Somehow I couldn't help noticing the glares being directed at me from outside the stall.

I couldn't make up my mind whether this was heaven or hell, but I managed to force down the delicious okonomiyaki nonetheless. One shouldn't waste food after all. In the end, my lifesaver arrived in the form of Dan, who came to inform the two that it was almost time for the Attraction event. This was a competition of sorts in which the romanceable characters would be performing plays, dancing, singing or playing drums. Dan was such an adorable angel! No wonder the protagonist chose him! I breathed a sigh of relief thinking I could finally escape, but to my horror, my two companions brought me along with them, saying one of them would keep an eye on me while the other was performing.

I was still enjoying this, wasn't I? I comforted myself. I had to admit that the performances were enjoyable. They must have practiced pretty hard for it. Suddenly I recalled something. Whichever Attraction the character supported by the protagonist was in would win! That would be our clue to who the protagonist was! The problem was that each Attraction had participants from different schools, and although it narrowed down the choices, we would still have to check out more than one stall. Nevertheless, I quickly told Niou and Shiraishi what I had remembered and we eagerly awaited the results.

There was a drum roll as Atobe announced the winner. It was the Nobunaga play done by Sanada, Kirihara, Mizuki, Akazawa, Hiyoshi and Dan. Six people from four different schools. My heart sank. On the other hand, we had already checked out the "protagonist" who was supporting Dan, so that was one down. She was still our most likely option, but we still had to check the others out.

Niou led Shiraishi and I to their Rikkai game booth where both Sanada and Kirihara were and pointed out the girl helping them, but she didn't seem particularly close to either of them. Two down, maybe?

We then visited St Rudolph's cafe but neither Niou nor Shiraishi were familiar with the members, so we were unable to find out which was the girl helping them. Both Mizuki and Akazawa appeared to be quite popular with the girls of their school and we saw them talking to many of them, but none of them gave any impression of being "special". I mentally ticked them off the list. We were left with Hiyoshi. He was the hardest one to investigate since he was in Hyotei and I was loathe to tangle with Atobe. Apart from the innumerable fangirls, there was the fact that everything he did was flashy and I didn't want to stand out any more than I already did. Plus there were the fangirls, and oh, did I mention the fangirls?

I sighed and Niou patted me on top of the head. "Cheer up, he's the last clue we've got. I'm not gonna give up now."

"Yeah," agreed Shiraishi, giving me a wink. "Now that we've come to this point, let's see it through all the way."

"You guys are way too perfect," I murmured, then took a deep breath. "Fine. Let's do it."