Chapter 10: Do You Like Alliances?

“Akaishi, you’re going to help me.”

“…………Huh?”

As soon as he arrived at school, Akaishi was summoned by Hachiya and led to an empty, open corridor.

“I like Sousuke.”

“…………”

Hachiya suddenly confessed to him. Akaishi had known this fact for a long time, but he couldn’t understand why she was revealing it to him now. He looked at her suspiciously.

“You said something like ‘go back to Sakurai’ before, right? You already know that I like Sousuke, don’t you?”

She imitated Akaishi’s low voice and spoke bluntly. Akaishi made a bitter face, realizing that his earlier remark — made out of irritation toward Hachiya — had come back to bite him. Only now did he remember that even when Sakurai was fixing the bicycle chain, Hachiya had openly revealed her feelings to him. He felt a little pathetic for not having questioned why she would say something like that.

“So, I want you to help me so that my romance with Sousuke goes well.”

“Haa…………”

Only now did he fully realize how deeply he had been dragged into the rom-com protagonist’s mess. He was utterly dumbfounded at his own mistake.

He wondered whether Hachiya was acting while fully aware that the other girls around Sakurai also liked him, or if she was doing this completely clueless. Was she trying to eliminate the competition, or simply trying to make her own love come true?

Akaishi was slightly curious about Hachiya’s true intentions.

However, he was concerned that if he started helping her, he would become nothing more than a convenient tool for a girl who had feelings for the rom-com protagonist. So he flatly refused.

“No thanks. Ask someone else.”

Without waiting for her reply, Akaishi turned on his heel and returned to the classroom.

“Akaishi, what were you talking about with Kyoko?”

The moment he returned to the classroom, Sakurai — who had seen the two of them go off together — came to investigate and spoke to him as usual. Akaishi inwardly cursed Sakurai, noting that he only ever talked to him when girls were involved. However, he kept it off his face and out of his voice.

He could have ruined everything by saying, “She asked me to help make your romance with Hachiya work,” but the risks were far too high.

There was the possibility of earning the resentment of the other four followers for getting ahead of them.

There was the possibility of earning Sakurai’s resentment — a man who had five of the school’s top beauties around him.

There was the possibility of becoming a target of bullying by opposing someone with that much influence.

After considering all of this, Akaishi chose to dodge the question.

“No, it seems I dropped my pen yesterday and she was just returning it.”

“Then why didn’t she return it in the classroom?”

Sakurai pressed him with rapid questions. Is this an interrogation? Akaishi thought with a frown, but he quickly composed himself and answered.

“She didn’t want people to misunderstand our relationship if we talked in the classroom.”

“I see~ So that’s what it was.”

Sakurai seemed satisfied with the explanation and returned to his seat, once again forming his usual utopia with his followers.

Although the explanation was vague, it seemed to fully satisfy Sakurai by implying that Hachiya did not like Akaishi and that she had feelings for him instead.

Akaishi desperately wanted to cut all ties and avoid getting dragged any deeper into this chaotic situation.

“Akaishi, show me your face!”

“Haa…………?”

During cleaning duty, Hachiya called out to him again.

“Is this about that thing again?”

“Yes! Lend me your strength!”

While cleaning the stairs together, the two continued their conversation. Fortunately, the area assigned to Akaishi’s cleaning group was relatively deserted.

“No. Ask someone else. You’re a girl, so go ask another girl for help.”

“Can you seriously ask a guy for love advice when you already like someone?”

“…………”

Hachiya’s point was valid. When asking a girl for love advice, the first condition was usually that the person giving advice shouldn’t also like the same guy. If they did, there was a high risk of ruining their friendship.

In Hachiya’s case, her friends were the other four followers, all of whom clearly had feelings for Sakurai. Therefore, asking a guy for advice made sense in the current situation.

However, the fact that she was asking Akaishi also proved that she didn’t have any close female friends outside the broadcasting club.

“…Don’t you have any friends?”

“Ugh………… Shut up! That doesn’t matter!”

Hachiya’s face turned red with anger. Once again, Akaishi felt disgusted with himself for poking at her complex. He hated how he kept rubbing salt into other people’s wounds just to push them away. He knew it was the lowest kind of behavior.

But Hachiya wasn’t the type to back down from something like this.

“Just help me already!”

“Besides, if you keep hanging around me, Sakurai might misunderstand and think you like me.”

“Th-that’s… true, I guess…”

Hachiya calmed down and brought a slender finger to her chin.

“Then we’ll contact each other through our phones from now on! You don’t have to approach me at all! Just work on getting me and Sousuke together! Come on, take out your phone. I’m registering my contact info.”

“Haa!?”

Akaishi openly grimaced at her extremely selfish demand.

“What do I even get out of doing something like—”

“You do get something.”

Hachiya instantly answered his perfectly reasonable question.

“If you ever get into trouble in the future, you’ll have connections with me and my friends — and with Sousuke too.”

“Wha……”

Hachiya puffed out her chest and continued.

“And if necessary, I can make you work for me by using our relationship as leverage.”

“You……”

Akaishi froze at the completely unexpected offer of compensation.

You……

You’re willing to go this far just to become Sakurai’s girlfriend?

In this short period of time, Hachiya had accurately seen through Akaishi’s true nature. He was a rationalist who valued efficiency and viewed things critically. He kept emotional decisions at a distance and always acted logically. She had realized that if she presented him with clear, rational benefits, he would become her ally.

Akaishi’s eyes widened as he calculated.

If he became her ally, he would gain leverage over Hachiya. He would also gain connections to several of the school’s top beauties. These connections could prove useful for university admissions or in future society. He instantly ran the cost-benefit analysis in his head.

Additionally, if Hachiya quickly became Sakurai’s girlfriend, her constant pestering of him would end.

There was no need to think any further.

“I’ll do it.”

“I knew you’d say that.”

On this day, an alliance between Hachiya and Akaishi was formed.

Chapter 10_ Do You Like Alliances