After school, Yoshii Akihisa walked toward Saiki with an exhausted look on his face. "I'm seriously so unlucky."
(Yare yare, who told you to have corporate-level comprehension skills? Otherwise things wouldn't have turned out like this.)
"Saiki, you're way too harsh. You just walked off like that at lunch today."
Saiki turned his head away. [What are you talking about? I have no idea what you mean.]
Sakamoto Yuuji walked over too. "Geez, Akihisa, you idiot. You really dragged me down at lunch today."
"You deserved it."
While the group was still chatting, Kirishima Shouko walked in through the door, faced Sakamoto Yuuji directly, her cheeks slightly flushed, and said, "Yuuji, go out with me."
Sakamoto Yuuji looked helpless. "You still haven't given up? Can I refuse?"
Kirishima Shouko: "I'm not giving up. And you don't have the right to refuse. This was decided at lunch. Come on a date with me right now."
Sakamoto Yuuji showed some resistance.
"Ah… um… wait, hold on a second."
Before Sakamoto Yuuji could finish speaking, his vision suddenly went black. With a crack, he collapsed to the ground and was dragged out the door by Kirishima Shouko with one hand.
[Yare yare, looks like some pretty interesting things happened at lunch today.]
Kinoshita Hideyoshi replied calmly, "Yeah, Yuuji's pretty pitiful. Not many students go on dates at this time of day. I hope it works out for them."
Shimada Minami suddenly hooked her arm around Yoshii Akihisa's. "Alright, Akihisa, let's go get crepes!"
"Huh? Didn't we agree on next weekend?" Yoshii Akihisa asked in confusion.
"Next weekend is next weekend. We're going today too."
Himeji Mizuki quickly grabbed Yoshii Akihisa's other arm. "No way. Yoshii-san is going to watch a movie with me."
The latter looked surprised. "Huh? When did we ever agree on that? Himeji-san, I never heard anything about it."
"Yes we did. We just decided it right now."
Shimada Minami: "Come on, Akihisa is taking me for crepes."
Himeji Mizuki: "No, he's taking me to a movie."
"Nooo, Saiki…" Yoshii Akihisa shot Saiki a pleading look.
(Yare yare.)
Saiki stepped forward to mediate. [Calm down, you two. Fighting over him like this isn't going to solve anything.]
Yoshii Akihisa looked at Saiki emotionally. "Saiki, thank you…"
[How about this: both of you take Akihisa to watch a movie together, and then get crepes afterward. One stone, two birds. How's that?]
Shimada Minami and Himeji Mizuki glanced at each other. "That actually works!"
Yoshii Akihisa was dragged out the door by the two girls. He didn't forget to look back at Saiki with his eyes. "Saiki!!! This is revenge. This has to be revenge..."
Saiki gave him a calm smile in return.
[Yare yare, what are you talking about? I'm just offering a suggestion. I'm not a demon, you know.]
Saiki watched as Yoshii Akihisa disappeared from view.
[Alright, time to pack up and head home.]
Saiki put away his books and stuffed both today's bento boxes—Kubo's and his own—into his bag.
"Wait, Saiki. Let's go watch a movie together too."
Just as Saiki was about to leave, Kinoshita Hideyoshi suddenly spoke up.
Saiki shook his head.
[A movie? Sounds like a hassle. Plus it costs money. I'm not interested. I'll pass.]
"It's free. That gloomy pervert won some lottery tickets—three of them. We can go watch something."
Saiki thought about it. Watching a movie still seemed like too much trouble.
Tsuchiya Kouta stepped forward, grabbed Saiki by the shoulders, and said seriously, "Not only that, we can get free crepes too. Aren't you curious how things are going to play out with those three?"
Saiki stood frozen in place without answering. His glasses hid his eyes, making it impossible for anyone to tell what he was thinking.
[Yare yare, fine, let's go. But I'm only interested in the movie. Definitely not because of the crepes.]
After saying that, Saiki wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth and followed Tsuchiya Kouta and Kinoshita Hideyoshi out of the classroom.
Not long after Saiki left, a blonde girl walked into the classroom, looked around, and sighed. "Late again."
...
Of course Saiki had no idea about that situation. By now he had already arrived at the movie theater and spotted Yoshii Akihisa and the others standing ahead.
At that moment, Akihisa was still in shock over the ticket prices in front of him.
[I never thought it would be this expensive. Even with the student discount, one ticket is 1000 yen. A medium cola is 300 yen.]
[Small popcorn is 400 yen.]
[Just coming here normally costs that much money in only two hours? Movie theaters are terrifying places.]
(Those prices are pretty standard for movie theaters.)
By now Saiki had walked up behind Akihisa, who also noticed him.
Akihisa looked at Saiki in surprise. "Saiki, gloomy pervert, and Hideyoshi? You guys came too?"
[Well, someone's treating for free, so we came to join the fun.]
"Free treat?"
Tsuchiya Kouta and Kinoshita Hideyoshi explained, "Don't worry about it. We just won some free tickets and came to enjoy them."
"What? Gloomy pervert, how did you—"
"Don't be like that. There were only three tickets. You and Yuuji already have your own dates, so it makes sense."
Before Akihisa could fully process it, Himeji Mizuki already started speaking. "Yoshii-san…"
Akihisa turned around stiffly. "Y-yeah? What is it, Himeji-san?"
Himeji Mizuki pointed excitedly at the big screen. "This one looks pretty good!"
My First Love at the Center of the World 2
Shimada Minami walked over with her arm linked through his and agreed. "Hey, it does look nice! Let's watch this one, Akihisa."
Akihisa lowered his head in defeat. "I… I'll pass. You two go ahead and watch it."
"Huh? Why?"
"Huh? Why?"
Shimada Minami and Himeji Mizuki asked in confusion. They had come here specifically to be with him. If the two of them went alone, it would completely defeat the purpose.
The next second, it seemed like they understood. Then they said,
"Then how about an anime?"
Akihisa lifted his head and said helplessly, "That's not what I mean." [I should just save my living expenses. I still have some now, but if I go too, I won't have much left for the rest of the time. I shouldn't have bought all the latest games.]
(So that's it. He's broke.)
"Akihisa, I advise you to just give up."
[Is that Yuuji?]
Saiki and the others turned around and saw Yuuji, who was handcuffed, speaking in a resigned tone. "Men… really are such useless creatures."
(You're the only useless one here.)
Kirishima Shouko, who had Yuuji chained up nearby, asked gently, "Yuuji, what movie do you want to watch?"
The latter replied calmly, "I want to be free as soon as possible, so the shorter the better."
Kirishima Shouko nodded in understanding, then pointed at the sign in front of her. Apocalypse Now: Full Cut it is.
Sakamoto Yuuji raised his cuffed hands in protest. "Hey, wait a minute! That one's 3 hours and 23 minutes long!"
Kirishima Shouko seemed not to hear his objection at all. She held up two fingers to the staff member. "Two showings."
Yuuji let out a desperate shout. "That's almost longer than a full day of classes!"