105 Act 17: Scene 7

After leaving the school building, Kiyotaka sent a message to Haruka asking if she wanted to meet up today to continue their search for the witness to Akito's case. Within a few minutes, he received a reply from the girl, who stated that she would meet up with him in an hour. Her reason was that she wanted to accompany Akito to the clinic to see if he had fully healed from his injuries already.

Their usual meeting place was Keyaki Mall, so Kiyotaka could head there now and just wait for Haruka to arrive. However, he didn't feel like waiting, so he decided to take a detour somewhere to pass the time for now.

This brought him to the ice cream stall that he and Suzune had been to before, as he decided to buy a sweet cone for himself. Maybe he could even get something bigger too. He would never pass up the opportunity to eat more ice cream, obviously.

Right as he was about to pay the needed points for his food, a violet-haired individual suddenly stood beside him, looking like she was going to buy something as well.

The two turned to each other at the same time, and both were pleasantly surprised at seeing who they had run into at this time of the day.

"Didn't expect to run into you here of all places, Ayanokouji."

"I share the same sentiment, Himeno."

Both acknowledged the other's presence with a nod, before Kiyotaka took his large cup of assorted ice cream flavors from the stall owner. He then headed to the nearby bench and sat down, before digging into his frozen treat. After purchasing a vanilla cone from the stall, Yuki went to the same bench and sat down like him.

"I didn't think we'll see each other again this soon, especially since we only met a few days ago. I thought the next time we'd meet would be during summer break," the violet-haired girl stated.

Kiyotaka immediately took notice of the obvious change in her demeanor. During their first encounter, this girl was initially cold and got annoyed easily. It was almost like meeting a carbon copy of Horikita, until Himeno cleared the air and showed him that he was completely different from his classmate.

This time around, Yuki was the one starting the conversation between them? He wondered if this is because of the system or this is what she's truly like. It wouldn't surprise him if this was another scenario that his superpower cooked up for him, though.

"We're students in the same school. We were bound to see each other again. If not inside the school building, then the outside of it."

"You make a good point," Yuki shrugged as things fell silent between them. After a while, she turned towards him while raising an eyebrow. "You got some time? I want to show you something."

He nodded in response, and he felt his curiosity growing right away. "I'm supposed to meet someone but that won't happen until later, so I got time, yes. What is it?"

"Remember when we first met and I said that I saw you somewhere, but I couldn't tell where?"

"Yes, I remember you pulling on my cheeks while saying those words," he deadpanned while pointing to his cheekbones.

The girl scratched her cheek as a blush adorned her face. "Like I said before, sorry about that. Anyway, I finally remembered where I saw you before. No wonder you looked familiar when we met."

Yuki brought out her phone and opened her browser, before typing in a link that seemed to lead to some kind of blog site. Kiyotaka raised an eyebrow at her while his curiosity continued to grow.

A few moments later, he noticed the girl handing over her phone to him. He slowly took it from her and shifted his attention to whatever was shown on it.

It was a list.

A ranked list, to be precise, but he had no idea what could be the criteria for it. Nagumo Miyabi stood at the top, followed by Horikita Manabu. The third and fourth spots were occupied by two second-year students whose names were Miyahara Kento and Jake Lee. And below them was a name that got his attention...

...which was his own name.

He blinked a few times, as he began to wonder what his name was doing here when he had no connection to the four people above him. That was when he noticed the title given to the list as a whole, something that would give him more questions than answers.

"'The Official ANHS Ikemen Rankings', huh... what exactly is this?"

"Wait, you don't know what that is?"

"I think I've heard one of my classmates complaining about 'ikemens', but I don't know what it means. What is it?"

"Are you serious? It's a pretty hot topic among the girls of the school and it updates on a weekly basis."

"If I knew what it was, then I wouldn't be asking you, would I?"

"You must be joking. I'm sure some of your classmates have talked about it because I saw a few of them leaving comments on it."

Kiyotaka shook his head.

"It's basically a blog that's all about creating a ranking of who's the best guy to date in this school. A lot of the first-years keep themselves up to date with it, especially Class-B. I don't know why, maybe because they're trying to check who's available for them to ask out?"

"I know girls like to talk about attractive boys among each other but to think that they'd actually do something like this..."

"If you think that's weird, then you should know that there's another blog like that, but it's created by guys instead. They make a ranking list on who's the best girl to date in this school across all the year levels. Surprisingly, I remember that it has a lot less viewers than that one."

"Sounds like something that Ike and Yamauchi would tune into," he commented in his mind.

"You'd be surprised at what else that blog has," Yuki grinned. "It's made up of a team of female students who go around and interview other girls about the guys that they include in their rankings, so they have something else to put in and not just names."

"They should utilize these skills in proper journalism instead of wasting it on pointless gossip," Kiyotaka sighed as he noticed the next names on the list under him. There was Kiriyama Ikuto, Hirata Yosuke, Hashimoto Masayoshi, Shibata Sō, and Miyake Akito.

Apart from himself, Kiyotaka didn't expect to see Hirata and Miyake's names here. But then again, this list was based on the perspective of female students around this place, so who knows what's going on in their heads. He didn't even know he was popular enough to be the 5th on this list.

So much for not drawing attention to himself...

"It gets worse than that. Some of them even follow the student around while they're unaware of it so the team can keep track of what happens to their so-called 'candidates'. They even snap a few photos of those boys for their gallery."

"Really?" he gave Himeno a skeptical look.

She nodded. "Look at what they wrote under you and tell me it doesn't show that they're following you around."

While Kiyotaka found the idea of someone following him around slightly creepy, it's not like he hasn't seen this behavior before. After all, the system labeled one of his own heroines as a stalker when they first met.

Shrugging to himself, Kiyotaka pressed on his name, causing a mini-tab to appear under it that seemed to show a description of him.

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka

1st Year, Class D

Ayanokouji's placement in this list is not a joke. Even though he looks like a gloomy loner, there is more to him than meets the eye. Ever since he was seen walking with President Horikita's younger sister on the first day of school, our team has kept a watchful eye on him. Never before has this school housed a student like Ayanokouji Kiyotaka. In a matter of weeks, he has garnered the attention of several popular female students, including Asahina Nazuna, Kushida Kikyo, Ichinose Honami, and Sakayanagi Arisu.

The entirety of our team are admittedly impressed with his natural charisma, and it makes us wonder if his loner persona is just for show. It makes us wonder why he doesn't have a girlfriend yet, because all of our readers would definitely say yes to him if he ever asked them out. It also makes us ashamed of ourselves, as some of us are developing a slight bias for him which goes against our principles in maintaining a fair assessment of the ikemens of our school.

There are some who believe his existence is akin to legends of old out of admiration, while there are also some who think he should have never been born in the first place out of jealousy. Either way, there hasn't been anyone who has garnered such a polarizing reputation ever since the early days of Vice President Nagumo Miyabi, and we are looking forward to seeing how his life in this school will unfold. Will he get a girlfriend or will he remain a bachelor? Only time will tell!

After reading through the content about him, the young man returned the phone to his companion right away and cleared his throat to regain his composure.

"That was strangely detailed in some parts, but not to the point of fearing for my privacy being destroyed for good," he told her. "The people behind this know who I'm mostly with but thankfully, they don't seem to know where I live. That would be troubling."

"Told you so," Himeno shrugged. "It's disappointing that the people behind this whole thing don't have anything better to do, though."

"How did you even know all these things about them? It's obvious that you have a distaste for this blog and what it's about, but you're quite informative about it."

"A lot of my classmates were talking about it a few days ago and since they weren't really quiet while it happened, I ended up listening."

"I see," Kiyotaka nodded as he threw his empty ice cream cup into the nearby trash bin. "You said that the first time you saw me was through this list. Am I correct to assume that you are interested in these things, Himeno?"

Yuki shook her head. "Not really. I just got annoyed by my classmates telling me to check the blog out over and over, so I gave in and skimmed through most of it."

"If you only skimmed through it, then how were you able to remember what I looked like when we met?"

"I said I skimmed through most of it," she corrected. "When I saw your picture, I got curious and read the description under it."

"I wonder what it is about me that caught your attention, then."

"It's because of that blank look on your face," she smirked, finishing the rest of her ice cream cone. "I couldn't understand how someone with that expression got considered as an 'ikemen' by the creators. You weren't even smiling in your picture, unlike the rest of the guys who were included."

"I apologize for not meeting your expectations," he bowed his head upon hearing those words from her.

"Why the hell are you apologizing for that? If anything, I think you're a lot more interesting than most of the ones on that stupid list."

"Does that mean I'm one step closer to getting a date with you?" he joked, bringing up the question he asked her when they first met, something he did unintentionally.

Yuki chuckled, being reminded of that same moment as well. "Haha, who knows? You're not getting it this time, that's for sure."

"It was worth a shot. After all, you're a pretty attractive girl yourself, Himeno. I suppose there's always next time."

That was something that the girl wasn't prepared for, because she thought they were only joking around. And so, she was caught off guard with the sudden compliment he gave her to the point that she blushed out of embarrassment.

[You have gained 8 Affection Points with Himeno Yuki!]

Kiyotaka quickly dismissed that notification and scrambled his mind on what he should say, noticing the flustered look on Yuki's face. This wasn't his intention at all!

"I apologize, that came out of nowhere."

Those words caused the girl to snap out of her embarrassment and made her look at him as if she had been offended.

"What are you, dumb? If you're going to flirt with me, then you better mean it! Don't you dare give me mixed signals!" she threw a glare at him.

Kiyotaka blinked. This girl definitely shared some similarities with Suzune, but was also completely different compared to his classmate. He was pretty sure that if he had done the same with Suzune, she'd be flustered and warn him not to do it again. But Yuki was the complete opposite, telling him not to do it if he didn't mean it.

"Okay, okay. I get it," he raised his hands in surrender. "Moving on, I suppose I should thank you for showing me this website, Himeno. It would have been more troublesome if one of my classmates told me about it. But if you're correct that some of them actively read this blog on a regular basis, then it means that they'll spread the word anyway."

Thankfully, she seemed to have calmed down after snapping at him earlier for his not-so-good attempt in flirting.

"You got lucky that your class got involved in this mess with Class C, then. Maybe that's the reason why no one in your class spoke up about it."

"Hmm... I saw that that list was only published this week as well, so I agree with you there," Kiyotaka nodded.

"I guess it's safe to say the first-year classes are talking about that issue more than those 'ikemen rankings' and the blog itself as well. Your class is having a really hard time with this, huh?"

He shrugged. "My classmate didn't want a lot of people knowing about the incident, but it was inevitable for the other classes to know when we began asking different students if they witnessed what happened that day."

"Oh yeah, that reminds me. Got any luck looking for a witness?" she asked, leaning back against the bench.

He shook his head in disappointment. "Until now, there isn't any."

"That sucks for you, Ayanokouji. Don't worry though, maybe with Ichinose-san's help, you guys can finally be one step closer to finding a witness."

"You told Ichinose?" he asked, raising an eyebrow curiously.

"I told you I would, didn't I?" she asked rhetorically. "After I told her about the whole issue, she quickly told the rest of the class. There were some of us who already knew because they were asked by your classmates before, but Ichinose-san relaying the message to them was the first time that most of them heard it."

"I'll have to give her my thanks the next time I see her, then."

"Well then, you can give it to her now."

That foreign voice caught the pair's attention and caused them to turn their heads towards the newcomer. Both of them were met by a beautiful girl with pink hair and blue eyes who had a bright smile on her face.

"Hi, Ayanokouji-kun!" she waved her arm at him happily. "Hello to you as well, Himeno-san. I didn't expect to see you here. And with Ayanokouji-kun, no less."

"We ended up in front of the same ice cream truck. Just a coincidence," Himeno shrugged.

Honami chuckled slightly. "I see. How have you been, Ayanokouji-kun? It's been a while since the last time we met, after all."

"I've been fine. When it comes to trying to approach you though, that's a different story. I noticed you've been avoiding me," he pointed out.

At first, she didn't avoid him. Honami still greeted him here and there whenever they saw each other, but that's it. She couldn't maintain a proper conversation with him every time that she'd stutter and blush profusely before excusing herself, just to hide her embarrassment from him. It reached the point that she would just avoid him completely to save them both from the awkwardness.

It looked like she had finally gotten over her embarrassment now, though.