Sekan Doho, Mr. Second, Always Tries His Best

- XXX –

XXX = Inner thoughts

* YYY *

YYY = Sound effect

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"Ready…

Set…

Go!"

With the loud bang of a flaregun, everyone eagerly waiting in a line beside me set off and started running. Even though I was startled mentally by the loud noise, my body was prepared enough to start running as well.

I didn't really have that much interest in running, but despite that I had no choice but to win the race for my own reasons. There was a crowd by the sidelines that were cheering for us as we tried to keep pace, but the enthusiasm wasn't that high in the end. This was a school festival after all, many by the sidelines were just students waiting for their sport to come up so they could get it over with. But as I was running, I knew that the person in the track next to me cared a lot about this type of thing from the conversation I overheard before. Team D's Arisa Mayham, a transfer student I didn't know that much about but she seemed to be quite athletic.

She was slightly ahead of me so I could get an easy view of her body, and my face got a bit red as my eyes scrolled down. I coughed slightly as I suddenly realized my position in the race, a bit more than half of the race had passed and I was still behind a couple of people.

- This isn't the time to have shameless thoughts out of nowhere... -

Even though the exhaustion was catching up to me somewhat, and I felt a tingly burn in my lungs every time I exhaled, I gathered some strength and started running faster than before.

White sand spread about as I passed the people around me, and the sun made me regret not drinking water before the race. Water wasn't delicious, so the regret wasn't that painful.

Fourth.

Third.

Second.

The casters to the race, which consisted of two passionated old teachers from the school, shouted into the microphones

"Oh, what is this!? Sekan Doho of team B is catching up... and has just now reached first place! This is unprecedented"

Still running as best as I could, my thighs started burning and I could feel my legs start to give out a little. My focus lied entirely on my breathing and the pains of every breath.

The goal post was a couple of meters ahead of me, and my heart got excited at the idea of winning. The crowd seemed to be shocked to see me in first place, like it was something that wasn't supposed to happen. Something revolutionary.

To me, winning meant something more than just being the best at a school festival event.

But right as I was around the 85% mark of the race, I somehow broke away from the focus on my breath and noticed my surroundings.

- Wait, wasn't Karyuu a part of this race? I haven't seen him at all this entire time. Could it be...

No way... -

"Look at this, everyone! Quickly behind Sekan, Team A's representative is ramping up speed at an incredible pace! At this rate, he might...!!!"

The caster's announcement made me break into a cold sweat as I succumbed a bit to my exhaustion and the pain in my legs. Karyuu, the representative of team A, had jogged the entire race, ending up behind everyone, until the 70% mark where he gathered all of the strength possible and started sprinting like an animal from the savannah.

Right as I was about to cross the finish line, and cross the mental limits I had, I heard a deafening break in the wind next to me.

* WHOOOOSH *

The loud thunks in the ground next to me soon passed the red line and the casters broke out in celebration

"With a miracle burst of incredible speed, Karyuu Miseru from Team A takes the victory in the 400m sprint from the grasp of Team B's Sekan Doho, Mr. Second, in the nick of time!"

As soon as I realized what happened, my disappointment made me drop to the ground on my knees as a result of exhaustion. Everything burned as I looked up into the cloudy sky for a moment, and tried to catch my breath.

"Second... hah... place... again...."

*Haa haa haa*

I wanted to feel bad for what happened, but I sort of already knew that it would turn out that way one way or another. I looked over to my right, next to the track, and saw Karyuu embraced by everyone from Team A. Even some people from the other teams came over to congratulate him on the miracle.

What he did shined so brightly that my result would be forgotten immediately, which was a relief.

While unknowingly crushing the water bottle in my hand, I stood up and started walking toward Team B's camp. With the image of the goalpost ahead of me while running, and the celebrations of Karyuu, I thought to myself hopefully

- I'll just have to try again with something else,

so that I can finally erase that title from the name Sekan Doho,

"Mr. Second" -

...

In a darkly lit room, 5 students were gathered around a table staring intensely at each other. The atmosphere in the room made it hard to talk and so there was a grueling silence. On the table, there was a deck of cards with 4 cards face-up for everyone to see in the middle. Sekan and his classmate Kanji were the only ones with cards remaining in their hands, and their eyes met each other as they contemplated the state of the game.

After thinking to himself for a moment, Sekan forcefully put his cards down in front of him as he said

"All-in"

He slowly pushed forward the sandwich and canned coffee he'd kept by his side until it met the middle of the table. Kanji took a quick surprised glance at Sekan's move and smirked slightly. He then casually said

"Are you sure about that? I guess I'll have to drink that canned coffee even though it tastes terrible.

I call. All-in"

He mimicked Sekan's movement and slowly pushed his chicken sandwich and soda to the middle of the table. Sekan's mouth salivated a bit as he stared at the chicken sandwich, his true motive was apparent to anyone looking at him. As the dealer, another classmate, was preparing to reveal the final card, Sekan thought to himself

- Looking at the board, the chances that he'll have a flush or straight is very slim to impossible. Even though none of the cards on the board match the ones in my hand, I have two Aces in my hand. The highest pair possible.

If that bastard Kanji hadn't bought the last chicken sandwich in the cafeteria, I wouldn't have needed to go this far just to get it! -

The classmate dealer flipped over the last card as everyone stared with wide eyes at it, and as it turned face-up it showed itself to be...

A 10 of hearts.

To Sekan, this didn't change anything regarding the situation and he threw his cards on the table and said with a serious tone

"Pair of aces"

The people around the table let out a small sound of excitement, but Kanji scoffed lightly as he threw his cards without saying anything.

Everyone hunched over the table and saw a 2 of clubs and a 10 of diamonds on the table, and the dealer suddenly exclaimed

"Two pairs! Not only that, he got the last pair with the last card drawn...! Kanji wins!!"

Sekan stared in disbelief, hearing cheers around him, as he commented

"You just gambled to get something with the last draw...!? You would've just had a pair of twos if it hadn't happened. And you just went all-in like that?"

Kanji let out a lighthearted exhale before he responded

"Of course, you shouldn't mess with the King of Gambling so easily. The goddess of luck is always by my side, whether I need her or not.

But since I respect your guts to all-in like you did against me, you can keep the canned coffee. I'm feeling extra hungry today, so I'll be taking that sandwich."

He cleared his winnings of two sandwiches, a soda, and pocket change from the table as the canned coffee was left standing in front of Sekan.

*Tak Tak Tak*

Footsteps were heard outside the storage room they were playing in and the group quickly panicked to get out of there before they got caught. Kanji especially dreaded getting in trouble yet again and having to get some punishment either from the school administration or the public morals committee, but before he ran away he left some words for Sekan

"Hey, Mr. Second. You shouldn't force yourself to always do these things when you always end up just losing at everything. Just a word of advice."

The other classmates chimed in with quick comments as they were packing up, their words a bit more mean-spirited

"I can see now why you're called Mr. Second, haha"

"You should quit while you're at it, Mr. Second. You really don't understand how this works"

"You're lucky you weren't up against me, I wouldn't have been as merciful as the King of Gambling."

After that, they quickly left the room and shut the door. Sekan felt irritated at everything that had just happened. His initial reaction to Kanji's words was to say "Who do you think you are", but it was hard to directly deny anything he said. There was a reason he'd gotten that nickname in the first place.

Staring at the coffee in front of him, he noticed a small label toward the bottom of the can that claimed it was the second-best-selling canned coffee on the market. Sekan let out a disappointed sigh as he commented to himself

"Does everything I do have to be connected to that number? I feel like my whole existence is slowly being changed to a number 2 at this point"

Sekan had a melancholic expression on his face for a moment. For some reason, he desperately wanted to get first-place in something, it was like the whispers and voices he always had to hear talk about how incapable he was of winning forced him to want to win. At the same time, he understood that the fact he was trying to become best at so many different things probably meant it was more difficult to become best at anything. His attention ended up split between many things.

Sekan brought his hands together as he said to himself

"God, Mother Earth, or fate, if any of you are out there. Please bless me somehow, I want to get better at everything and become the best"

He didn't have that much faith in his vague and unspecific prayer.

But the worst part of constantly ending up second place was that he was always close to achieving it, he was always a few meters away from getting it.

As a result the thoughts of "I could've done better" always chased behind him, like a shadow, forcing him to try harder the next time in an optimistic attempt to do better.

Even as he left the storage room, he had the thought "Maybe I should've folded there, and tried with the next hand. Or maybe I should've tried to bluff somehow"

"Or..."

...

I walked around the school drinking the canned coffee that was spared from the plunder before, cautiously looking around to make sure no teacher or public morals committee member caught me in the act. Even though it felt like the gambling took a long time, there was still a while left of the lunch break before the next lessons. I pulled up my phone to see how my gacha game was doing, as I felt a pair of piercing eyes from behind me. I thought

- Is someone looking at me right now? Are they looking at my phone and my game right now? To be seen as a nerd on top of being Mr. Second, my reputation really isn't doing too well here in this school...

I don't play these types of games that often, I swear. I promise that I do normal and serious things on my phone. Like solitaire and social media.

But aren't these types of games more popular nowadays. Then maybe... -

"Mr. Second!"

"Ack! Y-yes?"

I was startled, almost dropping my phone as I turned around to the voice behind me.

To my surprise, it wasn't some classmate trying to expose me. Instead, it was a somewhat recognizable face, the face of Arisa Mayham. Her serious eyes were staring at me as she said

"That's what you were called, right?"

I felt a wry smile grow on my face as I responded

"Well, yeah... Not that I'm proud of it."

Arisa in essence ignored the tone of my words and brought up her hands like she was about to introduce herself, but I interrupted before she even opened her mouth and said

"You're Arisa Mayham from Team D, right?"

Arisa got a slightly concerned expression on her face as she slowly said

"How did you know that...? In fact, why are you still talking about the teams from the competition?"

With a serious face, I responded

"I scouted everyone before the race to see who I was up against. I learned when I was trying to beat the principal in Mahjong that information is really important. In the race there was Karyuu from Team A, Takeshi from Team C, You from Team D, Masaru from---"

"Whatever, I get the point already"

"Ah right, I didn't mean to sound too intense"

Maybe I said too much. There was still part of the school festival left tomorrow, and letting an enemy know too much wasn't good. Why they decided to split the festival into two days was beyond me, but it gave time to recover my mentality for the next activity.

On the face of Arisa, a confused albeit amused expression showed itself as I was deliberating to myself. She quickly got to why she approached me in the first place, which I forgot to take note of

"Either way, there was something I wanted to discuss with you, Mr. Second. Could you follow me?"

Before I even had the chance to respond, Arisa turned around and started walking, forcing me to follow her quickly. She must've been quite self-assured to just move away like that.

As we were walking, I noticed that a couple of people were looking at us but most just ignored it, which for some reason seemed odd to me.

Eventually, we ended up on the roof of the school building, where the humid August wind immediately blew into my face. The sudden gust of wind also made Arisa's skirt blow up into the air, which instinctively made me make a 180 degree turn so that I was facing the complete opposite direction. Arisa squeaked a bit as she pulled it back down and looked over suspicously.

"What's with that reaction? Aren't you making it really obvious?"

I felt a drop of sweat run down my forehead, partially due to the weather and partially due to the situation, as I responded

"Make what obvious? It's really obvious that I didn't see anything if I'm looking this way, isn't it?"

She cleared her throat lightly with gently-red cheeks as if she regretted her question a little while she responded

"Well, I suppose that's true"

Taking that as permission to turn around, I turned my body back around and readied myself for whatever was about to be asked of me. Without missing a beat, Arisa directed her serious-looking face at me which made her pitch-black hair fling in the air and slowly said

"I'll get to the point of why I called out to you. To be truthful, I've been feeling a bit anxious lately. Even though I've been trying really hard, I haven't been able to do anything since I came to this school---"

Before she continued, my eyebrow was raised slightly as I thought to myself

- Did she call me up to this roof just to vent about her own troubles...? Already, I get the feeling I shouldn't have just followed her so easily.

Ahhh, the flash sale in my game might pass before she's finished... -

Not noticing me grieving to myself about my decisions, Arisa continued talking

"The past few weeks I've been trying to blend in with everyone and talk to the girl groups in the class, but they have all quietly rejected me. Like when I asked if I could follow them after school to a cute café they were talking about, they just looked at me awkwardly and said something along the lines of 'm-maybe next time...' while glancing away from me."

She looked quite frustrated as she recounted the moments of rejection, flailing her arms a bit in what seemed like disbelief of it. I wasn't sure how to feel about how entitled she seemed to be to think that she could instantly make friends like that. But at the same time, I was also a bit surprised as I held the notion that girls always managed to get friends somehow. Especially as Arisa's looks weren't bad nor were they like an angel, so it was unlikely that she would be bullied away because of that.

"That's unbelievable, I've never experienced something like that before in my life. But I've also noticed a disturbing pattern in my life since I came to this school. Whenever I've competed in a sporting event, or answered tests at school and that stuff, I keep ending up fourth everywhere. It's like I can't escape the number right now, and I'm scared it will show to everyone. Even today during the race, I ended up fourth which isn't supposed to happen, I've been running ever since I was in middle school!"

I immediately got uncomfortable as I realized what direction this conversation was headed. Without the chance to react, even to myself, Arisa continued with her explanation of why just I, Sekan Doho, had to stand here in the humid and hot late-summer weather on the school roof

"That's why I wanted to talk to you, Mr. Second, about this. I'm scared that I will start to be known around the school because of my fourth place finishes and that'll make it harder for me get any friends. What do you think? How can I make friends?"

After Arisa finished her explanation, she looked at me earnestly, eagerly awaiting a response of some kind. After a couple of moments of silence, I was staring blankly forward onto the mountains in the far distance as the sun burned gently on my face.

- So she's asking me what I think, so that she won't become like me... I don't know what to think about that. Somehow I get the feeling she's already kind of similar to me though.

But I also get the feeling that all of this is...

kind of stupid. -

Without saying anything, I turned toward the roof entrance and started walking there. Before grabbing the door-handle, I just said in a lie

"Well, I should be getting back soon. I have some business to atte---"

*GRAB*

Right as I grabbed onto the sizzling hot metal door-handle, I felt a strong grip on the back-end of my school uniform that made me pause in my tracks.

"I'm being sincere..."

Looking back, my eyes immediately met with Arisa's. Even though they were still piercing through me, they held a kinder and more gentle emotion in them at this point. Her black hair blew in the wind again as she averted her eyes for a moment

"I really don't

want to end up alone..."

I felt moved, hearing those words. It was a bit confusing in my head for a moment as I took in the situation, but I realized that I'd ignored the core of what Arisa wanted to tell me. I was a bit unsure of what to do, but hearing the weight of those words I ended up a little convinced

- Plus, she kind of seems like the type of person to pester me everytime we'd meet in the hallway about this if I ended up going now. Alright I'll------- -

*zzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZIIIIIII*

My body now took a moment to realize that my hand was still holding onto the flaming-hot door handle from before. A burning pain rushed through me as I with the highest speed I could possibly muster pulled the hand away from the handle.

"OUCH, OUCH OUCH OUCH---"

Without really comprehending my actions, I jumped up and down as I waved my hand until I eventually threw myself onto the ground and started blowing on my hand while holding it with my other.

*Foo, fooo, fooooo*

Arisa was startled by my sudden actions, especially as she was still focused on the previous matter, but rushed over and sat down in front of me.

"Give me that"

She grabbed my arm and started to gently blow at the palm of my hand. I felt a bit uncomfortable and my cheeks turned a little red as a result, but it felt completely different from my own breathing. It was a lot softer and smooth, like a pillow was touching my hand.

*Fuuu, fuuuu*

As the pain started to subside, I pulled my hand away slowly and said

"It's okay now...

Thank you"

Sitting across from me, Arisa fidgeted a bit as she continued to look at me with serious, piercing eyes. I sighed and commented to myself

- I guess I don't have a choice -

"Alright, I'll tell you my thoughts. But whether my words have any value or not is not guaranteed."

Arisa lit up at hearing the words, stopping her fidgeting as if she wanted to seriously listen to what was coming next. I wasn't sure why she placed such weight on my opinion, even if I was the one called Mr. Second. In fact, I realized that this probably was the first time anyone had been so focused on listening to me speaking. I felt a bit pressured as a result, like I'd suddenly signed a contract for a job.

"W-Well, the first thing I'd like to say is that you won't have to worry about being called something like Ms. Fourth or anything. Usually when there's a nickname or title like the one I have, another similar one won't be created unless there's some connection between the people. So since I've already been cursed with being called Mr. Second at this school, there's no reason they'd make another one just for you, and we have no connection to each other either way.

Even if there was some connection, or if I wasn't Mr. Second, I doubt you'd be called Ms. Fourth even then.

The reason for that is...

No one remembers fourth place.

Unless someone really hated you, no one would ever notice it. When it comes to competitions, you normally speaking only remember First and Second place.

First place becomes the face of triumph and glory, while second place becomes the face of losers and has to carry the burden of all the other placings on its shoulder. He carries the idea of missed potential and is the one people will say "Ahh, so close" to with a strained face, or the one who gets yelled at for failing."

I carried a pained expression as I scratched my head a little bit. I ended up venting about my own problems toward the end as well.

- I guess we're even now -

Arisa showed an enlightened facial expression as she held her hand over her mouth, like she was in deep thought. I looked down at the ground next to Arisa, where her school bag laid tilted to the side. Poking out of the entrance was two metallic rings in contrasting colours, one in a rose-gold colour and one with a metallic blue colour.

- What are those...?

Are they for that thing, when you become close to someone and wear matching accessories to show how close you are?

Ah, that's a little heartbreaking to see like this... -

Following the trajectory of my eyes, Arisa noticed her bag and put the rings away in a rush, before ignoring what happened and speaking

"So you're saying I won't end up being known as Ms. Fourth no matter what?"

I pulled a wry smile as I commented

"It took you that long just for that...?"

Arisa straightened her body as she exclaimed

"Shut up...! I like to be thorough when it comes to serious stuff, so I was thinking about what you said. And I can't remember the fifth place for anything we've done recently, and I can't really remember the third place for most of them. So maybe it's true...

What a relief! I've been really worried about that lately"

She was stretching her arms out in the air in relief like she'd just passed her entrance exams. It looked like an overreaction to me, but it seemed like it was really important to her so I didn't feel like commenting anything.

I stood up, grabbed my bag and commented to myself

"Maybe I'll get some positive karma from this, helping the loneliest person at school and all."

"Huh? What did you say?"

Arisa looked over as she also stood herself up. Confused, I responded

"Ah, well I don't know if karma actually exists or not but I---"

"Not that, the other thing you said"

"Helping the loneliest person?"

"That, That! Are you calling me the loneliest person at school...!?"

I wasn't really sure what face to make as Arisa stared at me with a shook face.

"Isn't it true? I'm not the loneliest person at school if that's what you were assuming, there are a couple of people I can talk to. Their words might not be that kind to me, but that doesn't matter when it comes to the definition of loneliness. Other than that I haven't really seen anyone else at school without some friend, so..."

Arisa turned beet-red, like this notion was something that humiliated her very core being. Her bag dropped to the floor again as she ran up and started shaking my collar while saying

"You have to help me, You have to help me! I'm serious when I say that I've tried talking to everyone already, how do I make friends...?!"

My head shook back and forth as I held an emotionless face, the feeling of reluctance crept up again. I really didn't have a reason to help her, although I wasn't heartless. I just got the feeling that it would work itself out eventually. There are times when a problem is so important to you that you end up stressing over it too much and become tunnel-visioned to the real answer and to the surroundings around you.

- But maybe I should help her through the tunnel.

Maybe I should show her the light that comes at the end.

Why not...? I'm stuck in this tunnel myself, aren't I? -

In that moment, I got an understanding of why I thought Arisa seemed similar to me. It wasn't because our situations were similar or that our personalities were similar, we both were desperately trying to fix the problem plaguing our everyday.

I grabbed onto her hands to stop the shaking, and the potential brain damage that would come from it. I had to take a moment to stabilize as the roof was still shaking for a moment, and Arisa looked in anticipation.

"Of course I'll help you"

Arisa looked happy again, until I let go of her hand and lifted mine in front of her and rubbed my fingers together. With a smirk, I added

"In exchange for money"

"Huh?"

"Think about it, while you've brought me up here I've missed out on the flash sale on Summer swimsuit Miruko and missed out on going to the library like I was planning on doing before classes. Time is a really important resource, so in exchange..."

Arisa, in disbelief, said under her breath

"He's completely serious..."

She slowly reached for her bag as she said

"Alright, I understand... But you better promise to properly get me friends...! Okay?"

"I would never dishonour the terms of a contract"

"Just say 'I promise'..."

Looking at her pull up the money, I replied

"If you're that picky then, I promise I will get you friends no matter how it happens"

Looking satisfied with those words, Arisa reached out and handed me the money, which I put in my school jacket quickly.

- Emotions sell well, don't they, Ahahaha...!

Although it feels like the mood around us changed a little bit as a result of this. As soon as the money fell down into my hand from the hand of Arisa, the image of being a office worker receiving his pay check in his hand came to mind. I didn't like that image whatsoever, and it made me slightly regretful to my actions. I pulled myself together and prepared to give my practical advice as someone who didn't have any real friends at school, even shrewd businessmen had no choice but to fulfill what they promised after receiving their money.

"Firstly, I would advice you to do something about your eyes"

"I paid you money, take this seriously!"

"I'm being serious...! There's something about your eyes that is trying to look into the center of my soul, kind of like a pair of Witch's eyes. It's intimidating even me a little bit, so it must have some effect on others as well"

Again looking at me with those eyes, Arisa was in shock as she let out

"Whaa---? 'Witch's eyes'...?"

Quickly brushing past her disbelief, I continued my list of problems with

"Secondly, your attitude. You seem very entitled to the idea of having friends, maybe because you've always had friends before, but that type of attitude is off-putting to others. From my observations, that type of thing can easily make you seem too clingy and intrusive"

"You shouldn't make those types of assumptions so easily..."

I wasn't sure what part she was referring to, whether it was me assuming she was entitled, or if it was that she'd always had friends or that my observations were too hastily made. But I didn't want to push the question, I realized it was quite tactless for me to keep insulting her each line without saying anything to specifically do. Her face mirrored this sentiment, as it was a bit sunken leaning towards the ground. I felt embarrassed momentarily to have treated her previous kindness like this, but made it up with my following statements

"Thirdly, what if I told you I had a solution that ignored those two previous issues completely and is virtually guaranteed to make you friends?

Meet me outside your classroom after the last hour of classes, Ms. Fourth"

...

"Huh!? Then did you say the other two things just to insult me for no reason...!?

Also don't call me Ms. Fourth...! Seriously! What if someone were to hear us up here...?"

...

The afternoon sun shined through the windows as the school was wrapping up for most students. Many hurried through the hallway to get out as quickly as possible, getting scolded by some teachers that caught them in the act. There was one student that acted differently to this, the way he walked was in complete contrast to the others running. His slow footsteps made a repeating dark echo as they met with the floor, signifying a strong reluctance to move from where they were. Sekan Doho was making his way to Class 2C.

Sekan wasn't aware of this, but many students considered the different classes to have different attributes to them. Out of the classes, 2C was seen to be the most extraverted and socially connected class in the school.

As Sekan neared the classroom, he rolled his head making a cracking sound and sighed quickly before opening the door to the classroom.

Arisa stood right outside the classroom by the wall and saw Sekan open the door and enter the classroom. She'd wanted to say something, but seeing the focused eyes of Sekan as he approached she found it hard to disrupt him. Either way, she already knew what the plan was and what she was supposed to do. Which was also why she felt a sense of hesitation and unsureness in her heart.

In the classroom, there was a bunch of students left hanging out. Sekan didn't really recognize many except Karyuu from his race earlier that day. Around half of the class was still there, talking and giggling in their respective groups. The chatter halted however as Sekan entered the room, and their eyes were drawn to him quickly

"Is that Mr.se---"

"Yeah, yeah"

"Why is he---?"

A bit fidgety in his movements, Sekan walked through the classroom swiftly before stopping ahead of a certain place. In front of him was a standard desk with four chairs around it, occupied by one of the most popular groups at school. The four girls wore individually modified school uniforms, one with longer sleeves and shorter skirt and one with a soft beige-coloured coat wrapped around her waist. This wasn't really allowed by the school dressing rules, but their influence around school made it hard for the administration to do anything serious about it, despite their attempts.

Their faces were attractive enough that it was hard to look at them directly as well without immediately falling into a temporary state of inferiority complex, which must have been part of the reason they were able to get to that status to begin with. The group in particular had the nickname around school 'The Medusa clique'.

Hastily, he fell down to one knee and grabbed the arm of the girl directly in front of her. Without missing a beat, Sekan shouted out whilst staring down

"I've liked you for a really long time, Nagasawa!!

Will you go out with me, please!?"

In stark contrast to the volume of what was just shouted, the room fell into deafening silence. If an ant were to drop an strand of hair on the floor, it would probably be as loud as bells in a town square.

Sekan gathered enough guts to look up from the floor and was met with a non-assuring sight. The face of Nagasawa was indescribable. Whether her intensely blank eyes were due to pure disgust or unrelenting shock was unintelligible. The fact that Nagasawa who probably got asked out relatively often by guys would have this reaction to being asked out was spirit-crushing for Sekan, even if it was anticipated. The others also held very surprised reactions as they couldn't let out any words to the situation.

Almost succumbing to the immediate demoralization, Sekan snapped out of his intense discomfort and remembered he had the final part to do.

He raised himself to his feet again, which was a hard task, and added this part before turning around

"Contact me when you're ready to accept, hehe"

At the end, he added an awkward wink as well.

With stiff arms and legs that were barely able to bend, he started making his way back out of the classroom, saying "excuse me, excuse me" whilst doing so. The way he walked looked like he'd been turned to stone.

He passed by Arisa as he walked out of the classroom and they switched place, Sekan giving another awkward wink before stumbling through the hallway as quickly as he could.

As Sekan walked, he could hear Arisa start chattering in the classroom with Nagasawa and the Medusa clique

"Wait, did Mr.Second just confess to you?"

"Y-yeah... I- I don't know what to..."

"Oh my, he did that to me too earlier...! I cou-----"

"--------"

"----"

The further away he got, the less he could tell what was being said.

He thought to himself

- That-That should be enough.

Arisa should now be able to get friends, like I promised.

In the end, her individual problems that could prevent her from easily getting friends can be overcome by a situation like this. Through me confessing to Nagasawa like I did, severely shocking her, and then have Arisa come talk to her about having the same experience of being confessed to, there is something emotionally strong they share that they can talk about. The effect is even greater given how high-esteemed and far-removed from me Nagasawa is.

Everyone in the world can become friends with anyone no matter who, depending on the circumstance and situation. All you need is a connection between people.

Once that connection, or bond, between people has been made, it is hard to get rid of

Emotionally...

Still, there might have been a better way to do it. But this was the most effective I could think of right now. It doesn't really change that much for me as the person who is already Mr. Second here, my position is essentially the same.

Even so, that look back there...

AAAAAAAAH, Get it out of my head!!!! I never want to see it again...!!!! -

Flailing his arms in the air and rubbing his head, Sekan whined to himself about remembering the moment he looked up from the ground and into the eyes of Nagasawa.

He stopped in his track for a moment as he saw something red in his peripheral vision, a vending machine right outside the school.

Pulling out a bit of the money he got earlier that day, he approached the machine and looked at the options of what to buy.

His finger was about to press the button he usually always pressed, before he moved it a couple of centimeters to the right and

*PIN*

*RORURORURON*

Grabbing the ice-cold drink out of the retrieval sleeve, he popped the tab at the top of the can and lifted it up.

What was smoothly running down his throat now was 1000% MAX COFFEE,

"The Number One Best Selling Canned Coffee on The Market"

The figure of Sekan faded away from the still-lit-up school premises into the darker shadows of his journey home

...