The once calm expression on Kane's face shifts to that of a more serious and worrisome look, before answering with a stutter, "W-what do you mean by business, Ando-senpai?"
Tanyu puts down his mug and stares sharply at them, before speaking in a sharp tone, "You must have heard the rumors already, no?"
Kane's eyes widen at his statement, before having a thought quickly pass through his head, "Don't tell me... our argument reached the student council already?!" He begins to sweat as he swallows some saliva and answers while choosing his words carefully.
"W-what rumors?"
With a smirk, Tanyu leans back into the sofa while resting one of his arms around the pillow, and answering with a straightforward tone, "The rumors about you..."
He then points at Kane directly. Kane gulps instinctively out of stress and fear, before having Tanyu speak his mind, "...and how you used to be a great musician!"
"What? A great musician? Me?"
Kane is taken off-guard with this statement, his once tense face now dissipating as it turns into a more unimpressed expression. Tanyu forms a fist in his hand and looks at Kane with stars in his eyes.
"Yes! I've heard how you used to be a great musician back in junior high!"
Kane looks away while a blush forms on his cheeks, but he chooses to act dumb, since he didn't want anybody finding out about his past. He responds to Tanyu's statement half-heartedly.
"Really~? You must be mistaking me with someone else~. Ehehe~"
Tanyu sees through his little act and stares at him with a raised eyebrow, "Maybe you should get rid of that look on your face before lying, Koyasu-kun."
Kane sighs before looking down and raising his hands in a surrendering motion, seemingly forfeiting to this game of deceit. He mutters in a defeated voice, "You caught me..."
"You didn't even bother with hiding it..."
Tanyu crosses his arms and closes his eyes. Seemingly unimpressed and disappointed, he reopens his eyes and stares directly at Kane once more and asking.
"As I said earlier, since you were a great musician, you must have also been part of the music club in junior high, correct?"
"Y-yeah, I suppose you could say that..."
"Tell me, have you already applied for a position in the light music club? It isn't that popular nowadays, so they are lacking quite a few members."
"..."
Kane stays silent and glances away from Tanyu, and begins to ponder, "Light music club again? This is the second time someone has asked me about something related to music..." He sighs, seemingly at his wit's end.
"Koyasu-kun, if you have no intention of applying for the light music club, I have no reason to judge your decision. You must have your own reason as to why you don't want to join."
"Huh? W-wait, are you actually not gonna force-"
"But! You would disappoint a lot of your past fans, including me... you must know you have gotten your own fanbase because of your performance during the school festival in our junior high school years, right?"
Kane first stares at Tanyu in silence, but he laughs at what he said while thinking to himself, "R-right, I can't simply escape the past..." He rubs the back of his hair feeling a sense of pressure attacking him from all sides.
He speaks with an apologetic tone while looking away from the imposing man infront of him, "I'll be frank and apologize now, Ando-senpai... even if I have a loyal fanbase, I'm still not returning..."
"Music is just... too taxing, and I just want to redirect my focus elsewhere..."
Tanyu stares at him with a worried expression, before sighing deeply. With a quick shrug, it seems that he is content with the information he had received directly from his idol musician. "What can we really do? I don't blame you at all."
He then gives a quick glance toward Inari, who is fast asleep on the sofa, before asking with a a forced half-smile, "Koyasu-kun, is she usually like this? Or did she just get too comfortable?"
"She got too comfortable, I guess."
"A-ah, I suppose that makes sense. Well I suppose we should wake her up then because I feel as if our time together is about to end."
Tanyu pulls up his sleeve and looks at his watch, before looking back up at the two of them and speaking in a blank tone, "Right, we have one minute left, so I suppose we should bid our farewells for now."
Kane nods slowly, before turning to Inari and speaking with a devilish smile, "Don't worry Ando-senpai. These type of people are easy to deal with."
Tanyu stares at him with anticipation, closely watching his next moves. Kane leans closer to Inari's ear and begins whispering something while covering his mouth from the side.
With her eyebrows tensing, Inari wakes up instantly and jumps out of the sofa before scanning the room while speaking in a rushed tone, "Where?! Don't tell me he saw me in such a state! He's gonna make so much fun of me!!! Ahh, Mouu~!"
Kane looks at her with a playful smile and speaking blankly, "Inari-chan, you have seem to forgotten where you are right now. This isn't your room or anything, this is the student council office."
Inari — while clicking her tongue — turns sharply to Kane with furrowed brow, before looking at Tanyu, and looking back at Kane slowly with a brand-new embarrassed expression and muttering, "O-oh right..."
She turns slowly back toward Tanyu, and bows in a slow manner before straightening her back and looking toward Kane once more with her chin held up and her cheeks puffed as a blush forms on her cheeks.
"W-w-why didn't you wake me up when I was dozing off?! You made me look like a lazy person infront of the student council president!"
She begins shaking Kane aggressively by the collar; Kane wears a blank expression on his face proudly as he replies while Inari is still speaking, "You... didn't... tell... me... to... do... anything...!"
Tanyu watches the two with a worried expression, his hands frozen and twitching to the side of his chest, clearly incapable of doing anything.
"BAKA!!![1]"
⋆｡°✩
Tanyu waves at the two as they leave the room, one looking haggard and one looking completely fine. The two of them wave back as the president goes back inside the office.
As the door to the office closes, the two in the hallway turn on their heel and begin walking back toward their classroom in complete silence, not out of spite or hatred but because they have nothing to talk about.
Considering the fact they may have held completely different interests, it was understandable between the both of them why they were lacking in conversation topics.
To keep his mind off the awkward silence while walking back toward their room, he begins scanning his surroundings. He squints both his eyes and notices two particular figures in the distance.
"Wait, those two must be Ryūzaki-kun and Kazuo-san..."
To satiate his curiosity, he raises his hand and begins waving, but it was to no avail as the two were deeply immersed in conversation, a thought had entered the mind of Kane as he assumed the two were once again talking about their preferences in 2D girls.
He shakes his head, before once again waving his hands high up in the air while calling out their names as he slowly approaches them, "Oi, you two! Are you guys talking about anime without me?!"
As Satoshi and Kazuo's attention were now caught, they both turn to him with surprised looks as they notice Inari following behind him; shortly after, a mischievous smile forms on Kazuo's face.
"Ooh~ Ryūzaki, it seems like Kane-san has woo'd your childhood friend!"
In an instant, Kazuo feels a great force applied to his face as Satoshi suddenly palm strikes his face once again before grabbing his face with the same tiger grip he did earlier before tightening his grip even more compared to before.
While maintaining eye contact with Kane, he asks with a friendly smile, "Where did you two go? We've been looking all around the place to find you guys."
Kane places his focus on Satoshi — completely ignoring Kazuo who was now writhing in pain and trying to break the hold his red-haired friend has on him — and answering with a blank tone, "We went to the student council office as homeroom representatives where we talked with the student council president about something."
"Was it about the argument you two had the other day?"
"Not at all, we just had a simple conversation where we got to know each other more."
"Is that so? Hmm, you had me worried there for a second, Koyasu-kun."
"Sorry about that."
Satoshi then looks over at Inari who is currently casting a sideward gaze, acting completely indifferent of the three individuals that are infront of her out of sheer shame and embarrassment.
In an attempt to not make her feel left out, Satoshi asks her while not looking at her directly, "So, Inari-chan, did you behave yourself in the student council office?"
Inari tenses up instantly at the word 'behave yourself' reaching her ears. Instinctively, she slowly turns to Kane who is staring at her over his shoulder with a sharp gaze.
Her body begins trembling at this sight, and almost in an instant she darts off into the distance while holding her body and shouting with a blush on her cheeks, "Please don't punish meeee~!!!"
"Oi! You're gonna make people misunderstand the situation!!!"
Satoshi begins chasing after Inari in an attempt to save his reputation of not being the type of person to punish a girl in a perverted way, seemingly forgetting Kazuo is still being held in his hand. Kazuo begins flailing around like a noodle.
Kane stares at this series of events happening infront of him with an open mouth and his eyebrows twitching, before thinking, "...Could you have at least left Kazuo-san here?"
Now all by his lonesome, he puts his hands into his pockets and begins slowly walking after his friends. It was evident enough that there was indeed no chance that he would catch up with this pace.
"U-uhm... Koyasu-sama?"
Unexpectedly, a somewhat familiar voice calls out to him which catches him completely off-guard, he looks over his shoulder and at the person who had called him.
A thought had begun to enter his head as he notices those striking details: silver-hair, using the honorific '-sama' on acquaintances, and that deep but elegant voice. "If I'm not mistaken, this must be Okawa-san, right?"
He turns over his heel to face Ayumi completely, and asking her in his usual blank tone, "Yes, Okawa-san? What do you need from me?"
Ayumi stands there with a somewhat elegant poise, homogenous of the way royalty shows themselves to the public. As expected of someone from a prestigious school.
"Could you come with me for a moment? I have something to ask and tell you."
Kane, suspicious as to why Ayumi needs his presence so abruptly, raises an eyebrow and thinks, "This must be a ploy of some kind..."
He closes his eyes and begins rubbing his chin, and continuing his train of thought, "But... this might be something important, considering the fact she — of all people — needs me."
Ayumi tilts her head as a floating question mark appears over her head. Kane nods to himself as he reopens his eyes and looks at her with a stoic gaze.
"Sure, I'll follow you."
⋆｡°✩
SLAM!
Kane finds himself with his back against the wall as a hand comes flying to the side of his head. It seems he has found himself in a rom-com event, but rather than him doing the pinning, it is him that is getting pinned.
"What?"
Kane blinks rapidly as he processes the situation he is currently in.
'WHAT?!?!"
"WHY HAVE I BECOME THE HEROINE OF A VISUAL NOVEL?!?!"
His mind begins to race as sweat runs down his forehead. The white-haired girl infront of him who has him currently in a precarious situation once more, holds an intense gaze directed towards him.
He swallows some saliva as an awkward smile forms on his lips. While trembling, he asks her slowly while watching what comes out of his mouth.
"O-Okawa-san? What's going on?"
Another hand comes rushing in to the other side of his head, fully pinning him against the wall with no chance of escape or slipping by.
A mischievous smile forms on Ayumi's face which is completely uncharacteristic of her from Kane's perspective. More sweat begins pouring down his face as he waits for her response.
Ayumi opens her lips slightly as if she was ready to speak, but she chooses to close it once more while biting her lips. A small blush then forms on her cheeks.
"N-nee~... Koyasu-sama..."
She spoke with a low tone as she keeps her intent-filled gaze directed toward Kane. On the other hand, Kane has chosen to look upward instead of directly toward the girl that has him pinned.
Ayumi sighs in order to keep up her serious façade. She then continues with an ever more serious tone compared to before, "Could you look at me while I speak to you?"
Kane — either out of fear or will to live — steadily looks back down at Ayumi, where a serious face meets his gaze. Ayumi asks him a question that might change the way they look at each other.
"Koyasu-sama, do you like..."
His eyes widen as he fully notices the resent filled gaze behind Ayumi's serious expression that seems to be burning brightly.
"...Erisa Fujikawa-sama?"
[1] The term "Baka" (バカ) translates to "Idiot," or "Fool".