Mizuki and Prez sat inside already, Prez waving to me with his overly perfect smile.
We muttered ‘Hi’s into the air as we settled down - everyone kindly letting me take the seat next to Mizuki. Prez took the lead.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Akihiko. I guess you’d know me already, since I’m the student council president.”

God did he annoy me. I felt like I was getting an inferiority complex just from sitting opposite from him. I sunk a bit deeper into my chair.

“Taizou.” Perfect introduction. We get it; we know you and you don’t want people to use your first name. None of us looked offended.

When my friends began to introduce themselves, Mizuki looked up with mild curiosity, probably because he remembered their voices.
“I’m Kaoru!”
“Tarou. Hi!”
“My name’s Yuji, nice to meet you.”

Mama Yuji, as serious as always.

I didn’t want to introduce myself to Prez and was sorely tempted to just give him my last name but I didn’t want to stand out. I forced out my introduction.
“I’m… Riku.”

“Alright, that’s done.” Prez grinned, looking over everyone and taking on the role of the team leader as if it was natural. “I’ve already submitted our group sheet, since Taizou asked me to, so we can already think about what we want to do. I don’t want any of us to stress ourselves, though, since exams are coming.”

Mizuki leaned back in his seat, sipping on his water as we began to talk. Or, well, everyone other than us two.

“It sounds nice”, Yuji agreed once they had come to a rough conclusion. We all wanted to help the nearby orphanage and at some point, Minecraft-fan Kaoru had suggested building a playhouse in their garden. There were whole sets with instructions you could buy, making it easier for us. As for the cost, we wanted to make a small sale of cookies we’d bake with the children where people could donate money.

The whole town knew about these charity events - it was never hard to earn money, so we were quite free in deciding what we wanted to do. Doing something together with the children was more something that Yuji and Tarou would enjoy, while Kaoru and I were curious about trying to build the playhouse.

In the end, we’d all participate in everything, of course.

“I guess we could look out for suitable sets already, even during our exams”, Prez mused.

I looked up to the incoming waitress and took my soda from her with a quiet ‘thank you’. I had a hard time upholding my mood with Prez constantly in my line of sight. It might sound unfair, but sometimes you just can’t like someone.

I took a sip and sighed happily, listening to the four of them discussing more details, as not much time had passed yet.

The soda was my favourite drink but I rarely ordered it. It was either my reward for hard work or something I had when my mood was bad, so the rarity of it made it special for me. Not that it was especially expensive or anything, I just kept it that way on purpose.

Next to me, Mizuki perked up.
“Tastes good?”

I nodded.
“Hm.” Definitely.

“Can I try?”

I just wanna say that I’m not the type to panic over an indirect kiss. I had no problem sharing my drink with Mizuki and was actually happy to let him try something I liked so much, I was just panicking because of where we were.

After all, there were four other people around us that knew that Taizou Mizuki never shared food or drink with anyone. He wasn’t mysophobic¹Intense fear/disgust towards bacteria; people who won't touch anything someone else touched or where they're not certain it's clean, he just refused it vehemently.

And here I was, the tiny random student, getting asked by him.

Yuji, Kaoru and Tarou all had a ‘What, you are getting along that well?’ written all over their faces, eyebrows raised in surprise.
Prez’s friendly face cracked a bit. It was almost audible.

His smile twitched, looking a tiny bit forceful.
“Taizou, why didn’t you tell me you wanted to try it earlier?”

My guess was that Prez had maybe ordered the same soda sometime and Mizuki hadn’t asked - which was an obvious difference in treatment. Mizuki frowned, his cold dark eyes jumping over to Prez.

“Why would I?”

Ouch.

I just wordlessly shoved my glass over to Mizuki, who didn’t care at all that there were five pairs of eyes watching him try it.

Uhm, maybe everyone else was watching the picture as a whole, I was slightly more focused on his fair neck when he tilted his head backwards, watching it move as he swallowed.

I’m no vampire, but there are times when I would love taking a bite.

A soft one, considering I wouldn’t want to crush his windpipe.

...That didn’t make it sound any less kinky, maybe because it simply wasn’t.

Aaaaanyway. Mizuki gave an appreciate sound after trying my soda, pushing it back to me.
“Hm. Tastes good.”

I mean, I would have given him the whole glass if he wanted it. No problem at all. I’d just continue watching him.

Prez leaned back with an unnaturally forced movement but was already back to looking all nice. I don’t think he’d ever consider me a rival, so I doubt he’d continue thinking about the issue. I’m saying this because I couldn’t find his entry anywhere in my menu, which meant that his points were so low that he just didn’t care about me.
Only Mizuki as a love interest had shown up despite his zero points at the start.

“Sheesh, why are we watching him drink? That’ll make him uncomfortable.”

We all apologized quickly, then switched the topic. Once we were through with everything we wanted to plan before the exam, about an hour and a half had passed. I sighed at finally getting away from Prez, gathering my things after paying.

Prez was just opening his mouth while looking at Mizuki - I could see from the corner of my eye - when Mizuki called out to me.
“Let’s go back together.”

He had only said a handful of sentences today and over half of them were directed exclusively at me. I would have wagged my tail if I had one, despite everyone’s, once again, stunned faces.

“Sure.” I blinked at my friends as if there was nothing wrong. “We take the same train for a few stops.”

While we still didn’t go to school together since we rode at different times, right now it wasn’t weird to just go together. Also, I wanted to.

The system’s comments had left me incredibly nervous and I wanted any chance to probe Mizuki without being obvious about it. What would be better than using one where he asked me first?

“Oh, I see, so that’s where you know each other from.” Prez looked relaxed again.
None of us said anything about that misunderstanding, not even Kaoru and Tarou who confusedly glanced at the silent me.

I just gave him a crooked smile as an answer.

Yuji dragged off the other two idiots with an amused wave after Prez had left and I waved after them. Only when I felt Mizuki stare at me did I carefully look down at him. With my back slouched, the height-difference was a good bit smaller.

“You don’t like the president”, Mizuki stated with a soft frown. I didn’t deny it, rubbing my neck and avoiding his eyes. Not like I could tell him why.

Because he’s too perfect for my taste?
Lately also because I don’t like that he looks good with you, that people ship you two and that you tolerate him around even though I’m sure he’s interested in you?

Eh, nope. There’s a difference between being possessive and actually acting on it. Even more so if the one acting possessive isn’t even your boyfriend.

“I should have asked before we wrote the sheet”, Mizuki muttered unhappily, beginning to walk towards the station. I jolted to follow him, awkwardly flapping my mouth as I wondered what to say.

Hey! Heey! System!

[(Please choose what you wish to say.)

• “I don’t mind him that much.”
• “It’s going to be fine.”
• “It’s just for a short time.”]

Ah, there you are. Though… Hmm, I don’t like any of those that much. Since I was going to say something into the silence, I had more time to think than usual and that was my conclusion.

The system made a small ‘Ding’.

[Additional choice:

• “I wanted to be in a group with you, so I didn’t care about who else was in it.”

Warning! Choice can strongly affect the score both negatively or positively depending on the current level of relationship!]

Owl

Things are starting to speed up! Also, this kind of charity thing is a thing people do, but who knows where it's common? I had something similar during my time as a student, actually

Mizuki's theater:

Mizuki (stares)
Mizuki (staaaaaares)
Mizuki: "You don't like the president"
Riku (squealing): "Please don't stare at me like thaat!"