Takeshi Kimura:

   "Ow! Dude what are you doing?" (Reiji)

   "Exactly what you deserve!" (Takeshi)

   I pinched Reiji behind his back while we were walking with Izumi-san to her apartment. It was also a small apartment just like mine. It had only two floors. We reached her room which was on the upper floor. 

   "Please come in." (Izumi)

   "Yeah!" (Reiji)

   "Sorry for intruding." (Takeshi)

   However as soon as I entered, I saw someone else's shoes on the doorsteps. And immediately I sensed some problems were about to occur.

   "Areh? Miyano-kun?" (Sanae)

   "Oh God..." (Reiji)

   And I was damn right....

                                   ♤

   "Oi Kimura.." (Reiji)

   "What?" (Takeshi)

   "Can't we leave now?" (Reiji)

   "It's been two minutes. And by the way, weren't YOU the one who wanted to come here?" (Takeshi)

   "Well I didn't know Sanae will be here..." (Reiji)

   "Isn't that good? Go flirt with her..." (Takeshi)

   "Miyano-kun~~" (Sanae)

   "Oh Hi. How are you?" (Reiji)

   "What are you blabbering? It's not an English class. By the way, I came here to study for tomorrow's maths class test with Riko-chan. I'm surprised to see you two here..." (Sanae)

   "Miyano wanted to study with Sanae but was afraid so I came along too." (Takeshi)

   "Oi!" (Reiji)

   "Revenge for earlier haha." (Takeshi)

   "Is it true, Miyano-kun? I'm really happy~~" (Sanae)

   "Okay now everyone, here's your coffee." (Izumi)

   Meanwhile Izumi-san served some coffee and biscuits for us. She was such a sweet girl. 

   "By the way, looks like I have to teach Miyano-kun too along with Riko-chan." (Sanae)

   "Well I'm very thankful of Mahiru..." (Izumi)

   Apparently, Izumi-san isn't good at maths. She is pretty good at other subjects though, which is completely opposite of me. I'm above average in other subjects but very good at maths.

   However, Sanae is incredible in every subject and that's why she is the top student of our class. Reiji is completely average or even worse in every subject. Sanae had helped in countless times before. Isn't that a match made in heaven?

   If I was being honest, I was shipping Reiji with Sanae in my mind. It was only my personal ship. I didn't particularly like much about Mizuha. If I had to choose anyone between them, I would choose Sanae 10 out of 10 times.

   However, I didn't have any idea what the author had in his mind. I would not be surprised if he trolled us in the end.

   "Isn't your boyfriend very good at maths, Riko-chan?" (Sanae)

  "W-Well I'm good but not really good like you." (Takeshi)

  "That should be enough. Then help your girlfriend. Let me get closed to Miyano-kun and help him~~" (Sanae)

  "H-How about I take help from Kimura instead? It will be trouble for you." (Reiji)

   "Oh no no. That's not how it works." (Sanae)

   Thus, the regular flirting between them began. And both I and Izumi-san were left a little annoyed by them. 

  "I'm sorry for the trouble." (Takeshi)

  "Oh it's not your fault at all. Plus can you help me with this, please?" (Izumi)

   "Oh... this problem? Just pre-multiply both sides of the equation by B matrix and you'll easily understand." (Takeshi)

   "Oh right! You're really good at maths, Takeshi-san. I wish if I could get help every time." (Izumi)

   "Well Izumi-san can always call me whenever she has doubts." (Takeshi)

   "Won't it bother Takeshi-san?" (Izumi)

   "This guy apparently wants a part time job in the nearby coffee shop by the way, so that he can meet you everyday. I don't think he would bother by your calls." (Reiji)

   "Shut up!" (Takeshi)

   This guy... I hope you get sandwiched between both of your heroines!

   "W-Well... I think I should go wash the cups." (Izumi)

   "I-I will help you. I also have no intention to watch their flirting." (Takeshi)

   I followed Izumi-san in the kitchen to help her. When I looked at her, it seemed as if she wanted to say something to me.

   "Do you want to ask something, Izumi-san?" (Takeshi)

   "Y-Yeah. Umm... are you really getting a part time job here?" (Izumi)

   "T-That's true. But it's not because of that reason Reiji said. He's just joking. Believe me, it's just that I happened to think about getting one here." (Takeshi)

   "O-Okay. I knew it was just... a joke." (Izumi)

   "Umm.... Izumi-san, can I ask you something?" (Takeshi)

   "Yes." (Izumi)

   "What's the meaning of the message that you sent me today? About pickled vegetables or cooked vegetables." (Takeshi)

   "Oh..." (Izumi)

   She stopped and immediately her cheeks turned deep red. She looked at me embarrassingly.

   "It was---" (Izumi)

   "Riko-chan! Takeshi!" (Sanae)

   Just as she was about to answer, Sanae popped up from the drawing room.

   "What's it, Mahiru?" (Izumi)

   "You know, I have just asked Miyano-kun out for a date in the amusement park!" (Sanae)

   "Wow... and then he rejected you?" (Takeshi)

   "No! I forced him to accept the invitation. So we are going on a date on this Sunday." (Sanae)

   "Good job." (Izumi)

   "Best of luck." (Takeshi)

   "Wait. I'm not finished yet." (Sanae)

   "What's left now?" (Izumi)

   "I want you two to stalk us!" (Sanae)

   ".........." (Takeshi)

   ".........." (Izumi)

   Both I and Izumi-san were completely bamboozled after hearing her wish.

   "Your head's okay, Mahiru?" (Izumi)

   "Yeah!" (Sanae)

   "Why in the world would we have to stalk you? Do you like being stalked?" (Izumi)

   "Oh sorry, I think I worded it badly. Listen, I want you two to follow us and keep an eye at us always." (Sanae)

   "That's literally the same thing!" (Takeshi)

   "But... why do we have to do that?" (Izumi)

   "It's because of that girl!" (Sanae)

   "Mizuha?" (Takeshi)

   "Yes! History says she always disturbs me and Miyano-kun whenever we are in a great mood. I don't want her to disturb our date again! Please, Riko-chan. Please Takeshi." (Sanae)

   "Well... I get your wish. But it's a very tough job you know." (Takeshi)

   "Please help me this time." (Sanae)

   "O-Okay. I will help you. But Takeshi-san may have some other work so don't disturb him." (Izumi)

   "W-Wait. If Izumi-san is willing to do, then I will help her too." (Takeshi)

   "R-Really? I hope it's not a trouble for you." (Izumi)

   "Don't worry. I'm always free on Sunday." (Takeshi)

   "Aww... your boyfriend loves you so much." (Sanae)

   "D-Don't tease us!" (Takeshi)

   So the plan for Sunday is now fixed. There's still 3 days to go for that. For their date to be successful, we only need to make sure that Mizuha doesn't know about it. However she always comes to know about this type of things somehow. It's going to be a hard job, that's for sure...

    However I have one advantage... I have the manga with me... 

                                 ♤

   After I went back my home, I opened that volume 2 of the manga that I got from the library.

   "Eh?"

   I frowned disappointingly as I saw the state of the book.

   So many pages of this book are missing....

   To be precise, more than half of the pages were missing...

   For example, after page 11, it was page 16, then page 23, then page 27 and so on....

   There went my chance to see what was about to happen in their date.

   However, I could still read some pages and try to understand what was about to happen. 

   But... it was almost impossible because it was very difficult to find correlation between page 11 and page 16, then page 23, page 27 and so on....

   At one page, it was Izumi-san's cute sleeping face, then Sanae and Reiji walking beside each other, then next page was Mizuha with a jealous face...

   I eventually gave up and was about to leave that book on my table but then.... I happened to glance at the last page.

   It was me.... lying down on the ground...

   And there was some blood. Blood on my head....

   And there was a steel bucket, near me....

   Surely I'm not dead in this page. It's simply not possible. It's a rom com manga. It's not some mature Seinen manga.

   Yeah... that's surely a minor injury to me... which is exaggerated in this page. Nothing to be feared of...

   Nothing to be feared of...

   F*ck... I'm terrified.

   I mean a head injury is still very dangerous. And I can't bet against this author. Who knows, he may has thought of killing me.

   I don't want to die... again.

   I needed to take care of myself. I looked at that page again. 

   The steel bucket... someone surely threw that steel bucket intentionally or by mistake on my head. That's clearly the reason of the injury. 

   I took a deep breath and said to myself, 

   "Challenge accepted, Author-san. I'm not going to fall for that."

   I need to prepare myself against that steel bucket.... 

[To be continued]