Gamers Special: Someone who's Honest, yet Dishonest

A few days had passed since they decided on the event their class would host for the cultural festival, and Amane was making his way to the caféteria, with Itsuki and Yuuta in tow.

Both Itsuki and Yuuta picked the meal of the day, and Amane ate his homemade bento that Mahiru had made for him, but halfway through the meal, the conversation suddenly changed topic to the cultural festival. It was only natural, given the amount of preparations they made for it each day.

"What can I say, man? You're a pretty hard worker yourself, Yuuta," Itsuki said, voicing his thoughts sincerely. He must've said this out of pity for Yuuta, who had been rather forced into the role of serving customers.

"Well, the majority vote decided that I'd be serving customers, so there's nothing I can do about it now. And besides, I've already made peace with it, so I guess it's alright. As I expected, though… it's gonna be pretty embarrassing."

It seemed that Yuuta had given up from the beginning. That aside, however, he was more embarrassed at the notion of wearing outfits that felt more like cosplay than anything else about the situation. Amane felt embarrassed for the same reason, so the two of them were definitely on the same page.

"It's no consolation at all, but the outfit will definitely suit you, Kadowaki. That aside, there's no doubt you'll be some kind of attraction," Amane continued, "Can't you switch to working in the back, instead?"

"If they'd let you change the decision at a later time, Yuuta would've already done so, right?" Itsuki replied.

"Makes sense. …But you know, I'm still not really sold on this. I can't see myself making one of those customer service smiles."

"Fujimiya, if you ask me, all you'd need is a tenth of the smile you show to Shiina-san."

"That's unreasonable."

"You can pull it off, right? It's true that you'd look fantastic if you smiled only half as nicely as you do to Shiina-san."

"What's your point…? And even if I did do that, it wouldn't be nearly as effective since I wouldn't be smiling at Mahiru."

"Putting the first thing you said aside, so you do actually realize that your smile is super effective on Shiina-san, huh?"

"Well, yeah. Mahiru loves me, after all…"

He may sound arrogant for wording it that way, but Mahiru was deeply in love with Amane, and that was the truth. Amane was aware that she was often sensitive and vulnerable to the things that he did. He often smiled at her, but despite the fact that Mahiru should be familiar with all his expressions, there were times when she got flustered.

Amane said that without a shadow of a doubt, and Itsuki's eyes widened in surprise as if saying "Oh dear," even covering his mouth with one hand. Itsuki scuttled over to Yuuta, bringing his face closer to whisper to him.

"Did you hear that, Yelena? That cowardly and servile Amane can say things like that now?"

"Oh my, they're progressing very smoothly, Izzy-Sue."

"Why're you joining in, too, Kadowaki….?"

"Ahaha. That aside, it's great that you're so sure of yourself now. I always wondered why you were so negative before. It's a great thing that you're gaining more confidence."

"Well, that's also thanks to the both of you. I'm really grateful that you two gave me the push that I needed."

It was undeniable that Itsuki and Yuuta had given him plenty of advice and help, and Amane appreciated them a lot for it. Amane planned to take the initiative in resolving any problems that his two friends may face in the future, and if he could support them in any other ways, Amane would give them a helping hand. That was how much Amane felt that he was indebted to them.

While he was embarrassed to say it so formally, Amane added, "As always, thank you," but hearing this, Itsuki froze in place for a moment. Before Amane could respond asking him what was wrong, Itsuki turned his head to start whispering yet again, "…This dude's been so honest ever since he started going out with Shiina-san, hasn't he? Just where did all his tsun go? Is he in his dere phase now?"

"I'm with you on that one," Yuuta replied.

"What's with you guys? Is it really so strange for me to thank you?!" "Hey, look. He wants to hide his embarrassment."

"Yeah. He really does."

"Dammit. How come both of you are so in sync when it comes to this?!" "It's just that we're both absolutely on the same page."

"Right?"

"That's exactly what I'm talking about!"

Amane glared sharply at the two boys, who were in such a strong agreement with each other that he couldn't believe it, and the two of them only laughed away innocently in response. Sulking, Amane began to eat the dashimaki that Mahiru had cooked for him.