"Reddo bean paste ni kawaru beki!" (How could you?! — literally: "You should be red bean paste!"*)
Although Amamiya Iori said it with a pout, anyone who knew her well could tell she was only joking. Kind-hearted as she was, she would never actually blame someone.
"Iori, I'm sorry…"
Kondou Yuuichi lowered his head in guilt, as if too ashamed to meet her gaze.
"Don't blame him, Amamiya. I didn't dare step in either. That guy had a knife."
"…Is that so?"
Amamiya Iori turned her gaze toward Shimizu Jian, tilting her head and smiling meaningfully.
That smile sent a chill down Shimizu's spine.
Just then, Kondou Yuuichi suddenly grimaced and clutched his stomach with both hands.
"What's wrong, Yuuichi?"
As a friend, Shimizu immediately stepped forward in concern.
"Sorry, my stomach's acting up…"
"No way — didn't you eat the rice balls I made this morning?"
Amamiya Iori also showed a worried expression.
As expected of the heroine — she even sweetly made breakfast for her childhood friend.
"Sorry, I'm gonna run to the bathroom."
With that, Kondou Yuuichi bolted into a nearby convenience store.
"You don't think it was food poisoning?"
"Maybewho knows"
Her voice suddenly echoed right beside his ear, and Shimizu Jian flinched in surprise.
Somehow, Amamiya Iori had silently appeared next to him and was now holding his hand.
Their fingers were interlaced like lovers. Shimizu's heart skipped a beat, and his attention was completely swept away.
"So warm… Shimizu-kun's hands…"
Iori murmured as she wrapped both of her hands around his, enclosing them in hers.
She wore a subtly seductive smile — completely different from the innocent demeanor she'd shown when Yuuichi was around.
"Uhm… Amamiya, are you okay? You ate the rice balls this morning too, didn't you?"
Shimizu had been wondering about that. If Kondou Yuuichi's stomach ache really was from the rice balls Iori made, then shouldn't she, having eaten them as well, be showing some symptoms too?
"Me? Thanks for your concern, Shimizu-kun. But I'll be fine…"
You'll be fine?
What does that mean…?
Shimizu couldn't quite wrap his head around it. The increasingly flirtatious atmosphere was getting to him, so he quickly pulled his hand away.
"Uh… I'm gonna grab a drink."
Making an excuse, he walked over to the vending machines outside the convenience store.
"What the hell was that just now…"
He couldn't figure out what Iori was thinking. The system had been uninstalled. He hadn't done anything to her. It was only the second day of the second playthrough — they should barely be on friendly terms.
So why did she act like that?
More importantly, that touch — the way she'd held his hand — had brought back vivid memories from the first playthrough.
Memories of Amamiya Iori, gentle and submissive, lost in ecstasy as she gave herself to him completely, her entire body responding to his every thrust with joy and pleasure.
No! No no no!
Shimizu slapped his cheeks, trying to banish the images from his mind. Then he took out his coin pouch and started feeding change into the vending machine one coin at a time.
Once the pouch was light enough, he pressed the button for a can of coffee.
"Oh? So you like coffee? I thought you were more of an oolong tea kind of guy."
Amamiya Iori appeared behind him like a ghost, her voice carrying a sweetness that could melt through anyone's defenses.
"Uh… yeah, I've been in the mood to switch things up lately."
Truthfully, she was right — Shimizu Jian did prefer oolong tea. But that was a preference he'd developed over the two and a half years of his first playthrough.
Still… how did she know that?
At this point in the timeline, she shouldn't know him that well…
As Shimizu mulled it over, he saw Kondou Yuuichi jogging back from the direction of the convenience store.
"So this is where you two were."
Yuuichi approached them with a weak smile.
As soon as he arrived, Amamiya Iori casually moved to stand next to him, as if the intimate moment with Shimizu earlier had never happened.
Her sudden change in behavior left Shimizu bewildered.
If he were ten years younger, he might have naïvely tried to analyze her feelings or figure out what she was thinking.
But after spending the first playthrough tearing apart romantic relationships day after day, he'd long since lost interest in trying to understand girls' hearts.
After arriving at school, Shimizu changed into his indoor shoes at the lockers and made his way to the classroom, heading straight to the usual seat — last row, by the window.
"Good morning, Shimizu-kun."
The girl sitting in front of him put down her book and turned around to greet him.
"Morning."
Shimizu replied out of courtesy.
He had no particular impression of this girl — short, chestnut-brown hair, wearing a white beret. He couldn't even remember her name.
Though she sat right in front of him, she barely had any screen time in the game. A total background character.
Shimizu glanced at the window beside him, where his reflection looked back: sharp features, a bit roguishly handsome, resembling a younger version of Azu (note: possibly a pop culture figure or nickname in context).
No one else came to talk to him after that.
Which made perfect sense.
The hostility from the other boys was pretty obvious.
Let's be honest — who wants a ridiculously good-looking friend sitting next to them when they're trying to impress girls? No one.
Even if they had a girlfriend, they'd constantly be on edge, worried she'd sneak glances at him.
As for the girls, while some did harbor thoughts like, "He's so handsome… even if he's a playboy, I'd still date him once just to see…"
Social pressure — the so-called "air culture" — meant they had to play along, acting like, "Ugh, who'd be into a guy who's obviously a player?"
As the bell rang, homeroom teacher Hoshinomiya-sensei walked into the classroom and began the first class meeting of the second semester.