Facts speak louder than words.
With irrefutable evidence laid out before her, and with me, someone widely trusted and admired, backing it up, even someone as stubborn and spoiled as the pink-haired girl could no longer deny it.
"Th-This... this..."
Mika stammered, as though desperately searching for an excuse.
Nagisa let out a snort of laughter, her face glowing with the satisfaction of finally getting her revenge.
A master of bullying people on her own turf, Mika immediately shot her an unhappy look.
"Nagi-chan! What are you laughing at?!"
"Heehee."
Nagisa restrained her smile somewhat, which only made it seem even more meaningful.
"Sorry. I just thought of something that made me happy."
"That's not it at all!"
Mika hurriedly defended herself.
"There has to be some kind of misunderstanding. That's not what I meant..."
"So you were simply saying what sounded nice?"
The recorder once again played Mika's earlier words, spoken with unmistakable contempt and accusation.
The pink-haired girl's fair cheeks instantly flushed red.
"Seia-chan...! I mean, um... that... Ah, right! Taking what someone said out of context like this is really unfair, isn't it?!"
With that, her logic finally came full circle. Relaxing slightly, she turned to me with an apologetic expression.
"I'm sorry, Sensei. I must have said something back then that could easily be misunderstood for some reason... But please believe me, that wasn't what I really meant! None of it was intentional! Otherwise, there's no way I wouldn't remember saying it at all!"
Personally, I was willing to believe Mika and leave it at that.
Unfortunately, the fox-eared girl holding the recorder had no intention of letting things end there, especially now that she had effectively been accused of sowing discord.
"You're right."
Seia nodded in agreement before raising the recorder again.
"In that case, let's listen to this one next. I don't believe anyone could accuse this of being taken out of context."
"Wai..."
Mika had barely managed a single syllable before Seia decisively pressed the play button.
Once again, someone's cheerful voice echoed throughout the tea party that had originally been held to celebrate her safe return.
["From the very beginning, I never liked you at all. In fact, quite the opposite. If you've gotten the wrong idea, that would be very troubling for me."]
"GWAHHH..."
The pink-haired girl let out a pitiful scream, making the atmosphere even livelier. Everyone except her wore expressions of joy and satisfaction.
"I understand now, Mika..."
I deliberately lowered my head, pretending to be heartbroken.
"I was just getting ahead of myself back then..."
"That's not it, Sensei! I... I..."
Mika was both flustered and frantic. Unfortunately, aside from making people angry, she was surprisingly bad with words in most situations.
She held it in until tears nearly welled up in her eyes. Just as everyone began wondering if we'd teased her a little too much, she finally spoke again.
Only, just as mentioned before, the one thing Mika truly excelled at was making people angry.
"That was then! This is now! Even if I misunderstood Sensei back then, that's all in the past! It doesn't count anymore! Besides, when you get right down to it, wasn't it all Nagi-chan's and Seia-chan's fault in the first place?!"
"...Huh?"
Nagisa and Seia both frowned at the same time, voices filled with bewilderment.
I was also extremely curious to hear how the pink-haired girl was about to pin the blame on them with her astonishing logic.
Sure enough, Mika declared confidently,
"First, Nagi-chan! You always acted like you had zero interest in romance, just like me, but then all of a sudden you abandoned me, got all close with Sensei, and even showed it off right in front of me! That made me form a bad first impression of Sensei and assume he was just some frivolous pretty boy who's only good at making girls happy! So isn't this all because Nagi-chan forgot all about her friend the moment a handsome guy came along?!"
"Mika-san! Just what kind of rude nonsense are you saying?!"
Nagisa scolded her sternly, but she only called it rude, not wrong. There was an unmistakable hint of guilty defensiveness in her voice.
I couldn't help sighing as I touched my admittedly handsome face.
Indeed, this was all my fault for being too handsome. It had made even a refined and elegant young lady like Nagisa lose her composure and fall in love, ultimately leading to today's argument.
But I absolutely refused to accept the rest of it, especially the "frivolous" part. How was I frivolous? Every bond I shared with my students was sincere.
Mika wasn't finished.
"And then there's Seia-chan! You must've foreseen that Sensei and I would become this close, but you kept quiet about it the whole time! Instead, you took advantage of how kind Sensei is and made him record me saying embarrassing things. And now you're using them to ruin the relationship between Sensei and me! Isn't that way too underhanded?! This is obviously all Seia-chan's fault because she planned it from the very beginning!"
To a certain extent, Mika had actually hit the mark, leaving even Seia looking a little uncomfortable.
The problem was, if Mika hadn't kept saying problematic things, none of this would have happened in the first place.
"So!"
The girl's golden eyes sparkled brilliantly. Looking completely invigorated, she swung her arm dramatically as she delivered her conclusion.
"It's all Nagi-chan's and Seia-chan's fault!"
"...You've really got the nerve to say something like that, Mika-san."
Nagisa let out a cold laugh.
"You're right."
Seia, however, sincerely agreed, giving up entirely on arguing with her head-on.
After all, doing so would probably only drag her down to Mika's level, where she'd be overwhelmed by Mika's unreasonable logic until her hands and feet went cold with frustration.
Having experienced that countless times before, Seia pondered for a moment before starting to fiddle with the recorder again.
"That item's cheating! It's banned now!"
Seeing that her unparalleled logic had accomplished nothing, Mika immediately switched to her unparalleled force.
In a moment of panic, she suddenly sprang forward, skillfully snatched the recorder from Seia's hand without hurting her, and clenched it tightly.
With a sharp crackle of electricity, the pink-haired girl let out a long sigh of relief. When she opened her hand, a twisted lump of scrap metal fell from her soft white palm and landed on the floor with a crisp clang.
Having finished all that, she proudly lifted her chin and beamed.
"All right. Now the annoying thing doesn't exist anymore."
That simple and direct solution was exactly like Mika.
As a result, Seia merely glanced calmly at her smug friend before taking out a remote control.
The wall behind her suddenly lit up.
It turned out to be a large display screen.
"Mika, if you destroy this too, your scheduled duty at Schale will become compulsory labor instead."
Seia kindly reminded her, causing the pink-haired girl, who had just been about to charge forward, to freeze on the spot.
A moment later, Mika covered both ears and shouted at the top of her lungs.
"No matter what Seia-chan does, it can't change the fact that today Sensei and I went on a date, just the two of us! Seia-chan, you lost! You lost! Idiot! Idiot!!!"
"...Hehe. I figured that once you got desperate enough to resort to violence, you'd say something like that."
Murmuring softly, Seia smiled with quiet confidence before pressing the remote.
The next instant, the enormous screen displayed a chat log.
Sensei: I just wanted to invite you out.
Mika: Just you and me?
Sensei: Yeah, just the two of us.
Mika: Hahaha~
Mika: Sensei, are you saying you want to go on a date with me~? Me? With an old man like you? Hahaha~
Mika: I didn't expect you to have such a sense of humor.
Mika: But I'm not really interested in jokes that were popular ten years ago.
Mika: So please don't make jokes like that again.
I clicked my tongue in amazement. Looking back now, I could still vividly remember how dejected I'd felt six months ago, yet comparing it with how I felt now, all that remained was endless amusement.
After carefully reading every line, Nagisa cast Mika, who was still trying to escape reality, a strange look. Covering her mouth with one hand, her whole body trembled as she fought with all her strength not to burst into laughter.
As for Seia, the mastermind behind all of this, she sat there completely composed, leisurely taking a sip of tea.
Noticing how strangely we were acting, the pink-haired girl glanced suspiciously at the screen.
The moment she read it, she froze.
Without realizing it, she lowered her hands, looked at me in confusion, then suddenly seemed to think of something and hurriedly pulled out her phone, rapidly scrolling through it.
She was probably checking the chat history herself.
She quickly found her answer.
"Sigh."
With a teasing tone, Seia remarked,
"Mika, how exactly did you end up going on a date with the 'old man' in your eyes?"
"I never knew you had such a wonderful sense of humor, Mika-san."
Nagisa added with a smile.
"I... I..."
After stammering for quite some time, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes, Mika finally broke under the pressure and blurted everything out.
"I actually have a thing for older men! I've always liked Sensei's type! That's why it was love at first sight for me! I was only trying to get Sensei's attention that way! Nagi-chan! Seia-chan! Stop talking! Stop talking already!!!"
With Mika's complete mental collapse, the tea party instantly became filled with laughter and cheer.
Even I couldn't help thinking to myself.
See? I told you she'd been secretly in love with me all along. She was just playing hard to get. She admitted it herself now, didn't she? How could it be fake?
And so, everyone except Mika herself ended up with a satisfying conclusion.
The problem was precisely that.
Lost in the joy of victory, none of us noticed one simple fact.
How could the pink-haired girl, after being pushed this far, possibly swallow such humiliation?
The very next moment, my vision was filled with pink.
A familiar warm, soft sensation pressed against my lips.
By the time I heard Nagisa's and Seia's startled cries, I realized what had happened. I tried to resist, but she had me completely pinned down. I couldn't move at all and could only let her clumsily explore my lips.
Only after a long while did Mika, having decided to flip the table entirely, finally pull away.
She wiped her mouth, then flashed a triumphant grin at her two grim-faced best friends.
"Ahahahaha☆ What a shame. In the very end, victory still belongs to me!"
No.
Other than me, there were no winners in this battle.
Thank you for the meal, Misono-san.