"Oh — seniors.... Sebastian, Iori? What are you all doing here?"
The door swung open with a creak, and Imamura walked in looking hopeful — only to find everyone already assembled in the room.
"Ah, Imamura. So you're the reinforcement Sebastian called for." Kotobuki said as Imamura came in, by way of greeting.
"Reinforcement? Didn't Sebastian say there was a cute high school girl here who needed big brother Imamura's help?"
Imamura looked genuinely puzzled.
"That's obviously a lie — why did you believe something like that?" Iori muttered from where he sat cross-legged on the floor.
"Wh — it was a lie?!"
Imamura immediately turned his reproachful gaze on Sebastian, who was standing to one side rubbing his face with mild awkwardness.
"There really isn't one. I didn't expect you to show up that fast from just an offhand mention."
"How could you — wuuuugh...."
Imamura, without further argument, dropped to the floor and started crying in earnest.
"This guy always cries for real. He really does feel everything right to the surface." Sebastian crouched down and gave Imamura a consolatory pat on the back.
"Come on, pull yourself together. There may be no high school girl here worshipping you, but there is a dear friend who needs your help very much right now."
"Who?"
Imamura looked up with reddened eyes.
"Me."
Sebastian pointed at himself with a proud thumbs-up.
Imamura lay on the floor for two seconds, then got up and turned to walk out.
"Wait — aren't we best friends? You said so yourselves."
Sebastian grabbed his arm.
"Let go. Someone who manipulates my pure heart doesn't deserve to exist in this world. Whatever your problem is, handle it yourself." Imamura said, still trying to pull free.
"Just calm down and hear me out. There's actually a party tonight. The one we talked about — with female university students at a mixer...."
The struggling stopped the moment Sebastian got that out.
"There are bonds between us that run deep, and I genuinely can't stand by when a friend is in trouble. I do have one question though. If there's a party tonight — why are you only calling me now?"
Imamura no longer seemed in a rush to leave. He turned a scrutinizing look on Sebastian.
"Because I ran into trouble this morning."
"Unbelievable — you two were trying to keep it all to yourselves!"
Imamura erupted, though notably without making any further moves toward the door. He dropped onto the floor.
"Fine. Tell me what you need."
So Sebastian — with Iori adding his own version alongside — gave Imamura a concise account of that morning's events and how they'd come to this point.
Sebastian's telling was, at least, reasonably balanced and objective. In Iori's version, Sebastian came across as a thoroughly irredeemable villain who had made everyone's lives worse purely for sport.
"Alright — I have a general picture of what happened. So what exactly do you want me to help with?"
Imamura, who had developed a headache listening to both versions, put up a hand to stop the two of them from coming to blows again and asked the key question.
"In short — Iori is operating on some kind of compensatory logic, and wants to redecorate my room to humiliate me in front of Nanaka the same way."
At this point Sebastian made one more earnest appeal to Iori:
"That said — things have more or less sorted themselves out. If we just walk out now, Nanaka is still in shock and probably won't try to stop us. Why are you still fixated on me?"
"I don't care — this is righteous retribution. If I don't get this out of my system, I'll be in no state to perform well at tonight's mixer." Iori said, with firm conviction.
"You are both genuinely exhausting human beings."
Imamura let out a sigh, flicked back his golden hair, and his eyes sharpened in an instant.
"But if it's just a matter of decorating a room.... Sebastian, I have to say you have genuinely good judgment. Very well — drawing on my years of experience outfitting a bachelor's space, leave this to me!"
"Ha.... It's the lesser of two evils, really. Being branded a two-dimensional shut-in is considerably better than being branded a hopeless deviant." Sebastian muttered under his breath.
And so the room's owner — Sebastian — was pushed out of his own room, receiving exactly the same treatment Iori had endured that morning.
Crouching outside the door, Sebastian rubbed his face in irritation.
"What a pain. But at least I managed to rope Imamura in. Having him there is at least somewhat reassuring...."
At that thought, the door to the main house across the courtyard swung open. Sebastian looked up to find Chisa stepping out in a red athletic jacket, hair in a ponytail.
The red jacket and ponytail suited her remarkably well. No wonder Iori found every excuse to latch onto her whenever he could.
"Morning, Chisa."
Sebastian stood up and called over to her.
".....Good morning."
Chisa's expression still carried that particular quality, but Sebastian had, at this point, begun to grow somewhat accustomed to it.
"Are you heading out, Chisa?"
"No — just tidying my room a bit, sorting things to throw out.... Have you seen Iori, by the way? He rushed off to find Sis a little while ago and now I can't find him anywhere, and Sis seems to be in a low mood."
Chisa fixed Sebastian with a suspicious stare.
"You're not all up to something, are you? I saw Imamura come over too. Tell me what's going on."
"Nothing like that — how could you even think it. Iori probably just said something to upset Nanaka by accident. That guy isn't exactly known for saying the right thing, is he? You know how he is."
Even so, Chisa didn't look entirely convinced. She studied Sebastian for another moment, then sighed.
"Something about you lot always feels like there's something being hidden.... Anyway, I've got things to do."
"Right — take care."
Sebastian maintained a full smile as he watched Chisa go.
Only once she was completely out of sight did he let out a quiet breath of relief.
"Iori — I may not be Kotobuki, but I did just cover for you. Next time you dare say anything disrespectful to me, I won't let it go so easily."
Sebastian was still thinking this over when the door to his room was pushed open from inside.
He turned — it was Imamura, coming out.
"Going to pick up some materials. I'll be back."
Imamura gave Sebastian a brief nod and jogged off on his own.
"He's actually surprisingly reliable when there's something to be done."
Sebastian muttered to himself, then looked at the open door, thought about it, and walked back inside.
It was his room, after all. He ought to at least keep an eye on what was happening in it.