Before coming to school, Daiki's mind was still processing yesterday's ordeal. After thinking about it for a short while, he planned to keep it a secret and act normally. Not only did he not want Saki and Yume to learn about his private matter, he also didn't want to reveal anything about Kenji—mainly due to his newfound respect for him.
And of course, if Saki were to learn about Kenji's crush, she might crush Kenji with hate speeches. As much as Daiki wanted to deny it, technically, this confirmed that Kenji was doing everything for himself, at least at the start.
This was true. At first, Kenji was only doing his job for himself since Saki was his crush. But now, it seemed that part had slowly changed. Daiki realized that, but of course, Saki wouldn't accept it so easily.
So Daiki's plan was to 'act as normal as he always did.'
It failed spectacularly.
◆◇◆
Ever since Kenji appeared, he had been in Saki's mind as the most hated person she knew. Some part of her everyday had to be spent on hating and mocking him along with Yume and Daiki.
Speaking of Daiki, Saki knew he was having some personal problems. But since he didn't want to tell them, she and Yume were waiting to see if everything returned to normal before acting. This morning, it seemed like it had for a while, only for a bigger problem to appear.
Daiki was tamed.
In the morning, Saki met Daiki and Yume on the way to school, and after walking around for a while, they approached the school gates. Daiki was back to his normal mood, so it seemed everything was resolved. Hence, Saki didn't ask anything about it. On the way, she voiced her usual hatred for Kenji.
"That bastard will be there again. Ugh."
Hearing this, Yume replied, "Way to ruin the mood."
What was unexpected, though, was that there was no reply from Daiki.
Daiki wasn't like this. Unless it was a matter that he absolutely didn't want to talk about, he would always add something, even if it was useless commentary. Usually, he'd join in with his own complaints about Kenji or add some sarcastic remark.
'That's weird,' Saki thought, glancing at Daiki's unusually quiet face.
It was just the first suspicious moment.
◆◇◆
The second thing happened during lunch when Yume took out some chocolate sticks from her bag that looked almost like cigarettes. They were perfectly shaped to mimic the real thing—thin, white, with brown tips.
"Let's fuck with him!" she said with a sly smile, to which Saki nodded enthusiastically.
'This'll be good,' Saki thought. 'Let's see how the rule-obsessed bastard reacts to fake cigarettes.'
Daiki, however, seemed nervous. His usual eager grin was replaced by an uncomfortable expression, and he kept glancing around anxiously.
"What happened to you?" Saki asked, her suspicion growing.
"Nothing?" Daiki replied with a fake 'confused' tone that fooled no one.
"Then why aren't you taking one?" Yume asked as she pulled out a chocolate stick from her packet and held it out to him.
"I'm not in the mood," Daiki replied, pushing her hand away gently.
'Not in the mood? Since when does Daiki pass up a chance to mess with that bastard?' Saki's eyes narrowed as she studied her friend's face.
Saki was getting too suspicious of Daiki, but before she could probe any further, a familiar voice was heard from beside her.
"It's still against the rules if it looks like smoking. Please use common sense," Kenji said suddenly with his cool and indifferent voice. He was standing close enough to their group that to others, it almost looked like he was part of their conversation.
"Fuck, he knew!" Yume said, quickly trying to hide the chocolate.
Saki didn't say anything, sticking to her silent treatment plan. But inside, she was seething. 'Of course this control freak would know. Probably been watching us the whole time.'
After waiting for a second, Yume reluctantly handed the chocolate sticks packet to Kenji, expecting the usual lecture and confiscation.
He, however, just looked at it for a second before saying, "It's just a small mistake. You don't need to worry about it. Finish these if you want, but refrain from buying them again."
Then Kenji held the packet in front of Saki and handed it back to her.
To Saki, it felt like mockery disguised as mercy. Her hands clenched into fists as rage built up inside her. 'Who does he think he is? Acting all high and mighty, like he's doing us some fucking favor!'
'Saki probably misunderstood that, you love-blind idiot,' Daiki thought, recognizing the kindness in Kenji's gesture that Saki couldn't see. Without thinking, he nodded just a little to Kenji with a faint smile of gratitude.
Kenji nodded back briefly before turning around and walking away.
Daiki thought he'd done it discreetly enough.
He hadn't.
Saki saw everything.
The small nod. The grateful smile. The mutual understanding that passed between them in that brief moment.
It was the nail in the coffin.
Just as she'd always feared, just as she knew Kenji had planned to do, the thing she'd been most scared of—Daiki was tamed by Nakayama Kenji.
She was brimming with anger, but she couldn't let it out. Not yet. She needed to confirm everything first, to be absolutely sure before she acted.
It wasn't like the old days when she could do whatever she wanted wherever she wanted—and that was also because of him.
Saki controlled herself for now and let it play out. But throughout the rest of the day, it became even clearer that she was right.
◆◇◆
Though Saki hated to admit it, her scores had indeed improved after the classes with Kenji, same with Daiki and Yume. So they had unconsciously started behaving a little better during those sessions—another reason being Ayaka's intimidating presence whenever she dropped by.
Today, though, Daiki was too obedient. He actually raised his hand to ask questions (to which even Kenji was confused for, as he was literally in front of him a few times), completed his worksheets without complaining, and even went as far as to address Kenji as "Nakayama-san" instead of his usual creative insults.
Even Yume had noticed by now. She kept shooting questioning glances at Daiki throughout their study session, but he avoided eye contact with both her and Saki.
'This is not normal,' Saki thought as she watched Daiki politely thank Kenji for explaining a math problem. 'The old Daiki would've called him a show-off nerd and pretended not to understand just to be difficult.'
But this version of Daiki was... cooperative. Respectful, even.
It made Saki's stomach turn.
◆◇◆
Just as they left school together, Saki's patience finally snapped. She cornered Daiki along with Yume, then grabbed his collar before demanding,
"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO YOU?!"
Daiki was genuinely surprised. It took him a few seconds to realize what Saki even meant—he thought he'd acted perfectly normal after all. Maybe Saki was just too observant for her own good.
"W-What do you m-mean by that?" he said, trying not to look straight at Saki and Yume.
"Don't give us that bullshit. You already know what I mean," Saki said, and Yume nodded in agreement.
Hearing that, Daiki just shook his head rapidly before saying, "I have zero fucking clue what you're talking about!"
Although it was clear he was lying, Yume sighed and said, "We're talking about your behavior around that nerd."
Just as Yume finished, there was a moment of silence in the group. Daiki knew he was somehow caught, but he couldn't figure out exactly what had given him away.
"You know first term finals are coming up... I was just worried about that," Daiki said, grasping for any believable excuse.
"Bullshit!" Saki retorted immediately.
"It really is true!" Daiki shot back, knowing that all he could do now was stick to this lie, even if it was clearly transparent.
After the same back-and-forth for a few more seconds, Saki just clicked her tongue before saying, "Whatever," and letting Daiki go. Yume just sighed in frustration.
After walking in tense silence for a while, Daiki parted ways with Saki and Yume, practically fleeing from their suspicious stares.
◆◇◆
After Daiki hurried away, Saki turned to Yume with fire in her eyes.
"Something happened between that bastard and Daiki."
"Yeah. Probably yesterday after school," Yume agreed, crossing her arms.
"What do you think that bastard did?"
"Hmm... Either he blackmailed Daiki, or he saved him like he saved us that one time. Knowing how he operates, it was probably the latter."
Hearing this, Saki clicked her tongue again. She didn't want to be reminded of that whole ordeal when those college guys had cornered them.
"So this was his plan all along! He started with Daiki because he's the dumbest!" Saki screamed, her voice echoing off the nearby buildings.
"Yeah, probably," Yume agreed grimly.
"UGH, WHAT DO I DO?! I CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING!" Saki screamed while putting both hands on her head and clenching her teeth in frustration.
"For now, all we can do is watch and wait," Yume replied while looking up at the darkening sky.
Then Saki spent the entire walk home cursing Kenji with every colorful word she could think of, until Yume also parted ways with her.
◆◇◆
The next day, although her anger had cooled slightly from yesterday's peak, she was still bubbling with rage just beneath the surface. She was almost planning to confront Kenji directly and demand answers about what he'd done to Daiki.
That was, until she heard something about Kenji.