Chapter 521 - Meanwhile: Part 1
"—...Um... what's up with that?"
"She's sulking because she wasn't invited on the trip."
"Ah..."
"I am NOT sulking!!!!"
First thing in the morning after a rare all-nighter. An unusually urgent summons had brought him to the assembly hall, where he found one of his seniors with her face squashed against the Round Table, her expression transparently sullen.
When Tetra, not even bothering to hide his own extremely annoyed face in this extremely annoying atmosphere, asked the question, he received a concise answer from the composed partner sitting beside the presumed time bomb.
Then, a near-instantaneous denial flew at him the second he understood.
Judging by the way she was puffing and squishing her cheeks, her words carried absolutely no persuasive power.
"How rude. Who said I'm sulking? Who? Me? Not at all. Irorin and Onii-san just up and left on a trip without saying a word? And Gossan only left a super casual one-liner saying 'Be right back'? And that was in a message left on the morning of? Not that I'm irritated or angry or sulking at aaaaaall, you know?"
"You're totally furious..."
And so it was. She apparently had no intention of even pretending. In other words, she was in full-blown 'I'm not amused, so pay attention to me' mode.
Again, extremely annoying. This was a soul-crushingly tedious situation, even without having pulled an all-nighter.
"...I don't really know the details, but isn't this an annual thing? If you wanted to go, you should have just told Irori-senpai ahead of time—"
"Don't say that."
"Haaah?! Why do I have to be the one to go to Irorin and coo, 'Take me with youuu♡'? The guy should be the one to invite me! The guy!!"
The red-haired girl slammed her fists on the Round Table. Bang, bang, bang.
"Totally enraged..."
Besides, when it came right down to it...
"Even if you were invited, could you guys even go?"
These two—Mi-na and Ri-na, the Eastern Wings—might be enjoying their freedom in the virtual world, but could they clear their schedules in the real world?
When he voiced this simple question, Ri-na, as expected, gave a small nod.
"No. Two days is our absolute max, including travel."
"And leaving partway through would be so pathetic, I'd absolutely refuse!!"
"Then it's impossible. Just give it up already."
His mental fortitude was being ground down by her energetic voice, which followed the quiet one, making it impossible to tell if she was angry or just exasperated.
Seriously, this was more piercing than the morning sun after an all-nighter. Could he log out now?
"What's with that, Teto-kun? You're so cold! Your cute, cute senpai is so heartbroken, you could at least console me with a little more care and devotion!!"
"So you are heartbroken, you are sulking. Just call him every night and have him apologize and comfort you himself."
"She already did that yesterday."
"Ah... right... Wait, how do you know that, Ri-na-senpai?"
"Because the complaint mail came to me."
"For the normally considerate Irori-senpai to send a complaint, just how much did you rage at him over the phone...?"
He really couldn't deal with this anymore. She was pretending to be angry... well, she probably was angry, but to find out she'd already had her little flirty fight with him was just too much.
"I just pulled an all-nighter. Can I go to sleep now?"
"Yeah. You can just leave her."
"Hey! Teto-kun, you got left behind too, be nice to me!"
"Don't lump me in with the 'left behind' group. I wouldn't go even if I was invited."
Ignoring her desperate 'pay attention to me' aura, he got permission from one of them and immediately started tapping on his system window to initiate the logout sequence.
"Jeez... This is why guys, younger or older, are so..."
"Good night."
His send-off consisted of one particularly sulky voice and one dispassionate one.
It wasn't that he minded keeping his senpai company while she vented, nor was he against killing time aimlessly—
"See ya. Good work."
—but he'd really appreciate it if they could do it after he'd had some sleep.
Pouty-faced, squishy-cheeked Mi-na-chan.