("Oh? Sure, what is it?")

Alas, I have no social grace to lend you.

Maybe you could walk away really quick and I could mention that I want to chase after the boy I'm interested in so if they'll excuse me.

("We heard you used to study at Nada High School?")

("Whoops, what gave me away? Was it the roguish charm of Nada boys?")

But I don't know if you'd be okay aiding and abetting me in that particular scheme, and it would cause some rumours to get attached to you by proxy.

It'd be really conspicuous to anyone who knows me as unable to walk really quick. But he can gather up his stuff and leave at a sedate pace.

I am so glad that's your only objection.

(Yamada giggles way more than that deserves.)

    ("No, we heard it from a couple of boys in our bio class," says Tanaka.)

Alright, for his next trick, he is going to pay them a little bit more attention. "Damn, I am letting down the Nada legacy if I can't even be identified from a mile away."

She giggles too much again.

The next step of his trick involves looking in the direction Haru's going for a moment before "wrenching his attention back" to the conversation.

"So what was it you wanted to ask?"

"Oh, um, just—do you happen to know Kamiya Minoru?"

Glancing at the door, this time not looking back at the girls. "Mmhm? He's a junior, right?" he asks, starting to sound a bit distracted.

"Right! So you do know him?"

Finishing packing up, looking a bit antsy. "I've run into him a couple of times. We're not super close."

"Oh. It's just, you see, a friend of ours—"

Now for the punchline: "Sorry, could we take a raincheck on this?" he asks, starting to move already. "I'm trying to win a boy's heart and every moment counts."

"—uh?"

"Sorry," he repeats, "I'll catch you guys later." Off he jogs, to meet up with Haru.

"Hi again," he says once he's caught up.

The entire school will know I'm into you by half an hour from now, he informs Haru telepathically.

"Hi again." Oh no, my reputation.

"What's your next class?" he asks, like he didn't already know. Gotta keep up appearances, after all.

Watanabe-san will have a field day with it, he predicts.

She probably will. It's my own fault that practically everyone who'll talk to me is a fujoshi but it's certainly a way. "History."

"Oh, that's mine, too! Can I walk with you there?"

What, due to being out? I guess that'd make sense.