She was fixing up her makeup in the makeup room, brightening and shading areas around her eye and mouth to accentuate her expressions.

“You’re thinking of him, aren’t you?”

She stopped fixing her makeup and looked sideways. She could see her friend grinning at her ear to ear. She tried to say “what?” at the girl innocently, but her tongue betrayed her intent.

“W-what?”

“See? You’re being suspicious. Be honest with me here. You met him before, haven’t you?”

“No, I haven’t. That was my first time seeing him.”

“Boo, liar. So this is your second meeting, and he just confessed right there and then?”

“That wasn’t a confession!”

“That’s a confession no matter how you look at it.”

The other club members came over to check out what the noise was all about. There were even second and third years in the mix.

“What the, what the. Did someone confess to you?”

“By who?”

“Senior, please!”

This is the time to stop the talk, not keep it going like this! She raised her voice a little, but all that it accomplished was to widen everyone’s grin.

“See? That isn’t very like you, getting agitated like that. Which means...”

“There’s something really there, huh? Hohoho.”

Cats. She was...