Ishigami Yuu Wants to Gift (Official Short Story)

"Hey, Ishigami."

Another day at the Student Council. Iino questioned me as she peered at me from above her laptop, which looked incongruous with the old Student Council President's desk it sat upon.

"Hm? What?"

"Um... I mean..."

I'm still sitting in the same spot, and I still have to bend down a bit to reach the long table from the sofa. To be honest, this is a suboptimal working environment, so at some point I'd like to renovate this room to prioritise our work efficiency. Well, if I can get the budget for it, that is.

"Actually... never mind."

"What's with that?"

Iino's been doing this a lot recently — looking like she's about to say something, and then stopping mid-sentence, like the words are stuck between her teeth and bothering her.

"Sigh... I just can't seem to do things like ex-President Shirogane and Shinomiya-senpai did."

Iino's small frame leaned back against the backrest as those pretty words came out of her mouth, and she fidgeted about by twirling a keyring around her finger. It's something I've been seeing her do quite often.

"That's the thing that we always sell at the Culture Festival, isn't it?"

"!"

"Isn't it? There's a jewel on it right there, so..."

"You're not wrong, but... you sure do have a good memory."

"Well, I did manage the merchandise for a while. They don't look like it, but those things were expensive. The profit margins sucked, so it wasn't really a good product. It's not something I have fond memories of."

"Not something you have fond... I see..."

Iino's eyelids quickly dropped, and she glared at me with narrow eyes. You heard that right: she glared at me. However, I do know why she's doing this. That keyring was something I gave to Iino as a lost item. She's been taking great care of it, which goes to show how good she is at keeping things safe. And it's cute of her.

I already know why Iino keeps on stopping mid-sentence, and what she really wants to say. I'm not that thick-headed. I'm so confident that I'm a keen observer of people that I once used to boast that I could understand a certain percentage of what a person is thinking just by looking into their eyes.

I know what Iino is thinking now, just as I knew that Prez and Shinomiya-senpai liked each other from the very beginning, and that Tsubame-senpai saw me as nothing more than a kouhai of hers. It's usually better to pretend to not know what's going on — that's my philosophy of life.

Back in primary school, I correctly guessed that a teacher I liked was having an affair with another student's father, which caused her to have to resign from her job. Ever since then, I've tried my best to not talk about this sort of thing. When it comes to love, it's best not to poke around any more than you absolutely have to — this is something I know from first-hand experience.

Alright, let's get back to Iino. If I'm not mistaken, my relationship with Iino right now is really similar to the relationship that ex-President Shirogane and Kaguya-senpai had before they got together. This can easily change if one of us does something, I'm sure of that. I don't think it'd be a bad thing for that to happen at all. Then why don't I confess to her? The answer is very simple.

It'd be really embarrassing if I confessed to her and she rejected me.

Relationships can change very easily, whether it's for the better or for the worse; of course, it's not like there isn't a part of me that's dragging a broken heart around, or that it doesn't feel uncomfortable that it looks like I'm switching who I like — but that's the main reason. I've been saying that I'm a keen observer of people, but if I just go for it and something unexpected happens, I'd be completely blindsided. It's also a fact that the plans I make often go awry. Things never work out quite the way I imagine them to. It's embarrassing. It's frustrating. It's scary. I don't even want to imagine it happening again.

It became obvious that the more serious I get about Iino, the bigger the shock I would receive if she rejected me. I can't not look for an opportunity; the perfect timing where I couldn't possibly miss. Is there a good way to confess to somebody where they'll kind of inadvertently agree to go out with you even if they don't like you, I wonder.

I went and asked Tanuma-senpai if anything like that existed, and he told me about something called a "kabe-daan". Isn't that just a kabe-don, I thought. If he thinks that actually works, he must be in the same range of stupidity as Fujiwara-senpai. And Tsundere-senpai's off her head for having liked him, too.

Anyway, what I need is an opportunity. It goes without saying that timing is everything in love. However, the Culture Festival's already passed, and Christmas, the new year, Valentine's, and my birthday have all passed without anything happening at all. All that's left this semester is basically just the graduation ceremony. These kinds of events have "perfect timings" built into them.

"Is there an event or something that's going to be happening..."

"Hm? What is it? Wanna go on a date with me?"

"Why is that?"

"'Cause I wanna go on a date with you, senpai."

Iino glares at us bitterly.

It's not that I've hit my popular phase after becoming the Student Council's vice-president. The woman who dares to take it upon herself to drop lines that could so easily be misunderstood by a boy is none other than Shuchiin's first-class bitch, Secretary Tono.

"I mean, just calm down and look at me. There aren't that many women out there who are as cute, easy, and discreet as I am, are there? Didn't think so. I'm very tight-lipped despite how I look, you know. I'm a great partner to have fun with, don't you think?"

She lifted her skirt up with her ring fingers as she spoke — a perfect image of the type of slut that otakus love. However, she's the type of bitch who bursts into laughter at a virgin while pointing at them, so I suppose only the most mentally tough of otaku would be able to get with her.

"C'mere, don't you wanna scratch the bottom of my chin? You like this kind of thing, don't you, senpai? You're the type of guy who wants to pamper a girl like she's your pet, aren't you?"

Iino looked down at her phone. Seems like she's decided to just completely shut Tono out from her line of sight. Smart choice. I'd do the same if I could, but doing so would only make things worse.

Tono Mitama. This woman is a great criminal who has rampaged through Shuchiin believing that "the value of a woman is the number of times she has been confessed to" — a mistaken belief, no matter how you look at it. On her rampage, she seduced and bewitched a great number of male students. Her poor morals ended up making her fall foul of Iino, who was already the Student Council president by then. After a great deal of hassle where even Shuchiin's VIPs were dragged into the mess, Tono was forcibly made to join the Student Council by the school clubs' firm request, under the pretence that "the Student Council will monitor Tono". For more information on the many battles that took place, please refer to the Mass Media Club's archive of articles on the "Tono Imprisonment Case".

"Well, nevertheless, senpai, I really do think you should get into a relationship. They say that the regret of not being able to get into a relationship during your school years will last forever. If you become an adult with this regret hanging over you, you might turn into a terrible person who gets addicted to becoming a sugar daddy, judges people by their age, and presses their elbows onto young girls on the Saikyo Line. I don't want that to happen to you, senpai. Understood?"

"Stop it with that stereotype already. I'll have you know that most high schoolers graduate without ever having been in a relationship. Firstly, in this country of Japan where the future is bleak, about two-fifths of men in their twenties have never dated a member of the opposite sex and have no plans to do so, either. It's said that about 23% of people die single and without children, which means there's a faction of people who are like me, which in turn means that I'm not the one who's weird."

"You're mansplaining using numbers again... Dishing out a counterargument like that isn't always the right thing to do. It made me feel like not wanting to get married to you, you know."

Tono went back to her paperwork sighing and shrugging her shoulders in disappointment. Seems like she's finished messing with her senpai. If she doesn't regularly mess with a boy like this to blow off steam, eventually she'll explode from pent-up stress and cause another big incident by seducing some other guy again.

This being Tono venting is why Iino hasn't spoken up and complained about what she was doing. I think Iino understands that these "make-boys-misunderstand-me" moves are something that she does every day, and that doing this prevents her from going off the rails. However, the more she vents her warped desires on me, the more I find myself being able to hold myself back to the point where it's getting ridiculous. It's become really obvious that I'd get myself into deep trouble if I ever let myself get carried away by a moment's horniness; it's as if I'm being shown exactly how scary a relationship with the opposite sex can be. Anyway, because of Tono, I've been running out of energy to deal with girls, and it's one of the reasons why I haven't been able to make any progress with Iino.

Tono isn't really that bad of a person, however. She just has an extreme dependency on men and a distorted sense of self-esteem; at heart, she's a diligent girl who cares about her friends.

In any case, she's but one example. The current student council's a rather interesting group of people, another of which is the treasurer, Takano Taikoku, who's a first-year here on scholarship.

Iino and I got to know him back when we saw him at the school entrance, his shoes having been hidden by somebody else. Similarly to Prez, he's here on scholarship, so I guessed that the people around him may have been jealous of him. He probably can't fit in very well with his surroundings, I thought... so I decided to be nice to him, and that's where my luck ended.

Turns out that he's a "one-upping asshole" who likes to flex on people with all his might once he realises that he can one-up somebody at literally anything. He flexes his test scores on people, and even uses "being able to flex on other people" as motivation to study harder. He's quite a piece of work whose only joy in life is one-upping other people. Of course he'd get hated. Serves him right, in fact.

He doesn't flex on Iino and I, however. I guess he feels indebted to us as we helped to settle things down a bit. It's kinda cute of him, in that sense. Nevertheless, his flexing is now directed at the members of the Student Council in the same year as he is, meaning that he's one-upping Tono and Kogane at every possible opportunity. I can but only say that I look forward to his future development.

Finally, there's Kanegae Kogane. She's a really difficult person to handle. She's the daughter of the Kanegae group, one of the Big Four zaibatsu along with Shinomiya and Shijo, and identifies both as male and genderqueer. She's quite thick-headed to the point of almost being held back a year, and has a habit of telling lies. She's also a member of that accursed Tabletop Gaming club. And she has 760k subscribers on TikTok. She's got way too many aspects to her, like she's come to fight by sheer quantity.

And those are just aspects of her that I know of, too — there are probably a lot more if you dug deeper. Let sleeping dogs lie, however; she's a person whom you definitely do not want to dig deeper into.

That's how the Student Council is like right now: a nest of problem children. It's perceived by some as a support facility for social rehabilitation, and Iino and I are respected for our admirable efforts in struggling to take care of them. I really didn't want to be respected in this way.

Nevertheless, all of them are highly skilled individuals. They're very effective in carrying out student council work, so it's hard to say that we're outright taking care of them. Tono is, of course, good at getting information from the opposite sex, and has excelled as an intelligence officer.

Taikoku has by far the best base specs that one could hope for, and is fully capable of supporting Iino and I in our work. I don't know about Kanegae, though; she's beyond human comprehension. She always solves problems with some weird trick she has up her sleeve that nobody can reproduce, and her solutions always cause a plethora of ridiculous side effects, so I tend to avoid relying on her as much as possible.

Having to manage so many problem children makes my stomach ache, and I sometimes feel like throwing everything away, but when I remember that this is probably exactly how President Shirogane and Shinomiya-senpai felt when they had to deal with Iino and I (as well as Fujiwara-senpai), it makes me feel like I should continue trying somehow.

"A graduation party!"

The way the door was slammed open was reminiscent of Fujiwara-senpai, but it was one of the new problem children who emerged forthwith. Speak of the devil: our Student Council's new financial auditor, Kanegae Kogane.

"Over in the US, they have these things called proms, which we don't have here in Japan. Like, even if we do have them, we call them 'thank-you parties' and everybody stands around eating supermarket candy washed down with orange juice. It's all very lame. Is this okay? It's not okay."

"There you go with your incomprehensible statements again. Do you even know what a prom is in the first place? Well, unlike you guys, I would know since I used to live in the US."

Taikoku flexed on Kanegae as he appeared from behind her.

"Iino and I don't know anything about how a prom works, either."

"Well, sorry for not having lived in the US before..."

Iino's cold gaze pierced through Taikoku. He responds with a vague gesture that makes it hard to tell whether he's apologising for what he said or not.

"Sorry about that... I didn't mean to include the two of you in that statement... I was just afraid that Kanegae would say something incomprehensible again and make me have more work to do, so I tried to forestall that."

"A prom? I wanna hold one, it sounds kinda sexy!"

"I want to do a prom in a wholesome way, though. Knowing you, Tama-chan, you'll have us all play party games if we leave it to you, so no."

"But party games are fun..."

Iino calmed herself down by pinching the bridge of her nose as she listened to the first years argue back and forth. She's grown a lot, hasn't she. A while ago, she would've been tearing into them without question right about now.

"So we're talking about a party to which graduates are invited to celebrate their graduation... is that correct?"

"Yep!"

"There's only about a week until the graduation ceremony. Do we even have enough time to plan everything before then?

"Well... that's where you come in, Ishigami-senpai."

"This again..."

"...A graduation party, huh?"

Yoshino cherry trees usually bloom from late March to early April. Unless the cherry blossom front is moving more slowly than usual, or the temperature is affected by global warming, the cherry blossoms at Shuchiin Gakuen High School, located in Minato Ward, Tokyo, usually bloom around the time of the entrance ceremony. People picture graduation ceremonies with cherry blossoms, but they're actually usually held under a cold, empty sky. It makes for a lonely scene.

I was reminiscing about last year's graduation ceremony, where I saw off my crush, Koyasu Tsubame. I confessed to her under a Taiwan cherry tree, the cherry tree that never withers, and my love for her scattered along with it. I'm not sure if the word "scattered" here is accurate, though; other people may see it differently.

Becoming lovers with Tsubame-senpai was almost definitely not my biggest wish back then. There are things that I can finally see a year later, having grown up a bit. Back then, I was getting impatient as Tsubame-senpai was about to graduate. By confessing to her and making her enter the "contract" of a romantic relationship, I thought I would be able to force our relationship to continue past her graduation. I can look back now and see how strong those feelings of mine were. And by confessing to her, I turned myself away from one of my own beliefs, that one should find love upon a foundation of mutual liking. I pretended not to see it. I closed my eyes.

I liked her.

I wanted to become lovers with her.

That much is undoubtedly true.

But the means and the end were the wrong way around.

I chose to confess to her as means to buy time to understand her and to relate to her better. On second thought, her means of dealing with me were fulfilling my wishes. She dealt with me in all sincerity.

I'm still friends with Tsubame-senpai these days — my wish has been fulfilled. It'd be unfair to wish for more than that, wouldn't it. Only a fool would drag things out and not know when to let go of their regrets, though I suppose it would be fair to call me a fool for having dragged this out for nearly a year already. I look exactly like the petals of a Taiwan cherry tree, the cherry tree that never withers — blooming and blooming, not knowing when to let go, and then turning black and withering away, looking just like me right after I got rejected by Tsubame-senpai.

I would have rather scattered like the petals of a Yoshino cherry tree instead; that would have fit the atmosphere of a graduation better. When put like this, a graduation party doesn't seem like such a bad idea.

"It's fine then, isn't it? I'm all for a grand send-off."

"Wha...?"

"We're very much indebted to Shinomiya-senpai and Fujiwara-senpai. Don't you think it's a good idea if our Student Council were responsible for sending them off?"

"...Well, I guess you're right about that."

"Then that's decided! Let's do it!!"

The planning for the graduation party proceeded quickly. I kept complaining about the plans until they were greatly simplified. Tono was shouting that "this isn't a prom at all", but pressure from her senpais managed to shut her up. At any rate, we've had the whole "boy-girl pair" thing once already with the French school, and we were fed up with it. Like I'd do an event that requires so much time and care again. I'd rather do something simpler.

After some discussion, it was agreed that the format should be a bit like an after-party at a small wedding. If we make the party too big, there'll be more work to do, like submitting applications to the school. We were aiming for holding the largest party we could without letting the school or parents know.

We decided on announcing the party in advance. By my request, we only gave invitations out to those who wished to attend, as I knew that there would be some people who wouldn't want to come. Forcing introverts to join a party they don't want to attend would be nothing but agony for them, and not insisting on having a party with everyone present would mean that we wouldn't need to rent a ridiculously expensive hotel ballroom. It'd be more satisfying to hold the party in a reasonably large venue with a smaller number of people.

In this case, it would be fine if we just rent a restaurant and do a bit of decorating. Well, to be honest, the main reason behind this is that I really don't want to think about setting up the venue and tidying it up afterwards. Obviously, we'll also charge an entrance fee. The student council has a limited budget, even if it's for the graduates.

Not sure if I'd say I'm impressed or not, but Tono did everything from choosing the restaurant, booking the venue and arranging the decorations without a hitch; meanwhile, Taikoku got the invitations out while flying under the radar of the teachers. It helps to have a smart guy on board to move things along faster. Kanegae was given the responsibility of designing the invitations. It's best to let the Fujiwara-types do the simplest tasks.

Iino and I were having a nice time slacking off after giving out instructions to the others. After all, an organisation that reaps benefits even if the top management doesn't do anything is an excellent organisation.

In our defence, though, we've been working our way through reams of other paperwork that's been stacking up in the meantime. Or at least Iino has.

Our work was winding down, and the sky was beginning to darken in the west. The newcomers went home while Iino and I finished up the remaining work. This is how our student council is usually like. I wonder how this graduation party would have turned out if it were Prez's student council planning it. I suppose it would have turned out differently from ours. I think.

"Hey, Ishigami."

Iino asks a familiar question.

"It's finally going to happen, isn't it?"

"Mhm."

Iino's been looking like she's feeling disappointed by something a lot recently, but right now she looks considerably listless — just like back then.

"President Shirogane isn't coming back, is he?"

"I dunno, maybe? He's the type of guy who likes to surprise people. I've been assuming that he'll just show up like he was always supposed to be there."

"Pfft, that does seem like something he'd do. Then I guess we'd better be prepared for that, too."

"Yep."

It's been half a year since Prez left for the States. My life's changed a lot. Back then, I thought that Prez was the only person I could call a friend of mine, but I've gotten to know more people that I can call friends, like the Sports Festival gang, the people I met preparing for the Culture Festival, and others in the same class as I am...

Aah, is this what it feels like when somebody important to you leaves?

Even if there's a gaping hole in your heart, the world still continues to spin on its axis, and life proceeds as if nothing has happened at all. Well, when Tsubame-senpai graduated, my heart was so broken that I couldn't feel anything else, but I did feel quite lonely after Prez left. This is probably exactly how I'll feel about Shinomiya-senpai and Fujiwara-senpai leaving, too. Although I must say that I really can't stand feeling like that about Fujiwara-senpai, because, well, y'know.

"Can't imagine Fujiwara-senpai not being here. I might actually cry."

"It's quite the feeling when a noisy person disappears."

"I heard that there's a piano where we're having the party. I wanna play a duet with her or something, it's been a while."

"Dunno how you still manage to continue respecting her like that, but good for you."

"Well... I've seen how she's actually like. But I still think that she's somebody worth respecting. I don't know if you'd get what I'm saying," Iino said bashfully, "but Fujiwara-senpai's everybody's heroine."

"...Hmph."

It pisses me off to admit it, but well. It's the truth, I suppose.

"And I'm so terribly indebted to Shinomiya-senpai as well."

"Really? I'd have thought you were doing surprisingly well."

"I think she's particularly strict towards me. Sometimes she says some really scary things like it's nothing, and she looks at me with faces that she never shows anybody else..."

"Well, she can be scary when she wants to..."

"I really was very scared. But I think that's because I was trying to become the Student Council president. In fact, now that I think about it, I lacked so much back then. I was just trying to impose what I thought was right on other people, like, I was kind of childish. That's why I think Shinomiya-senpai chose to show me how underhanded she can be — the power to protect this Student Council, this school, even if it's underhanded."

Trying to impose what you thought was right on other people, huh. That hits way too close to home.

"It's better to have more ways to accomplish a given task. Running out of cards to play is usually the worst possible scenario you can face in any given game, so it's better to always have some cards in your hand even if they're bad ones, and try to play the good ones when you can. Idealism isn't enough to make the world go round, after all."

"True that."

Being devoted to justice is easy; all you have to do is believe. It's actually doing it that's the hard part. That's the whole point, isn't it? This, too, hits way too close to home.

"I'm also terribly indebted to Shinomiya-senpai."

"She looked after you a lot when you were studying, didn't she?"

"Aah..."

She was very strict with me back when my exam results were in tatters and I was on the verge of being held back a year. For the first time in my life, I tried my best, and when I didn't get the results I wanted, she was there to console me, and pushed me to do even better.

The first time I got my name into the top ranks, Shinomiya-senpai cried for me. I wonder if Prez knows that she's one to actually cry like that. I really wish he could've been there to see that before he went to the US.

"Hey, did you know that it was Shinomiya-senpai who suggested that you should join the Student Council?"

"That's the first time I've heard that."

"Prez told me about it before he went to the US. Apparently, Shinomiya-senpai was the first to notice you after what happened back in junior high."

"..."

"She was testing Prez, it seems; apparently she was trying to see how he'd react, and see what kind of person Prez was from that. Shinomiya-senpai does have a habit of testing other people."

"Really? I don't think she's ever done that to me."

"Isn't that because you'd already passed her test by then?"

"I don't exactly remember doing anything to pass a test of hers."

"You don't get it, do you. Shinomiya-senpai may be a difficult and scary person, but she loves justice for what it is."

"..."

"It wasn't the right way to do so by any means, but you saved Ootomo-san. You struggled and struggled, and as a result, saved her, enough to make Shinomiya-senpai think you were cute for that."

It's hard to think that anybody would think good of me due to an incident that I've been desperately trying to bury, but if that's the case... I'll never ask Shinomiya-senpai if that's what she actually thinks, but if that's the case, that incident ended up saving me a little.

"That's why she went and sounded Prez out on the idea, like 'Why not invite Ishigami Yuu to join the Student Council?' and stuff."

"..."

"She's helped us out a lot, hasn't she."

"...Mhm."

I just didn't notice that I'd been saved by the people around me. It wasn't just Shinomiya-senpai and Prez, either. Fujiwara-senpai probably also helped save me, and Tsubame-senpai, and others whose names I don't even know — they all supported me, and allowed me to be where I am right now.

"Well, guess it's our turn next."

"...Yep."

"That reminds me, have you ordered the flowers for the graduation ceremony yet?"

"Mhm, they're in our flower shop right now."

"Our? Does your family run a flower shop?"

"Well, it's my mum's shop... oh, and don't worry. I'm just keeping the flowers there. I'm not gonna do something like commit collusion by ordering flowers for a school event from my parents."

"That's not what I..."

"That actually happened a few years ago, I think. Back when Prez was the financial auditor, the ex-ex-President got dismissed for doing that, causing Ryuju-senpai to go on a rampage, which led to a lot of trouble, and..."

"Tell me about that later, okay... do you know a lot about flowers, Ishigami?"

"Well, I guess I was the one who chose the flower for this year's lapel badge. They're called 'Silk Road' camellias, which are actually hybrids of what we call 'Karanishiki' camellias. Their petals are shaped like pink hearts... and the name 'Silk Road' is nice, too; they're perfectly suited for hanamichi and the like, and..."

"...sutera"

"Hm?"

"Do you know about this type of flower called a sutera?"

The sun began to set behind the horizon formed by the surrounding buildings, colouring Iino's eyes orange.

A few days later, when the graduation ceremony was just around the corner, I received a phone call from Shinomiya-senpai.

"And yeah, Prez is already in Japan, you know."

"I knew it!"

Shinomiya-senpai's voice sounded lively. The pitch of her voice definitely goes up a notch when Prez is being talked about.

"Think he's planning to surprise us by suddenly showing up at the graduation ceremony."

"That seems like something he'd do. He does love to surprise people."

I couldn't help but laugh at how accurate my prediction was. I never thought that what I talked about with Iino would come true.

"That's why I want us to give him a surprise as well."

"Us?"

"Yep, like a reverse surprise."

"Ah..."

Shinomiya-senpai enjoys surprising other people as well. I wonder how many people at school knows that the daughter of the Shinomiya family has a surprisingly mischievous side to her.

"This is where I need your wisdom, Ishigami-kun. What should we do to make Prez so surprised his legs give out?"

"I don't think we should be going for his legs here, but... hmm, I suppose..."

That's when I remembered what I'd told Iino about the Silk Road camellia.

"Let's make the cherry blossoms bloom."

"Cherry blossoms?"

"We're using actual flowers for this year's lapel badges, and their petals are pink and heart-shaped — just like cherry blossom petals."

"...Mhm, I see."

I could almost hear the corners of Shinomiya-senpai's mouth turn upwards through the phone.

"So if we take the flowers apart, and get lots of people to create a blizzard of flower petals—"

"It'll become a cherry blossom blizzard that'll send off the graduates! That sounds brilliant, let's do that!"

Some creaking sounds crept in. It'd be better for her not to flail about on her bed, but I'm glad she seems to like like it.

"I've always wanted to do something for him in return for what he did with the heart balloons a while back. Heart-shaped petals. Sounds good! This will probably make even Prez's legs give out and make him fall even deeper in love with me! He might even propose to me on the spot!"

I wonder how many people at school knows that the daughter of the Shinomiya family is such a jokester. Putting aside the fact that this young lady seems determined to keep the credit for this idea to herself, it's about time for the third-years to graduate.

Let's celebrate everybody's graduation as magnificently as we can. And after that, the graduation party. I guess it'd be a good opportunity for me to join in the fun as well. This is the actual reason why I kept complaining about the plans the first-years came up with — I just wanted to have fun with everybody. It's fine, isn't it? It's become tradition to use the Student Council for your own purposes. And I think I'm Prez's best friend, anyway.

Oh, right. Iino asked me about the sutera, but I was able to dodge her questions. She looked dissatisfied, but oh well. You need the "perfect timing" for this sort of thing. There exists a perfect timing where they'll always say yes if you ask them out, even if they think nothing of you. And in that one ultra-romantic, dramatic moment with Iino—

I think I'll tell her about my favourite flower.