Chapter 12
For a while, the arcade gave Maya exactly what she needed.
Noise.
Lights.
A ridiculous penguin plush with eyes so silly it looked permanently offended by life.
She hugged it against her chest while walking beside Kiyotaka, still smiling from the claw machine victory that technically belonged to him but emotionally belonged to her.
The arcade behind them kept ringing with bright music and cheap victory sounds, the kind of cheerful chaos that made heartbreak feel far away for a few minutes.
Kiyotaka glanced at the penguin again.
Maya narrowed her eyes. "You're judging him."
"I'm evaluating him."
"He's a penguin."
"He has the expression of someone who knows several crimes and refuses to testify."
Maya laughed, hugging the plush tighter. "You're just jealous because he's cute."
"He looks suspicious."
"That's part of his charm."
Kiyotaka's smile curved. "So you admit he has criminal charm."
"I admit nothing."
She stepped out of the arcade with him, still laughing.
And then the laughter stopped.
Haruto Kisaragi was walking through the mall corridor with his arm resting over another girl's shoulders.
Not casually. Not innocently. Not in any way that could be explained with the lazy sentence he had thrown at Maya before, the one about the girl in the photo being "just a friend."
This was not a picture on a phone.
This was real.
Haruto's hand rested comfortably around the girl as she leaned into him, smiling like she had never needed to ask whether she mattered. When he looked up, his eyes met Maya's.
The corridor narrowed.
Maya felt the penguin plush bend under her fingers.
For one horrible second, nobody spoke.
Haruto's expression changed first. Guilt flashed, quick and ugly, before irritation covered it. The girl beside him looked from Haruto to Maya, then smiled with the slow delight of someone realizing she had become the winning side of someone else's pain.
"Oh," the girl said softly. "So that's Maya?"
Maya moved before her mind caught up.
She rushed forward, tears already burning her eyes, and swung the penguin plush into Haruto's chest.
The sound was soft and pathetic.
The betrayal was not.
"You said she was just a friend!" Maya cried, hitting him again with the plush. "You said I was overthinking!"
Haruto grabbed the penguin before she could swing it a third time, his face twisting with embarrassment rather than guilt.
"Stop it. You're making a scene."
Maya tried pulling the plush back, shaking. "I'm making a scene? You're walking around with her like this and I'm the embarrassing one?"
The girl giggled from behind him. "She really does act like a child."
Maya's head snapped toward her, anger cutting through the tears for a second. She stepped forward, but Haruto immediately moved in front of the other girl.
He protected her.
That tiny movement destroyed Maya more than the cheating itself.
Maya stared at him, voice breaking. "You're protecting her from me?"
Haruto's eyes hardened. "Because you're acting crazy."
The penguin slipped slightly in Maya's grip, one flipper bent from the struggle. "Why?" she asked, her voice turning small in a way that made even the students nearby go quiet. "Why did you do this?"
Haruto looked away, then exhaled as if her heartbreak was a troublesome chore he had delayed for too long.
"I found someone less boring."
Maya's face went blank.
The girl smiled and leaned closer to him.
Haruto continued, and every word sounded cleaner than it deserved. "She's more mature, more beautiful, and she doesn't turn every little thing into a romance drama. You were fun at first, Maya, but you're loud. You're clingy. You get excited over childish things, and it gets tiring."
The girl looked Maya up and down with obvious pleasure.
"Honestly, I expected you to be prettier. You're kind of plain in person. And carrying that stupid plush around?" She laughed again, light and cruel. "No wonder he got bored."
Haruto did not stop her.
He added a small shrug, as if the words were harsh but useful.
"She isn't wrong."
That was where Maya broke.
Not dramatically. Not beautifully. Something simply fell silent inside her.
The penguin plush hung in her hands, damaged and crooked, while the boy she had liked stood in front of another girl and agreed that Maya was plain, childish, boring, and easy to discard.
Maya tried to speak, but nothing came out.
Then Kiyotaka laughed.
It was quiet, dark, and completely wrong for the moment.
Maya turned toward him with wide, shattered eyes. For a painful instant, she thought he was laughing at her too, at the crying girl with the stupid penguin and the stupid feelings.
But Kiyotaka was not looking at Maya.
He was looking at Haruto.
His smile was playful, almost beautiful, and colder than the polished floor beneath their feet. He stepped beside Maya and placed his hands on her trembling shoulders, grounding her without forcing her to hide behind him.
Haruto frowned. "What's funny?"
"You are," Kiyotaka said smoothly. "Both of you, actually."
The girl's smile slipped. "Excuse me?"
Kiyotaka's gaze moved over them with lazy precision. "You're insulting Maya so confidently that I almost waited for you to say something intelligent."
A few students nearby sucked in sharp breaths.
Haruto's jaw tightened. "Stay out of this, Ayanokōji."
Kiyotaka ignored him and looked down at Maya. His expression softened only for her, enough to tell her the laugh had never been aimed at her wounds.
Then he turned back to the couple.
"You said Maya isn't beautiful."
Maya flinched.
Haruto gave a short laugh, thinking Kiyotaka had agreed.
The girl's smile returned. "See? Even he gets it."
Kiyotaka lifted one hand from Maya's shoulder and gently wiped the tears from her cheek with his thumb.
"She's beau et mignon."
Maya blinked through her tears.
Haruto looked confused. "What?"
Kiyotaka's smile sharpened. He looked at the girl and spoke with calm cruelty dressed in silk.
"Nǐ kàn qǐlái jiù xiàng shāngchǎng lǐ dǎzhé de wèishēngzhǐ, dàn háishì méi rén mǎi nǐ."
The girl stared at him. "Was that supposed to mean something?"
Maya, still trembling, looked equally lost.
Kiyotaka leaned closer to Maya's ear and whispered, "I know you didn't understand that either."
Maya's cheeks flushed through the tears. "Kiyotaka-kun..."
He looked back at the couple, his smile turning wicked.
"Are two foreign languages too complicated for you? I thought you might understand since you were talking about standards."
The nearby students tried very hard not to laugh and failed in several quiet, ugly ways.
Haruto's voice rose. "Don't talk to her like that."
Kiyotaka stepped closer.
The change was immediate. Haruto had the face of a Crown Hearts member, the polished charm of a celebrity trainee, and the practiced confidence of someone used to being adored. But beside Kiyotaka, he looked suddenly smaller, like a stage actor who had forgotten his line in front of a real king.
Kiyotaka towered over him without effort.
"You're loud," Kiyotaka said. "Almost like a girl losing an argument."
The girl beside Haruto let out a small laugh before she could stop herself.
Haruto heard it.
His face flushed with humiliation. "Why are you laughing?"
"I'm not," she snapped, but she was blushing now, and everyone could see it.
Haruto took an angry step toward Kiyotaka.
Kiyotaka smiled.
Not his gentle smile. Not the teasing one he used to coax Maya into laughing under the tree. This one was sharper, hungrier, the battle-mad grin from the alley video that made even confident boys remember their bones.
"What?" Kiyotaka asked softly.
Haruto stopped.
The step he had taken forward became a mistake hanging in the air. He tried to hold Kiyotaka's gaze and failed, stepping back with anger still on his face but caution already in his body.
Maya saw it.
Haruto had folded.
Kiyotaka's smile eased back into something playful, as if he had only been testing the temperature.
"You were right about Maya being childish," Kiyotaka said, pulling her gently closer so she stood beside him instead of behind him. "She is."
Maya looked up at him with a wounded pout. "Kiyotaka-kun..."
"That's what makes her fun to be with," he continued, voice warm enough that her chest ached. "She laughs too loudly when she wins, gets excited over strange plush toys, and cries when something matters to her. If that bored you, Haruto, then you were never capable of enjoying anything real."
The girl crossed her arms, trying to recover. "That doesn't change the fact that she's plain."
Kiyotaka looked at her as if she had offered him a broken toy and expected applause.
"You talked about standards earlier, so let's use yours. Maya has had breakfasts more expensive than your household's yearly tax."
The girl's mouth opened, but no sentence survived the trip out.
Kiyotaka looked at Maya again, and this time his smile was warmer, devastatingly so.
"She's cute because she looks like that penguin plush with silly eyes."
Maya's face turned bright red. "That is not a compliment."
"It is when you make that face."
She pouted harder despite herself.
Kiyotaka's smile became unfairly soft and lethal at the same time. "See? That makes you even cuter."
The girl beside Haruto stared at him.
Then she blushed.
Haruto noticed immediately and snapped, "Why are you looking at him like that?"
"I'm not!"
"You are!"
Kiyotaka did not bother staying for the collapse of Haruto's replacement romance. He took Maya's hand, turned away, and guided her out of the corridor.
"Come on."
Maya followed without asking where they were going.
She did not look back.
The damaged penguin was clutched tightly in one arm, and Kiyotaka's hand was warm around hers. Behind them, Haruto and the girl started arguing, their voices rising and tangling with the mall noise.
Maya barely heard them.
Her world had narrowed to Kiyotaka's back, his hand, and the impossible realization that when he stood beside her, she did not feel plain at all.
Something shifted inside her.
It was not the fluttery, clean thing she had imagined from novels, not exactly. The books always talked about butterflies, but this felt messier and brighter, like a whole flock had panicked inside her chest and started carrying pieces of her broken heart somewhere safer.
Haruto had once made her feel chosen when he had time.
Kiyotaka made her feel protected when she was at her worst.
That difference was too powerful to ignore.
They stopped at a quiet bench tucked near the side of the mall, far enough from the arcade that the lights became softer and the noise became distant.
Maya sat down slowly.
The penguin plush rested on her lap.
It looked terrible.
One flipper was twisted. A seam near its side had come loose. Its silly eyes were still there, but now one seemed slightly crooked, giving it the expression of a tiny survivor with unpaid debts.
Kiyotaka looked at it.
"I'll get you a new one."
Maya's head lifted quickly. "No."
"It's damaged."
"I know."
"I can win another."
"I don't want another."
Kiyotaka studied her in silence.
Maya lowered her gaze, fingers brushing the torn seam.
"I want this specific penguin."
Her voice shook, but she did not take the words back.
Kiyotaka sat beside her.
He did not argue. He did not call it childish. He did not try to replace the broken thing just because it had become inconvenient to look at.
Maya held the plush close.
"I probably looked stupid."
"You looked hurt."
"That's not better."
"It is," Kiyotaka said. "Stupid means it had no value. Hurt means something mattered."
Maya swallowed hard.
The tears returned, but they were quieter now.
"I thought he cared."
"Maybe he liked being cared for."
The answer slipped into place too perfectly, and Maya hated how much sense it made.
Kiyotaka reached over and lightly tapped the penguin's crooked head.
"It survived."
"He got used as a weapon."
"A noble career."
"He looks worse now."
"More honest," Kiyotaka said. "Not worse."
Maya looked at the plush for a long moment.
More honest.
The phrase stayed with her.
She turned toward Kiyotaka, cheeks still damp. "Do you really think I'm cute because I look like him?"
"Yes."
"That's the strangest compliment I've ever received."
"You remembered it."
"That doesn't make it good."
"It made you pout."
"Kiyotaka-kun..."
His smile curved. "There it is again."
Maya buried her face in the penguin to hide the heat rising across her cheeks.
"You're so mean."
"I defended you."
"You compared me to a suspicious penguin."
"It was the penguin you chose."
She laughed, and this time the sound came out whole.
Kiyotaka stood after a while and offered his hand.
"I'll walk you back."
Maya looked at his hand.
Then she placed hers in it.
She did not need to ask anything else. In that moment, the feeling inside her was terrifyingly simple.
She wanted to follow him.
The walk back to the dorms was quiet.
Maya held the damaged penguin close with one arm and Kiyotaka's hand with the other. The silence between them was not empty. It was full of things she was not brave enough to say yet.
At the dorm entrance, she stopped.
"Kiyotaka-kun."
He turned.
"Thank you."
"For the penguin?"
"For standing beside me."
His expression softened by a fraction.
"You were already standing."
"You know what I mean."
"I do."
He reached out and patted her head.
The gesture was gentle, almost casual, but Maya froze beneath it like he had placed a crown there and trusted her not to drop it.
"You don't need Haruto to decide whether you're worth caring about."
Her eyes widened.
His hand left her hair before she could decide if she wanted it to stay.
"Go rest, Maya."
She nodded, clutching the penguin.
"Good night."
"Good night."
She entered her dorm room with the plush held tightly against her chest.
Only after the door closed did she lean back against it, her heart still moving too fast.
That night, Maya did not sleep early.
Her room was quiet except for the soft pull of thread.
She sat on her bed with the penguin plush in her lap and a small sewing kit open beside her. She was not amazing at stitching, but she knew enough to try. Her fingers moved carefully, guiding the needle through the torn seam little by little.
The penguin would never look the same.
One flipper still sat at a strange angle. One eye remained slightly crooked. Some stitches were uneven because Maya had to wipe her eyes twice while fixing it.
But the longer she worked, the more she loved it.
The penguin was not ruined.
It had been hurt, bent, dragged into a heartbreak it never asked for, and used as plush-based justice against a boy who deserved a much heavier animal. Still, it remained in her hands, silly-eyed and stubborn.
The stitches did not make it ugly.
They made it stronger.
Maya tied the final knot and held the penguin up.
"You're still cute," she whispered.
Her cheeks warmed as Kiyotaka's voice returned in her memory.
'She's cute because she looks like that penguin plush with silly eyes.'
Maya hugged the repaired plush to her chest and smiled into the dim room.
Haruto had ended something in front of everyone.
Kiyotaka had defended something in front of everyone.
The difference between those two moments was stitched into the penguin in her arms.
Her phone buzzed with messages, probably from classmates asking if she was okay, probably from people who had already turned the mall corridor into a rumor.
Maya ignored it.
She lay back on her bed with the repaired penguin tucked close, her fingers resting over the crooked seam.
For the first time, the scar did not look like proof of being broken.
It looked like proof that someone had protected the princess after the prince forgot how.
The next morning, Haruto Kisaragi's seat was empty.
At first, no one in Class D said anything about it. Empty seats were normal enough in ANHS. Students skipped homeroom for student council duties, club work, family calls, or the kind of private problems rich teenagers wrapped in polite excuses.
But Haruto's absence felt different.
Maya sat near the window with her repaired penguin plush half-hidden inside her bag. One crooked eye peeked out from the zipper, looking like it had survived yesterday and was now suspicious of the entire school.
She kept glancing at the door.
Once.
Then twice.
Then she stopped, because every time she looked, the same memory returned.
Haruto's arm around another girl.
His voice saying he had found someone less boring.
The girl laughing.
Kiyotaka standing beside her afterward, wiping her tears like the corridor belonged to him and heartbreak was only another thing he could step over.
Maya gripped the edge of her desk.
Then Chabashira entered.
The classroom quieted faster than usual. She placed her tablet on the podium, looked once at Haruto's empty seat, and did not bother pretending the morning would be normal.
"Haruto Kisaragi has been expelled from ANHS."
The room erupted.
Not loudly at first. It began with a gasp, then a chair scraping, then whispers breaking loose from every corner.
"Expelled?"
"Haruto?"
"Crown Hearts Haruto?"
"What happened?"
Maya's heart jumped so hard it hurt.
She looked at Chabashira, then at the empty seat again.
Chabashira's expression stayed flat.
"The official notice will be sent through the school app. The reason is a severe violation of school conduct rules, supported by private-message records, campus timestamps, and unauthorized use of a restricted student room."
A wave of shock moved through the class.
Maya's fingers went cold.
She slowly turned her head toward Kiyotaka.
He was sitting at his desk as if the morning announcement had nothing to do with him, one elbow resting lightly against the table, his expression carrying that same faint playful smile.
Too calm.
Too neat.
Too suspicious.
Kiyotaka noticed her looking.
Of course he did.
His eyes shifted toward her, and his smile softened by a fraction.
Maya's repaired penguin plush stared out of her bag like a tiny witness.
"Kiyotaka-kun..." she whispered.
He tilted his head slightly.
"What?"
The innocence in his voice was so smooth it became suspicious by existing.
Maya stared at him a little longer.
Then her phone buzzed.
Everyone's did.
The school notice appeared on their screens.
The class dissolved into louder whispers.
Maya read the notice twice.
Her chest felt strange.
Not happy.
Not sad.
Not exactly relieved.
Just shaken, as if the boy who had destroyed her yesterday had been erased from the room overnight.
She looked at Kiyotaka again.
He was still smiling.
And somehow, that smile made the whole announcement feel less like an accident and more like the final page of a story he had written before anyone else knew there was a plot.
The truth had begun the previous night.
After walking Maya back to the dorms, Kiyotaka did not return to his room immediately and bought stuff from the grocery store.
After a few minutes
Kiyotaka opened the OAA and searched through the public class listings.
The girl from the mall belonged to Ryūen's class.
That made things easier.
A message went out.
Ryūen replied quickly.
There was a pause.
Then the information arrived.
Ryūen sent the contact along with a laughing sticker of a dragon eating a crown.
Kiyotaka looked at the contact for a moment.
Then sent the first message.
That was the frightening part of Project EDEN.
The White Room had not trained Kiyotaka merely to charm people. Charm was too simple. Anyone with a good face and decent timing could charm someone for a while.
Project EDEN had taught him how to make attention feel like oxygen.
A glance at the right moment.
A pause before answering.
A voice lowered just enough to feel private.
A touch light enough to be deniable and memorable enough to haunt.
When used gently, it could comfort a crying girl under a tree.
When weaponized, it could turn affection into a leash.
The girl met him near the open field behind the student facilities, arriving in a hurry with her hair slightly messy and her phone clutched against her chest.
She had dressed quickly.
That told him enough.
"Kiyotaka-kun," she said, breathless.
Not Ayanokōji.
Kiyotaka.
He had allowed that in the messages.
Permissions mattered when people wanted to feel chosen.
He stood beneath the field lights, the night wind moving softly across the grass. His smile was calm, playful, and dark enough to make the open space feel like a private room.
"You came quickly."
Her cheeks colored.
"You asked me to."
"I did."
She looked nervous, but not afraid.
That was useful.
Kiyotaka stepped beside her and began walking slowly across the field. She followed, too close after only a few steps. When his hand brushed hers, she froze.
He took it.
Not tightly.
Not dramatically.
Just enough for her thoughts to lose their footing.
Her face went red.
"Kiyotaka-kun..."
"You like Haruto?" he asked.
The question cut through the softness so cleanly that she stumbled.
"I... not anymore."
"No?"
She shook her head quickly. "He's nothing. I only talked to him because he kept approaching me first."
Kiyotaka looked at her.
His eyes were warm enough to be false and steady enough to feel real.
"Then prove it."
Her lips parted.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't believe words easily."
"I'll prove it," she said immediately. "I will."
His thumb moved lightly over the back of her hand.
A small movement.
A cruelly precise one.
Her shoulders softened as if he had given her a promise instead of a command.
Kiyotaka's voice lowered.
"Haruto is careless. He thinks popularity protects him. He thinks girls will stay quiet if he smiles properly."
The girl swallowed.
"He does."
"I need proof."
"What kind?"
"Messages. His admission. His willingness to break rules when he thinks nobody important is watching."
Her eyes searched his face.
"If I help you... will you believe me?"
Kiyotaka smiled.
"If you're sincere, I'll know."
It was not a promise.
It sounded like one.
That was enough.
Her grip tightened around his hand.
"I'm sincere."
"I hope so."
The words were soft.
The manipulation was not.
He did not need to threaten her. He did not need to raise his voice. He did not need to offer anything clearly enough to be held against him later.
He only gave her the shape of a future and let her imagination fill in the rest.
A relationship.
Approval.
The possibility of being chosen by the boy who had made Haruto look small without even trying.
By the time they reached the far side of the field, she was already asking what he wanted her to do.
Kiyotaka looked down at her.
"Invite Haruto to meet you. Keep your phone recording. Get him to admit what happened with Maya, and make sure the messages show he chose to meet you in a restricted room after hours."
Her face went pale for a second.
"That could get him expelled."
"Yes."
She stared at him.
There should have been hesitation.
There almost was.
Then Kiyotaka lifted her hand and looked directly into her eyes.
"I need to know whether you're serious."
That was all.
She nodded.
"I'll do it."
Kiyotaka released her hand only after he was sure she wished he wouldn't.
Before she left, he placed a small candy in her palm.
She blinked. "What's this?"
"You looked nervous."
Her eyes softened so quickly it was almost sad.
He touched her cheek lightly, his gaze steady on hers.
"Calm down. If you rush, he'll notice."
She ate the candy like it was a charm.
Then she left to ruin Haruto.
Kiyotaka watched her go without expression.
'Project EDEN works too well when the target wants to believe they are special.'
His phone buzzed ten minutes later.
Another message arrived shortly after.
Then another.
Kiyotaka looked at the timestamps.
The student app logged room access automatically when a student used their device near restricted doors. Haruto had either forgotten that or assumed no one would care.
Another message arrived.
Kiyotaka did not smile when the files arrived.
He only checked the time.
Then he packaged the evidence with the calm precision of someone submitting homework.
The staff received it before morning.
The homeroom teachers received it next.
By sunrise, Haruto Kisaragi's polished image had already begun peeling away from the wall.
Class D was still buzzing by the time homeroom ended.
Haruto's desk remained empty like a missing tooth in the room's smile.
Some students looked shocked. Some looked disturbed. Some looked like they wanted to defend him but could not find enough clean words to build a sentence.
Maya sat very still.
The penguin plush was in her lap now, because she had stopped pretending she wasn't holding it.
She stared at its repaired seam.
Haruto was gone.
The boy who had called her boring, childish, plain, and embarrassing was gone from ANHS by morning.
She should have felt victorious.
Instead, her eyes drifted back to Kiyotaka.
He was standing near the window, looking outside with that faint playful smile.
Maya approached quietly.
"Kiyotaka-kun."
He turned.
"Yes?"
"Did you know this would happen?"
His smile did not change.
"About Haruto?"
She nodded.
"People who break rules usually leave evidence somewhere."
"That's not an answer."
"It's an answer. Just not the one you want."
Maya hugged the penguin tighter.
The crooked eye stared up between them.
"Did you do something?"
Kiyotaka's gaze lowered to the plush.
"How is the penguin?"
Maya pouted.
"Don't change the subject."
"I'm checking on the victim."
"The penguin isn't the victim."
"It was used as a weapon."
"It was defending me."
"Then it deserves respect."
Maya tried not to smile.
Failed.
That annoyed her almost as much as it warmed her.
"Kiyotaka-kun."
He looked at her again.
The playful smile remained, but his eyes were unreadable.
"If I said no, would you believe me?"
Maya was quiet for a moment.
"No."
"If I said yes?"
"I don't know."
"Then I'll say nothing."
Her fingers curled into the penguin's soft body.
A strange chill moved through her, but it was not entirely fear. Yesterday, Kiyotaka had stood beside her like a hero in a story. Today, she glimpsed the shadow behind that hero and realized it was much darker than she had imagined.
And yet, the warmth she felt did not disappear.
That scared her more.
"Kiyotaka-kun," Maya said softly, "Haruto hurt me, but..."
She struggled for the words.
Kiyotaka waited.
She looked down at the penguin, at the crooked stitches she had made with her own hands.
"I don't want to become someone who only feels better when others fall."
For the first time, his smile softened without teasing.
"Good."
Maya looked up.
"Good?"
"That means you're still yourself."
Her chest tightened.
The words were simple, but they reached her more gently than any apology Haruto could have offered.
Then Kiyotaka's expression returned to its usual playful calm.
"And your penguin still looks suspicious."
Maya pressed the plush against her chest with a pout.
"He's brave."
"He lost a fight against Haruto's chest."
"He helped expose him emotionally."
"That is a generous interpretation."
She narrowed her eyes. "You're mean."
"You keep talking to me."
Maya's cheeks warmed.
She looked away quickly.
Across the room, several students were already watching them.
The rumors would start again.
Maybe they already had.
Maya did not care as much as she should have.
Kiyotaka turned back toward the window.
Outside, ANHS looked clean beneath the morning sun.
Too clean.
A school where scandals could vanish into paperwork, where princes could become expelled students overnight, and where a boy trained by Project EDEN could smile softly while holding someone's heart like a thread.
Maya looked at him from the side.
The hero who protected her had sharp edges.
Maybe that should have made her step away.
Instead, she held the penguin closer and stayed beside him.
Because yesterday, when Haruto had made her feel small, Kiyotaka had stood in front of the world and told it to look again.
Even if his methods were dark, that moment was real.
And for Maya, still carrying the scarred penguin against her chest, real mattered more than clean.