The Most Honest of Men

The situation devolved into chaos before Aito even could open his mouth again. Maybe it would be more apt to say, despite Aito not even opening his mouth again.

Several girls supposedly gathered for the sake of hearing what he had to say, now all equally befuddled. Who'd given voice to their suspicions, Aito couldn't tell. But that all of them now seemed equally confused, that he could say.

Going through all of them in order…

— A girl with long half-up black hair, and wearing the school uniform blazer and skirt along with a pair of long black socks.

"Why are there one... two... three... four other girls here? I thought someone was supposed to confess to me? "

Aito chose not to mention that the black-haired girl included herself in the count as she counted the girls present while pointing at them one by one.

— A girl with long black hair standing around fidgeting with her hair at the very edge of the rooftop, by the looks of it not quite sure why she was there in the first place — Riku's little sister. Her clothes, of course, also consisted of the same school uniform as the others, with the one exception being that she didn’t wear the blazer and instead just a sailor-style top.

"Aito, you and my brother will still help me after this, right?”

“Sure, I’d do anything for you.”

Aito could distinctly remember Riku telling him he wouldn’t get his sister involved no matter what, but that too he chose to ignore.

— A girl with red shoulder-length hair, dressed exactly the same as the first black-haired girl. A cool beauty, so far rather quiet but with her every movement possessing a certain kind of refinement.

She actually didn't seem that bad. Aito could only wonder what his friend had bribed her with to get her to come with him, but he decided it would be better for his confidence not to think about that. There’s also how she was the one to speak up first and cause the current mess.

— Finally, a girl with slightly curly blond hair, and of the smallest stature in the room(if it could be called that) by a decent amount. Cute, graceful, by far the prettiest of all the girls. And she too wearing the same school uniform as the rest, maybe to be expected given that they all went to the same school. If there were one thing to set her apart, it would be her apparent refusal to wear socks along with the uniform, made evident by her current appearance lacking them.

That, and that she was Aito's little sister.

And this turned out to be the point where Aito'd just about had it. He chose to ignore the doubts he’d had about the other three girls, but this? This was the one doubt he needed to give voice to, no matter what it cost.

It was time to to confront Riku - Aito's best friend and enemy alike.

"You didn't tell them?"

"Of course not, dude. I'm not going to do your work for you. Now go explain your grand plan to date all four of these girls at the same time."

"Never mind explaining, what's my sister doing here?"

"If I have to bring my sister, it only seemed fair to take yours along for the ride too."

"That makes zero sense."

"You told me to bring five girls, what you didn't do is say anything about who I could choose. And I just happened to choose your sister as one of them. You've got your girls, now take it or leave it."

"And here I actually got my hopes up…"

"Well, if you don't have any more questions, I'm happy to have that settled."

“Actually, I do have one more question.”

“Seriously? What is it this time?”

“Is it just me or are these girls kind of… not exactly what most guys would consider their first choice?"

"What the heck are you talking about? They're all pretty cute, right? What more than that can you ask for? Or are you maybe trying to call my sister ugly? Hey, Mio, Aito thinks you're ugly!"

"For the record, I didn't actually say that!"

"Then what's your problem with my choices?"

"Oh, you want to know, do you? Then I'll tell you. I'll frecking, brecking, hecking tell you! I've barely even seen that black haired girl over there interact with anyone, my sister… is my sister, you should already know what’s wrong with Mio, and… hey, didn't we say five girls? Why are there only four here?"

"Dude, no matter how much I tried to do the impossible, you'll have to face reality at some point. There aren't five girls in this school willing to see what you have to say, let alone date you."

"Really? There's no way you've asked all the girls in the school, so how would you know then? …Wait, or did you seriously ask all of them? You didn't, right?"

"Yeah, no, you'd better believe I did. All the ones willing to talk to me, anyway. And what do I get in return? You yelling at me?"

"Sorry, dude. I seriously didn't think my chances would be that bad. Sorry for yelling at you. And for insulting your sister. And for thinking people would actually like me. "

"Dude, you don't need to go that far. As long as you appreciate what I do for you."

"Yeah, you'd better believe I appreciate you. Let's hug it out, bro."

"Yeah, let's hug."

What followed didn't need description. That said, while in the middle of the hug that didn't need description, Riku was said to have whispered these words into Aito’s ear.

"By the way, rumours say those are the only four single girls in the school."

And with that Aito soon had all the pieces in place, and the resolve to ask out not five, but four girls. As he once more turned towards the girls, this time his real challenge began. The time to explain had come. To make his desires clear and have all his wishes granted, or to risk welcoming his own hour of death all too soon.

“Simply put, I’d like you all to go on a date with me.”

The girls reacted to this with collective confusion, an emotion given voice to by the blonde-haired girl — Aito’s sister.

“Go on a date with you? All at the same time?”

“Don’t worry, one at a time is fine too."

Aito made sure to give the most reassuring thumbs up he'd given so far in his life to help everyone feel at ease.

"I'm going to go on one date with each of you individually, in my great quest to get girlfriends! But more importantly, I want you to understand that the idea isn’t that I’m going to choose one of you that I like best as my girlfriend based on our dates or anything like that. I’m not that arrogant. What I’m going to do is convince as many of you as possible to be my girlfriend, all at the same time, by going out on dates with all of you individually. You're not competing for my attention, I'm competing for yours.”

“Me too?”

“That is an understable concern, my dear little sister, but fear not. Of course you’re included too.”

In reality Aito had no desire to date his little sister, but he had made a bet and at the moment his chances of winning seemed abysmal even without including her in the count.

"What if we don't want to go on a date with you?"

A reasonable doubt. Yet Aito found cold sweat running down his back as he came face to face with the one possibility he hadn't prepared for.

Rejection.

But if he had come this far, all he could do was push along and hope things would work out despite his gut having started to desperately scream for him to stop this charade and realize there's no way he'd get five… rather, four girls to go on a date with him, let alone one.

But he still needed to ask.

"...is there anyone here who doesn't want to go on a date with me?"

And so followed the most intense moment of silence Aito would ever experience. Before, at last, the truth came to light.

"If it's just a date, I guess I could give it a try. Nothing more than that though, alright?"

"Sure, if my brother is alright with it."

"I suppose I don't have anything better to do anyway."

"N-no, I mean if you're fine with going out with me, then… maybe one or two times would be fine?"

Aito glanced at Riku, with the glee he felt apparent at a single glance.

"You do realise you're still going to lose our bet, right?"

"Not if I find another girlfriend before then!"

"You looked like you were about to faint just now, and the moment after you're seriously considering going through that again? Like, dude, get a grip. Besides, you haven't actually won any of them over yet."

"Easy for you to say when you've pretty much won if I don’t do anything. You basically cheated, you know."

"True, I guess not telling you beforehand was a bit unfair… Well, I have an idea that could fix that!"

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah. I'm not a girl, but if it's come to this there's only one thing to do. Aito, I'll be your last girlfriend… or well, partner? Boyfriend? Something, anyway. You up for that?”

"Due, you serious? Like, seriously? Do you even need to ask? Of course I'd be up for it!"

And so the chain of events led to yet another manly hug, and an equally manly pat on the back from Riku.

“Congratulations, you actually have a chance at winning this bet."

“All thanks to you, my friend.”

And so, after a few exchanges of contact information carried out in suspect silence, Aito's first misadventure came to an end, with him still not having considered or even realised he should or could think about a certain fact.

Why were these four girls the only single ones?

And what kind of girl would be willing to date him, of all people, let alone at the same time as three, or now four, other people?

But thinking was not Aito’s strong suit.

And so his fate was sealed, even if he didn't know as much yet. A fate that would lead him down a path he never once would have considered taking of his own volition.