[b]Kotori Shirohane - Warakuma High School | After School[/b]

Following her words, a brief silence fell between the two students - though the same could not be said for everyone around them as such a large number of people in one spot inevitably made for a lot of noise. Still, when Katsuro didn't reply immediately, Kotori began to faintly hope that he finally realised that there really wasn't anything she could do to help him - but that hope vanished just a moment later when he spoke up again; albeit only to excuse himself for a moment. [color=green]"Eh?"[/color] Kotori went, bringing her eyes briefly up from the ground to blink in confusion - focused as she was on her own troubles, she hadn't quite caught the slight shift in tone and was left to wonder exactly what he was doing as he slowly looked around. It was only when the first few of the previously whispering students slowly backed away or started moving that she realised that he wasn't looking for someone but instead seemed to glaring at them, if only with one uncovered eye given his asymmetrical hairstyle.

Kotori couldn't help but feel a slight bit nervous when his focus turned back to her - and the relief at hearing him finally agree that there was nothing for her to do easily outweighed the cold hint in his voice as he stopped practically waving the money around in front of her. But just as she was about to silently sigh - not having noticed that she'd been holding her breath quite a few times - Katsuro spoke up yet again; this time though asking to instead accompany her and to continue talks on the topic as he did and leaving Kotori rather conflicted. On one hand, she was only too glad to get away from the school after what felt like every single student having witnessed the embarassing scene first hand and he even seemed to have given up on the whole tutoring idea - yet he still seemed quite persistent on somehow trying to get something out of her that she didn't know how to give.

In her discomfort, Kotori was more than a little thankful when a familiar voice made itself heard. [color=green]"Eh?"[/color] she went once again as she looked over to see Rui coming closer, praising their test results and questioning the need for any improvements. Though she couldn't quite suppress further embarassment at the words, she was still glad that he was here - as she would have been for anything which might somehow get everyone's attention focused on anything but herself, even as she gave a small bow in greeting. [color=green]"Ah, th-thank you, Shinichi-san,"[/color] she said - though she couldn't help but add [color=green]"Keeping up studies is important, even during breaks. A-at least, I think..."[/color] Her voice trailed off toward the end as she realised, a moment too late, that his had been a rhetorical question.

Still, with Rui's timely arrival, she had yet to answer Katsuro's question - which just left her back in the most unfortunate situation of wishing to decline yet having no way to do so without being rude when all he did was ask nicely. That is, until she realised that perhaps there was no need to: [color=green]"Ah, uhm, m-maybe Sh-Shinichi-san might know a... better way? I-I mean, there's really nothing special about m-me, so...[/color] Her quiet voice had an almost apologetic tone to it as, once more, her gaze was fixed firmly on the ground and her fingers were playing along her skirt's hem; her guilty conscience returning almost immediately in full effect when she realised that it was sounding rather much like she was trying to just push Katsuro's problem onto Rui just because she didn't know what to do about it.