Kiyopon opened the container and grabbed plates for the both of them to place the food.

Since Horikita's dominant hand was currently stuck in a bottle, she had to use her left hand in order to use the chopsticks.

" Itadakimasu..." they both said at the same time before digging in.

Kiyopon nommed his first bite and hummed in satisfaction. After all, he didn't get to eat his dinner when Horikita had called him over to a rather.....funny situation.

Kiyopon took a few more bites until he heard something drop on the table.

" Tch." Horikita glared at the chopsticks on the table as she slowly picked it up again

Kiyopon silently watched as she struggled to maintain her grip on the chopsticks and struggled even more to pick the food from her plate with such an awkward grip.

Plack! She lost grip again and it dropped on the table once more. Horikita groaned in frustration while Kiyopon watched in amusement.

" Why is this harder than it needs to be?!" She complained as an irk mark was threatening to appear on her head if this continued.

Horikita tried again.

Failed!

And again....

Still failed!

Once more....

And guess what? Failed again! :D

Horikita's eye twitched in irritation.

' AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH' she screamed internally.

Kiyopon decided that this was enough for now and decided to pick up some of her food with his chopsticks.

" Huh?" She looked at Kiyopon in suprise.

He directed it to her mouth but stopped since she didn't open her mouth yet. He stared at her silently.

".....Ahhh...." she opened her mouth and Kiyopon fed her the food.

She chewed slowly as she tried to ignore the warmth on her cheeks and focus on the flavor of the food.

She swallowed before speaking,

" You got better at cooking, Ayanokoji-kun." She said.

Kiyopon nodded with pride before picking up more food with his chopsticks and directing it to her mouth.

" Ahm." She accepted it again and chewed a bit faster.

Kiyopon continued to feed Horikita silently while Horikita silently accepted Kiyopon feeding her for the entire dinner.

After they were finished eating, Kiyopon decided to head to the cafeteria to get some water in order for Horikita to use via rubbing the soap up and down till her hand gets unstuck.

Unfortunately...

" I'm very sorry....so many students came that we're all out." The cafeteria lady said.

Kiyopon's eyes widened in suprise before checking the time on his phone.

it said.

It's only been roughly an hour after the notification about the water problem was sent to all the students. Kiyopon was slightly taken aback by their quick decision to ransack the cafeteria for water....

Well, it was no problem.... Kiyopon thought as he exited the cafeteria.

There was still the vending machine :) he thought.

"....."

Kiyopon silently stared at the empty vending machine in disappointment.

W-What....he was quite shooketh since he had never seen the vending machines EMPTY throughout his time in this school.

He checked for the other vending machines but all of them were empty and it didn't seem like the staff were going to fill it anytime soon....

So with a dejected sigh and his head down low, he quietly made his way back to the dormitories with a sullen expression.

" I see...." Horikita nodded in understanding after what Kiyopon had informed her about the water situation.

" This is indeed......complicated now...." she muttered before looking toward the sad Kiyopon.

Horikita was curious about something.

She bit her lip before lifting her hand in a hesitant manner.

' Should I? Ugh....I really want to try it....' she thought.

She slowly led her hand towards the top of Kiyopon's head.

' I-It's only fair, right? I mean....he does it to me a lot! This is just.....an equivalent exchange....yes...' she assured herself in her thoughts.

So with the most plain expression she could wear, she placed her hand on Kiyopon's head which suprised Kiyopon.

Kiyopon lifted his head up a bit to look at the stone-faced Horikita.

Horikita began patting Kiyopon's head slowly.

" It's...okay....no need to be so sad about it.....alright?" She did her best to not stutter.

' His hair feels...so nice...' she thought.

Kiyopon's gaze softened at her which caught her by suprise and in turn, caused her to lift her hand off his head.

But Kiyopon gently grabbed her wrist and placed it back on his head.

He stared at her with an expression that said,

Horikita released a sigh before patting his head again. Kiyopon relaxed to her touch and closed his eyes.

' He's like....a cat.......' she thought as she smiled while patting his head with her free hand.

After a minute of patting, Kiyopon's eyes suddenly lit up as if he got an idea.

Horikita took that as a sign to stop patting and watched him searching his pockets.

Kiyopon took out his phone and showed Horikita his contacts.

Horikita backed her head away a bit due to suprise, but the biggest suprise was....

' WAIT. WHY DOES HE HAVE SO MANY GIRLS IN HIS CONTACT LIST?' She thought.

But she immediately shoved away that thought for now and took a few seconds to process what Kiyopon was trying to gesture.

" You're suggesting we call someone for water?" Horikita asked.

Kiyopon nodded in response.

Horikita sighs, " Okay...but just don't tell them the real reason we need the water. And....could you call Mori-san first? She's the least troublesome one." She said.

Kiyopon nodded and scrolled over to Mori's contact before hitting call.

The phone was ringing....awaiting for Mori to pick it up.

But it went straight to voicemail....

" Why...." Horikita said in a tone of pure disappointment.

Kiyopon was also a bit disappointed but he immediately searched for other people to call on his phone.

Kiyopon showed his phone to Horikita.

Horikita's expression turned to a blank one.

" No. Not Ike and Sudo." She immediately rejected them.

"....why?" Kiyopon asked.

" I refuse to use any water they might have. Who knows where it'd been or what they might've put in it." She muttered.

Kiyopon sighs and looks for other contacts.

" How about Hirata...?" Kiyopon asked.

" Hmm....I'm fine with that. " Horikita agreed.

Kiyopon immediately gave Hirata a call.

Unfortunately, he didn't pick up either.

Horikita groaned at that.

" It's still around 7:30 pm.....don't tell me he sleeps THAT early!" She complained.

Kiyopon proceeds to abandon Hirata's help and began searching for other options to call.

Kiyopon exhaused his entire contact list but for some reason absolutely nobody answered his call.

" ....You can't be serious..." Horikita said in disbelief.

The duo wondered if there was some sort of spiritual being who was currently deliberately messing with them both.

".......Are you sure you don't intend to wait until 12 for the water to come back?" Kiyopon slowly asked.

" No. I don't want my hand to be stuck for so long. I can't possibly allow myself to wait that long." She flatly said.

Kiyopon sighs before scratching the back of his head.

" Then....we have no other choice." He says in a certain tone before turning his gaze to Horikita.

Horikita narrows her eyes at him.

" ....I don't like that tone. Ayanokoji-kun, what are you planning...."

" Let's go." Kiyopon said before quickly dragging Horikita to another corner.

" N-Not too fast!" She whispered but managed not to trip when he dragged her.

They both gazed at the elevator ahead of them.

Before Kiyopon could make a move towards it, Horikita tugged his sleeve and halted his movement. He turns towards her with a confused gaze.

" Isn't there a surveillance camera in the first-floor lobby? My bottle hand isn't exactly covered and I doubt we could slip past the cameras without getting seen." Horikita said.

Kiyopon hummed and thought carefully about this before switching their tactics.

" Let's take the stairs?" Kiyopon asked.

Horikita nodded, more accepting of that decision rather than the former.

What was their goal? They planned to reach the faucet that was outside of the dormitory and if it doesn't, then they might just resort to walk towards Keyaki mall.

Kiyopon and Horikita quietly made their way towards one of the emergency stairwells located not too far from the elevators on this floor.

But then they suddenly heard a door open about three rooms behind them.

They quickly glanced at the door that opened with tense expressions.

" N-Not good. That's Maezono-san's room." Horikita whispered.

But instead of Maezono stepping out, it was actually Kushida who stepped out and was currently bidding farewell to Maezono outside of her room.

" This is bad..." Horikita muttered.

Kushida could notice them at any moment now. If they suddenly make a move, it'll just increase the chances of them being seen by her or Maezono.

Kiyopon glanced around to find any sort of cover and his eyes immediately landed to the door right next to them.

It was a supply closet.

Kiyopon grabbed the knob and twisted it slowly...

It was open! Kiyopon concluded.

" Ayanokoji-kun what are yo-AH!" Horikita was suddenly dragged into the supply closet and Kiyopon closed the door immediately after Horikita entered.

" Hm?" Kushida tilted her head to the side as she looked at the distance.

" Is something wrong?" Maezono asked.

" Hm....did you hear a door slamming?" Kushida asked.

" I didn't pay attention..." Maezono replied.

Kushida smiled and shrugged, " Nah, all good! Maybe it was just me hehe!" She giggled.

" Ah, okay!" Maezono chirped.

" Anyway, I better go now!" Kushida said before waving goodbye to Maezono.

" Bye bye and thanks again, Kushida-san!" Maezono also waved her goodbyes before closing the door.

" No problem!" Kushida said and then turned around to be on her way.

Kushida hummed to herself as she went past the supply closet and turned the corner, officially out of range.

Meanwhile, Kiyopon had pinned Horikita to the wall in the supply closet as he kept his gaze at the door behind them.

Horikita, however, was a blushing mess as she immediately noticed how intimate this scene would look to outsiders.

' So close....' she thought to herself.

Horikita then noticed a sweat trickling down from Kiyopon's neck. Her blush intensified at that while Kiyopon didn't seem to notice that.

' H-Helppp!' Horikita begged inside her head as she tried to ignore this cute, beautiful creature that was currently pinning her on the wall.

Kiyopon backed away a bit and opened the door a bit to see if the coast was clear.

His eyes scanned the hallway and concluded that the coast was clear for now.

" ...I think the coast is-" Kiyopon's eyes widened as he looked at Horikita. "...Horikita? Are you....okay?" He asked softly.

" H-Huh? Why do you ask?" She stuttered.

"....Your face is red....and you're sweating." He slowly points out.

Horikita touched the side of her face and immediately felt the sweat that Kiyopon had called out.

' You can't be serious!' She thought to herself.

She felt absolutely ashamed.

But she mustn't show vulnerability to him like this!

Horikita wiped the sweat away with her sleeve before speaking.

" I-It was hot, alright! And you said the coast was clear? Let's go then. We mustn't waste time." She replied as calm as she could.

Kiyopon nodded in understanding and they both proceeded to exit the supply closet.

"...."

Kiyopon stayed silent as he stared at the door knob which belonged to the emergency exit.

"...What is it?" Horikita asked.

Kiyopon sighs before turning around to shake his head at her. Horikita's face turned pale.

" No......." She tried to hold onto hope.

Kiyopon shakes his head again, effectively throwing away her hope in the garbage can.

" Uggghhh...." she began sulking while Kiyopon tugged her along and led her back towards the elevator.

Luckily, the way to the elevator was clear of any witnesses so they boarded it without much hassle.

" The camera..." Horikita muttered.

Ah, right. Kiyopon just remembered about the cameras in the elevator. He quickly acted as Horikita's cover by standing directly infront of the camera's view while Horikita stood behind, effectively covering her bottle hand.

They rode the elevator in silence.

Kiyopon managed to cover Horikita as they sneaked out of the dormitories, doing their best to remain unsuspicious.

" There it is..." Horikita said before sighing.

The faucet they were looking for was just a few meters away.

" Let's hope for the best...." Horikita muttered before they walked towards the faucet quickly.

They twist it but.....

"......."

Plop! One single drop of water came out of the hole and then hit the drain.

" HIYAH!" Horikita suddenly smashed the faucet with her bottle hand due to pure frustration.

Kiyopon looked at her wide-eyed while Horikita took deep breaths to calm herself down.

The faucet was deformed a bit which was a big problem.

" Horikita...you-"

" I know. But I don't care." Horikita said.

Kiyopon was suprised to see this side of Horikita. Sure, she was angry and frustrated but not to the point where she would express it in this way!

Kiyopon's eyes darted around their area for any possible cameras situated there but luckily enough, there was none.

Still, this was no time to relax. They needed to get away from the now broken faucet before somebody spots them.

Kiyopon quickly grabbed Horikita and led both of themselves away from the scene.

" Ayanokoji-kun....I'd like to just go back to my room now." Horikita said as they walked towards the dormitories.

Kiyopon glanced at her and Horikita glanced back.

" I'm....tired. Tonight has been troublesome and I doubt it'll get bet any better if we keep continuing like this. I'm willing to give up and just wait for the water to come back." She said in a dejected tone mixed with acceptance of the situation.

' And Keyaki Mall? Yeah no. I'm not even going to attempt it.' She silently added.

Kiyopon silently nodded and decided to accompany Horikita to her room for the last time.

They made it back to the elevator and Kiyopon pressed Horikita's floor.

The elevator was going up and its occupiers were currently silent as they rode it.

But suddenly, the elevator stopped on the fifth floor.

" Huh?" Horikita noticed this immediately and soon her eyes widened in slight panic.