The Affection Multiplier - Chapter 221: A talk at the rooftop. (Patreon)

Katherine was stopped by Olivia, Lilian and Jessica as she made her way to a vending machine. They looked like they wanted to talk, but before they could say anything, Katherine stopped them.

“Can we talk at the rooftop?” She asks in a low voice.

Now seems like a good enough time. There’s a conversation she needs to have with them. A serious conversation regarding their past, their present and their future. It’s been a long time coming.

Olivia silently nods at her request and the four girls walk up the stairs to the roof, getting odd looks in the process.

Katherine finds it funny. In anime, the rooftop is always the place where people get together to talk and is always empty. She guesses they use it to talk BECAUSE it’s empty, but it’s such a popular trope that makes it so that everyone wants to go to the rooftop.

It was empty during the colder months, but now that it’s starting to get warmer, one can usually find some people up here. Case in point, when they open the door to the rooftop, they see a couple of girls furiously making out, not even noticing their presence until Olivia very loudly clears her throat.

The two girls look so embarrassed that they just walk past them and down into the building.

“Huh. I didn’t know those two swung that way.” Lilian comments, amused. “Good for them, I guess.”

“Now we have room to talk.” Olivia says as they walk up to the tall fence. “I know you wanted to say something, but do you mind if we go first?”

“…Go ahead.”

“The assignment we wrote for David got a perfect score thanks to the extra credit work Ms. Campbell offered.” Olivia says.

“S-Seriously!? That’s amazing!” Katherine feels a sense of pride swelling inside her chest. It sucks because it totally killed the mood she was going for. She came her wanting to lash out, but now…

“We could only do it thanks to you, though.” Jessica says. “Really. Thank you, Katherine.”

“Seriously. It makes me envy that brain of yours.” Lilian says, and Katherine guesses that’s as much of a compliment she’s going to get from her.

“Yeah, well… you still did most of the work. How were your own reports?”

“Above average.” Olivia nods with a satisfied smile. “If we’d had more time, we could’ve made them better. It’s kind of frustrating now.”

“So you’re starting to get it.” Katherine giggles.

“I guess I am.” Olivia chuckles with her, and it’s the weirdest feeling.

…

There’s a short silence before Katherine turns serious again and starts talking.

“I asked you to come here because I want to settle things between us once and for all. Whether that’s for better or worse is up to you.” She says before taking a deep breath. “You three made my life miserable back in high school. You know that, right?”

Olivia nods. There’s no shame in her eyes, but neither is she defiant. She’s simply acknowledging she’s aware of what they did. Katherine can appreciate that more than fake regret, at least.

“Because of you, people spoke ill of me. They mocked me and laughed at me. I lost all my confidence.” Katherine starts shaking a bit at the memories, but she stands firm. “And then you somehow ended up in the same pre-university academy as me. I bet if you hadn’t been busy tormenting David you would’ve gone for me, instead.”

“Probably.” Lilian admits, looking away.

“I know a lot has happened. I know you’re at least trying to change. But still, to this day I keep asking myself: ‘Why? Why did it have to be me!?’” Katherine’s voice starts getting louder. “What did I ever do to you that you had to make my life a living hell!?”

“…” Olivia takes a deep breath before she answers. “If you had wanted to, you could’ve become to the most popular girl in school. You had the looks, the personality and the brains for it. You could’ve had anyone doing whatever you wanted. And we couldn’t have that.” Olivia says, biting her lip. “We know what it’s like when someone has all that influence, and if we didn’t want to be the victims, we had to be the criminals. We aimed for you because you were a threat. You already had confidence issues, so it wasn’t difficult.”

“…” Katherine clicks her tongue.

“It wasn’t about whether or not you would’ve used your influence to abuse us or not.” Jessica adds.

“It was about not letting anyone but us have that kind of power.” Lilian says. “Because we didn’t want to go through all that shit again.”

Katherine bites her lip. “So it was okay to make everyone suffer so long as you were safe!?”

“Yes.” Olivia says. Her voice is… neutral. There’s no pride in it, no shame, no regret. It’s simply the way it was. “Perhaps things would’ve been different if we’d done something else. Perhaps the school wouldn’t have had any bullies. Who know?”

“But we didn’t think about anything else.” Lilian says.

“…It was only recently that we started asking ourselves these questions?” Jessica says. “What if we’d done things differently? What if we’d kept to ourselves? What if we’d become your friends, instead.”

“!!!” Katherine’s taken aback by that comment.

“David said it. We just kept making enemies instead of making friends.” Olivia grimaces. “Talking to you, like we are now, never even crossed our minds back then.”

“…”

It’s not like Katherine doesn’t understand. She felt something similar when she thought it would be better if Olivia had stayed on a comma after the accident so that she’d stop bothering her. The feeling, at least, she can understand.

But to act on it…

“We understand if you can’t forgive us.” Olivia says. “However, we can’t accept it.”

“W-What?”

“Don’t act like it’s a surprise. We’ve been clear from the start. We like David. And he was clear in saying that it was practically up to you and the other girls if we ever get a chance with him.”

Katherine lets out a heavy sigh. She’s so casual about it it’s annoying.

“…I guess that does bring me to my second point.” This time, Katherine glares at the three girls, who seem taken by surprise. “It shouldn’t be a surprise that I’m the most against that idea.”

“Y-Yeah. We figured.”

“I’m serious. I’m happy right now. More so than I’ve ever been. It’s enough to make me forget and maybe even forgive all you’ve done. But if you do anything to screw this up, if you somehow end up hurting any of us, I swear I will never forgive you.” Katherine speaks with, cold, restrained fury. There’s even a few tears forming in her eyes. “If it were only up to me, I wouldn’t take any chances. I would say no and it would remain that way. But that’s not how it works with us. The others feel like giving you a chance… So I will, too.”

“A-Are you sure?” Jessica asks, her lip quivering slightly.

“No. I’m not sure. I’m full of doubts. I wish I could be as forgiving and trusting as David, but I’m not. It’s true that seeing the effort you put into the assignment helped a lot, but it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen you act like you care about something. So let’s just say that, from now on, I’m watching you with a healthy amount of skepticism.”

Olivia chuckles. “You know, after seeing how trusting David is, being treated like this is kind of refreshing.”

“What can I say? I probably wouldn’t trust myself either.” Lilian shrugs.

“Watch us, Katherine.” Jessica giggles. “We want our shot at happiness as well.”

Katherine sighs. “That’s… fair, yeah, but why did it have to be him?”

“You know why.” Olivia tells her, crossing her arms.

“Yeah, I know perfectly well why.” The redhead shakes her head. “Then if you’re set on this, there are two things I want you to keep in mind.”

“What is it?” Lilian asks.

“First. Give some thought to the reason it’s feels natural that David can have several girlfriends. Second, remember what I said about magic powers. If you find that you’re uncomfortable with the idea, then stay away from him and look for a boyfriend somewhere else.”

That’s the most she can do. David will want to tell them about the multiplier eventually, but somehow she doubts these three will take it as well as everyone else. At least, not if they don’t humor the idea for a little bit before.

They just need to keep it in mind and ponder it. Consider the what ifs. Soon, they should come to realize that a man with a harem should be unnatural, but somehow doesn’t feel like it. That should be enough to make them start believing in the possibility that there’s something supernatural at play.

And if they can’t accept that there’s a chance that something like that might be having an effect on their feelings, then it’s best if they stay way. The last thing David needs is to be guilt-tripped into thinking he mind-controlled them.

“That’s all I wanted to say.” Katherine says, suddenly feeling extremely tired.

“Then is it okay if we say something now?” Olivia asks.

“Sure.”

Olivia takes a deep breath, shares a glance with her friends and then gives Katherine a wry smile.

“I know we told you our reasons for doing what we did. But, for what is worth… we’re sorry. It won’t change anything, but I wish we could’ve done things differently in the past.”

“You’re a lot cooler when you act like you did just now.” Lilian says. “I think we would’ve been good friends if we hadn’t been complete idiots.”

“We just hope it’s not too late.” Jessica adds, mirroring her friends’ smiles.

…

Dammit. It really isn’t fair.

“…I’ll keep that in mind.”

______________________________________________________________

The minute school ends, Katherine approaches you and asks if she can go to your place because she needs some serious pampering. She looks tired and you’ve never been one to deny your girls pampering, so of course you tell her yes.

Then Sophia said she wanted to come as well. Megan and Emily said they’d be up for it too. And apparently, having overheard, the four working women of the group talked in private and sent a message to the group chat saying they’d be at your place after work.

You weren’t planning on having a meeting like this, but it just happened. What’s more, Katherine just laughed and said it was better this way.

So for now it’s you and your four schoolmates in your room. You’re cuddling with Katherine in bed, planting soft kisses along her neck while she simply relaxes. Sophia and Emily are using your compute and Megan is sitting at the edge of the bed, looking over you and Katherine.

“So you spoke to them, huh?” Megan asks the redhead.

“Yeah. I kind of wanted to just yell at them at first, but then I lost the will.” Katherine sighs. “I did say the things I needed to say, though.”

“I’m proud of you.” You tell her, running a finger along her cheek.

“I’m proud of myself as well.” She giggles. “I might have been a little too harsh, though.”

“If anyone has the right to be harsh, it’s you.” Emily says, looking back.

“Yeah. You should’ve just yelled at them.” Sophia agrees.

“I told you. I wanted to at first, but after hearing them out I felt like it would a waste of breath.” Katherine insists. “Do you think I should’ve yelled at them, too?” She asks you.

“You should do whatever you need to get things off your chest. Short of punching them, of course. That’d be trouble.” You add.

“Yeah it would.” She giggles and hugs you tightly. “Aaah. I needed this. Those three really aren’t subtle about what they want from you.”

“Those three?” Emily asks, sounding skeptical.

“Yeah. Olivia, Lilian and Jessica. Who else would I be talking about?”

“I wonder about that.” The blonde sighs. “Jessica I know for sure. Olivia I believe. But Lilian? Somehow I don’t buy it.”

“You’re saying she doesn’t like David?” Sophia asks.

“No, I think she likes him.” Emily shakes her head.

“How could she not? Just look at him!” Megan giggles, and she’s totally saying that because your hair is a mess due to Katherine running her fingers around it.

“Charming.” Sophia giggles.

“Thanks.” You’ll take it.

“What I mean is, it feels like she’s just along for the ride because that’s what she always does. She’s always following Olivia, and I’m not one to criticize what other people do, but we’re talking about a serious relationship. She can’t just get into something like this on a whim. Not at this stage, specifically.”

“…Alright. I get what you mean.” Sophia nods in understanding.

Huh. Emily put into words something that had been bothering you but didn’t really though through. And she’s right. When you look at the AMA, her love score is there, but it’s a lot lower compared to the other girls.

Well, it’s not like you’ve interacted much with her. Jessica and Olivia have their reasons, but Lilian doesn’t seem to share them.

Is that something you should do anything about? Should you actively try for something with her? Is that something you really want? After all, it goes both ways. Since you’ve interacted little with Lilian, you don’t know much about her. She’s very cute and sexy, of course. But…

Your thoughts are interrupted by Katherine putting her ear against your head.

“Shhhh! Girls, if you keep quiet, I think I can hear the gears in his head working.” She says, making the others laugh.

“I just realized that what Emily said was right and that was what had been bothering me.” You explain. “I was wondering if that’s something I should do anything about.”

“You know what? Leave it to me.” Emily says. “It’s been bothering me too, and it may be better if one of us confronts her about it instead of you.”

“Do you girls agree?” You ask the, curious.

“I do, at least.” Katherine nods.

“Yeah. I don’t think we’re at the point where you can get a new girlfriend just to see if things work out.” Megan says.

“Exactly. Everyone already part of this relationship is really committed.” Sophia agrees. “If we assume Jessica and Olivia are really being honest, then we can believe they’re committed as well. Lilian, on the other hand, looks as if she’s just going along with her friends.”

“Then it’s decided. I’m talking to her soon.” Emily nods.

“Do you need backup?” Sophia asks her.

“Mmm… More than two would be too much, but if Megan goes with me we can do some good cop/bad cop kind of thing.”

“Sure. I’ll be the bad cop.” Megan asks.

“You couldn’t pull it off even if you wanted to.” You tell her.

“I totally could!” She pouts adorably.

“Mmm… I don’t see it.” You shake your head.

“Don’t make me bring the cuffs, mister!”

The door suddenly opens and all of you turn to see Julia there with the other women behind her.

“I heard something about cuffs. You’re going at it already?” The blonde teacher asks.

“Megan wants to cosplay as a cop.” Katherine says.

“Wha-!? I didn’t say that!” She argues, but then narrows her eyes as she contemplates. “Although it doesn’t sound like a terrible idea…”

“Sheesh. We just got here and things are already going there?” Mia laughs. “Can’t you hold it for five minutes?”

“We’ve been good while we waited for you all.” Emily says. “We’ve been talking, mostly.”

“Anything we need to hear?” Julia asks her sister.

“Yeah, kind of.”

You all summarize the conversation you just had for those arriving before spending yet another evening together.