There had been two occasions during his final year at Kunigigaoka where he blushed, and if he had to pick one of those occasions to relive, it'd be the second, no contest.

It was Rio who gave Karma the initiative to do it, after they watched Kaede give an unusable —for blackmail of course— performance in giving her chocolates to Nagisa. "You know how Okuda-san is bad at speaking, right?"

"Yeah, but she's been imroving; her poem the other day was really good, minus my editing, and it took a lot of courage to read it out loud," he was always so ready to defend her or point out good things about her in recent days that it made Rio snicker a little. In fact, everyone in class E knew that if you wanted to know something about Manami without asking her directly, myou'd go to Karma, and vice versa. Views varied from it being cute to it being the sweetest thing they ever saw! (Hinano Kurahashi was an outlier)

"Well," Rio carried the word for a few notes, "she might've meant to tell you those chocolates she made were for you, not for you to give to Terasaka-kun"

"Pffft, no way; she told me herself what she meant."

"Aww, c'mon Karma-kun, don't you ever just think about her and how you just wished she'd give you chocolates today?" Rio could hear the doubt in his wordless voice that looked for accurate words, like music to her ears. She and Karma may have been on good terms, but one of them would never turn up the chance to make fun of the other. Plus his reaction was absolute gold

"Okuda-san and I are nothing more than friends, if she gave me any then they'd be strictly obligatory," he declared, the firmness of his posture dampening as he realized what he said. This didn't go unnoticed.

"And then tomorrow you'd give her some chocolate, strictly obligatory?

"Y-yeah."

Rio purred, "alrighty." She started to make a mental map of where he would possibly pull Manami aside and, with the grace of a horse on ice, give her chocolate tomorrow. She knew he would, now that she mentioned it.

"So what's the plan for tomorrow, Karma-kun?" Koro-sensei nonchalantly asked, tentacle to his mouth as his face turned scarlet with delight. He fully approved of Manami and Karma getting tgether, in fact he was ecstatic! His cool confidence and her shy quirkiness made for interesting fanfiction material as, "Karma-kun would become the bad boy bureaucrat with a soft heart and Okuda-san a gentle housewife and confidently capable chemist! I can just smell the money coming with the scene where Karma-kun confesses; earning a kiss from Okuda-san who accepts without hesitation in my newest—" If Koro-sensei weren't so fast he would've actually been hurt as Karma drew out his anti-sensei knife and dug it into what became a cloud of dust.

"Quit talking you dumb octopus! Get busy dying!" Karma shouted.

"Is that a blush on your cheeks, Karma-kun?" Rio stared, wide eyes and wide smile as she inspected.

"No!" He got up and stormed off, shoving his hands in his pockets.

There was a moment of quiet before Rio started, "think I went too far?"

Koro-sensei came down from his perch on the ceiling to reply, "I think a little teasing is good for Karma-kun, as he on occasion gets a good bit air headed, which can only be brought down by humiliation or someone directly pointing it out."

"I guess so, it was pretty funny to watch him get so up in arms about Okuda-san."

"By the way," Koro-sensei's eyes glinted with mischief, "do you have anyone you'd like to give chocolates to? Or hope that a certain someone would give you some tomorrow? I know Okajima-kun has been teasing Sugaya-kun into doing it all day!"

"Shut up!"

Karma couldn't stop cursing himself out as he stepped into the store that night and actually took a few minutes to find something decent for Manami, who he tried his damnedest to view in a completely platonic light, arguing against his desire to kiss her on the nose and tell her he loved her and literally wed her and—

"If you're gonna growl at the aisle Karma-kun at least do it so you're not in the way."

"Isogai-kun?" Karma blinked and relaxed his features as he saw the class rep, who laughed awkwardly.

"Is something wrong?" Karma's eyes trailed to the floor, "are you looking for something for white day too?"

"Heh, I bet you can't afford to buy chocolates for all the girls who gave you some today, Isogai-kun."

Yuuma winced a little but laughed that off too, "I'm actually just looking for something for Kataoka-san, as a thank you gift, you know?" He started to browse through the aisle's stock, squatting to take a quick look.

Karma nodded, then he bit the inside of his lip before he asked,

"Do you like Kataoka-san?"

Yuuma turned up to face Karma, "what do you mean? Of course I like Kataoka-san."

"I mean more than a friend."

"Oh," Yuuma's lips pursed for a second before he responded, "not in particular. She's a close friend and all, but another friend of mine is already kind of head-over-heels for her, and I couldn't disturb that, even if I wanted to," Yuuma smiled, "I want her to be happy, you know?"

Ikemen" Karma thought. "But Karma-kun, what're you doing here?"

"Uh! I'm just here for a drink!"

"You sure? Because the drinks are on the other side of the store..."

Karma groaned, "I'm looking for some chocolate for, someone, tomorrow."

"Okuda-san, right?"

"UGH." The store owner looked over with concern. It went quiet for a minute but Karma didn't notice.

"Wow, you make it sound like you hate her or something." Yuuma said.

Karma's eyebrows narrowed, "hate her? How could I hate her? I just don't want to admit that I love her tomorrow and that I'm afraid she'll reject me."

Yuuma opened his mouth but Karma stopped him, "I was hoping there'd be enough sarcasm for you to be able to not take it seriously but I guess not."

"Yeah..."

"Just leave me to wallow in my sorrow, Isogai-kun."

Yuuma stood up and put his hand on Karma's shoulder, "just tell her how you feel, Karma-kun, she's bound to at least feel flattered, and that would be satisfying enough."

Karma smiled, "you're right, ikemen."

"I'm glad to have helped," Yuuma responded, leaving to pay for his gift and an extra help for his hopelessly-in-love friend.

Karma looked over the array of chocolates and decided on what to pick, feeling an unusual sense of confidence and excitement with the drum of his heart.

"Okuda-san!" He called out, heart in his mouth as she turned around, unassuming but kind-eyed. She trusted him more than Nagisa would, it felt natural. He was glad he caught her alone in a hall.

"What do you need, Karma-kun?" Her voice was soft like a flower petal and oh my gosh look at how the sunlight brings out the color in her eyes and there's even a bit of make up on her cheeks it's clumsy but it's endearingly cute oh my gosh.

"I uh, it's uh, it's white day today, right?"

"Mhm."

"Oh, good, that's good."

"Karma-kun are you feeling okay? You're stammering and you look like you're getting a fever, I've never seen you act like this before," Manami put her hand on his forehead, he was bright red!

"I'm fine, I just, want to give you this." He looked away as he handed her the tiny box of chocolates, attached to it a note that said "I got my ion you! From, Karma-kun."

"Huh? Huh?" Manami took the box and turned it over in her hands, reading the tag and laughing a little as she matched Karma's color.

"Are you alright?" He asked her.

"Of course! I just need to ah— I need to apologize!"

"Why?"

"I didn't give you anything yesterday."

"That's alright, Okuda-san, I'm just happy you like it."

"I love it, Karma-kun! I really love it."

"And I love you."

Manami gasped and stopped breathing at the same time.

"I was hoping my French accent would be good enough to make it sound like a joke but I guess not."

Manami laughed, then she started to tear up, then she started to cry while she laughed.

"Okuda-san?!" He said, reaching out a hand to her face. But beforehand she managed to give him a kiss on the cheek. Only one-hit, but it was super effective. "You're just too cute!" Karma-kun laughed as he put his arms around her waist.

"You're both too cute!" Koro-sensei sobbed as he used four tentacles to stay on the ceiling, two to write at Mach speed, and one to wipe a tissue against his eyes. He offered a tissue to Manami before he noticed the knife in his notebook.

"You're lucky I'm not Okano-san, Koro-sensei." Karma had a glare in his eyes that told Koro-sensei to run. Manami couldn't help but laugh.

"Did he do it, Okuda-san?" A voice asked.

"You were right! He did! Thank you Nakamura-san!"

"Fu fu fu, thank you Okuda-san," Rio popped up into the window view, inspecting her muse's face with her fingers on Manami's cheeks. "You started to cry!"

"It was spur of the moment type thing!"

"Aw, then it's okay, but you should go after him! He'll tire himself out running after Koro-sensei!"

"You're right! I'll go get him a drink for when that happens, thank you so much, Nakamura-san!"

Rio crossed her arms in satisfaction, knowing she won't get tired of the recording she took of that little scene. She smiled to herself, "her conversation skills are getting better, aren't they?"