Okay, now we're back at the beginning of the novel. It's the middle of the chapter, and the narrator is talking to the girls. He's not sure why they're hanging out so much, but he's pretty sure it's because they've been hanging out with his brother's new girlfriend, furuya kun. He wants to hang out with them, but the girls aren't having it. The narrator asks the girls if they have crushes on anyone besides furuya, and they all admit that they do. The girls start to tease the narrator about his crush, and he asks them to tell him if they'd like him to tell them if they didn't like him. He doesn't want to hear about it, because he wants to let furuya win. But the girls don't seem to have a problem with that, and so the narrator tells them to chill out. He tells the girls that he wants them to get along with each other, since he thinks they'll get along someday, but if they keep acting like this, he'll never be able to get any closer to them.