I too had this feeling, and I've been thinking for a while now that Rui was already in love with Sara before chapter one, so your comment made me go and look back at these two pages. Now my theory is that both Rui and Sara must have been present at the very same love ball. Maybe Rui had a love-at-first-sight moment with Sara, and decided she wanted to be the belle fleur because of how lovingly Sara was looking at that girl.
Thanks a lot for the translation!
Especially when you consider Rui's questioning Sara's reasoning for wanting to be the Belle Fleur - "aren't you already loved by a lot of people, Sara-san?" (p.18)
And then you have her expression on p.19 in response to Sara stating how not achieving the title means no one would spare her a second glance -- "especially if the one who beats me is [Rui]."
Culminating in p.20, where Rui refutes her: "...That's simply not true. There are people out there who genuinely care about you. They wouldn't turn their backs on you over a silly title."
Again, easy to make conjecture this early on. But they're in the same year -- so they're roughly the same age. I think they were both at the same ceremony and saw the same Belle Fleur winner, and Rui very easily could have spied Sara--had a "she's so pretty" reaction,
and as you said, saw Sara looking at the Belle Fleur, and wanted to be looked at in the same way.
And it would sorta explain how much of a contrast there is in Rui, when it's her "polished mask" as a SC member, and when she lewds out against Sara in private. She's got an excuse, from Sara herself, to act on any desires or fantasies she has maybe held inside her all this time, on the actual target of her affections.
Plus, there's narrative potential in Rui always having been in love with Sara. Sara just wants a harem of girls who are dedicated to her. She's targeting Rui now, so that she can "keep her enemy close" and make Rui slip up and effectively lose out on the Belle Fleur contest by way of sullying her reputation via "falling for Sara".
So having Rui
actually love Sara, but still participating in this farce of a relationship as a means of getting to be with her crush--even if it's a performance and contest with no substance behind it--adds some fun layers to the relationship and the history between them. And Rui would be in a position to try to
actually make Sara fall for her in turn, and it may become less about the contest, and more about trying to genuinely get Sara as her own.
And the fact that Sara still wants to just chase girls because she thinks all girls are cute, could signal jealousy and possessive scenarios down the line. Like Sara flirting with a kouhai "in public" as part of who she is, and Rui fighting to repress her jealousy and letting the mask slip, type thing.
Obviously we'll have to wait and see, but the dynamic of Rui being actually in love and Sara only seeing this as a means to her goal, and that tension underneath their interactions, would make for some fun and interesting plot points.
