I was sitting in the classroom listening to Chabashira-sensei's lecture. The day before yesterday, we found out a shocking truth about this school. We found out that our behavior affects our points and we also found out that our points spending determines how many points we have left, so everyone in the class more or less started to behave except for one student. It was Suzuki-kun, the same person who had warned us about this. Why did he tell us that and is now sleeping? Does he have a specific motive? I'll only find out if I approach him myself and ask.
"With that, we'll end our lecture," Chabashira-sensei said. For the past two days since May 1, I've tried to approach Suzuki-kun, but every time I tried, he had simply disappeared. Since no one has ever been in his room, no one knows his room number. Now that he was going home, the timing was perfect. I rose from my seat, but then...
"Hirata-kun, can we go shopping today?" asked Karuizawa.
"Sorry, I have something to do today."
"Eh? Really? What can be more important than your own girlfriend?" Soon, other girls came up to me as well. I wasn't able to do that today.
When I got back to my dorm, I started to come up with a plan. It took a long time, but after 3 hours I came up with something.
The next day. I asked Karuizawa to make her friends stay in the class after lessons. I also asked Kushida-san to write to everyone except Suzuki-kun and asked her to make them listen to me. I felt terrible for scheming behind Suzuki-kun's back, but it was necessary to keep the class united.
"Can you all please listen to me for a bit?" I asked everyone in the class. Everyone looked at me.
"I've been thinking about how we could unify our class and I need all of you to cooperate with me."
"Cooperate with you?" Asked one of the girls in the class.
"Yes. I was thinking that if we want to reach class A and won't be called defects anymore, we should unite."
"Unite? Hirata-kun, what are you talking about?" Asked Karuizawa.
"I've come up with a plan that involves Suzuki-kun to make everyone friends again. I want all of you to apologize to him."
"Huh? Why should we do that?" asked one of the boys. It was Sudo-kun.
"Hirata-boy. You guys can do this if you want, but I don't see any reason why I should." Said Koenji. He lifted his eyes from a mirror.
"Well, it involves a whole class and reaching Class A..."
"Personally, I have no desire to move up to Class A. I'm beautiful no matter what class I'm in. Do what you want, but leave me out of it." He said as he started to look at the mirror again.
Most of the boys left the classroom and there were fewer people left. I asked them and they agreed, albeit reluctantly, to cooperate. If at least some of our classmates are willing to befriend Suzuki-kun, then that's fine. I don't want to see him alone, I don't want to see the same thing I saw in middle school. I have to avoid it at all costs.
The next day, I approached him while walking to the corridor.
(Below Suzuki Tai's perspective)
"Wait!" I heard a man's voice. It was Hirata. He was quite exhausted and breathing heavily from running towards me. But why was he doing that? Is it something important? We'll find out soon enough, I guess.
"Hirata, do you need something?" I asked.
"Can I go home with you? I need to tell you something," he said.
"Um, sure, I guess. But is it really okay? What will the classmates think? If the most hated person and the most popular person were to be seen together, it wouldn't be good for you. You could be hated too, you know that?" I said this. What was he thinking about leaving all those girls? You had a chance to spend your entire day with the girls in class and you came to talk to me? Knowing Hirata, I wasn't that surprised.
"Don't worry about it, it'll be fine. "
"If you say so." We started walking to our dorms.
"So, what do you want to talk to me about?" I asked him again. What was so important that you could leave your classmates and approach a guy like me? I guess a very serious conversation is about to begin.
"I am very sorry for the behavior of my classmates at the beginning of school! I hope it will be water under the bridge and we can become friends again." Hirata bowed. He sounded polite. It was a bit weird and since we hadn't left school yet, some people were looking at us confused. Come on dude, get a clue. But wait, why is he apologizing? First of all, what's done is done, I don't care that much. And second, he didn't say a word to me when it all started, so there's no reason for him to apologize. Is he doing this for the sake of the classmates?
"No need to sound so formal. You didn't do anything wrong, so there's no need to apologize." People went their separate ways and soon the corridor was empty.
"Our classmates treated you terribly. At first, I didn't know if what you said was true or not, but I had a hunch. When I found out the truth about it, I was just as shocked as everyone else."
"So that's why you didn't say anything," I thought. He didn't want to take anyone's side because he didn't know how it would affect the class itself. With just one wrong decision, he could tear the entire class apart, so he did what he's known for (at least in the Light Novel), which is being neutral.
"Yes. I didn't know what to do or which side to take. I'm very sorry about that." Said Hirata.
"So, you just came here to apologize?" I asked when we were near the dorms. Had he come just to apologize? It didn't look like it, at least.
"Actually, no. I want to be a bridge between the class and you and make it up to you somehow."
"Make it up to me?"
"Yes. You see, I told my classmates that we're the students in the same class and we shouldn't fight."
"But will this really work?" I asked.
"Don't worry about it. I told them that your intentions were good, and they agreed to be friends again. So what do you say?" You did what? Ah, Hirata. Who asked you to do that? But Hirata, you missed one thing. Did you really think it could just become water under the bridge just like that? Naive. Too naïve.
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I'll have to decline your offer," I told him.
"So you won't forgive no matter what?" Tch. Hirata, you're getting annoying, you know that?
"It's not about forgiving. It's about timing. Don't you see the bigger picture?"
"The bigger picture?"
"First of all, no classmate has ever come to talk to me since that time. No one has even looked at my side. It's like I was a ghost, one time I was there, and the other - I wasn't there anymore. I'm not necessarily against it, but I'm not for it either. No one bothered to come along this time either, which makes me think that they're not particularly motivated."
"But they agreed—"
"Listen, as someone who hates conflict, get this in your head and never forget it: it's easy to get into an argument, but getting out of it is the toughest job."
"The toughest job?" He asked. Hirata, you are the person who hates conflict. You're the person who saw your friend get bullied, and that's why you wanted to stop it from happening again. But Hirata, life isn't that simple. You can create an argument without doing anything, but you have to overturn the mountains to get out of it. Even in this school, we have a very good example of that, Horikita. She was hated at first, so much so that she was almost bullied. But then she showed her class what she is capable of. She helped Sudo, "won" the uninhabited island exam, etc. So people started to like her more. On the other hand, I have no desire to move up to Class A, nor do I have any reason to prove my worth to them by showing them the results.
"Go back to class Hirata, you won't succeed," I said.
"But think about it." Asked Hirata. I didn't say anything to him. I just turned around and went home.
"Wait, please!" I stopped. I turned around and looked into his eyes. Those eyes weren't my normal eyes. They were also different from Ayanokouji's. These contained pure anger and darkness in them. When was the last time I had them? I can't remember. Ah, it makes me remember that time.
Hirata retreated. He was trembling. He was so shocked that it looked like he had seen a ghost. He wasn't able to say anything, he just stood there like a statue. I turned around and was about to leave. Then I heard Hirata take a deep breath as he lamented his final words.
"If you don't want to do this, that's fine. But please think about it for a while. I want to help you." Help me? Are you an idiot? Do you think I'm going to listen to your squabble? Not in the least. I don't care that my classmates hate me, and I don't care if we're friends or not. I can't stand all those talks about friendship and whatnot, they are making me annoying.
With that, I walked away, leaving Hirata puzzled.
(Hirata's perspective below)
I saw them. That person's eyes. They were dark, no, the word "dark" was too soft to describe them. I was trembling. I couldn't move an inch. It felt like a criminal was looking at me. I was too scared to move. It wasn't Suzuki-kun, it was an entirely different person. I stood like that for two whole minutes until he just turned away.
Since I couldn't see them again, I took a deep breath and managed to calm down a little. I lamented a few more sentences, but he had already left. When I saw that he was gone, I went back to class. I was still shaking, but I did everything I could to hide this from my classmates. If they found out that Suzuki-kun did this, the situation could get even worse than it is now. I told my classmates that I wasn't feeling well today and went home. While I was coming back, I was thinking about what could have happened to him. The fact that there was a possibility that he was really a criminal made me shake even more. I went to my dorm room, drank a cup of tea, and started to prepare for tomorrow.
Exclaimer: The story might be a bit rushed and a bit unrealistic in a few places, but hey, it's just .5 chapter. These chapters more or less will be short stories about character development/finding something more about them or holidays.
I do not own Classroom of the elite original story.
All credits go to the original author, Syougo Kinugasa.
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