Chapter 7: The Ordinary Days Come to an End
Almost a week has passed since the eventful day at our swimming class. Our class had eventually settled into a routine. For the most part, I spent the days lazily hanging out with my group within the class. I wasn't what you would call a social person, but it didn't feel bad having a group to hang out with.
When the Hirata and the girls would go out, I would sometimes accompany them when they invited me, just for the sake of not wanting to snub them. It wouldn't look nice if I declined them, especially during times when the majority of our group would hang out.
"Ayanokōji-kun, you really don't spend that many points, huh?"
Matsushita peered at me from where she was seated in Pallet. Her drink of preference, assam black tea with a little milk and sugar, was in front of her along with a slice of strawberry shortcake.
"That's right, Ayanokōji-kun. You've been really looking like a miser lately. I don't recall you spending anything when we go out aside from your share of the karaoke... and you didn't even sing then!" Azuma exclaimed.
The three of us were holding a large table while the rest of the group were still lining up at the counter. Since we were a large group, some of us went ahead to order so that other people wouldn't accidentally claim our tables while we were still at the counter.
As for myself, I had merely opted to get a glass of cold water. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was free and was still refreshing.
"That's because I don't really have anything I want to particularly buy."
"That can't be true! Your room is barebones!"
Earlier in the day, there wasn't much to do, so our group decided to go out and have some fun. I wanted to pass since it was a Sunday, but Matsushita and Azuma decided to drag me out of my room.
Well... it was more of Azuma than Matsushita. Matsushita had stayed outside of the room while Azuma had barged in and decided to wake me up. Since it was the weekend, I wanted to sleep in, but that seemed to be out of the question.
"In the first place, how did you even get in? I'm sure I locked the door last night."
"Fu fu fu. You want to know how I got in?" Azuma teased me with a smug grin on her face. "Jya-jyan¹!'
From her pocket, she pulled out a key... which suspiciously looked like mine. Upon seeing it, I started patting down my pockets, looking for my own key. I could still feel in my pocket, which could only mean...
"Oi... where did you get a spare key?" I gave Azuma a suspicious look.
"It was easy! You just need to pay 1000 points, specify a room number, and wait a day, and voila! By the way, this only works for the rooms on the boys' floors. They have stricter requirements for the girls' floors, so it won't work unless it's the room owner."
Azuma had a mischievous grin as she dangled the spare key in front of me, but far enough that it was out of my reach.
"It's not like I care about the girls' rooms. Anyways, why would you want a spare key for my room?"
"Well, wouldn't it be nice if we could visit you every now and then?" she asked, with an innocent smile.
"Considering your antics, I can't say I trust you with my room key. Matsushita..."
"Yes, yes." Matsushita said, as she suddenly plucked the key from where Azuma was dangling it.
"How horrible! Why don't you two trust me?" she said, faking a cry.
Matsushita and I just gave each other a glance.
"I don't know... I seem to recall that you secretly placed wasabi in my sandwich two days ago when I already told you I don't like wasabi." Matsushita recalled.
"Or how about five days ago when you placed salt in the coffee you got for me?" I also added in.
"Hahaha. Was all that me? I don't seem to remember those..." she said, laughing nervously.
"Anyways, I can't do anything about the key now, but I trust Matsushita more, so she can keep the key for emergencies, I guess."
"Oh? Does this mean that you wouldn't mind me going into your room? How bold, Ayanokōji-kun. I didn't realize you saw me that way," Matsushita said in a teasing manner.
"Please spare me a little here."
"It seems that you three get along quite well," someone suddenly said.
The owner of the voice, Hirata, had come back with the rest of the group. They had finally gotten their drinks from the counter and were now sitting around the large table we were holding for the group.
"Too well, in my opinion," Karuizawa butted in. "You'd think that Ayanokōji-kun might have ulterior motives."
"Is that jealousy I hear, Karuizawa-san?" Azuma spoke up. "You're just being grumpy cause Ayanokōji-kun is willing to play with us more."
"Huh!? Why would I be jealous?"
"But, Karuizawa-san, you seem to have so much fun when you're arguing with Ayanokōji-kun," Kondō Saki² spoke up.
"Who would have fun with him!? Anyways, forget Ayanokōji-kun for a second. Where are we heading next?"
"Eh? We're still going out after this?" Kondō (S.) asked in surprise.
"Well, duh. The weekend is the perfect time to go shopping. We can take as long as we want to try out clothes or accessories."
"Yeah, yeah! Now that classes are done for the week, I just want to relax and have fun," Mori chimed in.
"Karuizawa-san, you seem to be spending a lot of points recently. Are you sure you're not spending more than necessary?" Hirata asked, concerned.
"It's fine. I'll still have around 40,000 points after today. We only have ten days left until we get points again, so there'll still be plenty left," Karuizawa said, waving off Hirata's concern.
"Is something wrong, Hirata?" I asked. Hirata seemed unusually uncomfortable at Karuizawa spending so much money so easily.
"Not really. I'm just a little worried about spending. It feels like if I spend so much, I'll get used to it easily."
"I kind of understand. We probably won't be able to get this much money so easily once we leave school. It's nice of the school to give us all these points for free."
"Huh? Could you repeat that again, Ayanokōji-kun?" Hirata suddenly said, surprised.
"We probably won't be able to get this much money so easily once we leave school?"
"Never mind. I thought of something for a second there, but it might just be me."
Hirata dropped the topic, but he looked a little uncomfortable even as we left Pallet. Afterwards, we accompanied the girls to their clothes shopping. Hirata and I didn't go into the store though, since we were pretty much dragged along to help carry their bags.
"Hirata, what's wrong? You've been quiet since earlier."
While waiting for the girls to finish, Hirata and I sat down at a bench in the main mall complex. I decided to ask him what was bothering him since he seemed a bit out of sorts since earlier.
"Ayanokōji-kun, do you... find anything odd with this school?" Hirata asked.
I thought about it for a while before giving him a response.
"Hmmm... well, outside of us not being allowed communication with the rest of the world, I suppose it's a bit odd how the teachers just let us do whatever we want in class. The point system is quite unique too."
"Yeah. I think so too. I didn't really pay attention to any of it before, but now that I think about it, doesn't something feel a little off? Like they're giving us a bit too much for absolutely nothing?"
"Is what I said earlier bothering you? I mean, this is the premier school of the country. It might just be their way of doing things."
"Even for the premier school, it seems a little too much. Wouldn't you normally think there's a catch to all this? Like having to maintain high grades?"
"I suppose? Well, at the very least, this place doesn't feel like a normal school."
Hirata was definitely on the right track. What I said at Pallet was just a matter of course for the conversation, but I didn't think he'd be on the tail of the truth so quickly. He's definitely someone with outstanding abilities, that's for certain.
I didn't say anything more as he seemed to be deep in thought. Finally, he ended up just giving me a small, uneasy smile.
"You're right. It would be weird for me to compare this school to others."
With that, the topic ended. Hirata and I just talked about normal topics such as his club and what we thought the girls would be buying, however, the entire time until the girls had finished, I could tell he was still bothered by the earlier topic.
The next day, at school, not much deviated from the normal. Classes still continued with people talking or coming in late. The teachers also continued to not care if the students were paying attention or not.
If anything was weird, it was that Hirata was a bit more fidgety than usual today. When our group went to the cafeteria for lunch, he took a bit more time ordering his food than usual.
"Hirata-kun, you took quite a long time to order lunch today, huh?" Sonoda mentioned.
Despite how long Hirata took at the ticket machine, he had gotten his regular order of a lunch special.
"Hahaha. I just felt like ordering something different for a change. I wasn't able to decide on what to get though, so I ended up ordering a normal lunch," Hirata said as he laughed a little nervously.
"What were you deciding on?" Ishikura asked.
"Maybe something like the Katsu Curry Set? Or the Deluxe Lunch Set?"
Hirata's options surprised most of us. As he's part of the Soccer Club, he's been quite health-conscious, picking only affordable lunches with good nutritional balance. However, the Katsu Curry Set and the Deluxe Lunch Sets were not only on the pricey side, but they either weren't very healthy, or had a lot more content than what Hirata would usually eat.
"Well, Hirata-kun is a boy. I suppose every now and then, he gets the urge to eat a lot," Ichihashi said.
The girls nodded at that, as if it was natural. For an athlete like Hirata, although you had to pay attention to your diet, it wouldn't be weird if you had cravings every now and then.
I wasn't very convinced, considering our earlier conversation, but there should be a reason for Hirata keeping everyone out of the loop, so I didn't say anything for the time being.
It was only after school that I decided to approach Hirata, who was leaving class and making his way to his club. However, before I could reach out to him, I was stopped by someone.
"Ayanokōji-kun, can I talk to you for a moment?"
The person who reached out to me was Kushida.
"Sorry Kushida, but I'm in kind of a rush," I said. I didn't want to just brush her off like that, but I was trying to run after Hirata.
"It'll only be for just a moment."
I took a look at the classroom door where Hirata had already exited from. I sighed a bit. I'll just talk to him tomorrow.
"Well, there goes my plans. I guess I could listen to you now. So, what's up?"
"Ayanokōji-kun, could you possibly... help me talk to Horikita-san?"
"Nope. Sorry. You're on your own for that one."
I gave a refusal right away. What Kushida was asking for was something I didn't want to deal with right now. Besides, I'm not sure if I could even help her in that regard.
"Ehh? Why?" she asked, astonished by my immediate reply.
"Kushida, I know you want to make friends with everyone, but not everyone will want to be friends with you. Horikita seems like the sort of person who just wants to be left alone."
"But isn't that sad? I don't want Horikita-san to feel lonely. If no one talks to her, she might be lonely her entire stay here. I think she wants a friend deep down, but can't express herself well."
I highly doubted that. Horikita didn't seem to have any problems communicating with people. She was able to verbalize herself well enough to push even someone like Hirata away.
"I don't think she'll be sad. In fact, she even told Hirata she preferred being alone."
"Still... I want to be able to be friends with Horikita-san. Can someone really prefer being alone? Ayanokōji-kun, can't you help me? You're the only one so far who can even talk with Horikita-san."
I sighed. I didn't know Horikita well enough to help Kushida with this issue. Even if I did help her, there's no guarantee that Horikita will talk to her.
"That depends. What do you have in mind?"
"Hmmm... how about you invite her to the cafe in Keyaki where you will coincidentally 'bump' into me?"
"Rejected. There's no way Horikita is going to fall for that. She seems way too smart for that."
"How about we talk about books with her? She might open up that way," Kushida suggested.
"That could work. She does seem to read a lot. By the way, what kind of books do you plan on talking to her about?"
"...Shōjo manga?" Kushida gave a nervous smile as she answered.
"Yeah. You better forget about it. From what I've seen from her, she reads pretty complex literary works. Shōjo manga isn't gonna cut it. Isn't there something you have in common? Maybe something like visiting the same places? Although, that probably wouldn't be the case unless you lived relatively close to each other."
"Ah..."
Kushida got an idea, but quickly shut her mouth.
"You got an idea?" I asked her. She seemed to have thought of something, but didn't seem to want to say it.
"Maybe... but I don't think it would work."
Kushida gave a vague explanation, which made me a little curious about what she could have possibly thought of. Still, if she thought it wouldn't work, then she probably had already considered an approach before.
"Well, I don't really know her enough to think of other ideas at the moment. Sorry, but I don't think I can be of much help."
"It's okay, Ayanokōji-kun. It's probably a little tough to think of a good idea on the spot. When I think of an idea, would you be willing to assist me then?"
I wasn't fully adverse to the idea of helping Kushida, but it would probably be best to give her realistic advice here if she really wanted to succeed.
"Sure, if the idea seems like it could work. However, I suggest you don't think of ideas that are too pushy or forced. In the worst case scenario, Horikita would just totally stop talking to us. I don't really care too much about not being able to talk to her, but if I'm your last hope of connecting to her, I suggest you don't ruin the already shaky relationship between us."
"Okay, Ayanokōji-kun."
Kushida backed down and seemed to accept my suggestion, but if she's that desperate to befriend Horikita, it would be hard to tell if she would actually follow through on that. Well, it wouldn't really affect me since I don't really care too much about Horikita outside of our rare conversations as neighbors.
The day ended without any further incident, although I couldn't help but be worried about the behaviors of both Hirata and Kushida.
April 22rd, Wednesday.
The day proceeded like any other day. During lunch break, Hirata and the others I usually eat with had gone ahead to reserve a table in the cafeteria. I was held back a bit as the guys of the class had invited me to go watch a recently released action movie with them. We were just quickly going over the details of what showing we would go to when a small incident occurred in the classroom.
"Horikita-san, do you want to eat lunch with us?"
Brimming with positivity, Kushida had gone straight up to Horikita's desk to invite her to eat lunch with her group.
It was already the third day in a row that she had done this. The first two times, she had been rejected promptly by Horikita, who then proceeded to mind her own business. The same thing happened again today, but a noticeable change happened for today's events.
Instead of answering, Horikita stood up instead, carrying her bento with her. Kushida was smiling really widely, thinking that she had finally gotten through to her. However, that angelic smile faded when Horikita instead brushed past her and moved to exit the classroom.
"Wait. Horikita-san, where are you going?"
Horikita kept walking, ignoring Kushida this time. However, possibly because Kushida was already cruelly rejected twice, one of Kushida's friends, Maezono, reached out to Horikita and grabbed her by the sleeve to prevent her from leaving.
"Hey, you, isn't it a bit rude to just leave without saying anything? Kushida-san was even nice enough to invite you."
Despite being held back by Maezono, Horikita just sighed.
"I don't see the point in having to repeat my answer day after day. It should be obvious by now that my answer is no."
It was a fairly standard Horikita answer. Normally, Maezono would just ignore her rudeness, but this time, her patience had reached its limit. Maezono removed her arm for Horikita's sleeve and grabbed her by the front of her blazer.
"You know, I don't care whether you eat with us or not. Frankly, I'd rather you not eat with us if you're going to act like this... but Kushida-san wants to become friends with you, so I'm holding back my own wishes for her sake. However, it just pisses me off that you're just ignoring her so blatantly."
"Maezono-san, please calm down!" Kushida tried to pacify Maezono, to no avail.
Horikita grabbed Maezono's hand and wrenched it open, releasing herself from Maezono's grasp. She then fixed her blazer and glared at Maezono.
"What Kushida-san wants has nothing to do with me. Personally, I think that it's preposterous that she's forcing herself onto me when I've clearly said no already. If you could convince her to stop trying to befriend me, I'd very much appreciate that. Now, if you'll excuse me, my lunch period is slowly being wasted here."
Horikita turned around and moved to leave the classroom, but Maezono was having none of that. She grabbed the back of Horikita's blazer and pulled hard, preventing Horikita from leaving the classroom.
Surprised by the sudden force being exerted on the back of her uniform, Horikita's grasp on her bento slackened. The force of her being pulled back towards Maezono made her lose her grasp on her bento and it slipped out of her hand.
The bento crashed down on the floor of the classroom. Due to the impact, the lid opened and the bento's contents spilled everywhere.
Among the people who had remained behind, not one person could say a word. The silence that permeated the classroom could only be described as deafening. In the midst of that scene, Inogashira and Mii-chan stood up quietly, excusing themselves to get a broom to sweep the contents of Horikita's lunch from the floor.
"H-Horikita-san... I-I didn't mean to...," Maezono stuttered as she tried to explain herself.
She probably didn't intend to go that far, but had been too caught up in the moment to regulate the amount of strength she used.
Horikita did not say anything as she picked up her bento box from the floor, leaving the contents behind. She quietly packed her bento box away, before moving to leave the classroom. Before her figure disappeared past the door, she said one last thing.
"Don't concern yourself with me from now on. Kushida-san too."
As she left the classroom, no one could say or do anything. Even Kushida, who had kept trying to approach Horikita all this time, couldn't do anything but watch her leave. It was understandable considering that it was Kushida's own friend who had started the entire scene, however, Kushida wouldn't do something like blame Maezono for what happened.
"How... how could this have happened?"
If Kushida had previously had any hope of befriending Horikita, those hopes had just disappeared. After what had happened in the classroom, it would take a miracle for Horikita to even want to talk to Kushida.
"Kushida-san... I'm sorry. It's all my fault."
Maezono apologized to Kushida, bowing her head as far as it could go. Although Maezono didn't like Horikita much, she had just ruined Kushida's hope of befriending her. That was why she was apologizing, because she had inadvertently hurt her friend because of her actions.
"That's not true, Maezono-san... I think... it was my fault for trying too hard. I knew Horikita-san just wanted to be left alone, but I pushed her too far and invaded her personal space too much."
By this point, Inogashira and Mii-chan had finished cleaning up the mess in the classrooms with the brooms they had brought back. However, upon hearing their friend depressed, they tried to cheer her up as much as possible.
"That's not true, Kushida-san. I think it was quite noble of you to try to befriend Horikita-san when no one else wanted to. I'm sure you'll get your chance!" Mii-chan exclaimed.
"Y-yes! I'm sure Horikita-san will come around sometime," Inogashira said.
"Everyone... arigatō³." The four girls had a group hug, with Maezono and Kushida having tears in their eyes. Although the incident had left Kushida with no further way to approach Horikita anymore, the girls' bonds seem to have strengthened even further.
"Friends... I wonder if we will end up as close as that."
With those thoughts, I left the classroom to go eat with my own friends.
Upon entering the cafeteria, I spotted the table where the others were seated. Some of them were already eating, but I didn't see Hirata with them. As I approached them, Azuma waved to me.
"Ayanokōji-kun! You took a while, huh? We were about to go find you."
"Sorry. Something big happened back in the classroom that delayed me."
"And what exactly happened that was big enough to keep us waiting for you?" Karuizawa said in a snarky tone. "Actually, never mind. It was probably some stupid boy stuff that we wouldn't be able to understand."
"Eh? But Karuizawa-san, you say that, but weren't you the one who was asking where Ayanokōji-kun was the most?" Matsushita teased.
"T-that's... it would be quite rude if Ayanokōji-kun arrived only for all of us to have already finished eating. Who would be worried about him?"
"Ara? But I never said anything about being worried."
Karuizawa blushed heavily and started to give even more excuses. Meanwhile, Ishikura leaned closer to me and whispered.
"Don't mind Kei-chan too much, Ayanokōji-kun. She's just embarrassed because she actually views you as a friend," she told me while giggling a bit.
"Ishikura-san! What are you saying!? Who would be friends with this guy?"
While the girls were having fun messing with Karuizawa, I asked Sonoda where Hirata was since he was absent. I definitely recall that he had left the classroom with the group, so it was a little odd that he wasn't with them now.
"Hirata-kun? I think he's still thinking of what to order for his food," she said, as she pointed out Hirata's location near the meal ticket machines to me.
I thanked her before moving to where he was. Hirata was leaning on a wall near the meal ticket vending machines, quietly observing as people lined up and picked their meals of choice.
I quietly moved next to him and casually started a conversation.
"You seem to have been here for quite some time. It must be hard picking a good meal to eat, huh?"
"I guess. I want to keep my diet balanced as much as possible, but every now and then, even I would want to buy something extravagant," Hirata replied, not even a bit surprised at my sudden arrival.
"That's true, but you've been saying the same thing for the last three days. Isn't it time that you confess what's on your mind? I find it had to believe that it would take you three entire days to actually think of a meal to splurge on."
"That couldn't possibly be the case. I just find it hard to choose since there's a lot of good things to choose from," Hirata denied.
"Well, you've been acting quite suspiciously ever since we went out with the girls last Sunday. They aren't saying anything, but the others are starting to get worried about you."
"Is that so? I apologize for worrying them, if that's the case."
I stared at Hirata for a second, observing his expression, before sighing.
"Well, if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine as well. We're here to listen to you anytime, you know."
"Thank you, Ayanokōji-kun... besides, I think that I've come to a conclusion already."
"A conclusion? And that is...?"
"Yeah, I definitely need to eat the Katsu Curry Set today. It's definitely what I'm craving."
"I see."
Nothing more needed to be said. It was obvious from his words that Hirata couldn't worry our friends any longer. That said, I wonder if he was able to get everything he needed in the past three days. Only time would tell.
Hirata and I bought our lunches and made our way back to the group. Contrary to the scene that I had left, the group had finally quieted down, but you could see signs that Karuizawa was a little miffed at being teased too much.
"Wow, Hirata-kun... I can't believe you actually bought the Katsu Curry Set. I mean, you've been talking about splurging on lunch, but we didn't really think that you'd actually do it after this much time," Shinohara said.
The girls around us only nodded, having shared the same sentiment as Shinohara.
"Hahaha. Sorry if I worried you. I was quite indecisive on what to get since they all looked quite good, but curry is definitely the staple food of the Japanese."
Contrary to when he'd been obsessing over the truth of the points, Hirata let out a refreshed smile. Seeing that, the girls relaxed a lot, seeing that Hirata seemed to be back to his old self.
Lunch proceeded quite nicely after that, with pretty normal topics being discussed among the group while we were eating. However, it was when a certain topic got brought up that the jovial atmosphere started to dip.
"By the way, Ayanokōji-kun, you mentioned that something big happened in the classroom?" Nishimura asked.
"Ah right. I forgot to tell you guys about it earlier."
And so, I recounted the events that happened in the classroom, from the point where Kushida approached her to the point where Horikita left the classroom.
"I don't even know where to start commenting..." Sonoda whispered, concerned.
Her thoughts were shared by a large portion of the group. Although we all knew Horikita had a bad personality, none of us thought that it would reach the point where it'd all blow up.
"It was bound to happen sooner or later. Both Kushida and Horikita have completely opposite personalities. I mean... what else could you expect from Horikita-san? I think Kushida should have given up a lot earlier, to be honest," Karuizawa said.
"Karuizawa-san, please don't say bad things about Horikita-san. She most likely has her own circumstances," Hirata said.
"But Horikita-san was at fault this time! Shouldn't she at least apologize to Kushida-san?" Mori hotly contested.
Mori was on pretty good terms with Kushida, but she was also the most hot-headed and judgmental of our group. We liked her most of the time, but she could get in quite a bit of trouble with that loose tongue of hers.
"Mori-san, regardless of who was at fault, I don't want to hear anyone talking bad about their classmates. I sincerely hope that none of you will start bullying Horikita-san over this incident, even if you don't like her very much," Hirata said.
"It's not like bullying Horikita-san's worth my time anyway," Mori replied.
Hirata just gave her a slight frown. He hoped that the class would be able to be civil with Horikita at the very least, but that seemed to be a pipe dream.
"Ayanokōji-kun, what's your opinion on what happened? Who do you think is at fault?" Mori asked. It seemed she was fishing for a favorable answer to justify her dislike for Horikita. Most people would probably say Horikita was at fault, but I wasn't one of them.
"I think both of them are at fault," I briefly said. I said my honest thoughts, but I didn't clarify any further as I just wanted this discussion to end since Hirata seemed to be quite distasteful of the current topic of conversation.
"Ehh? That's too safe an answer. Pick one! Who was more at fault, Horikita-san or Kushida-san?" Mori prompted a more detailed answer for me.
I was a little uncomfortable at Mori's prodding. I didn't really want to continue this topic as it was already in the past and nothing would change even if I said my opinion. Thankfully, Matsushita saved me from further prodding by Mori with her intervention.
"Now, now, Mori-san. I don't think Ayanokōji-kun likes being put on the spot all of a sudden."
"Thanks, Matsushita." I gave my thanks to her. She just gave me a look that seemed to say "No need to thank me."
Mori just gave a dissatisfied look, but gave up on asking further since it seemed like she wouldn't be able to get a proper answer out of me.
The topic soon drifted from the classroom incident and as lunch was about to end, we left the cafeteria and headed back to the classroom.
I drifted near the back of the group since I didn't want to be involved in further conversation regarding the classroom incident if it ended up coming up. I was soon joined by Matsushita and Azuma who slowed down their pace to match mine.
"Man, the conversation sure was heavy, wasn't it? I don't really get why they want to keep talking about such a depressing topic," Azuma complained.
"It's probably because there isn't much in the way of interesting topics nowadays," Matsushita said, giving a possible explanation of the others' interest in the classroom incident.
"That's a likely explanation. It's probably true. By the way, thanks for the save earlier, Matsushita," I said.
"Don't mention it. Think of it as payment for showing me such a rare sight," she said, giving a slight grin.
"Sight? What are you talking about?" I was confused at what she was referring to.
"You're normally pretty expressionless, Ayanokōji-kun, but this time, you looked a little uncomfortable. I don't think the others caught it, but your mouth drooped into a frown a little," Azuma explained.
I was a little surprised to hear that. I didn't know that my expression had changed... or that I could even change my expression.
"Is that so? I didn't notice at all."
"Yeah! It's true! This may not be the best way to see it, but I think we're finally getting to you. Serious-kun is starting to show expressions. If the other girls start to notice, you might have to start fending them off."
"Fend off? What do you mean by that?"
"Azuma-san..." Matsushita gave Azuma a pointed look, signaling that she should be quiet before she gave away something unnecessary.
"Ahahaha. It's the girls' secret, Ayanokōji-kun. Just know that you don't have to be worried about it," Azuma said, winking at me.
I didn't understand what she was trying to say, but it seemed to be a bit confidential based on Matsushita's words, so I decided not to ask what it was about. I was a little doubtful if I should be worried based on Azuma's words, but Matsushita didn't say anything, so I guess I should just take her words at face-value.
The rest of the day passed by uneventfully, aside from the uncomfortable atmosphere that permeated the classroom when Horikita had come back from lunch break.
There was a point where Kushida and Maezono had tried to apologize to Horikita, but Horikita just ignored them and sat down at her desk. They weren't able to get a word in since it was clear that Horikita would not entertain anything coming from the two of them any more.
It was after the afternoon classes had ended that something happened again. Kushida, Maezono, Mii-chan and Inogashira approached me once everyone had been dismissed and people had started going home.
"Ayanokōji-kun, do you mind if we take a bit of your time?" Mii-chan asked. Behind her, Kushida and Maezono were fidgeting a bit.
"If it's only a bit, I don't mind," I replied. I had an idea of what they were going to talk about, but I waited for them to bring it up first.
"Thank you, Ayanokōji-kun. Come on, Kushida-san, Maezono-san, Ayanokōji-kun will hear us out. Say your piece," Mii-chan encouraged them to speak up.
"Ayanokōji-kun, I know it seems bad that I'm asking this of you after what happened at lunch, but is there a way for us to reconcile with Horikita-san? It doesn't seem like she'll talk to us after what happened," Kushida asked.
That was a little unexpected. It seemed that Kushida had given up on befriending Horikita. Instead, she was now just focusing on reconciling with Horikita.
"Reconcile, huh? That's going to be a problem. Besides, is reconciling the only thing you want?"
Kushida gave a sad smile. Beside her, Maezono looked extremely guilty and turned her face away.
"I think reconciliation is all I can ask for at the moment. You were right, Ayanokōji-kun. I pushed Horikita-san too far and it's led us to this situation."
"Well, I'm glad you're cognizant of your actions. So, about Horikita, what are you going to do now?"
"I'll keep trying to talk to her in the future, but only if I think I can approach her. I don't want to leave her alone since I still think it would be a little sad if she would be alone, but I'm not going to push it further."
Hmmm. I was off on my assessment then. It seemed Kushida wouldn't give up on befriending Horikita, but at least, she wasn't going to go too far in her attempts, at the very least.
"Well, good luck with that. I'm sure she'll come around in time as long as you time your approach right and don't go overboard. I'll even help you out when an opportunity arises, so long as you don't go too far again."
"Thank you, Ayanokoji-kun."
Kushida and the others began to leave, having said their piece, but just as they were about to go, Maezono looked back at me.
"Ayanokōji-kun, please tell Horikita-san... that I'm sorry. I know you're the only one who can talk to her, so if you could..."
"Yeah, sure. When I talk to her, I'll be sure to pass on your message."
"Thank you."
Maezono left, catching up to the rest of the girls. There were very few of our classmates left in the room, most having left once we had been dismissed.
'I guess that's one of the problems taken care of.'
With Kushida's problem mostly resolved, it seemed the remaining problem was Hirata. Earlier, it seemed like he had resolved the issue himself, but... it probably wasn't going to end with just that. Considering how much time he had spent on his own issue, I couldn't see it just ending without him taking any action.
We only found out the next day how right I had been.
"Homeroom is about to begin. Speak up if you're here," Chabashira-sensei said as she held up the class roster.
"Azuma."
"Present."
"Ayanokōji."
"Here."
"Ike."
No one said anything. As expected of Ike, he was skiving again, or at least, coming in late.
"I suppose I'll mark him as absent then. Ishikura."
"Here."
As always, Chabashira-sensei didn't seem to care if people were absent or late considering that she just casually dismissed the fact that Ike was late. She systematically ran through the rest of the class, marking them if they were in class, came in late, or were absent.
Typically, she would spend the rest of homeroom giving any reminders from the school, if any, then close out homeroom and leave the rest of the time for us. However, today ended up turning out quite different.
"There's a reminder from the school today. Don't forget to dispose of your room's garbage during the designated garbage disposal dates. There have been some complaints about odors coming from certain rooms on the 5th and 6th floor due to some people forgetting about the garbage disposal dates. The garbage disposal dates and times are located in the handbook you received upon getting your key. Anyways, if there are no more questions, homeroom is over."
Chabashira-sensei said all that while ignoring the chatter that was going around the room while she was talking. If this were a normal school, the teacher would tell you to keep quiet, but here, they just let you do as you pleased for the most part.
As Chabashira-sensei was fixing her materials, and ready to leave, a hand went into the air, signalling what would be the first time since school started that a question was raised in homeroom.
"Hirata, huh? Is something the matter?"
Hirata, who was the owner of the raised hand, stood up and faced Chabashira-sensei. The class quieted down considerably, with whispers here and there, considering that it was unprecedented that someone would talk during homeroom. Hirata took a small breath and continued.
"I have a question, sensei... or rather, a concern."
"A concern? If I recall correctly, you're on the 4th floor, right? Is there an odor coming from one of the rooms on your floor as well? You should bring your concern to the dorm management, if that's the case."
"No, no. My concern isn't regarding the dorm rooms. Rather, it's regarding the points we've been allocated."
"Is there a problem with the points? I would think that 100,000 points would be more than enough to get you through the month. The school will not give you more than that, for now. If you want more points, you'll have to wait until next week when the points will be distributed."
Chabashira-sensei gave a little smirk before continuing.
"To be honest, I'm a little surprised that you blew through your points so quickly. It's rare for someone to have no points left at this point in time."
"No, I still have more than enough points left."
"Oh? Then I don't see what concern you could possibly have."
As I watched Hirata and Chabashira-sensei talk, it became pretty clear that Hirata had solved or had pretty big suspicions about the secret behind the S-system and the point allocations. On the other hand, Chabashira-sensei clearly knew that Hirata knew, but was avoiding talking about the topic as much as possible.
However, Chabashira-sensei could only stall for so long, and Hirata's anxiety about the entire conversation led him to say something that changed the class's atmosphere that day onwards.
"Chabashira-sensei, you said on the first day that our points will be deposited on the first day of every month."
"That's right. I did. As I mentioned before, the school will deposit the points into your account at the beginning of every month. There are no exceptions for this rule."
"Then can you tell me this: how many points exactly will be deposited at the beginning of the next month?"
"How many points? I believe that should be obvious."
"Hirata-kun, isn't it that we'll be getting 100,000 points?" Ichihashi asked, with a confused look. The people around her had similar expressions on their face.
Meanwhile, some of the other students were expressing some anxiety at the direction Hirata's words seemed to be going. Although they didn't understand what Hirata was getting at, the tone he was using seemed to be foreboding.
"It's true that we received 100,000 points on the first day... but Chabashira-sensei never mentioned how many points we would be getting after the first month."
"Hirata, are you saying that we won't be getting 100,000 points next month?" Minami Setsuya spoke up.
"It's highly likely."
"The school said they would deposit points at the start of each month, but they never specified how many points exactly will be deposited. For all we know, they could give any number of points and they still would have kept their word." Hirata explained.
The class started getting unsettled at Hirata's words and some small discussions began. Beside me, it seemed that Horikita was observing the situation from afar. It seemed that she had begun putting the pieces together and had gotten a slight understanding of the current situation, judging from the expression on her face.
"Are you not going to intervene? You seem to have an idea of what's going on," I asked Horikita.
"Maybe, but even if we don't get many points, it's not any of my concern. I'm not like the other people in this class who have been spending carelessly."
"How cruel. Don't you feel bad for them? Even if you're okay with being alone, you should still feel some sympathy for them."
"I don't see why I need to have sympathy for idiots like them. They brought it upon themselves."
It seemed that Horikita wouldn't budge. However, although she seemed to get the gist of things, she probably didn't know the entire situation. I didn't know the entire thing as well so I couldn't really say, but it's possible she might regret this further down the line.
Meanwhile, while people around the classroom were chatting a little, Chabashira-sensei was keeping quiet while observing the situation. After a short while, she began speaking again.
"That's an interesting idea you have there, Hirata. I have no idea why you would even think that, but rest assured that the school will give you the points you deserve at the start of the month."
"See, Hirata? There's nothing to worry about," Minami Hakuo said, sighing in relief. "You got us worried over nothing."
"The points we deserve, huh?" Hirata whispered. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cellphone. He began speaking again, while looking at his cellphone.
"Last Sunday, something said in one of our conversations made me rethink how the points system worked. 'It's nice of the school to give us all these points for free,' was what was said."
Hirata ended up saying something unnecessary. Although most of the class weren't there, the people who were there could possibly identify that I was the one who said that. It could be that they may approach me about this later, but I guess that it was already beyond the point of taking it back since Hirata already said it.
"And? What's wrong with that?" Miyamoto asked.
"Don't you think it's a little suspicious that we're getting this much points? Especially considering that they haven't asked anything from us in return?"
"Isn't that just because this school is the premier institution of the country?"
"I think I see what Hirata is getting at. Even high-level schools don't normally give things like these without a catch," Yukimura Teruhiko said. "Usually, even high-level schools give out scholarships only if a student can maintain a certain grade."
Yukimura was someone who didn't really speak much in class, preferring to just keep to himself and study. However, it seemed that because this might personally affect him, he had decided to join the conversation.
"That's right. For such an incentive, most schools would require you to do something for them. Community service, maintaining high grades, and even joining one of the school teams if you were especially athletic are some of the things they'd ask of you, but this school doesn't ask you to do anything for them."
"Then maybe the school's just being really nice?" Shinohara said, giving an alternate explanation.
"There is that possibility, but I've noticed a few things that caught my attention. Over the last few days, I've been doing some investigating of my own, and this is what I've found."
Hirata took a deep breath and recited what was on his phone's screen.
"April 20: 32. April 21: 33. April 22: 35."
"What's with those numbers, Hirata-kun?" Karuizawa asked him.
"They're the number of second-year and third-year students in the cafeteria who have ordered the free vegetable set meal."
"Ehh? Isn't that the meal that everyone says tastes really bland? Why would someone even get those? In the first place, why would you even take note of the number of people who order those?"
"Don't you find it odd that a large amount of people would be buying the free meal in the cafeteria, especially knowing how bad it tastes?"
"Maybe they ran out of points? Like they spent it all on good food early on in the month?" Onodera suggested.
"That's certainly a possibility, but these are upperclassmen. Surely, after at least a year of being here, they'd have learnt how to budget their points by now? In addition, when I asked my senpais at the club how many points they get each month, they were especially evasive with their answers."
"So there's something going on behind the scenes!" Azuma cried out.
"I thought so too. Since I wasn't going to get an answer that way, I changed my approach. On Tuesday, I decided to see if there was a meaning to the free meal clue, so I took pictures of those who bought the free meals. Afterwards, I asked a couple of senpai if they could identify the people in those pictures in exchange for some points."
Hirata turned to Chabashira-sensei, with a determined look in his eyes. In contrast to him, Chabashira-sensei looked pretty calm and was waiting to see what he would say.
"From those pictures, out of the 35 students who ate the free meal, 29 of them were from Class 2-D or Class 3-D. The other 5 were from either Class 2-C or Class 3-C, and the last one was from Class 2-B. Putting these together, here's my theory: The school doesn't give those in Class D or Class C many points to begin with."
"That's an interesting perspective, Hirata. But isn't that all circumstantial evidence?"
"Yes, it is. But I think the biggest evidence to prove my theory are your answers to my idea, Chabashira-sensei. Not once have you given us a straight answer on how many points we'll receive the next month. If I'm wrong, please tell us here and now that we'll be getting the full 100,000 points at the start of the next month."
The ensuing stare-off between Hirata and Chabashira-sensei filled the room with an inexplicable tension, one so thick that one could cut through it with a knife. Our other classmates were also looking between Hirata and Chabashira-sensei, waiting for one of them to say something and break the current impasse.
Eventually, after a brief silence that felt longer than it actually was, Chabashira-sensei started laughing. Our class was baffled by her laughter. 'How could one laugh so casually at such a serious topic?' was the thought that permeated throughout the classroom.
Finally, Chabashira-sensei stopped laughing. She then faced Hirata with a smirk on her face.
"I can't really say anything at this point in time. As I said, you will all get the points you deserve at the start of the month."
She stopped to look at Hirata's displeased face at her noncommittal answer. Once again, she had danced around the topic. Even Hirata was starting to get annoyed at how she never gave a clear answer.
"However, I must applaud how much effort you put into investigating this matter, even if it will be in vain. Spending your own points to find information about the upperclassmen? I don't know whether to call you foolhardy or praise you for sacrificing your own points for the sake of this class."
As she finished saying this, the bell rang, signaling the end of homeroom.
"Well, that's it for homeroom then. I won't be entertaining any further questions on this topic. As I said, you'll find out for yourself by next week."
With those words, she left the classroom. Immediately after she left, the classroom went into a frenzy. Most of the girls crowded around Hirata, asking him what they should do and what if he was correct. Meanwhile, some of the boys huddled together, discussing whether or not they'd actually lose their points.
Because this was a serious topic, it would be weird if I wouldn't participate in the discussion, especially considering this was affecting a lot in our group.
"Hirata, how sure are you of your findings?" Yukimura asked. He had opted to join our discussion instead of the ones held by the boys since Hirata had a better grasp of the situation.
"I can't say I'm a hundred percent sure. At most, I'm around eighty-five to ninety percent sure. The evidence I have doesn't leave much room to interpret it otherwise."
"So there's around a ten to fifteen percent chance you're wrong?" Yukimura confirmed.
"Yes, but after Chabashira-sensei's words, I feel like I'm around ninety-five percent sure I'm right."
"If that's the case, what should we do? And why is it only Class C and Class D?" Nishimura asked, a look of worry on her face.
"... that's what I'm not too sure of."
Hirata went into a deep think.
"Umm, sensei said something about getting the points we deserve, right?" Ishikura spoke up. "Could it be that that has something to do with it?"
"That's probably it! But what does she mean by that anyway?" said Shinohara.
"I think you're all just overreacting and nothing is going to happen."
The person who spoke those words was Ike. At some point between when Chabashira-sensei left and now, he had entered the classroom and had gotten the rundown from one of the other guys.
"Overreacting!? You weren't even here when Hirata-kun talked to her!" Shinohara said, raising her voice.
"And so? I heard from the guys. Besides, we got all these points just by entering this school. Sensei said something like that at the beginning of the month. We're like... the chosen few."
"If you had actually been able to listen to what Hirata-kun said, you might have gotten something into that dumb brain of yours. They never guaranteed that we'd get the same amount of points."
"Even if that's the case, you don't even know why they're lessening our points or how many points we're even going to get. For all you know, it'll still be plenty of points. Maybe even enough for me to buy the game that's supposed to come out in two weeks," he said, grinning as he said the last sentence.
"Don't you get it, birdbrain? Even the senpai are eating the disgusting vegetable set meal cause they don't have points. Why don't you be useful for once and try thinking if there's a way to prevent that? Unless... you actually want to eat vegetables every day!?"
"I don't want to be called birdbrain when you don't know the answer either, idiot!"
"If I'm an idiot, then you aren't even smart enough to be considered a human!"
Shinohara and Ike just kept getting louder and louder with each rebuttal they made. Because they were too caught up in the moment, they didn't realize that their argument was just making the atmosphere even worse.
The argument, however, was suddenly put to a halt when Kushida intervened.
"Now, now, Shinohara-san, Ike-kun. Please don't fight. It's because we're not sure that we have to figure out things together. Fighting won't bring us anywhere."
The appearance of Kushida suddenly brought both Ike and Shinohara back to reality. Realizing that they were arguing in front of the rest of the class, they both calmed down.
"Sorry, Kushida-san. I guess I got too heated because of this idiot," Shinohara said.
"Well, if Kushida-chan says to stop fighting, I'll stop," Ike said, a little embarrassed at showing his uncool side to Kushida.
Seeing that the two of them had calmed down, Kushida turned to Hirata.
"Hirata-kun, if you're right, what do you think we should do? You have the best grasp of the situation," Kushida said.
"I think Ishikura-san's idea has some merit. Chabashira-sensei repeated that we'd 'get the points we deserve'. If that's the case, then there must be some way of figuring out how they determine who deserves what points," Hirata replied.
"Well, there are cameras everywhere. Maybe they're monitoring us?" Matsushita pointed out.
"Cameras?" Sonoda asked.
"Well, there's one over there," I said.
Following up on Matsushita's comment, I pointed to the corner of the classroom nearest my seat. On the ceiling, hidden in the shadows, and so inconspicuous that you'd normally never notice it unless you were seated near the area, was a camera.
"Wow, Ayanokōji-kun, I would never have noticed that!" Ichihashi exclaimed.
"Well, I sit in that area. I just happened to notice it one day," I said.
Truth be told, I had already seen it since the second day of class, but they didn't need to know that. The only reason I pointed it out was to make it seem like I was contributing, especially since everyone else was discussing it.
"So they're really monitoring us then? But on what?" Matsushita asked.
Hirata was about to suggest something, but an unlikely voice sounded out first.
"Don't you think it's quite obvious?" Kōenji spoke out while looking at his reflection in a small hand mirror he was holding.
"What do you mean, Kōenji-kun?" Hirata asked, furrowing his eyebrows.
"I mean, it should be obvious by now what they're evaluating. After all, they said it themselves on the very first day. They said that the amount we received is reflective of the school's evaluation of our worth."
"Can you say it in a way we actually understand?" Yamauchi said, frowning.
"Hmph. It means that the school's evaluation of those in Class D is that of trash. Obviously, you wouldn't throw pearls before swine."
"Watch your mouth, Kōenji!" Ike shouted. "There's no way that the school would do that. And even if it was true, you yourself are part of that supposedly trashy class."
"That simply means the school's evaluation of me is wrong. Anyone can see that someone like me is way more valuable than anyone in this school. After all, I AM the future leader of the Kōenji Conglomerate. Even if they evaluate me as such, my own value won't decrease."
"Kōenji-kun, please tell us, what is the school actually evaluating?" Kushida asked.
"If you still don't know, then let me tell you. This is a school, and as such, you're being evaluated on your worth as a student."
"What does that even mean?" Maezono asked.
"How you act in class, how you act outside the classroom, and most likely even more. They're all being tested. And from what they've probably seen, the majority of the class absolutely fails at it."
At his words, there were mixed reactions throughout the class. People who had stellar behavior like Yukimura and Mii-chan were still a bit worried, but showed some relief. However, they were in the minority as most of the class were now panicking at the revelation.
"Wait a minute, so you knew this entire time!?" Makida Susumu exclaimed.
"Of course. For one such as I, arriving at such a conclusion is just a matter of course," he said, finally done looking at his appearance in the mirror.
"Then why didn't you tell us!?" Yamauchi shouted. "We could get more points."
"Why? Because I didn't see the need to. I don't see any reason why I would tell you something like that."
Yamauchi and Ike were riled up easily. Thankfully, Sudō had decided to skip today, otherwise, it might have gotten much worse.
"Why, you!"
"Stop it, Yamauchi! If they're right, we're still being watched right now. And hitting Kōenji won't result in anything anyway." Hondō Ryōtaro was desperately trying to prevent Yamauchi and Ike from trying to start something.
"Kōenji, why are you even telling us all this now?" Okiya Kyōsuke asked.
"Just on a whim. Anyways, now that you have your answers, kindly quiet down. Your incessant chatter is disturbing my wonderful morning," Kōenji said, crossing his arms.
"He's as disagreeable as ever, I see," Karuizawa commented.
"What do we do now, Hirata-kun?" Hayashi asked, worried.
Hirata stood up and addressed the class.
"Right now, I know that everyone's worried about how many points we'll receive next week. At the moment, as much as I don't want to say it, we've all been complacent. I suggest that, moving forward, we try to act as much as model students."
"We should come to class on time, and try to pay attention in class... or at least, not talk in class. If we do that, we should be able to reduce the points we would lose. I know that the studious people in the class shouldn't have any problems with their points next week, but for those that have been talking in class, we still have time to prevent any further loss of our points. Let's all help each other with this."
At this point, the door opened and the next subject's teacher started to come in. Seeing that the teacher came in, we all scattered and rushed back to our seats.
It seemed that everyone was taking things seriously. At least... everyone except Horikita. She seemed especially indifferent to the class. Well, she had plenty of points to spare, so she didn't have a cause for worry. In addition, she probably thought she was safe from point deductions since she's the example of a model student.
"Ara? There seems to be quite a different atmosphere here. Did something happen perhaps?," the teacher said.
"It's just your imagination, sensei. Please get on with the class," Hondō said nervously.
"Yes yes, you can continue, sensei! Nothing suspicious going on here," Ichihashi said, with a very suspicious smile on her face.
"Is that so? Then, let's continue off from where we left last class."
And with that, Hoshinomiya Chie-sensei turned her attention from the classroom and began her lesson.
It was after class when a certain person approached me.
"Can I talk to you?"
"Well, I don't really have anything to do, but this is a surprise. You usually keep to yourself, Horikita."
"There's something I want to discuss with you."
"The tables sure have turned. I'm always the one starting our conversations, but here you are approaching me of your own free will. I thought you preferred to be alone. Has the apocalypse come already?"
"Don't play coy with me, Ayanokōji-kun. You might regret it if you don't talk to me here."
Regret, huh? I wonder what she has to say that would make me regret not talking to her. Well, I didn't have anything to lose by talking to her here.
"Very well, let's talk at the cafe in Keyaki then. Oh, but I can't stay too long. The guys in the class want to go see a movie after dinner."
"This won't take too long. There are only a couple of things I want to ask you."
With that, we walked towards Keyaki, not making even a bit of conversation the entire way through.
Upon arriving at the cafe, we quickly secured seats with our bags and ordered our drinks at the counter. After getting our drinks, black coffee for me and barley tea for Horikita, we jumped right into the fray.
"Well? You said you wanted to ask me something?" I started, blowing at my coffee a little to cool it down before I started drinking it.
"About today, Ayanokōji-kun, you had already figured it out since the start, haven't you?"
"Hmmm? I don't know what you're talking about."
"You said it yourself at the beginning of the year. The school gives freedom, not leniency. You knew that the school was evaluating us since the very start," Horikita said, accusing me.
"I believe I said back then that I was just saying the first thing that came to mind."
"Do you think I'm that stupid?"
"What do you think?" I gave a sarcastic remark.
Horikita just glared at me. Okay, okay. Time to stop with the jokes. She might actually splash her tea on me at this rate.
"Fine. I don't think you're stupid. But you can't really believe that someone like me could figure out something like that that fast, could you?" I asked her, trying to play dumb.
"Who knows? You wouldn't think someone like Kōenji-kun would figure it out, but he did. Besides, you were hiding quite the athletic body back then during swimming class. Who knows how many secrets you may be hiding."
She's quite the sharp one. Still, it seems that she might be missing the last piece of the puzzle. Let's see how far she's gotten, shall we?
"Hmmm~. Despite not being interested in making friends with other people, you pay a surprising amount of attention to them."
"That's an entirely different matter. The fact is that what you said back then meant that you had figured it out by then."
"I think you're overestimating me. And hypothetically speaking, even if I did, what are you going to do about it?"
"Nothing," she said simply, standing up. It seemed that she had gotten what she came here for. Her tea was also fully consumed already.
"That's a little surprising. So what was the purpose of this entire talk then?"
"I simply just wanted to confirm that I was correct about you. Nothing more, nothing less."
"Not going to try telling the class that I knew?" I asked.
"It wouldn't really matter whether I did or not. Besides, those people have nothing to do with me."
Even now, Horikita was a loner through and through.
"Because you're not going to be affected by the loss of points?" I questioned her.
"Of course. I've been the perfect student since the very beginning. If the school really were evaluating us, I'm sure that their assessment of me would be that of a model student."
I gave a small sigh.
"To be honest, I can't say I'm not a little disappointed in you, Horikita. One would think that something like this would move you to help your classmates."
"I don't even know how you would think that I'd do something like that. In any case, our discussion here is over."
With that, Horikita grabbed her stuff and moved to leave.
Before she could go too far, I remembered that I had to do something.
"Ah, Horikita, before you go, there's a message for you that I was asked to pass."
Horikita stopped in place, taking a small sidewards glance towards me while giving me a look that said to hurry it up and say my piece.
"Maezono says she's sorry."
Upon hearing that, Horikita continued along her way and left the cafe. It seemed she wasn't that interested, but I had done what I was asked and passed along the message.
As I continued sipping my coffee, I wondered how much Horikita would regret what she said by next week.
Time passed like that until it was time for the movie with the other guys in the class.
(1) Jyan is written as じゃん. It's a contraction of janai (じゃない). In the context, it's something like "Tadah!"
(2) Kondō Saki (refer to Chapter 5 A/N) will be referred to as Kondō (S) from hereon to avoid confusion. Kondō Reo will be referred to as Kondō (R). Other characters who share the same family name will have their given name's letter in parenthesis.
(3) I think it's fairly obvious that arigatō means thank you, but placing it here, just in case. Also I placed it in Japanese here for more emotional impact hahaha.
Author's Note:
I'm back!
After almost two months of not publishing a chapter, I finally got one out, and it's the longest to date. Some of you may want to follow me as I do post updates on my W*ttp*d profile. Before I get on with the chapter commentary, there are some announcements that have already been posted on my profile but haven't been posted here.
First of all, I'll be having regular character polls on my page to decide which character profiles I will be posting next. Make sure to check them out when the next one comes out. The results of the first character poll have come out and the results will be that I will be posting Azuma's profile down below. The next two profiles to follow will be that of Mori Nene and Miyamoto Soshi.
Second, some updates regarding releases. Anthology of KiyoKei will be placed on indefinite hiatus as I don't have much time for releases, thus I want to concentrate on my main works, namely Secrets and Returners. In addition, the chapters releases will be more concentrated on Secrets for the near future as I'm trying to develop the world a bit more. These developments will also be carrying over to Returners.
Third, just for everyone's information, none of my works will go on hiatus unless I've announced it, so even if I'm silent for a long time, rest assured that I'm still continuing to write at my own pace.
Lastly, as mentioned already, here is Azuma's profile.
東 咲菜 Azuma Sana
- Birthday: March 30 (Aries)
- Hails from: Ōita Prefecture, Kyūshū
- Club: None
- Likes: Taiyaki, Shopping, Matcha soda
- Hates: Swimming, red bean buns
- Hobbies: Shopping and watching drama.
- Best subject: Math
- Worst subject: Japanese Literature
- Personality: A little childish and mischievous, but can be quite perceptive. Despite being the youngest in the year, she can be quite mature when she needs to be. Her genki exterior belies her quick-witted nature.
Trivia:
- She has a fascination for headwear.
- Back at home, she has a small collection of hats, headbands and sunglasses.
- Can't swim to save her life, so she spends most of her time on the beach playing in the sand.- Her best sport is volleyball (because she can't swim, she often plays beach volleyball) but she doesn't want to join the club as it's something she only does for fun.
- She's quite adept at disguising herself.
- She's the youngest student in the year.
- Her favorite food is her mom's homemade curry. Every now and then, she asks Shinohara or Inogashira to cook some curry for her, which she stores and reheats.
- Her favorite drink is matcha soda.
- Her favorite dessert is a strawberry crepe.
- One of her memorable middle school moments is her school trip to Okinawa. She wore a different set of shades each day during the trip.
Now that general announcements are out of the way, it's time for the chapter commentary. As you've seen, this is a REALLY long chapter, the longest to date. I wonder how many times I'll be saying this in the future as my chapters get progressively longer. I probably underestimated how long this chapter would be when I was thinking which scene would be a good place to stop.
Prior to this chapter, despite me making a decent amount of changes, I still considered the plot to be still flowing rather parallel to canon. Well, you can probably throw that out the window already as you've seen from this chapter. There are quite a lot of scenes that have flown quite differently from canon.
Starting off at the beginning, we have the Shopping scene where we have more insight onto Matsushita and Azuma's relationship with Kiyo. As implied in the chapter, Azuma is a prankster. As the youngest in the year, she embodies the duality of both maturity and childishness. Matsushita, on the other hand, just radiates maturity with a penchant for teasing.
The reason Kiyo gets along with them a lot is simply because they are able to read the mood. Matsushita is well aware of how to read people, similar to her LN counterpart. As for Azuma, she clowns around a lot, but is more perceptive than you would give her credit for. She's the type who knows how to change the read the flow of things and change the mood to something less tense.
As for Hirata, he's Kiyo's closest male friend and he'll slowly be gaining more traction as the center of the class. As stated in Volume 1, Hirata already thought it was already abnormal that the school gives them such a big allowance. Since he's already smart enough, I thought to give him a bit of a push, which resulted in his suspicions.
The Kushida/Maezono/Horikita scene was something I actually thought of on the spot. I wanted to build a reason for Horikita to be antagonistic towards Kushida aside from remembering her from middle school. Because of this, I think it'll be harder for Kushida to verify if Horikita remembers her or not. Maezono just got pulled into the action as well.
Some of you may be wondering why Kei is so tsundere towards Kiyo, as well as why Ishikura said she views him as a friend. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to include that as the event has already passed. I'll probably include as an SS in the future. I'll leave you guys hanging a bit. Is Kei a love interest though? If you watched Bunny Girl-senpai, then it's kind of like the relationship between Futaba and Sakuta.
Moving forward, you might ask who the love interests are, but two of them have already appeared so far... which leaves 20 girls to choose from... well, 19 actually since I haven't mentioned one so far. Do you know who the one person is?
In the end, this is a story that has an unusual amount of side character interactions, so expect it to not be your typical love interest... maybe. Speaking of side characters, I've based Azuma's personality partially off a certain person. Kudos if you can figure out who that person is. Hint: She is from a game and an anime. You can also kind of figure it out from her manner of speaking.
Moving on to the confrontation with Chabashira, you might be wondering why Kōenji interfered in the discussion. It seems out of character a bit, but I can tell you for sure that it definitely has a purpose. Kōenji is a rather selfish person and he can be moved by rather selfish reasons, some of which are not obvious at first glance.
On the other hand, Horikita is kind of similar to Kōenji, by way of not caring. Considering her motives on entering the school, missing a few points doesn't seem like much to her considering how much she's saved. Besides, it's not like it's the points are allocated by class, right? XD I might be being a bit mean to her, but she'll have her time in the spotlight soon enough.
Also, we see the first appearance of Hoshinomiya Chie. Now why would I put her there, I wonder? To be honest, I felt it was appropriate and I don't really have a clear plan, but it might result in something interesting in the future, so I inserted her there. Yeah, you can tell I somewhat write out of my ass. This story isn't as planned as you guys think it actually is since I wanted this to be a rather fluid story.
Anyways, that's it for the chapter. I'll be writing a few more chapters for this story before I write another chapter for Returners. Look forward to the next chapter: "The Truth of Class D - Crisis." Let's hope I don't have a RL crisis and take another two months to write this next chapter. Mori's profile will also be released with the next chapter.
On another note, I'm approximately halfway through Volume 1 and I've reached 40k words. I might actually reach 100k words, or at least somewhat near it, by end of Volume 1.
Thanks to my betas as always, especially Crimson Celestial, who is beta-ing my fic for the first time with this chapter. Being able to bounce off my ideas for the chapter and the interactions between characters really helps a lot.
Word Count: 10,783
Published: April 30, 2021