Mori Ran clearly wasn't as unfazed as Fujino. Faced with the two boys whispering, she looked awkward and at a loss.
Suzuki Sonoko's eyebrow twitched. She stood up and shouted at them indignantly, "Hey! What are you two gossiping about behind people's backs?!"
"And what's with calling someone a hag?"
"What makes you so sure it's Ran?"
"Yeah! Did the hag eat your family's rice or something?!"
A girl seated at the back of the classroom, with long light-brown hair, stood up and shouted at them, "And take a look at yourselves! Senior Fujino is great the way he is now. If he went off to play soccer with you guys, wouldn't he turn into the next Kudo Shinichi?!"
At the same time, the girl beside her, who had short black hair and pink half-rim glasses, nodded in agreement. "Senior Fujino is mature and dependable. It'd be awful if he turned into an irritating guy like Kudo..."
Fujino glanced sideways at the two girls.
They were both from Class 2-B. The short-haired one was Tashiro, while the long-haired one was Hidaka.
Both were close to Sonoko and belonged to Teitan High School's intelligence network.
That was why the boys called them gossips, while Sonoko was called a hag.
"Jeez..."
Masato Nakamichi clicked his tongue, sounding somewhat bitter. "As expected of Teitan High School's most popular guy. The girls are already rushing to defend him..."
"We're merely stating the facts."
With her hands on her hips, Hidaka replied flatly, "If you could solve major cases one after another and had even half of Senior Fujino's heroic bearing... forget it. That'll probably never happen in your lifetimes."
Tashiro, beside her, chimed in, "By the way, the monthly exams are coming up soon. Don't tell me you're going to fail again?"
"Uh... bringing