Ichinose, I Can Help You!

"So the bet is set. It's 12:22 now, so the deadline will be 12:22 three days from now. If I gather five million Points, Nagumo-senpai will give me 300,000. If I lose, I won't join the Student Council for the rest of the year," Houtarou Oreki said.

"Oh."

"Why are you agreeing so readily?" Nagumo felt as though Oreki had suddenly opened up at that moment.

Something seemed to have happened that had even surprised Houtarou Oreki. What was it?

"Because the Student Council President offered me a position a week ago. But I refused."

"I wasn't interested in the Student Council to begin with."

"So there's only one outcome. Losing has no effect on me, but if I win, Nagumo-senpai has to pay."

"So from my perspective, Nagumo-senpai is already a qualified money-splitting fool."

"That's why I've changed my opinion of you," Oreki said.

??

Damn.

So this bet was only disadvantageous for him?

Nagumo Miyabi was a little stunned.

But this also meant that Houtarou Oreki wasn't on Manabu Horikita's side?

Then whose side was he on?

That left Nagumo confused.

However.

That afternoon, after returning to class, Nagumo Miyabi told the girls in his class about his bet with Houtarou Oreki.

After all, earning five million Points in three days was absolutely impossible by any reasonable standard.

So he planned to lower this junior's image among the girls first.

But.

Honami Ichinose, I Can Help You!

Nagumo's original intention was that earning five million in three days was impossible.

So he could lower the image of Oreki, a junior who had become somewhat well-known among the girls in the class.

Make the girls treat Oreki as nothing more than a passing topic of conversation and forget about him.

After all, in his view, he controlled the second years and was aiming to become Student Council President. Once he became Student Council President, he could invite some pretty, cute girls into his Student Council to please his eyes.

Was there anything wrong with that?

There was nothing wrong with that.

And he had the capital.

Nagumo himself was a handsome, sunny guy with excellent physical abilities. In his opinion, he was probably only slightly inferior to Student Council President Manabu Horikita.

But that was only ability. What mattered was displaying it.

Only then could he attract people.

For example, attract girls' attention.

That was why he had joined the school's Soccer Club.

It made it easy for him to draw the girls' attention.

Yet after building up that image, the girls in his class... they had only been promoted from Class B last year, but they had learned nothing good at all.

They changed their tastes as casually as bitches changed clothes.

Their group chat had clearly said that they found sunny, athletic guys handsome.

Yet now, the junior they were supporting was Oreki, that quiet pretty-boy type, wasn't he?

They were completely different.

Girls were all liars. And now—

"Isn't he pretty cute?"

Nagumo had clearly pointed out that Houtarou Oreki's bet was impossible to achieve.

Yet some girls actually thought he was cute.

"By the way, Nagumo-kun, you're already a senior. Isn't it a little small-minded to keep picking on a first-year?"

There were also comments like that.

"Miyabi, don't target the new students too much. Although Oreki isn't directly under us, we're Class A now."

"That's right, Asahina. That means we can approach him as seniors."

"How does he take care of his skin? It's so fair."

"..."

"..." Nagumo said.

Damn it.

Oreki was clearly the one who looked overconfident, yet somehow it had turned into him bullying a first-year?

And they seemed even more enthusiastic than before about discussing Houtarou Oreki?

Did these girls only care about faces?

Indeed.

Nagumo admitted that Houtarou Oreki's face was quite good-looking.

But couldn't they pay a little more attention to him?

Sure enough, Nagumo felt that... he might have picked the wrong target.

The girls in his class were hopeless.

So he took out his phone and contacted a junior.

That was right.

A junior.

She was from Class 1-B, and they had quite a connection.

She had attended the same middle school as him. He had also entered this school as a Class 1-B student last year, so they were truly junior and senior from the same line.

Right?

He had made preparations too.

This junior's name was Honami Ichinose.

She was an angelic girl.

In Nagumo's view, there were too many bitches among the girls in his class. And because of his childhood friend Asahina, he had held himself back before attaining the position of Student Council President.

So he hadn't made a move.

But after getting nowhere with his childhood friend, it would be a lie to say that he had made no preparations at all.

So he had prepared a backup.

After discovering that Oreki had two top-tier beauties by his side—Suzune and the angelic Kikyo Kushida—

His heart had stirred.

That was right.

Suzune was incredibly beautiful, even prettier than Asahina.

And.

He felt that Suzune's personality was somewhat aloof, but while Oreki and Kushida were talking, she had been seriously memorizing vocabulary. She was the dignified, straightforward type.

If he married a girl like that, his future life would definitely be good.

She would be the honest type who put him first and diligently handled her duties.

As for Kikyo Kushida, that angelic junior, she was surely the sort who would admire him greatly.

He liked that kind of gaze.

Yes.

While Asahina had kept rejecting him, Nagumo had also been trying to find himself a backup.

After all, he was so outstanding. If one girl rejected him, he naturally had to prepare another.

It was only because of Oreki's presence that he felt he had to defeat Oreki before those two girls would look at him.

So.

What was with this year's first-years?

There were so many cute girls.

Were there any other cute new students, then?

There were.

Nagumo Miyabi had discovered another exceptionally outstanding girl.

She was also a first-year, a student from Class 1-B. She seemed highly respected in Class B, approachable, and exceptionally friendly.

Her name was Honami Ichinose.

She was the girl he had met yesterday. On his way to get breakfast, he had found her standing outside the shop, looking troubled.

She seemed unable to decide what to choose for breakfast.

Since she couldn't make a decision, when it was her turn to order, she could only leave the line and let someone else choose first.

And then the same thing happened again and again.

After he deliberately offered a suggestion, she had thanked him with great gratitude.

This girl was so well-behaved, the incredibly considerate type.

Nagumo felt healed.

But.

This girl was a junior from Class B.

Well.

This school evaluated every student using a certain assessment system, then placed them into different classes based on the results of those evaluations.

He himself had entered as a Class B student. His academics were excellent, and his physical abilities were outstanding.

He could play the piano and soccer as well, so he was quite versatile.

That should have earned him a high evaluation, right?

But.

He knew his flaw was probably that he looked down on others and was overly arrogant.

He was unwilling to obey others.