Chapter Summaries

Bai Lan suspected Kushida liked domineering men and decided to make her dislike him by teaching her to roast people. He began persuading Kushida that learning to insult others was the way to befriend Horikita, leaving her confused as he insisted Horikita was abnormal.

• Bai Lan suspected that Kushida might be attracted to his harsh, domineering behavior and worried that helping her befriend Horikita would bring them closer.
• Bai Lan decided to act like a sinister schemer and make Kushida resent him so that her favorability toward him would collapse.
• Kushida interpreted Bai Lan's thoughtful silence as a sign that he was dependable, but became puzzled when he laughed ominously.
• Bai Lan told Kushida that she needed to learn how to roast people to find common ground with Horikita.
• Kushida questioned why roasting people would help her befriend Horikita, and Bai Lan argued that Horikita was abnormal and unusually hardworking.

Bai Lan tried to persuade Kushida to learn verbal attacks by inventing an absurd account of Horikita’s routine, while Kushida secretly wondered whether he knew about her past. Kushida decided to win Bai Lan’s trust and investigate what he and Horikita knew, leaving her prepared to protect the new life she was building at school.

• Bai Lan claimed Horikita exercised, studied, and slept for an impossible twenty-six hours a day, then suggested that Kushida learn verbal attacks or physical fighting to help relieve Horikita’s stress.
• Kushida agreed to learn verbal attacks, and Bai Lan mistook her apparent surrender for gullibility.
• Kushida privately suspected Bai Lan’s suggestion hinted that he knew about her dark past and decided to test him by gaining his trust.
• Kushida recalled how her confidences-based circle, the Kushida Empire, had once been destroyed and why she had come to Advanced Nurturing High School to start over.
• Kushida recognized Horikita Suzune from middle school and feared Horikita might expose her past, so she approached Bai Lan to reach Horikita through him.
• Kushida realized Bai Lan might also know her secret and resolved to draw information out of him while protecting her new world.

Bai Lan trained Kushida to talk back by having her repeat insults, and she discovered that cursing at him let her release pent-up emotions. The exercise ended with Kushida abandoning her angelic demeanor and shouting at Bai Lan to shut up before continuing to insult him.

• Kushida resolved to play along with Bai Lan and followed him to a secluded spot behind the teaching building.
• Bai Lan had Kushida repeat “baka” until she became fluent and began expressing strong emotions through the insult.
• Bai Lan taught Kushida to say “hentai” and combine it with “baka” as a practice routine.
• Kushida remembered how she had once vented online until someone recognized her, and she realized insulting Bai Lan face-to-face felt liberating.
• Kushida ignored Bai Lan’s attempts to stop the exercise, shouted “urusai” at him, and continued saying “baka hentai.”

Bai Lan tried to end Kushida’s enthusiastic “roasting” practice before their raised voices attracted attention, then attempted to leave after giving her an excuse to practice on her own. Kushida used the handprint on her jacket to pressure him into keeping their encounter secret and supporting her, and Bai Lan asked if she was threatening him with expulsion.

• Bai Lan covered Kushida’s mouth to stop her shouting and warned her that others might see her lose her angelic image.
• Kushida checked the time, realized they had practiced for only seven minutes, and eagerly asked Bai Lan to continue teaching her.
• Bai Lan claimed that roasting people required individual practice, promised to send Kushida textbooks, and scanned her contact code.
• Kushida said she would preserve the jacket bearing Bai Lan’s handprint and asked him to keep their practice secret and take her side in future disputes.
• Bai Lan asked whether Kushida intended to blackmail him with the threat of expulsion, and Kushida denied it while warning that she would drive obstacles to her friendships out of school.

Bai Lan welcomed Kushida’s threat to frame him as a way to get expelled, then returned to class and discussed clubs with Ayanokoji. He regarded their relationship as mutually useful rather than friendly, and left Ayanokoji to decide whether joining a club suited him.

• Bai Lan reasoned that Kushida could report her accusation and get him expelled, and he welcomed the plan instead of trying to prove his innocence.
• Bai Lan confirmed Kushida’s threat was serious, then walked away and declared that he would not submit, leaving her confused.
• After Kushida returned to class with her gentle persona restored, Bai Lan tried to nap until an announcement invited students to a club briefing.
• Ayanokoji asked Bai Lan whether an ordinary student should join a club, and Bai Lan said it depended on the person’s interests and desires.
• Bai Lan reflected that he and Ayanokoji had no affection for each other and used their conversations to satisfy their respective needs.
• Bai Lan described clubs as groups that pursued shared desires and told Ayanokoji that choosing not to join was itself a desire.

Bai Lan planned to use the club briefing as a chance to leave campus and scheme to make his classmates dislike him so they would not interfere with his hoped-for expulsion. During class introductions, he studied Yamauchi Haruki’s unpopular, implausible self-presentation as material to imitate.

• Bai Lan agreed to attend the club briefing, and he and Horikita traded insults until Ayanokoji said others thought they were flirting.
• Ayanokoji invited Horikita to the briefing, and Bai Lan warned her that her explanation made her sound like a tsundere.
• Hirata asked Chabashira to let the class use afternoon self-study for self-introductions, and Bai Lan planned to copy the most irritating examples to turn classmates against him.
• Inokashira introduced herself shyly, while Yamauchi Haruki claimed dubious sports achievements that drew snickers from classmates.
• Kushida introduced herself and said she wanted to become friends with everyone, while Sudo watched Hirata with irritation.

During Class D’s self-introductions, Bai Lan tried to make his classmates hate him by imitating Kogenji’s threatening manner. His speech drew angry glares, but Kogenji objected to Bai Lan copying him before Bai Lan could use his other prepared templates.

• Sudo Ken decided to cooperate with the introductions, but gave up after a brief attempt.
• Ike Kanji introduced himself by saying he liked girls and was looking for a girlfriend, while Kogenji Rokosuke threatened anyone who annoyed him and became the class’s most hated student.
• Horikita refused to introduce herself, and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka delivered a short, halting introduction.
• Bai Lan introduced himself as the successor of GC-ism and threatened to hit anyone who took offense, provoking angry glares from the class.
• Bai Lan prepared to use more introductions to increase the class’s dislike of him, but Kogenji objected to him imitating his speech.

Bai Lan finished his self-introduction by using exaggerated versions of his classmates’ speeches, provoking the class and drawing Kogenji’s attention. After school, he headed to the club orientation with Ayanokoji, while Horikita was left wondering why Bai Lan had chosen not to speak to her.

• Kogenji interpreted Bai Lan’s earlier speech as a personal attack and declared that he would win their challenge.
• Bai Lan delivered an exaggerated version of Ike Kanji’s speech, insulting the boys, praising his own looks, and boasting about wanting a harem.
• Bai Lan followed with Yamauchi Haruki’s template, making absurd claims about his achievements, then ended his self-introduction to the class’s hostile stares.
• After school, Bai Lan reminded Ayanokoji about the club orientation, and Ayanokoji refused to leave with him out of concern that classmates would misunderstand.
• Bai Lan decided not to tease Horikita because it could draw unwanted attention toward her, leaving Horikita irritated that he had ignored her.

After Bai Lan left class with Horikita Suzune, Hirata tried to explain Bai’s remarks to Class D as a veiled attack on Kogenji Rokosuke. The classmates began accepting Hirata’s interpretation, which he continued to build by comparing their self-introductions.

• Horikita Suzune followed Bai Lan out of the classroom, while the remaining students turned to Hirata and Kogenji for an explanation.
• Hirata asked Kogenji what he had meant, and Kogenji told him to follow his own understanding and entertain him.
• Hirata used a message on his phone and Kogenji’s reactions to argue that Bai had modeled his remarks on Kogenji’s self-introduction.
• Hirata contrasted Bai’s socialist beliefs with Kogenji’s zaibatsu background, leading classmates to believe Bai had targeted Kogenji.
• Hirata compared their statements about disliked things and retaliation, claiming Bai had copied Kogenji’s style while opposing his views.

Class D reinterpreted Bai Lan’s remarks as a brave response to Kogenji, while Hirata watched their praise in stunned silence. Shinohara then argued that Bai Lan had also imitated Yamauchi and Ike, turning the two Sese Group members into the class’s new targets.

• Hirata said Bai Lan’s provocations had been aimed at Kogenji, and Class D began praising Bai Lan for standing up to him.
• Kogenji suddenly praised the situation, leaving the classroom quiet and dampening the conversation.
• Yamauchi questioned Hirata about Bai Lan’s later remarks, but Shinohara said Bai Lan had imitated Yamauchi and Ike too.
• Shinohara read aloud Yamauchi and Ike’s introductions, and the class agreed Bai Lan had mocked their words.
• Ike blamed Yamauchi for drawing them both into the class’s ridicule.

Bai Lan investigated the soccer club, then bought competition schedules from the school and used them to predict mandatory events, planning to sell the information later. He called Kushida before bed, leaving their next conversation pending.

• Hirata defused Ike and Yamauchi’s argument and redirected the class toward the club orientation.
• Bai Lan questioned a soccer club member, lost interest in joining, and realized competition schedules could reveal dates of important school events.
• Bai Lan paid Teacher Chazhu twenty thousand points for the clubs’ competition information and used it to predict the year’s mandatory events.
• Bai Lan discovered that some mandatory events fell during winter and summer vacations, and decided to wait before selling his findings.
• Bai Lan called Kushida before going to bed.

Kushida realized that Bai Lan’s handprints had been left on the inner shirt she had washed, leaving her without usable evidence to accuse or threaten him. She suspected Bai Lan had anticipated her plan, though she wondered if the apparent scheme was only a coincidence.

• Bai Lan asked Kushida when she planned to report him and expel him, but she hung up after he explained he wanted to plan his finances.
• Kushida recalled that Bai Lan’s calm response had made her question whether her molestation accusation could work, so she examined what evidence she had kept.
• Kushida realized Bai Lan had grabbed the collar of her inner shirt and pressed his palm against it, leaving the relevant handprints on the shirt rather than her jacket.
• Kushida understood that she had washed the inner shirt after sweating, destroying the evidence and leaving her unable to report or threaten Bai Lan safely.
• Kushida suspected Bai Lan had planned the outcome in advance, then considered that she might be overthinking a coincidence.

Kushida mistook Bai Lan’s call about her threat for proof that he had anticipated and outmaneuvered her, then came to believe he was a genuinely good person who could help others while protecting himself. She ended the chapter considering whether to tell him about her troubles and ask him to teach her how to win people’s goodwill without hiding her dark side.

• Kushida answered Bai Lan’s call and heard him ask when she planned to report him and get him expelled.
• Kushida interpreted Bai Lan’s words as proof that he knew her evidence was useless and that he had planned everything.
• Kushida reasoned that Bai Lan’s earlier strange remarks and his phone call had warned her not to make a false accusation.
• Kushida became convinced that Bai Lan was a capable good person who earned people’s respect while acting as he pleased.
• Kushida wondered whether Bai Lan could teach her to stop suppressing her dark side and still gain others’ friendship and respect.

Kushida reconsidered her hostility toward Bai Lan and called to apologize, hoping to tell him about her situation. Bai Lan mistook her apology and invitation to meet as another attempt to make him surrender, and Kushida arrived at his dorm room to apologize in person.

• Kushida imagined that being more straightforward might help her friends accept her dark past, then accidentally hung up on Bai Lan and hurriedly called him back.
• Bai Lan assumed Kushida's apologies were a tactic to make him give in rather than a genuine change of heart.
• Kushida realized her phone apology seemed insincere and asked to speak with Bai Lan face-to-face.
• Bai Lan accepted, believing Kushida meant to pressure him again, while Kushida decided his private room would let them talk without being overheard.
• Kushida went to Bai Lan's dorm room and arrived a few minutes after ending the call.

Kushida visited Bai Lan to apologize for slandering him and asked him to teach her how to make friends. Convinced that Bai Lan had secretly orchestrated the class’s actions, she left him baffled by her assumptions.

• Kushida entered Bai Lan’s room and tried to perform a dogeza, but Bai Lan pulled her upright and told her to explain herself.
• Kushida apologized for what she had done at lunch and said she would not slander Bai Lan again.
• Kushida said she wanted Bai Lan’s ability to be himself, insult others, and still earn their goodwill and respect.
• Bai Lan denied that the class liked or respected him, but Kushida insisted his predictive ability and discernment had revealed a hidden plan.
• Kushida claimed Hirata’s instruction to keep things from Bai Lan and the events at lunch were part of Bai Lan’s scheme, leaving Bai Lan confused.

Bai Lan learned that Hirata had repeatedly persuaded Class D to view him favorably, and he resolved to repay Hirata by defusing the risks those efforts created. He then questioned Kushida about her misunderstanding and admitted he had only pretended to know a friendship technique to extract information from her.

• Kushida told Bai Lan that Hirata had held two meetings to persuade the class to interpret Bai Lan's behavior positively.
• Bai Lan realized Hirata's explanations might eventually be exposed and decided to protect him from the consequences of helping him.
• Kushida asked Bai Lan to teach her the supposed technique for making friends, and he tested her by asking what she understood about his plan.
• Kushida explained how she had mistaken evidence and imagined Bai Lan had deliberately manipulated her.
• Bai Lan concluded Kushida could no longer threaten him with the missing evidence and confessed that he had invented the friendship technique to draw information from her.

Kushida refused to accept Bai Lan’s claim that their conflict was a misunderstanding and decided he could help her, so she told him about the incident that ruined her life. She explained how her online venting exposed her classmates’ secrets and how seeing Horikita Suzune at Advanced Nurturing High School drove her to act against her.

• Bai Lan told Kushida that the evidence had been lost through her own mistake and ordered her not to bother him again.
• Kushida interpreted Bai Lan’s lack of retaliation as proof that he was kind and capable, and resolved to ask him for help.
• Kushida began recounting how she confided in friends, then anonymously vented online about their secrets.
• A boy identified Kushida through her posts, confronted her in class, and exposed her disclosures, causing classmates to fight and Kushida’s class to collapse.
• Kushida said her classmates, teachers, school, and parents condemned her, and she shut herself away for a long time.
• Kushida enrolled at Advanced Nurturing High School, discovered Horikita Suzune was her former middle-school classmate, and began acting to prevent Horikita from exposing her past.

Kushida confessed why she feared Horikita and asked Bai Lan for help protecting her hidden past. Bai Lan devised a plan for Kushida to roast Horikita until their insults seemed routine, leaving Kushida convinced he was a master strategist despite his insistence that he could not teach her how to make friends.

• Kushida explained that she wanted to befriend Horikita to learn whether Horikita knew about her past, and admitted she had threatened Bai Lan to keep her secret safe.
• Bai Lan decided to help Horikita and Kushida by advising Kushida to roast Horikita, claiming their exchanges would occupy Horikita and make any disclosures seem like more insults.
• Bai Lan explained that Horikita would have less time to talk to others and that classmates would be less likely to believe anything negative she said about Kushida.
• Kushida worried that roasting Horikita in public would damage her angelic image, so Bai Lan told her to say he had taught her the tactic.
• Bai Lan again insisted he had been joking about helping Kushida make friends, while Kushida remained convinced of his strategic abilities.

Bai Lan told Kushida to provoke Horikita, secretly intending to damage Kushida’s innocent image and make her less effective at making friends. He then confronted Hirata about intervening on his behalf, revealed that he wanted to leave school, and warned that their class’s conflicts would eventually surface.

• Kushida accepted Bai Lan’s plan to provoke Horikita while claiming she was following his advice to become friends with her.
• Bai Lan reflected that Kushida’s clashes with Horikita would expose her darker side and make others wary of her.
• After Kushida left, Bai Lan called Hirata and asked him to stop trying to help him fit in with the class.
• Bai Lan told Hirata he wanted to drop out and explained that staying at school would prevent him from being happy.
• Hirata agreed not to stop Bai Lan from leaving but asked him not to hurt himself or anyone in the class.
• Bai Lan warned Hirata that the class was made up of people with problems and that their conflicts would eventually emerge, prompting Hirata to lose his temper.

Bai Lan threw Hirata into a lake after Hirata punched him, then agreed to hear Hirata’s story as paid companionship. Hirata explained how guilt over his friend’s bullying led him to use violence against an entire grade, leaving Bai Lan to hear how he became its only bully.

• Hirata punched Bai Lan, who caught the blow and threw him into the lake.
• Hirata calmed down in the water and asked Bai Lan to stay and talk; Bai Lan agreed in exchange for payment.
• Hirata admitted he had considered using force to keep his class united, but said he had acted on impulse when he attacked Bai Lan.
• Hirata told Bai Lan that his childhood friend had been bullied and attempted suicide after Hirata failed to intervene.
• Hirata began beating bullies, then also attacked bullied students and bystanders because he believed everyone involved was at fault.
• Hirata used violence to suppress bullying across the grade, becoming the only student allowed to bully while everyone else feared even joking around.