"What was that mea—oh! I get it. You want me to provoke her under the pretext of 'wanting to become friends with Horikita'!"
"Exactly! Look at you, little angel. To become friends with Horikita, you're actually willing to learn how to provoke people! You're practically the original inspiration for the saying, 'Though wine and meat pass through the guts, Buddha remains in the heart.' How moving!"
"Uh, can this fool the other people?"
"Why bother fooling the others? It's enough if I can fool you, isn't it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Because you're doing this only because you believed what I told you and were fooled by me. The others don't need to believe 'you'; they only need to know that 'you believed me.' Understand?"
"Oh! Whether I believe you or not is my business. The others aren't me, so how would they know I don't believe you?"
"Exactly. You only need to put on an innocent, sweet, airheaded act and stubbornly insist that 'you're provoking Horikita in order to become friends with her' and that 'Bai Lan taught you this way of making friends.' Then, just 'ignore all advice and devote yourself wholeheartedly to provoking Horikita.' You should reinforce your image as an 'innocent' person while you're at it."
"Bai-san, you're making such a huge sacrifice for me! You really are a good person! Arigato, Bai-san!"
"I..."
Bai Lan was too lazy to explain. He only hoped she could still say things like that in the future.
You think having me take the blame for you will make this useful? What a joke! Bai Lan laughed darkly to himself.
Actually, there was one thing Bai Lan hadn't told Kushida.
Although this plan could resolve the conflict between Kushida and Horikita, it had both advantages and disadvantages.
While Kushida used this plan to resolve her predicament, it would also cause cracks to appear in her universally beloved little-angel persona.
The more Kushida traded barbs with Horikita, the more emotional she would become. It was inevitable that she would occasionally fail to maintain her gentle, adorable image and inadvertently expose parts of her true nature.
As the saying went, hearing was believing, but seeing was truth.
Strictly speaking, that saying wasn't entirely accurate. Even something witnessed with one's own eyes might not necessarily be true.
Still, it expressed the fact that humans were more inclined to believe what they saw for themselves.
Even when what people saw with their eyes was fake, they would still be more willing to believe it was real.
Even though everyone knew Kushida was "provoking people under orders" and that Bai Lan was the one taking the blame,
when outsiders saw Kushida occasionally reveal her dark side, they would subconsciously feel that she wasn't as innocent as she appeared. She might even be a "sweet on the outside, dark on the inside" type.
Everyone liked a "little angel." That persona naturally made people feel close to her and gave her a very high initial favorability.
But a "little angel possessed by a demon" was different. In anime and manga, people might enjoy such a character, but in real life, many would keep their distance.
Although nobody had any proof, the impression of a "little devil" would inevitably make people wary of Kushida.
This would make it more difficult for Kushida to make friends!
When that happened, Kushida would discover: Why has making friends become more and more exhausting?
That was the other purpose behind Bai Lan giving Kushida this method!
Once Kushida realized that the method Bai Lan had taught her caused her skill at making friends to decline instead of improve,
she probably wouldn't dare ask Bai Lan for any more "secrets to making friends," right?
Besides, after Kushida used this method to eliminate Horikita as a threat,
the only person left in this school who could still threaten her would be Bai Lan...
Heh heh heh~
46. Meeting Hirata, the King of Fist, and Coming Clean
After Kushida got what she wanted from Bai Lan and obtained a way to resolve her predicament, she finally left Bai Lan's room.
Before Kushida left, Bai Lan asked her for the contact information of everyone in the class that she had.
Bai Lan didn't explain why he wanted it, and Kushida didn't ask further.
After fending Kushida off, Bai Lan found Hirata's phone number among the numbers she had sent him.
He typed it in.
Then he made the call.
"Hello, this is Hirata."
As soon as the call connected, Hirata's polite voice came from the other end.
Bai Lan got straight to the point. "This is Bai Lan. I have something to discuss with you."
A few minutes later, Bai Lan met Hirata at a spot beside a landscaped lake near the dormitories.
"Bai?" Hirata spoke first, his voice filled with surprise and delight. "I've been wondering how I could get in touch with you. I never expected you to contact me first! Is there something you need my help with?"
"No."
"Huh? Then why did you ask me to come here?"
"I asked you to come because I want you to stop 'helping' me."
"What do you mean? I don't understand." Hirata looked puzzled.
"I know everything you've done."
Hearing that, Hirata looked apologetic. "Ah... you know already? I'm sorry. I acted on my own."
Bai Lan ignored that and instead asked, "What's your goal? What benefit do you get from doing this?"
"Benefit? No, I just want everyone in the class to get along. I don't want to see anyone being bullied, and I want you to fit in with the class."
"You mean you think I'll be bullied?"
"Er... that is what I believe."
"Do you know there's a problem with your method? It contains a huge hidden danger. You're only pressing down the lid; you can't truly solve the problem. Sooner or later, everyone in the class will find out that you've been deceiving them, and this will ruin you!"
"Sooner or later? Isn't one day later better than one day earlier? If I hadn't done this, you would already have become the enemy of the entire class today, wouldn't you?"
"But have you ever considered that this might be exactly what I want?"
"What?"
"To tell you the truth, I don't want to stay at this school. I want to drop out. That's why I used this method to sever the possibility of forming emotional ties with anyone right from the beginning."
Bai Lan came clean.
"What? You're planning to drop out?" Hirata suddenly grew agitated. "Why would you... wait, if you want to drop out, shouldn't you just submit an application? Why are you doing this?"
Bai Lan explained, "For certain reasons, I can't withdraw voluntarily, nor can I drop out because of my academic performance. So I'll achieve it through other means."
"When I asked that earlier, it didn't mean I agreed with you dropping out. I just found it too strange and couldn't help asking." After explaining his earlier words, Hirata continued, "I believe every person in our class is irreplaceable and important.
"My greatest hope is for everyone to stay together, with no one missing, to get along harmoniously, help one another, build wonderful memories of our youth together, and happily spend these three years. So, Bai, could you please not drop out?"
"No, Hirata. You're too naive. Your wish was impossible from the very beginning."
"Why?"
"First of all, merely 'staying here' would make it impossible for me to feel truly happy.
"So even if I reluctantly stayed, I wouldn't be among the people 'enjoying themselves together.' Therefore, you can't achieve your goal."
"Why can't you feel truly happy? I don't understand."
"It's normal that you don't understand. You only need to know that what you consider happiness may not be someone else's happiness, and what you think is good may not be what someone else wants.
"I long for the vast sky outside, while you want to keep me on this closed-off island. Our happiness is fundamentally incompatible.
"If you really want what's best for me, then let me go!"
After hearing Bai Lan say this, Hirata looked somewhat dejected. "So that's how it is? Leaving this place is what you want? I understand. In that case, I won't try to stop you anymore. However, I hope you'll agree to one thing."
"What?"
"I'll accept whatever method you want to use to drop out. I can even lend you a hand.
"But please don't drop out by hurting anyone in the class, and don't hurt yourself either!
"At least for as long as you're still at this school, we'll remain classmates. I don't want anyone in the class to get hurt, including you."
Bai Lan frowned. "That's asking too much of me, isn't it? At most, I'll affect some people in the class. Consider it repayment for the favor you did me. As for whether I get hurt, that's none of your business."
Hirata, however, was extremely stubborn. "No! Every single person in our class has to be okay! If even one person is missing, it isn't the 'entire class' anymore! I'll never give up on anyone!"
The more Bai Lan listened to Hirata, the stranger he found him. In the end, he couldn't help saying, "I think there's something wrong with you.
"Is forcing everyone to maintain a harmonious atmosphere really that important to you?
"To do this, you're even willing to risk ruining your own reputation and clear my name despite knowing nothing about me?
"Have you ever considered how dangerous it is to continue thinking this way?
"I'm the first person in this class you've had to clear the name of, but I definitely won't be the last!
"I'm even relatively easy to clear.
"After all, you weren't entirely wrong. Although I speak harshly and skip classes and leave early, I really have made contributions to the class.
"I've even done more good than bad.
"I can tell you a cruel truth. According to my investigation, the class assignments at this school aren't 'randomly distributed.' They're 'distributed by category.'
"Everyone in this class is the same kind of person—and rejected defective goods!
"You are too, and so am I!
"I have my own problems.
"I can tell that you have problems too.
"You can't clean up this D-Class full of problems!
"I can tell from this incident alone that you don't have the ability to do it. Do you understand?"
"Enough! Stop talking." Hirata growled, completely losing his usual gentleness.
Bai Lan ignored him and continued, "As time passes, everyone's problems will gradually surface.
"Conflict, rejection, and confrontation will be unavoidable.
Before you continue