I Only Want to Drop Out in Advanced Nurturing High School

Bai Lan felt he could definitely secure Karuizawa with this.

Since Bai Lan heard very little, his workload for composing music was also minimal.

It only took a little over ten minutes. Even though Bai Lan had strived for perfection, he ultimately finished composing the music.

After finishing the music, Bai Lan took out his phone and found the contact list Kushida had given him.

He found Karuizawa's name and number.

Soon, Bai Lan sent Karuizawa a text message:

"Karuizawa-san, you wouldn't want what you told Hirata to get out to other people, would you?"

After Karuizawa met with Hirata and returned to her room, she began to take a bath.

After rinsing off, she lay in the bathtub playing on her phone.

Just then, she suddenly received a message.

She opened it to read.

"From: First-year Class D - Bai Lan

Karuizawa-san, you wouldn't want what you told Hirata to get out to other people, would you?"

After reading the contents, Karuizawa's body immediately started to tremble. Her hand suddenly went soft, and she couldn't hold onto her phone properly.

The phone slipped from Karuizawa's grasp and with a splash, fell into the bathtub filled with water.

"Waaah!!!"

After a period of panic and frantic fumbling, Karuizawa fished her phone out of the bathtub and dried it with a bath towel.

On the surface, the phone was dry, but what about inside?

Karuizawa nervously pressed the power button.

The screen lit up.

Karuizawa immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

After all, the handbook given at enrollment stated that replacing a broken phone would cost money, a whopping 100,000 points!

The old item's true market value was said to be far more than 100,000. Ten thousand was merely an "internal discount price."

However, thankfully, or rather, as expected of a phone worth far more than 100,000, its waterproof function was quite impressive. It hadn't taken on water even after being submerged for over ten seconds.

Wait!

Karuizawa quickly realized that the biggest problem she was facing wasn't the 100,000 points!

Karuizawa looked at the name of the "sender" displayed on the messaging interface of the screen that had lit up.

"From: First-year Class D - Bai Lan"!

Seeing the name "Bai Lan," Karuizawa felt as if her chest had been violently struck by a hammer. It was heavy, painful, and made it difficult for her to breathe.

Karuizawa clutched her head with both hands and crouched on the floor.

"Why does Bai Lan know what I said to Hirata?

Did Hirata tell Bai Lan?

How much time has passed?

Does Hirata trust Bai Lan that much?

I explicitly told him I was afraid of Bai Lan, so why did he let Bai Lan contact me?

Now that Bai Lan has come to me, what should I do?

This is so scary!"

Not long ago, Karuizawa had indeed asked Hirata to meet.

Bai Lan's guess was correct; Karuizawa had asked Hirata to be her boyfriend.

Karuizawa had also indeed "threatened" Hirata by saying that "classmates" would be "bullied," be in "danger," and feel "afraid."

Hirata had indeed agreed to Karuizawa's request for a relationship in order to "avoid classmates from being bullied."

Bai Lan had basically guessed correctly.

But it was only "basically" correct.

Bai Lan's guess was slightly off from the actual situation.

Karuizawa's method of asking Hirata to be her boyfriend was a little different from what Bai Lan had assumed.

It was just a small difference, but because of this tiny discrepancy, the final outcome was off by "a huge margin."

In reality, the "victim" Karuizawa was referring to when she spoke of "bullying," "danger," and "fear" wasn't anyone else, but herself!

She herself!

In Karuizawa's eyes, if Hirata refused to be her boyfriend, it wouldn't be long before she would be the one being bullied, in danger, and living in constant fear and anxiety!

Karuizawa, like Kushida, was someone who hid her true self.

In fact, Bai Lan had unintentionally guessed some of the truth before.

Bai Lan had recently speculated: "Could it be that Karuizawa is actually a strong, fiery 'gyaru' on the surface, but secretly a weak, timid 'soft girl'? Fierce and intimidating by day, but hiding away to cry alone at night?"

While Bai Lan's guess wasn't entirely accurate, it was close.

Karuizawa's assertiveness was actually a disguise, meant to hide her weakness.

The reason she could maintain such a convincing act, one that withstood Bai Lan's repeated tests without faltering, making him unable to see even a hint of her vulnerability, was because the image she portrayed was precisely that of the people she was most familiar with, and most terrified of.

To be precise, it was those people!

Their images, the terrible things they had done to her, the fact that her life was almost taken away...

All of it was deeply etched in her mind, impossible to shake.

Karuizawa couldn't help but think of those people who made her feel such intense fear every day.

Under the filter of her fear, those already terrifying events became even more frightening!

She would wake up startled, reliving those events in her dreams, only to hide under her covers and cry in fear.

The psychological trauma from nearly losing her life during the bullying made her afraid to go to school.

Until she received the invitation to enroll in Advanced Nurturing High School.

She felt she had been given a chance to leave her past behind and start anew.

Karuizawa cherished this opportunity.

To that end, her first step was to adopt the persona of a 'gyaru' who was difficult to bully.

In addition, she put effort into practicing the speech patterns, gazes, and actions of the bullies who had tormented her in the past.

To contemplate fear, to understand fear, to grasp fear, and finally, to become fear!

All of this was to protect herself.

Author's Note

Finally, it's time to put the book on shelves.

My editor asked me to write a note, so here it is.

This book is mainly about: a male high school student who, despite having rich emotions, pretends to be heartless, is bold and rebellious but adheres to his own principles, goes to great lengths to drop out, navigating various pitfalls and defusing them along the way. In the process, he inevitably forms emotional bonds, moving from resisting emotions to learning to enjoy them.

There's a system, but it's not very prominent. Besides providing a rationale for the protagonist's behavior and powerful physique, you can basically ignore it.

We're about to go on shelves.

To be honest, I'm feeling very uncertain.

The agreement was that I could only ask about readership during promotion periods, but there's no promotion this week.

Therefore, I'm not very clear on the recent readership numbers.

I think my story is interesting, but I don't know if others will be willing to buy into it.

I hope to keep writing, to see it through to the end, and to give my story a proper beginning and conclusion.

After thinking about so many things I find interesting and wanting to write them down, to share them... it feels painful not to.

But if I write them and find no one reading, it feels like I'm wasting my energy and emotions, which is even more painful.

I don't dare to hope for too much.

I just hope that the full attendance bonus won't be a major concern.

The full attendance bonus on Mao Zhan is quite small, not very appealing.

I do want to earn a little.

Logically, I should offer a reward at the end.

But it feels like a gamble.

Then again, what if?

So:

50 "blades" or a 5000-point reward will get one extra chapter.

59. Hirata and Karuizawa's Conversation - Full Version

Karuizawa maintained her disguise with the determination that "if anyone sees through it, I might die."