So, to those who had lost their reason, Nanase's attempts to talk them down sounded like she was rubbing salt in their wounds. You could even say she was adding fuel to the fire.
"Ha. You're not the one who'll get expelled, so of course you're not worried!"
"Exactly. When it comes down to it, you were the one who went with Hosen to negotiate with the second-years, weren't you? If you'd stopped Hosen from going crazy, we wouldn't have ended up like this."
For a while, the Class D students began blaming Nanase, but she herself had no way to respond.
If Hosen were here, he might be able to get the situation under control.
They really were Class D through and through. Compared to other years, they were uniquely pathetic.
"Hey, look! Hosen's already found a partner."
"What did you say?"
Prompted by someone's remark, the Class D students immediately took out their phones, logged into O, and checked.
Sure enough, Hosen's group status had changed to "Successfully Paired."
According to the rules, a pairing would only show as successful the day after it was accepted. So Hosen hadn't paired up today; he'd done it before today.
They could see that he'd paired up, but not who his partner was. Still, that was enough.
In the eyes of the Class D students, Hosen had blatantly betrayed them. He'd explicitly told them not to pair up with second-years.
Yet he'd gone and paired up first.
And he'd done it before today's rule change!
How could that be anything but betrayal?
Hosen had been suspended until the day of the exam, but at least he wasn't in danger of being expelled!
Their hatred shifted back to Hosen once more.
Ayanokoji had anticipated this, too. After sorting out the situation, he