Rumors of Sudo

On the way to school in the morning, Konoe, who was yawning, was stopped by a girl.

"Good morning, Konoe!" Ichinose greeted Konoe, and with the last step before reaching Konoe, she jumped directly to his side.

Seeing her actions, Konoe, still groggy from sleep, was stunned and said, "Good morning... You're really energetic, Ichinose."

"What's wrong? Did you not sleep well yesterday? Not sleeping early affects your health. But Konoe who didn't sleep well is unexpectedly interesting too." After speaking, Ichinose suddenly walked in front of Konoe and stopped, reaching out to tidy his hair.

Konoe stood there dazed, letting her fiddle with his hair for a few seconds before suddenly snapping back to reality and pushing her hand away.

"Hey, Ichinose, this isn't very good... People might misunderstand if they see us," Konoe sighed and calmed himself down.

Ichinose also realized what she had done, and with a blush, lowered her head and said, "I... I'm sorry, speaking of which, Konoe is a boy."

"What! I didn't expect you to see me like this normally, Ichinose..." The sparkle in Konoe's eyes gradually faded. "No wonder I always felt there was a strange distance between us..."

Seeing Konoe's disappointed look, Ichinose quickly explained, "I misspoke! I didn't mean it like that, I just temporarily forgot about the gender thing..."

"...If there's nothing else, I'll be going now." Konoe, in a bad mood, wanted to leave quickly. He thought that if he could get to the classroom a little earlier, he might even be able to take a short nap before class.

"Wait!"

Ichinose stepped forward and grabbed Konoe's hand. Then, she carefully looked up at Konoe. When she saw Konoe turning his head to look at her with a shocked expression, she quickly lowered her head again.

"I know Konoe is a boy, but I just feel very relaxed when talking to you, so I might have done some strange things that made you feel weird..." Ichinose puffed out two breaths, regulating her breath, and continued, "And I'm not afraid of being misunderstood. Actually, I have something I want to tell you, that's why I called you..."

Konoe noticed that Ichinose's lowered eyes were now covered by her bangs, and the redness on her face had spread all the way to her ear roots. He felt a soft touch from her hand, but her strength seemed to fluctuate, as if she couldn't grasp the right amount of pressure.

It would be simple to just pull her hand away, but that would be too pitiful for Ichinose, Konoe thought to himself, then sighed.

"I understand. It's no problem to just listen to you. But first, let go of my hand."

Seeing that Konoe had no intention of leaving, Ichinose quickly let go of his hand. However, she still didn't dare to look up at Konoe, and instead touched her hair and said, "Can I trouble you for a little time after school?"

Konoe pondered for a moment, wanting to dispel the strange atmosphere, and found a reason: "Then consider it me repaying the favor from the library last time, how about it?"

"Oh... Speaking of which, there was that. Then I'll wait for you at the school building entrance after school." After saying that, Ichinose quickly left with a pace that suggested she was about to run.

Konoe patted his face, calmed his racing heartbeat, and walked towards the school building as if nothing had happened.

As soon as he entered the classroom, Konoe heard Sudo seemingly arguing with someone in the class.

"I told you, it's not like that," Sudo retorted loudly. "There were three of them on their side."

"But... right." The gyaru Karuizawa Kei hesitated to speak, looking at the girl beside her.

Standing next to him was Shinohara Satsuki, who seemed to understand what Karuizawa meant but didn't say, and nodded at her, saying, "Yeah..."

The two girls exchanged a glance. It wasn't easy to say anything to Sudo directly in front of him, so they returned to their own small circles of discussion.

"What the heck," Sudo said angrily as he returned to his seat.

Konoe felt something was wrong. Although Chabashira had said to keep it quiet, the news had still spread. It was very likely that Class C was deliberately fanning the flames.

Konoe found Karuizawa's direction and moved closer to the range where he could hear the girls' circle talking, wanting to hear what they were discussing.

"I wish Sudo-kun wasn't in our class."

"Yeah, last time I heard him laughing about hitting people, and he even proudly talked about how to strike different parts of the body with his fists."

"That's scary..."

Just as Konoe was straining his ears to listen carefully, his shoulder was suddenly patted.

"Whoa!" Konoe flinched all over, letting out a startled cry. The girls stopped their discussion and looked over at him.

Konoe could only smile foolishly and wave at them. The girl who had just patted his shoulder also stood beside him and greeted the girls.

Karuizawa, who was clearly the center of attention among the girls, twitched her lips. Then she said a few more words, seemingly redirecting the girls' attention back to the topic they were discussing, and they stopped paying attention to Konoe.

Konoe looked to his side and realized that the person who had patted his shoulder was Hasebe Haruka.

Hasebe apologized, "Sorry, I didn't expect Pingping to react so strongly, but what were you doing just now?"

"It's okay, Gaga... I was being sneaky, that's why I got startled. Actually, I was curious about what they were discussing, it seemed to be related to Sudo-kun?" Konoe always felt it was a bit awkward to say the other person's name.

"What, you can just ask me about small things like that. Actually, everyone is spreading rumors that Sudo seems to have caused a violent incident. Although it's just a rumor, Sudo seemed to have admitted it in class just now."

"I think I heard him say something about one vs three."

"Who knows if what he said is true or not... I heard the other party didn't resist at all and just let him keep hitting them." Hasebe's expression turned a little scared as she said this.

"I see. Can I ask where you heard that from, Gaga?"

"It seems like the girls were discussing it in a group chat at first, and then for some reason, it seems like everyone in the first year knows about it."

"Group chat... is it the class discussion group?"

"It's a group created by the girls themselves, only girls can join. But there are quite a few girl groups, I can't remember which one it is right now..."

"Oh... oh." Konoe knew that the girls were divided into several small groups, but he didn't expect it to be this exaggerated.

"If you're so curious, Pingping, do you want to join the group? Speaking of which, there was a discussion about inviting you to the group last time..." Hasebe said, pretending to ponder.

"Absolutely not." Konoe politely declined, and his mind drifted back to what happened on the way to school.

"Haha, just kidding. There are some topics in the group that I don't think Pingping would want to see, like the ranking or something."

"I won't ask what that is. Lastly, there's one thing I want to ask of Gaga." Konoe realized this might be a good opportunity to understand the girls' side. "Can you tell me the administrators of a few of the groups you frequently use? It would be best if you could also tell me where they are more active. You can text it to me, please!"

"Huh? Is Pingping interested in a Girl?" Hasebe said in surprise.

"Not exactly. Don't you think this school is a bit different from ordinary schools? Like last time during the Midterm Exam, the punishment for failing was a bit too severe. I'm worried the next assessment will be more difficult, so I want to understand the situation with the Girls... Would it be inconvenient, sorry Gaga."

"Not at all, not at all. If that's the case, I'm happy to help. Rather, I'm happy Pingping asked me. Besides, Pingping seems very smart. Thanks to Pingping last time, I saved some points and didn't have such a hard time later."

"That's great, but Gaga, don't push yourself too hard." Konoe thanked Hasebe and said goodbye before returning to his seat.

Konoe noticed that as soon as he left, several Girls gathered around Hasebe, talking about something. Kushida seemed to be among them.