Lunch with Kato

Chabashira looked down at the students and nodded, then spoke to Megumi Kato beside her.

"Kato, sit with Akasaka for now. He's the one sitting in the back row by the window."

Chabashira pointed toward Akasaka.

Akasaka's eyes lit up.

Talk about perfect timing. Thanks, Chabashira!

Kato nodded to show she understood, then calmly walked down from the front of the room and went over to Akasaka.

Akasaka naturally made room for her and gestured for her to sit.

Kato's eyes brightened slightly. She quietly said, "Thank you," then sat down, ready for class.

Before long, it was nearly noon.

Ayanokoji and Horikita were also called away by Chabashira for a talk.

I looked at the girl sitting in front of me, Megumi Kato, whose presence was so faint it was almost unsettling. She was a new transfer student, yet no one had come up to greet her. Honestly, it was...

She could probably assassinate the president of Eagle Country, Trump, without anyone noticing, right?

She could probably even do it in broad daylight without anyone noticing.

Of course, I was only joking. It wasn't that ridiculous. I just wanted to emphasize how well Kato could conceal her presence.

I calmly looked at my desk mate and asked, "Kato, would you like me to show you to the cafeteria?"

"It's your first day here, so you probably don't know where it is. I can show you the way."

Kato's calm, unruffled eyes shifted slightly, and she nodded.

"Then I'll trouble you, Akasaka."

The two of us got up and left the classroom, heading for the cafeteria.

Ayanokoji and Horikita returned too, though they both looked rather glum.

Ayanokoji had even been entrusted with the important task of helping Class D climb the ranks.

But Ayanokoji didn't want to do that.

He didn't want to stand in the spotlight. He wanted to support Horikita as his tool and have her do the dirty work for him.

All he wanted was a peaceful life. He'd leave standing out to Horikita. She was happy to do it anyway, eager to prove how capable she was.

The two of them also left the classroom to get lunch, and they went together. After all, they were partners now, and still had plans to discuss.

Kushida saw the two walking off together, and her expression darkened.

Their classmates also wondered why the two were heading to lunch together.

"Why are those two going to lunch together?"

"When did they get so close?"

"Who knows? Who cares?" Karuizawa Kei stopped sitting with her legs crossed and made a suggestion to the Gyaru Group beside her.

"Let's go eat. The food at the Free window isn't great, but what can you do when someone blew all our points?"

Karuizawa gave Yamauchi Haruki a pointed look. She held grudges, and she had no intention of forgiving Yamauchi for calling her a slut the other day.

The rest of the class also turned on Yamauchi.

They'd already had their differences, and Karuizawa's words had only fanned the flames. They all blamed Yamauchi Haruki.

Not one of them considered that they themselves were partly responsible for ending up in this mess.

How could one person drag down an entire class?

Besides, the penalties listed above capped the deductions. One person could only lose a hundred or two points at most; they wouldn't be deducted any further. The remaining 800 Personal Points had been deducted from everyone else.

But none of them saw it that way. They all believed Yamauchi Haruki was to blame for their situation, and they turned on him, looking for someone to vent their anger on.

That was how people were. When faced with blame, they tried to distance themselves from it or pin it on someone else.

Yamauchi Haruki looked at the people accusing him and didn't care in the slightest.

He just clicked his tongue in disdain, stood up from his chair, and swaggered off to the cafeteria.

He wasn't going to bother with a bunch of idiots. They'd never understand how great he was.

Meanwhile, Akasaka Ryunosuke had already brought Kato Megumi to the school cafeteria, where they were getting food at the Free window.

Since Kato had just enrolled this month, she probably didn't have any points, so Akasaka had brought her to the Free window.

Kato tilted her head cutely.

"Um... Akasaka, do we really have to eat the free food?"

Kato glanced at the meager soup at the Free window, then at the beef ramen worth 500 yen at the next one. She was hinting at something.

Akasaka paused as he served the food. "You have points?"

Kato nodded and showed him her phone terminal.

"I do, Akasaka."

"Did you bring me to the Free window because you thought I didn't have any?"

Akasaka nodded awkwardly. "Well, we have zero points this month, and you transferred here this month, so I just assumed you didn't have any..."

Kato gave him a meaningful smile. "You really are a nice person, Akasaka~ But don't worry. The school gave me 100,000 points for living expenses. If I'm careful, it should last me four or five months."

Akasaka didn't notice that Kato had switched from the more formal "classmate" to the more familiar "Akasaka-kun." He just answered without thinking.

"Oh, I see. Then I don't need to worry about it."

I pointed to the points-based window beside us.

"I recommend the 428-yen pork cutlet set. For just 28 yen more, you get a free glass of lemonade. It's a great deal."

Kato toyed with a strand of hair by her ear.

"Then thank you for the tip, Akasaka. I'll go get my food."

Soon, Kato ordered a 500-yen beef ramen. Akasaka stared at her in a daze, then said helplessly,

"I didn't expect you to be so rebellious, Kato..."

"You didn't just ignore my recommendation for the pork cutlet set—you went the opposite way and ordered the more expensive beef ramen."

I stirred it with my chopsticks and teased Kato.

Kato simply shook her head and retorted,

"You don't understand, Akasaka. Pork cutlets are very high in calories, and they're deep-fried too. Eating them makes it easy to gain weight."

Kato pointed her chopsticks at Akasaka Ryunosuke, speaking with complete seriousness.

"Girls care a lot about their health. We can't just eat high-calorie foods whenever we want."

I looked up at Kato and couldn't help teasing her.

"I don't think you're worried about your health. You're worried about getting fat."

Kato picked up a piece of beef and popped it into my mouth, silencing me.

"Akasaka, making comments about girls getting fat is a good way to make people dislike you."

I promptly ate the beef roll Kato had handed me. How could I refuse food offered right to my mouth?

Besides, I hadn't had meat in ages...

Seeing how readily I ate it, Kato looked a little helpless and put half of her beef roll into Akasaka's rather meager meal.

Akasaka's meal consisted of rice soaked in tea with a little bonito flakes sprinkled on top. It had practically no oil at all.

But at least it was free.

Otherwise, who'd want to eat that stuff?