Student Apartments

"Ah, you mean this morning? I was waiting for someone, actually." Tsubaki Yuki nodded.

"Oh? Who were you waiting for? Did someone you knew before come to school with you?"

Once the girls' curiosity was piqued, it could flare from a tiny spark into a raging wildfire in an instant.

The boys pricked up their ears, too.

"I came to school with my... childhood friend. I was waiting for him at the gate." Tsubaki sounded a little proud. She liked people knowing that she and Yuto had a special relationship.

"Wait, a childhood friend?! So he's a boy?"

"What class is he in? He doesn't seem to be in ours! Who is he?"

"It's fine, we're all classmates. There'll be lots of chances to meet people at this school!"

Tsubaki felt a little awkward. Her relationship with Yuto wasn't the sort of thing they were imagining.

But childhood friends, plus waiting for someone at the school gate on the first day of school—it was easy to get the wrong idea.

But she and Yuto really, really weren't like that!

Amid the girls' gossip, she could just barely hear the boys' heartbroken cries of "Ah, I'm crushed!"

After leaving class, Amasawa Yuto headed to the student apartments.

The red exterior walls and white windows looked simple yet elegant.

The building was quite tall. He counted quickly: eleven floors.

Excluding the lobby on the first floor, that meant ten floors for 160 students, with sixteen students on each floor.

The automatic doors slid open. Directly across from the lobby were three elevators in operation. The administrator's room was on the left, and metal mailboxes stood on the right.

Amasawa Yuto went to the administrator and got his room key card. Room 404, huh?

As he waited for the elevator, an energetic girl with short hair and pink eyes came up beside him.

"Hi there! I'm Kushida Kikyo from Class 1-D. My dream is to become friends with everyone in the school." She beamed brightly.

Sorry, Handprint-chan, I didn't recognize you just now. My apologies.

"I'm Amasawa Yuto from Class 1-A."

"Oh, you're the first person from Class A I've met! Can I add you as a friend?" Kushida Kikyo took out her phone and held it against her chest with both hands, looking utterly adorable.

It seemed Amikura Mako had guessed that the Amasawa Conglomerate connection was just a lucky coincidence—or perhaps she spent a lot of time surfing the web. In any case, no one else had connected his surname to his family background so far.

After all, you couldn't suspect every man named Ma of being Elon Musk's son.

"Sure."

As he spoke, Yuto took out his phone as well. The phone issued by the school had a dedicated campus SIM card, along with a messaging app and an email system, all linked to his personal phone number.

Yuto had already saved the contact details of several classmates from Class A, so he was pretty quick at it.

Incidentally, the first person he'd added was Sakayanagi Arisu. She'd come over to ask if he knew where the "add friend" option was, and Amasawa Yuto couldn't help teasing her for acting like an old lady.

After adding Kushida Kikyo, she held her phone against her chest and smiled happily. "Now we can say we're friends who know each other~"

If he'd been some clueless little virgin, he probably would've fallen for her act easily, blushing nervously and starting to wonder, "Does she like me?"

"By the way, Kushida, have you added Tsubaki Yuki from your class?"

"Yeah, I have. I've added pretty much everyone in class. But how do you know Tsubaki—oh!" She suddenly realized, then covered her mouth with a mischievous grin. "So you're the childhood friend Tsubaki was waiting for this morning, Amasawa?"

So that was how Yuki had described their relationship. Fair enough.

Amasawa Yuto nodded.

"You should ask her about that sort of thing yourself~" Kushida Kikyo wagged her index finger.

"Please? I need to talk to her. Think of it as helping a friend you just met." Amasawa Yuto said it deliberately, watching Kushida Kikyo's reaction.

"Hmm, since you put it that way..." Kushida Kikyo pulled up Tsubaki Yuki's phone number and showed it to Amasawa Yuto.

Amasawa Yuto glanced at it and nodded to show that was enough.

"You don't need to write it down?" Kushida Kikyo looked a little suspicious. She suspected he was messing with her.

"I've already memorized it." As he spoke, Amasawa Yuto recited the number without missing a digit.

"That's amazing!" Kushida Kikyo was surprised. "I didn't know you were so handsome and smart, Amasawa!"

She leaned closer and lowered her voice. "You know, some students in Class D already see you as their biggest rival!"

"If they've got a grudge against me, they can come at me. I'm looking forward to it."

"Wow, is that a declaration that you want Tsubaki all to yourself?"

"That's obviously not what I meant."

Just then, the elevator finally arrived. Amasawa Yuto glanced inside, then suddenly turned around.

"I just remembered I have something to do. Go on ahead, Kushida. Don't wait for me."

"Oh, okay! See you later, Amasawa~"

When he opened the door, the scent of air freshener greeted him.

The floors were probably separated by gender. Since he was in Room 404, the boys likely lived on the bottom five floors and the girls on the top five.

Amasawa Yuto took a quick look around. The room was about twenty square meters and contained a bathroom, a bedroom, and a combined kitchen and living area.

There wasn't much furniture in the bedroom, either: a wardrobe, a bed, a desk, and an air conditioner.

There was a sheet of paper on the desk. Amasawa Yuto picked it up and saw that it was a printed copy of the Dormitory Regulations. Everyone probably had one in their room:

1. While students attend the school, lodging, water, electricity, and internet fees are free.

2. Students are forbidden from spending the night in a room belonging to someone of the opposite sex. Anyone caught doing so will face punishment up to and including expulsion.

3. Students are forbidden from lingering on a floor or in a room belonging to someone of the opposite sex after ten p.m. Anyone caught doing so will face punishment up to and including expulsion.

4. The use of electrical appliances exceeding 2,000 watts is prohibited...

Aside from the first three rules, the rest were the usual regulations intended to ensure safety.

Rules two and three clearly stated that it was forbidden, but also specified that anyone caught would be punished. In other words, as long as you weren't caught, you'd be fine.

There were cameras in the first-floor lobby and the elevators, but none in the hallways or rooms.

After parting ways with Kushida Kikyo, Amasawa Yuto had deliberately taken the stairs in the emergency exit to check. There were no cameras inside the stairwell, either.

That meant that as long as the boys and girls didn't report one another, the school couldn't confirm whether anyone had broken rules two or three by using the stairs.

But everyone would probably notice such an obvious loophole.

Once everyone knew about a loophole, it was no different from a rule.

Amasawa Yuto took out his phone to ask Tsubaki Yuki if she wanted to go shopping at the supermarket with him. After all, the school didn't allow students to bring their own daily necessities or casual clothes, so they had to spend points to buy them.

But just then, the doorbell rang.

"Who is it?"

A languid, elegant female voice came from outside. "Good afternoon, Amasawa-kun. It's Sakayanagi Arisu."