Student Apartment

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

"Eh? Waiting for someone? Could it be that you were coming to school with someone you knew from before?"

Once the gossip-mongering hearts of girls are ignited, they instantly turn from a single spark into a raging prairie fire.

The boys also pricked up their ears.

"I was coming to school with my... childhood friend. I was waiting for him at the gate." Tsubaki Yuki's tone carried a hint of pride; she quite liked others knowing that her relationship with Amasawa Yuto was out of the ordinary.

"Eh, eh? A childhood friend?! That means it's a boy, right?"

"Which class is he in? He doesn't seem to be in our class! Who is it, who is it?"

"It doesn't matter, we're all classmates. There are still plenty of opportunities within the same school!"

Tsubaki Yuki felt a bit awkward. She and Amasawa Yuto were not in the kind of relationship they were imagining.

However, being childhood friends, combined with waiting for someone at the school gate on the very first day, it was indeed easy for people to misunderstand.

But she and Amasawa Yuto were really, truly not in that kind of relationship!

Aside from the gossiping voices of the girls, one could faintly hear the heartbroken sounds of boys crying out, "Ah, I've been dumped."

After leaving the classroom, Amasawa Yuto arrived at the student dormitory.

Red exterior walls, white windows—it looked simple yet elegant.

It was quite tall. He did a quick count and found it had eleven floors.

Excluding the lobby on the first floor, that meant ten floors housing one hundred and sixty people, with sixteen people on each floor.

The automatic sensor doors opened. Directly opposite the lobby were three elevators in operation; to the left was the dormitory manager's room, and to the right were metal personal mailboxes.

Amasawa Yuto found the manager and received his room key card. Room 404, huh?

While waiting for the elevator to descend, a spirited girl with short hair and pink eyes approached him.

"Hello there, classmate! I'm Kushida Kikyo from Class D. My dream is to become good friends with every student in the school." She flashed a sunny, cheerful smile.

Sorry, Miss Handprint, I didn't recognize you just now. My apologies, my apologies.

"I'm Amasawa Yuto from Class A."

"Eh? Amasawa-kun is actually the first Class A student I've met. Can I add you as a friend?" Kushida Kikyo took out her phone, holding it with both hands against her chest, looking utterly pitiful and endearing.

It seems Amikura Mako guessing that the Amasawa conglomerate was just pure luck was likely because she spends a lot of time surfing the web. In any case, for now, no one else has associated his family background with his surname.

After all, you can't just suspect someone's father is Elon Musk just because their surname is Ma.

"Sure."

As he spoke, Yuto took out his phone. The school-issued phones came with dedicated campus SIM cards, messaging apps, and email systems, all linked to the individual's personal account.

Yuto's phone already had the contact information of several Class A students saved, so he was quite proficient with the interface.

Incidentally, the first person he added was Arisu Sakayanagi, because she had leaned over to ask him where the "Add Friend" button was, and Yuto couldn't help but tease her for acting like an old lady.

After adding Kushida Kikyo, she held her phone against her chest and beamed. "Now we can consider ourselves friends who know each other~"

If he were some naive, inexperienced boy, he probably would have been easily deceived, blushing and getting nervous while fantasizing, "Does she like me?"

"By the way, Kushida, do you have the contact info for Tsubaki Yuki from your class?"

"Hmm, yes, I've added basically everyone in the class. But how did you know about Tsubaki-san—ah!" She wore an expression of sudden realization, then covered her mouth with a mischievous smile. "So, Amasawa-kun is the childhood friend Tsubaki-san was waiting for this morning?"

So that's how Yuki explained our relationship. That works fine.

Amasawa Yuto nodded.

"You should really ask her that yourself~" Kushida Kikyo wagged her index finger.

"Please, I have something to discuss with her. Just consider it a favor to a new friend." Amasawa Yuto said this deliberately, observing Kushida Kikyo's reaction.

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

Amasawa Yuto took a glance and nodded, signaling that was enough.

"Don't you need to write it down?" Kushida Kikyo looked a bit suspicious; she suspected she was being played.

"I've already memorized it." With that, Amasawa Yuto recited the number back without a single error.

"That's amazing!" Kushida Kikyo was surprised. "I didn't expect Amasawa-kun to be not only handsome but also so sharp!"

She leaned in, acting mysterious. "Did you know? Some students in Class D already see you as their greatest rival in love!"

"If they have hostility toward me, tell them to bring it on. I'm looking forward to it."

"Wow, wow, is that a declaration of exclusive rights over Tsubaki-san?"

"That's clearly 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 take care of. You go ahead, Kushida, no need to wait for me."

"Ah, okay. See you later, Amasawa-kun~"

Opening the door, the scent of air freshener wafted toward him.

The floors were likely separated by gender. Given that he was in 404, it was safe to assume the boys lived on the bottom five floors, while the girls occupied the top five.

Amasawa Yuto took a quick glance around the room, which was about twenty square meters. It contained only a bathroom, a bedroom, and an integrated kitchen.

The furniture in the bedroom was also sparse: a wardrobe, a bed, a desk, and an air conditioner.

There was a piece of paper on the desk. Amasawa Yuto picked it up and found it to be a printed copy of the dormitory regulations. Presumably, every room had one:

1. Accommodation, utilities, and internet fees are fully covered for students during their enrollment.

2. Staying overnight in a room belonging to the opposite sex is prohibited. Violations will result in disciplinary action up to and including expulsion.

3. Loitering on the floors or in the rooms of the opposite sex after 10:00 PM is prohibited. Violations will result in disciplinary action up to and including expulsion.

4. The use of unauthorized electrical appliances exceeding 2000W is prohibited...

Aside from the first three, the rest were standard safety clauses.

Although the second and third rules explicitly stated they were prohibited, they also specified that punishment would only occur if one was caught. In other words, as long as you weren't discovered, it was fine.

While there were security cameras in the first-floor lobby and the elevators, there were none in the hallways or inside the rooms.

After parting ways with Kushida Kikyo, Amasawa Yuto had specifically taken the emergency stairwell up, confirming that there was no surveillance inside the stairwell either.

In other words, as long as the boys and girls didn't report each other and used the stairs, the school had no way of confirming whether rules 2 and 3 had been broken.

However, surely everyone would notice such a minor loophole.

Once a loophole became common knowledge, it was effectively no different from the rules themselves.

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

But just then, the doorbell rang.

"Who is it?"

A lazy, elegant female voice drifted from outside the door: "Good afternoon, Amasawa-kun. It is Arisu Sakayanagi."