Shinjo and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka

"Shinjo! What are you doing?! Why are you stopping me?!"

"I'm just giving you a chance to think this through. Don't end up expelled for violence, where no one can hear your cries for help."

"I..."

Seeing that Sudō's temper had cooled slightly, Shinjo took two steps toward Yamawaki:

"This student from Class 1-C, shouting here is useless. Believe it or not, our class will definitely pass this exam smoothly."

"You! And who are you? Stop spouting nonsense here. You think you..."

Before he could finish, a classmate beside him leaned in and whispered into his ear:

"Hey, didn't you hear? That big guy called him Shinjo..."

Yamawaki's expression changed upon hearing this: "You, you're that damn Shinjo Ayanokoji Kiyotaka?!"

Ayanokoji: ?????

Ayanokoji, his head full of question marks, glanced speechlessly at Shinjo. Although he didn't know what was happening, he was certain this had something to do with him.

Being inexplicably hated by someone from Class 1-C was definitely not a good thing.

"Um, I'm the one who's Ayanokoji Kiyotaka..."

"I don't care who you are! Anyone named Ayanokoji or Shinjo is nothing but trash!"

"I..."

This infuriated Sudō, who had just barely calmed down. Insulting his good friend right in front of him—cursing a man's father in front of his son was an act of pure insolence!

"I think you're really looking for a beating! Shinjo, don't stop me! I have to teach him a lesson!"

"Bring it on! Bring it on! If you don't hit me, you're not a man!"

"I'll show you right now whether I'm a man or not!"

Sudō raised his fist to swing, and Ayanokoji, standing to the side, hurriedly pushed back his chair, intending to step in and break up the fight. Just then...

"Alright, that's enough!"

This time, it wasn't Shinjo who interrupted Sudō, but another female student who had been reading.

"You... who are you again?"

"Who I am doesn't matter, but as a student currently using the library, I cannot turn a blind eye to this disturbance. If you are determined to use violence, please take it outside."

(Regarding Ichinose's hair color, the original book describes it as gold, but it looks pink in the anime, so I will standardize it as rose gold here.)

"Also, everyone from Class 1-C, aren't your words a bit excessive? If you intend to continue harassing students from other classes, I will have no choice but to report the circumstances of this incident to the school."

Yamawaki from Class 1-C seemed to recognize the girl. Seeing her determined to intervene, he had no choice but to cut his actions short for the day.

"Ichinose... fine, we'll give you some face. Let's go. Studying in a place like this might just make us catch stupidity."

"Ah, y-yeah, that's right."

After leaving behind that harsh parting shot, Yamawaki and his group slunk out of the library.

Ichinose turned back to Shinjo and the others:

"If you still intend to study here, please behave yourselves."

With that, she walked away gracefully, as if she had just handled a trivial matter of no consequence.

"Wait, I just remembered something very important. The things we're reviewing right now aren't even in the scope of the exam?! Are you serious?!"

"If that's the case, what was all our hard work for?!"

Even Horikita Suzune's brows were tightly locked. She was certain she had heard the scope of the exam from Chabashira-sensei herself.

"Regarding that... actually, I can answer you all."

Hearing Shinjo say this, everyone turned their gazes toward him in unison.

"Can you explain what's going on with 'Shinjo Ayanokoji' first..."

"Cut it out, Ayanokoji! Your business isn't important at all right now!"

"Yeah, Ayanokoji, just stay quiet for a moment."

For some reason, Ayanokoji had lost all popular support. He could only sigh and remain silent, hoping Shinjo would give him a satisfactory explanation later.

"Do you know what's going on, Shinjo-kun?"

"About that, I was actually planning to tell you all tomorrow."

As he spoke, Shinjo glanced in the direction of Ichinose and raised his voice slightly:

"Alright, the truth is, I've obtained the answers for this exam~"

!!!!!!

The group looked at each other, stunned for a moment, before rubbing their ears in disbelief:

"What did you say?! The ans..."

Just as Sudō was about to shout, Shinjo quickly stepped forward to cover his mouth, making a shushing gesture with his finger.

But this was merely a performance for Ichinose, who had already caught wind of the commotion.

Sudō realized his reaction had been too loud and nodded frantically to signal that Shinjo could let go.

"You said, the answers? Are you serious?"

"How could I possibly lie about something like this? Actually, I only received them from a second-year senior this morning. It cost me a full twenty thousand points!"

"But how can you guarantee that these answers are real?"

Horikita Suzune was somewhat skeptical. If one could simply buy the answers to an exam, what was the point of studying hard?

Shinjo smiled mysteriously:

"That's another piece of information. Megumi bought it from a third-year senior. The first midterm exam for every incoming class at this school uses the same test questions, so..."

"So that means, as long as we memorize the answers... this exam will be a piece of cake?!"

The Idiot Trio looked exceptionally excited. Even with hard work, it was inevitable to underperform during an exam, but having the answers beforehand was a completely different story!

"Exactly! Regarding this, I originally intended to let you study hard for a few days to improve your academic ability first, fearing that if you got the answers too early, you wouldn't pay attention in class. I was planning to give them to you later. But... if you want them, I'll have Megumi distribute them to everyone tomorrow."

"Long live Shinjo!! Finally, I can get a good night's sleep."

"Yeah, yeah, I've been studying so hard these past few days my head is practically going bald."

"Give it a rest, Yamauchi. Don't think I don't know your hair loss is because you used that free shampoo."

While the others were busy celebrating, Ayanokōji and Horikita were clearly pondering a very strange issue.

"In other words, the exam scope Chabashira gave us is fake?"

"Uh, that is indeed the case."

Bang!

Horikita slammed her hand onto the table, causing Ichinose, who was eavesdropping nearby, to shiver in fright.

"This is too much! Why... why would she do something like this?! No, I must go and ask her for a clear explanation."

After saying this, Horikita glanced back at the Idiot Trio, who were already eager to pop champagne in celebration, and said listlessly: "Class dismissed."

Afterward, she left the library without looking back, and Kushida Kikyo and the Idiot Trio each found an excuse to follow her out.

"So, can you answer my question now?"

Shinjo spread his hands and walked over to pat Ayanokōji on the shoulder:

"About that... do you know there's a ranking for the most handsome boys among the girls?"

"????"

"Well, it's normal that you wouldn't know. In fact, besides the handsome ranking, there's also a gloomy ranking, a disgusting ranking, an annoying ranking..."

Shinjo rattled off those inexplicable rankings as if they were common knowledge.

"Alright, alright... I just want to know, what does this have to do with that ranking?"

"Of course it has to do with it! You are sixth on the handsome boys' ranking, I am second, and Hirata is third. Everyone else in the top ten is from Class A. So, it's perfectly normal to be targeted by those in Class C who didn't make the list."

Ayanokōji felt that Shinjo was just brushing him off, but there was nothing he could do about it.

It wasn't as if he could hold a knife to his throat to force an answer.

Besides, even if he did force him, he felt Shinjo wouldn't tell him the truth anyway.

"Fine... but I don't really feel like I'm that popular. At the very least, I've never received a love letter from a girl or anything like that."

"Ah! About that, it might be because you're in the top five of the gloomy ranking, you know."