"Shinjo! What are you doing?! Why are you stopping me?!"
"I'm just giving you a chance to think this through. You don't want to get expelled for violence and end up with nowhere to turn."
"I..."
Seeing that Sudō seemed to have calmed down a little, Shinjo took a couple of steps toward Yamawaki.
"You, student from Class 1-C, shouting here won't do you any good. Believe it or not, our class will pass this exam just fine."
"You! Who are you, anyway? Quit spouting nonsense. You think you're..."
Before he could finish, one of his classmates leaned in and whispered in his ear.
"Hey, didn't you hear? That huge guy called him Shinjo..."
Yamawaki's expression changed. "Y-you're that damn Shinjo Ayanokōji Kiyotaka?!"
Ayanokōji: ??????
Ayanokōji stared at Shinjo, baffled. He had no idea what was going on, but Shinjo was definitely involved somehow.
Getting on the bad side of a student from Class 1-C for no apparent reason was definitely not a good thing.
"Um, I'm the one named Ayanokoji Kiyotaka..."
"Who cares who you are?! Anyone named Ayanokoji or Shinjo is no good!"
"I..."
That was enough to rile Sudō up all over again after he'd only just calmed down. Insulting his good friend right in front of him was an insult to his friend's father—and utterly disrespectful!
"I think you're really asking for a beating! Shinjo, don't stop me! I'm going to teach him a lesson!"
"Come on! Come on! If you don't fight, you're no man!"
"I'll show you right now whether I'm a man!"
Sudō raised his fist and swung. Ayanokōji hurriedly pushed his chair back and moved to break up the fight, when...
"Enough! Stop it!"
The one who stopped Sudō this time wasn't Shinjo, but another girl who had been reading.
"Y-you! Who are you?"
"Who I am doesn't matter. I'm a student using the library, and I can't just ignore this commotion. If you're determined to resort to violence, please take it outside."
(As for Ichinose's hair color, this passage describes it as golden in the original novel, but it looks pink in the anime. I'll call it rose gold here for consistency.)
"And you students from Class 1-C, don't you think you've gone too far? If you keep harassing students from other classes, I'll have no choice but to report the circumstances to the school."
Yamawaki from Class 1-C seemed to know the girl. Seeing that she was determined to interfere, he had no choice but to call off their business for the day.
"Ichinose... Fine, we'll do it for your sake. Let's go. Studying in a place like this might turn us into idiots."
"Y-yeah, good point."
After leaving them with a threat, Yamawaki and the others slunk out of the library.
Ichinose turned to Shinjo and the others.
"If you still plan to study here, please keep it down."
Then, as if she'd just taken care of something completely trivial, she sauntered off.
"Um, I just remembered something really important. The stuff we've been reviewing isn't on the exam?! Is that for real?!"
"If that's true, what have we been working so hard for all this time?!"
Even Horikita Suzune's brows furrowed. She was sure she'd heard the exam scope from Chabashira-sensei.
"About that... I can actually answer your question."
At Shinjo's words, everyone turned to look at him.
"Can you explain what this 'Shinjo Ayanokoji' thing is first..."
"Don't start, Ayanokōji! Your business isn't important at all!"
"Yeah, Ayanokōji, just keep quiet for now."
For some reason, Ayanokōji had lost the support of the entire group. He could only sigh and fall silent, hoping Shinjo would give him a satisfactory explanation later.
"Do you know what's going on, Shinjo?"
"About that, I was actually planning to tell you all tomorrow."
As he spoke, Shinjo glanced toward Ichinose and raised his voice slightly.
"All right, the truth is, I got my hands on the answers to this exam~"
!!!!!!
The others exchanged glances, looking dazed at first. Then they rubbed their ears in disbelief.
"What did you say?! The ans—"
Just as Sudō was about to shout, Shinjo hurried over, clapped a hand over his mouth, and put a finger to his lips.
But he'd only done it to put on a show for Ichinose, who had already caught wind of their conversation.
Sudō realized he'd overreacted and nodded as hard as he could to signal that Shinjo could let go.
"You said you have the answers? Are you serious?"
"Why would I lie about something like this? Actually, I only got them from a second-year senpai this morning. They cost me twenty thousand points!"
"But how can you be sure the answers are real?"
Horikita Suzune was skeptical. If you could buy exam answers, what was the point of studying hard?
Shinjo smiled mysteriously.
"That's another piece of information. Kei bought them from a third-year senpai. The midterm exam questions for every class's first-years are the same, so..."
"So all we have to do is memorize the answers, and this exam will be a breeze?!"
The Idiot Trio were especially excited. No matter how hard you studied, you could still mess up during the exam. But having the answers beforehand was another story entirely!
"Exactly! I was going to let you study hard for a few days first and improve your grades. I was worried you'd stop paying attention in class if you got the answers too soon, so I planned to give them to you later. But... if you want them, Kei can send them to everyone tomorrow."
"Long live Shinjo! I can finally sleep easy!"
"Yeah, I've studied so much these past few days that I'm nearly bald."
"Give me a break, Yamauchi. Don't think I don't know you're bald because you used free shampoo."
While the others were busy celebrating, Ayanokōji and Horikita had clearly thought of a very strange question.
"So the exam scope Chabashira-sensei gave us was fake?"
"Uh, as a matter of fact, it was."
Bang!
Horikita slammed her hand on the table. Ichinose, who had been eavesdropping nearby, jumped.
"That's outrageous! Why would she... why would she do something like that?! No, I have to ask her what's going on."
Afterward, Horikita glanced at the Idiot Trio, who were already practically popping champagne, and said wearily, "Class dismissed."
Then she left the library without looking back. Kushida Kikyo and the Idiot Trio each came up with an excuse to leave as well.
"So, can you answer my question now?"
Shinjo shrugged, walked over, and patted Ayanokōji on the shoulder.
"About that... did you know the girls have a ranking of the most handsome boys?"
"????"
"Well, it's no surprise you didn't. Actually, besides the handsome ranking, there are also rankings for gloomy, gross, and most disliked..."
Shinjo rattled off the names of those bizarre rankings.
"All right, all right... I just want to know what this has to do with them."
"Of course it does! You're sixth on the handsome-boy ranking, I'm second, and Hirata's third. Everyone else in the top ten is from Class A. So it's only natural that the guys from Class 1-C who didn't make the list would resent you."
Ayanokōji had a feeling Shinjo was brushing him off, but there wasn't much he could do about it.
It wasn't as though he could threaten him with a knife.
Besides, even if he did, he doubted Shinjo would tell him the truth.
"Fine... But I don't feel like I'm popular. At least, I've never gotten a love letter or anything from a girl."
"Oh! That's probably because you're in the top five on the gloomy ranking."
Before you continue