Shinjo and Ri Shinjo

"Please, help yourself."

To highlight his hospitality, Shinjo had actually brought out the tap water and butter cookies he usually couldn't bear to consume himself.

"Whoa... you are way too stingy, you know that?!"

Tachibana Akane couldn't help but furrow her brows as she looked at the disposable paper cup in front of her.

"You can't even be bothered to fill a cup of tap water for me?!"

"Well, our positions are different. I'd love to treat you, but what if someone with ulterior motives sees it and accuses me of bribing a high-ranking member of the Student Council?"

Shinjo sighed with an innocent expression.

"Bribe my foot!! You promised to treat us to tea, so where is it?"

"About that... I didn't expect the disposable tea bags to run out. So, when will the budget for the new month be approved?"

Tachibana Akane felt a bit breathless; if it weren't for the fact that Horikita Manabu hadn't shown a shred of dissatisfaction from start to finish, she would have turned and left long ago.

"You still have the nerve to ask us for a budget?!"

"Tachibana."

"President, this guy is just too outrageous!"

How could Horikita Manabu not know that?!

But having long since witnessed how thick-skinned the guy in front of him was, he knew that taking him seriously would only cause his own blood pressure to spike. Therefore, the best way to deal with him was simply not to take the bait.

"Your Yorozuya has been operating for a month now, and you have completed the commissions I gave you on time, so the budget will naturally be approved when it is time to do so."

"The President is wise!"

"Regarding your Yorozuya, because the commotion last time was a bit significant, the school administration has been keeping an eye on it. You should understand what I mean, right?"

Shinjo shrugged. This was actually within his expectations; after all, when he worked at the Yorozuya outside, he was often called in for "tea and chats" as well.

"So, will I be summoned by someone soon?"

"That remains to be seen. However, even if there is a summons, it should be later on. After all, your Yorozuya has just started operating and hasn't really accomplished anything yet..."

He didn't need to finish the sentence; Horikita Manabu trusted that Shinjo understood.

And so, having no intention of staying, he gestured for Tachibana Akane to leave.

Tachibana Akane, as if determined to vent her frustration, drank four cups of tap water, swiped an entire box of butter cookies, and made a face at Shinjo before leaving:

"Stingy underclassman! You deserve to never make any money in your life!"

Almost immediately after, not long after Horikita Manabu had left, Horikita Suzune brought Ayanokōji to the Yorozuya to knock on the door.

"You two, please sit. I'm terribly sorry, I only have tap water left; the butter cookies were all eaten by that stingy Tachibana-senpai."

Horikita Suzune said nothing and sat straight down in the chair Horikita Manabu had just occupied, and Ayanokōji followed suit, sitting down beside her.

The three of them stared at each other blankly. Because he couldn't get a read on his visitors, Shinjo didn't know what to say for a moment.

About five minutes passed.

"Um..."

They spoke almost simultaneously. When Shinjo and Horikita heard the other had something to say, they both swallowed their words.

"You..."

"Forget it, you are the guests, you go first. By the way, if you were going to say something like 'I never expected you to be the one running the Yorozuya,' let's skip it. I never intended to keep it a secret, but at this point, saying such things seems pointless."

Horikita Suzune clearly wasn't one for pretense, so she took the lead:

"May I ask, is your Yorozuya really as miraculous as the flyers claim? That you'll do anything as long as you're paid?"

While in common parlance, that wasn't an incorrect way to describe it.

But "doing anything for money" was a bit too broad of a target, wasn't it?

"Um, let me correct that. Our Yorozuya has four basic principles; other than those, we do indeed do anything for money."

To avoid explaining it to every single guest, Shinjo had recently printed the four principles on a large sheet of white paper and stuck it firmly to the blackboard behind him.

Ayanokōji followed the direction of his finger, but what was written there made the corner of his mouth twitch.

It seems the Yorozuya is quite a free place. If there's something you don't want to do... you can just not do it?

"Then, my bro... what did the Student Council President mean when he asked to speak with you alone earlier? Could it be that your Yorozuya has already found some clues that can help Sudō?!"

Are we still going to pretend that you have nothing to do with that Horikita-senpai?

Forget it, it's none of his business. Besides, it takes two to tango; this level of sibling conflict could only mean one thing: both of them were incredibly stubborn.

"I'm sorry, no. The only information I have right now is what I got from Kushida—that our classmate, Sakura, might be a witness. Other than that, there really is nothing."

"I... I see... That makes sense. If you had any clues, you wouldn't need us to come and ask you specifically, especially since that guy considers you his partner."

Shinjo fell silent for a moment. He felt it was necessary to clarify things with her, otherwise, dragging it out would only make it harder to explain later. Principles were principles.

"Horikita-san, for the sake of us being classmates, I would like to correct a mistake of yours."

"A mistake?"

Ayanokōji actually thought of what Chabashira had said earlier: Shinjo is Shinjo, and Yorozuya is Yorozuya.

"Ah, that I am friends with Sudō is something everyone knows. In fact, I don't mind having a friend who is simple-minded and physically gifted, but that is as far as it goes."

"You... what do you mean by that?"

"It's very simple. In my view, the thing humans should do most is take responsibility for themselves. It is one thing for others to take the initiative to be responsible for you, but as far as I am concerned, Sudō does not have that qualification. In other words, I will help him find a witness, but the extent will be about the same as it would be for Ike or Yamauchi. Do not expect me to hold up a collapsing building."

Horikita understood a bit now, and she hurriedly asked with a serious expression:

"You... do you mean that you don't care at all if Sudō gets suspended or if the class gets points deducted?!"

"It's not quite that extreme, but my friendship with Sudō is very shallow; at the very least, his level of importance to me is very low. Therefore, helping him is equivalent to doing work for the class, and if that is the case, I will only exert the same amount of effort as more than half of the ordinary students. I will absolutely not do anything beyond that."

Ayanokōji thought to himself: As I expected.