In the hallway.
Several electronic screens displayed the Class Points for each class in every year. Two people stood there—a boy and a girl: Sakayanagi Arisu and Katsuragi Kohei.
Katsuragi crossed his arms. "Class C is starting to falter. Is Ryuen behind this again? What a dangerous man."
After checking the data, Sakayanagi Arisu slowly walked away, leaning on her cane. Without looking back, she said, "Ryuen? Dangerous? Katsuragi, you've got the wrong person. But life's about to get a lot more interesting!"
As the sun set, Zhuge Linghao felt light as a feather after finishing his exams. He went back to aimlessly wandering around.
Ayanokoji and Horikita were sitting on a park bench.
Zhuge Linghao decided to sneak closer and hear what they were talking about.
"Don't you think something about this exam is off?" Horikita asked.
"Is something wrong? I think the results are pretty good," Ayanokoji replied.
"Class A has 1,004 points now, while we only have 100. That's a tenfold difference. Honestly, moving up to Class A seems almost impossible," Ayanokoji continued.
Horikita turned to the next page of the novel in her hands. "I'm not giving up. I'm going to make it to Class A!"
"Still, thanks to your tutoring, Sudo and the others managed to pass."
"Hmph. I already told you, I did it for myself. After all, who knows how many points we'd lose if someone got expelled?"
"But you deliberately scored 51 in English. You were worried Sudo wouldn't reach 50% of the average score, so you purposely did that badly, right?"
"I really can't stand that attitude of yours, Ayanokoji..."
"Yoo-hoo! Good afternoon! Are you two dating?" Zhuge Linghao picked the perfect moment to appear and blurted out the bombshell!
It was impossible to make out Horikita's expression beneath her long hair, but her right hand was already rummaging around inside her schoolbag.
"I get it, I get it. A secret rendezvous in the woods!" Zhuge Linghao joked.
Ayanokoji kept shooting Zhuge Linghao warning glances, but Zhuge Linghao misunderstood every one of them.
"No need to hide it, Ayanokoji. I won't tell anyone..."
By then, the Compass-Wielding Goddess of War, Horikita, was ready. Her voice was like that of a demon from the underworld. "Which would you choose: regret in agony, or regret in despair?"
Still unaware of the danger, Zhuge Linghao grinned. "Huh? Which one? That's a tough choice..."
"Hiss..."
"Ow, that hurts (◍•﹏•)!"
A few people were having a party in Ayanokoji's room.
"Cheers!"
Ken Sudō took a big swig of cola. "Thanks, Zhuge. Good thing you reminded me to ask Horikita for her English notes. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have passed English!"
Zhuge Linghao waved it off. "It was nothing."
Watching everyone celebrate, Ayanokoji couldn't help complaining. "I don't mind you having a victory party, but why does it have to be in my room?"
No one paid him any attention.
Yamauchi Haruki was in high spirits. "That was a close call! If Kushida hadn't had the practice questions and answers, Ike and Sudo would've been done for!"
Kanji Ike bumped his cola against Yamauchi Haruki's and teased him. "What? You barely scraped by with a low score yourself!"
Yamauchi Haruki smugly gave himself a thumbs-up, like Vegeta striking a pose. "That's because I didn't use my true strength!"
Zhuge Linghao thought to himself, No, even at full strength, that's still all you've got.
Just then, Kushida Kikyo edged closer to Zhuge Linghao and asked, "Zhuge, how did you get those three to study seriously?"
Zhuge Linghao turned toward Horikita Suzune and loudly praised her. "It was all thanks to Suzune-chan! She's so responsible. Before the Midterm Exam, she held at least ten Study Group sessions for us, and every one of them was free tutoring!"
Horikita looked up from the novel in her hands and tried to explain. "Wait, that's not—"
Zhuge Linghao cut her off. "Suzune-chan is amazing! She worked on exam prep until midnight every time, all for us slackers! She's so dedicated—she puts her heart and soul into it!"
"By the way, how do you know she studied until midnight?"
"Huh? Haha, don't sweat the details!"
Kanji Ike was the first to chime in. "I had no idea Horikita was so impressive! Thumbs-up!"
Yamauchi Haruki happily added, "Looks like we misunderstood Horikita a little!"
Sudo stared blankly at Horikita Suzune, his mouth slightly open. "Why? You went to all this trouble for a loser like me..."
"Hmph, I... I only did it for myself!"
Zhuge Linghao, ever the loudmouth, joked, "Horikita rocks! Now that I take a good look, our ice-cold girl is pretty and dependable!"
The room filled with laughter.
Meanwhile, Kushida Kikyo had once again been pushed out of the spotlight, and she was biting her lip...
The party ended.
Zhuge Linghao and Kushida Kikyo stayed behind to clean up.
After tying the last trash bag, Ayanokoji said to them, "Sorry for making you help."
Kushida Kikyo smiled. "No need to thank us. I should be thanking you for letting us use your room."
Then she hesitated before asking, "Do you like girls like Horikita?"
Ayanokoji spoke up. "Uh, don't get the wrong idea. Horikita and I are just classmates."
Kushida Kikyo turned her gaze to Zhuge Linghao. "What about you, Zhuge?"
Zhuge Linghao avoided Kushida's gaze, stammering and squirming as he said, "I like big ones! BIG! You know what I mean?"
"?"
"Um, Zhuge, could you come to my room in a bit? There's something I want to talk to you about!"
"Whoa? You're asking me to come alone? Just the two of us?"
"Yes! It's very important!"
It was Zhuge Linghao's first time entering a girl's bedroom, and he was so nervous and excited he could hardly contain himself.
His eyes were as timid as a hamster's, his face as red as a monkey's bottom, and steam was hissing from his head.
He inhaled the room's scent, entranced. It smells so good!
Kushida Kikyo poured a cup of tea and offered it to the flustered Zhuge Linghao.
Burning up, Zhuge Linghao naturally downed it in one go.
Then Kushida Kikyo walked up to Zhuge Linghao step by step and looked up into his eyes.
Hey, hey, you're way too close! Your breath is hitting my nose! It tickles!
Zhuge Linghao was overheating and about to pass out!
Suddenly, Kushida Kikyo grabbed Zhuge Linghao's right hand and forcefully pressed it against her left breast!
Dark Kushida had arrived!
Her voice was icy. "Now I have evidence that you assaulted me, too. I order you to delete that video."
A bucket of cold water seemed to pour over him. Zhuge Linghao jolted. Damn! I fell for it!
I thought I'd perfectly avoided the whole incident where Kushida Kikyo made me put my handprint on her.
But I never expected to fall into the same trap after all!
I let my guard down. I didn't dodge!
Damn it!
Still, after feeling how soft she was just now, I could die without regrets!
Zhuge Linghao could only fumble around, trembling, as he pulled out his phone and deleted the video of Kushida cursing and smashing public property right in front of her.
"You don't have a backup, do you?"
"N-no, absolutely not!"
"Is that so? I'll take your word for it this time. You know very well what happens if you betray me!"
"Y-yes!"
Kushida Kikyo changed back to normal in a second. Hmph. Men. Wrapped around my finger!
Back in his dorm, Zhuge Linghao smiled wickedly.
He fiddled with his collar and removed a pinhole camera he'd paid a fortune for.
Sorry, little angel Kushida. Not only did I have a backup of the original video, but now I've got another video of you threatening me!
Hehe! Another day of messing with Kikyo-chan!
Before you continue