Horikita Suzune

Bai Ye left the classroom and followed Horikita Suzune from a safe distance.

Without a beginning, there can be no process; even if he hadn't figured out a strategy yet, he had to try to make contact first to become a familiar face.

Soon, he saw Horikita Suzune enter a convenience store, and after waiting a moment, he followed her inside.

Separated by a few aisles, he watched Horikita Suzune browsing the shelves. He didn't rush over, instead strolling along at a leisurely pace.

He slowly closed the distance, stopping once he was close enough to talk but still maintaining a safe buffer.

"Hey, classmate, why do you like picking out the free items? Is it out of frugality?"

Glancing at the pile of cheap, free daily necessities in Horikita Suzune's shopping basket, he asked casually.

Even though he had acted as ordinary as possible, Horikita Suzune still replied coldly:

"Do you need something from me?"

"Nothing much, just curious. This school gives us 100,000 points every month, right? Is that much money not enough for you? I, for one, think it's plenty."

"If you want to spend it, go ahead. Why ask me?"

Horikita Suzune walked around him and continued forward.

Seeing that Horikita Suzune had lost interest in him, he spoke again:

"Aren't you curious? Look at those shelves with the free items; surprisingly, many of them are almost empty."

"Perhaps many people are like me and enjoy being frugal." Horikita Suzune glanced at him indifferently.

"You're right, but if you look closely, that's the case for almost all the free items. What does that signify?"

"Signify what?" Horikita finally deigned to look him in the eye.

"It signifies that they are truly poor." Bai Ye met Horikita's cold, beautiful eyes and said, "Setting the boys aside, if you girls weren't truly struggling to make ends meet, you wouldn't choose cheap goods for such private items related to your health."

"You have a point." Horikita nodded.

Even she had been quite cautious while selecting her items; after all, things were more complicated for girls, and she would be devastated if she accidentally chose a cheap product and ended up with a bacterial infection or something similar.

"I've noticed some items aren't even expensive. With so much money every month, they shouldn't be that frugal, yet they still do it. There are only two possibilities: either what I said earlier is true—they are very poor and the monthly allowance isn't guaranteed to be 100,000—or they are saving money because these points have another purpose."

"Saving money? What do you mean?" Horikita's icy eyes brightened, like a ray of light suddenly piercing a frozen wasteland.

"Didn't Chabashira-sensei say earlier that this school allows you to buy anything with points? Regardless of whether this 'anything' is legitimate or not, it's certain that hoarding these points must be useful."

"I see, which means—" Horikita's expression turned unpleasant, "Chabashira-sensei is lying to us?"

Previously, Chabashira had actively encouraged them to spend their money and even told them that their points would be wiped clean after graduation.

But after Bai Ye's deduction, it seemed that wasn't the case at all.

If so, it was impossible to understand what Chabashira's true intentions were.

"I'm going to ask Chabashira-sensei." Horikita said, turning to leave, abandoning the items she had just picked out.

"Uh, wait a second!" In his urgency, he grabbed Horikita's hand.

Are you kidding? If Chabashira found out, never mind whether she would hold a grudge against him for ruining her plans.

Even if she laughed it off and admitted her mistake, she would surely expose him once Horikita spilled the beans.

That whole speech was just a reverse-engineered guess, not a proper deduction. If Chabashira discovered it and mistook him for a genius, what would happen if she forced him to lead Class D?

He knew full well that Chabashira would stop at nothing to reach Class A.

She even dared to threaten Ayanokouji; would she really be afraid of a washed-up yakuza heir like him?

Seeing her hand being held, Horikita froze for a moment, then those cold eyes glared straight at him, the temperature in the air dropping by several degrees.

Before he could even process the smooth, cool sensation of her hand, Bai Ye pulled away instantly.

Meeting Horikita's scrutinizing, icy gaze, he explained calmly:

"Since you've already guessed the teacher is doing this on purpose, what's the point of asking her now? How do you know if she's a friend or a foe? Wouldn't asking an enemy just alert them to your suspicions?"

"Then what do you suggest?" Horikita fell into thought, seemingly forgetting that she had just been touched.

"Find some upperclassmen and ask them. If they won't talk, ask other teachers. Ask a few, and by synthesizing their answers, you'll eventually find the truth."

Horikita finally understood, but then she said: "I'll pass. Even if I knew, it wouldn't be of much use. Let's just assume everything you said is true."

"You aren't going to tell your classmates?"

Horikita raised her eyes: "Why would I tell them? What does it have to do with me if they spend all their money? Am I even close with them?"

"Fair point." Bai Ye agreed with her sentiment, as he wouldn't do it either.

Of course, this was only because Horikita didn't know about the hierarchy between Class D and Class A. If she did, she would certainly be rushing to tell her classmates.

She was, after all, the person in the class most desperate to reach Class A.

After the two finished their shopping without haste, they walked out of the convenience store one after the other.

Horikita walked ahead for a while, then felt movement behind her and frowned:

"Why are you still following me?"

"My dormitory is in this direction. If I don't walk this way, which way should I go?"

"Then stay away from me, otherwise others will think we have a close relationship."

"Do you care that much about what others think?"

There was still no expression on Horikita's cold, snowy face: "I don't care, but I hate trouble."

"Well, I don't mind trouble. It doesn't matter to me."

"You—" Horikita gritted her teeth, wanting to snap back, but after a moment of thought, she found she had nothing to say.

So, she could only walk a few steps faster, attempting to shake off Bai Ye behind her.

Bai Ye also quickened his pace to follow.

Horikita sped up again, even breaking into a light jog.

Bai Ye ran along with her.

Because both of them were carrying things, they couldn't run too fast. Bai Ye had fewer items in his hands than she did, so keeping up with her was still quite easy.

After running for a stretch, Horikita finally stopped and glared at him coldly: "What exactly do you want?"

"Nothing much, it's just that I told you so much earlier, and you haven't paid me my information fee yet."

To be honest, this information could be considered significant or trivial for the current Horikita, but regardless, Bai Ye had helped her, and Horikita knew she owed him a favor, so she asked:

"What do you want? Let me state this first: I won't agree to any excessive demands."

"Don't worry, it's a small matter. For instance... can you cook?"

"I'm planning to go grocery shopping this afternoon."

"That makes it easy. Just buy a little extra, and I'll come over for a meal."

"No." Horikita said without a second thought.

"Seriously? You won't even treat me to a meal? You're too stingy."

"This isn't about a meal." Horikita stared at him closely, trying to see if there was anything unusual on his face. "Do you really just want a meal? If you want, I can treat you to one at the cafeteria."

"That's different. I want to eat what you make."

"And you say you don't have bad intentions!"

Horikita's expression turned cold in an instant.

Bai Ye explained: "It's not what you're thinking. I mean I want to become friends with you."

"Friends?"

"Yeah." Bai Ye lowered his head, looking at the pebbles on the ground. "Except for you, no one has spoken to me since this morning. I feel like if this keeps up, I won't have any friends at all. What if I get bullied?"

"That's simple. You take the initiative to talk to the girls in class; they would definitely be happy to be your friend, or even... a 'girlfriend'!"

"You want me to sell my body?" Bai Ye shrank back, looking at her with a strange expression.

Unable to stand that gaze, Horikita turned and walked away.

Bai Ye hurried to catch up: "You still haven't answered me. Do you agree to let me come to your room for dinner tonight or not?"

"No." Horikita glared at him again.

"Sigh, fine, fine. Then let's go eat at the cafeteria. That should be no problem, right?"

"Fine."

Horikita agreed immediately, which made Bai Ye feel like he had lost out on something.

No, he had to get something back.

"Horikita, you'll have to feed me too."

"Get lost! Eat it or don't, I don't care!"

Horikita said irritably and stormed off.

And this time, he didn't follow her.