Classroom of the Elite, but It's a Diary Style

"..." Sakayanagi Arisu didn't even lift an eyebrow, simply asking in a calm tone, "You want points? How much are you short?"

Hashimoto Masayoshi waved his hands repeatedly, "No, no, no, I don't want anything like personal points."

"Um, I just wanted to ask, Little Princess, are you... really a lesbian?" Glancing left and right to avoid the gaze of his classmates, Hashimoto Masayoshi lowered his voice and asked the question that had kept him curious all night, "I won't tell anyone else, you just need to quietly tell me if it's true or not."

The moment the word 'lesbian' came out, the expression that had been calm on Sakayanagi Arisu's face instantly turned incredibly stiff.

She wanted to curse.

Chapter 72: Who Should Serve as a Mirror

Is Sakayanagi Arisu a lesbian?

Regarding this question, many people have their own different answers.

Some think, long live girls being close!

Some think, Sakayanagi Arisu's sexual orientation should be normal, it's just that her health is poor, and she has no choice but to compromise and settle for a woman as a partner.

Others think, hasn't Sakayanagi Arisu been a lesbian for a long time? She's stuck to Kamuro Masumi all day long, and who knows how many times they've been intimate in private.

And some think, Yuri? Lesbian? That's great! As long as I can conquer Sakayanagi Arisu, wouldn't we be able to fly together as a pair?!

To this, our Miss Horikita Suzune expresses:

"Boring."

Whatever happens with those who have connections doesn't matter; she doesn't care.

For her right now, there are only two important things.

One is 'Horikita Suzune in the eyes of others', and the other is 'Kushida Kikyo, who is known as the Two-Faced Person'.

...Oh, there seems to be one more thing: the limited-time 'loan service' that someone mentioned to her at the end.

Loans, a synonym for spending beyond one's means—a dangerous thing Horikita Suzune never intended to touch.

But perhaps, for Class D right now, it holds an extraordinary significance.

"Please, really, just lend me ten thousand points. Next month, once I work hard and get points again next month, I'll pay you back!"

"Even if you look at me like that, I won't lend you money. Stop staring, or I'm going to call Hirata!"

"...Geez, if Kushida isn't here, is there really no one left who can lend out points?"

The indifferent voices of surrounding classmates came from all directions. Despite the farce that played out just yesterday, after a night's sleep, they acted as if nothing had happened, going about their usual business.

Those begging for money were doing their best to show their humility. Although they might change their tune once the money was in their hands, at least for now, they were willing to play the role of a groveling subordinate for the sake of those points.

Originally, Yamauchi Haruki should have been one of those people begging for money with a low profile. He should have been paying for his own actions, running around trying to sell the brand-name game console he had just spent a fortune on.

But now, he had instead become one of the few people in class with plenty of money.

Although most of his classmates still held hostility toward him, he would bring up Hirata to protect himself, and Hirata tacitly allowed him to use his name to intimidate others.

Overall, they truly hadn't changed at all, nor did they have any intention of reflecting on their actions.

If there was any other change, it was perhaps that they had all reached a tacit agreement to ignore Horikita Suzune.

Although Horikita Suzune, who held the philosophy of not needing friends, never intended to socialize with her classmates anyway, after yesterday's incident, this atmosphere of isolation had become even more intense.

It was quite obvious; she could feel an aura that was vaguely developing into bullying.

However, with Hirata Yosuke around, the atmosphere remained just an atmosphere; in the end, it wouldn't escalate into actual bullying.

...Perhaps.

After hesitating for a while, Horikita Suzune still didn't listen to Asakusa Toru and chose not to use the loan service he provided as a breakthrough to talk to her classmates.

For one, she felt that if she used her classmates as a mirror, the quality of the mirror was too poor, and she would still find it difficult to see herself clearly.

For another, she felt that if Asakusa Toru really lent them money, the credit of her classmates was so poor that he probably wouldn't be able to recover the principal.

Although his mouth was a bit foul and his actions were a bit excessive, Asakusa Toru should be a good person.

At least she felt he was a good person.

A good person's money shouldn't be wasted on rotten people.

After considering everything, Horikita Suzune chose to keep her mouth shut.

She had already decided who she should try to befriend, and who she should use as a mirror.

Dormitory building.

Accompanied by a soft ding, the elevator opened on the 9th floor, and Horikita Suzune walked out quickly.

Soon, she stopped in front of her target room.

There seemed to be a few bags of gifts at the door from someone who had come to visit, but judging by the fact that they were still sitting there, it seemed the person inside hadn't opened the door at all.

But that didn't matter; Horikita Suzune had plenty of ways to make the other person open the door.

"Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong—"

The doorbell rang noisily as she pressed it repeatedly, but no matter how much she pressed, it was as if the person behind the door were dead; there was no response.

It seems this person is determined to play dead.

"..." Taking a deep breath, Horikita Suzune glanced left and right.

The ninth-floor dormitory hallway was currently empty, so logically, there shouldn't be any chance of being overheard by others.

Fortunately, she didn't need to worry too much about anyone hearing anything unnecessary anyway.

Because she suddenly recalled the correct way the Diary distorted spoken words.

"Open the door. If you don't open it, I will copy the messages from the Diary and distribute them throughout the entire school." Horikita Suzune's voice echoed softly in the hallway, sounding incredibly calm.

Any words involving the disclosure of the Diary's existence would be distorted into a form that irrelevant people could not hear.

Although she couldn't yet confirm if others who also knew about the Diary could hear it, it didn't matter.

Even if the other party couldn't hear it, it was just a small risk to take to bring up the matter of the Diary again.

As her words echoed gently, Horikita Suzune waited patiently for a moment.

Before long, the locked door obediently opened a crack. A girl appeared behind the door with her hair in complete disarray, her complexion looking terrible and her face gloomy, lacking any of the lovable charm she displayed on a daily basis.

"...Come in." A raspy voice, not at all sweet, spilled slowly from her lips. The girl named Kushida Kikyo released her left foot, which had been bracing the door, and pulled it open wide enough for someone to pass through.

And so, Horikita Suzune accepted the invitation and entered.

To be honest, Horikita Suzune had initially thought that Kushida Kikyo was absent simply because she was feeling unwell, so she hadn't thought much of it.

But when she realized that the Two-Faced Person mentioned in the Diary and the Handprint Sister on the message board were both Kushida Kikyo, she finally understood.

The real reason for Kushida Kikyo's absence.

The despair of seeing the class points drop to zero, and the escapist mentality born from having her true self completely exposed to her and everyone else.

There were many eyes watching the message board.

Although it wasn't entirely public, it was no different from being public.

Even though no names were explicitly mentioned, anyone could likely identify the Two-Faced Person as Kushida Kikyo just as easily as they could identify the Little Princess as Sakayanagi Arisu.

While she didn't know exactly how many people there were, it was hard to imagine that they were the only two people in this school who possessed copies of the Diary.

Therefore, she had chosen to curl up in her own small space, refusing to say a word.

Chapter 73: I Hate You the Most

When it comes down to it, is the exposure of one's true colors really that important?

Even if you let people see your true inner thoughts, so what?

Horikita Suzune could understand the deductions Kushida Kikyo had made, but she couldn't understand the reason why she had made such a choice.

Most importantly... didn't you write that self-destructive message yourself?

This was what baffled her the most.

Leaving a message on your own, exposing yourself on your own, and then shutting yourself away on your own?

What is this supposed to be?

She was not Kushida Kikyo, and she had no way of understanding Kushida Kikyo's mindset.

But in her own eyes, she truly felt that Kushida Kikyo's actions were incomprehensible.

Gently taking off her shoes, Horikita Suzune placed her small feet, wrapped in black stockings, onto the room's floor. With a hint of nervousness, she stepped into this territory that belonged to someone else.

...This was perhaps the first time she had ever stepped into the room of a female classmate, and the first time she had ever seen the room of a girl her own age.

Should she be nervous?

She didn't know.

She simply followed in Kushida Kikyo's footsteps and walked slowly into the dim dormitory room of the girl before her.

Even after letting her in as a guest, Kushida Kikyo seemed to have no intention of turning on the lights.

The door behind her closed slowly, leaving the room illuminated only by the faint sunlight filtering through the curtains that couldn't quite block it out.

"..." Although it wasn't bright, it was enough for Horikita Suzune to observe the room clearly.

The bed was slightly messy, though the floor remained clean. There were just a few empty instant noodle cups piled up in front of the desk; even while shutting herself in the room, Kushida Kikyo didn't seem to have reached the point of starving herself.

Pulling over the chair from the desk, Kushida Kikyo rested her face on one hand and said with a gloomy expression:

"Speak."

"If you have nothing to say, then get out."

Shedding the kind persona she wore in class, Kushida Kikyo revealed her true nature completely.

"..." Kushida Kikyo's words were very blunt, but Horikita Suzune didn't mind at all. She simply sat down on the bed opposite her and looked up.

Looking at Kushida Kikyo's pretty face, she said word for word: "You hate me."

"Tch, are you stating the obvious?"

Horikita Suzune shook her head: "No, I am simply stating my own judgment."

"You hate me. Ever since the day we enrolled, you have hated me very much."

"But even so, you have been making unremitting efforts, trying in all sorts of ways to get closer to me, wanting to become 'friends' with me," she said.

"That is truly impressive, something I could never do."

These words of admiration came from the heart; Horikita Suzune fully acknowledged everything Kushida Kikyo had achieved.

"...There's no benefit in praising me, you know." After a moment of silence, Kushida Kikyo averted her gaze.

Honestly, what on earth is this woman here for?

She hadn't come to visit with the people in class who were ostensibly her friends on the day she was absent; instead, she had arrived at her room the next day, now that most people had already finished their visits to prove how much they cared about little Kushida, and after getting no response to the doorbell, she had so bluntly and brazenly uttered threats.

She had assumed the other girl wanted to use her own messages and past dark history to manipulate and threaten her, but after coming in and sitting on her bed, Horikita Suzune had inexplicably started praising her.

What exactly is she here for?

"This isn't praise, it's just a fact," Horikita Suzune said. "That is why I find it even harder to understand the reason for your absence."

"When it comes down to it, shouldn't the messages have been written by you yourself?"

Since she dared to write such things, she should have had the corresponding resolve.

Moreover, the messages themselves weren't actually that specific in their direction; aside from her, probably only the person behind the Diary could confirm that it was Kushida Kikyo who wrote those words.

Others might be able to deduce that the 'Handprint Sister' was a student from Class D by comparing the targets of the black text and the red text insults, but they surely wouldn't be able to link it to the 'Two-Faced Person' and 'Kushida Kikyo'.

--Unless the Diary blabbed about something else again.

"...What could you possibly understand about me?" Kushida Kikyo bit her lower lip.

Of course, she knew now that writing the messages didn't mean her past was completely exposed to everyone's eyes.

But when the Diary's cold notification, 'Uploading message', rang in her ears, she hadn't been able to think of anything else.

The trauma of the past was ripped wide open, and on that night two days ago, there had been only one thought in her mind.