Aragaki Shun recalled the conversation that had seemed to be about nothing at all. In the end, he still said nothing.
But for the Board Chairman of Kodo Ikusei Senior High School to show favor to a student, he could think of only a few possible reasons.
Either it was because of his family background, or the chairman genuinely believed in his future prospects. The likeliest possibility, though, was Sakayanagi Arisu, who was in the same grade as him.
Since the other man hadn't said anything, Aragaki obviously couldn't just ask him outright.
Forget it. He'd just pretend he knew nothing. He had no interest in guessing at the thoughts of people in high places.
"Cultural and Entertainment Club? What's the point of giving the club a name like that?"
After Kanzaki Ryuji finished filling out the club registration form, he glanced at the club's name and looked at Aragaki Shun curiously.
"I just picked a name at random. What meaning could it have? If it has to mean something, then maybe I hope you enjoy reading?"
The classroom was gradually becoming clean and tidy with the help of his classmates, and Aragaki Shun felt especially cheerful.
Both the class and the club were getting on track, and he had already amassed a large number of Private Points.
There was no doubt that Class B had gained a decisive advantage in the class competition.
As for Class A and Class C, they wouldn't find out until tomorrow that he'd kindly sent them a talented student from Class D.
As long as they didn't deal with those two hopeless cases, they only had to hole up in their dorms and play for a month. No matter how many Class Points Class A and Class C had, they wouldn't have enough to cover the deductions.
If nothing unexpected happened, all they had to do was wait for the Behavioral Standards Exam to end this month. Then Kodo Ikusei Senior High School would witness an unprecedented miracle—
In the second month after the school year began, with the school only just revealing the whole truth, Class B's Class Points had already surpassed Class A's!
The first month ended; Class 1-B had 1,060 points!
[Achievement complete: Successfully established a club at Kodo Ikusei Senior High School. Source Power +1.] [Achievement complete: Published a new book through the club and signed contracts worth more than Twenty Million Personal Points in total. Source Power +3.] [Source Power: 13→17 (current rate: gains 4 points per month)]
As the information on his Personal Panel shifted, time quickly turned a new page.
After the Cultural and Entertainment Club was successfully established, Aragaki Shun's routine gradually settled down.
Since he couldn't find any other opportunities to stir things up for the time being, the young man stopped rushing between various tasks as often as he had when he first enrolled. Instead, he began devoting more time to his regular studies and club activities.
For the first couple of days, he still had the leisure to visit Classes A and C to audit their lessons as planned. By then, he had committed the faces of every first-year student to memory.
After that, his days returned to a steady rhythm: morning jogs and exercise, classes during the day, reading in the library or the Cultural and Entertainment Clubroom in the afternoon, and occasionally setting aside some time to write when inspiration struck.
Before long, the first day of May arrived.
The students of Class B came to the classroom early. They took out their phones and eagerly compared the Private Points that had just been deposited.
"I got 106,000 Private Points. How about you?"
"Same here. When I got up this morning, I thought I'd read it wrong. I asked some other people and confirmed it. Nobody's Private Points went down—in fact, they went up."
"So our Class Points are 1,060? I wonder how many those people in Class A got."
"They definitely got less than us. I just made a point of passing by Class A to check on them. They looked pretty grim."
When they realized that the latest deposit wasn't the same as before, the students of Class B had thought, Just as expected.
But it was only after taking a close look at the Private Points distributed by the school that they understood: the Private Points they'd received this month hadn't decreased. They'd actually increased by 6,000.
The whole atmosphere in Class B exploded.
After all, according to the school's rules, the ratio of Class Points to Private Points was 1:100. That meant they should have 1,060 Class Points this month.
They had no idea where the extra 60 points had come from, but the school had only awarded each class 1,000 Class Points during the Behavioral Standards Exam. Unless something unexpected had happened, Class A next door definitely wouldn't have more than 1,000.
And according to Kodo Ikusei Senior High School's rules, whenever a lower-ranked class had more Class Points than the class above it, their rankings switched.
In other words, if Class 1-A hadn't received the same bonus, they could be promoted right now.
So when Aragaki Shun arrived in the Class B classroom, he found an atmosphere thick with tension and anxiety.
Every student in Class B looked worried, their eyes fixed on the Private Points displayed on their phone screens.
Most of them were aimlessly swiping their screens, but before long, some couldn't help leaning toward a friend and whispering. Every so often, someone stood up and looked toward the classroom door, seemingly tempted to sneak over to Class A and find out what was happening there.
But after taking only a few steps, they seemed to remember something and hurried back to their seats, staring at their phones again with conflicted expressions.
Just then, Aragaki Shun appeared in the classroom doorway.
The noisy classroom fell silent the moment he appeared. Everyone's eyes turned to him. The classmates who had been whispering seemed to have found someone to rely on; they quickly got up and gathered around him.
"Aragaki, what's this number supposed to mean?"
"Aragaki, do you think we've surpassed Class A?"
"Class leader, I'm so nervous. I wonder when Hoshinomiya-sensei will get here?"
Questions came at Aragaki Shun like a barrage of gunfire. It gave him a headache; he didn't know whose question to answer first. In the end, he could only wave his hand and tell everyone to quiet down.
"Everyone, stop!"
His stern shout reminded the students of Class B of the authority he usually carried. The classroom quickly returned to its usual quiet.
Aragaki Shun surveyed their anxious faces and gestured for everyone to return to their seats.
"What's the rush? Class will start in a few minutes. Once Hoshinomiya-sensei gets here, we'll know everything!"
Aragaki Shun's voice was calm and firm. Like a lighthouse in a storm, it immediately quelled the confusion in the class.
"I saw how hard everyone worked last month. Those extra 60 points are the school's recognition of our efforts, so there's no need to panic. Our victory is inevitable!"
Reassured by Aragaki Shun, the students of Class B finally regained their composure and began returning to their seats.
The young man let out a breath, then started forward. Suddenly, a startled cry came from beside him.
He quickly looked ahead and saw a figure sway, as if she'd lost her footing, then topple backward.
Aragaki Shun reacted instantly. Almost by instinct, he took two quick steps forward and spread his arms, catching her securely.
A soft, warm body suddenly landed in his arms, light and delicate.
Aragaki Shun didn't seem to think much of it. He simply turned to the classmates staring at them with all sorts of expressions and calmly reminded them, "Don't crowd together like that again. Watch where you're going and be careful of the people around you."
Everyone swallowed unconsciously. For some reason, they felt a little intimidated and hurriedly turned away, not daring to keep watching.
Aragaki Shun then lowered his gaze to the figure in his arms. Shiranami Chihiro's face was red as the evening sky, and her eyes held a hint of panic and embarrassment, but she remained completely still.
Aragaki Shun felt a headache coming on. "If you don't get up soon, I'll carry you over there."
Shiranami Chihiro's face grew even redder. She lowered her head slightly and took a few hesitant breaths before finally straightening herself.
"Thank you. I... I'm fine." The girl's voice was as soft as a mosquito's buzz. There seemed to be a faint note of disappointment in it, too.
Once Aragaki Shun saw that she wasn't hurt, he let go and took a step back, restoring a normal distance between them.
"Come on. Hoshinomiya-sensei should be here soon."
Shiranami Chihiro watched wordlessly as the young man returned to his seat, as if what had just happened had truly been nothing more than a minor accident, not worth mentioning.
The short-haired girl walked over to the desk in front of Aragaki Shun. When nobody was paying attention, she picked up a book and pouted, still a little annoyed at how oblivious he was.
Honestly! If he wanted to hold her, he could've just done it. Why did he have to ask?
She'd made it so obvious. Did she really have to confess first?
The first-year classes' Class Points
Aragaki Shun had just sat down and was about to take out the biology textbook he'd borrowed from the library when he suddenly felt something poke him in the lower back.
Poke, poke—
The young man raised an eyebrow and looked back at the girl with twin tails, puzzled.
"Himeno, did you need something?"
"Heh~ Our class leader just played the hero and saved the beauty."
Himeno Yuki's tone was strangely sarcastic.
The girl glanced around, then leaned toward Aragaki Shun's ear as though she were sneaking around. She breathed softly and spoke in an unusually gentle voice.
"Aragaki, was Chihiro's body soft when you held her?"
"..."
"Why are you looking at me like that? Can't I tease you a little?"
Seeing Aragaki Shun say nothing and stare at her with a particularly strange expression, Himeno Yuki felt uncomfortable all over, as if someone had mistaken her for a monkey in a circus.
"No, it's nothing."
Aragaki Shun sighed with a hint of melancholy. He really had no idea how to respond to Himeno Yuki.
He couldn't possibly have failed to notice Shiranami Chihiro's behavior all this time.
But based on his experience of living two lifetimes, not many relationships that began in high school ended in marriage.
To put it bluntly, after he finished his third year of high school in his previous life, his classmates either went to college or went straight to work. Everyone scattered in every direction, and they never had a chance to keep in touch.
He still had the contact information of his university classmates in his phone, but he couldn't even remember the names of many of his high school classmates.
So when it came to feelings born from adolescent infatuation, he usually pretended not to notice and waited for time to turn them into memories.
Besides, Sakurajima had no concept of dating too early. If he'd wanted a relationship, with his looks and circumstances he could've picked a few of the love letters he'd received during middle school and agreed to date their writers.
"What's that supposed to mean? Aragaki, you're being way too dismissive! Chihiro's such a timid, shy girl, and she went out of her way to pull that little stunt so you could take advantage of her. Don't you have any reaction at all?"
Himeno Yuki poked Aragaki Shun in the waist again, unwilling to let the matter go. She seemed determined to get to the bottom of it.
After living together at Kodo Ikusei Senior High School for a month, the class had gradually come to understand Aragaki Shun's temperament. They knew he was only strict in formal situations. In private, they could treat him like a reliable friend who would stand up for them.
Himeno Yuki was among the most comfortable doing so. After all, she sat behind him and had long since figured out his personality. She knew that as long as they weren't talking to him with ill intent, he wouldn't lose his temper for no reason.
Or rather, judging by how the boy in front of her usually acted, if he found someone annoying or didn't want to answer, he'd just glare at them with a commanding look. He wouldn't bury his irritation and make himself suffer.
And if he thought you had a distinctive look, he'd say so outright. He didn't even worry about someone stuffing him into a sack and beating him up.
Thinking of that, Himeno Yuki couldn't help remembering how Aragaki Shun had once said that her eyes were distinctive, as if she looked at everyone like they were trash. The memory made her grit her teeth. Her sharp purple eyes took on an increasingly rebellious and menacing look.
"..."
Aragaki Shun stared at Himeno Yuki's murderous expression, and for once his thoughts seemed to stall.
She'd asked how he felt about Shiranami Chihiro throwing herself into his arms. Why had Himeno suddenly gotten so hostile?
Could it be—
Aragaki Shun gave the girl behind him a meaningful look from head to toe.
She wore earrings in both ears, and her uniform jacket was a rare gray. Her skirt was as short as the school allowed, revealing a pair of long, smooth legs that looked just right with her black stockings.
Her twin tails fell naturally to her waist, with strands of pretty light-blue hair interspersed through the smooth black locks.
Her figure had graceful curves beneath her uniform. Maybe she wasn't one of the most striking girls her age, but her overall appearance was harmonious and beautiful.
There was no doubt that even at Kodo Ikusei Senior High School, where beautiful girls were everywhere, Himeno Yuki was impossible to ignore. She had a charm all her own.
"So, Himeno, why are you interested in this sort of adolescent topic all of a sudden? Could it be that you also—"
"Nothing's going on!" Himeno Yuki cut Aragaki Shun off fiercely, refusing to let him continue. "I'm just sticking up for Chihiro! Don't go imagining all sorts of things!"
"...I'll take your word for it, then."
Seeing Himeno Yuki look as if she'd kill him if he said another word, Aragaki Shun decided not to provoke her. Instead, he made a point of explaining himself seriously:
"It's not that I have anything against Shiranami. I just think people should be careful when it comes to relationships."
"I'm the type who thinks about married life in the future before even entering a relationship."
"If you're not ready for that, we're better off staying friends. A relationship that lasts a couple of years—or even just a few months—before ending isn't worth the effort to me."
What a heavy man!
Himeno Yuki stared in disbelief as Aragaki Shun finished explaining his views on love, then simply turned back around.
Wait!! Why'd he suddenly tell her all that?!
He could've just gone and explained things to Shiranami Chihiro. What did his views on love have to do with her?!
However, Himeno Yuki never got the chance to voice her grievances.
Just then, a light, cheerful hum drifted in from outside the classroom. A moment later, their bright-faced homeroom teacher, Chie Hoshinomiya, walked in.
She seemed to have taken extra care with her appearance today. Her already cute face looked even lovelier, like a flower blooming in spring, making it hard not to look twice.
Before you continue