Nakano Yuu: I Suggest Horikita Suzune Drop Out! Horikita x2: What?

"You can have coffee. I'll go ask for a cup of warm water," Horikita Suzune said.

"..." Nakano Yuu.

Right.

Talk about being stingy.

Of course, as someone who'd taken most of her points, Nakano Yuu couldn't bring himself to say that.

"I'll order something for you too," Nakano Yuu said. "If I'm drinking coffee while you're drinking warm water, it'll make me look incredibly stingy if anyone finds out."

"I want to spend most of my time studying right now, not playing romantic games with anyone. I hope you can understand that," Horikita Suzune said quickly.

?

Nakano Yuu was speechless.

Really?

Or did she think his actions—walking with her after school, even paying to hire her, and bringing her out for coffee—were all attempts to court her?

Did Horikita Suzune think that he, Nakano Yuu, wanted to play some kind of romantic game with her?

Wow.

Nakano Yuu felt a little strange. In the original story, Horikita Suzune was a hopelessly oblivious girl who didn't realize she had feelings until near the very end. And now she already knew what romance was?

Right.

She probably didn't. She just instinctively felt that Nakano-kun was the sort of person who would do something like that.

But this misunderstanding...

"I'm not interested in you," Nakano Yuu said. "So don't get the wrong idea. We're in the same class, and we also happened to cross paths a few days ago. I imagine you've noticed that some of our classmates are difficult to approach, and that there aren't many people you can strike up a conversation with."

"And we have Special Exams every month, so now and then, it helps to have someone who can work with you."

"So I need a partner, and I think you're a good fit. It's only 1,000 Private Points an hour, which seems like a pretty good deal to me, Horikita Suzune," Nakano Yuu said.

"..." Horikita.

Horikita Suzune thought what he'd said was incredibly rude, but she also had to admit that it made sense.

After all, sometimes in class he would suddenly turn in her direction, but he wasn't looking at her. He was sneaking glances at Sakura Airi, who sat next to her.

If he really wanted to play romantic games, it clearly wouldn't be with her.

And this school was different from the outside world, so it made perfect sense that he'd have considered something like that.

Horikita Suzune deflated like a punctured balloon.

"Fine. Then let's wait here a bit longer. We can head back at around nine."

"You can go somewhere else if you want," Nakano Yuu said.

"Why do we have to wait so long?" Horikita was suspicious of his behavior.

"There's someone I want to meet," Nakano Yuu said. "So I need you to be there."

"..." Horikita.

Horikita couldn't figure out what he was planning at all.

Of course, she had no idea that Nakano-kun had brought her out to go shopping, but also genuinely needed her to be there.

Because...

He tapped his phone.

"Enable GPS?"

Yes.

Nakano Yuu immediately found the location of the number saved in his contacts as "Brother."

"What's that?" Horikita Suzune noticed what he was doing. "Your brother?"

Horikita Suzune seemed surprised. "Do you have an older brother at this school too?"

She wondered if that was how Nakano Yuu had been able to sell her those advance tips. He was only a student in Class D, so had one of his relatives told him about them?

But...

Nope.

It's your brother.

Nakano Yuu thought to himself with a clear gaze.

"Once you add someone as a friend, you can use the location feature. The school's phones are specially made, and the GPS is pretty accurate. For example, if you add me as a friend, you can find me whenever you want," Nakano Yuu explained. "And if you open your location information, you can even check how many times someone's tracked you."

Once you added someone as a friend, you could track their location.

It was a pretty useful feature in the original story, and the original protagonist had even used it to rescue Sakura Airi after fans had followed her.

After Nakano Yuu got his phone, he hadn't been able to use the feature.

Because he had no friends.

But after getting the Student Council President Horikita Manabu's number from Chabashira, he'd sent him a friend request, and Horikita Manabu had accepted.

That was how he'd been able to use the feature.

Then he'd made the unexpected discovery that, besides tracking someone else's location, he could also see how many times he himself had been tracked.

He'd been tracked six times.

And Nakano Yuu only had one friend.

So...

He'd taken Student Council President Horikita Manabu's little sister out, then sent him screenshots of her transfer to him and his transfer to her.

And just twenty minutes ago, he'd also sent him a screenshot showing that he had 360,000 Points left.

Horikita Manabu had added him as a friend, but hadn't said a word. Still, that didn't mean he wasn't keeping an eye on him.

After all, Horikita Manabu was the only person who could track Nakano Yuu.

And to avoid any mistakes, Nakano Yuu hadn't even saved Horikita Suzune's number, even though she seemed like the kind of person he could easily fool into adding him as a friend.

So even if it wasn't today, Horikita Manabu would come looking for him by tomorrow or, at the latest, the day after.

Nakano Yuu remembered that in the original story's Training Camp Exam, Horikita Manabu's Class 3-A had suffered a heavy loss. To prevent one of Horikita Manabu's followers from being expelled, the whole class had paid 20 million Points to cancel the expulsion penalty.

If that follower wasn't expelled, then surely they could save those 20 million Points, couldn't they?

Of course.

It might've been a collection taken up by all of Class 3-A, with everyone cutting back on their living expenses to prepare for exams and the like.

But as the Student Council President, Horikita Manabu should have had some savings of his own.

So...

Nakano Yuu had decided to keep taking Horikita Manabu's little sister out for a stroll.

Just as he was thinking that...

"Well, this is an unusual pair."

"Horikita-san, Nakano-san."

A girl's voice rang out, and a cute girl with short blond hair waved at them curiously.

Seriously, who was this girl?

Perhaps she'd picked up on the question in Nakano-kun's eyes. The girl who'd greeted Nakano Yuu and Horikita introduced herself.

Kushida Kikyou.

She had short blond hair, a lovely face, and a personality like an angel's. They said that just a day and a half after starting school, she'd gotten the contact information of most of her classmates, and even made connections with students from other classes.

Someone had seen her trying to make friends with everyone in the school, greeting each person on the first floor of the dormitory.

She was a very optimistic person, and with her cute looks and sensitive nature, she'd quickly become popular among the first-years.

Now that a month had passed, she'd probably met most of the students in their year.

Her social skills were ridiculously impressive.

And that was one of Class D's defining traits. It was the protagonist's class, and although it was considered the worst, there were definitely students who could hold their own against those in Class A in certain areas.

There was the all-rounder Kouenji Rokusuke, Horikita Suzune, who excelled both academically and physically, Hirata, who was as warm as sunshine, and then Kushida Kikyou, with her A+ social skills.

But...

Nakano-kun put his phone away, looking a little puzzled.

Because...

His original plan had been to bring Horikita's little sister out and go fishing—fishing for Horikita Manabu.

But the one who'd taken the bait first was Kushida Kikyou.

Nakano Yuu certainly remembered Kushida Kikyou. She was Classroom of the Elite's resident eye candy. If Sakura-san was a gravure model in disguise, then Kushida-san was the universally beloved little angel.

She was the most popular girl after Ichinose Honami, the school beauty of Class B.

Kushida treated all the students equally. She even smiled at some of the boys with terrible reputations, so in the eyes of the boys in her class, she was practically an angel.

And she really was an angel. If you were in trouble, she'd be the first to help you.

But there was one exception.

She was a Class D student, despite excelling in every area and even having A+ social skills—something Horikita Suzune completely lacked. Why had she ended up in Class D?

Because she was a problem child.

In the original story, Kushida had a dark side and a troubled past, so she was especially wary of Horikita, who'd attended the same middle school, telling anyone about it. To prevent that, she was even willing to betray the class.

At the beginning, she'd tried to get on Horikita Suzune's good side.

According to the original story, she was supposed to approach Horikita Suzune first and then try to go to school with her, waiting outside Horikita Suzune's door every day because she was determined to spend time with her.

You could say she was a pretty persistent person.

"..." Horikita.

Although Kushida had greeted her, Horikita didn't respond. In fact, under Nakano Yuu's watchful eye, her expression had changed subtly.

She usually showed almost no emotion, but now she looked tense.

Apparently...

Some of the original story's events were unfolding as expected. Just like in the original, Kushida was pestering Horikita.

P.S. Guys, we've got 300 followers at least! Since I didn't make the full attendance bonus this month, there's no need for blades, but you can still give me recommendation tickets, right?

Chapter 12: Nakano Yuu: I Suggest Horikita Suzune Drop Out! Horikita x2: What?

Kushida's dark past had started in middle school, and Horikita Suzune had attended the same middle school. Kushida had come to this school hoping to make a fresh start.

That was why she was so adamantly against Horikita Suzune, who'd attended the same middle school, being here too.

Her approach was straightforward: get on Horikita Suzune's good side. If they got along, then whether she wanted Horikita not to reveal her dark past or to pretend they were friends before secretly getting rid of Horikita Suzune, it would be easy to handle either way.

But she was still at the beginning of things, just pestering Horikita and hoping to get on her good side first.

It seemed she hadn't succeeded.

After all, Horikita Suzune was the heroine. According to the conventional wisdom, only the male lead could win her over. There was no way a supporting character like Kushida could pull that off.

Still...

Nakano Yuu remembered some of the strange turns Kushida's mind could take.

Kushida-san looked like a little angel.

But she kept hitting a wall with Horikita Suzune. So might she try a roundabout approach, getting close to the male lead, who seemed to have a good relationship with Horikita Suzune, in hopes of winning Horikita Suzune over indirectly?

But she was a fool. She had no idea how terrifying the seemingly harmless male lead could be.

So she ended up losing on both fronts.