The girl at the head of the group seemed to ponder something before finally nodding.
"I'm Horikita Suzune, a new student in Class 1-D. What did you mean when you said there might not be a hundred thousand next month?"
"..."
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji, standing behind her, was at a loss for words.
She was completely ignoring his existence... She hadn't even given him a chance to introduce himself before jumping straight into the conversation?
Fortunately,
the boy across from them was as gentle as Hirata, the central figure in their class, and, unexpectedly, didn't ignore him.
Feeling Kijima Tsukur's gaze, Kiyotaka Ayanokoji suddenly found himself at a loss for words.
"Um... I'm also from Class 1-D, Kiyotaka Ayanokoji... Um... Pleased to meet you."
"Kijima Tsukur."
Kijima Tsukur gave only his name.
Behind him, Yamamura Miki hesitated over whether she should introduce herself.
But aside from Kiyotaka Ayanokoji glancing at her, Horikita Suzune hadn't paid the slightest attention to her. By the time she'd finished hesitating, the moment had passed.
"I mean exactly what I said."
Only then did Kijima Tsukur answer Horikita Suzune's question, explaining,
"Our teacher only said, 'You currently have a hundred thousand points on your phone, and points are issued on the first of every month.' He never guaranteed that we'd get a hundred thousand every month, so I suspect our individual performance may affect how many points we receive next month."
"I see... That makes sense. In that case, it really would be better to save some."
Horikita Suzune furrowed her brows and pressed on.
"Do you know anything else?"
"Not exactly know, but..."
Kijima Tsukur didn't hide anything. "The only other thing that caught my attention was the claim that 'points can be used to buy anything.'"
"Is that so?"
Horikita Suzune furrowed her brows.
She didn't seem to understand what there was to find concerning about that, but she did know that there was something strange about this school.
After a moment's hesitation, Horikita Suzune took out her phone and said,
"Let's exchange contact information. If you learn anything, please tell me. I can treat you to a meal or pay you a certain number of points as a reward."
"Sure."
Kijima Tsukur and Horikita Suzune exchanged contact information. Kiyotaka Ayanokoji took the opportunity to pull out his phone and add another contact as well.
"Thanks. I'm just about done looking around, so I'll be going."
Horikita Suzune casually grabbed a set of free daily necessities and turned to leave the convenience store.
Now that there was a theory like this, it was only natural to save wherever she could.
She wasn't as precious as Kijima Tsukur. Aside from cosmetics, she didn't mind if her other daily necessities were a little cheap.
Watching her leave, Kiyotaka Ayanokoji hurried after her.
Only Yamamura Miki was left in tears.
What about me?
Had Horikita Suzune and the others all ignored her?
As expected,
Kijima Tsukur really was a little different.
Never mind. It was only contact information, and she was already used to being ignored.
"Um..."
Yamamura Miki hesitantly asked, "Kijima, you didn't seem to know them either. Why did you tell them all that?"
"There's no particular reason to keep it secret, is there?"
"That's true..."
Yamamura Miki nodded.
Still,
when someone met a beautiful girl like Horikita Suzune,
wouldn't most people take the opportunity to get closer to her, or have a meal together?
Kijima Tsukur's indifference was rather unusual.
"I didn't expect you to be so unexpectedly kind, Kijima."
"Kind? Not really. I just don't care. This little thing can't affect Tenmei."
Kijima Tsukur glanced at the shopping basket in Yamamura Miki's hands.
"That should be about everything, right? You said you'd cook, so all that's left is to buy some ingredients?"
"E-eh!?"
Yamamura Miki jumped like a startled fawn.
What did he mean?
Buying the groceries wasn't enough—he really expected her to cook for him too?
Meanwhile,
watching Horikita Suzune's back,
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji followed her like a shadow and ventured,
"Wasn't he the person from the bus?"
"Yeah. I'm surprised you remembered."
"Well, he was so noticeable. It would've been strange not to remember him, right?"
"True."
Horikita Suzune recalled Kijima Tsukur's behavior on the bus and nodded, sounding a little impressed.
"I thought he was a weirdo, but he turned out to be surprisingly easy to talk to."
"Yeah."
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji was a little surprised too.
He'd seemed like a weirdo on the bus, but he turned out to be unexpectedly kind, almost completely without suspicion. Ask him anything, and he'd answer.
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji still didn't know what was special about this school, but he felt this was important information.
He glanced at Horikita Suzune beside him and asked,
"Should we go find Hirata now? I think he and the others are still hanging out at Keyaki Mall. We should be able to find them easily."
"Hm?"
Horikita Suzune seemed confused instead. "Hirata's the blond boy who suggested introducing ourselves in class, right? Why would we go find him?"
"Hm? Weren't you planning to go find him?"
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji looked just as confused.
"I figured he was the central figure in the class, so he'd already gotten a lot of people's contact information. Weren't you going to tell him what we learned and have him inform the class?"
"Hm? That's strange."
Horikita Suzune stopped and looked at Kiyotaka Ayanokoji in confusion.
"Why would I tell the class?"
"Uh... Because it seems like quite a few people are planning to spend lavishly. If we don't tell them to save their points soon, they'll be upset if they really don't get a hundred thousand next month, right?"
"So what? What does that have to do with me?"
Although she said that, Horikita Suzune understood what he meant. She turned and continued toward the dormitory, her cool voice drifting back.
"Whether you're being kind or have some other motive,"
"it's up to you who you tell. But none of that has anything to do with me. I don't plan on getting close to anyone."
"I only humored you because you seemed so desperate to make friends that I felt a little sorry for you. Stop bothering me."
"..."
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji watched Horikita Suzune walk away, feeling rather helpless.
There was a good chance that individual performance affected the number of points issued. The only question was whether the class's performance had anything to do with it.
Without knowing that,
sharing the information with his classmates would've been the right thing to do.
Unfortunately,
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji didn't want to draw too much attention to himself just yet.
If Horikita Suzune wasn't willing to tell anyone, there was no way he could do it either.
Chapter 7: What a shameless person!
Dormitory.
Kijima Tsukur returned to the dormitory carrying two large plastic bags.
He couldn't help it. After buying the ingredients, Yamamura Miki had been unable to carry them, so Kijima Tsukur had taken them as well.
As for the expenses, of course they split them equally.
The two of them used their student numbers to collect their dorm keys and copies of the dormitory rules.
Only then did they discover that the dormitory was co-ed, with boys on the lower floors and girls on the upper floors.
Kijima Tsukur carried their daily necessities into the elevator.
He pressed the button for the seventh floor.
His room was 703.
Perhaps because the average student in Class A was of a higher caliber, the boys in Class A served as a buffer between the men's and women's floors, with the girls' rooms directly above them.
Yamamura Miki followed him into the elevator, standing half a step behind him.
She secretly glanced at the floor buttons inside. Only the button for the seventh floor was lit.
That made sense.
Kijima Tsukur didn't even know her room number. How could he possibly press the button for her floor?
Her room was 1206.
Yamamura Miki wanted to return to her own room, but she felt too embarrassed to say so and didn't know how to bring it up.
More importantly,
the daily necessities she'd bought were still in the hands of the man standing in front of her...
But... was she really going to follow this man back to his room and help him clean and prepare dinner?
No way...
Why should she listen to Kijima Tsukur like this?
They'd only met for the first time today. How could she possibly go to a boy's room?
Before you continue