"I don't want to go to the hospital." With the heavy backpack pressed over his face, Hoshino's voice came out somewhat muffled. "So I'd rather be a lecher."
"Have you finally revealed your true nature, you pervert?"
"I'm just lecherous, not a pervert."
"There's no doubt you've crossed that subtle line between the two."
Hugging the backpack, Hoshino rolled over and sat up. His classmate Horikita Suzune stood nearby with her arms folded, looking down at him coldly.
"Horikita, if I were really a pervert, I'd already be getting excited from being looked at with such contempt in your eyes."
"Enough. If that's all you wanted to say, I'm leaving."
With a dark expression, Horikita snatched the backpack from Hoshino's hands.
"Wait, Horikita. Did you guess I was waiting for you?"
"This entire exaggerated performance of yours was meant to eliminate the possibility of those girls inviting you out, while urging them to leave the classroom quickly so you could be alone with me. Because you had something to say to me, the one who stayed behind." Horikita's gaze was icy.
"Horikita, you're really sharp. I'm starting to see you in a new light." Hoshino narrowed his eyes and stole a glance at a certain person watching the show from afar, then smiled casually and got to his feet, patting the dust off himself. "You're right. There is something I want to discuss with you."
"Go on. What is it?"
"How about we go somewhere like a café and sit down to talk?"
"No. We'll talk here." Horikita refused decisively. "I don't like those places. They're full of noise, which makes talking inconvenient."
"I thought you were going to say something like, 'I don't want people seeing me with a pervert like you.'"
"Tch, are you an idiot? Why would