Dropout

The moment Chabashira Sae pushed open the door to the Class D classroom, the low buzz of discussion fell silent, and the air seemed to freeze.

Every eye turned toward her, filled with restrained anxiety and unspoken questions.

She walked steadily toward the podium, her heels striking the floor with unusual clarity in the overly quiet classroom.

She surveyed each young face below, and a trace of disappointment flickered through her—especially when her gaze landed on the student she had been watching in secret.

She had hinted at the key to the rules so many times, even hoping that the person she had her eye on would step up at this crucial moment, but in the end... there had been no reaction at all.

Would these three years once again come to nothing, like so many times before, lost in the quagmire of Class D?

None of that disappointment showed on her face. Chabashira Sae wore her usual cool, slightly weary expression.

She gently set the papers in her hands on the lectern, moving at an unhurried pace.

Below the podium, the students were each lost in their own thoughts.

Many of them privately blamed Chabashira-sensei for waiting until the final few days to tell them the exam scope had changed, leaving them caught off guard and with far too little time to study.

A lot of them had no confidence in their results and felt they had bombed the test. Those who had hovered near the passing line on the last quiz were especially restless, their faces full of dread.

At last, one impatient boy could hold back no longer. His voice was taut as he asked, "Teacher, I heard you're announcing the exam results today... when will that be?" His question was like a stone dropped into still water, instantly drawing everyone's attention.

Chabashira Sae raised her eyes to the student who had asked. Her tone was flat. "Don't worry. I'll announce them now." She paused, her gaze passing over the class, then added, "If I waited until after school, there wouldn't be enough time to handle the necessary paperwork."

Her words were like an unseen hand closing around their already taut nerves, making many students' hearts leap into their throats.

The hot-tempered Ken Sudō was practically a keg of gunpowder. He leaned forward slightly, fists clenched beneath his desk, waiting for the moment the verdict was announced to light the fuse.

Chabashira Sae clearly had no intention of dragging things out.

She turned and briskly pinned a large sheet of paper listing every student's name and scores in each subject to the very center of the blackboard.

The sheet rustled softly as it unfolded, but the sound rang through the classroom like thunder.

Dozens of eyes immediately latched onto it, frantically searching for their names and the numbers that would decide their fates.

After a brief silence, a shrill cry broke out, choked with tears. "I missed it by just one point! It's all the teacher's fault! Why didn't you tell us earlier that the exam scope had changed?" Yamauchi Haruki sprang to his feet, pointing at the glaring score beside his name in one subject. His face was deathly pale, and his voice trembled with agitation. "I don't want to be expelled! I don't!"

Not far from him, a girl stared at her results as tears rolled silently down her cheeks. She covered her face with both hands, stifled sobs coming in fits and starts. She was clearly on the verge of breaking down.

"Bang!" Ken Sudō kicked the leg of his desk with all his might. The stationery on top jumped from the impact.

His eyes bloodshot, he glared at the blackboard and growled, "Why did this happen? I worked so hard!"

Hirata Yosuke, the class leader, took a deep breath and stood up.

He looked toward Chabashira Sae at the podium. His voice was steady, but carried an unmistakable challenge. "Teacher, you didn't tell us the exam scope had changed until the last moment. That simply isn't fair to us.

"Is there really... no way to make up for this?"

Hirata's stepping forward seemed to light a fuse.

The other students began speaking up too, their voices filled with unease and resentment.

This time it was someone else who was being expelled. Who knew whether they would be next? They couldn't let their homeroom teacher decide their fates so "arbitrarily"!

The protests swelled like a snowball rolling downhill. Students whose scores were also below the passing marks they had expected felt as if they had seized their last lifeline. One after another, they joined in, hoping the strength of the group could change the outcome they might face.

Faced with the agitated crowd, Chabashira Sae merely lifted her chin slightly, her gaze still calm and unreadable.

"Don't rush." Her voice wasn't loud, but it clearly carried over the commotion. Having weathered so many storms, she considered this a minor scene.

At the hint that there might be a way forward, the classroom quickly fell silent.

Everyone held their breath, watching Chabashira Sae anxiously as they waited for her to continue.

Chabashira Sae calmly picked up a conspicuous red pen from the lectern.

Her gaze roamed over the list. At last, the pen tip fell, drawing a sharp red line through Ken Sudō's name—and no one else's.

"Teacher... what does this mean?" Ken Sudō's voice quavered faintly, heavy with confusion.

He had clearly seen that Yamauchi, Ike, and one or two others had scores on the brink as well. Yet now, only his name on the list had been marked with the red line of expulsion.

He should have had "company," but now he was all alone. This sudden sense of being the "only one" stirred a hard-to-describe feeling in him, a mixture of absurdity and the suffocating frustration of being singled out.

Chabashira Sae set down the red pen and turned to face the class, her tone utterly unruffled. "At this school, the passing mark is calculated as half the grade-wide average for that subject." She raised a hand and lightly pointed at the score sheet on the blackboard. "In this midterm exam, the average in some subjects... was unexpectedly lower than last time. So naturally, the passing marks were lowered accordingly."

Her gaze finally settled on Ken Sudō as she delivered the words, clear and cold. "So, Ken Sudō, you're the only one whose English score falls below the adjusted passing mark."

The classroom fell utterly silent.

The earlier uproar and protests seemed never to have happened.

The truth doused every unrealistic hope like a bucket of cold water.

Ken Sudō opened his mouth, but in the end, nothing came out.

He slumped back into his chair, grabbing his hair with both hands until his knuckles turned white.

Regret wound around him like a poisonous vine. If only he had spent more time on English; if only he had pushed himself harder in those last few days... Now, every one of those what-ifs became a heavy fist, pounding against his heart.

It was Hirata Yosuke who broke the silence first, as before.

Though Ken Sudō had once cursed at him and treated him with rudeness and hostility, Hirata's face was still full of genuine concern. "T-Teacher.

"Is Sudō really going to be expelled? Is there... truly no way to make up for this?"

Chabashira Sae's reply was decisive, leaving no room for negotiation. "That's the fact of the matter. If you fail, that's the end of it. Ken Sudō, you're being expelled."

Horikita Suzune, seated in the back row, instinctively raised her hand as if she wanted to say something. Her lips moved a few times, but in the end, she let it fall helplessly.

Her brow furrowed as she looked at Ken Sudō, her expression complicated.

If he had missed by one or two points, perhaps they could have argued over a loophole in the rules. But Sudō's English score... he hadn't just fallen a little short. It was a gap no remedial measure could bridge.

A profound sense of helplessness seized her.

"Sudō, come to the teachers' office after school. That's all." Chabashira Sae announced her final decision briskly. Without looking at anyone else, she picked up the papers from the podium and left the classroom.

The door closed softly behind her, shutting off the complicated, hard-to-express atmosphere inside Class D.

Horikita Suzune could only watch as the figure that represented authority and final judgment disappeared beyond the door. She cried out silently inside, I can't do anything! A deep sense of defeat spread through her.

Strangely enough, in the midst of that heavy silence, a secret, unspeakable feeling began quietly spreading through the group.

For most of the students in Class D, the thought that Ken Sudō—the hot-tempered troublemaker who was always causing problems and resorting to violence—was really going to be expelled... seemed to make the air in the classroom feel a little lighter.

The thought made them feel somewhat ashamed, yet they couldn't deny the genuine sense of relief they felt.