Good Deeds

The next day, before the bell rang in Class A, the classroom buzzed with chatter between the desks.

"Kamuro, keep your eyes to yourself. There are too many people around. Don't look at me like that." Uesugi Hara turned his head and spoke quietly to Kamuro Masumi beside him.

Kamuro Masumi had barely taken her eyes off him all morning. Every so often, she shot him a sidelong glance, her gaze filled with contempt. At his words, she scoffed, and the contempt in her eyes deepened. "You know perfectly well what you did."

Her dismissive attitude made Uesugi Hara's temper flare. He deliberately lifted his chin. "If you insist on putting it that way, I won't hold back." As soon as he finished speaking, his eyes swept over her legs.

Kamuro Masumi reacted in an instant. With a quick jerk, she pulled her legs to the other side of the desk, nearly banging her knee against its leg. Disgust spread across her face. "You really are a pervert." Her voice wasn't loud, but it was enough to draw curious looks from a few nearby classmates.

Uesugi Hara quickly waved to the people around them and shot back in a hushed voice, "Keep it down! You don't want everyone finding out what you did yesterday—"

"Shut up!"

He must have hit a nerve. After that, Kamuro Masumi stopped giving him those trash-filled looks. She only pressed her lips together and turned away, as if she couldn't be bothered with him anymore.

Uesugi Hara knew when to quit. He pointedly looked away and turned to the window.

And so, the strange little scene between the two of them came to a temporary end.

With only a few minutes left before the bell, Uesugi Hara suddenly got up and headed for the restroom.

Why go at this particular time? It was one of those unspoken secrets among students. What was the point of asking?

He had barely rounded the corner in the hallway when a faint "Mmph..." came with a soft thud.

Uesugi Hara felt something soft and tiny bump into him. Looking down, the first thing he saw was a pair of panties printed with a chubby little red panda.

Looking higher, he saw Sakayanagi Arisu sitting on the floor with one hand pressed to her forehead, her uniform skirt hiked up to the top of her thighs.

Uesugi Hara froze for a moment, then crouched down. First, he gently tugged her skirt back into place, covering the adorable little red panda. Next, he slid both hands under her arms and lifted her to her feet with a little effort. Finally, he picked up the silver cane that had rolled to one side and placed it back in her slender hand.

When he had finished, he stared at Sakayanagi Arisu for two seconds. Remembering what she had looked like the day before, he raised both index fingers and gave her cheeks a gentle poke. Her bewildered little face was pushed into a smile that looked just like yesterday's composed expression, though her icy blue eyes, usually so full of mischief, were still glazed with dazed confusion.

Sakayanagi Arisu was like a delicate doll on strings. From adjusting her posture to arranging her expression, she let Uesugi Hara do as he pleased. Now, she looked exactly as composed and self-assured as she had the day before.

Uesugi Hara surveyed his "masterpiece" and nodded with satisfaction. His tone carried a note of advice. "Classmate Sakayanagi, you should watch where you're going next time. Not everyone's as easygoing as I am."

He paused, glanced at her skirt, and added, "And that little red panda is pretty cute, but you shouldn't show it to just anyone. It wouldn't be good if some ill-intentioned pervert caught sight of it."

Then he turned and headed for the boys' restroom with a jaunty step, feeling as cheerful as if he'd just done a good deed. He left Sakayanagi Arisu standing alone where she was.

Her dazed eyes gradually cleared. Hearing Uesugi Hara's words and remembering what had just happened, she flushed from her cheeks to her earlobes. Even her neck turned pink.

Her fingers tightened sharply around her cane, her knuckles going white, and her body trembled despite her best efforts to control it. She watched Uesugi Hara disappear around the corner, her chest heaving—though no one could tell—as if a fire were burning inside her.

"You were the one who bumped into me!" she said through clenched teeth. The first words of her defense came out sounding a little aggrieved, her voice trembling at the end.

Then all the pent-up embarrassment and anger surged out at once, and her voice rose. "Jerk!" She paused, as though that wasn't enough to vent her frustration, then added two more words through clenched teeth. Each one sounded as if she were forcing it out: "Gross! Pervert! Loli-con!..."

The hallway was empty. Only she could hear her own muttered words, their muffled sound tinged with grievance.

The more Sakayanagi Arisu thought about it, the angrier she got. Her hand tightened around the cane again, and a glint of defiance flashed in her icy blue eyes. Facing the direction Uesugi Hara had disappeared, she clenched her fist in her heart. "Uesugi Hara... You'd better hope I never find something I can use against you."

Her words carried a stubbornness all her own, along with a fierce certainty that she would get her revenge. "Otherwise, I'll make sure you regret it!"

After speaking, she took a deep breath and did her best to calm her heaving chest. She straightened her back and slowly made her way toward the classroom, leaning on her cane. A little of her anger still showed in her steps.

Things were completely different for Uesugi Hara.

He whistled a tune that was nowhere near the right notes, his steps light and lively. He was in an absolutely splendid mood—after all, he'd just done another good deed.

Thinking back to the little incident in the hallway, he couldn't help smiling. Those panties with the little red panda really were cute. The soft, chubby design suited Sakayanagi Arisu's petite, little-girl appearance.

Still... He raised an eyebrow, mulling it over. With Sakayanagi's calm, composed, confident, and elegant demeanor, how did she end up liking such a childish design? Was that what people meant by a contrast?

When he returned to the classroom, Uesugi Hara had barely sat down when he caught sight of Sakayanagi Arisu looking his way. A faint smile rested on her face, and she still looked as poised and elegant as ever.

He couldn't help feeling relieved, and even a little moved. The world really was a friendly place. At least Sakayanagi Arisu wasn't harping on that collision, or trying to wring money out of him for medical expenses and emotional distress. She seemed like a reasonable person.

Of course, he had no idea what lay behind that smile of Sakayanagi Arisu's. The corners of her eyes curved slightly, her lips lifted. It was clearly a silent declaration: We have plenty of time. We'll settle this score eventually.

Kamuro Masumi glanced at Uesugi Hara's strange expression, furrowed her brow, and asked irritably, "What's gotten into you now?"

Uesugi Hara immediately glared back at her. "If you can't say anything sensible, keep your mouth shut. I just did a good deed, and I was feeling a little sentimental."

"Ha." Kamuro Masumi let out a cold laugh, the contempt in her eyes utterly undisguised. "You, doing a good deed? I bet it was just more perverted nonsense."

Uesugi Hara was left speechless. He was about to retort when the teacher walked in through the door with a stack of lesson plans, so he had to swallow the words on the tip of his tongue. In his mind, he cursed Kamuro Masumi eight hundred times.