Boys' Topics

Ichinose had completely given up by this point.

Horikita Etsuka was practically like a worm in her stomach! He knew everything! She felt like she had no secrets at all around him! It was as if he had X-ray vision and could see right through her!!

Ichinose rubbed her fluffy, beautiful pink hair and sighed. Leaning back against the sofa, she nodded helplessly.

"All right, Horikita. You really do know everything. But how did you know about this person?"

Horikita Etsuka raised an eyebrow. "Ichinose, you didn't really think I hadn't noticed anything, did you?"

Ichinose stuffed some chips from the table into her mouth, puffing her cheeks.

"Okay, fine. I'll ask Kanzaki to get the boys organized in a bit, but he's not very good at socializing, so I hope you can help him out, Horikita."

Horikita Etsuka smiled. "Of course. I don't like parties that aren't lively, either."

Ichinose nodded, then went out to make arrangements.

A little while later, Ichinose stood prettily in the doorway with a pink canvas bag in her hand. She raised a hand and waved. "Girls, let's go have fun in another room!"

Kobashi Yume, who had been getting acquainted with Horikita Etsuka, turned around and smiled as she waved. "Got it, Ichinose."

Then she turned back and waved at Horikita Etsuka. "See you later, Horikita."

Horikita Etsuka smiled and waved back. "Have fun!"

"Mm-hmm!" Kobashi Yume said, then took Ichinose by the hand and skipped away.

More than a dozen other girls followed them.

In an instant, only the boys were left in the room, and it became completely quiet.

But the silence didn't last long before the door opened again.

A boy with purple hair and dark eyes led more than a dozen boys into the room.

The purple-haired boy scanned the room, then finally fixed his gaze on Horikita Etsuka.

He slowly held out his hand. "Hello, I'm Kanzaki Ryuji. It's nice to meet you, Horikita Etsuka."

If Horikita Etsuka had known the other boy was Kanzaki Ryuji, he probably would've thought they'd come in that formation to start trouble.

"Hello, Kanzaki."

The two shook hands briefly, then sat down.

Kanzaki Ryuji opened with, "Ichinose told me you're very capable, Horikita. I was wondering if you'd noticed anything unusual about this school?"

"Hm?"

Horikita Etsuka couldn't help complaining inwardly.

Who opens with a question like that? No wonder Ichinose said Kanzaki Ryuji was bad at socializing.

Horikita Etsuka sighed. He picked up a banana from the table, pointed it at Kanzaki Ryuji, and asked,

"Want a banana?"

Kanzaki Ryuji stared at the banana in the other boy's hand and paused for a moment. Still, he took it and held it. "So, Horikita, what's your take on things?"

Horikita Etsuka patted Kanzaki Ryuji on the shoulder. "Kanzaki, don't you think it's awfully quiet around here?"

"Quiet?" Kanzaki Ryuji came back to his senses. Seeing everyone's eyes turn toward him, he felt a little awkward.

He was starting to understand why Horikita Etsuka hadn't talked about anything serious.

Horikita Etsuka, meanwhile, also understood why Ichinose had repeatedly stressed that he should cooperate with Kanzaki Ryuji. The guy was a total conversation killer.

"We're here to have fun, so let's not talk about anything else." Horikita Etsuka said with an easygoing smile.

He stood up, picked up the microphone—picked up the microphone—and smiled at everyone. After clearing his throat, he spoke in a slightly humorous tone:

"Ahem. I'll give you all a little demonstration of my beautiful singing voice."

As soon as he finished speaking, Hamaguchi Tetsuya looked surprised. "Horikita, you can sing?"

Horikita Etsuka's lips curled up. He shook his head and answered frankly, "No."

"Then what's with all that confidence?"

In Hamaguchi Tetsuya's eyes, Horikita Etsuka had always been an honest, dependable person. This behavior was a real surprise.

However, Hamaguchi Tetsuya didn't know that this was only Horikita Etsuka's outward image.

In reality, Horikita Etsuka's personality was far more complicated than he let on.

Horikita Etsuka wasn't embarrassed by Hamaguchi Tetsuya's skepticism. Still smiling, he addressed everyone.

"Come on, everyone, give me a round of applause. How about it?"

As soon as he finished speaking, a wave of enthusiastic applause rang out.

The main reason was that the boys in the room had already formed a good impression of Horikita Etsuka, so there was no need to worry about the mood falling flat.

Horikita Etsuka began singing with complete confidence.

His voice in this life was excellent. The moment he opened his mouth, his deep, resonant male voice stunned everyone.

Yes, that's right—stunned everyone.

It sounded as if he had a motorcycle stuck in his throat. Everyone wanted to cover their ears, but they forced themselves to listen out of consideration for Horikita Etsuka's feelings.

Horikita Etsuka was having a great time singing. He wasn't any good, but the mood was gradually picking up.

Horikita Etsuka was an extremely quick learner. If he really tried to learn a song, it wouldn't sound this awful—in fact, he might even sound quite good.

But Horikita Etsuka had never wanted to study music. He just sang however he pleased, and was rather proud of his unique singing style.

When the song ended, everyone burst into enthusiastic applause.

"Whoa, Horikita, your singing is unbelievably bad."

"Yeah, yeah, it made my ears pregnant."

Horikita Etsuka happily accepted their praise and picked up the microphone, about to sing another song.

Everyone hurried to stop him.

"Hey, Horikita, that's not fair! Aren't you going to let us sing, too?"

"Yeah, yeah." Some of them chimed in, afraid Horikita Etsuka would get the microphone again.

Horikita Etsuka couldn't resist them, so he reluctantly handed over the microphone.

But thanks to Horikita Etsuka's singing, the atmosphere had improved by more than a little.

They took turns choosing songs, and the queue grew to more than ten.

Horikita Etsuka watched everyone scrambling to pick songs, crossed his legs, and sat back down on the sofa.

Kanzaki Ryuji had watched the whole thing. He hadn't joined the others in shouting for Horikita Etsuka to stop singing; instead, he was thinking over the other boy's every move.

Kanzaki Ryuji looked at Horikita Etsuka with a hint of admiration.

After all, the other boy was far better than him at socializing, and Ichinose had also said he would be an extremely important person in the class.

Time passed quickly. Before long, everyone had grown tired of singing. They sat on the sofas, chatting and snacking. By then, they had more or less gotten to know one another.

Just then, a boy suddenly said, "Ahem, which girl in our class do you think is the prettiest?"