Fierce Battle! This Is the School Gate, Not the Front Door

Her cold brows rose. Suppressing the urge to curse, Horikita Suzune calmly said, "Didn't you want to give your seat to this elderly lady?"

"That's why we reached a consensus." Bai Yu sat leisurely in his seat, turned his head, and asked in return, "I made the suggestion, and you agreed. The two of us hit it off immediately."

Agreed? What nonsense was this guy talking about?

"I... cough."

The girl glanced around and lowered her voice slightly. "When did I agree?"

"The moment I finished speaking, you stood up without saying a word. Wasn't that agreement?"

Bai Yu said in puzzlement.

As they exchanged polite looks, Horikita Suzune caught sight of what he was holding. She instantly guessed something and probed, "Were you listening to music just now?"

"That's right. German symphonies. The melodies are splendid and soothing. Listening to them now and then brings a sense of peace and helps inspire writing. Are you interested in music too?"

"No..." Horikita froze for a moment, nearly getting led off-topic by him again. After gathering herself, she was about to say something.

However, the driver gave her no such chance.

With a bold press on the accelerator and the roar of the engine, the experienced driver—who had watched the entire process through the rearview mirror—smiled faintly. Moved by the fine qualities of the two young people, he grinned, instantly perked up, and stepped on the gas toward the sunlit road leading to school.

A slight stumble caused by inertia made Horikita Suzune steady herself. She glanced at him again, only to see the back of his dark head, and irritation immediately rose within her.

But since she had missed the chance, she could only swallow this grievance for now.

It really felt as though he had deliberately pretended not to hear her.

Once they got off, she absolutely had to reason things out with him...

And that self-righteous tone of his was infuriating for no reason!

She slowly blinked, walked over to a handrail by the rear door, and braced herself while keeping an eye on the situation on the bus.

As her peripheral vision swept past the girl who had urged everyone to give up seats for the elderly lady, she noticed that the girl was no longer staying beside the old woman to fuss over her. Instead, she seemed distractedly focused on Horikita herself.

Horikita Suzune found it rather baffling. She had no acquaintances she could call friends.

She raised her gaze slightly to meet the girl's eyes, only to be shut out.

Just as their eyes were about to meet, the other girl quickly looked away, returning her gaze to the elderly lady in front of her. It looked highly suspicious.

Horikita Suzune let out a quiet breath, adjusted her emotions in an instant, faced forward, and raised the book in her hand to resume reading.

She absolutely could not let such an insignificant matter affect her convictions...

Horikita Suzune reminded herself inwardly.

After roughly thirty minutes on the road, driven by the driver in peak form, the bus successfully arrived at the stop. The little incident aboard had not delayed the bus from reaching its designated stop on time.

The steady and dependable middle-aged man had once again completed his task brilliantly!

With affectionate and admiring eyes, the driver smiled as he saw this group of youthful students off the bus.

Thinking back to the last time he had driven on campus, it had been quite the legend on the school forums. He had been a lewd devil revered by most students outside Class A.

If he had possessed such steady and superb driving skills back then, the teachers would not have discovered him. His title as the God of Cars would not have nearly been buried, nor would he have almost faced the terrifying punishment of expulsion.

The driver got off the bus with a face full of emotion. Even now, recalling those scenes from back then still left him with mixed feelings.

He wondered how his four close friends from Class D were doing in the admissions office. He had heard they were still handling the second round of interviews this year. Their work abilities must have been recognized by now. When he had time, he should have a drink with them and reminisce about their youth.

As for that stiff old guy at the school, he could only scrape together some time during the holidays to invite him out for a gathering.

"Yosh!"

"Next, let's see what kind of students Class B next door has recruited this year."

This year's homeroom teacher should be... Hoshinomiya Chie?

The driver instantly felt a chill down his back as some unpleasant memories resurfaced.

That scheming junior who wielded gentleness as a blade and weapon, who had relied on her innocence and romantic nature to gather all kinds of information about the school right after enrollment, and had even tried to fleece graduating upperclassmen—she had now become a teacher at this school, and even a homeroom teacher.

They were colleagues now.

After weighing things in his heart, the driver decided to put away his curiosity to avoid getting dragged into those terrible old memories. He finished the remaining report in his hands and turned toward the bus for Class A.

He should first take a look at what sort of class his old classmate would soon be leading.

"You up ahead, stop."

The gate's design was plain and simple, with nothing remarkable about it. The overly long flight of stairs was equally pointless, doing nothing but adding an extra physical burden to students entering school for the first time.

Bai Yu rubbed his chin, paused briefly, then followed the crowd into the brand-new campus.

"Hey, didn't you hear me tell you to stop?" A black-haired, red-eyed girl suddenly appeared partway up the stairs, arms folded over her chest and chin raised slightly as she blocked his way.

She looked down at Bai Yu from above like a demon king.

Bai Yu looked around blankly, realized that the demon king seemed vaguely familiar, and sent a puzzled look her way.

"Were you calling me?"

"Who else would I be calling?" the black-haired girl retorted sharply.

"There are also A, B, C, D, Zhang San, and Li Si." Bai Yu looked confused. "I don't think the 'hey' you said specifically referred to anyone. My name isn't Hey."

"I suggest that next time, you say, 'Hey, handsome guy.' That would be more specific. Maybe then I'd know you meant me."

At his words, the girl's brows furrowed unconsciously, and her fingers gradually tightened around her arms. "Leaving aside where this inexplicable confidence of yours comes from, was what happened on the bus intentional?"

"Why would you think that?"

"Because when I spoke, you clearly replied, 'Okay.'"

"Okay?" Bai Yu pinched his chin, looking as though he were trying hard to remember.

"Okay?"

"Mm."

"Okay..."

"That's right," the black-haired girl said flatly.

She lifted her chin slightly and watched the man before her, who was lying without changing expression and seemingly intended to stubbornly deny it to the end.

A glint of insight flashed through her eyes.

It was an unassailable, impossible-to-evade aura—a dueling ground that encompassed them both and determined who was right and who won.

It allowed no dodging or escape.

Bai Yu lowered his head and muttered those two words. His eyes drifted back and forth, his expression somewhat grave. After a long while, he finally raised his head, revealing a faint smile as if the clouds had parted to reveal the sun.

He said frankly, "In my life, I have said 'okay' a total of 13,506 times. Of those, 10,756 were said while working part-time jobs, to deal with and please customers who wanted to buy things. I classify those as unnecessary memories, so I do not deliberately remember the appearances of the people involved or the circumstances in which I said them. The rest were simple everyday greetings and replies expressing agreement."

"As for the 'okay' you mentioned just now, I probably have no recollection of it, which means it likely was not a big deal."

"I suggest you don't take it to heart. Otherwise, you'll only make yourself miserable."

"..."

"Still talking in circles. Don't you think your way of helping people is terribly low?"

Horikita Suzune chose to ignore his excuse, which sounded like the ramblings of someone whose brain had been damaged by watching too many science-fiction films, and instead directly attacked his method of action.

He had made a decision without considering anyone else's feelings, affecting other people's plans and paths, and going against their wishes. It clearly met the standard for infringing upon others' rights.

She said coldly, "Don't use your own values to think on behalf of others. I have firm convictions. There is absolutely no need for me to do something so meaningless."

"I think you're right." Bai Yu's smile did not fade. He casually snapped his fingers and agreed, "That's why I didn't give up my own seat."

Horikita Suzune nearly choked on her anger.

Her resentful gaze stabbed into the boy before her as she demanded, "Then why did you use public morality to manipulate me and force me to give up my seat?"

Bai Yu shook a finger and said calmly, "First of all, pretty and perhaps not-so-kind classmate, I never forced you to give up your seat. From my perspective, we reached a consensus from beginning to end."

"Second, I think not giving up a seat is a small matter, but advocating against giving up seats is a major matter. Your idea of belittling admirable qualities as worthless is quite bad."

Horikita Suzune looked unconcerned. She raised a hand to smooth her hair by her temple and said, "It has nothing to do with me. If I do not give up my seat, then naturally I will not expect anyone to give up theirs for me in the future. I only need to uphold my convictions..."

"Convictions? Wake up already."

Bai Yu suddenly rebuked her for failing to live up to expectations. "You're already in high school, not some middle schooler who goes around yelling that the whole world is in their grasp!"

"I've never shouted such a strange slogan... No, we are arguing about giving up seats right now."

Horikita Suzune dragged the topic back. What was with this person's erratic train of thought? Even ordinary conversation was difficult. She had nearly been led astray by him again.

Bai Yu once more made it clear that they could not see eye to eye. "I already said that I never forcibly made you give up your seat. If you truly suspect that I planned it all beforehand, then please provide concrete and reliable evidence."

"A judge will not accept only your side of the story. Still, the fact that you're taking such a trivial matter so seriously does prove that your convictions are not merely lingering symptoms from having just recovered from middle-school syndrome."

"I hope you realize your proud and uniquely correct convictions soon."

Bai Yu tossed out that careless blessing, then turned to leave.

"Are you mocking me?"

A hint of displeasure appeared on Horikita Suzune's face. Her gaze clung like a magnet to the back of his slightly naturally wavy hair, while the corner of her eye caught another figure beside him silently trying to slip around them.

She immediately regained her overwhelming momentum and confidently issued another challenge.

"If you want evidence, the boy beside you is an eyewitness!"