Shinjo and Kiyotaka Ayanokoji

"Shinjo! What are you doing?! Why are you stopping me?!"

"I'm just giving you a chance to think this through. Don't end up getting expelled for violence, where no amount of screaming for help will save you."

"I..."

Seeing that Sudo's temper seemed to have cooled slightly, Shinjo took two steps closer toward Yamawaki:

"This student from Class C, shouting here is useless. Believe it or not, our class will definitely pass this exam smoothly."

"You! And who are you? Stop spouting nonsense here. Do you think you..."

Before he could finish, a classmate beside him leaned in and whispered in his ear:

"Hey, didn't you hear? That big guy called him Shinjo..."

Yamawaki's expression changed upon hearing this: "You, you're that damn Shinjo Kiyotaka Ayanokoji?!"

Ayanokoji: ?????

Ayanokoji, his head full of question marks, glanced speechlessly at Shinjo. Although he didn't know what was happening, he was certain this had something to do with him.

Being inexplicably hated by someone from Class C was definitely not a good thing.

"Um, I'm actually the one named Kiyotaka Ayanokoji..."

"I don't care who you are! None of the people named Ayanokoji or Shinjo are any good!"

"I..."

This remark reignited Sudo's temper, which had only just begun to settle. Insulting his good friend right in front of him—it was an intolerable provocation!

"I think you're really looking for a beating! Shinjo, don't stop me! I have to teach him a lesson!"

"Bring it on! Bring it on! If you don't hit me, you're not a man!"

"I'll show you right now whether I'm a man or not!"

Sudo raised his fist to swing, and Ayanokoji, standing to the side, hurriedly pushed back his chair, intending to step in and break up the fight, when suddenly...

"Alright, that's enough!"

This time, it wasn't Shinjo who interrupted Sudo, but another female student who had been reading nearby.

"You... and who are you?"

"Who I am doesn't matter, but right now, I am a student using the library, and I cannot turn a blind eye to this disturbance. If you are determined to use violence, please take it outside."

(Regarding Ichinose's hair color: in the original book, this section describes it as gold, but in the anime, it looks pink. I will standardize it as rose gold here.)

"Also, everyone from Class C, aren't your words a bit too excessive? If you intend to continue harassing students from other classes, I will have no choice but to report the cause and effect of this incident to the school."

Yamawaki from Class C seemed to recognize the girl. Seeing that she was determined to intervene, he had no choice but to cut his actions short for the day.

"Ichinose... fine, we'll give you some face. Let's go. Studying in a place like this might just make us stupid by association."

"Ah, yeah... you're right."

After leaving behind that harsh parting shot, Yamawaki and his group slunk out of the library.

Ichinose turned back to Shinjo and the others and said:

"If you still intend to study here, please behave yourselves."

With that, she walked away gracefully, as if she had just dealt with a trivial matter of no consequence.

"Wait, I just remembered something very important. The things we're reviewing right now... aren't even in the scope of the exam?! Are you serious?!"

"If that's true, then what was all our hard work for?!"

Even Suzune Horikita's brows were tightly furrowed. She was certain she had heard the exam scope directly from Chabashira.

"About that... actually, I can answer your questions."

Hearing Shinjo say this, everyone turned their gazes toward him in unison.

"Can you explain what's going on with 'Shinjo Ayanokoji' first..."

"Don't mess around, Ayanokoji! Your situation isn't important at all!"

"Yeah, Ayanokoji, just stay quiet for a moment."

For some reason, Ayanokoji had lost all public support. He could only sigh and remain silent, hoping that Shinjo would give him a satisfying explanation later.

"Do you know what's going on, Shinjo?"

"Regarding that, I was actually planning to tell you all tomorrow."

As he spoke, Shinjo glanced in the direction of Ichinose and raised his voice slightly:

"Well, as a matter of fact, I have obtained the answers for this exam~"

!!!!!!

The group looked at each other, stunned for a moment, before rubbing their ears in disbelief:

"What did you say?! The ans..."

Just as Sudo was about to shout, Shinjo hurriedly stepped forward to cover his mouth, making a shushing gesture with his finger.

But this was merely a performance for Ichinose, who had already caught wind of the commotion.

Sudo also realized his reaction had been a bit too loud, and he nodded frantically to signal that Shinjo could let go.

"You said, the answers? Are you serious?"

"How could I possibly lie about something like this? Actually, I only received them from a second-year senior this morning. It cost me a full twenty thousand points!"

"But how can you guarantee that these answers are real?"

Suzune Horikita was skeptical; if one could simply buy the answers to an exam, what would be the point of studying hard?

Shinjo smiled mysteriously:

"That's another piece of intel. Kei bought it from a third-year senior. The first midterm exam for every incoming class at this school is identical, so..."

"So that means, as long as we memorize the answers... this exam is in the bag?!"

The Idiot Trio looked exceptionally excited. Even if they studied hard, it was inevitable that they might underperform during the test, but having the answers beforehand was a completely different story!

"Exactly! Regarding this, I originally intended to let you all study hard for a few days to improve your academic ability. I was worried that if you got the answers too early, you wouldn't pay attention in class, so I planned to give them to you later. But... if you want them, I'll have Kei distribute them to everyone tomorrow."

"Long live Shinjo!! Now I can finally get a good night's sleep."

"Yeah, yeah, I've been studying so hard these past few days my hair is practically falling out."

"Give it a rest, Yamauchi. Don't think I don't know your hair is falling out because you've been using that cheap shampoo."

While the others were busy celebrating, Ayanokoji and Horikita were clearly contemplating a very strange problem.

"In other words, the exam scope that Chabashira gave us is fake?"

"Uh, that is indeed the case."

Bang!

Horikita slammed her hand onto the table, causing Ichinose, who was eavesdropping nearby, to flinch.

"This is too much! Why... why would she do something like this?! No, I have to go ask her for an explanation."

After saying this, Horikita glanced at the Idiot Trio, who were already practically popping champagne in celebration, and said listlessly: "Class dismissed."

Afterward, she turned and left the library without looking back. Kikyo Kushida and the Idiot Trio also found excuses to leave one after another.

"So, can you answer my question now?"

Shinjo shrugged and walked over to pat Ayanokoji on the shoulder:

"About that... do you know there's a ranking for the most handsome boys among the girls?"

"????"

"Well, it's normal that you wouldn't know. In fact, besides the handsome ranking, there's also a gloomy ranking, a creepy ranking, a detestable ranking..."

Shinjo rattled off those inexplicable rankings as if he were an expert.

"Alright, alright... I just want to know, what does this have to do with that ranking?"

"Of course it has to do with it! You're sixth on the handsome ranking, I'm second, and Hirata is third. Everyone else in the top ten is from Class A. So, it's perfectly normal to be targeted by those in Class C who didn't make the list."

Ayanokoji felt that Shinjo was just brushing him off, but there wasn't much he could do about it.

It wasn't like he could hold a knife to his throat and force an answer.

Besides, even if he did force him, he felt that Shinjo wouldn't tell him the truth anyway.

"Fine... but I don't really feel like I'm that popular. At the very least, I've never received a love letter from a girl or anything like that."

"Ah! That? That might be because you're in the top five of the gloomy ranking, you know."