Honami Ichinose

Unfortunately, he didn't have Koenji's habit of carrying a mirror around with him. Otherwise, Ayanokoji would have taken a good look at himself.

Forget whether he was handsome or not. Did he really look that gloomy?

He'd even made it into the top five on the first-year rankings... No matter how you looked at it, that was ridiculous.

"Whether you accept it or not, that's the truth. If you want to be popular, you need to at least become a little more lively and sunny."

Ayanokoji seemed quite interested in the topic. He really did want to become more popular, but that was undoubtedly a matter of natural talent.

Popular people had an aura from the moment they were born. Take Shinjo standing right in front of him, or the beautiful girl with rose-gold hair from earlier.

Then there were people who seemed born to be picked on, like Sudo or Yamauchi.

"But I don't think I can do that."

Ayanokoji shook his head. He'd thought about making a good impression during the opening-day self-introductions, but when he stood up, he'd only managed to stammer out his name.

Of course, that was only because he'd never really thought of the people around him as human beings.

"Well, it's kind of hard to explain. But if you want to be popular, you should spend time in places with lots of people."

"Ah... I've been to cafes and amusement parks. And the school cafeteria is crowded, too."

Shinjo suddenly realized there was a problem: he'd always had a rather one-sided view of Ayanokoji.

Just because Ayanokoji's gaze seemed unnatural, he'd immediately labeled him a gay guy.

Just because of his explosively dense muscles and well-defined physique, he'd assumed he was an assassin from some organization.

But in reality... how could a person be that simple?

He deliberately kept his scores down and pretended to be ordinary, yet made sure anyone paying attention could immediately tell he was different.

And sometimes, Ayanokoji asked such stupid questions that no normal person could convincingly pretend to be that clueless.

So maybe Ayanokoji really was just someone with little common sense.

"Let me put it this way: if you want to be popular, you need lots of popular friends. Birds of a feather flock together. If the people around you aren't popular, then you won't be popular either."

Ayanokoji thought about it carefully. His friends were all the sort who didn't have many friends themselves. In fact, they were all especially disliked.

The only exception was Kikyo Kushida, but she couldn't really be counted as his friend.

He always felt she had something against him.

"Hey, Shinjo. Popular people are easy to notice, right?"

Ayanokoji didn't want to stand out. He just wanted to coast along and get through his three years in peace.

In that sense, his reason for coming to this school was surprisingly similar to Shinjo's.

"Heh, I think you'd attract more attention if you became friends with Ike and the others. If that's what you're after—after all, even bad publicity is publicity—then congratulations!"

The two of them kept chatting until they reached the dormitory. Shinjo needed to wait for someone behind him, so he made up an excuse and sent Ayanokoji on his way.

"You can come out now, Ichinose."

Only then did the girl who'd been hiding behind a nearby tree step out.

"So you noticed me a while ago, Shinjo."

"Since I was the one who invited you, of course I did... Want something to drink?"

"No, no... I..."

Ichinose kept waving her hands in polite refusal, but Shinjo simply bought himself a drink from the vending machine and sat on the nearby bench to drink it.

[So he wasn't going to treat me...]

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Katsuya Shinjo, and I'm from Class D, first year. I'm the current president of the Odd Jobs Agency."

"The Odd Jobs Agency! Sorry... I'm Honami Ichinose from Class B. The Odd Jobs Agency you mentioned—is that the one belonging to Horikita-senpai?"

Shinjo nodded. He was more than happy to keep invoking Manabu Horikita's name, so he didn't mind if people thought the club belonged to him.

"Let's get down to business. Since you're from Class B, I assume your classmates are all doing pretty well academically?"

"Um, we're doing okay..."

"I do have the information you heard about, and I can guarantee it's genuine. You might not have much use for it, but it should still be worth something as a precaution, right? No need to haggle. Ten thousand points."

"Huh?!"

Ichinose had expected the two of them to go back and forth like shoppers haggling over vegetables at a market. She hadn't expected him to name a price below what she'd been prepared to pay.

"Shinjo, are you sure you're willing to sell it to me for just ten thousand points?"

"Well, I bought it for my classmates, after all. I was going to spend the points anyway. As long as I can make some of them back, what does ten thousand matter? Besides, you can think of anything extra as my way of making friends with your class."

"If you're being so straightforward, Shinjo, it would be rude of me to keep refusing. All right, we have a deal. And on behalf of my classmates, thank you for your help, Shinjo!"

As she spoke, Ichinose held out her right hand.

The girl's elegant, generous bearing and warm, sunny smile, combined with her angelic face and devilish figure, immediately reminded Shinjo of Kikyo Kushida.

Going by appearances alone, the girl in front of him seemed like the sort who enjoyed helping others.

[Could there really be so many angels in this world who found happiness in making other people happy? That can't be possible, can it?]

Shinjo was lost in thought, so Ichinose tilted her head and gently reminded him:

"Shinjo?"

"Huh? Sorry, sorry. I was just thinking about something else."

As he spoke, Shinjo held out his right hand and shook hers.

"I don't have the answer with me right now. How about you come find me in my class tomorrow? We can make the deal then."

"Sure. It's a promise!"

After waving goodbye to Ichinose, Shinjo felt like he'd just made a huge pile of money.

Come on, ten thousand points might not sound like much, but to him right now, even a mosquito's leg counted as meat.

After all, Class D still had zero Class Points, which meant they couldn't even get a living allowance.

"Tsk! Every day, all I think about is making money or saving money. Is this what being an adult is like? What a pathetic life..."