About My Desk Mate Being an Angel

Just as An Xiao was doubting his life choices, inside the Chairman's office, Chairman Sakayanagi was watching the computer screen on his desk with great interest. On the screen was the exact moment An Xiao had tricked that upperclassman earlier.

"This year's freshmen are truly one of a kind! I never expected them to fish the rules out like that." Chairman Sakayanagi looked at the report submitted by Chie Hoshinomiya with a wry smile, and at the very top of the list was the name of the boy who had just appeared: An Xiao.

After all, among the freshmen of previous years, even those who had successfully obtained the rules had only done so after several days and at a certain cost. This was the first time Chairman Sakayanagi had seen someone like An Xiao, who obtained the rules simply by using a bit of verbal trickery.

Watching An Xiao in the surveillance footage—who clearly knew nothing yet managed to keep up with every word the third-year student said—the corners of Chairman Sakayanagi's mouth curled into a smile.

"It seems Arisu won't be bored for the next few years. Should I give her a heads-up in advance?"

As he pondered, Chairman Sakayanagi placed the report on the desk, his fingers tapping rhythmically against the wooden surface, creating a series of tap-tap-tap sounds. But he soon stopped, smiling helplessly.

"Better to let that child discover it for herself. If I really did that, she would only end up complaining about me."

Recalling the personality described in An Xiao's report—one that seemed so out of place in this school—Chairman Sakayanagi couldn't help but feel a surge of curiosity and anticipation.

"I truly wonder what kind of changes you might bring to this school!"

The next morning, An Xiao walked into the classroom with a messy bird's nest of hair, yawning, holding a bag of toast in one hand and two glass bottles of soy milk in the other.

As soon as he reached his seat, he skillfully rested his forehead on the desk, clamped a slice of toast in his mouth, and, without forgetting to open the prepared soy milk, began to eat his breakfast with his eyes closed.

"Um, An Xiao-kun..."

"Hm?"

An Xiao lifted his head in confusion, blinked hard, and then looked in the direction of the voice.

He saw the pink-haired girl sitting in front of him had already turned around, a look of hesitation on her face. But before she could speak, her lips were blocked by a sudden warmth.

Seeing the stunned girl in front of him, An Xiao finally snapped back to reality. He awkwardly pulled back the bottle of soy milk that he had shoved right up to Honami Ichinose's mouth and said apologetically, "Sorry about that. I wasn't fully awake yet and thought you were asking me for breakfast."

As An Xiao finished speaking, a strange silence fell between the two of them.

Even though there was still some noisy chatter in the classroom, for some reason, An Xiao felt the silence was terrifyingly heavy.

He looked at the girl in front of him, then at the bottle of soy milk still in his hand, and decided he needed to find a topic.

"Um, would you like to try some?"

An Xiao reached out and offered the bottle of soy milk toward Honami Ichinose again, though this time he aimed it toward her hand, asking tentatively.

"Ah? Sure, thank you."

As if waking from a dream, Honami Ichinose took the bottle of soy milk from An Xiao in a daze. Feeling the warmth radiating from the bottle into her palm, she finally realized what had just happened. She couldn't help but grip the bottle tightly, her voice rising slightly in pitch.

"Um, An Xiao-kun, I actually wanted to ask you about the audio file you sent me yesterday."

"Ah? What audio file? Did I send you an audio file?"

After instinctively asking three questions, An Xiao finally remembered what Honami Ichinose was talking about. He scratched his head and said, "It should be mostly accurate. That upperclassman looked incredibly resentful and regretful when he was talking about these rules; it shouldn't be a lie."

The main thing is, I don't think that guy has the brains or the awareness to pull off a lie like that.

An Xiao muttered to himself internally.

"So it really is like that."

Honami Ichinose lowered her head and whispered, her expression complex.

After all, anyone who expected to just live out a normal three years of high school would be shocked to find out there were so many troubles ahead.

An Xiao took a bite of his toast, looked at the head-bowed Honami Ichinose, and nodded in agreement.

Heaven knows that after he learned this information yesterday, he had only grown angrier the more he thought about it. If the school-issued phones weren't restricted from contacting the outside world, he would have already contacted his unreliable parents to request a transfer.

He sighed in his heart again, his movements as he chewed the toast slowing down.

However, it didn't last long. Honami Ichinose in front of him took a deep breath and readjusted her emotions.

"Adjusted? Accepted reality?" An Xiao teased.

"Yeah, half and half, I suppose..." Honami Ichinose looked at An Xiao and smiled. "Even though that upperclassman said there would be all sorts of troubles in the class later on, I still want to try. At the very least, I hope our Class B can get through these three years properly, without losing a single person."

"Of course, if we can raise the class to Class A, that would be even better, don't you think?"

Honami Ichinose clenched a fist in front of her chest to encourage herself, but after finishing her sentence, she didn't receive a reply from An Xiao for a long time. She looked at him, puzzled.

"Um, did I say something wrong?"

"No, not at all." An Xiao snapped out of his daze, looking at the pink-haired girl in front of him in confusion. It took a while before he finally spoke.

"You were thinking about all that just now?"

I thought you were just as annoyed about the future as I was.

"Yeah, even though that's what the upperclassman said, I still hope our class can be different."

Looking at the girl in front of him with her exceptionally earnest expression, An Xiao swallowed back the complaints he had been about to make. He looked at the girl sitting in front of him with a complex gaze.

"Ichinose-san..."

"Hm? What is it?"

"Are you an angel?"

"Ah?"