The Windfall

Surely no guy would turn down an opportunity like this, right?

Toru Hasegawa promptly decided to join, slipping into the group chat full of Class D boys.

"I'll go fill out the application to join the Basketball Club."

"See you tomorrow, then."

"See you tomorrow."

Sudo's words marked the start of everyone dispersing again.

Sudo headed alone for the table beneath the sign that read "Basketball Club," while Kamuro Masumi reluctantly went over to the Art Club's table.

That left Toru Hasegawa, Sakayanagi Arisu, Suzune Horikita, and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka standing where they were.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka asked bluntly, "Were you investigating us just now?"

Suzune Horikita immediately shot him a surprised look, not understanding what he meant.

"What, feeling pressured?" Toru Hasegawa neither confirmed nor denied it. "Classmate Sakayanagi has already taken control of Class A, after all."

"That doesn't matter to me... What I really want to ask is, you were watching me during yesterday's entrance ceremony, weren't you? I want to know why."

So he'd noticed? Toru Hasegawa thought Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was unusually perceptive. Perhaps that explained why Sakayanagi Arisu was so interested in him.

"Because you're unusual."

Using a vague statement in place of a straightforward truth or lie could muddy the waters.

As for what it meant exactly... Sorry, you'll have to use your imagination.

"Unusual?"

"Not everyone can keep a blank expression at all times, but you can. That's why I took a few extra looks."

After Toru Hasegawa explained one sense in which Ayanokoji was unusual, Suzune Horikita nodded in agreement.

"That is strange, I suppose. But I'm more interested in your attempt to pry into our class's information just now. Could you explain yourself?"

"Have Ayanokoji explain it to you. Since he was the one who raised the question, he should know the answer himself."

Toru Hasegawa shrugged indifferently, leaving Ayanokoji Kiyotaka to deal with the trouble.

"Forget it. I'll find out for myself." Suzune Horikita gave up on asking Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and turned back to Toru Hasegawa. "Could you come with me for a moment?"

"Oh, sure."

Toru Hasegawa guessed she was unhappy with what he'd just done.

The two left, leaving only Sakayanagi Arisu and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka behind.

"At last, we have another chance to be alone together," Sakayanagi Arisu said.

The First Gymnasium was large, and there was hardly anyone around them, so they had a measure of privacy.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka merely replied, "I agreed to give you one chance. After that, win or lose, you can't keep interfering with my life."

For now, he only wanted to spend these three years as an ordinary high school student.

"Of course."

"Hasegawa... You really didn't tell him about me. That's why I agreed to this."

"After all, I don't want outsiders interfering in a contest that belongs to just the two of us."

Faced with an answer that sounded a little too suggestive, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka said nothing, but he made no move to leave, either.

The two quietly waited for time to pass.

Meanwhile, Toru Hasegawa had been led outside by Suzune Horikita.

"Why did you say that just now?"

"Huh? I said quite a few things. Could you remind me which one?"

"What you said when everyone was quiet." Suzune Horikita pinpointed the issue precisely.

"Oh, that." Toru Hasegawa nodded as if he'd just remembered. "I just didn't want the atmosphere to get so heavy."

"Anything else?"

"No."

Toru Hasegawa had other reasons, of course, but there was no need to explain them to Suzune Horikita.

"By the way, Student Council President Manabu Horikita... He's your older brother, right?"

Taking the opportunity, Toru Hasegawa asked out of the blue.

"That's none of your business," Suzune Horikita replied coldly, complicated emotions showing in her foxlike eyes.

Toru Hasegawa deliberately said, "I see... Well, I'm planning to join the Student Council, so I'll ask the president himself while I'm there."

"You wouldn't dare!" Suzune Horikita glared at Toru Hasegawa like a cat with its fur standing on end.

"What, are you going to stop me?" Toru Hasegawa watched her reaction with an amused smile.

Wasn't she just a little too easy to read?

"Don't tell my brother..."

It was the first time Toru Hasegawa had seen Suzune Horikita act like a little girl. Shamefully, his heart had skipped a beat.

Was this what they meant by contrast?

After pushing aside the feelings he shouldn't be having right now, he continued, "If you beg me, I'll agree? Are you really worth that much?"

He hadn't even done anything, yet somehow he'd gained the upper hand over Suzune Horikita.

Suzune Horikita paused, then pressed her lips together.

That was true. What right did she have to tell him not to do it?

Thinking fast, she considered what she could use to her advantage, and quickly came up with an idea.

"I can give you 50,000 private points."

When everyone had only been allocated 100,000 private points, 50,000 was already a considerable sum.

Suzune Horikita didn't believe he wouldn't be tempted.

But she'd overlooked one thing.

The initiative had never been in her hands.

If Suzune Horikita was willing to pay 50,000 private points over something that hadn't even happened yet, that showed just how much it mattered to her.

Revealing your weakness to someone else was a terrible mistake—and he'd already seized on it.

Toru Hasegawa simply said, "90,000."

Suzune Horikita's eyes slowly widened as she stared straight at Toru Hasegawa.

"What's wrong?" Toru Hasegawa felt a little unnerved by her gaze.

"I thought you were a genuinely nice person." Suzune Horikita sighed softly and resignedly took out her phone. "I never imagined..."

Was that all just an act?

Suzune Horikita's affection score plunged straight from 70 back to its starting point of 40, while 90,000 private points landed in his account.

The value of something depended entirely on how much the people involved cared about it. Clearly, Suzune Horikita's fixation on her brother was practically pathological. She couldn't even tolerate the possibility of something that hadn't happened yet.

Toru Hasegawa had also added his fourth friend at the school. The first three were Sakayanagi Arisu, Sudo, and Ike.

"Pleasure doing business with you."

He hadn't expected to get 90,000 private points so easily. And when he remembered that Suzune Horikita had been the one to call him over, Toru Hasegawa was afraid he'd wake up laughing from his dreams that night.

The most important thing was that their agreement had been entirely verbal!

There hadn't even been a recording!

Toru Hasegawa was absolutely certain of that, because she was far too trusting! She'd opened her phone right in front of him and let him see everything on it.

Still, since there was a transfer record, if he broke his word, the school might classify it as fraud.

Once the transfer was complete, the two returned to where they'd been.