The next day, Suzune Horikita got up early as usual. At seven o'clock, she called Sae Chabashira, the homeroom teacher for Class D, on her phone, right on schedule.
She had only two contacts saved in her phone, and Chabashira was one of them.
"Yaaawn... What happened? Why are you calling me so early, Horikita?" Sae Chabashira yawned on the other end of the line. She sounded exhausted.
Suzune didn't seem to mind. She got straight to the point. "There's something I'd like to ask you, sensei."
"If that's all, I'm hanging up."
"It's about class assignments."
"...Come to the teachers' office. Wait for me there."
Chabashira instantly woke up. She got out of bed and started getting dressed as she spoke.
She couldn't quite understand what she'd just heard.
Suzune Horikita, asking about this? Why?
Had Ayanokoji Kiyotaka told her something?
They'd only been together for a week, but Chabashira thought she'd gotten a decent feel for her students.
Ayanokoji didn't seem like the type to take the initiative, but if that was the case, there was no other way to explain this call.
Feeling uneasy and conflicted, Chabashira hurried to the teachers' office after a quick wash. She didn't even have time for breakfast.
Meanwhile, after ending the call, Suzune took a deep breath and prepared to head to the teachers' office.
"Hey! It's a rare Sunday. Where are you off to so early?"
But the boy who was in touch with her older brother greeted her with a cheerful smile at the entrance to the dormitory, as if he'd been waiting there for her.
"How did you know I was planning to go now?" Suzune asked coldly.
Toru Hasegawa smiled back. "As the one who provided you with the information, it's only natural that I'd keep an eye on your progress, isn't it?"
Honestly, even he was a little surprised. The teaching building opened at 7:15, yet Suzune had been ready to set out at seven, despite it being a rare day off...
Her actions had been so straightforward so far that it was easy to predict what she might do. But that didn't mean Toru could simply ignore her.
Taking action was what mattered most.
He hadn't stopped keeping an eye on Suzune's movements until nine the previous night.
"..." Suzune didn't answer. She simply walked outside.
Toru was more than happy to tag along, following close behind her.
Before long, the two of them reached the teaching building, which had just opened. Suzune went straight to the teachers' office, but the door was shut.
So Chabashira-sensei hadn't arrived yet?
Suzune wondered silently.
"Hey, you're not planning to ask your homeroom teacher to confirm your class assignment, are you?" Toru had figured it out. She hadn't tried to make friends; instead, she'd gone straight to her homeroom teacher. Her intentions were obvious.
"It's none of your business," Suzune replied coldly.
Then she said nothing more.
Toru realized Suzune was even more stubborn than he'd imagined, so he kept quiet, too.
Chabashira arrived soon after. When she saw Toru, she was momentarily surprised, since there was no one by that name in Class D.
"Hello, I'm Toru Hasegawa from Class A. I suppose you could say I'm Suzune Horikita's friend." He introduced himself politely before Chabashira could say anything.
Everything about the situation was far beyond what Chabashira had expected. She glanced at Toru, who wore a confident smile, then at Suzune, who made no move to contradict him. She opened the teachers' office door and said:
"Come in, Horikita."
Suzune stepped inside.
"Can I come in too, Suzune?" Toru asked before Chabashira could close the door.
"Of course. Since you followed me all the way here, you might as well come in."
It seemed she wanted him to act as a witness. How should he put it? Was that progress, or not...?
Either way, it was a good thing for him.
With Chabashira watching him quizzically, Toru entered the teachers' office.
Afterward, the hallway fell silent.
"I'll get straight to the point. I'm dissatisfied with the school assigning me to Class D without my consent. Something must have gone wrong."
See? This was exactly how it would go. Toru shrugged.
"I don't understand what you mean. What difference does it make which class you're in?"
"Are you still pretending not to understand? I'm asking why I'm not in Class A." Suzune stated her position with absolute certainty. "I'm confident I solved nearly all the questions on the entrance exam, and I didn't make any major mistakes in the interview. At the very least, based on the results, my placement in Class D must be a mistake."
At that, Chabashira first glanced at Toru, who had barely reacted, then looked at Suzune. "I see. You really did something unnecessary, didn't you?"
She understood the situation completely.
"Please answer me, sensei." There was no change in Suzune's tone.
"I'm afraid the school's class assignments are accurate. That much is certain."
Chabashira's answer was ambiguous, but Suzune's expression made it clear she wasn't convinced.
Toru knew that the teachers, like the older students, had troubles they couldn't talk about, so he spoke up directly:
"Did you think that excellent academic ability alone would get you into a higher-ranked class? That doesn't align with the school's goals."
Chabashira hadn't expected a student from Class A to explain things of his own accord.
"Put everyone with high academic ability in Class A? I'm afraid that's not how it works. There are plenty of people in Class A who are poor students or have questionable athletic ability."
Suzune was so stunned she couldn't even get a rebuttal out. They'd taken physical ability into account, too?
"Why don't you skip the homeroom teacher and take your complaints to the school administration?"
Suzune, who'd just made a fool of herself, shot Toru a resentful look.
Toru followed her out of the teachers' office.
"How long are you going to keep following me?" Suzune stopped walking.
Toru looked helpless. "I just wanted to see what else you'd do, Suzune, since you don't have any friends... Ah, sorry, I just got a message."
As he spoke, he took out his phone. Suzune wasn't interested in the slightest and was about to leave.
"Wow, what a coincidence. I was going to wait until next month, when it was announced officially, but there's no harm in telling you now~ I've joined the Student Council."
It would probably have been hard for Suzune, who had no friends, to naturally find out that Toru had joined the Student Council. Since the timing was so convenient, he decided to just tell her.
Sure enough, the moment she heard the words Student Council, Suzune stopped.
Her older brother, Manabu Horikita, was the student council president.
"So, what do you think? Want to join too? There's still time. You could get to spend time with your brother up close. That should be pretty appealing to you, right?"
Toru teased her. Whenever anything related to Manabu came up, Suzune reacted so obviously that she was incredibly easy to read.
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