The Candid Confession

"I don't understand. What exactly are you trying to achieve by doing all this?" Suzune Horikita took a deep breath, then turned around.

"Didn't I already tell you?" Toru Hasegawa replied with a smile. "I want to see how you act after learning the news. That's all."

"I still don't understand. What do you get out of it?"

"Well, maybe I'm just doing it to satisfy myself. Maybe I'm making a mistake, but now that I've made my choice, I have to see it through... I'm sure you can understand how I feel, Suzune, since you don't have any friends."

"..."

Suzune Horikita fell silent, because he was right again.

She really did understand how he felt. She had always been alone.

She had made her choices alone and faced the consequences alone. That was how she had made it this far.

"Now then, what are you going to do next, Suzune, who has no friends?"

"Do you really want me to make friends that badly?"

He kept calling her "Suzune, who has no friends." His words were so blatant that she couldn't help but notice.

"Well, I'm just stating a simple fact. I can put it another way if you'd like." Toru Hasegawa didn't answer her question.

He followed Suzune Horikita to the entrance of the Student Cafeteria. She had stopped there and wasn't moving, so Toru stood with her, playing the role of a sentry.

Under the curious gazes of the students, the person Suzune Horikita was waiting for finally arrived—

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.

Suzune Horikita stopped him at the entrance and dragged him into a secluded corner of the Student Cafeteria without asking.

"What would you like for breakfast?" she asked nonchalantly.

But the whole thing was strange, to say the least. She'd dragged him over to sit in a secluded corner, only to ask what he wanted for breakfast.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka glanced at Toru Hasegawa, who was following Suzune Horikita, then answered, "The Traditional Standard Set Meal is fine."

Suzune Horikita went to get it by herself.

"Ah, nice to see you again, Ayanokoji," Toru Hasegawa said, plopping down beside Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.

"Are you dating Horikita?"

"No, no, that's impossible. You're reading way too much into it, and it's not realistic anyway." Toru Hasegawa immediately denied it. "Speaking of which, we haven't added each other as friends yet. How about we do that now?"

"Huh? Oh."

They exchanged contact information.

Suzune Horikita returned with the food and set the Traditional Standard Set Meal in front of Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. It was an ordinary breakfast that included rice and miso soup.

"W-well, I'm going to eat?"

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka hesitated for a moment, then took a bite of rice under their watchful gazes.

Just then, Suzune Horikita spoke up:

"Ayanokoji, I'd like you to help me."

"Pfft—hahahaha..." Toru Hasegawa couldn't help laughing. When he realized they were both looking at him, he said, "Sorry, sorry. Go on."

Suzune Horikita glared at Toru Hasegawa, then continued speaking to Ayanokoji Kiyotaka:

"Class D can't go on like this. You've seen it for yourself. Our class is full of hopeless students. They've been late, absent, and dozing off in class countless times over the past week."

"But the homeroom teacher and our subject teachers haven't said much about it, have they?" Ayanokoji Kiyotaka remarked casually.

"That's the problem. The school is watching everything we do, and we're the ones who'll suffer for it in the end. That's why I'm asking for your help."

For Suzune Horikita, who had always been alone, asking someone else for help was already a huge step forward, even if she was doing it in such a roundabout way.

Toru Hasegawa nodded to himself.

"Ah, I'm not sure I follow," Ayanokoji Kiyotaka said, trying to play dumb.

Suzune Horikita sighed helplessly and explained in more detail. "The school is evaluating us right now. I think it'll all be reflected in the points we receive next month."

"Oh, I see. Then we're already in a lot of trouble, aren't we?"

"That's why I came to ask for your help. You get along pretty well with Kushida, don't you? If you ask her to help, everything will be fine." Suzune Horikita said.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka tried to dodge the request. "Ah, well... I'd say Kushida and I are just on ordinary terms. And besides... why don't you ask her yourself? Why go through me?"

"Ayanokoji."

"What?"

"You just ate it, didn't you?"

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka stared at the set meal, of which he had eaten only one bite.

He'd suspected as much, but he hadn't expected it to be true.

"It's great to get a free breakfast. They say there's no such thing as a free lunch, but there is such a thing as a free breakfast."

"I could treat you to a meal..."

"Sorry, I haven't fallen that far." Suzune Horikita flatly rejected Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's offer. "Anyway, I'm counting on you."

"Is that a threat?"

"I'm glad you understand."

Suzune Horikita openly admitted that it was, in essence, a threat.

"Fine. I'll pass on what you said to Kushida. Will that do?"

"I'm counting on you."

With that, Suzune Horikita left.

Toru Hasegawa was about to follow her, but Ayanokoji Kiyotaka stopped him. Only after Suzune Horikita had gone some distance did he speak:

"Won't Classmate Sakayanagi get angry if you do this?"

"She doesn't know about it. I acted on my own." Toru Hasegawa sat back down. "Honestly, I didn't expect you to be the first person she asked."

"You could already call that betrayal."

"Then what about you, who clearly suspected something but chose not to say anything?" Toru Hasegawa smiled, as if the word "betrayal" didn't bother him at all. "Besides, saying that makes all the sympathy I just started feeling disappear."

"I'm just the class loner. No one would believe me, even if I said something like that."

"So you can just do what Horikita said and pass it on to Kushida," Toru Hasegawa retorted.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka said nothing and began eating. If he didn't hurry, the food would get cold.

Toru Hasegawa patiently waited for him to finish.

"You really are a strange person."

"Likewise." Toru Hasegawa could barely hold it together, being called strange by someone with zero points to his name. "I just act according to my own ideas."

"Even if that means betraying Class A?"

The topic had circled back to "betrayal."

"About that, I'm just following my heart. If you're too cautious about everything, you'll end up doing nothing."

"Even if you say that, it doesn't change the fact that most people would consider it betrayal." Ayanokoji Kiyotaka continued to press the point.

"Maybe. But I'm the type who comes right out and admits it."

Hearing Toru Hasegawa say that, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka couldn't keep pressing him. He took a long look at Toru Hasegawa.

"Are you sure you're okay with me knowing about this?"

If Toru Hasegawa hadn't followed Suzune Horikita, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka would have had to figure out who was behind all this. But now the person behind it—or rather, Toru Hasegawa—had no intention of hiding. He'd walked right up to him.

"It's fine. Trust is built little by little."

Toru Hasegawa glanced around and spotted a few scattered Class A students. He had no idea whether they'd noticed him.

"I'll thank you for trusting me, then."