Chapter Forty-Nine: The Extra at the Party

Ayanokoji stayed silent the whole time. He neither agreed nor objected, which everyone took as a tacit yes.

When they were deciding where to hold the party, Haruki Yamauchi's eyes darted around, and he immediately suggested:

"Let's go to Ayanokoji's dorm room! There's not much in it, so there's plenty of space, and we won't bother anyone!"

Ayanokoji glanced up at Yamauchi, his expression so calm that no one could read his feelings.

A few seconds later, he gave a slight nod. "That's fine."

Everyone agreed at once.

Then Kikyo Kushida went to the back of the classroom and grabbed Lin Mu, who was sitting there lost in thought.

"Lin Mu~" Kushida's voice was sweet as honey, her hands clasped in front of her chest as she gazed at him with wide, blinking eyes.

"You're always by yourself. You'll never make any friends like that! Why not come to the party?

"We're all classmates. It'll be more fun if we all get together!"

Lin Mu had meant to refuse.

He had never been interested in group activities like this. To him, they felt like empty, boring gatherings with no life in them.

With that time, he'd rather go back to his dorm and play a couple of games.

But Kikyo Kushida had clearly come prepared.

First, she brought out the grand argument that "classmates should spend more time together." Then she played on his feelings, saying, "Sudo just went through something so frightening. Having more people around will liven things up and help him get over it faster."

At last, she even resorted to a plaintive appeal: "I have to prepare snacks for so many people all by myself. It's so much work. Could you come help me, Lin Mu?"

She wore him down, pressing him at every turn.

Lin Mu looked at her eyes, which clearly said, "If you don't agree, I'll keep bothering you."

He glanced at the others in the classroom, all looking his way, and finally sighed and nodded helplessly.

Fine. It wasn't as if he had anything else to do.

But his decision displeased some people.

Ayanokoji and Horikita showed no reaction—the former remained expressionless, while the latter was as frosty as ever.

But Haruki Yamauchi and Kanji Ike's faces darkened at once.

Yamauchi grumbled to himself: This is our study group's party. What's an outsider doing joining in?

He'd been hoping to use the party to get closer to Kushida. Now this pretty boy Kushida had invited was coming along, and he was a huge nuisance!

He stared at Lin Mu's conspicuous white hair and excessively handsome face, and a vague hostility welled up inside him.

Ike didn't say anything, but his reluctance was just as obvious in his eyes.

Kikyo Kushida sensed their feelings and immediately smiled as she smoothed things over. "We're all classmates, so we should make friends together! The more people, the livelier it'll be!"

Out of consideration for Kushida, Yamauchi could only accept it, though he was far from happy. But throughout the party,

he never gave Lin Mu a friendly look. More precisely, he ignored him the whole time, as though Lin Mu were just another piece of furniture in the room.

By then, the party had been going on for a while.

Ken Sudō, Haruki Yamauchi, and Kanji Ike had long since forgotten their embarrassment over running out of points. They were devouring potato chips, chocolate, and cookies.

They'd been living on the cafeteria's bland, free vegetable meals for so long that they'd forgotten what snacks tasted like.

As they ate, the three of them joked around, and the conversation soon turned back to the midterm exams.

"Sudo, you really outdid yourself," Haruki Yamauchi said with a laugh, chewing on a potato chip. His words came out muffled, and there was a hint of schadenfreude in his tone.

"You had the answers and still failed. You nearly scared us to death!"

Kanji Ike chimed in, stuffing a big piece of chocolate wafer into his mouth.

"Exactly! We thought you were safe, but you nearly got expelled. That was so embarrassing!"

Ken Sudō's face reddened, and he retorted indignantly, "Don't get so smug!

"If Kushida hadn't given you the answers, you two wouldn't have done any better! You would've failed too!"

"But at least we passed!" Haruki Yamauchi said smugly, shaking his head. "Unlike you—you were one point short! One point! Hahaha!"

"You—!"

The three of them bickered noisily, their voices growing louder and louder. The room filled with the smell of snacks and the hearty laughter of boys.

Kikyo Kushida watched with a smile, occasionally reminding them, "Take it easy, everyone. There's plenty more," playing the part of the perfect party host.

Lin Mu, meanwhile, was still leaning against the door.

He kept his distance from the lively center of the room, a lollipop in his mouth as he watched coldly.

He neither joined the conversation nor took many snacks, even though Kushida had warmly invited him to help himself several times.

He simply stood there like a spectator who'd wandered onto a set, waiting for the scene to end.

His gaze occasionally swept across the other people in the room.

Ayanokoji was still lost in his own thoughts.

Suzune Horikita had a slight frown on her face. She was clearly uncomfortable with all the noise, but she forced herself to stay.

After handing out snacks to the boys yet again, Kikyo Kushida quietly moved closer to Ayanokoji and Suzune Horikita.

She still wore her sweet smile, but lowered her voice, sounding just curious enough.

"Um... Ayanokoji, Horikita, I'm still curious... How did you manage to persuade Chabashira-sensei?

"She was so firm about it. I really want to know what you said to her..."

Her eyes shone with a clear, pleading request: Tell me.

Kiyotaka Ayanokoji looked up, his gaze calmly passing over Kushida's face before flicking toward Lin Mu, who was standing not far away.

Then, in a flat voice without the slightest fluctuation, he said:

"It was all Horikita's doing."

He gave all the credit to Suzune Horikita.

"If she hadn't argued her case with Chabashira-sensei and left her speechless, Sudo's expulsion couldn't have been overturned."

Kikyo Kushida blinked, only half convinced.

She turned to look at Suzune Horikita, then glanced at Lin Mu, her eyes silently asking him to confirm it.

Lin Mu shrugged, shifting the lollipop to the other side of his mouth. His tone was languid.

"I just happened to be there. I didn't hear anything, so I don't know what happened."

That was a lie. After coming back from the rooftop, he'd received a brief message on his terminal from Ayanokoji and Horikita, asking him to keep quiet about the truth behind the deal to buy one point for 100,000 points.

He hadn't felt like getting involved anyway, so he'd naturally gone along with it.

Suzune Horikita spoke coolly, her tone as distant as ever.

"It was for the good of the class. There's no need to dig into it."

The words sounded perfectly reasonable, but buried every detail beneath a layer of ice.

Ken Sudō, who had been devouring a bag of potato chips, heard this and was instantly overcome with emotion.

He abruptly lifted his head and looked at Suzune Horikita, his eyes reddening again.

"Horikita! Thank you so much! I never thought...

"I never thought you'd argue with the teacher for my sake. I'm... I'm really moved!"

His voice trembled with excitement.