The Actions Each Took

As the midterm exams drew closer, Class D finally began to take action.

After school that day, Hirata asked everyone to stay and stepped up to the front of the classroom.

"Everyone, could I have a moment of your time?"

The students weren't stupid. They could probably guess what Hirata was planning. Even Sudo and his usual troublemaking group of three had stayed behind.

At Hirata's question, they all nodded.

Hirata looked around the classroom. No one was leaving, and everyone seemed willing to hear him out. Delighted, he continued:

"You all know that anyone who fails the midterm exam will be expelled. So I'm planning to start a study group to help students who are struggling with their grades."

"I don't want to see any of us get expelled."

"However, I only have so much time and can't tutor too many classmates at once, so please come sign up if you're interested."

After he finished, Hirata deliberately glanced at Sudo. He was especially worried about him and hoped he would sign up.

"Tch."

Sudo noticed Hirata looking at him, but the more Hirata did that, the more uncomfortable he felt.

It reminded him of middle school, when he'd gotten into fights and teachers had repeatedly called him into the staff room to lecture him.

As soon as Hirata finished speaking, the students responded enthusiastically. It wasn't just those who'd always struggled with their grades; quite a few who were hovering near the passing line came forward too.

After all, they were Class D students. There was no shortage of students with poor grades.

By conventional standards, this seemed like a decent plan, but Mu Tianchen thought it was still a little too inefficient...

When Horikita heard Hirata's speech, she was slightly surprised.

Hirata's idea was just like the one she'd had. She'd spent this time compiling key points from the teachers' lessons and putting together several sets of predicted midterm questions.

Suzune Horikita was an honor student, after all, and she had complete confidence in the material she'd prepared.

She believed that as long as the idiots in Class D followed her instructions, passing wouldn't be a problem.

However, she wasn't good at socializing, so the only idea she'd come up with was to make use of Ayanokoji, the classmate sitting next to her...

As she thought about it, her gaze drifted toward her deskmate.

"Hey, why are you staring at me?"

Ayanokoji felt Horikita's gaze from beside him.

"It's nothing. Are you free at lunchtime? If you are, would you like to have lunch together?"

"Huh? I'm surprised you'd invite me. I can't help feeling there's some kind of scheme behind this."

Ayanokoji felt uneasy about Horikita suddenly inviting him to lunch.

"Hey, what kind of thing is that to say? There's no scheme. I'll even treat you. Maybe something like... a mountain vegetable set meal?"

"Isn't that one of the free meals...?" Ayanokoji was at a loss for words.

"You figured it out that quickly? I was joking. I'll treat you properly. You can have whatever you want."

"I still feel kind of uneasy."

Horikita inviting him to lunch and offering to pay was suspicious enough that Ayanokoji couldn't help wondering if she had an ulterior motive.

"If you're not coming, do you want to find out what this feels like again?"

Seeing that Ayanokoji was still hesitating, Suzune Horikita grew irritated. She pulled the compass she kept in her pocket and pointed its sharp tip at him, as if she'd stab him if he refused.

"Fine, I'll go..."

Ayanokoji felt a chill run down his spine as he looked at the compass pointed at him. It was definitely suspicious, but he'd already experienced what it felt like to be stabbed with that thing and didn't want a repeat. He might as well agree.

Come to think of it, though, why had she pulled it from her pocket instead of her pencil case on the desk?

Could she be carrying it for self-defense?

For a beautiful girl, her sense of personal safety was... pretty good.

Seeing Ayanokoji agree, Horikita put the compass away in her pocket and nodded with satisfaction. Then she turned her attention back to Hirata at the front of the classroom.

By then, several girls had crowded around him, eager to sign up.

It made sense that girls with poor grades, like Karuizawa Kei and Satsuki Shinohara, would sign up. But why had someone as brilliant as Wang Meiyu joined them?

It seemed she wasn't just there for tutoring. There had to be another reason.

Besides, Hirata had seemed to be spending a lot of time with Karuizawa Kei lately. They were probably dating, weren't they?

Was Wang Meiyu trying to steal him away? Looks like I've stumbled across some juicy classroom gossip without even realizing it.

Wait, what am I thinking? Damn it.

Suzune Horikita finally came to her senses and smacked herself hard on the head. How had she let such vulgar, pointless matters distract her? She could have memorized several more vocabulary words in that time...

"What are you doing?"

Ayanokoji had seen what Horikita had just done and asked in mild confusion.

Hitting herself? He'd never seen anyone do that before.

"Nothing. If you dare tell anyone what you just saw, you'll regret it," Horikita warned him sternly.

"I understand..."

Horikita glanced around again. Sudo, Ike, and that idiot Yamauchi were still sitting in their seats, not moving an inch.

They had no intention of going to Hirata to sign up for the study group.

They were stupid enough already, and now they weren't even willing to work hard. Did they plan to just wait until the school expelled them?

In the Island Nation, the consequences of being expelled by a school could be very serious.

"Did they commit some grave offense at school? Were they students the school had cast aside?..." That was how most people viewed those who had been expelled.

Once that label was attached to them, it would have a very negative effect on their future careers and lives.

At that point, no one would even bother asking why the school had expelled them.

Sighing at the thought, Suzune Horikita wondered how someone as capable as herself had ended up in the same class as this bunch of idiots.

If she didn't want to get into Class A, she wouldn't bother with them. Fine, she'd invite those few to her study group...

She'd leave the inviting to Ayanokoji...

A while later, Hirata's study group had finished taking sign-ups. Mu Tianchen noticed that Sudo and the other two weren't among the members.

As expected, they couldn't manage it on their own...

Horikita would definitely take action, but he didn't think her approach would be any better than Hirata's.

At most, she'd pick up a few stragglers who hadn't joined the study group.

And even if she did get them to join, Horikita's personality meant she probably wouldn't be able to manage them properly, let alone get their grades above the passing line before the midterm exams.

As for Ayanokoji, just as Teacher Chazhu had said, he was unpredictable.

Mu Tianchen couldn't think of any reason he'd take the initiative. So far, he didn't seem interested in the competition between classes.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have deliberately scored only an average mark...

He'd better take action himself. He should be able to make a big score with Teacher Chazhu...