Each Goes Their Own Way

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

After school that day, Hirata stopped everyone and voluntarily stepped up to the podium.

"Everyone, could I have a moment to say a few words?"

The students in the class weren't fools; they could probably guess Hirata's purpose. Even the usually rowdy Sudo trio stayed behind.

When Hirata asked, they all nodded lightly.

Hirata scanned the classroom. Seeing that no one had left and that they were willing to listen, he felt pleased and continued:

"As I'm sure you're all aware, failing this midterm exam means expulsion. 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 one of us get expelled."

"However, my energy is limited, and I can't tutor too many people at once. Please actively come forward and sign up with me."

After saying this, Hirata deliberately glanced at Sudo. He was quite worried about Sudo and really hoped he would sign up.

"Tch."

Sudo felt Hirata's gaze on him, but the more Hirata acted like that, the more uncomfortable it made him.

It reminded him too much of junior high, when he'd been called to the teacher's office repeatedly for lecturing after getting into fights.

As soon as the words were out, they received an enthusiastic response from everyone—not just the students who always had poor grades, but also plenty of those hovering near the passing line.

After all, this was Class D; there were quite a few students with weaker academics.

By conventional logic, this method wasn't bad, but Mu Tianchen felt it was still a bit too inefficient...

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

Hirata's idea aligned with what she'd been thinking. Over this period, she had compiled a large amount of key points from the teachers' usual lectures and also put together several sets of practice questions for the midterms.

Suzune Horikita was on the level of a top student, so she was naturally very confident in the study materials she'd organized.

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

However, she wasn't good at socializing, so her only thought was to use that Ayanokouji guy sitting next to her...

Thinking this, her gaze unconsciously drifted to her deskmate beside her.

"Hey, why are you staring at me?"

Ayanokouji felt Horikita's gaze shooting over from next to him.

"Nothing. Are you free at noon? If so, want to grab lunch together?"

"Huh? Getting an invitation from you is pretty surprising. I feel like there's some kind of scheme behind it."

Ayanokouji felt uneasy about suddenly being invited to lunch by Horikita.

"Hey, what are you talking about? What scheme? I'll even treat you. Like, say... the mountain vegetable set meal?"

"Isn't that the free meal set...?" Ayanokouji was a bit speechless.

"Caught me that fast? That was a joke. I'll properly treat you. You can eat whatever you want."

"I still feel kind of uneasy."

The fact that Horikita was voluntarily inviting him to a meal was suspicious enough on its own, making Ayanokouji wonder if there was some ulterior motive.

"If you don't come, do you want to try the taste of this again?"

Seeing Ayanokouji still hesitating, Suzune Horikita got a little angry. She pulled out the compass she kept in her pocket and pointed its sharp tip at Ayanokouji, as if threatening him if he didn't go.

"Fine, I'll go..."

Ayanokouji felt a chill run down his spine looking at the compass aimed at him. Though it was indeed suspicious, he'd already experienced the taste of being stabbed by that thing before and didn't want a repeat, so he agreed.

But come to think of it, why did she pull it out of her pocket instead of from the pencil case on her desk?

Was she carrying it for self-defense?

As a pretty girl, her safety awareness was... pretty good, he supposed.

Seeing Ayanokouji agree, Horikita put the compass back in her pocket, nodded in satisfaction, and continued watching Hirata at the podium.

By now, several girls had already crowded around, eagerly signing up.

But it made sense for girls with poor grades like Karuizawa Kei and Satsuki Shinohara to sign up. So why was even a super honor student like Wang Meiyu also crowding in to register?

It seemed it wasn't just about tutoring—there were other reasons involved.

Lately, Hirata seemed to be getting pretty close to Karuizawa Kei. Were they in a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship?

Was Wang Meiyu trying to steal him away? It looked like she'd accidentally stumbled upon some big class gossip.

'No, what am I thinking about? Damn it.'

Horikita finally snapped out of it and slapped her own head hard. How had she let herself get distracted by such vulgar, boring things? She could have memorized a few more vocabulary words in that time...

"What are you doing?"

Ayanokouji witnessed Horikita's recent action from beside her and asked, slightly puzzled.

Hitting herself? He'd never seen that before.

"Nothing. If you dare tell anyone what you just saw, I won't be nice to you." Horikita threatened fiercely.

"I understand..."

Horikita glanced around again, spotting Sudo, Ike, and Yamauchi—that trio of idiots—still sitting motionless in their seats.

They showed no intention of heading over to Hirata to sign up for the study session.

They were dumb enough already, yet they didn't even bother to try. Were they just waiting to get expelled?

In the Island Nation, the consequences of being forcibly expelled from school were severe.

"Committed a particularly major mistake at school? A student abandoned by the school?"... That was how the world's eyes mostly viewed those who were expelled.

Once that brand was stamped on them, it would cast a very unfavorable shadow over their future work and life.

At times like this, no one bothered to ask why they'd been forcibly expelled in the first place.

Sigh, thinking about it, Suzune Horikita let out a sigh. How did someone as outstanding as her end up in a class with a bunch of idiots like these?

If it weren't for wanting to get into Class A, she wouldn't bother with them at all. Fine, she'd just invite them to her study session...

As for the inviting part, she'd leave that to Ayanokouji...

After a while longer, Hirata's study group members had already been selected. Mu Tianchen noticed that Sudo and his trio weren't among Hirata's group members.

Sure enough, relying on themselves alone just wouldn't cut it...

Horikita would definitely take action—that was certain—but he didn't think her methods would be any better than Hirata's.

At best, she'd just scoop up a few stragglers who hadn't joined the study session.

And even if she did scoop them up, given Horikita's personality, she probably couldn't discipline them properly, let alone raise them above the passing line before the midterms.

As for Ayanokouji, just like Teacher Chazhu said, he was uncontrollable.

Mu Tianchen couldn't figure out a reason he'd take the initiative either. From the looks of it now, he seemed uninterested in class competition.

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

He might as well act on his own. He should be able to score big with Teacher Chazhu...