Got Played, Huh

"You don't really want to help them, do you?"

"Sorry. I don't understand what you mean." Kushida lowered her head, then soon lifted it again, as if she had regained her composure. "Let's leave it at that for today. See you tomorrow."

After saying this, Kushida picked up her bag and quickly left the library.

Only Horikita and Ayanokoji remained in the library.

"Ayanokoji, it seems you're the only one who's relatively normal. If you want to improve your grades too, I could make an exception and tutor you individually."

"I don't need that. I'm going back too."

"What do you mean?"

"I want to go talk with Sudo and the others for a while. We are friends, after all."

"I really don't understand what you could possibly have to talk about with people who are about to be expelled." As she spoke, Horikita's gaze suddenly turned sharp.

"Speaking of which, you call them your friends, but you've done nothing while they're facing expulsion. I don't quite understand you."

Ayanokoji didn't respond to Horikita's words. He picked up his things and left the library...

Three hours had passed since he sent Kushida a message, but the chat still showed it as unread.

There was still some time before the dormitory doors closed, so Mu Tianchen decided to return the books he'd borrowed from the library earlier and headed there.

There were still plenty of students at Kodo Ikusei at night. Most of them were doing club activities outdoors.

Mu Tianchen deliberately avoided the crowded areas and walked along a quieter path.

As he neared the library, Mu Tianchen saw someone who looked like Kushida coming out.

The figure that resembled Kushida didn't look back, but hurried toward the school building at a jog.

The person was wearing a first-year girl's uniform and had short brown hair. Although he hadn't seen her face, it was very likely that she was Kushida.

Mu Tianchen had something he wanted to ask her, so he jogged after her.

As expected, she was heading for the school building. But by the time Mu Tianchen caught up, he couldn't see her anywhere on the first floor.

She had probably gone upstairs, he thought. Sure enough, faint footsteps came from the stairs.

As far as Mu Tianchen could remember, there shouldn't be anyone in the school building at this hour. What was she doing here?

Still, since he'd followed her this far, he might as well see where she was going.

With that thought, Mu Tianchen went up to the second floor. But the footsteps continued upward, so he followed until they finally stopped at the top floor.

The top floor led to the Rooftop, a quiet place where it was hard to be disturbed. Could she be planning to meet someone in secret?

Thinking this, Mu Tianchen softened his steps and stopped outside the Rooftop door.

Mu Tianchen carefully peeked in and got a clear look at her profile. It was Kushida, no doubt about it, and there was no one else around.

Kushida set her bag on the ground. Mu Tianchen thought she was about to turn around, so he stepped back.

He was still curious about why she'd come here. Besides, if he simply walked out now, Kushida would inevitably think he'd been following her.

Which, of course, was exactly what he'd been doing.

Bang!

"Damn it!"

A kick against the railing and Kushida's curse came from the other side of the door.

It was completely different from the image she projected in class. Mu Tianchen had suspected for a while that she was putting on an act, but seeing it for himself still came as a surprise.

If he recorded this, it might come in handy...

Bang! Bang!

"Just because she gets good grades, she thinks she can act all high and mighty. It's ridiculous for someone like that to hold a study group."

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Why doesn't that bitch Horikita just die?!"

So she was cursing Horikita. From what she'd said, it seemed they'd had some kind of conflict during the study group.

Given Horikita's personality... she really wasn't suited to dealing with people.

No wonder Teacher Chazhu didn't approve of her...

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Kushida kicked the railing a few more times. Apparently, she'd vented enough, because she started turning around and heading for the door.

Mu Tianchen heard her footsteps and naturally stepped back.

But once Kushida stopped kicking the railing, the area fell quiet, and she picked up the sound of his footsteps.

"Who's there?!"

Kushida stopped in her tracks and warily watched the door.

Since she'd spotted him, there was no point hiding anymore.

Mu Tianchen slowly walked in, and their eyes met at once.

"Why are you here?!"

When Kushida saw that an unexpected person had entered, she spoke first, her voice frighteningly low.

"I went to return some books to the library. I happened to see you come here, so I followed you. I also wanted to talk to you."

As he spoke, Mu Tianchen held up the book in his hand and showed her the chat on his phone, where his message to Kushida was still marked unread.

"Quite a coincidence. But you saw everything that just happened, didn't you?"

"Would you believe me if I said I didn't?"

"Fair enough..."

Kushida quickly walked over and looked at him with a dark expression.

"If you tell anyone what just happened, I won't let you get away with it."

Her words were an obvious threat. She probably thought Mu Tianchen was an honest, easygoing guy.

After all, when he'd asked for Takagahara's contact information, all it took was a little acting cute for him to do as she asked.

If she threatened him like this, she figured he'd be lucky not to wet himself.

"What would happen if I told someone?"

"Then I'll tell everyone you almost raped me here."

Kushida was a little surprised that Mu Tianchen had challenged her. But since he'd asked, she might as well make the threat even worse.

From what she'd observed, he didn't have many friends. If she ruined his reputation too, he'd probably be shunned until he dropped out on his own.

"Oh? Wouldn't that be slander?"

"That wouldn't be slander." Kushida walked up to Mu Tianchen. "I'll make it the truth right now."

Then Kushida suddenly reached out, seemingly intending to drag his arm over to her.

But an awkward thing happened: no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't pull him.

"What's going on?"

Kushida couldn't help but freeze. She thought she was pretty athletic, and surely she should at least have been able to pull his arm.

It could only mean that Mu Tianchen was much stronger than she'd expected.

Seeing Kushida hesitate, Mu Tianchen slowly took the voice recorder he'd prepared earlier out of his pocket.

He'd bought it specifically from a store after noticing something strange about the school. He brought it with him almost every time he went out or visited the library.

After seeing Kushida's other side from the doorway, he'd immediately turned on the recorder and captured all of her curses.

When Kushida saw the recorder, she considered snatching it and destroying it outright. But she didn't have the strength, so she could only grit her teeth and say,

"Damn it! You played me!"