Following?

As expected, the room felt cramped. They had ended up in Kiyotaka Kiyotaka's dorm room, where three guys had already claimed their spots.

One was sprawled on Kiyotaka's bed, making himself right at home. Another sat beside the bed, and the third sat across from them.

Suzune Horikita sat in the only chair in the room, while Kikyo Kushida stood off to the side.

Counting carefully, there were three guys and two girls—five people already. Add Beihai and the faceless guy beside him, and that made seven. With seven people packed into a tiny dorm room, it was bound to feel cramped.

Beihai could clearly feel everyone's eyes turn toward him as soon as he walked in.

Kikyo Kushida was the first to make a move. A smile graced her face, which had a naturally innocent look to it.

"Oh my, Beihai, you came to celebrate with us too."

The others didn't greet him. Even Suzune Horikita only looked up at Beihai before returning her gaze to her book, as if she didn't care about the atmosphere in the room.

Beihai's expression showed a hint of surprise, then he suddenly looked a little embarrassed.

"Kushida, you remember me?"

Kiyotaka Kiyotaka watched Beihai, his eyes practically shining. If he hadn't known better, even he would have fallen for it.

Clearly, he still had a lot to learn about this sort of thing. Inviting Beihai had been a perfectly good move—he'd say they'd come out ahead.

Kikyo Kushida's expression turned to surprise too. She covered her mouth with her right hand, hiding her astonished expression while maintaining her ladylike composure. She looked incredibly cute.

"Mm~ Beihai, that's a little harsh, isn't it?"

Beihai didn't answer right away, because someone else was in more of a hurry to speak up and show off.

Beihai couldn't help grumbling inwardly. Why does hanging out with these guys feel as exhausting as being at a drinking party?

"Hey! Kushida remembers everyone in the class. Are you trying to get attention on purpose? That pickup line is so lame."

Haruki Yamauchi spoke up without holding back. After all, he and Beihai already had some bad blood between them.

At the end of the day, Beihai was just a bookworm. Yamauchi couldn't understand why he'd been so bold as to step forward back then, or how he'd ended up falling on top of a bookworm. It was humiliating.

If Yamauchi couldn't beat him and Hirata hadn't talked him down, he wouldn't have let it go.

Beihai immediately responded to him. "No, it's just that I was surprised. Someone as ordinary as me often gets overlooked in class."

"Huh? Don't get the wrong idea about Kushida. She's an angel. She's nice to everyone, so don't get any funny ideas."

Haruki Yamauchi looked so anxious, as if he were terrified Beihai might get the wrong idea.

Seeing that things had reached the right point, Kikyo Kushida hurried to smooth things over.

"All right, all right. Let's not fall out. And Beihai, you're not as ordinary as you think. Everyone actually pays attention to you."

That was what Kikyo Kushida said, but her little schemes were already taking flight. No one knew what she was thinking.

Suzune Horikita appeared to be reading, but she was actually paying attention to Beihai's words. The more she listened, the more absurd they seemed. Beihai having talent? He must have a screw loose. His head might as well have a spike on top.

At a time like this, Ken Sudō grabbed a handful of snacks from the floor and stuffed them into his mouth. "Beihai, you're the type who studies all the time. Are you really celebrating this?"

Before Yamauchi could make fun of him, Kikyo Kushida stepped in to defend him.

"You can't put it like that. Beihai's results this time were plain for everyone to see. Maybe the test just happened to have some questions that suited him."

Kikyo Kushida said it in a soft, gentle tone. Naturally, no one continued teasing Beihai about it.

The only thing she gained was Beihai's slightly teary-eyed gaze.

He's so easy to handle, Kikyo Kushida thought.

She'd made a good impression on him at their first meeting. She'd thought he was a gloomy loner, but now it seemed she could easily make him see her as his ideal girl.

If she told Beihai to jump from the second floor, he'd probably agree without hesitation.

Then she could just ask about his secret, and he'd tell her everything.

With the discussion about the tests at an end, they naturally moved on to the subject of how they'd avoided expulsion. Nobody knew what Kiyotaka Kiyotaka had done.

Faced with the question, Kiyotaka Kiyotaka put what he'd learned into practice.

"It wasn't me. I went to the bathroom that day. Suzune Horikita was the one who suggested using points to buy back the points we'd lost."

The excuse was crude, but everyone there believed it.

If Tsukishiro and L had been there, even the slightest suspicion would have made them keep a close eye on him.

Suzune Horikita was caught off guard by his words. She hadn't expected him to give her the credit.

There was no point thinking about it, though. She wasn't the sort of person who would bother explaining.

She didn't understand why he'd done it, but she couldn't exactly deny that he'd asked her to. So she simply admitted to it.

The three guys' thanks and attention turned to Black Long Hair. Apart from Kikyo Kushida's smile becoming a little stiff, nothing seemed out of place.

Beihai quietly found a corner and sat down. Just sitting there in silence wouldn't do, so Kiyotaka Kiyotaka took out some notes he'd made in class.

After that, all they had to do was wait for the celebration to end, then clean up the mess everyone left behind.

Kikyo Kushida was the last to leave the dorm room. Beihai and Kiyotaka Kiyotaka said nothing. They picked up the trash and headed to the elevator, only to find it going down.

Kiyotaka Kiyotaka was a little surprised, and a little curious.

"I think the girls' dorm is upstairs."

Beihai didn't care about that. All he knew was that the elevator wasn't available, so they'd have to take the stairs.

Going down two floors wasn't much slower than taking the elevator. As soon as they stepped out of the dorm, they saw Kikyo Kushida heading toward the woods.

Beihai saw that Kiyotaka Kiyotaka seemed to want to follow her and take a look, so he immediately turned away to give him some space. He thought Kiyotaka would leave, but instead, he pulled Beihai along.

"Want to go see what she's up to?"

"What's there to see? It'll probably just be more trouble. Unless you can offer me a satisfactory reward—say, a month's worth of study points."

Whether it was reference materials or practice tests, they all cost points. A single set of Huanggang practice tests cost several thousand points.

And given how Class D was, they naturally had to make extra preparations wherever they could. Better to save points when possible.

Compared to paying him a month's worth of study points, all he had to do now was secretly follow a girl.