Cliques

Honami Ichinose could only sit in her chair and watch Beihai's back as he walked farther and farther away. At last, her body slumped forward onto the coffee table, and she fiddled with her Terminal.

When she'd received the message, she hadn't imagined the outcome would be like this. There were so many things she'd wanted to say. So was this a good thing or a bad thing?

For her class, it was undoubtedly a good thing. But for her personally, it was a very bad thing. Still, both sides had clearly agreed that this was a transaction.

But if she thought about it, whether he sold them information or helped them, as long as he wasn't in her class, he wouldn't be able to stay in his own class at all.

Most importantly, he was strong. While everyone else was still clueless, he'd gotten his hands on the information right away. Whatever the circumstances, he'd gotten it. Doing that before anyone else knew what was going on—that was real ability!

As she thought about it, she wondered if he was saving up points, planning to go it alone or transfer classes. But she quickly dismissed the idea. There was no way that made sense.

That would be far too slow. Besides, he'd already told her the most important things she could do with the information: trade it with another class, or contact the school directly. The rewards and transaction points she could get would definitely be far more than a mere 50,000 points.

So Honami Ichinose was now in an unusually complicated mood.

Beihai, on the other hand, wasn't thinking nearly as much. After their conversation, he'd realized that this girl was not only lacking in boundaries, but also very kind.

Of course, the most important thing was Mind Sharing. When he opened his workbook, problems he'd never understood before—and had needed a long time to solve—suddenly seemed crystal clear, even easy.

It was a novel feeling, and Beihai even wondered if he'd ever really been human. Why had he been unable to solve such simple problems before?

With this buff, Beihai kept at it until the middle of the night, furiously stabbing his pen at those provocative assignments. The key difference was that, unlike before, the more he wrote, the less tired he felt. He didn't feel as if he were about to drop dead.

This time, he was full of energy, as if his whole being had been elevated. It was like clearing stages in a game. Every problem he finished gave Beihai a real sense of accomplishment.

It was as if those troublesome assignments had only been pretending to be work, mocking Beihai for being useless. This time, they'd put on their formal clothes and acted respectable, but behind the scenes, they'd been completely conquered by him. Who knew how many tally marks he'd drawn on the pages, or how many pen refills he'd used up! The thrill came from the contrast!

The next day, Beihai woke up in his dorm bed and instinctively sat up, wanting to rub his aching head. But he suddenly realized that now his brain was sharper, even that dull ache was gone.

He let out a soft breath. He'd never felt so refreshed. This Mind Sharing value had been worth every point!

He got up and took one step. With a rustle, he stepped on his workbook. Beihai quickly bent down, picked it up, and dusted it off. Then he looked around. Workbooks and textbooks were scattered all over his bed, and the floor hadn't escaped either. The place was a complete mess.

Beihai now had two choices. First, hurry to class and clean up his dorm afterward, since class was about to start. Second, tidy up first and then go to class.

Beihai hesitated for two seconds, then opened the door—just like a heartless man who got up and left right after sleeping with someone, without a word of comfort or even preparing breakfast.

Class D's classroom was still somewhat noisy, even though class was about to start. They really were pretty bad.

After taking his seat, Beihai greeted the person beside him like an ordinary student, fitting into the little cliques one by one before doing the classic thing: reading the room.

Without drawing attention to himself, Beihai flipped through his workbook, filled in an answer to one of the problems, then looked at the girl sitting beside him.

"Sakura, there's a problem I'm having trouble with. Could you take a look?"

Beihai's deskmate, Airisu Sakura, was a quiet, shy girl with long, bright red hair. Her thick hair was tied into twin tails.

She also wore red-framed glasses, which made her look a little dowdy. But Beihai could tell that it was a disguise.

After all, he knew a thing or two about disguises—and Beihai had something to hide himself.

When Airisu Sakura heard Beihai call out to her from beside her, her body trembled involuntarily. She quickly lowered her head, but still reached out and pulled the sheet of scratch paper in front of her.

Looking at the problem on the paper, Airisu Sakura couldn't think about how to solve it at all. Her mind had already turned to mush.

When she couldn't think of an answer, she started wondering: if she couldn't solve it, would he be disappointed? Would he get mad at her? Or would he think less of her? No matter how she looked at it, nothing good could come of this.

"Um, this problem, I, I..."

Beihai calmly looked at her. He didn't need to learn any more to understand what was going on.

He reached out to take back the paper, pinching it and pulling. He nearly couldn't get it free. She was so tense that she had a death grip on the paper, crumpling it in her hands.

Seeing this, Airisu Sakura hurriedly tried to explain, her hands unconsciously rising to her chest.

"No, I'm sorry, I..."

But before she could finish, Beihai's face had already turned an unnatural shade of red. He deliberately made himself react that way.

"It's okay, I understand. Actually, Sakura, I just wanted to be friends with you, but I didn't know how to say hello. So I'm the one who should apologize."

Beihai spoke as if it had taken tremendous courage. Then he immediately turned back and lowered his head to look at the problem on his scratch paper.

Airisu Sakura was stunned by this. Beihai had beaten her to it.

"Mm..."

Airisu Sakura couldn't help making a little sound, then imitated Beihai by lowering her head and looking at her desk. But her heart was in turmoil.

If someone else had introduced himself to her in a loud, carefree way, Airisu Sakura definitely wouldn't have been able to handle it. She might even have turned into an ostrich and been unable to say a single word. But a kind, slightly introverted young virgin was a foolproof formula and character archetype.

Beihai had done this because the social groups in the class had already taken shape, and the class had quickly split into cliques.

There was the gyaru clique led by Kei Karuizawa, a pretty girl with blonde hair tied in a single ponytail. Beihai definitely couldn't fit in with them. They were all girls, and even if he did somehow join, the other boys in class would be hostile toward him. That would bring all sorts of trouble.

Then there were Jiahao, Yamauchi, and a few others in class who were a bit eccentric. Beihai didn't want to join them either. The things they talked about were too likely to make people look down on him.

To put it simply, they talked about girls' private parts in broad daylight.

And if he really joined them, he'd easily get associated with those guys. Then, if he wanted to study, they'd see it as a betrayal. The only thing that surprised Beihai was that there was one guy who looked like an obvious NPC, yet had forced his way into their conversation. He sounded completely robotic while discussing those topics.

Yosuke Hirata was different from the other cliques. He was the kind, considerate boy in class, and he was good at caring about other people's feelings. There were lots of people gathered around him. Even if you didn't approach him first,

he'd come talk to you. He'd also been the one to start the class introductions. If nothing unexpected happened, he'd be the most popular student in class.

There was also a girl with a similar personality who was just as popular. Being female gave her a natural advantage: Kikyo Kushida.

Beihai naturally needed to find a group too, but he also couldn't make too many friends or too many enemies, lest that interfere with his studies.

It was like that saying: if you're too strong, people will fear you; if you're too weak, they'll bully you. You had to be ordinary like everyone else so that everyone could live happily together.

Beihai had to find his own little group too. Otherwise, he could easily be isolated and ostracized, which would prompt the others to gossip about him and eventually lead to bullying. Being a loner would draw attention and waste time he didn't need to lose.

Beihai waved and greeted Airisu Sakura beside him with a shy smile, using the all-purpose kind-boy formula.

Beihai's deskmate, Airisu Sakura, lowered her head and shrank into her safe zone like a mole caught in the light.

She was afraid, but also embarrassed. After all, she'd already interacted with Beihai once, when he'd handed her a problem. She'd been so nervous that she'd stumbled over her words and failed to say anything at all. How could she not feel awkward?

Airisu Sakura finally worked up the courage to peek at Beihai. Their eyes met, and she saw him smiling and nodding at her. At that, Airisu Sakura instinctively greeted him too.

When she came to her senses and looked around, she realized no one seemed to have noticed.

That was right. She was so ordinary that no one would recognize who she was. Her deskmate seemed just as ordinary as she was. She felt a lot more relaxed all of a sudden.

She even had the courage to encourage herself now. For someone shy who had disguised herself, her thoughts were beginning to grow lively.

Beihai was so nice, and he didn't draw much attention either. Maybe she could start with him.

She mustered all her courage and told herself that again and again, cheering herself on. That's right—take the first step! Talk to someone! Even if she failed, no one would notice.

"H-hello, B-Beihai. I'm glad to m-meet you. Please take care of me from now on!"

She'd blurted it out in one go, and her voice hadn't even been very loud. But in Airisu Sakura's mind, it felt as if the whole class had heard her!

What was she even saying? She was supposed to say that she was glad to meet him, but she hadn't introduced herself, had she? Or maybe she had? Had she? Her thoughts were a complete mess, and she couldn't make sense of anything. She felt utterly mortified, with nowhere to hide.

She quickly looked around. Fortunately, not many people were paying attention. And Beihai hadn't made things awkward between them in response to her greeting. Instead, he replied with complete ease.

"Mm, I'm glad to meet you too. Please take care of me for the next three years."

Beihai knew exactly how to handle this. His deskmate was like a cat that spooked easily. He had to go along with her, not deliberately rub her the wrong way or suddenly reach out and touch her. That could easily make her panic and send their relationship back to square one.

So all he had to do was treat her like a normal person and be kind. After all, Beihai had seen all kinds of strange people in his previous life. They were what had driven him to his death.

He was also a master of dating sims. His dating sims weren't quite like other people's, but he'd cleared routes with at least ten characters—maybe a hundred!

Right now, she was just a shy, introverted girl. She was easy to handle!

Airisu Sakura was on edge. What was she supposed to do now? Should she reply calmly? And if so, what should she say?

She'd thought about it for only a moment, but it already felt like her brain was growing. Luckily, just as things reached this critical point, the teacher finally came in.

The moment the teacher stepped into the classroom, all the noisy voices fell silent in unison. Airisu Sakura let out a breath and whispered to herself, "I'm saved."