Even After She Was Cured, She Still Drooled

Ever since school started, Karuizawa had naturally developed a certain pride of her own. With her good looks and her relationship with Hirata, she was like an empress among the girls. Having Horikita challenge her in front of everyone, on top of feeling insulted by the theft of her panties, made Karuizawa shift her anger from the boys to Horikita.

"You..."

Before Karuizawa could get more than a few words out, Hirata stepped between her and Horikita to smooth things over.

"Karuizawa, having one more boy would make things easier for me, and Horikita does have a point."

"But... but... apart from Hirata, which of the boys can we trust?"

"Then let me do it!"

Ike quickly raised his hand. It was hard to believe that just moments ago, he'd been arguing fiercely with Shinohara over dividing the living areas by gender...

"Hey, the things girls can't do are definitely going to be heavy labor. If it's hard work, I should be the one to handle it."

Sudo quickly raised his hand too.

"You two, if we're talking about helping the girls, we should leave it to someone who pays attention to detail. As it happens, I'm pretty detail-oriented," Yamauchi said, unwilling to be left behind.

Though they'd just been arguing with the girls, they were more than willing to get the chance to be the only two boys allowed into the girls' area and spend time with them.

"D-don't be ridiculous. Let those three in? That'd be like inviting wolves into the house! Besides, all three of them look like Panties Thieves, don't they? Or do you think they're trustworthy, Horikita?" Shinohara said, looking at Sudo and the others with disdain.

"Those three have behaved in ways that make them difficult to trust, so I never planned to choose any of them."

"Then who? Apart from Hirata, who else is there?"

"There's Ayanokoji."

"Hahaha! You've got to be kidding me. I wondered who you'd pick, but it's just your one friend? That invisible, loner pervert? How could he possibly be trustworthy? And when we checked the luggage, Ayanokoji was skulking around at the back of the line. Who knows what he was doing? How can someone so suspicious be allowed into the girls' area?"

Ayanokoji thought, ▼_▼ Suspicious? Karuizawa's panties were literally in my hands at the time!

"Maybe it's possible... I heard the class invisible man isn't very friendly toward popular people. And I remember Ayanokoji stayed by the bonfire until very late yesterday..."

It seemed the girls' suspicions of Ayanokoji had deepened, and he became the next target for them to vent their anger on.

Some of the boys also began to suspect Ayanokoji, while Ike and Yamauchi pretended they knew nothing.

"Ayanokoji must be the Panties Thief, right? He didn't even deny it, did he?" one girl whispered.

Watching the commotion from the side, Takahashi thought, * She's so far gone she'd drool even after being cured. Calling him the Panties Thief just because he didn't deny it is ridiculous.*

"Hey, don't take this too far. Ayanokoji's just not very good at interacting with people. He doesn't know how to defend himself. You can't call him the Panties Thief just because of that, can you?" Takahashi said, staring at the girl with an exasperated expression.

"Takahashi was skulking around at the back of the line when we checked the luggage too, wasn't he? Could he and Ayanokoji be working together?" The girl's voice dropped even lower, and her words came out haltingly. Perhaps it was because she'd seen Takahashi's strength earlier.

Takahashi thought, (⊙_⊙) Wait, what? Now I'm the Panties Thief?

"I believe Kamiya wouldn't do something like that." Sakura's voice rang out. Though she usually stammered when talking to her classmates, her words now came out unusually smoothly and clearly.

Takahashi looked at Sakura and thought, What a good girl, Airi. All that care I've shown you wasn't for nothing. I'll take you into the woods later.

"Do you have any proof that Takahashi isn't the Panties Thief?" The girl was somewhat afraid of Takahashi, but she wasn't afraid of the timid Sakura.

"That's enough, Mori Nene," Hasebe said firmly. (The school had rated Mori Nene D- in both academics and intelligence and E+ in teamwork. She was also part of Karuizawa's group, so after thinking it over, this role was the most suitable.)

"Alright, that's enough," Takahashi said, glancing at Mori Nene. She felt uncomfortable and hid behind Karuizawa.

"I'll keep this brief: I'm not interested in Karuizawa, and I doubt Ayanokoji is either. Alright, carry on with your discussion. I hope you'll think things through before speaking instead of acting like that girl over there, who'd drool even after being cured."

After Takahashi said that, the girls turned their anger on Horikita again. Someone had to be their target, after all.

"Hey, Horikita. Why are you so cold about what happened to me? Could there be some reason for it?"

"A reason? What reason do you think there could be?"

"Because Hirata is handsome and smart. Most importantly, he's so kind—even to someone like you. Any ordinary girl would've fallen for him by now, wouldn't she?"

Karuizawa chuckled and deliberately hooked her arm around Hirata's beside her, pulling him closer. Her eyes gleamed with a smug, challenging look.

"This may be a bit inappropriate, but if we compare Takahashi with Hirata... First of all, unless you're blind, you can see Takahashi's looks are no worse than Hirata's, right? In fact, Takahashi's features are more defined. And the gap between them is even greater in other areas, isn't it? Takahashi is clearly taller, and when it comes to sports, everyone knows he's always been among the top three in the class. As for academics... Well, aside from the Midterm Exam, when he kept his English score at fifty to lower the average and prevent a classmate from being expelled, when has he ever not ranked first in the class? That proves Takahashi is kind, too. And don't forget, the toilets you're all using with the points you bought them with were purchased after Takahashi analyzed the options."

When Karuizawa didn't respond, Horikita spoke again. "Compared to you, who's never even had a conversation with Takahashi, could it be that you're jealous of me?"

The atmosphere between Karuizawa and Horikita was tense, thick with hostility. They stared each other down, and the air around them seemed to freeze under the strain.

"How about this? You both give a little," Hasebe said, stepping forward to mediate. "Karuizawa wants Hirata to be allowed into the girls' area, and Horikita wants to add Ayanokoji. So I think we should add Takahashi as well. If only those three boys come into our area, then if anything happens again, the number of people we need to check will be small, right? Karuizawa, if only Hirata is allowed in, and something like the theft of panties happens again, your classmates will assume it was him even if he didn't do it, won't they? Horikita, you don't mind adding Takahashi too, do you?"

At that moment, Takahashi thought, (⊙_⊙) There's always some bastard trying to get me. With all that heavy labor in the girls' area, won't I end up like a hot-selling labor commodity in seventeenth-century America? If I mess it up, you'll send me straight to a free hundred-pull gacha. In the boys' area, I can use the prestige I gained from directing the tent setup to get the boys to do things. If I go over there, I'm screwed, aren't I?