Horikita's Late-Night Visit to Kushida

She turned around and closed the door, her voice cool.

"Tsukishima-kun was here just now, wasn't he?"

Kushida tilted her head, smiling sweetly.

"Huh? Yes. We were just discussing manga."

Horikita fixed her with a sharp gaze.

"A person with a huge number of points, who effectively controls the class, comes to your dorm room at night and doesn't leave for a long time. What do you think the other students in our class will make of that?"

She paused, her tone calm but oppressive. "It'll undermine the class representative's credibility. As class representative, you're getting awfully close to someone who has a huge number of points and is deeply calculating. How can I trust that your decisions won't be influenced?"

"How can I trust that he won't persuade you, and that you won't betray the class's interests for someone who doesn't care about the class at all?"

Kushida puffed out her cheeks, tears glimmering in her eyes. "But we were only discussing manga together! You're spreading rumors. Everyone in class will know you're lying!"

Horikita didn't answer. Instead, she changed the subject. "I'm not interested in your relationship. But I expect you to fulfill your duties as class representative. As a member of this class, it's my responsibility to make sure the class representative's actions don't harm the class's interests."

The weekend always went by so quickly.

In the blink of an eye, it was Monday again.

For Tsukishima, it wasn't much different from any other day, but the rest of the class was starting to panic.

A lot had happened lately, and when they finally came up for air, they realized midterms were only a week away.

Chabashira-sensei had said that anyone who failed the midterms would be expelled!

During break,

Hirata stood up and clapped his hands. "I've talked with Ichinose from Class B about the upcoming midterms. Over the next week, anyone who isn't confident in their grades can ask me to arrange one-on-one tutoring with a Class B student. It'll also help strengthen cooperation between our classes..."

Tsukishima watched Hirata at the front of the classroom, then rested his head on his desk and went on sketching lines in his little notebook.

Just as he was so absorbed in drawing that he'd forgotten the world around him, someone suddenly slammed an elbow into his arm.

The chibi demon's tail burst right through the confines of the drawing and flew off into the sky.

"Ah—s-sorry! I didn't mean to! I'm sorry!"

Tsukishima still hadn't figured out what was going on when a figure beside him launched into a series of deep bows, bowing three or four times in a flash. Then she straightened up, covered her face, and ran off.

Huh?

Tsukishima stared after her, bewildered. What was that? What was going on?

The students around them started whispering.

"Hey, hey, no way. Was that Sakura?"

"Tsukishima's already been picking on Kushida, and now he's bullying Sakura too?"

"Damn it!"

"Wait, I don't think that's right. Didn't Sakura bump into Tsukishima's desk and then apologize...?"

"Tsukishima must be bullying Sakura. Even Kushida..."

Tsukishima looked over at the students, and their whispers stopped.

No, go on! Even Kushida what? How are you any different from those damn cliffhanger merchants?

And hadn't Sakura always been like this?

She was shy and easily flustered. Maybe she'd just been in a hurry because she needed to pee. What was the big deal?

Tsukishima turned to look at Kushida, who was chatting with someone. She noticed him too.

Kushida smiled, her eyes lighting up, and waved at him. Then she hopped over to his side like a fawn in the woods.

"Good morning, Tsukishima-kun~"

"Good morning, Kushida-san..."

Tsukishima had a bad feeling about this.

Kushida returned to her seat and leaned toward Tsukishima. With an eerily sweet, syrupy voice, she drawled, "Tsu~ki~shi~ma-kun~~, do you want to come to my room tonight and discuss the manga plot? I thought of another really good plotline~~"

Tsukishima shuddered. He broke out in goose bumps and nearly threw up his dinner.

"Damn it! Kushida-san!!!"

"Tsukishima, you... you actually did that to Kushida-san!!!"

"Damn it! I'm so jealous of Tsukishima! Damn it!!"

A few boys shouted from the corner.

What the hell are you talking about?

What did I even do to Kushida? I don't know!

The girls were grinding their teeth too. One of them suddenly stepped forward. "Don't think you can do whatever you want just because you have a few points! Kushida-san—Kushida-san won't give in!"

Tsukishima pointed at Kushida, whose eyes were full of stars. "How can you look at that face and think she hasn't given in? She's practically molded to my shape!"

Someone had probably asked Kushida why she was so close to him. She'd likely said that she was modeling for him and that he was giving her points, then added something about doing it for everyone's sake.

But judging by her current act, she'd probably made up a whole story: at first she hadn't wanted to and had been disgusted by the idea, but little by little she'd started to enjoy it, and now she couldn't live without it. Some kind of corruption storyline.

But that didn't make sense. A flirt who was nice to everyone wasn't supposed to focus on just one person.

"Shut up, you womanizer!"

"Give Kushida-san back to us!"

"So what if you have points? Kushida-san, we'll work hard to earn points too. Come back to us!"

"This is so exciting. Our class's saint has to let the evil Tsukishima do all kinds of things to her for everyone's sake. Heh heh heh..."

Wait, no. Something's wrong with that last guy!

Tsukishima rolled his eyes and was about to start tearing into them one by one, but a soft hand pressed against his shoulder.

"Everyone, please settle down."

The surrounding noise instantly faded, as if someone had hit the mute button.

Kushida Kikyo had stood up at some point, wearing her trademark perfect, radiant smile that made everyone feel as if they were basking in a warm spring breeze.

She rested her hand on Tsukishima's shoulder, her voice gentle yet tinged with affection. "Tsukishima-kun isn't bullying me..."

Her cheeks flushed. She lowered her gaze, then clenched her little fists and gave herself a pep talk. "Tsukishima-kun... is actually very kind... He does ask me to pose in strange positions and say strange things, but—but he always gently guides me and corrects my poses. Tsukishima-kun is really good at it..."

After she finished speaking, she covered her face and sat back down.

"Damn it! What kind of strange poses are we talking about?!"

"I'm so jealous, you bastard!"

"As expected of Tsukishima."

"I'm so jealous of Kushida-san... I want to be a model too!"

The students who'd been denouncing Tsukishima fell silent at once, because the last person to speak had been a boy.