Eve of the Conference

"Sakura-san."

Qiuyue spoke to Sakura and handed her the camera he was holding.

"Here, it's completely fixed. You can try it out."

Sakura took the camera and started pressing buttons on it, a happy smile spreading across her face. Since she wasn't looking down this time, Qiuyue caught the full view of her smile.

Qiuyue: (If she didn't wear glasses and fixed her bangs a little so they didn't cover half her face, I bet she'd be the class beauty of Class D.)

"Ah... um... well... Qiuyue-kun... thank you."

"No problem. If you need anything else, you can come to me."

Qiuyue dropped those words and prepared to leave, but Sakura immediately called out to stop him.

"Wait... um, Qiuyue-kun, what do you think I should do?"

Qiuyue blinked and said, "About the Sudo Incident?"

"Yeah... so Qiuyue-kun knows about it too..."

Qiuyue looked at Sakura, who had started lowering her head again, and sighed inwardly as he said:

"Just do what you want. No one's going to blame you, so don't keep looking down."

Qiuyue: (As for Sudo's matter, almost the whole class couldn't care less. In fact, there are hardly a few people who have any goodwill toward him. Besides himself, who would blame you?)

(Besides, whether you help or not, the final result will be the same. The evidence and testimony are too weak.)

(In the end, Sudo will either get suspended or the meeting will be postponed again, and they'll use the original method or some other way to solve it. Anyway, in my mind, that's the only development.)

"Mm..."

Sakura's lowered head still didn't lift, but the hesitant and worried expression on her face was gone, replaced by a smile and a faint blush on her cheeks.

One day remained until the meeting for the Sudo Incident.

Thanks to Qiuyue's half-hearted efforts and the hard work of other members, they had found the witness Sakura, hoping to get her to testify for Sudo.

For confirmation purposes, Ayanokoji, Horikita, Sudo, Yamauchi, Ike, and Kushida—six people in total—gathered in Ayanokoji's room for a discussion.

Of course, they had also invited Qiuyue, but he refused, citing other matters.

At this moment, however, Qiuyue was in his own room, wearing headphones and quietly listening.

Unsurprisingly, Sudo was the type to carry his phone with him.

"Hey... Sakura-san still hasn't... what do we do? About Sudo-kun's matter..."

"Tch—does that four-eyes girl even intend to help me? Just give me a straight answer, seriously."

"She's not obligated to help you in the first place. To be honest, this is all because you couldn't control yourself."

"They started it with me, alright!"

"That's just your side of the story."

"Come on, come on... arguing isn't good, Sudo-kun, calm down. Horikita-san too."

"Yeah, Kushida-chan's right. Arguing won't help anything."

"Yeah, yeah."

With Yamauchi and Ike echoing Kushida's words, there was a moment of silence through the headphones before the voices slowly picked up again.

"...Hey... Horikita, you must have a way, right... like last time..."

"I don't know, and I'm not obligated to help you. I just don't want the class to lose points over this. Also, stop getting so close to me. You're dirty."

"What!? I'm not dirty, okay! I took a shower before coming!"

Qiuyue: (...I think I can kind of picture the scene...)

"You'd better think hard about how to get Sakura-san to show up at tomorrow noon's meeting. You still have one morning."

"Mm, Sudo-kun, let's go ask Sakura-san again tomorrow. Sudo-kun, make sure you don't scare Sakura-san this time."

"...Oh... got it. As long as that four-eyes testifies for me, those bastards will have nothing to say."

"What a naive way of thinking. Why do you think things will be resolved just because Sakura-san shows up?"

"Isn't that obvious? Anyone can see they're a bunch of jerks."

"..."

Everyone was left speechless by Sudo's matter-of-fact attitude, including Qiuyue, who was still wearing his headphones.

"Hey... everyone, look at this."

"Isn't that just a gravure idol? Kushida, aren't we supposed to be discussing how to get that four-eyes to testify for me?"

"Don't interrupt, Kushida-chan. That gravure idol is really cute, though. As expected of Kushida-chan."

"No, look—doesn't she look a lot like Sakura-san?"

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

"What?"

"No, no, that can't be right?"

"No, Sudo, look closely—it really does kind of look like her."

"No way, look at the photo. She's smiling so brightly. Could that really be the glasses girl?"

"...True, she's not wearing glasses, and her hairstyle is completely different."

"She could be wearing contacts, right? And she could change her hairstyle?"

"But..."

"It's true. Look at this photo—the door here is captured, and it's exactly the same as the dormitory door."

"So she really is Sakura?"

"...Yeah, it's true."

"...Sakura was this cute all along?"

"Damn, Yamauchi, I'm getting excited now. Our class actually has a cute gravure idol like this."

The discussion dragged on until nearly 9 o'clock. They decided to approach Sakura tomorrow and ask her to help testify.

If she still refused, they'd confess that they knew she was a gravure idol and use keeping it secret as leverage to get her testimony—a backup plan. With that settled, they all left Ayanokoji's room one by one.

Qiuyue: (Tomorrow's the day. Sakura's going to be stalked by a pervert. I wonder if Ayanokoji will step in to handle it. I don't want to get involved in their discussion, purely because it's a hassle.)

(Whether I act myself or get the student council involved, it'll make it easier for me to be found out.)

(If I act personally, Ayanokoji and Chabashira might target me. If I use that identity to help her, the Student Council President will probably lock onto Class D first, and this would be a kind of self-exposure to some degree.)

(But... what if Ayanokoji doesn't save Sakura? As things stand, the butterfly effect I've caused is far from negligible.)

(Hah, I really am... I can't even figure myself out. I'm not pure enough to be a good person, nor thorough enough to be a villain. I'm just hypocritical.)

(Someone like Sudo—just suspension, or at worst expulsion—isn't really a big deal. In Sakura Country, he can still continue his studies at another school, so I couldn't care less.)

(But Sakura... saving a girl being followed by a pervert? That kind of heroic deed doesn't suit me at all.)

(Right now, this matter is a piece of cake for me. Haven't I already prepared for it? Don't I want to help her? If so, what's there to hesitate about anymore?)

Qiuyue opened his drawer and pulled out his other phone.

[Horikita President, the student council has an obligation to protect the students of this school, right?]

[What are you trying to say?]

[Tomorrow morning, please seal off the camera shop. One of the employees there has criminal intentions toward a female student at our school. Or you could act tonight instead.]

[Evidence? I have no reason to believe your one-sided statement.]

[Sakura from Class D is an online gravure idol. One of her obsessive fans has infiltrated the school as an employee. You should be able to check Sakura's info and the recently hired staff. If you search that employee's belongings, you'll likely find a bunch of secretly taken photos. There's your evidence too.]

Qiuyue forwarded the results of Sotomura's investigation to the Student Council President.

Image.

[I understand. I'll investigate now. If it's true, the student council will act tomorrow morning.]

You might think this is a bit frustrating—Qiuyue hesitating like this—but please don't drop the story. I'll explain it properly later.