"Come in first." Kushida Kikyo grabbed Shiraishi Makoto and pulled him into the room, then shut the door behind them.
"Wait, how did you get into my room?" Shiraishi Makoto asked in confusion.
"I got a spare key from the dorm supervisor." Kushida Kikyo took a key out of her bag and waved it in front of him.
"They'll just hand over a key to someone who isn't the resident? Aren't they worried something might happen?" Shiraishi Makoto was genuinely taken aback. Was Advanced Nurturing High School really this lax with security?
"You boys can't get keys to the girls' rooms, naturally, but it isn't hard for us girls to get keys to the boys' rooms." Kushida Kikyo gave a soft snort, then changed the subject. "Where did you go this morning? I saw you head to the classroom."
After adding someone as a friend on the Student Terminal—what people usually called a phone—you could check each other's location. The location wasn't especially precise, though. You could only see general areas like "cafeteria," "school building," or "gymnasium."
"I had some personal business to take care of. It has nothing to do with you."
"If you don't want to tell me, fine." Seeing that Shiraishi Makoto wasn't going to share anything more, Kushida Kikyo didn't press him. She had come to see him today for another reason.
"Did you know all along that things would turn out this way?"
"What are you talking about?" Shiraishi Makoto had realized why Kushida Kikyo had come by, but he still pretended he had no idea.
"I mean how I had to borrow money to keep those three idiots from being expelled." The more Kushida Kikyo said, the angrier she got. She punched Shiraishi Makoto in the forearm again, her voice full of frustration. "I'm more than two hundred thousand in debt now!"
"It's no big deal. Our Class A doesn't care much about how long it takes you to pay it back. Besides, everyone considers the debt to belong to your Class D as a whole. They're not going to treat you as the one they need to collect from." Kushida Kikyo's punches weren't hard, so Shiraishi Makoto didn't try to stop her. He smiled and explained the situation in his class.
"Even if you say that, I still owe money. And you haven't answered my question."
"How should I put it? I suspected it, but I was only fifty percent sure." Shiraishi Makoto spoke slowly.
"What do you mean, only fifty percent sure?" Kushida Kikyo didn't quite understand.
"It's simple. The rule that you could use Private Points to buy grades wasn't public knowledge. So someone had to discover it and step forward to warn everyone." Shiraishi Makoto explained.
"Damn it, Horikita!" Remembering how she'd been at odds with Horikita Suzune ever since she arrived at school, and how unpleasant everything involving her became, Kushida Kikyo gritted her teeth.
"Oh? Horikita?" Shiraishi Makoto was surprised. It seemed that because he had gotten involved in the story, Kushida hadn't yet figured out who really held the power in her class.
"What do you mean?" Kushida Kikyo asked, momentarily taken aback by his tone.
"Horikita Suzune couldn't have done this." Shiraishi Makoto shook his head. "Whether it's organizing a study group or taking the initiative to find a way to save three classmates from expulsion, neither sounds like something Horikita would do."
That was right. Horikita Suzune had no friends and always kept to herself. She could even drive someone away just by attending a tutoring session. How could she possibly take the initiative to fight for the "weak" in her class?
And besides Horikita Suzune, only one person had been involved from beginning to end.
"Ayanokoji Kiyotaka?" Kushida Kikyo's voice was uncertain, but she had already made up her mind.
"That's right. Horikita's just a puppet acting on orders. The real mastermind is Ayanokoji." Shiraishi Makoto paused, then revealed another suspicion. "And I have a feeling he's already figured out that you're working for me."
"Don't be ridiculous. What do you mean, I'm working for you?" Kushida Kikyo looked disgusted and pretended to get goose bumps, but she couldn't help asking, "Why do you think that?"
"Just as Horikita doesn't seem like the sort of person who'd discover the Private Points rule, you don't seem like the sort who'd find the Archived Exam Questions."
"How can you say I— Fine, I admit I didn't realize it." Kushida Kikyo had wanted to argue, since that made her sound stupid. But even now, she didn't understand how anyone could have deduced, without knowing the answers, that the school used the same exam questions every year.
"Then I won't be exposed, will I?" Kushida Kikyo suddenly tensed up. What if Ayanokoji Kiyotaka publicly revealed that she was a spy?
"No, because I'm working with him too." Shiraishi Makoto glanced at Kushida Kikyo. "Our situations aren't quite the same, but as long as you don't go out of your way to provoke him or let someone else get something on you, he should ignore what you do."
"But isn't he manipulating Horikita? You know how much I can't stand her," Kushida Kikyo continued. "Does that mean I can't mess with Horikita anymore?"
"His relationship with Horikita isn't like ours." Shiraishi Makoto smiled.
"Ayanokoji uses 'getting into Class A' as bait, then subtly nudges Horikita into taking action. So Horikita probably hasn't even realized that she's been under someone's thumb the whole time."
"What an idiot." After hearing his analysis, much of the frustration in Kushida Kikyo's heart dissipated.
"You're one to talk. I've got something on you."
"Ahhhhh! You jerk! If you can't talk properly, then shut up!"
Kushida Kikyo flew into a rage and pounded Shiraishi Makoto with her fists. But as they tussled, the air between them quietly grew charged.
She suddenly came to her senses. This was already the second time she'd come to Shiraishi Makoto's room alone.
The two visits had been for different reasons, but in the two months since she'd arrived at Advanced Nurturing High School, this was the only place where she could completely drop her act and let her emotions run wild.
And unlike when she was alone in her own room, there was someone here who knew her past but didn't hate her—and she didn't exactly hate him, either.
"What an idiot."
"What did you say?" Kushida Kikyo's voice had been so quiet that Shiraishi Makoto hadn't heard her at all.
"I said you're an idiot, and everyone in your Class A is an idiot too. If you hadn't lent us the money, those three could've been expelled, and I would've saved tens of thousands of points." Kushida Kikyo once again let her dissatisfaction run wild.
"There's nothing I can do about that. That's just how our class is." Shiraishi Makoto raised a hand and blocked her punch with a helpless smile.
"That's why I can't get through to idiots like you. Honestly." Kushida Kikyo stopped swinging and picked up her handbag. "Call me if anything comes up. I'm leaving."
"Didn't you just barge in here on your own? And next time, let me know before you come to my room." Shiraishi Makoto called after her, but Kushida Kikyo had already shut the door. He had no idea whether she'd heard him.
In the elevator, Kushida Kikyo pressed her right hand against her chest, feeling her heart pound wildly as heat spread across her cheeks.
"What an idiot."
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