The next morning during break, I took a letter to the door of the Class A classroom and placed it on Sakayanagi's desk.
"Oh my~ Zhenglong, you're treating me differently~ I thought that letter was for me~"
After Sakayanagi opened the envelope and saw the printed pages inside, she looked at me with disappointment.
Yesterday in the Activity Room, Sakayanagi and Hiyori had watched me handwrite the invitation. Given how we'd gotten along these past few days, it was only natural for her to think I'd give her the handwritten one.
"Sometimes, having me take a special interest in you isn't a good thing. Just like with that handwritten letter."
Whoever got the letter I'd written by hand would be my target. That was how it worked.
"Then you'd better hurry and find Ichinose, Zhenglong~ Break's almost over."
"That's Hiyori's job. The two of them should have plenty to talk about, and Ichinose won't be on her guard around her."
I was in charge of delivering the letter to Class A, Hiyori was responsible for Class B, and Ryuen would go to Class D to remind Sudo not to forget the time and place they'd agreed on.
"I really don't understand why you favor Hiyori so much. Have you fallen for her, Zhenglong?"
"Who can say when it comes to feelings? As they say, those involved are blind, while bystanders see clearly. We're looking at things from different perspectives—The bell's rung. Let's pick this up another time, if fate allows~"
Break always seemed to pass especially quickly, while lessons dragged on and on. Was this the fabled time dilation?
As powerful music blared outside the Traditional Literature Club, it drew the attention of students throughout the entire club building.
Students who'd skipped training in the sports clubs, along with those keeping watch in the cultural clubs' Activity Rooms, all followed the music to the third floor to see what was going on.
By then, all the guests invited by Class C had arrived: Sakayanagi from Class A, Kamuro, whom she'd brought into her fold that weekend, and some of the students in the Sakayanagi Faction.
There were Ichinose and Kanzaki from Class B, along with some of the Class B students who'd helped Class D in this incident.
Yamauchi, Ike, and some of the other troublemakers from Class D had also been invited. Hirata, Kushida, Horikita, and the others who'd worked hard to clear Sudo's name in this incident could only watch from the sidelines alongside the students from other year groups.
With the efforts of Class D and the help Class B had given them free of charge, they'd scraped together 2.9 million private points at the last minute the night before and paid Class C for the month.
The two sides had also settled on the time for Sudo to apologize to Class C that night.
Now, apart from the few Class C students maintaining order, everyone else had finished setting up. They'd lined up to collect the large, framed photographs and were taking their places according to the plan they'd made in advance.
Sudo arrived right on time. Ignoring the bizarre setup outside the Activity Room, he shoved his way past the crowd gathered at the entrance and went inside.
"T-this isn't what we agreed on! Why are there so many people here?!"
In Sudo's mind, all he had to do was privately bow his head in humiliation and apologize to the four people who'd framed him. No one else would see. He could treat it as if a dog had taken a bite out of him.
But he hadn't expected the other side to make such a huge production of it. If he knelt and apologized in front of all these people, he'd never be able to show his face at school again. He wouldn't be able to hold his head up for the next three years. He'd rather drop out!
"I—"
Just as Sudo was about to turn around and leave, putting an end to it all by dropping out, he saw Horikita glaring at him angrily.
Sudo forcibly stopped himself from turning away. He steeled himself on the spot, hurried to the place I'd marked for him in the Activity Room, and bowed three times so quickly it was like a flash. Then, in a loud voice filled with resentment, he said, "I'm sorry," and ran straight out of the room with his head down.
He looked even more wretched than the first time he'd run out of this Activity Room.
"Looks like Sudo from Class D hasn't regretted much at all! Oh well, we're the kind-hearted ones in Class C, so I suppose we shouldn't make things any harder for him. No matter how much we put him through, it's the other students in Class D who suffer. Having a classmate like that is a real misfortune for Class D."
"Isn't that the truth? I'd better kindly remind everyone in Class D to keep a close eye on that classmate of yours from now on. He caused such a serious incident and received such a harsh punishment, yet he doesn't seem the least bit remorseful. Who knows what even more disgusting things he'll do next~"
"Just look at Sudo. He even managed to look defiant while apologizing. You'd think he was putting on a show for someone!"
"If you ask me, he should come back and bow three more times! Who apologizes while facing someone other than the victims? He was bowing toward Class B! I heard Class B has been helping Sudo! Maybe Class B was the one who came up with the idea of Class D paying people to give false testimony!"
Only after Sudo left did the atmosphere in the Activity Room finally reach its peak.
If Sudo had still been there, he could have argued back against all these scattered accusations. But he'd stormed out in anger, so all he could do now was serve as a topic of discussion for everyone else.
After the crowd dispersed, all the onlookers and the Class C students who'd helped clean up and put away the props returned to their usual school lives.
"司馬正龍, were the photographs the Class C students held at the apology really authentic?"
With Shiranami Chihiro's help, the devastated Ichinose returned to her room. She took out her phone and sent the message to Sima Zhenglong.
Ever since she'd entered the Traditional Literature Club's Activity Room that day and seen the evidence clearly showing that Sudo had bullied Class C students, along with screenshots of Class B students helping Class D, she'd begun to feel lost about the role she'd played in the incident.
She couldn't believe the students from Class D had used her kindness to try to protect an abuser. But the evidence before her showed that it had all happened.
Under her leadership, Class B had become an accomplice to bullying. The words Sima Zhenglong had said to her and Kanzaki that day still echoed in her ears.
As far as she was concerned, Sima Zhenglong—the person who'd helped her and stopped her from heading down a dark path—would never frame someone else. After all, he'd reached out to help her even though he hadn't known her at all.
She still remembered the flimsy excuse he'd made at the time for helping her. If he hadn't been a kind-hearted person, why would he have reached out to a stranger? Especially in Japanese society.
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