Kiyotaka Ayanokoji slowly straightened up.
He had watched the entire silent exchange between the three of them.
Yoshikage Kira.
Honami Ichinose.
Suzune Horikita.
With just a few words, they had made a surreptitious filming incident that could have destroyed Class D vanish without a trace.
And the plan he had originally devised—Suzune Horikita recovering the SD card, the matter being handled internally, and himself staying hidden behind the scenes—had also gone off without a hitch.
There had just been one unexpected variable.
Yoshikage Kira.
For the first time, a faint glimmer of genuine interest crossed Kiyotaka Ayanokoji's eyes.
"I see."
"You're not a bystander."
"You're... the one guarding the rules that keep the peace."
Suzune Horikita left the pool area, holding between her fingertips the SD card she had taken from the remote-controlled camera car. It was a thin sliver of plastic, yet it weighed heavily on her mind.
She didn't return to the dorm right away. Instead, she stopped at a secluded corner near the boys' dormitory and waited quietly.
A few minutes later, someone approached at an unhurried pace, his footsteps so light they were almost inaudible.
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji.
"Is it... taken care of?" he asked, his tone flat and emotionless.
Suzune Horikita looked up at him, her expression softening slightly. "You knew about Kanji Ike and the others' plan to film the girls secretly from the very beginning. You pretended to go along with them, then told me about it, using me to clean up the mess. Why didn't you just report them to the school and keep yourself out of it?"
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji didn't deny anything. He simply replied, "I just didn't want the class to face an even bigger crisis over something like this."
Suzune Horikita looked at him. Her eyes held no suspicion, only a hint of understanding and approval.
By now, after spending all this time together, she had confirmed that Kiyotaka Ayanokoji wasn't like Kanji Ike and the others. He was rational, restrained, and knew where to draw the line. He was one of the few people she could consider a normal companion.
"I know you're different from them." Suzune Horikita's tone softened as she held the SD card out to him. "I'm not blaming you. On the contrary, I'm grateful you warned me in advance."
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji paused for a moment, then gently took the card.
"I'll give Kanji Ike and the others a stern warning," Suzune Horikita continued, her tone calm and serious. "But I hope you'll keep staying with them from now on... Not as one of their accomplices, but as my eyes and ears."
She paused, then spoke with frank sincerity:
"I need someone who can stay close to them and observe what they're up to, calmly and reliably.
I trust you."
There was no coercion, no command, no threat meant to bind him.
Only the trust and responsibility she placed in a companion.
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji fell silent for a moment, then nodded gently.
"I understand. I'll keep an eye on them, and if anything like this happens again, I'll tell you right away."
"Thank you." Suzune Horikita gave a slight nod, her voice carrying a rare note of gratitude. "Come on. Let's go find them together. This time, we have to resolve the problem completely."
That night, in a secluded shadow behind the dormitory,
Suzune Horikita, Kiyotaka Ayanokoji, Kanji Ike, Haruki Yamauchi, and the others huddled together uneasily.
The air was so heavy it was hard to breathe.
Suzune Horikita didn't yell or scold them. In a tone so calm it was almost cruel, she said evenly:
"I've kept what happened today under wraps. I haven't reported it to the school. No one's been punished, and no one's been expelled."
Kanji Ike and the others immediately looked relieved, as if they'd gotten away with it.
But the next moment, Suzune Horikita's voice turned cold:
"But this is absolutely the last time."
"Secretly filming people isn't a prank or a moment of impulsiveness. It's a despicable violation of someone else's privacy. It's against the rules, morally indefensible, and an undeniable mark of inferiority."
For the first time, she had bluntly exposed the ugliest side of Class D.
"It's not that your grades are poor or your abilities lacking. It's that you have no sense of boundaries.
I can lead flawed people forward, but I won't drag trash along with me."
Kanji Ike and the others turned deathly pale, their whole bodies trembling.
To keep Kiyotaka Ayanokoji from being suspected and to avoid revealing where he stood, Suzune Horikita deliberately included him in her reprimand. Her tone showed no favoritism:
"That includes everyone here—Ayanokoji, you too. Since you acted together with them, you have to take equal responsibility. If you get caught up in something like this again, I won't go easy on you."
Kanji Ike and the others didn't suspect a thing. They simply assumed Kiyotaka Ayanokoji was one of their accomplices.
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji remained composed and played along without a word of protest.
"Now, everyone remember this.
If there's a second time, you're expelled. No exceptions."
She dismissed them coldly. "Get lost."
After Kanji Ike and the others fled in a panic, only Suzune Horikita and Kiyotaka Ayanokoji remained in the shadows.
The area fell completely silent.
The hard edge in Suzune Horikita's expression gradually softened, and her tone immediately returned to the warmth and seriousness she reserved for her companions.
"Sorry you had to put up with that just now." She spoke softly, a hint of apology in her voice. "I had to include you, too, or they might have suspected you."
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji replied calmly, "I understand."
"I'm not blaming you." Suzune Horikita looked at him, her gaze sincere and openly concerned. "Actually, there's something I want to warn you about."
"If something like this happens again, don't take it upon yourself to put yourself in the middle of it.
Don't go along with them. Don't pretend to cooperate. Don't put yourself in danger.
Even if you're only acting, if the school investigates, catches you on camera, or decides you were an accomplice, you'll be punished along with them."
She paused, her voice soft but earnest:
"If they try to drag you into something like this again, come to me right away.
You don't have to shoulder it alone or keep up the act by yourself.
We can figure out how to refuse, how to avoid getting involved, and how to stop them together."
"I don't want... someone else's stupid mistake dragging you into the mud, too."
This wasn't a conversation between a monitor and a commander.
It was one companion worrying about another.
For the first time, she had clearly shown Kiyotaka Ayanokoji how much she genuinely cared about and wanted to protect him.
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji felt his heart stir faintly.
From childhood onward, everyone—including his father—had treated him as a tool, a weapon, a chess piece.
No one had ever said a single thing like this to him—
"Don't bear it all by yourself
"Come to me"
"I don't want to drag you into the mud."
He was silent for several seconds. When he spoke, his voice was softer than usual, yet unmistakably clear:
"I understand."
"Next time, I'll come to you first."
Suzune Horikita looked at him, then finally nodded gently, letting go of all her tension.
"Good."
Moonlight filtered through the leaves, falling between the two of them.
No schemes, no exploitation, no secrets.
Only the trust and concern shared by true companions.
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji gazed at Suzune Horikita's profile. The still lake within him, calm and undisturbed for so long, rippled clearly for the first time.
In the distance, the lights in the Class B dormitory quietly came on.
At that moment, Suzune Horikita and Kiyotaka Ayanokoji became true companions.
Before you continue