Night.
"Knock, knock, knock—"
Someone knocked on the door of Uesugi Hara's dorm room again, the lighthearted rhythm somewhat out of place.
He opened the door to find Kushida Kikyo standing there with a bright smile. Before he could say anything, she started squeezing her way inside. "Good evening, Uesugi Hara."
Uesugi Hara frowned and stepped aside to let her in, a hint of confusion in his voice. "Why are you here again?"
"Um, hehe." Kushida Kikyo didn't seem bothered by his cool reception. She waved the notebook in her hand. "There are just some things I can't figure out, so I wanted to ask you about them." As she spoke, she had already made herself at home beside the desk.
"Couldn't you ask me about it on the Terminal?" Uesugi Hara closed the door, then turned and poured her a glass of water. Some of the distance in his tone had faded.
"It gets so boring sitting alone in my dorm." Kushida Kikyo took the glass, her fingertips brushing his by chance. She smiled, her eyes curving into crescents. "I thought I'd come over and chat with you." She promptly sat down on the bed, her skirt swaying lightly with the movement. She didn't seem the least bit shy.
Uesugi Hara glanced at the notebook resting on her lap, then sat down in the chair across from her. His fingers absently rubbed the side of his glass. "Just because we can talk about it on the Terminal doesn't mean we'll have anything more interesting to say in person."
"That's not the same at all." Kushida Kikyo swung her legs, the rim of her glass resting against her chin. Steam blurred the smile in her eyes. "Talking face-to-face is much more fun than chatting through a screen."
"Go on. What did you come here for?" Uesugi Hara looked at her, a hint of understanding in his voice.
Kushida Kikyo stuck out her tongue, opened the notebook on her lap, and handed it to him. "Here."
Uesugi Hara took the notebook, looking a little puzzled, and glanced down at it.
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He couldn't help laughing in disbelief. Good grief, the pages were crammed with ways to earn points.
Some of the ideas were fairly reasonable, like "setting up a secondhand marketplace at school," "opening a small shop on campus," and "holding mixers and charging the boys an entrance fee."
But the further he read, the more outrageous the ideas became: "selling class information," "recruiting people to collect protection money," "selling dirt on other students," "taking bets on important exams or the Sports Festival"... Every idea reeked of a reckless, anything-goes kind of madness.
Uesugi Hara's fingers tightened slightly around the notebook. He looked up at Kushida Kikyo, who was swinging her legs on the bed, and asked in disbelief, "Are you... serious about all this?"
Uesugi Hara was at a loss. What kind of change was this? Had she transferred her obsession with Horikita Suzune to earning points?
"Of course." Kushida Kikyo blinked, tapping a lively rhythm on her knee with one finger. "I'm still short a lot of points, after all. I have to come up with something."
She leaned toward him, drawing a little closer. Her voice dropped, but she sounded excited. "Look, the marketplace and the shop are steady ways to make money, and charging for mixers would earn us money while helping us make connections. What's not to like? As for the others..." She drew out the words on purpose, her gaze sweeping over Uesugi Hara's face. "Special circumstances call for special measures. As long as the teachers don't catch us, it's fine, isn't it?"
Uesugi Hara set the notebook down on the desk with a soft thud. "If we got caught collecting protection money or running a betting pool, we'd definitely be expelled on the spot. You know that, right?"
"That's why I came to discuss it with you." Kushida Kikyo immediately put on an innocent expression, clasping her hands together and giving them a gentle shake. "You're so clever. I'm sure you can think of a safe way to make money. Or..." She changed tack, a sly smile curving her lips. "We could try a few of the less risky ideas. Maybe start with the secondhand marketplace? I know lots of students with things they don't need anymore."
Looking at the sparkle in her eyes, Uesugi Hara suddenly felt that the glass of water in his hand was hot. Had teaming up with her really been the right choice?
Beneath her seemingly innocent smile, this girl hid more schemes than the notebook had words. He fell silent for a moment, then picked up his glass and took a sip of warm water. "A secondhand marketplace might work, but the other ideas... let's not think about those for now."
"Aww..." Kushida Kikyo drew out the sound, but she wasn't really upset. Instead, she seemed to have expected him to say that. Smiling brightly, she got up from the bed. "Starting with the marketplace sounds good, then! Will you help me, Uesugi Hara? We can split up the work. I'll contact the customers, and you can set up the marketplace. How does that sound?"
She was standing so close that the faint, sweet scent of her hair drifted toward him. Uesugi Hara instinctively leaned back, his brow furrowing. "I... I'll think about it."
"Yay!" Kushida Kikyo cheered at once. Leaning forward, she quickly kissed him on the cheek, leaving a warm sensation behind. "I'll come back tomorrow for your answer!" Before she'd even finished speaking, she had picked up her bag and darted to the door like a cheerful little bird. "Good night, Uesugi Hara!"
The door clicked softly shut, and the scent of her hair still lingered in the air. Uesugi Hara froze where he was, then raised a hand to wipe the kissed spot with distaste and sighed helplessly.
She was getting bolder and bolder.
He picked up the notebook again and took a red pen from the holder, marking up Kushida Kikyo's wild ideas. He crossed out the obviously unacceptable plans, like "collecting protection money," then circled the somewhat more reasonable ones, like "secondhand marketplace" and "charging for mixers."
When he reached the middle pages, his pen paused. "Selling class information" and "selling dirt on other students" both hinted at a hidden danger between the lines, yet something about them was tempting. If he used that unregistered Terminal, he might really be able to keep his identity hidden.
Uesugi Hara tapped the page with his finger and considered it for a moment. The first idea might be viable. It was only a matter of trading on an information gap, after all. But the second... He decisively drew a glaring X through "selling dirt." If things got out of hand and the school launched a full investigation, expulsion would be the least of his worries.
The red pen left marks of varying intensity on the page, as if quietly drawing a line in the sand for this crazy plan.
After he finished sorting things out, Uesugi Hara turned back to the line that read "secondhand marketplace." He stared at the page in silence for a moment, then suddenly stood and opened a drawer, pulling out a blank sheet of paper.
He didn't look at Kushida Kikyo's notebook again. Instead, he sketched out his ideas from memory. On the left, he wrote "Inventory," listing types of items that students might have lying around unused. On the right, he wrote "Channels." After a moment's thought, he added, "Student Council—campus platform," then scribbled a smaller note beside it: "Sort by category; update once a week."
As his pen scratched across the paper, the night outside grew darker. By the time he came to his senses, half a page of details had already taken shape, including rough ideas for a "transaction guarantee system" and "platform fee structure."
Uesugi Hara stared at the page, dumbfounded, then suddenly found it a little funny. He'd been mocking Kushida for her crazy ideas just moments ago, yet now he was right there, getting drawn deeper into it. He tossed the red pen back into its holder, stacked the two sheets together, tucked them into the notebook, and casually dropped it in the corner of his desk.