Horikita Suzune

Satsu ignored Ayanokoji's inner thoughts, observing the students in the classroom with keen interest as he unscrupulously read everyone's mental activities.

Beyond the characters he already knew, he was more curious about the so-called NPCs; in a class of forty, fewer than half were truly named individuals.

This was hardly surprising, though—after all, what author would bother designing names and backgrounds for characters who didn't need to appear?

Just as Satsu was lost in his observations, the sound of a chair shifting beside him broke his focus. He looked over to see Suzune already on her feet.

"Would you like to introduce yourself first, classmate?" Hirata asked with a smile.

Suzune didn't respond, instead turning and walking straight out of the classroom. Her expression was quite intriguing, radiating a clear sense of disdain.

Even a fool could see that she found self-introductions to be entirely unnecessary.

Perhaps spurred by Suzune's lead, several other students began to leave the classroom one after another.

This scene caught Satsu off guard. Shouldn't it have been Sudo who triggered this chain of events?

In other words, his own existence had caused a slight deviation in the plot?

That was fine by him; if everything followed the script perfectly, what use would his mind-reading be? Everyone already knew how things played out.

Perfect. This might be a good chance to get to know Suzune.

With that thought, Satsu stood up and left the classroom as well. He had already introduced himself anyway, and besides, such formalities held little real meaning.

This school was a fully enclosed facility with a pitifully small population; they would be seeing each other's faces for the next three years.

Never mind classmates—if one really wanted to, they could probably memorize the names of every student in the entire school.

Thinking about it that way, Kikyo's claim about wanting to be friends with everyone really wasn't just empty talk.

This time, Satsu didn't go for a direct approach like he had on the bus; instead, he followed cautiously behind Suzune, carefully choosing his words.

To a certain extent, getting to know Suzune was more difficult than getting to know Ayanokoji, so he couldn't afford to be reckless.

Meanwhile, in the open space near the school building, two boys were hiding in the nearby woods, silently observing two girls chatting and laughing on a bench.

"Go on, Kuraku."

The boy kept nudging his companion, urging him, "Sae has been really into this tablet lately. If you give it to her, you'll definitely boost your favorability in her eyes."

"But, Matsuyama, is giving this really going to work?" Kuraku asked, looking down at the tablet in his hands. "This cost me a full fifty thousand points."

On the other side, Suzune keenly noticed Satsu following her.

"Is there a reason you're following me?" she asked coldly, stopping in her tracks without turning around.

Seeing he had been spotted, Satsu stopped hiding and stepped out, grabbing at a random excuse. "I was just wondering why you wore such a look of disdain when you left the classroom."

"Do you dislike self-introductions?"

"No!"

Suzune's sharp, decisive voice cut through the air. She turned around, her face still wearing that look of disdain, and said, "I just despise my neighbor."

"Huh? Me!"

Hearing Suzune's reply, Satsu felt as if he'd been struck by lightning. Come on! He hadn't even done anything yet, and his favorability was already in the negatives?

"One homosexual, one suspected social recluse. If I'm not mistaken, that Ayanokoji's self-introduction is bound to be absolutely spectacular."

"What's most unbearable is that the homosexual seems to have designs on the social recluse. Just thinking about being stuck between the two of you for three years makes me feel suffocated."

With that, Suzune didn't give Satsu a chance to explain and walked away.

The latter hurriedly chased after her; he had to clear this up right now. If he said nothing, how would that be any different from admitting it?

Back at the open space in front of the school building, Kuraku, still in the woods, hadn't quite made up his mind. After hesitating repeatedly, he turned to Matsuyama and said, "How about we wait until Sae's friend leaves? It's too awkward to go up there now."

Matsuyama was nearly driven mad with impatience. Just as he was about to speak, he noticed the two girls in the clearing looking toward the school entrance.

"Hey! At least let me defend myself!"

It turned out to be Suzune and Satsu, walking out one after the other.

"There's nothing to talk about. Stop following me."

"Are the lovebirds having a spat?" Matsuyama remarked lightly, his peripheral vision catching something off about Kuraku.

The latter was staring at Sae with a face full of jealousy, while the two girls were looking toward Satsu and Suzune with starry-eyed expressions.

"Looking at it now, that guy is actually pretty handsome."

No sooner had Matsuyama finished speaking than Kuraku bolted forward—not toward the two girls, but toward Satsu and Suzune.

Seeing this, Matsuyama hurriedly followed.

"Hey! You two!"

The sudden shout startled Suzune, who stopped and looked at the furious Kuraku with confusion.

"What, do you two want to make friends?" Satsu asked, stepping up beside Suzune with a playful tone.

"I don't like your face. I want to see you make a fool of yourself."

With that, Kuraku shoved the tablet into Matsuyama's hands and began rolling up his sleeves, squaring off against Satsu.

"Fighting has a zero-tolerance policy at this school, you know," Satsu said with a dismissive, mock-friendly reminder.

"Scared? Then slap yourself twice, and I might just let you roll your way out of here."

"You're sick."

Suzune couldn't take it anymore. She rolled her eyes hard and retorted sharply at Satsu, "Nothing good ever happens when you're around."

Satsu didn't respond to Suzune immediately; knowing the bottomless depths of Kuraku's plan, he was struggling with all his might to keep from laughing out loud.

"Who said I wanted to fight you? I was just running past you, happened to trip, and accidentally..." (Kuraku)

"...pulled your underwear down, that's all!" (Kuraku)

"There's no way there aren't security cameras at the entrance of the teaching building. Just say you lost your student ID, and when we check the footage, I'll secretly record the video. You'll be finished, kid." (Kuraku)

Seeing Satsu remain silent for so long, Kuraku assumed the kid had been scared witless and shouted again, finally snapping the former back to reality.

"Sorry, sorry. It's my first time seeing such a clownish character; I couldn't hold back my laughter for a second."

"What did you say!"

Kuraku was so furious his voice turned hoarse, the words barely squeezed out from his throat.

"If there's a single person in this entire school who hasn't seen the video of you exposing yourself within a week, I'll write my name backward." (Kuraku)

Satsu turned to Suzune and said, "Since you said nothing good happens when I'm around, then I'll be the one to resolve this bad situation."

He spoke with such breezy indifference, as if he hadn't taken the matter to heart at all.

Seeing Satsu step forward with such confidence, Suzune actually laughed.

The other guy was clearly looking for trouble and his attitude was atrocious; did Satsu really have that much confidence?

In a teasing tone, she repeated Satsu's own words: "Fighting has a zero-tolerance policy at this school, you know."