Coming to the Door

"Wahhh!"

Before the break had even ended, Ike burst into the classroom, shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Some girls from Class B are heading toward our classroom!" he exclaimed excitedly to Yamauchi and Sudo.

"So they're coming, so what? Why are you so worked up, Ike?" Sudo asked, leaning back in his chair with his feet propped up on his desk, looking completely bewildered.

"They're just visiting another class, not looking for a fight. What kind of idiot would send a group of girls to start a brawl?"

"Hmph!"

Yamauchi offered a confident smirk, wearing the expression of a man who had already seen through everything.

"It really is true that nothing but basketball and fighting remains in Sudo's brain."

"What did you say!"

Stung by Yamauchi's words, Sudo sat bolt upright, his tone turning threatening.

Seeing this, Yamauchi quickly dropped his cavalier attitude and explained earnestly, "No, no, no! That's not what I meant, Sudo."

"Based on my years of experience, there is only one reason a group of girls would come to another class like this."

Yamauchi held up his right index finger, pointing it straight up, and declared with certainty: "They're here to find the boys they like and get their contact information!"

"I think so too!" Ike chimed in excitedly from the side.

"Have you two gone insane from thinking about women?"

Seeing his two companions in such a hopeless state, Sudo even showed a flicker of sympathy, patting them on the shoulders as if to comfort them.

"Can't they just be here to see their friends?"

"Hmph!"

Yamauchi rested his hand on the bridge of his nose and chuckled again.

"If you dare to laugh like that again after I finish speaking, I'm going to beat you to death."

Before Yamauchi could continue, Sudo cut him off with a scowl, waving his fist to show he wasn't joking.

"If you're going to talk, just talk! Why the hell are you laughing?" (Sudo Ken)

"Great, it's the Hammer King of Japan; we're saved." (Kato Satsu)

The three of them were chatting away, oblivious to the fact that almost everyone in the class had their eyes fixed on them.

"Sometimes I really envy how much of an idiot the three of them are."

Suzune spoke, but her gaze remained fixed on the book in her hands—a classic, Don Quixote.

"They're sitting in a room full of people, yet they can talk about such topics as if no one else is around."

"Who's like you, acting like an NPC, always reading books." (Kato Satsu)

"As boys in the prime of their youth, these topics are quite normal, and besides, it's break time," Ayanokoji Kiyotaka interjected.

On the other side, Yamauchi continued to ramble: "Every student in this school has a phone. If they wanted to find friends, they could just text; there's no need to show up in person."

"The probability of them coming specifically to find girls they don't know is too low, so they must be here to get contact info from the boys."

"Truth be told, I have a feeling that the lucky guy is me!"

Having said that, Yamauchi placed his hands on his hips, waiting for the applause of his peers, but he only received a response from Satsu.

"Illogical, complete nonsense!"

Hearing this, Wang Meiyu, who was sitting in the front row, suddenly turned around in disbelief and looked at Satsu.

"Kato Satsu, what are you saying again!?" Yamauchi asked indignantly.

Satsu had spoken in Chinese, so Yamauchi didn't understand a word, but his intuition told him that Satsu definitely hadn't said anything nice.

Facing Yamauchi's questioning, Satsu didn't panic. He switched to Japanese and slowly delivered the answer he had already prepared.

"I said, what a brilliant insight!"

Yamauchi looked at Satsu with suspicion, remaining silent for a long time. He knew that wasn't what Satsu had meant, but he couldn't find an excuse to refute him.

"Excuse me..."

Seeing that the girls from Class B had finally reached the doorway, Yamauchi confidently brushed back his hair, waiting to be called out.

One of the girls, who looked quite composed, asked, "Excuse me, is Kato Satsu here?"

As soon as those words were spoken, the eyes of everyone in Class D turned toward Satsu, with Kokoro Inogashira's gaze being particularly intense.

"No way, do I have this many rivals?" (Kokoro Inogashira)

Although Hasebe also showed interest, she didn't make any overt moves.

"This isn't an unexpected result. There are only two people in the class with the most potential: Hirata and Kato." (Ayanokoji Kiyotaka)

"Hirata has already announced that he is with Karuizawa, so it's easy to tell that they are here for Satsu." (Ayanokoji Kiyotaka)

Satsu stood up calmly, guessing that they had come to find him because of his visit to Class B yesterday.

"Hello, is there something you need?" Satsu asked.

The leading girl asked, "Kato, did you come looking for me yesterday for something? I'm sorry I wasn't in the classroom."

Just as Kato Satsu had anticipated, the person who arrived was indeed Mako Amikura.

"You must be Mako, right?"

As he spoke, Kato Satsu pulled out his phone. "It's like this: I'd like to be friends with you. Could we exchange contact information?"

Hearing the answer she had expected, Mako agreed without a moment's hesitation.

Around the corner of the hallway, Ichinose Honami watched everything in silence. Seeing this scene, she didn't rush out to stop Mako's actions, but instead hurried away with an anxious expression.

After school, Hasebe walked with Kato Satsu as usual. The former looked quite troubled; although Kato Satsu knew the reason through mind-reading, he didn't intentionally point it out.

"Satsu!"

Just as they left the school building, Hasebe seemed to finally lose her patience, stopping in her tracks to call out.

"What's wrong?" Kato Satsu asked, feigning confusion.

"Kato!"

Before Hasebe could speak, another voice called out first. Kato Satsu turned around and realized it was Ichinose Honami.

He couldn't help but reveal a triumphant smile.

Finally, you took the bait! (Kato Satsu)

I went through all this trouble just to get you to take the initiative and approach me! (Kato Satsu)