"Are you Hachiman Hikigaya?" the other person asked.
"Yeah." Hachiman nodded. "Hachiman, First-year Class D."
However, as she listened to Hachiman's response, the tall girl with long purple hair seemed to have a change in her gaze.
She looked somewhat surprised.
Hey, hey, hey, why were you surprised?
Weren't you the one looking for him?
Wait a second.
Hachiman suddenly thought of a TV drama he had watched before... a honey trap.
A honey trap was when you fell into a pit someone had dug in advance, only for them to turn around and accuse you.
In the end, you got screwed over.
It was quite an excessive thing to do, so why did the purple-haired girl with hair clips in front of him give Hachiman that feeling?
Because if she had specifically come looking for him, shouldn't she at least know who he was?
It was like she had been sent to confirm a target.
Still.
"I'm Masumi Kamuro from Class A, First Year," the purple-haired girl said. "I hope you can come to the rooftop during lunch break."
That was what she said.
"Please make sure you come. If you don't, I'll keep waiting, even if it means missing the afternoon classes!"
As she said that, the purple-haired girl seemed to finally realize how embarrassing this was. She quickly turned around and jogged away.
But the impact she left behind was enormous.
"Eh?!"
"Shh—" ×N
Since class had just ended, most of the students were still in the classroom or hallway. When they saw a reasonably pretty girl from another class approach a boy from their class...
Naturally...
They watched from the side and enjoyed the gossip.
And it really was gossip.
A girl had actually taken the initiative to seek out Hachiman from their class, looking like she was determined to wait for him.
Something like this... a confession.
It had to be a confession, right?
As high school students, they were naturally interested in topics of romance.
But.
"If a girl from another class were confessing, it should be someone like Hirata-kun," said a blonde classmate with a single ponytail.
Fine.
I'll remember your name.
Hachiman took notice of her.
She was one of the gyarus in the class, Kei Karuizawa.
Kei.
It was a rather ordinary name, like Kato Megumi or Megumin. But they all had one thing in common: they started out seeming unremarkable, only to become dark horses in the end.
Would you be the same, Karuizawa?
Hachiman remained calm and quickly left the hallway.
He knew that if he stayed, his classmates would definitely question him about it. Although he did not have much of a presence in class, suddenly being called out by a girl was a huge topic to them.
But lunch break eventually arrived.
The students began heading to the cafeteria.
After being put through forty-five minutes of class, his classmates' excitement had faded.
Still, some students remained interested in how Hachiman from their class had been invited to the rooftop by a girl from another class during the previous break.
"So, was it really a confession?" The one asking now was a cute, pretty girl with short blonde hair.
This was Kushida.
Seriously, Kushida, couldn't you just go eat with your friends already?
"I don't recognize her," Hachiman said. "So I think it might have been a honey trap."
"That's true," Kushida said. "If she really wanted to confess, her eyes definitely wouldn't have looked like that. She even seemed a little disgusted by you. Maybe she thought you didn't live up to your reputation or something."
"..." Hachiman said nothing.
Fine, please stop talking.
"Horikita has been staring at me herself. She seems to have noticed that I'm pretty good at Japanese Language and Literature," Hachiman said.
It was a lie, but Kushida's attention toward him had increased considerably, so this was a good chance to fool her.
Suzune Horikita had been studying nonstop, so if she found out she was inferior to someone who hardly studied, she really might keep paying attention to him.
"Oh." Kushida nodded, finally leaving with satisfaction.
So your concern for him had been fake. Kushida, you were only worried whether the fact that you and Suzune Horikita came from the same middle school had been exposed.
So the biggest honey trap was you.
Thus.
After thinking it over, Hachiman began heading up toward the rooftop.
For no other reason than that Masumi Kamuro had introduced herself as being from Class A, First Year.
In other words, she was in the upper-ranked class among this year's new students.
Why would the strongest class seek out someone from the weakest one?
Hachiman started climbing the stairs from the second floor.
Although the four classrooms of a single year were all located in the same school building.
The laboratory floors separated Classes AB from Classes CD.
So even though school had already been in session for three days, students from both sides had not interacted during class hours.
Still, all the students would remain at the same school for three years, so they might encounter students from other classes in other common areas.
But most meetings were between strangers, and there were rarely opportunities to talk.
Though it was not absolute. For example, Kushida the little angel, whom Hachiman knew well.
She said she wanted to become friends with everyone, so her range of targets was not limited to her own classmates. It included students from other classes as well.
Kamuro from Class A had just come to his classroom looking for him. She had probably taken the initiative because she knew Kamuro.
That proved Kushida was indeed formidable.
Her social skills were maxed out.
But as Hachiman passed the stairs between the third- and fourth-floor laboratories and continued upward, he suddenly stopped.
Because he heard footsteps descending from above.
As he stood still and looked ahead, he saw a purple-haired girl appear at the stairwell.
And this girl.
Was unmistakably the one who had come looking for him during the previous class.
Masumi Kamuro.
Her gaze was sharp. The moment she saw him, she seemed to reveal a faint expression of relief.
"It's great that you didn't run away," she said.
Then she turned around, seemingly preparing to lead the way.
That left him somewhat stunned.
Because.
Was she worried he would run away? So she had come to pick him up as soon as class ended?
Kamuro walked ahead, and Hachiman hurried after her.
Now that he was closer, he realized she felt different from how she had seemed at the classroom door.
Her features appeared more refined.
She had long purple hair tied into a side ponytail. Most noticeably, her bangs were held in place with hair clips—two of them.
Her features were not bad. Or rather, she was quite beautiful.
Though she could not compare to a top-tier beauty like Suzune Horikita, she was still one of the rarer beautiful girls.
However, she did not seem to smile often and was used to keeping a straight face.
Looking at her made him think of the scene where someone showed you her panties with an expression of utter disgust.
At the same time.
He noticed her raised hand. Her fingers were long and beautiful, like an artist's hand, or perhaps the hand of someone who had played the piano.
But her legs were long and strong, the legs of someone who exercised regularly. There was not a trace of loose flesh on them, so her athletic ability was probably not bad either.
"Could it really be a confession?" Hachiman asked tentatively.
But something like that... was impossible, right?
From the day he was born until now, he had never had that kind of experience.
Not to mention that he had always believed girls' kindness was a lie, and that he could not be swayed by them so easily.
"How could it be?" Kamuro replied directly. "I was only asked to bring you over."
In other words, she was not even pretending anymore. The supposed confession had merely been made up to complete her task.
As a Class D student, Hachiman already knew that being assigned to Class D probably meant the school had given up on them.
But.
He was also somewhat curious.
What kind of environment did Class A students live in? Logically, they had received favorable evaluations from the school and were proud people.
Yet... were they this practical?
Had a hierarchy already formed among them?
"So you already have a master, huh?" Hachiman said. "Looks like the students in your Class A have it rough too."
That was a small act of revenge against Kamuro.
In order to lure him out, she had actually caused a confession uproar in his class. He could imagine that when he returned during lunch break, some of his classmates would definitely question him about it.
And that... was what Hachiman was worst at.
But Kamuro seemed quite resistant to that phrasing.
Because it could also be understood as saying she had become her classmate's little dog.
And that kind of thing.
Before you continue