Hachiman did not leave. Instead, he reached into his pocket with his left hand and took out his white phone.
The screen was completely dark.
But then, he pressed a button along the edge of the phone.
Before long.
The screen lit up.
It showed that a call was in progress.
And the person on the other end was Suzune Horikita.
Girls' dormitory.
Hachiman's dorm was on the third floor, Room 304.
The first-year dormitory occupied an entire building. Boys lived on the first through third floors, while girls lived on the fourth through sixth.
Everyone had a private room.
Few boys ever came looking for girls, and girls rarely went looking for boys either.
So appearing on an unfamiliar floor without warning would draw attention.
Hachiman chose the emergency stairwell.
There was only one reason for that.
[It's getting late. Come up.] — Suzune Horikita.
Horikita had originally been Hachiman's bargaining chip to raise the stakes in his deal with Chabashira.
But later, he discovered that something was off about Chabashira-sensei. She was the problem child of Class D.
So that trump card had not been useful.
However, when he later negotiated with Chabashira about advancing to Class A, Hachiman called her.
He let her know that he was involved in Class D's plan to climb upward.
And he had already prepared his explanation.
He could tell Chabashira, "I brought Suzune Horikita into this. That shows I'm seriously working, so stop rushing me."
He could also tell Suzune Horikita, "I brought Chabashira-sensei in. As our homeroom teacher, she'll assist us within the limits of what she can do. So we still have a chance to win. Horikita, you should join too."
That way, he could drag Horikita into this.
Horikita might have been aloof, but she was still the Student Council President's little sister.
That identity alone could be put to great use.
Still, he felt this was too rash after all.
Because as soon as he reached Horikita's floor, he heard girls talking.
"Hehe... Kushida, thank you for today."
"Not at all. I'm happy I could help too~~"
They were familiar voices.
It seemed to be Kushida and her newly acquired best friend, Meiyu Wang.
And.
This was very bad.
The stairwell Hachiman was standing in faced the door to Room 505.
But Kushida and Meiyu Wang's voices were coming from around Room 507.
Wow.
In other words, if Kushida walked this way, she would find him!
If she asked him, [What are you doing on the girls' dorm floor at this hour? Are you here to see Suzune Horikita? Didn't you say you had nothing to do with her?]
That would be terrible.
Since they came from the same middle school, Kushida probably regarded Horikita as a serious threat.
So if he got dragged into it, Kushida would be wary of him too.
In other words, he had run into the person he least wanted to see.
"See you tomorrow~"
Kushida's voice carried over.
But she did not come toward the emergency stairwell. Her voice gradually faded instead.
At the same time, there was a thud.
Hachiman noticed that she had entered Room 509.
That was probably her dorm room.
Did that count as obtaining the address of Kikyo Kushida, the class's popular little angel?
Ever since Hachiman joined the class group chat, he often saw students praising Kushida, both girls and boys.
Kushida's popularity had risen rapidly.
Kanji Ike and the others were even somewhat flattered, because they had noticed that the girls' attitudes toward them seemed rather poor, leaving them depressed.
Yet Kushida still paid attention to them. She was practically an angel!
However, Hachiman knew very well that this little angel was also a bomb.
Just the possibility that he knew she and Horikita came from the same middle school had made her jumpy.
So if she found out he had specifically come to see Horikita, she would probably... start watching him too.
"Whew."
That scared him.
Hachiman touched his chest, then quickly went to the door of Room 505.
"Ding-dong!"
Three seconds after he rang the bell, the door opened.
As soon as Suzune Horikita opened the door, Hachiman swiftly slipped inside.
Horikita frowned.
"What happened to you?" Suzune Horikita said. "You look distracted, like a thief."
"..." Hachiman.
Hey, hey, hey, did this girl know how to talk? If he had to describe this state of mind, Hachiman thought it was more like he was sneaking around behind someone's back.
Sakayanagi Arisu: Why Does Hachiman Look So Worried?
Horikita had no friends and had always been alone.
If someone asked her about it, her response would be, "Huh? I've been alone for nine years already. If you count kindergarten, then even longer."
So she had little experience getting along with others.
Perhaps because he had entered a girl's room, Hachiman found himself a little unsettled.
But Horikita's room was rather reassuring.
The girls' dorm rooms had the same layout as the boys': four by five meters.
There was a single bed, a computer desk, a swivel chair, an intercom phone on the desk, a storage cabinet beside it, and an air conditioner above the desk.
The bed faced the entrance, while the bathroom and toilet were to the right of the door.
The wall outside the bathroom was the wardrobe.
Between the entrance and the bed was a simple kitchen.
That was everything in the room.
It was simple, but complete.
For students, it was unquestionably an excellent environment.
But since she was a girl after all, Horikita had put up wallpaper, making the room feel much more feminine.
She had also arranged a few things that gave it a lived-in atmosphere.
The kitchen bore signs of use as well, and the table had been covered with a tablecloth.
It felt quite comfortable, as though he were visiting someone else's home.
But he had not come here to inspect her dorm room.
"So, you made an agreement with Chabashira-sensei?" Suzune Horikita asked.
While in her dorm room, she had noticed Hachiman's call. After picking up, she heard his conversation with Chabashira-sensei.
"More or less," Hachiman said.
Then Hachiman took out the agreement.
The clauses about leading Class D to Class A and Chabashira-sensei paying ten to thirty million yen in cash were especially conspicuous.
"If we reach Class A, I get the money, Chabashira-sensei resolves her regret, and you earn your brother's recognition. It's a plan where all three parties win," Hachiman said.
"..." Suzune Horikita.
Horikita seemed to be considering whether this was feasible.
Earlier, she had already confirmed that being assigned to Class D would disgrace her brother.
At the same time, she had learned that her own foolishness had cost her brother one million points.
She really was useless.
But even if she was useless, she wanted to salvage things somehow.
So Hachiman's proposal to rise to Class A was worth considering.
But.
"You made Class D sound so terrible. Do we really still have a chance to climb up?" Suzune Horikita asked.
Hachiman had probably called her when Chabashira revealed that she was rich.
So she had also heard Hachiman's later reason for tactfully refusing Chabashira's offer to lead the class to graduate from Class A.
That was also what Suzune Horikita was considering.
She found it extremely troublesome.
"No Class D in this school has ever successfully risen to Class A," Hachiman said.
"Even Class D rising to Class C or B is extremely rare. So even if you only lead the class to Class B, your brother would probably acknowledge you."
"So your goal does not need to be Class A," Hachiman said.
"Then are you going to refuse Chabashira-sensei's agreement?" Horikita hurriedly asked.
"No." Hachiman shook his head. "Actually, there's a reason I agreed to Chabashira-sensei's proposal so quickly."
"Because our current Class D has a chance to take a shot at Class A."
"If we count three consecutive years, with one special exam per month under normal circumstances."
"Then there would be more than thirty evaluations over those three years."
Before you continue