How Could the Proud Kouenji Possibly Be Feeling Down? Paying Back 4,000 Words!

Ishizaki froze.

Then he saw Nishino at the top of the path. She seemed to be standing in front of Yamamura from Class A, hands on her hips as she forcefully said something to five boys from another school.

"Damn, students from another school again?" Ishizaki found it extremely annoying.

Because of Watanabe from Class B spreading the word, the students already knew there would be students from other schools at the ski resort, including some particularly unpleasant types.

It was not just Nishino and Yamamura. Hachiman noticed that Kushida seemed to have spotted what was happening and headed over as well.

As they hurried up the path, they could hear the voices.

"Hey, you bumped into my shoulder and didn't even apologize? I fell while skiing yesterday, so I'm pretty fragile right now, you know!"

It seemed Nishino had not started the dispute. Rather, Yamamura appeared to have bumped into one of the boys.

"So you were the one who wasn't watching where you were going, right? This is your fault!" The boy from the other school was aggressively pressing the issue.

"No, no, no. This one looks like some kind of female ghost. You can't even see her, right?" His companion chimed in.

And, naturally—

"...I'm... really sorry." Yamamura apologized quietly. She had probably apologized more than once when she bumped into them earlier.

Because the boys across from her acted as if they could not hear a thing.

"We're here from Gifu on a school trip. Come hang out with us. Then we'll forgive you."

"Perfect. There are five of us and three of you. Hmm... the numbers don't quite match, but we don't mind."

As he said that, one of the boys reached directly for Nishino.

"Huh? Don't screw with me! Who'd want to hang out