"So why am I accompanying you to a place like this?"
The voice sounded exceptionally helpless and weary. By contrast, the girl standing beside him looked positively excited.
"It's because Hirata-kun had to go help Sudo look for eyewitnesses so he can clear his name."
At that, the girl seemed to get even angrier. "If you ask me, Sudo should just be expelled already. Then he'd stop making life miserable for everyone else in class."
Just thinking about how they'd lose points again this month—and wouldn't have any to spend—made her even more furious.
"...No, I don't think that has much to do with our situation right now."
At that moment, Chiba Yu was sitting in a café. Judging by the decor, it was clearly a place high school students would love to visit. You could even call it a date spot for couples.
Normally, a place like this wasn't somewhere a member of the Homebound Club like him would go. But the girl sitting across from him had left him with little choice.
"Hey, Karuizawa, don't you think you should explain what's going on?"
"Like I said, Hirata-kun has something to do right now."
"...And what does that have to do with me?" Chiba Yu was even more confused. What did Hirata being busy have to do with me coming here with you?
"Isn't it obvious?" Karuizawa Kei said matter-of-factly. "Look around. Most of the people here are couples. Almost nobody comes alone. And this café has a delicious new item on the menu today, so..."
At that point, Chiba Yu understood. His fingers tapped against the table despite himself.
At last, Chiba Yu slowly raised his head and looked at Karuizawa with a peculiar expression. "Hey, you're not... treating me like your backup, are you?"
For a moment, it was as if the air had stopped moving. Karuizawa Kei fell silent, and as soon as she worked out what Chiba Yu had just said, her face turned bright red.
"What are you talking about?!"
Confronted by Karuizawa's indignant tone and the glare she fixed on him, Chiba Yu asked, somewhat confused, "Am I wrong? You and Hirata are boyfriend and girlfriend, and you just said most people who come here are couples. It's only natural for me to think that, isn't it?"
"N-Natural my foot! And who told you Hirata and I were boyfriend and girlfriend?"
At Karuizawa's words, Chiba Yu's confusion gave way to bewilderment.
"Weren't you?"
For once, Karuizawa slowed down as she spoke, and her emotions began to settle. Still, her puffed-up cheeks showed she hadn't completely calmed down.
"Of course not. Hirata-kun and I are just friends who happen to be close. Where did you even hear that?"
Hm? Had he remembered wrong?
Time had washed away most of his memories from his previous life, but Chiba Yu still vaguely remembered Karuizawa Kei persuading Hirata to pretend to be her boyfriend.
And after his earlier conversation with Hirata, Chiba Yu had been sure those events had already happened. So where had things gone wrong?
Wait. Chiba Yu thought of a possibility.
When he'd talked with Hirata earlier, Hirata had clearly told him what they'd discussed back then, but he hadn't actually said whether he'd agreed to everything, had he?
In other words, Chiba Yu had jumped to conclusions.
With that, Chiba Yu gathered his thoughts and spoke slowly. "I'm sorry. The way you two usually act made me think you really were dating."
"Honestly, you always seem so serious, but I didn't expect you to be such a gossip."
Karuizawa picked up the coffee in front of her and took a sip. "I'll say it again: Hirata-kun and I are just friends. We're not boyfriend and girlfriend like you said. Got it?"
Karuizawa sounded as if she were lecturing him, so Chiba Yu could only nod to show he understood. Even so, he still had his doubts.
"Speaking of Sudo, he's really annoying. Ever since school started, he's been getting into trouble nonstop. We can't get a single peaceful day."
Listening to Karuizawa complain, Chiba Yu spoke slowly. "What do you think, then? Do you think Sudo started the fight this time?"
At that, Karuizawa hesitated for a moment. "Well... I don't think Sudo seems like he's lying."
"Hm? But weren't you just saying..."
"Oh, come on. Sudo definitely looks hot-tempered, but I don't think he's the kind of person who can't tell how serious something is. Still... the way he usually acts makes it hard to believe him."
Karuizawa Kei sighed. She couldn't bring herself to feel kindly toward boys like Sudo. The fact that she wasn't cursing him out was a testament to her self-control.
"But even if we believe him, what good does that do? We don't have any evidence, and nobody actually witnessed what happened."
Karuizawa let out a deep sigh, as if she could already see her personal points dwindling to zero at the end of the month.
"By the way, how many personal points do you have left?"
It suddenly occurred to Karuizawa that Chiba Yu seemed to head straight back to the dorm as soon as classes ended. He hardly ever went out for fun, so after covering his basic daily expenses, he should have saved quite a lot of personal points.
"Me?" Chiba Yu slowly took out his phone and showed Karuizawa Kei how many points he had left.
"Not bad. A little over thirty thousand, I guess."
"Huh? Only a little over thirty thousand?" Karuizawa was surprised. She'd thought Chiba Yu would have at least fifty thousand points left, so he had less than she'd expected.
"Oh! I remember now. A while ago, you spent some points buying that one point for Sudo!"
Chiba Yu had explained the situation at the time, and Sudo and the others couldn't keep their mouths shut, so almost everyone in the class knew they'd bought points.
However, in that whole affair, Chiba Yu and the others had pushed Horikita forward as the one who'd taken the lead, shifting almost half the blame onto her. Most people thought Horikita had been behind it, and that Chiba Yu and the others had simply chipped in to make up the shortfall.
"Ugh, I was thinking of asking to borrow a little from you, but I guess I'll forget it."
Karuizawa Kei slumped dejectedly, her renewed energy fading away once more.
"Are you short on points lately?"
Karuizawa Kei nodded awkwardly and spoke, her eyes darting around. "Well... you know, I didn't realize the school's rules were like this back then, so I bought a little too much stuff, and..."
Chiba Yu understood. Here was another person who'd thought the school was a charity and had spent money recklessly.
"Got it. How much do you need to borrow?"
"Huh? You're willing to lend me some?"
"Sure. I don't spend much, after all. As long as I can afford the bare minimum for food and drink, I'm fine."
"Come to think of it, you really never go anywhere, do you? You head straight back to the dorm after class. I have no idea how you've managed to survive this long."
"So, do you still want to borrow some or not?"
The moment Chiba Yu said that, Karuizawa Kei changed her tune. "I'll borrow it! Of course I will!"
It was clear she really was at the end of her rope—so much so that she was genuinely afraid Chiba Yu might change his mind.
(Slightly revised the setting. Just treat it as a butterfly effect caused by the protagonist's transmigration.)