You're not thinking of keeping me as a spare tire, are you?

"So, why exactly do I have to accompany you to a place like this?"

The owner of the voice sounded exceptionally helpless and weary, but in stark contrast, the girl standing beside him was brimming with excitement.

"It's because Hirata is off helping that Sudo look for eyewitnesses to clear his name."

At the mention of this, the girl seemed to grow even more irritated. "If you ask me, Sudo should just be expelled already, so he stops causing trouble for everyone else in the class."

The mere thought that their points would be deducted again this month, leaving them with nothing, made her blood boil even more.

"...No, that doesn't really have anything to do with our current situation, does it?"

At this very moment, Chiba Yu was sitting in a café. Judging by the decor, it was undoubtedly a spot suited for high school students—one might even call it a sanctuary for dating couples.

Generally speaking, this wasn't the kind of place a member of the Homebound Club like him would frequent, but because of the girl sitting across from him, he had no choice but to be here.

"Karuizawa, don't you think you owe me an explanation for the current situation?"

"So, didn't I tell you? It's because Hirata is busy 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 him coming here with her?

"Isn't it obvious?" Karuizawa Kei said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "Look around. Most of the people here are couples; hardly anyone comes alone. And since this place released a delicious new item today, well..."

Having reached this point, Chiba Yu finally understood, his fingers tapping involuntarily against the table.

Finally, Chiba Yu slowly looked up, eyeing Karuizawa with a strange expression. "Tell me, don't tell me... you're using me as a backup, are you?"

For a moment, the air seemed to freeze. Karuizawa Kei fell into a brief silence, and once her brain processed the meaning behind Chiba Yu's words, her face flushed bright red in an instant.

"What kind of thing is that to say!"

Faced with Karuizawa Kei's accusatory tone and her glare, Chiba Yu asked with slight bewilderment, "Isn't it? Look, you and Hirata are a couple, and you just said most people here are couples, so it's only natural for me to think that, right?"

"Na—natural my foot! And who told you that Hirata and I are a couple?"

As those words left Karuizawa Kei's lips, Chiba Yu's confusion shifted into genuine bewilderment.

"Isn't that the case?"

For once, Karuizawa Kei slowed her speech, her emotions beginning to settle, though her puffed-up cheeks showed she hadn't fully calmed down yet.

"Of course not. Hirata and I are just friends who happen to get along well. Where on earth did you hear such a thing?"

Hm? Could he have remembered incorrectly?

Although time had washed away most of the memories from his previous life, Chiba Yu still had a vague impression of Karuizawa Kei convincing Hirata to pose as her boyfriend.

Coupled with his previous conversation with Hirata, Chiba Yu had assumed these events had already transpired. So, where had the problem arisen?

Wait, Chiba Yu considered a possibility.

When he had chatted with Hirata before, while Hirata had clearly told him the content of their conversation at the time, he hadn't explicitly stated whether he had agreed to everything, had he?

In other words, had he been the one to make the assumption?

With the matter at hand, Chiba Yu collected his thoughts and spoke slowly: "My apologies. Seeing how you two usually act, I just assumed you were already dating."

"Honestly, you usually seem so serious, I never expected you to be such a gossip."

Picking up the coffee in front of her, Karuizawa took a sip and continued, "Let me emphasize this again: Hirata and I are just friends, not the couple you're making us out to be. Get that through your head."

Listening to Karuizawa's lecture-like tone, Chiba Yu could only nod to show he understood, though he remained skeptical.

"Speaking of which, that Sudo is really annoying. It feels like he's been causing trouble ever since school started, and we haven't had a single good day because of him."

Hearing Karuizawa's complaint, Chiba Yu asked, "What do you think, then? Do you also believe Sudo was the one who started it?"

Upon hearing this, Karuizawa hesitated for a moment. "Well... I feel like Sudo doesn't seem like the type to lie."

"Hm? But didn't you just say..."

"Oh, well, even though that guy does seem very hot-headed, I don't think he's the type to lose sight of what's important. But... his usual behavior really gives no one any reason to trust him."

Karuizawa Kei sighed. She truly couldn't muster a good attitude toward a guy like Sudo; not insulting him was already a testament to her good manners.

"But even if we believe him, what good does it do? We don't have any evidence, and no one actually witnessed what happened."

Karuizawa sighed deeply, as if she could already see her personal points for the month dropping to zero and waving goodbye.

"By the way, how many personal points do you have left?"

Karuizawa suddenly remembered. The guy in front of her seemed to head straight to his dorm as soon as class ended, and he didn't really go out to play. Excluding basic living expenses, he should have saved quite a lot, right?

"Me?" Chiba Yu slowly pulled out his phone and displayed his remaining points to Karuizawa Kei.

"Not bad, I guess. About 30,000 or so."

"Eh? Only 30,000?" Karuizawa was surprised. In her view, Chiba Yu should have had at least 50,000 left. The current situation was even lower than she had estimated.

"Oh! I remember now! You spent some points a while back to buy that one point for Sudo!"

Because Chiba Yu had explained the situation roughly at the time, and because Sudo and his friends couldn't keep their mouths shut, almost the entire class knew about their point-buying scheme.

However, in this affair, Horikita had been pushed to the front by Chiba Yu and the others to act as the leader, with nearly half the responsibility shifted onto her. This led most people to believe that Horikita had spearheaded the effort, while Chiba Yu and the others had simply made up the difference.

"Sigh, I was hoping to borrow some from you, but it looks like that's out of the question."

Karuizawa Kei said, looking dejected, her earlier spark of excitement extinguished once more.

"Are you short on points lately?"

Karuizawa Kei nodded, looking somewhat embarrassed as her gaze drifted away. "Well... you know, I didn't realize how the school rules worked at the time, so I ended up buying a bit too much, and so..."

Chiba Yu understood. Another person who thought the school was a charity and had spent money recklessly.

"I see. How much do you need to borrow?"

"Eh? You're willing to lend it to me?"

"Sure. After all, I don't spend much on a daily basis; as long as I can guarantee the bare minimum for food and drink, I'm fine."

"Come to think of it, you really don't go anywhere. You head straight back to the dorms as soon as class ends. I honestly wonder how you've even survived until now."

"So, are you still borrowing or not?"

The moment Chiba Yu said those words, Karuizawa Kei's expression changed instantly. "Borrow! Of course I'm borrowing!"

It was clear that she had truly reached the end of her rope, to the point where she was genuinely afraid Chiba Yu might change his mind.

(I've modified the setting slightly; just treat it as the butterfly effect caused by the protagonist's transmigration.)