Who Will Be the Face of Class D

Early the next morning, Class D was quieter than usual.

Not because they were sleepy.

It was because the briefing for last night's special exam had crushed whatever warmth remained in everyone's hearts.

The slight relief that had just begun to surface after the assessment had not even had time to settle before the words "uninhabited island" twisted half of it away.

The clearest mood in the class now was confusion.

"Are we really going to compete by class?"

"What are people like us even supposed to do on an island? Go there to get slaughtered?"

"Resources are limited too? Has the school lost its mind?"

The discussions were quiet.

Yet they were more scattered than before.

Because this time, it was not just about points, nor was it just a test paper.

The entire class was going to be thrown into an environment none of them had truly experienced before.

At times like this, people instinctively drew inward toward themselves.

Gu Heng sat at his desk, looking at the faces around the classroom—each lowered, each calculating for themselves—without so much as twitching a brow.

This was Class D's biggest problem right now.

Whenever something major happened, everyone thought of themselves first.

It was not malicious.

They were simply scattered.

And what a fragmented class feared most was never the rules.

It was having no one who could make everyone look in the same direction first.

"Gu Heng."

Hirata walked over to him, keeping his voice low.

"After we got back last night, the class group chat already went through one round of chaos."

"What were they saying?"

"Some people were asking whether we should choose a temporary leader first." Hirata paused. "Others think that we'll have to follow the teachers' arrangements in the end anyway, so it's too early to think about this."

"What else?"

Hirata gave a bitter smile.

"Some people have already started asking who gets the final say when the time comes."

Gu Heng nodded.

That was where the real issue lay.

It was not "how do we handle the uninhabited island."

It was whether Class D even had a unified face right now.

Without one, resources, assignments, and execution would all fall apart at the slightest touch.

"What do you think?" Hirata asked.

"Normal," Gu Heng said. "What the class lacks right now isn't a plan. It's someone who can make both the people inside and outside the class recognize who stands at the front of Class D, and whose words carry weight."

"Then what are you going to do?"

Gu Heng did not answer immediately.

Because this was simple, in a way.

If he stepped forward himself, many things would move faster.

The problem was, it was not right.

He was suited to setting rules, overseeing assignments, and negotiating outside the class.

But he was not naturally suited to being the face that made everyone willing to follow at first glance.

Or rather.

He was not suited to it yet.

"Not me," Gu Heng said.

Hirata froze.

"You've already thought of someone to put forward?"

"I have." Gu Heng raised his eyes toward the upright figure seated in the front row. "And you can probably guess who it is too."

Hirata followed his gaze.

Suzune Horikita.

He fell silent for two seconds and did not immediately object.

Because in terms of appearance, presence, intelligence, and position, Horikita really did resemble someone suited for that role.

But the problem was obvious too.

"She isn't good at making people listen," Hirata said quietly.

"Right." Gu Heng nodded. "That's why she can only be the face. She can't be the whole operation by herself."

"What about you?"

"I'll be behind the scenes."

"And me?"

"You'll be in the middle."

This time, Hirata was genuinely stunned.

Gu Heng looked at him, his tone even.

"Horikita will make Class D look like it has a backbone," he said. "I'll gather up the rules, resources, and assignments behind the scenes. You'll make sure the people who don't want to listen don't shut the conversation down before it starts."

Hirata was quiet for a long time.

Because he suddenly realized this was not a spur-of-the-moment idea.

The division of roles Gu Heng had discussed outside the auditorium last night had, by this morning, already been turned into something he was preparing to apply to the whole class.

And it fit naturally.

"So what you mean is," Hirata said slowly, "Horikita will be Class D's face in front, you'll be behind the scenes, and I'll be the bridge between them?"

"More or less."

"What about Ayanokoji?"

"Depending on the situation, he'll deliver the finishing blow."

Hirata nearly choked out a laugh at how accurate that was.

After laughing, though, his expression darkened again.

"Do you think Horikita will agree?"

"She will," Gu Heng said.

"You're that sure?"

"Because that's the position she has her eye on." Gu Heng looked ahead. "The issue isn't whether she wants it. It's whether she's willing to admit that she can't swallow it all by herself."

That was the hardest part, really.

Horikita had ability.

And ambition.

But the hurdle she found hardest to overcome had never been other people refusing to accept her.

It was her own refusal to accept that some positions had to be shared with others.

Hirata understood that too.

"So when are you going to tell her?"

"Now."

Gu Heng rose and walked straight to the front.

Hirata followed him for two steps, then stopped.

He suddenly felt like laughing.

Gu Heng could really leave people speechless sometimes.

While everyone else was still wondering whether they should build a stage at all, he was already thinking about who would stand where after it was built.

"Do you need something?"

Hearing the footsteps, Horikita looked up at him. Her tone was as lacking in warmth as ever.

"Yes." Gu Heng pulled out the chair in front of her desk and sat down. "I want to talk about something more troublesome than the rules for the uninhabited island."

"What?"

"Who will be the face of Class D."

Horikita's eyes shifted slightly.

Her gaze paused, and even the words she had been about to say caught for half a beat.

"Are you here to discuss it with me, or to inform me?"

"Neither." Gu Heng looked at her. "I'm here to confirm whether you actually want to stand in that position."

Horikita's fingertips curled slightly.

That was harder to answer than if he had directly said, "You should take the role."

Horikita was silent for two seconds before asking coldly,

"What if I say I do?"

"Then there's no need to keep beating around the bush about it."

"What if I say I don't?"

"Then you're lying."

The air seemed to catch slightly.

Horikita stared at him, her eyes ice-cold.

"Do you think you understand me that well?"

"Well enough," Gu Heng said. "At least well enough to see that you could never be content with staying in the back and carrying out steps for someone else."

Horikita did not reply.

She was not Hirata.

Nor was she Ayanokoji.

She could never willingly stand to one side and watch others decide everyone's place.

Especially when that person was Gu Heng.

"So what exactly are you trying to say?" she asked.

"I'm saying you can be the face of Class D that looks most like its leader, both within the class and to outsiders." Gu Heng looked at her. "But you'd better stop thinking that means you should take every position for yourself."

That finally landed.

And it hit precisely where Horikita least wanted to hear it.

Her expression darkened at once.

"You're assigning positions again?"

"Yes."

"Based on what?"

"Based on the fact that you can't control this group by yourself," Gu Heng said evenly. "And based on the fact that I don't intend to let Class D repeat its habit of everyone thinking only for themselves because of your pride."

People in the first few rows instinctively turned to look over.

Horikita's eyes darkened into something cold.

"Are you saying I'd drag down the whole class for the sake of my pride?"

"If you insist on understanding 'leading' as 'only one person can be in charge,' then yes." Gu Heng looked at her. "And you will, very soon."

Horikita's fingers tightened at once.

What she hated most was not Gu Heng telling her she was wrong.

It was that Gu Heng always pointed out the kinds of mistakes she did not want to admit but truly might make.

"Then what do you want me to do?" she asked in a suppressed voice.

"You take the front," Gu Heng said. "I'll take the back. Hirata will be the middle layer."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that, to outsiders, within the class, and in the eyes of ordinary classmates, you're the best fit for the position of 'Class D representative.'" Gu Heng remained calm. "I'm not taking that position from you."

Horikita clearly froze for a moment.

This was not what she had expected.

She had originally thought Gu Heng had come to take it.

Perhaps even to force her to step aside.

But he had not.

Instead, he was pushing the outer layer of being the leader onto her.

"What are the conditions?" she asked.

"The condition is that you stop thinking you can take every position for yourself." Gu Heng looked at her. "I'll handle resource allocation, rules, negotiations, and group assignments. You'll stand at the front, enforce things, and hold the situation together."

"What about Hirata?"

"He'll make people actually listen," Gu Heng said. "Otherwise, no matter how right you are, the more you talk, the more it'll sound like you're lecturing them."

Horikita fell silent.

Because this division of roles felt too much like an answer.

Not an answer she liked.

But the most reasonable one.

She would handle the front.

After Gu Heng took charge.

Hirata would be responsible for linking the front and back together.

That was indeed far better than her trying to force everything forward alone.

But precisely because it was so reasonable, she felt even more uncomfortable.

Because Gu Heng had broken the matter down before she had.

She was suited to standing at the front, but that did not mean she had to hold everything in her hands alone.

"Are you giving me a way out, or putting me in a cage?" she suddenly asked.

Gu Heng looked at her and only spoke after half a second.

"Neither," he said. "I'm building the parts Class D can get moving first."

"And you just happen to be in the position best suited to stepping forward."

Horikita said nothing.

But she did not refuse at once.

"There's another question," she asked quietly. "Why aren't you the face of this?"

"Because it isn't worth it right now," Gu Heng said.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if people see me first, their first reaction will probably be, 'This guy is hard to deal with, he schemes against people, and he talks like an asshole.'" His tone was level. "If they see you first, at least they'll think Class D has a proper leader standing at the front."

Horikita's gaze shifted slightly.

That was not modesty.

It was judgment.

And because of that, the stifling fire in Horikita's chest became even harder to put out.

Even whether someone stood at the front or the back was not decided by pride.

It was decided by what was most useful.

"Then why not let Hirata do it?" she asked again.

"Because Hirata is too soft," Gu Heng said. "He's suited to making people listen, but not to making them shut up at first glance."

A faint sound suddenly came from the back row.

At some point, Hirata had moved two steps closer.

Hirata stopped, his gaze already fixed on them.

Gu Heng turned and glanced at him.

"You have a problem with that?"

Hirata gave a bitter smile.

"No," he said. "Because you're right."

"Then that's fine."

"But I still want to ask something." Hirata looked at the two of them. "Does this mean you've reached an agreement?"

Horikita did not answer immediately.

Gu Heng did not press her either.

The faint attention in the classroom drifted toward them.

Because even without saying it aloud, many people had begun to sense that what this conversation would decide was not merely who would take the lead in the uninhabited island exam.

It was whose rhythm Class D would follow from here on out.

Finally, Horikita spoke.

"I can accept the division of responsibilities you proposed." Her voice was cold, but she did not yield. "But that does not mean I will always stand where you assign me to."

Gu Heng nodded.

"Fine," he said. "As long as you can come up with a better overall plan than this one in the future."

Horikita stared at him.

She heard the faint concession in those words.

He was not looking down on her.

He was treating that position as something that could still be contested later.

"Then we'll do it this way for now," she said.

"Fine."

Just two short words.

No declarations.

No unified stance.

And neither of them had truly bowed their head.

Yet from that moment onward, the first outline of Class D's front and back lines had truly taken shape.

Someone in the back suddenly raised their voice, half-jokingly, and asked:

"So about the uninhabited island... who exactly are we supposed to listen to first now?"

Several gazes that had been sneaking looks over immediately turned toward them.

Horikita did not look at Gu Heng.

"Before school ends today," she said directly, her voice cold and blunt, "write down your physical condition, subjects you're good at, and whether you have any camping experience, then hand it to me."

The classroom went quiet for two seconds.

"Hand it to you?" someone in the back asked instinctively.

"Yes." Horikita did not even shift her gaze. "If you want to get yourselves lost on the first day on the island, then you don't have to."

Ike Kanji was the first to mutter a low curse.

But after cursing, he still flipped open his notebook.

People in the front few rows also began lowering their heads to look for paper.

Hirata stood nearby, watching the scene, and his shoulders relaxed ever so slightly.

The people in the front row who had been secretly watching quickly withdrew their gazes.

Because they understood the most obvious thing.

Horikita was still standing at the front.

But Gu Heng had not retreated somewhere out of sight either.

These two were not fighting over who would completely suppress the other.

They were dividing positions.

Gu Heng stood up, and as he walked back, Hirata followed beside him and asked softly:

"You're really that sure everyone will accept this setup? Horikita on the surface, but actually the three of you holding things up together?"

"They will," Gu Heng said.

"Why?"

"Because most people don't care how the people behind the scenes divide things up." Gu Heng looked at the classroom ahead, where quiet discussions were still ongoing. "They only care whether someone will step forward first when something happens, whether someone can make them listen in ordinary times, and whether they can suffer fewer losses in the end."

"As long as someone has those three things covered, Class D will start recognizing the face on its own."

"As for how many people are standing behind that face, they won't think that deeply about it at first."

Hirata fell silent for a moment, then smiled.

"You really are good at breaking situations apart and looking at them."

"If you don't see through them, they'll mislead you later."

In the final seconds before the bell rang, Gu Heng returned to his seat and looked up at the entire classroom.

Horikita was still sitting in the front row.

Her back was perfectly straight.

As though that face had already been established there.

Gu Heng lowered his head, opened his notebook, and wrote a line on a blank page.

Class D's external image: establish it first.

The next step.

Would be the truly harder hurdle.

Getting Horikita to accept that standing at the front did not mean she could push everything according to her own will.