Horikita's Pride

Gu Heng had originally thought Horikita would keep that anger bottled up a little longer.

But as soon as the second class ended, she stopped him in the hallway.

Her move was sharp and decisive.

Very much like her.

"Talk."

She tossed out just those two words, then turned and walked away.

When Gu Heng followed her out, his pace did not falter in the slightest.

She had been able to accept the rough division of responsibilities outside the auditorium last night because there had been nothing wrong with the overall direction.

But accepting it did not mean she was comfortable with it.

Especially someone like her.

The more she knew you were right, the more that very fact made her bristle.

There was no one at the end of the hallway.

Horikita stopped by the window and got straight to the point when she turned around.

"You said all that deliberately in front of everyone yesterday."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because if I'd said it in private, you would've felt even worse today." Gu Heng leaned against the wall. "Saying it in front of everyone meant you could only put the results first."

Horikita's gaze instantly turned colder.

"You were thinking of me?"

"Half of it." Gu Heng said. "The other half was for Class D."

"At least you're honest."

"You don't like lies either."

Horikita fell silent for two seconds before suddenly asking:

"Have you always thought what I'm doing is ridiculous?"

That question was different from the ones before it.

Her voice had lowered, as though she genuinely wanted an answer.

Gu Heng looked at her without replying immediately.

"That depends on what you mean by ridiculous," he said.

"For example, wanting to secure my position on my own." Horikita stared at him. "For example, not wanting to admit that I have to rely on you, Hirata, or even Ayanokoji."

"It's not ridiculous," Gu Heng said. "The cost is just too high."

Horikita's brows immediately furrowed.

"What?"

"I said it isn't ridiculous." Gu Heng looked at her. "But what you want to protect isn't efficiency. It's total control. And that's exactly what Class D can least afford right now."

Horikita's expression darkened bit by bit.

"Do you think everything can be calculated in terms of costs and benefits?"

"Most things can."

"What about people?"

"People can too, of course," Gu Heng said.

"Gu Heng."

Horikita's voice grew colder at once.

"Have you gotten so used to treating everyone like tools?"

There it was.

What she truly could not swallow was this.

It was not, "What gives you the right to assign positions?"

It was, "Why can you always reduce people to functions and say it so naturally?"

Gu Heng did not dodge the question.

"If by tools, you mean first looking at whether someone can be useful in the matter at hand." He looked at Horikita. "Then yes, I do."

"You really dare admit it."

"Because pretending otherwise would be meaningless," Gu Heng said. "Don't you do the same? You just always want to dress it up with nicer-sounding words like 'ability,' 'responsibility,' and 'resolve.'"

"That's different."

"How is it different?"

"At least I wouldn't arrange other people's positions so casually like you do." Horikita stared at him. "And I certainly wouldn't push someone aside just because someone else is more suitable right now."

"But you would," Gu Heng said.

Horikita's expression changed.

"What gives you the right to say that?"

"Because if someone more suited to stand at the front and lead the class showed up tomorrow, your first thought wouldn't be to wish them luck." Gu Heng looked at her. "You'd want to prove that position should have been yours to begin with."

Even the sound of the wind in the hallway seemed to pause.

Horikita said nothing.

Because she could not find a rebuttal.

The most frightening part was that Gu Heng was not humiliating her.

He was merely stating the facts.

And he was far too accurate.

"Do you know what I hate most about you?" Horikita suddenly asked.

"What?"

"You always make the things people still want to pretend not to see sound so clear." She stared at him. "As if you don't care how harsh those words are."

"I do care."

This time, Horikita froze.

"You care?"

"I do." Gu Heng nodded. "But compared to harsh words, I'm more afraid of ugly results."

After those words fell, both of them were silent for several seconds.

The wind blew in through the open window, carrying a faint trace of warmth.

"Then what do you think I'm doing right now?" Horikita asked.

"You're making the whole class pay for your need for complete control," Gu Heng said.

"That's your judgment?"

"Yes."

"Then have you considered this?" Horikita's voice was very low. "If I let even that go, then what do I have left standing at the front?"

Gu Heng looked at her and, for once, did not answer immediately.

Because he could hear it.

This was no longer an argument.

She was genuinely asking.

That was what made people like her both frightening and pitiful.

Once they stopped clinging to I'll do it alone, they could briefly lose sight of how to define the value they had left.

"You still have execution, judgment, the ability to hold a room, and that willpower people notice before anything else." Gu Heng spoke slowly. "You're not useless."

"You just don't need to define being useful as having to claim all the power for yourself."

Horikita looked at him.

For the first time, her gaze was not so hard.

Not because she had yielded.

She had simply been struck somewhere too deeply to keep pushing back for the moment.

"So in your eyes, my best position right now is standing at the front as the face of it all?"

"Yes," Gu Heng said. "And not just the face."

"Then what?"

"The first layer that lets this whole thing be seen, accepted, and pushed forward." Gu Heng looked at her. "You think that's just window dressing, but if no one can hold the front, nothing behind it can even start moving."

Horikita was silent for a long time.

Long enough that Gu Heng thought she would simply suppress the subject and let it end there.

Then she suddenly asked another question.

"Then why are you willing to stand behind?"

There it was at last.

Gu Heng smiled faintly.

"Because I'm unwilling to let Class D lose over how we assign positions," he said. "Not because I like standing in the back."

"So you want the position at the front too."

"Of course I've thought about it." Gu Heng admitted it without hesitation. "It's just not worth it right now."

This time, Horikita did not get angry.

She stared at Gu Heng for two seconds.

This time, she heard neither perfunctory dismissal nor that fake magnanimity people put on for show.

Gu Heng had simply laid that desire on the table, then pushed it aside for the sake of the outcome.

People like that were irritating.

And frightening.

"Gu Heng."

"Yeah."

"One day, you're going to be very troublesome."

"So are you."

The two looked at each other for two seconds.

Neither of them smiled.

Yet that spark ready to explode at the slightest touch slowly dimmed.

Because the most painful thing had already been laid bare.

Horikita's pride.

Gu Heng's efficiency.

Neither of them could suddenly change.

But they had at least managed to bite into that bone a little.

"I won't completely agree with you right now," Horikita said at last.

"That's normal."

"But before the special exam, I won't deliberately fight you over the division of responsibilities."

"That's enough." Gu Heng nodded.

"However, I have a condition."

"Say it."

"If you assign my position again in the future, tell me to my face." Horikita looked at him. "Don't calculate me together with everyone else, then toss me a conclusion afterward."

The request was not soft.

But it was already a concession.

Gu Heng did not hesitate.

"Fine."

After hearing that, Horikita surprisingly said nothing more.

She merely turned around and looked out the window again.

After several seconds, she added in a very low voice:

"One more thing."

"What?"

"Next time, don't say it like I'm just a face." Her tone was cold. "It's irritating to hear."

Gu Heng watched her back, and the corner of his mouth twitched faintly.

"Got it."

On the way back to the classroom, Gu Heng did not say another word. He only paused for half a second at the door.

It had not been completely resolved.

And it could not possibly be completely resolved.

But Horikita was at least willing to put aside her discomfort for now.

That was enough to keep moving forward.

Just as Gu Heng sat down, Ayanokoji slowly walked over from the row by the window and stopped beside his desk.

"Finished talking?"

"More or less."

"It's a shame you didn't fight."

"You have that much free time?"

Ayanokoji glanced at him, his tone as flat as ever.

"I just think you're bolder than I expected when it comes to stepping on her pride."

Gu Heng looked up.

"What about you?"

"Me?" Ayanokoji thought for a moment. "I generally don't step where things might explode."

"So you can only play cleanup."

The corner of Ayanokoji's mouth lifted faintly.

"I'll remember that."

With that, he left.

Gu Heng watched his retreating figure, lightly tapping the doorframe with his finger before pulling it back.

What Ayanokoji had said just now hadn't been casual conversation.

He was watching to see whether Gu Heng truly dared to go after the people who were hardest to touch for the sake of this plan.

Good.

Then he could keep watching.

There were plenty more places ahead that were even harder to touch.