Hirata's Answer

After Gu Heng and Horikita's conversation, things stayed quiet for only half a day.

At lunch the next day, the moment Hirata stood up from his seat, several people gathered around him.

"Hirata, do we need to form groups first for that special exam?"

"Did you already work something out yesterday?"

"If we really have to move in teams, will people like us with poor stamina be disliked?"

One question after another.

Even after asking, some of them did not leave, standing nearby and waiting for him to finish answering the previous question.

Hirata raised a hand and pressed at his temple, finally persuading the last person to return to their seat.

Halfway through lunch break, Hirata finally stopped Gu Heng in the hallway.

"I want to speak with you alone for a moment."

Gu Heng glanced at him and nodded.

The two of them walked over to the vending machines.

It was not particularly quiet there.

But it was suitable for the kind of conversation that did not require them to lower their voices too much.

"You knew this would happen," Hirata said bluntly.

"What?"

"Everyone has started assuming that some questions should be brought to me first." Hirata looked at him. "They've also started assuming that I'm the person between you and Horikita who can 'make them listen.'"

"Yes."

"You admitted that pretty quickly."

"Because it's the truth."

Hirata sighed and leaned against the vending machine.

"Gu Heng, it's not that I don't want to help," he said. "But I don't want to become your loudspeaker."

Hirata pressed his drink against the vending machine's casing, and cold droplets immediately clung to his knuckles.

That was what truly made him uncomfortable.

"You think I'm using you for that?" Gu Heng asked.

"Partly." Hirata was very frank. "And you wouldn't deny it yourself."

Gu Heng did not answer immediately. He only looked at him.

"Then tell me first—what do you want to become?" Gu Heng asked.

Hirata was visibly taken aback.

"What?"

"You just said you don't want to be a loudspeaker." Gu Heng's tone was even. "Then what do you want to be in Class D?"

Hirata fell silent for a few seconds, his thumb rubbing back and forth over the bottle twice.

"I want..." He paused. "I don't want to just be the person responsible for soothing everyone."

"Go on."

"I hope Class D won't have to move forward by someone forcing everyone along, or by one person calculating everything while everyone else is only responsible for following orders." Hirata looked at Gu Heng. "If I step in, I want to stand in the position that lets this class truly start moving on its own."

After listening, Gu Heng nodded.

"Very good."

Hirata frowned instead.

"Don't you think that's idealistic?"

"A little," Gu Heng said. "But that isn't a bad thing."

"Then why are you..."

"Because that proves you aren't here to be a loudspeaker." Gu Heng looked at him. "You're here to hold together the part in the middle."

Hirata's gaze paused.

"What does that mean?"

"It means this system of mine can't always rely on me forcing it down on everyone." He said "mine" as naturally as anything. "Horikita's hard-pushing approach can't always be left for her to shoulder alone either. Someone in the middle has to connect 'why we're doing this' with 'what losses everyone can avoid by doing it.'"

"That isn't some middle layer," Hirata said. "That's translation."

"That works too." Gu Heng nodded. "But if you can keep holding this together and get everyone to truly act on it, then it won't just be translation anymore."

Hirata fell silent.

He lowered his eyes, lightly tapped the bottle twice with his fingers, then stopped.

"Do you know what I'm most afraid of?" Hirata suddenly asked.

"What?"

"I'm afraid that one day, I'll clearly be helping everyone, but in the end I'll only be helping you push everyone toward the position you want them in." Hirata looked at him. "If that happens, then I'm no different from those people who only know how to go along with the situation."

Gu Heng paused.

"Then I'll be honest too." Gu Heng looked at him. "If everyone in Class D could develop their own judgment, control their own emotions, and understand the rules on their own, I wouldn't need you at all."

Hirata gave a bitter smile.

"That opening doesn't sound very promising."

"But the truth is, they can't." Gu Heng said. "Not now. So when you step in, you won't be pushing them toward the position I want."

"You'll be gathering the understanding and emotions that would otherwise scatter apart in Class D, turning them into something that can move."

Hirata said nothing.

Gu Heng continued.

"You can disagree with one of my judgments," he said. "You can think Horikita is being too harsh sometimes, or that I'm being too cold sometimes. You can even change the wording in the middle, slow the pace, or delay the push. As long as it genuinely works in the end, that counts as your judgment, not a copy of mine."

Wind blew in from the end of the hallway, dispersing some of the heat around the vending machines.

Hirata stood there, his shoulders gradually relaxing.

The wind from the hallway stirred the loose strands of hair over Hirata's forehead.

Hirata lowered his eyes and lightly tapped the bottle once.

"So," Hirata slowly said, "you don't want me to be your loudspeaker."

"Yes."

"You want me to be someone who can make this system acceptable to more people, while also cushioning and rewriting it according to my own judgment."

"Yes."

"That sounds much better than being a loudspeaker."

"Because they were never the same thing."

Hirata smiled.

This time, when he smiled, his shoulders visibly loosened a little more.

"Then let me ask something more direct," he said. "What if one day, I think you've gone off course?"

"Then stop me," Gu Heng answered immediately.

"That easily?"

"What else?" Gu Heng looked at him. "I didn't bring you in as decoration."

As soon as he said that, Hirata lowered his head and smiled. The hand holding the drink bottle was no longer as tight as before.

"Fine." Hirata finally nodded.

Gu Heng looked at him.

"Fine what?"

"Fine means that starting today, I'm officially stepping in." Hirata raised his eyes. "Not just smoothing things over when you argue, and not just offering everyone a way out when their emotions fall apart."

"I'll be responsible for pulling together the most ordinary people in Class D—the ones most likely to scatter—and turning them into the group that can keep up."

He did not say it loudly.

After hearing him, Gu Heng did not respond immediately. He only watched him and nodded once.

"Good." Gu Heng nodded.

"But I have conditions too," Hirata said.

"Why does everyone like setting conditions today?"

Hirata smiled.

"Because if I work with you without making the conditions clear first, you'll probably count them in by default later."

"That makes sense," Gu Heng said. "Go ahead."

"First, whenever something involves a large-scale push within the class, let me know what your bottom line is beforehand." Hirata looked at him. "Otherwise, I can't judge how much I should soften things."

"Fine."

"Second, if there's ever a time when you only want the fastest result and don't care whether you crush a group of people in the process, tell me beforehand too." Hirata lowered his voice slightly. "I might not be able to stop you, but at least I need to know whether I'm helping or simply letting it happen."

At those words, Gu Heng fell silent for half a second.

Then he nodded.

"Fine."

Hirata looked at him and suddenly let out a long breath.

As if he had finally put down something he had been carrying for a long time.

"Then that's it," he said. "Gu Heng, starting today, I'm not your person."

"You never were."

"But I'm Class D's person."

After saying that, Hirata did not look away.

Gu Heng smiled.

"Fine."

"Your welcome sounds pretty cold too."

"What, do you want me to applaud?"

Hirata laughed despite himself and shook his head.

"Forget it," he said. "The fact that you can say welcome at all is already pretty generous."

As they walked back, Gu Heng did not say anything else.

When they were nearly at the classroom door, Hirata suddenly spoke again.

"Oh, right."

"Yeah?"

"Sudo got into another argument with someone in the back row just now."

"And?"

"And halfway through, he stopped himself." Hirata smiled. "He actually turned around to see whether Horikita was going to write down his name."

The corner of Gu Heng's mouth lifted slightly, the curve shallow.

"Good," he said. "The class rules have finally sunk their teeth into someone."

Hirata looked at him without smiling, only tightening his grip on the drink in his hand.

The moment they reached the classroom door, the subdued conversation from the back row stopped for half a beat.

Yamauchi leaned back in his chair, seemingly not intending to take it all back, and spoke half-jokingly.

"So now even Hirata has gone over to their side?"

Someone beside him added,

"So from now on, people like us can't even complain a little without it counting as refusing to cooperate?"

The air tightened slightly.

Hirata stopped walking.

This time, he did not look at Gu Heng first, nor did he instinctively smile and try to smooth things over like before.

"You can complain." Hirata looked toward the back row, his voice not loud. "But if all you want is to keep pulling yourselves apart, I'll stop you first from now on."

The people in the back row were visibly stunned.

Gu Heng stood beside him and did not take over for him.

Because from this moment on, Hirata could no longer be only the person who offended no one.

And the first people in Class D who would truly feel uncomfortable with this new position had already begun to emerge.