The Other Three Classes

Hoshinomiya Chie stood at the front of Class B, connected her tablet to the projector, and clapped twice as the spreadsheet appeared. "April's evaluation is out. Class B has 730 points, which means everyone will receive 73,000 points next month."

Someone whistled from the back of the classroom. Shibata Hayate tapped his pen against the edge of his desk. "73,000. Not bad." Several girls slapped palms with each other. Ichinose Honami raised her hand, and Hoshinomiya pointed in her direction. "Go ahead."

"Sensei, what about the other classes?"

"Class A has 980, Class C has 360, and Class D has 0." Hoshinomiya blinked after listing them. "730 is above the passing line. Nobody lost many discipline points in the first month, and the class atmosphere is great."

Kanzaki Ryuji adjusted his glasses and turned toward Ichinose. "Class A is 250 points ahead of us."

"Two hundred and fifty points is a gap. If we can't make it up in one month, we'll make it up in two." Ichinose stood up, her short blond hair bouncing against her shoulders as she turned to face the back rows. "730 is only the starting point. The evaluation standards might change next month, and discipline points might not be the biggest factor anymore."

Amikura Mako rested her chin on her hand. "Class C only got 360, and Class D got zero outright. We're doing pretty well, aren't we?"

"There's a difference between doing well and doing well enough." Ichinose's tone was mild, but the classroom fell silent for a moment. Then she immediately lifted the corners of her mouth. "Still, 730 isn't bad. I'm buying everyone drinks at lunch today."

Shibata raised his hand. "Lemon tea."

"You're quick." Ichinose smiled and jotted it down.

During the break, Class B naturally formed into several groups. The girls gathered around Ichinose to discuss bulk-buying reference books, while the boys clustered around Kanzaki to calculate how to allocate their points. Himeno Yuki scrolled through convenience store discount pages on her phone, and Hamaguchi Tetsuya leaned over for a look. "If we get 73,000 next month, after setting aside what we need to save, that should be just enough for everyday expenses." Kanzaki nodded. "Don't rush to buy expensive things. Let's wait until the school announces next month's evaluation standards."

Ichinose wrote three lines in her notebook, then looked up and clapped her hands. "Oh, right. Class D next door has zero points. They'll only be able to eat the free meal plan next month." Shibata started to whistle, then stopped. "Everyone knows what Class D is like during lessons." Ichinose gave a quiet hum but did not respond, steering the conversation back to the group-buying list. "We'll buy the reference books and daily necessities in two batches. The convenience store has discounts at the end of the month."

Watanabe leaned against the windowsill and glanced outside. "Class A got 980. They were still discussing it after the bell rang earlier."

"Class A has its own pace." Ichinose capped her pen, the silhouettes of people passing through the corridor outside reflected in her blue eyes. "What we need to do is turn 730 into 830."

Sakagami Kazuma was still chewing gum when he entered Class C. He tossed his tablet onto the desk without connecting it to the projector. "Class C has 360 points, so everyone gets 36,000 points next month. Class A has 980, Class B has 730, and Class D has 0. The gap is huge. The first month is only the beginning, and the evaluation method will change later. Class dismissed."

He was already out the door, but the minty scent of his gum still lingered around the podium.

Ishizaki Daichi was the first to stand, his chair legs screeching harshly across the floor. "360? Class B's 730 is more than double ours?"

"Sit down." Ryuuen Kakeru's voice came from the center of the last row. It was not loud, but Ishizaki's knees bent automatically. Ryuuen had one leg propped on his desk, the curve of his mouth unchanged. "How much did Class B get?"

"730." Ishizaki did not sit, turning to look at him. "Don't you think there's a problem?"

"There is." Ryuuen lowered his leg, and his chair dropped forward with a thud. "The problem is whether you'll spring out of your chair."

Ibuki Mio sat by the window, her blue-black short hair covering half an eyebrow. She had not looked at Ishizaki even once. Instead, she was looking at the broom in the corner, which had been left there untouched for two weeks. Kaneda Satoru pushed his glasses up his nose and wrote something in a black leather notebook. "Three hundred and sixty means we lost a lot of discipline points, but the school won't disclose exactly which categories they came from."

"Who cares which categories?" Ryuuen stood and headed for the back door. As he passed Ishizaki, he patted his shoulder—not too hard, not too lightly, but with just enough force to make it sink an inch. "The difference between 360 and 730 isn't having 400 more points. It's who cares about those 400 points. Class B cares. Class A cares. Do you?"

"Of course I care."

"Then stop kicking desks." Ryuuen pulled open the back door. Albert rose from his seat against the wall in the last row and followed him. Their two backs disappeared around the corner of the corridor.

Ishizaki stood there for two seconds before straightening his chair and sitting down. Ibuki finally looked away from the broom and glanced at him without saying anything. Kaneda closed his notebook. "What he means is that before the next evaluation, we should get the things we can control under control. If we lose discipline points again, we won't be at 360 anymore."

Several boys in the back quietly discussed how to spend 36,000 points, keeping their voices low as though afraid Ryuuen might return from the corridor and overhear. Shiina Hiyori had been reading the entire time, a worn paperback spread over her knees. She turned one page, then another, as though nothing had happened in the classroom, as though the sound of Ryuuen patting Ishizaki's shoulder had never existed.

The mood of Class D's homeroom meeting was wrong from the very first step Chabashira Sae took into the room.

She had no tablet and no projector, only a sheet of paper. She walked to the podium, unfolded it, and held it up. Four numbers had been handwritten on it, the ink not even fully dry yet. Class A: 980. Class B: 730. Class C: 360. Class D: 0.

"These are your results for the first month." She set the paper on the podium and tapped the final zero with her finger. "Class D, zero points. Everyone will receive zero points next month."

Sudo Ken was the first to stand, his chair scraping metallically against the floor. "Zero points? Why?" His voice was loud enough that someone in the front row shrank back.

"Late to class, chatting during lessons, phones left on, roughhousing in the corridors, and someone sleeping in class until they were caught during an inspection." Chabashira's tone as she recited them was no different from reading a menu. "You lost points in every discipline category during the first month. By the time you reached zero, we had not even used all the possible deductions."

Sudo swept his gaze across the back rows. Ike Kanji shrank into his chair, while Yamauchi Haruki stared at his desktop without daring to look up. "Who got caught three times?" Sudo asked again. No one answered.

Karuizawa Kei snapped shut the mirror in her hand, her blond hair swinging against her shoulder. "So we can't even go to the convenience store next month?"

"The cafeteria has a free meal plan. You won't starve." Chabashira glanced at her.

Matsushita Chiaki quietly said, "We're done for," beside Karuizawa, while Mori Nene bit her lip and said nothing. Hirata Yosuke stood from the front row, his tone gentle but his voice clear. "Sensei, will the evaluation standards be adjusted starting next month?"

"They will. The school will announce the specific changes separately." Chabashira made the statement extremely brief. "But if you can't even earn points for basic discipline, any adjustment to the standards will lead to the same result for you."

Horikita Suzune sat in the second-to-last row by the window. She had not raised her head throughout the entire process. Her left hand rested on the desk, slightly curled, while the pen in her right had stopped halfway through a line in her notebook, the ink bleeding into a small blot. Yukimura Teruhiko adjusted his glasses, turned a page in his workbook, then turned it back. The rustle of paper sounded unusually loud in the classroom.

Kushida Kikyo stood from the front row, her light brown short hair swaying gently at her shoulders. Her hands were clasped before her. "Sensei, we still have a chance to make up for this, right? If our discipline improves next month, our evaluation score can rise again."

Chabashira looked at her, something in her gaze that was hard to tell whether it was approval or mockery. "The prerequisite for improving is maintaining discipline first. There are forty people in this class. If even one person runs in the corridor, all forty of you lose points."

She left the paper on the podium and walked back to the door. At the doorframe, she paused for a step and half turned her face. "You had the makings of a high-scoring class, but you trampled it all into the mud yourselves." The door did not close loudly, but no one spoke in the classroom.

In the corridor, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka leaned against a locker. Sudo burst out of the classroom and nearly ran into him. "Did you hear that? Zero points! We can only eat the free meal plan next month!"

Ayanokoji glanced at him without speaking, his gaze passing over Sudo's shoulder to the end of the corridor. Horikita emerged from a door on the other side and walked in the opposite direction. Her steps were slightly faster than usual, her braided left temple lock swinging over her shoulder as the tail of her white ribbon flipped in the corridor breeze.

Kushida came chasing out of the classroom and stopped beside Ayanokoji, her voice too soft for Sudo to hear clearly. "Horikita-san, she..."

"Leave her alone." Ayanokoji withdrew his gaze from the end of the corridor.

Koenji Rokusuke emerged from the classroom's back door in the corner, stretched lazily, and adjusted his bangs in the window glass, his blond hair glinting in the evening sun. Then he headed toward the cafeteria, having not looked at a single person from beginning to end.