Points Announced

A month passed just like that. Nothing particularly earth-shattering happened.

Every morning at seven thirty, his alarm rang on time. Yuto turned it off, lay in bed for another two minutes, then got up, washed up, changed clothes, and bought bread and milk from the cafeteria to eat on his way to the school building. He had four classes in the morning, ate lunch in the cafeteria at noon, worked at the cake shop in the afternoon if he had no classes, occasionally went out for milk tea with Kushida on weekends, or stayed curled up in his dorm reading. His days were ordinary but never dull. Yuto even felt that this orderly routine was far more comfortable than he had imagined before being transported here.

No major incident broke out this month. Yuto had remained on guard at first, but after two or three weeks passed without anything happening, he gradually relaxed. Maybe certain triggers had not been activated yet, or maybe the timeline was not exactly the same as he remembered. Since nothing had happened, he had no intention of stirring things up himself. He would set it aside for now.

What truly changed Class D was the chain reaction caused by that information becoming public.

During the first week, everyone was still having trouble adjusting. Ike walked to the convenience store entrance several times before turning back. Yamauchi sighed in class, saying he wanted to buy a new game. Sudo wore a dark expression the entire time and barely spoke. The three of them used to stop by the convenience store every day after school for snacks and drinks, and now that they suddenly stopped, they could not muster any energy.

During breaks, Ike often lay sprawled over his desk in a daze, while Yamauchi kept browsing shopping sites on his phone before sighing and closing them. Sudo was tougher about it, but Yuto noticed that every time he passed a vending machine, he slowed down before quickening his pace and walking past it, as if he were competing with himself.

But by the second week, things began to improve.

Ike started keeping accounts in a little notebook, writing down everything he spent each day. He even drew up a budget chart and stuck it to the inside of his desk drawer. Sometimes, he would hold the notebook and discuss which expenses were worth it and which were not with Kushida. Kushida would seriously help him break it down, telling him which costs could be cut and which were necessary.

Yamauchi also started bringing packed lunches to school, saying the cafeteria was too expensive and cooking for himself was cheaper. At first, his lunches looked terrible. His rice balls were misshapen, and his side dishes consisted of nothing but fried eggs and sausage. But as time went on, they actually began to look better and better. Sometimes, he even took pictures and posted them in the group chat to show off his progress.

Even Sudo reduced the number of times he went to the vending machines. He still bought drinks, but no longer several bottles a day like before. Instead, he started bringing a water bottle, filling it before leaving in the morning and refilling it at the water dispensers in the school building when it ran out. Some days, he did not need to spend a single point on drinks.

Kushida helped out quite a bit during this process.

From time to time, she encouraged everyone in class to share money-saving tips. She also organized an experience-sharing meeting during class meeting time. Everyone talked about how they planned to save points that month. Some suggested pooling orders to buy large bags of snacks and splitting them, some proposed buying textbooks together to share the costs, and others suggested that cooking together on weekends was more economical than eating separately. Kushida wrote down all these suggestions, organized them into a short list of tips, and added a line of encouragement at the end.

Her approach livened up the previously gloomy class atmosphere considerably. Everyone went from initial anxiety to feeling like they were all working hard together. Her angelic image became even more firmly established over the month, but Yuto could tell that she was no longer doing these things just to maintain that image. She genuinely wanted the class to improve. During breaks, she would take the initiative to ask Ike whether his budget was enough for the month, remind Yamauchi not to buy overly expensive lunch ingredients, and even joke with Sudo that he was splurging again whenever he bought a drink.

These little things seemed natural, but the old Kushida would never have cared about them. Before, she only put on a show in front of others, and once she turned around, she could not be bothered to care anymore. But now, she truly cared about these matters. Yuto could feel the change in her attitude.

Yuto had not been idle this month either.

After the information business temporarily came to an end, he focused most of his energy on his work at the cake shop. Miki was becoming more and more satisfied with his performance. Not only did she let him independently handle the preparation of matcha cake rolls, she also raised his hourly wage from three hundred points to three hundred and fifty.

Now, he went to the shop for two or three hours after school every day. If he had nothing to do on weekends, he went in to help as well. When making cakes, he did not have to think about anything. He only needed to focus on the movements of his hands. Sifting flour, separating eggs, whipping cream—he had become proficient at every step.

When the oven chimed and the scent of cake wafted out, the sense of accomplishment was something he could never get at school. That concentration gave him somewhere outside school where he could catch his breath.

The days passed one by one in this rhythm. Nothing major happened, and the class remained peaceful.

Yuto occasionally ran into Hiyori in the library, and they would briefly talk about the books they had been reading lately. Hiyori was reading Natsume Soseki's Kokoro that month. Yuto had read it before, so he casually shared a few of his thoughts. Hiyori's eyes lit up when she heard his interpretation. She said Yuto's perspective was very unusual, and that she had never considered it from that angle.

But their exchanges never went very deep. Each time, they only spoke for ten or so minutes before quietly returning to their own books. When leaving, Hiyori would say, "See you next time," then lower her head and continue turning pages. Yuto thought this pace was nice. There was no need to rush; they could take it slowly.

Horikita did not come to him again to discuss cooperation either. Since being rejected at the café last time, she had not brought up moving up a class again. The two continued sitting beside each other in the classroom as usual, occasionally exchanging a sentence or two. She would ask if he had finished his homework, and he would ask whether she had been called on by the teacher that day. Their conversations were brief, almost routine.

But Yuto noticed that she sometimes secretly looked at him during breaks. Whenever he caught her, she would immediately look away and pretend to be looking somewhere else. She did not say it aloud, but Yuto knew she still cared about being rejected last time. She was probably wondering why Yuto would rather be close to Kushida than work with her.

At two thirty in the afternoon, the last class ended. Chabashira stood at the podium with a sheet of paper in her hand, her expression no different from usual.

She swept her eyes over the classroom, then said, "I'll announce this month's class points."

The classroom instantly fell silent. Everyone looked up at her. Ike put down his pen, Yamauchi lifted himself from his desk, and even Sudo put away his usual careless demeanor. Even several students who normally did not care much about class matters looked over. The air seemed to freeze, and no one spoke.

Chabashira lowered her eyes to the numbers on the paper and read them one by one. "Class A: 964 points. Class B: 978 points. Class C: 618 points. Class D: 264 points."

After finishing, she put away the paper without saying anything else and merely looked at everyone. The classroom was silent.

Sudo was the first to break it. "Only 264?"

Chabashira glanced at him. "Having that many in your first month after enrollment is already not bad. Besides, the other classes had information. Naturally, they earned higher scores because they performed well."

Ike muttered quietly, "But Class A has over nine hundred points. That's way too big a gap."

Chabashira did not respond. She only said, "There will be further adjustments next month. If you want to move up a class, figure it out yourselves." With that, she left the classroom.

Once she was gone, the classroom exploded into discussion. Some said they had spent forty or fifty thousand points in the first week alone. Others said they would not have bought so much stuff if they had known. Some were relieved that they had Kushida's information at least, or they might not have even had two hundred points.

Kushida sat in her seat without rushing to speak. After the discussions quieted slightly, she finally said, "Actually, 264 points is not that bad. At least we have a foundation instead of zero points. If we plan properly this month, we should be able to save quite a lot."

Hirata nodded beside her. "Kushida is right. Just look at Class B's performance. If we take things seriously, we can improve."

Sudo snorted. "Class B and Class A both have over nine hundred. That's more than three times what we have."

Kushida asked in return, "Then that just means we need to work harder too. As long as we take action, we can definitely catch up."

Sudo said nothing further. He might not have accepted it verbally, but he knew Kushida was right.

Yuto sat in his seat without joining the discussion, running the four classes' numbers through his mind. Class B's 978 points had surpassed Class A's 964, which was more or less what he had expected. Ichinose's class was indeed united, and its students followed the rules and rarely made mistakes. With the information making them even more cautious, their overall performance over the month was slightly better than Class A's. This showed that the information had truly worked. Both Class A and Class B had maintained extremely high discipline because they knew the news beforehand.

Class C had 618 points, a little higher than he had expected. It seemed Ryuuen had used force to suppress the class. Though the method was crude, it was effective. At the very least, Class C had lost far fewer points than it normally would have.

Class D had 264 points. They were at the bottom, but at least they could still breathe.

During the break, Kushida walked over to Yuto's desk and lowered her voice. "Two hundred and sixty-four. That's a little better than I expected. I thought it would be even lower."

Yuto turned a page in his book. "It's alright. At least it didn't drop below two hundred."

"You know, Class B surpassed Class A." There was a hint of amusement in Kushida's voice. "Ichinose's class really is impressive. And did you notice? Both Class A and Class B have over nine hundred points. That proves the information really helped them."

Yuto nodded. Kushida's powers of observation really were sharp.

"But our class has room to improve too," Kushida said. "This month, I plan to do more to help everyone, like organizing study groups or helping sort out notes. If we can get good grades, the class points will rise too."

Yuto nodded.

After school, Yuto went to work at the cake shop. Miki was wiping cups behind the counter. When she saw him arrive, she lifted her chin. "You're here? Make two trays of matcha cake rolls for me today. They need to be picked up before five."

"Alright."

Yuto tied on his apron and began preparing the ingredients. He sifted the cake flour twice, separated the eggs, dissolved matcha powder in warm water, and whipped the cream on low speed. Every step had become muscle memory.

Halfway through, the bell above the door rang. It was Kushida. She wore a light blue short-sleeved shirt and carried a paper bag. When she entered, she smiled and greeted Miki before walking to the counter.

"Still busy?"

"Yeah."

Kushida placed the paper bag on the counter. "I brought you milk tea. Thirty percent sugar, no ice."

Yuto smiled. "Thanks."

Kushida leaned against the counter and watched him operate the mixer without any hurry to leave. After a while, she spoke. "I looked at the other classes' rankings. Class B is first, Class A is second, Class C is third, and we're fourth. But the gap is huge this time. Classes A and B both have over nine hundred points, and Class C has over six hundred."

"Yeah."

"So I was thinking, if we could be as united as Class B, we should be able to catch up too."

Yuto said, "Let's get through this month first. As long as we don't make any major mistakes, our points should rise a bit."

Kushida smiled. "You don't seem worried at all."

"Worrying won't help. What's coming will come."

Kushida did not press him further. She merely nudged the milk tea toward him. "Drink it first, or it'll get cold."

Yuto picked up the milk tea and took a sip. The tapioca pearls had just the right chew, and the sweetness was perfect too. She had completely remembered his preferences by now.

"Is it good?"

"Yeah."

Kushida smiled, said, "Then I'll be going," and left the cake shop. The bell rang once as her figure disappeared through the door.

That night, after returning to his dorm, Yuto lay on his bed and ran through the points announced that day in his head.

Class A: 964. Class B: 978. Class C: 618. Class D: 264. This result was interesting. Both Classes A and B had maintained extremely high points because of the information, proving that knowing the rules in advance was indeed useful. Class C had over six hundred points. Ryuuen's method of using force to suppress the class was crude, but effective.