Her Brother Is Horikita Manabu?

Outdoor pool.

The swimming test had yet to officially begin, but the boys of Class 1-D were already unable to contain their restlessness. The girls had changed into swimsuits, and the air was filled with youthful energy that had the boys thoroughly excited.

The boys gathered in small groups. Some pretended to stretch, yet their eyes kept drifting toward the girls' line. The sounds of splashing water, whistles, and rough horseplay rang out without end.

Hasebe Haruka was here too. She wore a dark blue school jacket with the zipper pulled all the way up and the collar tightly sealed, wrapping her figure up completely.

She had claimed a corner at the very top of the stands in advance. It was separated from the boys' line by more than a dozen rows of steps and happened to sit in a blind spot beneath the shade canopy, making it inconspicuous.

Airi Sakura quietly moved over and sat beside her, then handed her an unopened bottle of water. The two girls sat shoulder to shoulder against the back of the stands, talking softly while keeping far away from everyone else.

Tatsuya Sakuya stood midway through the boys' line, his peripheral vision settling on the top of the stands.

Up in the stands, Airi Sakura looked down. After spotting Sakuya among the crowd, she whispered something into Hasebe's ear, then waved at him.

Sakuya waved back before withdrawing his gaze.

"Hey, Yamauchi. Up there."

Ike Kanji nudged Yamauchi Haruki beside him with his elbow and tilted his chin toward the stands. "Look, Hasebe actually came. In weather this hot, she's wrapped up like a rice dumpling. Isn't she suffocating?"

Yamauchi narrowed his eyes and glanced upward, a lecherous smile curling across his lips. "Wrapping up won't help. With her size, they're bigger than my head... There's no hiding them. Makes you wonder who'll get to enjoy them someday."

Several boys around them gathered together and let out strange laughter.

Ike Kanji raised his voice. "Just talking is boring. I'll bet three thousand points that Hasebe is at least an F."

"I think she's probably a G."

"Then I'll put down five thousand on E!"

Once the topic came up, the boys' voices all grew louder.

"Hey, how much did you bet?"

"I put down three thousand on G!"

"Then you'd better watch out. You might not have any allowance left later."

"Who's scared of who?"

Ike and Yamauchi were clearly taking advantage of the class's noisy, chaotic atmosphere and the setting of an outdoor pool.

The girls had changed into swimsuits, lowering the usual social boundaries. Chabashira stood far away and was not paying much attention, so the two idiots believed they had found a lawless place where they could talk as crudely as they pleased.

Tatsuya Sakuya stood amid the crowd, coldly watching those fellows egging each other on without restraint. His gaze shifted toward Hasebe.

In the stands, Hasebe's fingers suddenly tightened. She had clearly caught wind of what was being said.

The plastic water bottle in her hand crumpled beneath her grip. Her expression darkened, and she seemed ready to leave this troublesome place immediately.

Airi Sakura tightly gripped her wrist. She said nothing, only shook her head desperately, her eyes full of anxiety and pleading.

Below the stands, Horikita Suzune was stretching before entering the water.

Ike Kanji and Yamauchi's voices carried over from behind her. She heard every word clearly.

Horikita did not turn around at once.

She had never been someone who liked meddling in other people's business, nor was she the type to rush forward as some champion of justice for the sake of so-called classmate camaraderie.

But as a girl, the instinctive disgust she felt upon hearing such shamelessly vulgar remarks overwhelmed her rational judgment.

This ugly, disorderly spectacle was ruining what little class atmosphere Class 1-D had left.

She walked over to the group of boys.

"Ike. Yamauchi."

Horikita Suzune had no intention of being pleasant to them.

"Your behavior just now constituted public sexual harassment of female classmates. I will report it to Chabashira truthfully, word for word."

Having been caught, Ike Kanji decided to muddy the waters. He immediately craned his neck and shouted, "Hey, hey, Horikita, it was just a joke. Do you really have to go tattling? You're sticking your nose in way too far!"

"Exactly."

Yamauchi chimed in, finding his courage. His lips twisted disdainfully.

"We didn't name anyone. You're the one who insisted on butting in. What are you acting so high and mighty for?"

Seeing this, several boys joined in with sparse, mocking laughter, eager to make the situation worse.

Horikita Suzune clenched her fists at her sides.

If the school allowed students to fight, Horikita probably would have wanted to KO the several scoundrels before her right now.

She was clearly in the right, yet these two shameless men who had dropped all pretense did not care about being reported to a teacher. Moral persuasion meant nothing against people who refused to follow rules.

Most of the boys in Class 1-D had long been dissatisfied with her usual aloof attitude, and now she had instead become the target of the group's jeering.

The situation fell into an awkward deadlock.

Tatsuya Sakuya quietly shook his head to himself.

Against scoundrels like Ike and Yamauchi, who had neither shame nor any concern for class order, simply threatening to report them to a teacher would have no practical effect.

The only solution was to crush them with an absolute fear beyond their comprehension.

A set of light footsteps broke the oppressive silence.

Tatsuya Sakuya walked over and pulled Ike and Yamauchi aside.

"Ike, Yamauchi, stop messing around."

There was a faint, gentle smile in his voice, smoothly suppressing the jeering around them.

"If Horikita gets serious, you really won't be able to handle it. If she says she'll report you, she definitely will. You know that, right?"

Ike Kanji opened his mouth to argue. "Report us, then. There's no evidence anyway, and Chabashira can't be bothered to—"

Before he could finish, Tatsuya Sakuya smoothly picked up where he left off.

"Chabashira is indeed a minor matter. At worst, she'll scold you a little. But listen carefully—her surname is Horikita. Horikita Suzune's Horikita."

"So what if it's Horikita? Is Horikita the greatest name in the world? Hahahaha?"

Ike and Yamauchi had no idea what he meant.

"The Student Council president is also named Horikita."

A pear blossom drifted before your window, and you mistook it for a flower from heaven.

Ike and Yamauchi's expressions changed. They nervously swallowed.

They might not have feared Chabashira, but if the Student Council president wanted to make trouble for them behind the scenes, they would be in serious trouble.

If Horikita Suzune really went and complained to her brother, then their good lives might be over.

"Horikita, we're sorry. We were wrong. We'll never do this again. Please, be the bigger person and don't hold it against us."

Ike and Yamauchi completely abandoned their earlier scoundrel-like attitude and hurried before Horikita Suzune, apologizing again and again.

"I didn't know. I really didn't know your brother was the Student Council president. If we had known, how could we have dared joke around with you?"

"We'll apologize to everyone. Every bit of blame is ours. We only ask that you forgive us."

The two of them looked as though they were about to kneel and beg for forgiveness.

At the back of the crowd, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka silently observed everything.

With the matter resolved, Tatsuya Sakuya turned and prepared to return to the line.

However, Horikita Suzune did not move.

She had never mentioned this matter to anyone.

She had enrolled here because of her brother, and since entering the school, she had never revealed their relationship to anyone.

How, exactly, did the person before her know?

"Sakuya."

Horikita called out to stop him.

"What exactly have you done?"