Cliques

"Lezheng, please wait." A handsome boy stopped Lezheng as he was about to leave.

"What is it, Satonaka?" Lezheng asked with feigned curiosity.

"I just wanted to ask what you think about the Special Exams."

"Special Exams, as the name suggests, are exams that are rather special."

"That's not what we meant!" a girl named Sawada said, stamping her foot.

"Just keep living the way you normally do. There will be more Special Exams later, but we still don't know what they'll involve, so there's no point thinking too much about them."

"That's true." Satonaka Cong'an felt considerably more at ease after hearing that.

They weren't stupid. Since they had chosen to side with Lezheng, they would also be excluded by the other two factions. Fortunately, what Lezheng implied through his words was that he didn't intend to be a lone wolf.

But perhaps that wasn't actually the case...

"I'll head off first. You guys keep talking." Lezheng said goodbye and left.

This noon was the Student Council's first meeting since school began, and President Horikita had specifically messaged him to ask him to attend.

Knock, knock, knock.

"Come in." A somewhat stern voice came from the Student Council room.

After briefly greeting President Horikita and his sidekick, Lezheng found his seat and sat down.

"Congratulations on your excellent results in the exam for new students," Horikita said evenly.

"My classmates are all very capable," Lezheng replied.

After that exchange, the room fell silent again until the remaining members arrived.

"Horikita-senpai, you're as energetic as ever," the blond vice president said flippantly.

"Nagumo, be quiet." Tachibana slapped the table indignantly.

"And you're as cute as ever, Tachibana-senpai."

"That's enough, Nagumo." Horikita cut their argument short.

"You're... a new face." Nagumo looked Lezheng over, then turned to Horikita. "This young junior must be the first-year you recruited, Horikita-senpai."

"Hello, everyone. I'm Lezheng Youyan from Class 1-A." Lezheng stood up and introduced himself.

"The meeting will now begin." Seeing this, Horikita immediately cut off any further conversation between them.

"Then let's talk after the meeting, Lezheng." Nagumo returned to his seat with a smile.

The meeting covered nothing more than club issues: one club had been disbanded because its activities were too outrageous, another because it didn't have enough members...

How is this any different from class? Lezheng yawned and looked around at the people seated there.

Perhaps because a year of students had graduated, the current Student Council had only six members, including Lezheng.

To sum up, the six of them were: a serious leader, an admiring secretary, a pretty record keeper, a provocative blond, an attentive vice president, and a slacking subordinate.

No matter how he looked at it, this didn't seem like a Student Council here to discuss school club issues.

"That concludes the meeting."

Hearing those heavenly words, Lezheng instantly snapped out of his daze. To avoid being pestered by the blond afterward, he quickly packed his things and left. Fortunately, Horikita Manabu hadn't talked for too long, so there was still time for a midday nap.

After the lunch break came the eagerly anticipated swimming class.

The pool water was crystal clear, and it was even an indoor pool. For the students, it couldn't have been better. They could also feast their eyes-after all, everyone liked looking at beautiful things.

"Did you switch places with someone?" Lezheng looked over Kamuro, who stood on his left.

"Hah, you're so full of yourself." Kamuro shot back without backing down.

"Why is Sakayanagi sitting over there?" Lezheng glanced at Sakayanagi, who was sitting in the second-floor spectator seats.

"She's in poor health and can't take part in sports. Are you disappointed you didn't get to see her in a swimsuit?" Kamuro looked at Lezheng with some disdain.

"Of course I'm disappointed."

"Pervert."

"Thanks for the compliment."

By the time their routine bickering ended, the PE teacher's speech was also nearing its end.

"...In the lessons to come, I'll teach every one of you to swim. Learning to swim will definitely come in handy later... definitely."

Those words made some of Class A's students' eyes light up. Some of them were quite perceptive, and those two instances of "definitely" immediately made them take swimming seriously.

"Sir..." Katsuragi followed his usual practice of asking whenever he had a question.

"No questions unrelated to the lesson. I won't answer them." The PE teacher cut Katsuragi off before he could ask.

"The boys and girls will each form a group. In five minutes, I'll hold a Swimming Test. The first-place finisher will receive 5,000 Private Points. You can warm up now."

"Five thousand Private Points. That's enough for quite a few meals." Lezheng counted on his fingers.

"Lezheng, I think you can take first place." Hashimoto draped a hand over Lezheng's shoulder.

"Our class has plenty of capable people. Don't jump to conclusions." Lezheng glanced at the flashy blond.

"Your biceps are clearly well developed."

"Kito and Katsuragi are what you call well developed."

"They bulked up with protein powder. I prefer natural muscles like yours." Hashimoto gently stroked Lezheng's arm.

Lezheng slapped Hashimoto's grubby hand away, then jumped straight into the pool and vigorously scrubbed his arm with the pool water as goosebumps kept rising.

Tweet!

The whistle sounded, signaling that the Swimming Test was about to begin.

"On your period?" Lezheng sat down beside Sakayanagi.

"No, it's simply because of my health." Sakayanagi shook her head.

"What a shame. I feel like you could take first place if you entered."

"You have a lot of faith in me, Lezheng."

"After all, you'd have much less drag in the water than the other girls."

The slight upward curve of Sakayanagi's lips vanished, and her hand tightened sharply around her cane. "...Then I'll take that as a compliment."

"Remember to say thank you."

Kamuro ultimately won the girls' prize. Perhaps because they had just been cheering for the girls they favored, some of the boys were flushed. It seemed to be the adrenaline stirring them up to show themselves off better in front of the opposite sex.

Perhaps because they ranked relatively high in popularity, the girls' cheers were noticeably louder whenever it was either Lezheng's or Satonaka's turn to race.

What Lezheng hadn't expected was that Hashimoto was actually a skilled swimmer, beating Katsuragi and Kito to take second place.

"Kamuro, you don't look very happy." Holding his phone as he waited for the PE teacher to transfer the points, Lezheng casually asked Kamuro, who happened to have come over to collect hers.

"I don't know what's gotten into Sakayanagi."

"Maybe she's on her period."

"Doesn't seem like it. I think someone pissed her off." Kamuro nodded seriously.

After collecting the 5,000 Private Points awarded by the PE teacher, Lezheng went to the library again and once more encountered the girl from last time.

Since they were in the library, they simply smiled at each other in greeting. Lezheng took the book he hadn't finished last time off the shelf. Fortunately, his condition didn't flare up this time.