Chapter 5: Spreading Rumors

The weekend passed by and it was now Monday morning.

After getting out of the shower, I dried my hair with a toothbrush in my mouth. I had spent some more time relaxing than the usual morning. The plan was to wait until I was a little late before leaving to school.

I remembered that I had turned off my phone before I went to bed last night, so I turned it back on.

My phone screen lit up immediately and displayed all of the messages that had accumulated over the night.

[Kiyotaka-kun, do you have a bit of time this morning? Is it fine if I come by your room?]

The message was from Airi, and it seemed to have arrived just after I got in the shower.

There was also a missed call from Kei, but I'd get back to her later.

[Sorry. I was in the shower so I didn't notice your messages. There isn't much time right now. Can we talk at school?]

[That's fine. Don't worry about it. It can wait for later.]

Her response came back immediately after I sent the message.

The speed of her response made me wonder if she had just happened to have been looking at her phone, or if she was waiting for me to respond.

Nonetheless, her response told me that it probably wasn't an emergency.

That being the case, I concentrated on straightening up my appearance first.

I didn't have time to slow down. I finished my preparations for the day and called for the elevator to take me down to the lobby. Many students commute to school in the morning, so the elevator is pretty busy and doesn't come immediately after calling for it. I had waited until the last possible moment to leave for school, but I still wasn't able to avoid the wait.

In the meantime, I took out my cell phone and sent a message to Kei.

[What was your call about? If possible, I'd like to meet up with you this evening.]

The message was marked as read immediately after I sent it.

[I didn't call for any reason in particular, just forget about it. Anyway, I'm fine with meeting up, but can you make it earlier? I already have plans to go out with my friends tonight.]

In which case, I decided to suggest a time around five o'clock.

[Does 5 work? Anytime before 6 is fine.]

[Okie~ 5 o'clock then. What's it about?]

[I'll explain when we meet.]

The elevator arrived as soon as I sent the last message.

Hirata was the only one onboard.

"Hey. Good morning Ayanokouji-kun."

"How unusual, Hirata. We're both pushing it to the last minute, aren't we?"

Hirata was an honors student, so he usually left for school in the mornings with quite a lot of time to spare.

It would be unusual for him to be one of the students leaving late, but it was even more so for him to be pushing it to the utmost latest time possible like this.

"To be honest, I had planned on leaving earlier, but…"

As his words trailed off, his expression changed to a somewhat complicated, bitter smile.

"But?"

I questioned Hirata as we got off the elevator on the first floor, only to find several girls waiting there.

They weren't all from one class. Instead, the girls standing before us were from Class A all the way to Class D. I had to think for a moment about why they had all gathered together, but I quickly caught on to the situation.

"Good morning, Hirata-kun!"

"Yes. Good morning."

He had a refreshing smile on his face, but it still appeared somewhat strenuous.

"This… is for you!"

In a chorus, all six girls presented him with Valentine's Day chocolates at the same time. This scene had probably already repeated itself many times. As he went back to his room with the chocolates, I figured that he was probably pushing it so late due to having already made a few trips back to his room.

I parted ways with Hirata and decided to hurry to school.

It would've been easy to wait for him, but I lost out to the pressure of not wanting to get in the way of the girls.

So today is Valentine's Day, huh?

"I've never been given chocolates before…"

I accidentally muttered such a thing.

Before I consider whether or not I want a girlfriend, I think it'd be nice to receive chocolates.

I was surprised that I even had such a desire.

It seemed that I wasn't the only guy excited at the idea of receiving Valentine's day chocolates.

As soon as I stepped into our classroom, I noticed that Class C was steeped in a strange atmosphere.

Many of the boys were gathered together in one place.

Valentine's Day was the culmination of an entire year's excitement.

It was, along with Christmas, a day that highlights the romance between boys and girls.

"Oh, there you are Ayanokōji. You come over here for a moment."

Sudō called over to me, so I approached the group.

"Did you get any chocolate?"

"Huh?"

Sudō asked me with a somewhat tense expression, a glare in his eyes.

"To explain, it seems like he's really asking if you've gotten any chocolate from Horikita."

Ike added with a sly grin.

"Don't say weird stuff like that, you idiot. It has nothing to do with that."

Contrary to what he had said, Sudō's eyes weren't smiling at all.

They were practically filled with demonic intensity, demanding an answer.

"I didn't get anything from her. There's no chance she'd give me anything."

"…For real?"

"Yeah."

Sudō nodded a couple of times before freeing me from his stern gaze.

"Well, I can understand why Ken is nervous. After all, that Ayanokōji is a monster, you know~?"

With that, Ike drew the outline of something resembling a plastic water bottle in the air with his hand.

"…Ayanokōji, you little shit, don't assume you've won just because of that, got it?"

"No, I'm not at all…"

Ever since the training camp, I'd occasionally hear annoying stuff about what happened.

"Come to think of it, how are things doing on your end, Kanji? Things still doing okay with Shinohara?"

"H-huh? Why bring up Shinohara now?"

"Honestly, you should stop trying to downplay it. Everybody knows already."

"E-everybody knows… D-do you know, Ayanokōji?"

He somehow ended up trying to confirm by asking me about it.

I understood the flow of the conversation by now, so I responded to him with a light nod.

Ike groaned in shame and crouched down to hide his reddening face.

"See? Even a stick in the mud like Ayanokōji knows about it. So what happened? Did you get anything from her?"

I didn't notice any envy in anyone's voices, probably because Shinohara didn't seem to be very popular within the class. His friend Yamauchi might've shown a poor display of irritation about it, but he was nowhere to be seen at the moment.

"I didn't get anything…"

"You and I are in the same boat then."

Sudō rested his hand on Ike's shoulder sympathetically.

"No, it's fine. I got chocolates from Kushida-chan, after all."

As he spoke, Ike proudly flaunted a box of chocolates tied shut with a pink ribbon.

"You say that, but didn't all the guys get something? She gave me chocolate too."

"Same here. Of course I'm happy about it, but in the end, it's just obligation chocolate."

I hadn't expected Kushida to give chocolates to every single male first-year student at all. It made me wonder how she went about doing that.

Though, for Kushida, I suppose it wasn't that surprising.

Regardless, the only thing I could see was a bunch of boys stewing in their own hot air. This kind of childish behavior felt like the reason why none of them could get closer to girls, but there was nothing that could be done about that.

It was inevitable that it would turn out this way for a class like ours with barely any experience with love.

Getting something or getting nothing. It all depends on how someone usually handles themselves.

Being desperate isn't going to get them what they're really after.

I stood back and thought about this, watching as a girl from Class B offered a box of chocolates to Akito.

"Tomorrow on the 15th, all of you will be expected to complete a comprehensive provisional test. However, just like with the test earlier this year, it won't have any effect on your grades. The goal is to thoroughly test your current strengths. Furthermore, it will help you prepare of the final exams coming at the end of the year. While the tests won't contain identical questions, the provisional exam will have similar questions to those found on the final exams. Do not be negligent with your studies simply because you've been promoted to Class C."

Chabashira's appreciated explanation finished, marking the end of today's lessons.

As the girl in the seat beside me began her preparations for returning home for the day, I opted to ask her a simple question.

"How's it going with Kushida?"

"What are you getting at?"

"I'm asking if you've been successful with her lately."

"I wonder. I'm hard at work planning out how to improve my relationship with her. Are you looking to cooperate?"

"I was just asking."

"Kushida-san has been changing, little by little."

"In what way has she been changing?"

"Today, after we wrap things up here, I'll be having tea together with her at Keyaki Mall. The Kushida from before would've turned down such an offer without hesitation."

As it turned out, these unexpected developments seemed to be nothing more than superficial.

"In other words, you're expecting to see results?"

"If we communicate, we might be able to come to a mutual understanding."

"Glad to hear it. See you."

After giving a brief reply to Horikita, I got up from my seat.

"…What was that?"

In response to my ridicule, Horikita looked at me with a slight trace of contempt in her eyes before looking away.

Shortly thereafter, Horikita stood up as well.

"Ah, Suzune. Uh… When's a good time for you to help me with my studies?"

"That's quite proactive of you, Sudō-kun."

"That's… well, I don't wanna drop out, ya know?"

Despite what he said, he gave off a somewhat nervous appearance.

His true aim was, of course, to receive valentine's chocolates from Horikita.

"Any time works for me. Even today."

However-

"Your club activities still haven't gone on break yet, have they? We'll have time for studying after the provisional exams."

With that, Sudō's dreams were shattered.

I left the classroom.

The Ayanokōji Group was making plans to meet up, but I decided to refuse this time.

There were other matters that required my attention at the moment.

"Kiyotaka-kun!"

I heard my name reservedly being called from the hallway behind me.

"What's wrong, Airi?"

"Are you really not joining up with the group today?"

"That was the plan."

"I-it's fine if you're late, so could you still try joining up with everyone?"

"I suppose… Maybe sometime after 6?"

"Sure! I think everyone should still be together then!"

"Alright. I'll get in contact with you then, okay?"

With that, Airi's firm expression changed into a beaming smile. I parted ways with her and started moving towards my destination. Class B's classroom was strangely quiet by the time I arrived there.

Because there were only a few Class B students who I could reliably talk to, speaking with Kanzaki would've been my first choice. Sumida and Moriyama, who I had been lodging together with at training camp, would've also been fine.

However, as I looked around the classroom, the three of them were nowhere to be found.

I had been hoping to catch someone suitable before they left, but that's just not how it worked out.

I decided to turn back for the time being.

On the way out, I overheard a conversation between two girls as they left the classroom behind me.

"Hey… Do you think the reason why Honami-chan was absent today…"

"Something like that totally isn't possible."

The two of them shared a brief back and forth.

Was Ichinose taking a day off?

Was it merely a coincidence, or was it related to what happened a few days ago like that girl just thought?

I thought about this as I distanced myself from Class B.

How did Sakayanagi come to know Ichinose's secret in the first place?

There are certainly conversational techniques designed to draw out secrets from other people, such as cold and hot reading. However, I can't imagine that Ichinose would want to let anything slip about her past with shoplifting. The fact that she was denying it even now is proof enough of that.

Considering how she's handled herself so far, it even makes me question whether or not she would ever cave into the incitement from the greatest enemy class to begin with.

It would be different if it was Ike or Yamauchi, but Ichinose is clever.

"Did she get carried away by Sakayanagi's coaxing…?"

Is it possible that there's someone else that knew Ichinose's secret?

But even Kanzaki, the person who seems to be Ichinose's closest ally, didn't know anything.

And after seeing her close friends, it doesn't seem like they know either.

Then one of the teaching staff or… the student council?

"If Nagumo abandoned Ichinose and sided with Sakayanagi, it would be possible."

However, this hypothesis rests on a few assumptions being true.

In the first place, there's no proof behind this conclusion other than what Kamuro told me.

Plus, the only person who'd be able to disprove that premise would be Ichinose Honami herself.

The school may be wide, but when compared to society, it's actually rather confined.

Due to that, if you want to speak with someone in secret, you must put top priority to ensuring that the two of you are truly alone.

Basically, this would mean limiting the interactions to early in the morning, or late at night.

While I don't know Ichinose Honami's room number, getting it at this point should be easy. Just make a call to the dormitory management office and ask for it directly. There's no reason for the school to keep the room number of their students a secret. If you tell them that you're in a scramble to get in touch with them, they should be understanding.

I made the call to verify the room number as I continued walking, getting it without any difficulties.

I felt the presence of Hashimoto behind me, watching me from a distance, but I ignored him.

Recently, he'd taken to tailing me both during the daytime and in the evening.

He didn't have a bad sense of distance, giving off the impression that he's had experience with tailing people before.

At first glance, it didn't seem like there were any advantages to going to see Ichinose with him following behind me. But, it was actually the other way around. The fact that he was watching was exactly what made it worth showing him what I was up to.

I had decided to return to the dorms early to confirm things with Ichinose, so I went to her floor. Unfortunately, there appeared to be several girls in front of her room as I got there.

A group of girls who were all particularly close friends with her.

I immediately turned around and got back on the elevator.

I'd have to give up here for today.

5 o'clock. I made contact with Kei, calling her out to a place a short distance away from the dorms.

Despite the destination being relatively unpopular, it wasn't the type of place absolutely nobody visited at all.

"Ah, it's chilly. Why are we meeting up at a place like this? There are other options, you know?"

"But the lobby doesn't work for you, does it? Strange rumors might start to spread if we're seen together like this. That would be a problem for you, wouldn't it?"

"Well, sorta… But meeting covertly like this… doesn't it stand out in its own way? If we're seen carelessly, I feel like it'll produce rumors anyway…"

"Don't worry about it."

"I'm getting the feeling that you haven't been cautious enough about this… but whatever."

That's fine. After all, the man who's been following me has to put up with it for a while as well.

"Even so, it's too cold. I wish summer would come sooner."

"In the summer, wouldn't you just end up saying that you wish winter would come sooner?"

After I asked this, she pondered the question for a bit.

"That's just how maidens are, okay?"

Karuizawa pouted.

"Come to think of it, I wonder if there isn't going to be a special exam this month."

"The training camp only just ended, so that wouldn't be surprising."

"Then, we can take it easy?"

"Are you all set for the end-of-year exams? It seems like they'll be quite difficult."

As I said this, I noticed Kei's movements stiffen up.

"Eh… Really?"

Until now, Kei had managed to get through one way or another, but she wasn't in a position where she could start to be negligent with her studies.

"Could you help me study?"

"Ask Hirata. It would be difficult for you, but not impossible, right?"

Kei should've been brazen enough to ask him for his help, even immediately after parting ways with him, but she didn't seem very eager about it. She stared at me.

The simplest solution would be to have Keisei tutor her, but that just wasn't realistic.

If she was to be tossed into my group all of a sudden, there would definitely be problems.

"It would have to be in the middle of the night. Is that okay?"

"It's much better than dropping out I suppose."

Exactly.

"Well, I'll put together a schedule."

"Alright."

However, even if she passes the end-of-term exams, a new problem was going to show up shortly afterward.

This upcoming March. In all likelihood, a large special exam was waiting just around the corner.

It seems like she'd only be safe after overcoming what remains in the 1st year curriculum.

We wouldn't be able to relax until this battle reaches the bitter end.

"Anyway, uh, what do you need from me?"

She asked, looking nervous for some reason.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just thought that you urgently wanted to meet up with me today."

"It's nothing that has to be done today, but I'd like to have it checked out ahead of time."

"Hmph."

She scoffed, a look of suspicion filling her eyes.

I decided to disregard it, instead focusing on the issue at hand.

"Do you know anything about this number?"

I showed her the unregistered phone number that called me a few days earlier.

"Eh? Who is this? What, are you getting calls from strangers?"

"Something like that."

Kei pressed down on the dial button on her phone and manually entered the number into the virtual keypad.

If the number was registered on her phone, a contact would appear after the number has been typed in.

"It doesn't seem like you have anything."

"I do have more contacts than the average girl, but I don't know pretty much any of the seniors."

I had wanted to see if she would have the number registered, but, as I expected, it was just a slim hope at best.

"Why not just try and call them back?"

"I've tried doing that a couple of times, but the other side has always been turned off."

"Really…? If it's that important, why not have me check it out for you?"

"Yeah. That's why I called you out here today. But, don't be careless with how you go about it."

With a nod, Kei took note of the phone number.

"Is that everything?"

"Yeah. See you."

I tried to end our conversation there, but Kei called out to me in a hurry.

"Oh, uh, by the way, there's this small something I'd like to talk about. Can I ask you something?"

As I was taking my leave, Kei stopped me with an obscure question.

"Do you know what day it is today? Come on. 5… 4… 3-"

"…This is an easier question than I imagined. So much so that I feel like I'm being tricked into giving a wrong answer."

"Don't overthink it, just give it to me straight."

"Valen-"

"Yeah yeah yeah."

She lightly tapped a small box on my head.

"You're giving me this?"

"I was originally going to give it to Yousuke-kun, but there's no reason for me to do that anymore."

"For Hirata, is it?"

"Oh, so you don't like it?"

"No, I was just thinking about how long in advance you must have been preparing for Valentine's day."

It had been over a month since Kei had resolved herself to break up with Hirata.

"I-I make careful preparations ahead of time, okay? Even though I had already decided to break up with him, there was still a chance I would need to have it, you know? Well, I guess it's nothing I should expect someone so inexperienced with romance to be able to understand."

That could be true.

"I just thought that you wanted to see me today hoping for me to give you something like this."

"Sorry. It never crossed my mind."

Kei briefly had a slightly irritated expression on her face, but she quickly recovered.

"Anyways, did you get something from any other girls?"

Kei changed the subject ever so slightly. It was as if she was trying to avoid talking about it.

"No, nothing at all."

I decided to respond like this, regardless of whether or not I had actually received anything from somebody else.

"Serves you right. A man absolutely unsuitable for others~"

She began to make fun of me without hesitation.

"But are you okay with that? If you give this to me, I won't be unsuitable anymore, you know?"

"That makes you that much more pitiful. It just means that you'll have to look to me for salvation."

She was really looking down on me.

"Oh yeah, and you can thank me by returning the favor 1000 times over."

She continued spouting unreasonable nonsense.

"By the way, uh-"

Kei attempted to change the topic yet again.

However, she swallowed her words as soon as she looked into my eyes.

Standing a short distance apart, we stared at one another.

I slowly shifted my gaze in the direction of the dormitory.

"Well then, I'm heading back to my room."

"Yeah. Later."

With that, Kei was ready to quickly return to the dorms.

I immediately put her present into my bag.