That girl's reaction was clearly unusual.
"What's her name?" Shirogane asked Sakayanagi.
Although Sakayanagi sat quietly, her eyes never left her classmates, so she should have known exactly who Shirogane was referring to.
"So, you haven't tried to contact her in private these past two days," Sakayanagi sounded a little surprised. "After all, she's the same girl you mentioned in your report to the student council."
"Two days ago, members of the student council came to Class A and handed her a reward for helping report the rule-breaking store employees in the shopping district," Sakayanagi explained.
"Oh," Shirogane nodded. "I got that reward too—a point card loaded with 30,000 points. It can be used like a prepaid card or to temporarily store points."
"There's no need to explain it in such detail just to test me," Sakayanagi said. "Kamuro received the same reward as you—a point card. But she refused to accept it and even claimed she had never been to the electronics store."
"A selfless act?" Shirogane knew some people did good deeds without expecting anything in return.
But when someone deserves recognition, Shirogane felt they should at least be acknowledged for it.
"Indeed, some of our classmates assumed either the student council made a mistake or that Kamuro was simply being selfless," Sakayanagi said with a subtle smile. "I used to have my doubts, but just now, when she saw us, she immediately turned away."
"At first, I thought she just didn't want to be near me, but now, I believe she wanted to avoid you even more."
"That's why she turned and left without hesitation," Sakayanagi said.
She smiled as she spoke.
Her smile was incredibly sweet.
But knowing her as well as he did, Shirogane was sure this meant Sakayanagi had figured something out.
She wasn't just planning to make Kamuro her assistant in daily life—just now, she seemed to have decided exactly how to make Kamuro submit to her.
But what had she just realized that made her so confident she could win Kamuro over so quickly?
Shirogane started thinking back, replaying Sakayanagi's words in his mind.
Kamuro saw him and immediately turned away. She didn't want to face him.
The key point was him.
But before Sakayanagi mentioned Kamuro's name, he had no idea who she was. So why would she go out of her way to avoid him? The only times they had ever met were those two encounters in the shopping district.
Wait a second.
Shirogane felt like he had just figured something out.
Sakayanagi had said that Kamuro turned down both the reward and the recognition, and even denied being involved in the report... No, she denied even going to the electronics store.
But what exactly did she do at the store?
She caught the store clerk secretly taking photos, took the SD card from his camera, then left.
But after stepping outside, she lost the card. Shirogane found it, and that led to everything that happened next.
"..."
Shirogane was speechless.
No wonder Sakayanagi was so pleased—she had something on Kamuro. And with that leverage, she could make Kamuro do whatever she wanted.
Because...
First-year Class A student Kamuro Masumi didn't reject the school's reward and deny taking the SD card just for no reason.
The real reason was much simpler.
She didn't take the card as evidence of the store clerk's wrongdoing.
She... was actually trying to steal it.
In other words, she had been stealing inside the electronics store.
She was trying to cover up the fact that she had committed theft.
If she accepted the school's reward, it would prove that she had taken the SD card, making her theft official.
So she refused.
Now that he understood the school's rules, it was obvious—getting caught stealing would seriously hurt someone's standing.
That meant Kamuro, as a student of Class A, probably hadn't been caught yet.
But if the school ever found out, her evaluation would drop drastically.
It might even cost Class A some points.
"..."
No wonder the narration had said Kamuro was easy to control. If someone had proof of her stealing, they could completely hold it over her.
If she didn't want to get expelled, she would have no choice but to obey.
And Sakayanagi had already taken full advantage of that.
She wanted Kamuro to stay under her control.
"Sakayanagi," Shirogane said. "If—just if—I wanted to take Kamuro from you, what would you do?"
"Then I guess I'd cry," Sakayanagi Arisu said without hesitation.
"..."
Uh.
So... she was just going to cry at him?
She was supposed to be a big boss, yet this was the move she chose?
"You're breaking the rules. Do you even realize that?"
Shirogane Miyuki suddenly felt like this was going to be a hassle.
...
So, rather than deal with the trouble, he decided to leave.
The moment he stepped away, two students from Class A started walking toward the shady spot where Sakayanagi was.
It was two boys—one tall and strong, the other slimmer.
The taller one was bald, named Katsuragi, while the slimmer one was his follower, Totsuka Yahiko, who admired him.
Noticing the situation, some of the previously dispersed Class A students began gathering again and heading toward Sakayanagi's location.
Katsuragi clearly saw what was happening.
"I don't mean any harm," Katsuragi quickly said. "I was just curious about the student you were just talking to—that was a first-year from Class C, right?"
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