Chapter 100: Sakayanagi: Hachiman, you confessed to Ichinose, didn't you?
In order to be promoted to Class A, Hachiman had been searching for like-minded people in his class who shared the same ambition.
Even those who didn't have such ambitions could still be useful in some way.
Karuizawa was one of the people Hachiman had prepared as his support.
It was Karuizawa who had taken full responsibility for the incident with the test papers this time.
The risk was significant because "illegally photographing the test papers" could lead to expulsion if reported.
But she was able to handle it.
Her execution ability was unquestionable.
So, since she had been effective and now faced a problem, it was naturally time to... handle it.
Thus—
Today, Hikigaya Hachiman's battle readiness was at full capacity.
However—
[...?]
Karuizawa seemed to have paused for two seconds before replying.
[A guy confessed to me? That didn't happen.]
"Then that's really surprising." Hachiman quickly replied, "If anything happens, feel free to contact me."
Just as he finished typing the message, he realized that she had actually called him.
Eh!
Even though he had been at this school, he had only ever communicated over the phone with Chabashira-sensei and Ichinose.
Now, another girl was willing to call him?
So, he answered the call.
Karuizawa's voice came through the phone.
"Well... Hikigaya, do you have a girl you like?" Karuizawa's voice was pleasant, but the question made Hachiman realize that he didn't understand a single word.
"A girl I like?"
"Yeah... Didn't you say you were going all out to get into Class A?" Karuizawa said.
"That's right." Hachiman noticed something was off. "Did something happen?"
"I think you might have misunderstood." Hachiman said.
He recalled that during the test paper incident, Karuizawa had asked him if he liked her.
-"I don't have any interest in romance, or rather, I don't expect anything from relationships."
-"And right now, my only goal is to get into Class A as soon as possible." Hachiman had said.
Sakayanagi had been persuaded to join the student council, so at least for the next two months, she wouldn't be pushing for Class A, meaning this was an opportunity for their class to seize and climb.
Naturally, the goal was clear.
"I see." But Karuizawa seemed to be noncommittal.
There was a total lack of trust.
Just as Hachiman was about to say something more, she ended the call, claiming she was tired and wanted to sleep.
However...
Hachiman checked the time.
It was only 7:30 PM. Do girls go to sleep this early?
...
Because he didn't understand girls, and hadn't thought about trying to, Hachiman decided to give up on questioning Karuizawa further.
However.
Horikita's message came through.
[First-year Class B, Shiranami Chihiro, I've met her a few times. I've seen her following Ichinose Honami, so she's probably one of Ichinose's friends.]
"..."
Hachiman was silent.
This message had already been responded to by Kushida. Furthermore, Kushida had more information, such as having noticed that Shiranami seemed to have romantic feelings for Ichinose.
Of course.
Hachiman didn't expect Horikita to deal with things like romance.
So.
It was a peaceful night's sleep.
...
With the results of the exams announced, Monday arrived, and students returned to class.
However, even though everyone had passed the previous exam and received perfect scores of 100 points on their class evaluations as a reward, in reality, many students had panicked before the test papers were leaked, feeling unprepared.
They even regretted not working harder during the study sessions.
They were extremely afraid of failing and being expelled.
So.
"By the way..."
"Hirata, could you continue holding study sessions?"
Such inquiries increased.
Sudo asked Hirata about holding more study sessions.
This was because Sudo had athletic talent, and the school's facilities, free tuition, and living expenses were unmatched by other schools.
So he didn't want to miss out on this opportunity.
He finally felt like studying.
"Yes, yes, if there's a study session, I want to join too!"
It wasn't just Sudo; even Ike joined in.
Though, no one knew how long this enthusiasm for studying would last.
However.
"Eh! Studying... I've already studied for half a month."
"And the next special exam shouldn't be a written test, right?" Yamauchi said.
Some people weren't willing to continue either.
Meanwhile, Hachiman wasn't concerned with this anymore.
He was already thinking about the spicy wings for lunch. The school had spicy wings from McDonald's and KFC, and the McDonald's ones were spicier, which he didn't like.
So, did it matter that the academic ability of the students was still poor?
No, it didn't matter.
From the management's written exam, it could be seen that the school didn't just want students with good academic skills.
So, the focus of future evaluations would likely be on other aspects.
Then.
As long as he could get into Class A before the special exam that truly tested everyone's academic skills, it would be fine.
Hachiman's task would be complete.
After that, he could probably just slack off.
Things like the class dropping in rank, or students with poor academic performance being expelled, wouldn't be his concern.
So.
Although Hachiman had thought Karuizawa's attitude seemed off last night, when he looked over at her now, Karuizawa wasn't looking back.
Instead, other girls seemed to be glancing curiously at him.
Sakura seemed to want to say something but hesitated, and Kushida gave him a helpless look.
"…"
So, what happened?
Hachiman then noticed the girls around Karuizawa.
He couldn't shake the feeling that they were talking about him.
But Hachiman didn't think he did anything wrong yesterday. He had only talked to Horikita at the celebration party, and when he realized it was time to leave, he just ran off, right?
Indeed.
He didn't like that kind of atmosphere.
With that thought, he turned to look at the student sitting next to him.
Hachiman looked at the smooth, beautiful black straight hair, but it was cleverly braided into a side braid.
This was Horikita Suzune.
It seemed that not only was she good at cooking, but Horikita also had potential in housework and being a housewife.
Hachiman actually thought he might want to braid his daughter's hair in the future.
Because that was a dad's basic skill.
Thinking about it like this, it felt a little strange.
So, Hachiman continued thinking about lunch.
...
Lunch was still in the cafeteria, but the food wasn't served there. Someone had to go to the shopping street to buy it.
But Sakayanagi was a prepared person.
By the time Hachiman arrived, the spicy wings and egg tart set had already been prepared.
Hachiman's gaze fell on the girl with purple long hair, sitting alone and eating her food with a bad mood.
It seemed that Kamuro had been sent to buy the food in advance.
Now, she was eating and took out a tissue to wipe the sweat from her forehead.
So, perhaps she had run there and then run back.
It was really hard work.
However, although Hachiman felt a bit sorry for Kamuro, the taste of the tender meat from the fried wings was really great.
"Hachiman-kun really likes fried foods, huh?"
A cute voice came from beside Hachiman.
It was a cute girl with silver-white straight hair.
Sakayanagi Arisu.
Because of her health condition, she had to carry a cane with her.
A fragile girl.
But to Hachiman, she was quite an effective opponent.
"Sakayanagi, do you want some?"
Kamuro had brought the wings in a bucket, so even sharing them would still leave plenty.
"I'll pass." Sakayanagi gently waved her hand. "Spicy and fried foods aren't good for the skin."
Listening to her, Hachiman instinctively glanced at her hand.
Indeed.
Her skin was very fair.
Like a delicate doll.
"Actually, trying it occasionally wouldn't be a problem." Hachiman said. "See? The smell is really tempting."
"It's indeed very tempting." But Sakayanagi kept smiling.
However, it was clear that she didn't want to try it.
People with good skin were usually beautiful by nature, and they also took good care of it.
Hachiman also knew that some boys used facial cleansers and face masks.
"Well then." After seeing Hachiman take a sip of his cola, Sakayanagi spoke again.
"First of all, congratulations on the good results of your special exam."
"But you didn't get my permission to share the exam papers with Class B." Sakayanagi Arisu said.
"This..." Hachiman hesitated for a moment.
Because it was indeed Sakayanagi who made the exam papers, and not only had she given them to his class for free, but she also shared them with Class B, which had a similar composition to Class A.
This did seem suspicious, like it could give an advantage to the enemy.
"I shared it to suppress Vice President Nagumo." Hachiman was prepared for this. "The Vice President secretly contacted Class B, seemingly intending to give them the exam papers as a friendly gesture."
"And the target, I guess, is Class B's votes."
"I see." But Sakayanagi nodded. "Then, Hachiman-kun, you really caused some trouble. Because if Vice President Nagumo did that, it would be great. I could report Nagumo for leaking the exam papers and remove him from his position as Vice President of the Student Council."
Really?
Then, you are quite scary.
Hachiman thought, by now, the school wouldn't change the exam papers.
Because doing so would cause trouble for most students.
But Sakayanagi, you're going straight for the table-flipping attack. Your offensive power is that strong?
However.
"I think you also know that even if it is reported, Nagumo is the representative of the second-year students."
"So the usual methods wouldn't work." Hachiman said.
"True." Sakayanagi nodded.
Even if they had evidence of Nagumo secretly taking photos, it wouldn't help. Nagumo was the second-year representative, so he could just find a few scapegoats.
So attacking Nagumo wouldn't have any effect.
Thus, Hachiman continued eating the egg tarts.
"By the way."
But Sakayanagi kept talking. "Hachiman-kun, did you have dinner with Ichinose before to deal with Vice President Nagumo's situation?"
"This is of course." Hachiman said.
"I see." Sakayanagi Arisu said. "Then, do you remember this line?"
"I've liked you for a long time, would you go out with me?"
"And also, Ichinose, you once said that if I confessed to you here, what would your reaction be? You would probably have already thought of a name for our child. If it's a boy, we would name him Makoto, and if it's a girl, we would name her Sora."
"Seems like you have no recollection of these words, Hachiman-kun." Sakayanagi said.
"Cough, cough..."
But this caused Hachiman to cough violently.
"No..."
Hachiman quickly looked at Sakayanagi. "Why did you suddenly say that?"
Actually, by asking this, he already knew the situation was bad.
Because those words were his confession to Ichinose, weren't they?
In other words... the confession had been exposed.
Wait, wait, wait.
So, the reason why the girls looked at him differently this morning was because of this?
They probably thought that he had confessed to Ichinose from Class 1-B, and... then got rejected.
Hachiman confirmed he didn't say anything, and he didn't think Ichinose would spread such a thing around. So, was it... Shiranami?
But it shouldn't be her.
Her personality seemed too timid, and even if she saw him confessing to Ichinose, and Ichinose rejecting everyone, she would probably just feel down and think she disturbed Ichinose.
So, was there... someone else who witnessed it?
"..." Hachiman.
"I did confess to Ichinose." Hachiman said.
Clink!
But at that moment, the sound of chopsticks dropping on the table was particularly obvious.
"..." x2
Hachiman and Sakayanagi both looked at Kamuro.
"..." Kamuro.
Kamuro then picked up the chopsticks, wiped them, and continued eating.
But this didn't hide the fact that she had been eavesdropping.
Still, was this really so shocking?
Hachiman thought that many boys liked someone like Ichinose, so it wasn't uncommon for someone to confess to her, right?
Or was it strange for him to admit to it?
"But that was just a plan." Hachiman said. "Ichinose is a gentle person. Someone wanted to confess to her, but she didn't want to hurt that person, so she asked me for help."
"So, Hachiman-kun, you chose to sacrifice yourself?"
"You confessed and got rejected so that the other person would give up."
Sakayanagi seemed to agree with this explanation.
"Well, you really are a good person." She commented.
But Hachiman didn't think that was a compliment.
Because he wasn't a kind person, or rather, he never thought of being a kind person.
"But..." Sakayanagi added. "I'm a little curious."
"To make such a choice and move, Hachiman-kun, you must be good at confessions, right? Did you ever confess to someone and fail?"
"But not Ichinose. I mean, the confession that truly made Hachiman-kun's heart flutter, the one that failed."
"Because you casually gave the exam papers to Class B, I'm really not happy about that." Sakayanagi added. "If you make me happy, then I'll forget about it."
In other words, she wanted to hear about your failed love experience and get happy from that?
Eh!
Are you a devil!