Chapter 13 Lovely Chocolate Cake
Understanding the reason why Kushida was dissatisfied with Sakura put him at ease. It would have been a problem if Kushida held the same kind of malicious intent toward Sakura as she did toward Horikita Suzune.
"As long as you want to do it, then go ahead. The Kushida-san I know will definitely forgive you."
At least on the surface, she will absolutely forgive you, Hikigaya added silently in his heart.
Hikigaya knew that no one can grow if they do nothing. He would encourage Sakura to do what she wanted to, but he would never make decisions for her under the guise of it being for her own good.
"I… I… I've decided to go apologize to Kushida-san."
On the way back to the dorms after eating cake and leaving the café, Sakura finally made up her mind. She clenched her right hand into a fist and placed it over her chest, as if to cheer herself on.
"Very good. You can do it."
Sakura's childlike gesture prompted Hikigaya's hand to naturally reach out and pat her on the head as they walked side by side—just like how he used to gently stroke his sister Komachi's hair. Her crimson red long hair felt as smooth and delicate as silk.
It wasn't until he felt Sakura's body tremble that Hikigaya realized his action had been inappropriate.
"Sorry, I did something that made you uncomfortable. I won't do that again."
"No, I wasn't unhappy at all," Sakura waved her hands in panic. "Please keep doing that from now on!"
Her pale cheeks were tinged with a faint blush, a light sweat beading from her forehead. She glanced away, then peeked back at him shyly. Girls are most beautiful when they're embarrassed—Hikigaya truly understood the meaning of that phrase at that moment.
"G-goodbye!!"
Realizing she had said something incredibly embarrassing, Sakura couldn't contain herself anymore. Without waiting for Hikigaya to respond, she dashed off. Her final glance had landed on the little ponytail tied up with a red hairband standing upright on Hikigaya's forehead.
For some reason, Hikigaya looked really cool to her today.
"Please keep doing that, huh..." Looking down with a bit of red on his check, Hikigaya stopped thinking and began walking again.
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.
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Three days remained before the school's judgment day on Sudo Ken's assault incident. Horikita and Hirata, unable to find a way to turn the tide, eventually gathered Sudo Ken and his gang to his dorm.
"Yamauchi and Ike, go wait in Ayanokouji's room. I'll talk to Sudo first."
Once the four arrived, Hikigaya sent Ayanokouji's group away, leaving only Sudo behind for a face-to-face conversation. Standing, the two faced each other. Sudou was slightly taller than Hikigaya, who had recently gone through a second growth spurt—standing well over 180 cm. His well-trained body and red hair were supposed to be intimidating.
Unfortunately, his anxious face already gave away his lack of confidence.
Before this, Hirata had already explained to him that if he lost the case, it wouldn't end with just a suspension. As the confirmed perpetrator, he would definitely be kicked out of the basketball club, which he saw as the launchpad to his dreams. A suspension of at least two weeks meant he couldn't take the midterm exam—and failing that meant expulsion.
"I only have a crooked method—something that harms the enemy by 800 but hurts yourself by 1,000. If you want to scold me after I say it, you need to accept one premise first—I have no obligation to help you."
Unlike with Sakura, Sudo wasn't someone Hikigaya felt he absolutely had to help. He had his own internal scale for judgment.
"...I get it," Sudou turned his head, avoiding Hikigaya's gaze.
"Tomorrow, go to the school cake shop and order a chocolate cake. Only one requirement: make it look exactly like excrement. This is a necessary prop. I'll force the school idol Kushida to lure the three guys from Class C to the hallway of the special teaching building where the fight occurred. Then it's about threatening, recording, and coercing them to drop the complaint."
"How exactly do we threaten them? Record what? I don't quite understand the rest."
"Specifically, once those three are in the surveillance-free hallway of the special building, you lead Ayanokouji's group to block their retreat, start recording, then pull out the 'adorable' chocolate cake from your pants and pretend you're going to make them eat it. Threaten them to follow your instructions and hit your friend while being recorded."
"...Wouldn't that make me a total pervert?!"
"Whether you do it is up to you. If they see through the 'excrement' being just a cake, then smear it all over their bodies and mouths. Once it's recorded, we can mute the sound and threaten to upload the video to the school forum if they don't comply. From their perspective, if you're going to get expelled anyway, you're capable of doing anything. I doubt they'd want to become a topic as the F4 'poop-scooping boy band' with you."
The room fell into silence. It was natural for Sudo to resist the idea of becoming part of a "poop-scooping" act. If he refused, Hikigaya had another method in mind, though he wasn't about to go that far for Sudou. Every injustice has its source—his other method would affect people not involved in the incident.
From what he knew, there was a hot-tempered, impulsive martial arts girl in Class C just like Sudo. He could use a tit-for-tat method to create a mutually threatening situation.
"Isn't there another way?"
"Maybe you could publicly confess to Ryuen Kakeru in front of the whole school until he can't stand it and drops the case. Or you could have Ayanokouji dye his hair red and pretend to be Ryuen, acting out some deep love skit with you. Just do whatever would gross out Ryuen the most."
"Isn't that even more socially suicidal..." Muttering a few words, Sudou realized that he wasn't going to get a painless solution from Hikigaya. Leaving behind, "I'll think about it," he went off to join his friends.
Once Sudo left, Hikigaya lay on his bed and began brainstorming.
Hot-headed Sudo was an easy target. In the original history, Ryuen had planned to strike at Sudo after the midterm exams. Back then, the issue had been resolved by Horikita Suzune and Ayanokouji Kiyotaka. The method they used was unknown—he only knew Class C ended up withdrawing the complaint.
Was there a better way to make Class C drop the charges?
The approach would still need to involve threats—D-Class didn't have enough points to bribe Class C into withdrawing.
Was there a better way to threaten Class C?