-224- Really couldn't handle it

One hour passed quickly.

As the broadcast sounded, the school informed the members of each group that they could leave the room and move freely. After that, ignoring the other groups, the Rabbit Group immediately disbanded on the spot.

The three members of Class A left the room without hesitation, and even seemed a bit hurried, perhaps eager to go back to discuss with Katsuragi Kouhei.

Following the three members of Class A, Karuizawa Kei also left the room immediately, probably to avoid the three girls from Class C.

Hori watched Karuizawa Kei leave without feeling any urgency to approach her.

Then, Ibuki Mio and the three members of Class C also left the room. Ibuki Mio had always been solitary and had no reason to stay in the room, while the others had their mood soured by Karuizawa Kei's situation and naturally couldn't stay any longer.

So, the room of the entire Rabbit Group was suddenly left with only the three members of Class B and the three members of Class D.

Although the school had stated that even after an hour, the members of each group could continue to use their rooms for discussion, it was naturally impossible for the discussion to continue without Class A and Class C, and even Class D was missing a person, and the previous discussion had reached a stalemate.

In response, Ichinose Honami was not completely discouraged.

"Let's leave it at that for today," the girl said in her usual cheerful voice, then left with the two classmates from Class B.

Presumably, in order to break through Class A's defense, Ichinose Honami would surely discuss various plans with her classmates next.

As for whether it would be effective, that would have to be seen later.

"No choice but to do this."

The unsuccessful start of the first day's discussion made Yukimura Teruhiko sigh repeatedly, reluctantly agreeing to Ichinose Honami's suggestion to disband on the spot.

In just a few minutes, the room of the entire Rabbit Group was left with only Hori and Ayanokouji Kiyotaka.

However, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka also left soon after.

"I'm going to find Ike, Yamauchi, and Sudou."

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka said something like making an appointment with friends, but was almost immediately exposed by Hori in the next second.

"You're definitely just wanting to ask about their situation in their respective groups, not actually inviting them to hang out, right?"

Hori casually hit Ayanokouji Kiyotaka's sore spot.

At that moment, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka could only leave with a dejected look.

Left alone, after leaving the Rabbit Group's room, Hori also received a letter.

"Could you come to the bow deck?"

Looking at the content of the letter and the sender's name, Hori didn't hesitate, turned around, and went to the bow deck.

...

"Ah..."

When Hori arrived at the bow deck, he saw Sakura Airi standing in front of the railing, sighing.

This made Hori somewhat wry.

"Why does it feel like every time I see you, you're sighing?" Hori went straight to Sakura Airi's side and called out to her.

"N-Nanaya-kun? You're here already?" The timid Sakura Airi was still startled, but quickly recovered and turned around, looking at Hori with a helpless expression.

If Yamauchi Haruki were here and saw Sakura Airi's expression, he might be completely stunned. No matter what Sakura Airi said next, would he just go along with it?

And Hori had the same plan.

Because he could guess why Sakura Airi had become like this.

"Did you run into trouble with the exam?" Hori couldn't help but speak helplessly.

Sakura Airi's expression immediately became disheartened.

As early as yesterday, Hori had already asked Sakura Airi about her group.

...

"Cow"

Class A: Sawada Yasumi, Shimizu Naoki, Nishi Haruka, Yoshida Kenta.

Class B: Kobashi Yume, Ninomiya Yui, Watanabe Norihito.

Class C: Tokito Hiroya, Nomura Yuji, Yajima Mariko.

Class D: Ike Kanji, Sakura Airi, Sudou Ken, Matsushita Chiaki.

...

Seeing the list of members of this group, even Hori couldn't help but feel worried about Sakura Airi's situation.

"To be put in a group with Ike and Sudou Ken? That's really unfortunate."

This was just too unfortunate.

One is a beast driven by desire, always wanting to have a cute girlfriend, and the other is prone to violence, not even hesitating to grab a girl by the collar.

For the shy Sakura Airi, they were simply the most difficult types to deal with.

As for the other classes, even in his own class, Sakura Airi couldn't possibly have friends in the other classes, right?

So, in the Cow Group, Sakura Airi could basically be considered as fighting alone.

No, it might be too optimistic to say that she's fighting alone.

With the personalities of Ike Kanji and Sudou Ken, just not becoming a hindrance would be considered good enough. Fighting alone wouldn't be much of an issue in comparison.

Of course, what Hori is more concerned about is the ordeal that Sakura Airi must endure in this exam.

That is, she must stay in a room with no familiar faces, twice a day, for an hour each time, to engage in discussions with other strangers.

"Discussion..."

For Sakura Airi, this is also a significant challenge.

Even talking to Hori sometimes seems nerve-wracking for her, let alone discussing with students from other classes, perhaps even engaging in strategizing and scheming. It's really tough for her.

Given this, Hori can almost imagine how agonizing Sakura Airi's experience must be during the discussion in the Cow Group today.

Surely she must have kept her head down the whole time, shrinking into a corner, too scared to speak to anyone, right?

Hori was playing on his phone the whole time when he was in the Rabbit Group for this reason.

"If it weren't for Nanaya-kun communicating with me and chatting, I really couldn't handle it," Sakura Airi said in a despondent tone.

Hori could only express his inability to help.

"How's the situation in the Cow Group?" Hori asked about the group's condition.

Sakura Airi didn't hide anything and told Hori directly.

"At first, everyone was reluctant to speak, but students from Class A later proposed a plan to everyone."

That plan naturally referred to Katsuragi Kouhei's "Victory Plan for All VIPs."

"What about the final opinions?" Hori asked predictably. "Did all the group members agree?"

"Not exactly," Sakura Airi answered honestly. "Ike-kun and Sudou-kun expressed a desire for the VIPs to come forward and get result one, so everyone would have 500,000 points. They urgently need points to repay debts. If it's result two, even with 1.5 million, each person would get very few points, and it's not certain they would get any. If it's not result one, they at least need to identify the VIPs correctly to get 500,000 points, so they don't want to agree."

Such crude and unrealistic reasons.

At least, Hori didn't believe that any VIP from any group would willingly come forward and reveal their identity just because of this, achieving result one. He also didn't believe that Ike Kanji and Sudou Ken could identify the VIPs.

"Students from Class B are reserved and want to discuss with Ichinose-san and Kanzaki-san before deciding, while students from Class C believe they can easily pass the exam, so they agreed."

Sakura Airi's additional explanation allowed Hori to understand the situation in the Cow Group.