Chapter 6: Rumors Running Rampant

THE WEEKEND WAS OVER, and Monday was here. I took my morning shower and then brushed my teeth while drying my hair off with a towel. My plan was to take things slower than usual, lingering in my room as long as possible without actually being late to class.

I'd slept with my phone turned off last night. I turned it back on now and saw some messages immediately light up my screen.

Kiyotaka-kun, do you have a little time this morning? Can I come to your room?

It was a message from Airi, apparently sent right after I stepped in the shower. I saw a missed call from Kei too, but I'd just call her back later.

Sorry, I was taking a shower and didn't see your message. I don't really have time now. Can we meet at school? I texted back. Less than a second later, I saw that she'd read it. Was that just a coincidence? Or was she waiting for me to respond?

That's okay, don't worry about it. I'll talk to you later, replied Airi, making me think it must not have been an urgent matter.

I decided to focus on getting ready for now. I was out of time to laze about, so I finished getting dressed and headed over to take the elevator to the lobby. It was generally packed full of students on their way to school in the morning, making it slow to respond, but given how close I was cutting it, it shouldn't be too busy now.

I pushed the button to summon the elevator, then took out my phone and sent a message to Kei.

What did you want? If it's possible, I'd like to meet you sometime today this evening or later tonight to talk.

The message was marked as read almost immediately.

Kei texted back. I wasn't calling for any reason in particular, so no worries. Anyway, I'm okay with meeting up, but can we do it earlier? I have

plans to hang out with my friends tonight.

How about five o'clock? I suggested. Six would be okay too. Okay, let's do five then, please. What is it about?

Let's talk when we meet.

The elevator came down from the upper floors just as I sent that last reply. Hirata was the only one inside.

"Oh, good morning, Ayanokouji-kun," he said.

"This is a rare sight, Hirata. You're cutting it pretty close today too,

huh?"

Hirata was an honors student, so he almost always made it to class with

plenty of time to spare. It was pretty unusual for him to be leaving the dormitory late, let alone at the last possible minute, like this.

"Well, I had really planned on leaving earlier, but…" said Hirata, a bitter smile on his face, looking somewhat conflicted.

That was vague. "But?"

As we made it to the lobby and got off the elevator, I saw several girls awaiting us. Not girls from just one class either, but girls from all four—from A to D. I wondered for a moment why they were all gathered here like this, but then immediately realized what was going on.

"Good morning, Hirata-kun!"

"Oh, good morning." While Hirata wore a charming smile, he still seemed a little out of sorts.

"This…is a valentine, for you!"

All six girls presented him with chocolates at the same time. I had to imagine this precise scenario had been repeated many times this morning, forcing Hirata to keep going back to his room to drop off chocolates.

I said a hasty goodbye and hurried off to class. I could've waited for him, but I was overwhelmed by the pressure I was feeling from the girls, who were emanating a clear vibe of "You're in the way."

That was right. It was Valentine's Day, wasn't it?

"I've never gotten chocolates before…" I muttered to myself without

meaning to.

I kind of wanted to be given chocolates before I did something like get a girlfriend, which surprised me, to tell the truth. I hadn't thought I was capable of wanting such things, even faintly.

6.1

I WASN'T THE ONLY GUY who was excited about Valentine's Day. As soon as I arrived at Class C, I felt the classroom enveloped in a strange atmosphere. Many of the guys were clustered together in one place. Today was the culmination of an entire year of hard work. Just like Christmas, this was an event that put a spotlight on lovers.

"Oh, you showed up, huh, Ayanokouji? Come over here for a sec," said Sudou.

I went over to him.

"Did you get any chocolate?" he asked, his face tense, like he was really pressing me for an answer. He was almost glaring at me.

"Huh?"

"Let me translate that for you. It seems like he's actually asking, 'Did you get any chocolate from Horikita?'" said Ike, with a grin.

"Don't go running your mouth, idiot. Ain't got nothin' to do with this," said Sudou, not smiling at all. If anything, his eyes were filled with this almost demonic energy, like he was saying, 'Well?'

"I didn't get any. There's no way I would," I answered. "…Really?" asked Sudou.

"Yeah."

Sudou nodded a couple times in response, then released me from his piercing glare.

"Well, I get why Ken's all panicky. I mean, Ayanokouji's thing is a total monster, after all," said Ike, drawing the outline of something like a plastic bottle in the air with his hand as he spoke.

"…Okay Ayanokouji, don't think you've won just because you've got

that, okay?" said Sudou.

"No, I don't think that at all…"

I'd been occasionally getting comments like that since the school

camp, and it was honestly beginning to annoy me.

"Come to think of it, how are you doing, Kanji? Things going well with Shinohara?"

"H-huh? Why you bringin' up Shinohara?"

"Come on, dude, enough already. Just be straight with us. Everyone already knows already."

"E-everyone… knows?" said Ike, directing his question at me for some reason. I more or less got where the conversation was going, so I nodded lightly in response.

"Ugghhh!" Ike immediately crouched down, his face turning red. "See? Even a total recluse like Ayanokouji knows about it. So did you

get any chocolates?" asked Sudou.

Perhaps because Shinohara wasn't really all that popular in our class, I didn't hear anyone around us commenting that they were jealous of Ike. I'd expected Yamauchi, his usual partner in crime, to razz him and be resentful, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"I didn't get anythin'…" replied Ike.

"Guess you and I are the same, then," said Sudou. He gave Ike a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

"W-well, it doesn't matter anyway. 'Cause I got some from Kushida- chan," said Ike, proudly showing off a box of chocolates with a pink ribbon on it.

"Uh, okay, dude, you say that, but didn't every guy in class get some? I did too," said Sudou.

"I'm still grateful, but yeah, I guess it really is just obligation chocolate at best."

I'd never expected Kushida would give chocolate to all the first-year boys. I wondered how she'd done it? Well, I supposed it wasn't that usual, given this was Kushida we were talking about.

The air was charged with the guys' overwhelming enthusiasm. I couldn't help but feel like it was precisely this kind of childish behavior that made the girls keep their distance, but then again, my classmates had so little

experience in the realm of love. This was inevitable, even if their desperation changed nothing. Your chances of getting chocolate depended on how you'd behaved in the days leading up to this, not how desperate you got now that the moment was here.

At least, that was the conclusion I came to as I watched a girl from Class B give Akito some chocolate.

6.2

"TOMORROW, ON THE 15TH, we'll be having a comprehensive practice test covering all subjects, just as the schedule indicated. However, as I had said before, this will have no bearing on your grades. The purpose of this test is to, at most, measure your current abilities. In addition, it will serve as good practice for the year-end exams. Many of the questions on the practice test will be similar to what you'll see on the year-end test, though of course, they won't be exactly the same. Don't get careless just because you got promoted to Class C," said Chabashira.

That much-appreciated explanation marked the end of today's lessons.

I decided to say a few words to my neighbor as she was getting ready to leave.

"How are things with Kushida lately?" I asked. "What do you mean?" replied Horikita.

"I mean, are things going well?"

"I don't know. I'm doing my utmost to come up with ways to improve our relationship. Are you considering helping me?"

"I'm just asking is all."

"Kushida-san has been changing, little by little," said Horikita. "What do you mean, changing?"

"I'm going to go have tea with her at Keyaki Mall later today.

Normally, she would have turned me down without a second thought," said Horikita.

Apparently, things were going better than I had thought—if only on the surface.

"So does that mean that your hopes are being realized?" I asked. "If we talk to one another, we may be able to come to some mutual

understanding."

"That would be good. Well, see ya." With that brief response, I got up

from my seat.

"…Okay, what was that about?" said Horikita, shooting me a slightly contemptuous look. She rose from her seat too.

"Ah, Suzune. Uh, um… When would be a good time to get some help with my studies?" asked Sudou.

"My, you're being quite proactive, Sudou-kun," said Horikita. "Well, I guess. I don't wanna get expelled, after all," said Sudou

nervously. I was willing to bet his real goal was to get some Valentine's Day

chocolate from Horikita. "Any time works for me today. So?"

However…

"Your club still hasn't gone on break yet, has it? I can help you study after the practice test. It won't be too late," replied Horikita, dashing Sudou's hopes to the ground as I left the classroom.

Someone shouted my name, the sound echoing throughout the hall. Well…I say "shouted'" but the actual volume of the words was quite low.

"Kiyotaka-kun!"

"What's up, Airi?" I asked.

"Is it really true that you're not meeting with the group today?"

"I wasn't planning to, no." The Ayanokouji Group had invited me to hang out, but I'd declined. I still had a problem that needed to be dealt with at the moment.

"I-I think it'll be okay even if you come later. Do you think you could still come?"

"Hmm… I might not be free until sometime after six. Is that okay?" "Yeah! I think everyone should still be together by then!"

"All right. We'll, I'll get in touch later then, okay?" I answered.

That brief comment was enough to change Airi's stiff expression to a broad smile. I parted ways with her and got moving again.

When I made it to Class B, the classroom was strangely quiet. There were only a few students I really wanted to talk to—Kanzaki would have been my first choice, but Sumida or Moriyama, who'd been with me at the

school camp, would do as well. Unfortunately, all three had left the classroom by the time I arrived.

I could probably have picked someone at random, but I wasn't going to do that. I turned around and left. On my way out, I overheard a shred of conversation between some Class B girls.

"Hey… Do you think the reason Honami-chan is absent today is because…?"

"No, there's no way."

So, Ichinose was absent, huh? As I walked away from Class B, I wondered if it was mere coincidence, or if it had something to do with what had happened the other day.

How had Sakayanagi come to know Ichinose's secret in the first place? Sure, there were conversational techniques like cold reading and hot reading that could be used to extract a person's secrets, but I couldn't imagine Ichinose willingly revealing her past as a shoplifter. Her refusal to comment on the rumors, even now, was proof of that. Would she really have let herself be coaxed into telling one of her greatest enemies, a member of Class A, such a secret? I mean, Ike and Yamauchi were one thing, but Ichinose was quite clever.

"Did she just succumb to Sakayanagi trying to wheedle it out of her…?" I asked myself aloud.

Or was there someone else who knew Ichinose's secret? But even Kanzaki, whom she probably trusted the most out of anyone in Class B, didn't seem to know it. I couldn't imagine her close friends knew it either, judging by their reactions. So maybe the teaching staff at school, or…the student council, which Ichinose was a part of.

"If Nagumo betrayed Ichinose and chose to side with Sakayanagi, then it's possible, I suppose," I reasoned.

This was a theory based on several assumptions, though. And besides, unless everything Kamuro had said was true, nothing could be substantiated. The only person who could overturn the premise of this assumption would be Ichinose Honami herself.

Though this school could be called huge, in the eyes of the rest of the

world, the campus was actually a rather confined space. If you met with someone in secret, there was always the danger of being seen. That meant you usually had to meet either early in the morning or in the middle of the night to avoid detection.

I didn't know Ichinose Honami's room number, but that was easily fixed—I could just call the dormitory management office and ask for it. From the school's point of view, there was no reason to keep student room numbers secret. If you said that you were a student, and that you were trying to get in touch with each other, then the school should cooperate with you.

I called to confirm her room number while I walked and managed to get it right away. As I did so, I ignored Hashimoto, who was watching me from a distance. He'd been tailing me frequently in the afternoons and evenings of late, and he wasn't too shabby at it either. I could tell he'd had plenty of experience tailing people.

On the surface, it might seem like there was no merit to me doing something like visiting Ichinose while I was being watched. In fact, the opposite was true. It was precisely because I was being watched that the action was worthwhile. Besides, I wanted to confirm something with Ichinose.

I hurried back to the dorm and went to her floor. Unfortunately, there were several girls standing in front of her room when I arrived, all people whom Ichinose was particularly close to.

I quickly turned back around and got back on the elevator, deciding to call it a day for now.

6.3

FIVE O'CLOCK CAME, and I asked Kei to meet me at a spot that was a little ways away from the dorms. It wasn't exactly a well-populated location, but it wasn't as though no one ever came there either.

"Ah, it's so cold! Why are we meeting in a place like this, anyway?

There are lots of other options, aren't there?" she complained.

"Well, we can't exactly meet in the lobby, can we? If we meet out in the open, people will start whispering about us, and that would be bad for you, wouldn't it?"

"Well, I suppose, but…doesn't meeting secretly like this actually make us look even more suspicious? If anyone sees us, there'll definitely be all kinds of rumors popping up…"

"Don't worry about it."

"You know, I kinda get the feeling that you're not being very cautious.

But that's fine, I guess."

That was all right. After all, it would be a long wait for the guy who'd been following me.

"Still, it's way too cold out. I wish summer would hurry up and come already," said Kei.

"Aren't you going to just end up saying you wish winter would hurry up and come once summer does roll around?"

Kei pondered that for a bit, then sniffed. "That's just how a maiden's heart works," she answered, pouting a bit. "Come to think of it, I wonder if there's going to be a special exam this month?"

"Well, we only just got done with the school camp. It wouldn't surprise me if there's no special exam this month."

"So you think we can breathe easy for a bit?"

"Are you going to be all right for the year-end exam? It'll probably be pretty difficult." When I said that, Kei's posture grew stiff.

"Huh…? Seriously?" she said.

She'd managed to somehow squeak past in the exams we've had so far, but she couldn't afford to get careless with her studies.

"Help me study," said Kei.

"Ask Hirata… Actually, while I suppose that's not impossible, it might be pretty difficult, huh?"

Kei certainly was audacious enough to ask Hirata to tutor her if she felt like it, even after they'd just broken up. But she didn't seem to be too keen on the idea. She was staring at me. The easiest solution would be to have Keisei tutor her, but that wasn't realistic. If I tossed her into the midst of our group without warning, it would have repercussions.

"It would have to be in the middle of the night. Is that okay?" I asked. "It's way better than getting expelled."

Well put. "All right, then. I'll go ahead and put together a schedule." "Thanks."

Even if we got through the year-end exam, though, there'd be new problems on the horizon soon after. We could probably expect to see a massive special exam around the start of March. If we made it safely through that, we'd have completed our first year of school. The school would keep us fighting to the bitter end, so we couldn't afford to let our guards down.

"So, anyway, what did you need from me?" asked Kei, seeming a little fidgety and nervous for some reason.

"Something up?" I asked.

"No, not really. It's just…I was thinking it seemed like you really wanted to meet with me today, for some reason."

"I just had something I wanted to confirm. It would've been fine if we didn't get to it today."

"Hmph," she scoffed, shooting me a look of suspicion. Deciding to pay it no mind, I focused on the topic at hand.

"Any idea whose number this might be?" I asked, showing her the unregistered phone number that I had gotten a call from the other day.

"Huh? Who is that from? What, are you getting calls from strangers or something?"

"Seems that way."

Kei brought up her contacts and manually entered the number via the keypad. If the number was registered in her contacts, then the person's name and other information should show up.

"Doesn't seem like anything's coming up."

"I do have more contacts in my phone than the average girl, but I don't know most of the seniors," said Kei.

I'd hoped she'd get a hit after checking her contacts, giving me a new lead to investigate. But I supposed the odds of that happening were slim, after all.

off."

"Why not just try calling the number back directly?" she asked. "I've tried doing that several times, but whoever it is has their phone

"Hm…? If it's important, do you want me to look into it for you?" "Sure. That was why I called you out here today, anyway. But don't do

anything careless," I told her.

"Got it," answered Kei, nodding, taking note of the number. "Is that

all?"

"Yep. See ya."

I tried to bring our conversation to a close, but Kei hurriedly moved to

stop me, looking flustered.

"Oh, uh, by the way, um… there's something I kind of wanted to talk to you about. Can I ask you a question?" A strange question, as it turned out. "What day is today? Okay, 5, 4, 3—"

"…That's a much easier question than I expected. Actually, it's so easy that I'm worried I'm going to give you the wrong answer after all," I replied.

"Don't overthink it. Just give me a straight answer." "Valen—"

"Yes, that is correct," she replied, cutting me off.

I felt my head being lightly bonked by a box. "You're giving me this?" I asked.

"I got it for Yousuke-kun, but there's no need to give it to him anymore."

"For Hirata, huh?"

"What? You don't like it?"

"No, it's not that. I was just thinking that you must have prepared this quite a long while in advance," I replied. Kei had decided to break it off with Hirata already well over a month ago now.

"I-I prepare for things very thoroughly! Even though I decided I was going to break up with him, I thought it might still be useful to have, okay? Well, I guess it's not like I should expect someone like you, a complete beginner to the world of romance, to understand."

I supposed she had a point.

"I was just thinking that maybe you chose today to meet because you were hoping to get some chocolate from me," she added.

"Sorry. Didn't think about that at all," I replied.

Kei wore a look of irritation for a moment but then quickly recovered and changed the topic of conversation, like she was trying to avoid something. "By the way, did you get anything from other girls?"

"Nope, didn't get anything."

I'd decided beforehand to tell her that regardless of whether I actually received anything or not.

"Ha, too bad, so sad. Guess you're a guy with zero prospects, then," she replied, switching to making fun of me at the drop of a hat.

"Are you sure you want to give this to me, then? If you give it to me, that means I no longer have zero prospects, right?" I replied.

"That just makes it even more pathetic. That means you've gotta come to me for salvation." She was really condescending to me now. "Oh, by the way, feel free to return the favor by paying me back a thousand times over, if you like."

Well, that was just extremely absurd. "By the way, um—"

Kei tried to change the subject yet again, but the words seemed to get stuck in her throat when she met my gaze. We stood close together, gazing into each other's eyes, until I slowly shifted my line of sight in the direction of the dormitory.

"Well, I'll head back to my room then," said Kei. "Okay. See you."

Kei left for the dorms, and I put her present into my bag right away.