A Cookie Caused...

According to the rules of the exam, every student had the right to use points. After all, the theme of this exam was "freedom."

Within Class D, an agreement had been made: any points that needed to be spent for living expenses would be discussed by everyone. No one was allowed to act privately.

I was worried that the three idiots and those troublesome kids would mess things up. But surprisingly, they remained quiet. Instead, it was the girls who broke the agreement first.

And this wasn't even after the incident with the stolen underwear.

They had secretly done this on the very first day, without informing the boys.

"Karuizawa and Shinohara applied. Not all the girls were present at the time, so they made the decision on their own," Kushida explained. "Horikita complained about it afterward. She is so useless, yet he still loves to give orders. It's annoying."

Hikigaya hesitated for a moment before asking, "Does Hirata know about this?"

"Karuizawa should have told him, but it seems he didn't tell you."

"Yeah..."

Regarding this situation, Hikigaya felt more helpless than angry.

He didn't want to criticize Hirata's actions. After all, from the perspective of a class leader, making this matter public would only cause more harm than good and would likely deepen internal divisions.

This was what people called putting the overall situation first.

However, not everyone cared so much about the "big picture."

Hikigaya, at least, didn't care at all. He didn't have strong feelings for the class anyway, so he just let them be.

After gathering all the fruits in the area, the four of them returned home with bags full of their harvest.

Returning to the camp, the atmosphere felt even heavier than before.

"Hmph!"

As soon as Hikigaya walked back, a group led by Shinohara stood glaring at him. Beside her was an upset-looking Karuizawa, her eyes red, with a few other girls backing them up. Only Matsushita offered him a strained smile.

The boys, meanwhile, watched from a distance, their expressions just as unfriendly.

It seemed likely that another argument had broken out after Hachiman left.

Sigh… how annoying.

"Here, take this." Hikigaya handed the bag he was carrying to Kushida.

"Thank you for helping out, Hikigaya-kun."

Kushida's warm smile seemed to ease some of the tension among the boys. To them, it was comforting to think that even if the rest of the girls in class were difficult, at least Kushida remained their sweet angel.

But this only seemed to irritate Shinohara even more. Her tone dripped with sarcasm as she said, "Kushida-san, since when did you and Hikigaya get so close? Coming back together, huh?"

"It's not like that," Kushida replied, maintaining her smile as she held up the bag. "I just happened to run into him on the way back. Look, he helped me gather these fruits—they're really sweet and tasty."

"Pfft, who wants to eat something that dead fish eyes touched?" Shinohara clicked her tongue dismissively.

Hikigaya didn't even bother looking at her. He was long used to such insults, and they barely registered anymore.

"Hey, Shinohara-san, maybe you should ease up a little?" Matsushita interjected, seemingly unable to tolerate Shinohara's behavior.

But her attempt to calm things down only made Shinohara angrier.

"What? Did I say something wrong?" Shinohara shot back, glaring at Matsushita as if she had betrayed her.

Matsushita sighed, trying to reason with her. "We've still got four days left in this exam. We can't keep fighting like this, right?"

"So what? Besides Hirata-kun, none of the other disgusting guys even matter." Shinohara's voice was full of disdain.

"But—"

"But what about you, Matsushita-san?" Shinohara cut her off sharply. "I know you've always been on good terms with Hikigaya, but this time, someone stole a girl's underwear! Whose side are you on?"

"That's not the issue here!"

Even Matsushita was losing her patience, holding back the urge to snap.

Suddenly, Hikigaya turned to Shinohara. "Hey, ugly, have you figured it out yet?"

Before Shinohara could respond, he continued, "I asked you this morning, didn't I? Is there anyone in class uglier than you? Haven't found anyone yet?"

"Wha—?!" Shinohara was so furious she nearly exploded, but just then, Hirata arrived with a lunchbox in hand.

"Alright, everyone, it's time to eat... What's going on here?"

Seeing Shinohara and Hikigaya facing off, Hirata immediately sensed trouble and stepped between them.

"Both of you, calm down!"

"Hirata-kun, it's all Hikigaya's fault!" Shinohara immediately accused, turning to Hirata's girlfriend for support.

"Karuizawa-san, say something too!"

"Eh? Um, I-I think... Hirata-kun should handle it," Karuizawa stammered, her gaze shifting nervously.

Having heard about the morning incident, Karuizawa was now keeping her distance from Hikigaya, too wary to come to Shinohara's defense.

"Alright, alright, let's just eat first. The fish is fresh today," Hirata said, trying to defuse the situation as always.

"Hmph, no food for the boys!" Shinohara declared, crossing her arms. "We girls cooked everything, so you suspects don't deserve to eat!"

"What? Are you serious?!"

The boys erupted in protest.

The meals provided by the school were bland and small in portion, especially for the boys who had been working all day. They relied on the extra fish and fruit to fill their stomachs.

Most importantly, they weren't about to let the girls hog everything.

"We caught those fish, didn't we?"

"Shut up! One of you guys is a criminal who stole underwear!"

The argument quickly escalated into another shouting match, with Shinohara repeatedly bringing up the theft to shut down any counterarguments. The other girls joined in, seizing the opportunity to voice their grievances.

Tsk, so noisy.

The combination of the sweltering heat and the unreasonable accusations was pushing Hachiman's patience to its limit. He had intended to keep quiet about a certain matter, but if these girls were going to be so insufferable, he decided there was no reason to hold back.

"Idiots, who cares about your disgusting fish?"

Hachiman suddenly stepped forward and snapped at Shinohara.

Then, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small packet of cookies. In full view of everyone, he tore it open and dumped the entire contents into his mouth.

A stunned silence fell over the camp, broken only by the sound of Hikigaya loudly crunching the cookies.

"Ugly, I've got cookies. Do you?"

Hachiman swallowed and smirked at Shinohara.

But this time, none of the boys joined in.

"Hachiman, where did you get those cookies?" Yukimura demanded, his voice edged with worry.

He had been advocating for strict rationing of points throughout the exam, so seeing someone with snacks immediately triggered his worst fears.

"Someone gave them to me."

"Liar! Who would give you anything?"

Shinohara thought she had caught Hachiman in a lie and was practically giddy with excitement.

"Everyone, this guy must have secretly used our class points to buy snacks! That's the only explanation!"

Her accusation sent the camp into an uproar, with both boys and girls now turning their frustration toward Hachiman.

"Wait! Don't jump to conclusions—let's hear Hachiman-kun out first!" Hirata quickly tried to mediate, but he would soon regret giving Hachiman the floor.

"There's nothing more to say. I'm not lying," Hachiman replied nonchalantly. "If you don't believe me, just ask Chabashira-sensei. Every supply request is recorded."

"...Eh?"

A few people blinked in confusion at his words, with Hirata being the first to realize what was happening.

But it was too late. Yukimura, who was most concerned about their points, had already rushed off to find Chabashira-sensei.

"Chabashira-sensei, um—"

Hirata tried to stop things from escalating, but Chabashira-sensei simply tossed a small booklet at them.

"All the records are in there. According to the rules, any student can check them. Look for yourselves."

"Everyone, let me... Hey! Yukimura-kun?!"

Hirata moved quickly, but Yukimura snatched the booklet from his hands and immediately started flipping through it, a group of boys crowding around him.

"Snacks... snacks... There really aren't any listed."

Hirata began to relax, but his relief was short-lived as Yukimura suddenly shouted again.

"Wait a minute! Why does it say 'electric fan' and 'pillow' in here?!"