Chapter 11: Slight Regrets

Ayanokoji POV

"Sudo, this is a compound sentence, it has two independent clauses and not an independent and participle one" Horikita explained to Sudo as he listened eagerly, happy at the fact that he was making a lot of progress

We were studying together in a free period due to Mister Sakagami not being well today

Horikita had taken my words of advice two weeks ago to heart, she had made a lot of changes to her attitude and had taken to being more inviting to people. She is teaching effectively and has did well at developing in that regard. I am proud of her.

I look over to the other two as I see that Ike had also learnt and had put in a lot of effort to get better, he has covered the syllabus and is ready for the exam, still motivated to become a catch for women.

As for Yamauchi..... he has taken the lax approach, he isn't trying very hard and hasn't even started with maths. I don't know what he will do in the exam.

I sigh inwardly as I realize that the midterms start in less than 3 days, it seems I should begin the second part of my plan. I give a call to Kikyou

"Hey Kikyou, can you meet me at the cafeteria at break?" I said as Horikita looks at me with murderous eyes

What did Kikyou do to her? did they have a fight?

"Eh!? why're you calling Kushida-chan Ayanokoji!" Ike exclaimed as Yamauchi looked at me in curiosity

"I have a plan that might be what is needed for the class to come first in terms of score. I need Kikyou's help and if I am right, it will be a game changer" I say as the boys nod while Horikita stares at me, trying to hide her unhappiness

"Kiyotaka. Why exactly do you need Kushida's help?" Horikita asked in a chilling voice that would send a shiver down the spines of the other boys

"She is friends with a lot of seniors, I need her help talking to them" I simply explain as the break starts and I grab my bag

"I'll see you all later, take care" I say as Sudo and Ike say it back happily

why is Horikita so upset? I thought she was happy with me making new friends?

as Horikita doesn't reply to me saying take care, I make my way to the cafeteria as I find Kushida waiting for me, she sees me and gives me a genuine smile

"Oi! Kiyo!" Kushida calls out to me, using a childish nickname she gave

In the time me and her have been friends she has been visiting me often in my dorm to either just vent, talk or even just hang out with me. In that time she started calling me a nickname, not that I mind

"Kikyou, I need your help with something" I said as she nodded

"Alright, what do you need my help with? wait! let me guess! maybe it is to get away from the second coming of the devil! Horikita isn't the most fun to hand out with from what I guess!" Kikyou said in her cheerful persona as only I could hear her ruthlessly insult Horikita

"No need to be so mean, come with me, I see a senior eating the vegetable set" I said as she asks

"Why do you want to talk to that senior?" she asks as I shrug

"He obviously doesn't have any points, no one would eat that food willingly until it was the last resort. I need to buy something from him" I said as Kikyou nodded as we made our way to the senior

"Hello, I wanted to talk to you" I said to the senior, he was a little short chubby with a small moustache forming

"Huh, what do you juniors want from me?" he asked as I nodded and said

"You gave the mid terms in the first year right? I wanted to buy the questions and answers" I said as he sighed and said

"30 thousand points, I won't go any less" he said as I looked toward Kushida as she understood the signal

"Senpai please! we are in Class D and we desperately need those papers! please help us and lower the price!" Kushida said in her cheerful personality as I was sure that she was cringing inside while talking like that

"F-fine! 15 thousand, I can't go any lower!" he said as I offered once more

"I wanted to help you really, you are in class D with no points, you have no use for those papers and I was willing to buy at a fair price. I can understand your desperation for points so I will offer this, 10 thousand points and you also throw in the quiz you took at the end of the first month" I said as she gritted his teeth at my response

"Fuc- fine. Send the points now and I'll send the papers" he said as I nodded

"Also note that this is an official transaction, I have recorded this conversation as well so don't try anything funny" I said to him with my cold tone and eyes as he looks a little scared but says

"Most of my class is expelled anyways, I wouldn't want to risk expulsion to" he said as I nodded, he sent me the papers as I sent him the points.

Me and Kushida walked away after obtaining the papers

"Why did you buy those? you don't think the school will mix up the papers?" Kushida asked, confused on why I spent 10k for papers

"Kikyou, call it a hunch but with how Miss Chabashira talked to me, she knew that there was a surefire way to pass the exams, I realized that the quiz was a hint" I said as I brought out the quiz I had taken and the quiz the senior had taken, every question, down the word. Was the exact same.

"Wha, HOLY SHIT! the words are the exact same!" Kushida exclaimed, as she looked around after her outburst, glad that no one noticed her swearing

"Yea, I am guessing it will be the same for the Mid terms. I want you to give these to the whole class today. I don't want this class to pass, I want us to have the highest marks possible by both understanding the concept and also knowing the answers beforehand. A perfect victory." I said as Kushida asked

"W-what if they aren't same? won't we be screwed then!?" she said as I shook my head

"If they aren't then these are just good practice, besides we made the study groups for a reason. We all should easily pass and really, I am only worried about one person failing." I said as Kushida asked me in her confusion

"Who?" she said as I shrugged

"Don't worry about it" I simply said as we went back to the class as I sat back into my seat and waited for Kikyou to distribute the papers

"Everyone! please listen here!" I heard as I looked toward Kushida, getting everyone's attention

"I have the answers for the mid terms! we can all pass and get high marks with ease!" she said as everyone in the class lost it

"WHAT, WAIT REALLY!?" "WE'RE SAVED!!!" "WE LOVE YOU KUSHIDA!"

I heard many yells coming from all directions as sigh inwardly, how noisy

"Oh, it wasn't me who found these! it was Ayanokoji" Kikyou said as I flinched.

Shit.

Kikyou, how could you betray me like this? I thought we were friends, we even had cup noodles together.

"Ayanokoji!? Really!? THANK YOU SO MUCH MAN!" Hondou screamed as he came toward me and tried to hug me as I backed away, getting up from my seat

as the whole class swarmed me, I look toward Kushida who was giving me an ever so sweet smile that made me feel a little annoyed, she knew what she was doing with this.

after a few minutes of questioning and uncomfortable amounts of people gathering around me, we passed the papers around the class and everyone had hope for passing with ease now

I look toward Horikita as she looks at me and asks

"Was this your plan? are we sure it's even allowed?" Horikita asked as I shrugged

"It is as Lawyers say, if it isn't a law that is written down, it's legal" I said as she sighed at the reasoning

We aren't cheating, we are simply using material acquired from an outside source so even if it was considered cheating to use it, we were neither informed about it nor can be held liable as it was sold to us

"Kiyotaka, do you want to have dinner together today? I bought a lot of chicken and I am going to be making teriyaki chicken" she said as my attention peaked

Teriyaki chicken is a dish I saw online, it looked delicious and if Horikita's cooking it then....

"Kiyo! I have got some Cod back at my dorm! got it as a gift from a senpai! we can share it over dinner!" Kikyou suddenly came in as Horikita gained a tick mark

"Kushida. Ayanokoji is eating dinner with me tonight. I reckon you ask him some other time." Horikita said with her more than usual cold tone as Kushida smiled her smile and replied

"Oh really? come on Ayanokoji, who will you have dinner with?" Kushida said with a smile that felt sinister

Hey Hey hey, what is happening here. I don't like this.

"Ayanokoji! me and the girls wanted to hang out at dinner today and give you treat while we are at it for the papers! what do you say?" Hirata invited me to a dinner with him and his friends

This might be the opportunity I needed.

"Sure, I would love to come Hirata" I said as Horikita and Kikyou both looked at me with their mouths agape.

"Sorry guys, we can share a meal some other time, I haven't hung out with Hirata's group ever and I want to be better friends with Hirata as he is a great guy" I said, it could be translated as, I do not wish to die today and I value my life very much.

Class begins soon after as the rest of the day involved Horikita glaring at me from beside me and if I look toward the door, I could see Kushida glaring at me with creepy smile

Instead of picking the lesser of two evils, both the evils are just going to kill me together now. It seems I miscalculated.

As the school day ended, I ran out of class as fast as I could, I could swear I saw Horikita take out a compass as I got up. She held it in an... incredibly menacing and threatening way

I sighed to myself as I reach my dorm room, I had bought a few clothes that were on clearance which looked quite good. It saved me a lot of points and gave me the clothes needed for occasions like this. As it was just friends meeting, I'll wear something casual for tonight

A cream pant and a black hoodie should do the job (yes, this combo looks really good, at least I think so)

The time for dinner came as Hirata invited me to a small dining place on the campus, it was just beside the Keyaki mall and I went in, finding Hirata

"Hello Hirata, where are the others?" I asked Hirata, who had worn jeans with a black shirt

"I am waiting for them to, they said that they will be here in a bit and that they will come together" He said as I nodded, we sat down and talked about general stuff

Hirata was a pleasant person but he had a lot of worries on his mind, it seemed that the thought of failing another person has him extremely pressed and traumatized. Maybe that is why he is in class D

We waited a few more minutes as the girls finally arrived

I look to see Karuizawa Kei, Mei Yu Wang, Sato Maya and Matsushita Chiaki

"Hello! I hope that we weren't late!" Karuizawa says as I looked to observe the girls who had dressed up in varying types of fashion

Karuizawa had chose a dress, Mei Yu Wang had chose to wear a skirt and blouse, Sato had worn a long skirt with a cardigan and Matsushita had worn jeans with a crop top with a jacket over it

"Hah! ever since the reveal of the points we haven't really gone out anywhere! I am glad we found this cheap place!" I heard Sato said, relaxed at the moment

"I know right? it's great!" Karuizawa said as I see that Matsushita was looking at me with interest and suspicion

"Hey Ayanokoji, I wanted to ask. Where did you go to school before this?" she asked me with an underlying curiosity in her voice as I replied simply by saying

"I was homeschooled till now, so being with so many people is a little new to me" I explained as everyone around the table shared words of support

Matsushita looked me, still suspicious for some reason. Maybe it isn't suspicion but curiosity instead?

"Ah! I wanted to tell you all something important today!" Karuizawa said as everyone looked at her

"Me and Hirata are now officially dating!" she released the news with a joyous smile as everyone congratulated and clapped for them

It didn't make sense, Hirata doesn't seem like the kind to date so early on into a friendship. She is even calling him by his family name instead of his given name. I chose not to question it but it seemed that there were other things that were hidden

The night continued with small talk and sub par food. I kind of wished that I went Horikita or Kushida instead.

I am close with them and I could have honest and fun conversation with them, with these people I am not nearly as trusting and neither they are with me

'To be fair, I don't trust anyone that much' I mentally spoke as I realized, trust is the foundation of any relationship. If I can't trust Horikita and Kikyou, then will I truly be able to ever change? truly become a new person who will be able to do better

These thoughts swirled through my mind as Sato suddenly questioned me

"Ayanokoji.... I just noticed, I don't think I have seen you smile even once" she said as everyone looked at me in curiosity over the fact

"I am just not that good at expressing myself, so I just don't smile much" I said as everyone insistently questioned me about it, why and how and since when

How annoying. I answered a question and you endlessly ask for more? it gets repetitive and almost annoying when the questions are so brain numbingly un creative

as this exhausting night came to a close, I went back to my dorm and laid down on my bed, today was not fun. I miss Horikita and Kushida, I do regret that I didn't go with either of them.

My thoughts are plagued with the small regrets as I continue to question the level of trust I have for them and maybe, just maybe. I can make myself a little vulnerable to them slowly but surely.