"Sorry for the wait—"
Shirogane had already gone through his pocket vocabulary book three times when a cheerful girl came jogging over from the distance.
She waved and smiled brightly, the kind of smile that warmed people up.
Even just sitting here, looking up and seeing her would naturally lift your mood.
"Since you're ready, let's get moving," Shirogane said as he put his vocab book back into his pocket and stood up.
"Nyah~" Ichinose tilted her head, giving Shirogane a curious look. "Were you studying while waiting?"
Shirogane had been memorizing vocab words, which basically counted as studying.
"I'm not that smart, so I just cram like this whenever I get a chance," he said.
"Ohh," Ichinose nodded lightly.
But—
[She totally doesn't believe you.]
"..." Shirogane.
Alright, guess there's no point trying to read Ichinose.
"I've only just started at this school, and there's already so much going on it makes my head spin."
"Plus, I made some mistakes and caused our class to lose a lot of points. Some upperclassmen told me we're the first class in the school's history to drop that low in the first month."
Along the way, Ichinose kept chatting nonstop, like a little sparrow looking for someone to vent to.
And yet, she was the class rep of her class.
That part was kind of surprising.
In A-Class, students chose between two rival groups. In B-Class, where Shirogane was, the whole class was held together by Ryuen's force.
But Ichinose's C-Class was different.
It seemed like she led them through her charm and personality.
As for D-Class—
Shirogane had met Kushida and Horikita, and had also heard about two other students—Takayanagi and Ayanokouji—who were said to be geniuses. But sadly, D-Class hadn't really produced a clear leader yet.
Still—
As the two of them walked, they reached the entrance of the student council office and noticed two people already standing there.
One was a tall, bald guy. The other had a full head of bright green hair.
Both were first-year students from A-Class. The bald guy was Katsuragi—the leader of the Katsuragi group—and the green-haired one was Totsuka Yahiko. According to Kushida's info, Totsuka was pretty much Katsuragi's lackey.
And for Kushida to just straight-up label him a "follower" in her notes showed she didn't think too highly of the guy.
So in the end—
Even though he had run into A-Class students, Shirogane ended up learning a bit more about Kushida from D-Class instead.
When Shirogane and Ichinose noticed Katsuragi and Totsuka, the two A-Class students spotted them too.
"Ichinose, why are you here with someone from C-Class?" Totsuka Yahiko asked.
Looked like he knew her.
"Katsuragi and Totsuka," Ichinose greeted them politely. But since they were from A-Class—the ones who had crushed her class last month and caused their point loss—there was definitely some tension.
"There's no rule saying students can't come to the student council, right?"
"And don't forget, Shirogane is now a student of Class B." Ichinose stepped a little closer to him, like she was trying to stand up for him.
Ichinose was pretty sharp.
What she did was clearly on purpose—to make it look like she and Shirogane had a close connection, which could lead others to think their classes were working together or something.
It was just a smoke screen, really. But Shirogane felt she was standing a little *too* close—he could even catch a whiff of her perfume.
Still, he noticed Katsuragi had already started looking over in his direction.
Actually, Shirogane had seen Katsuragi once last month in the cafeteria. Back then, Katsuragi hadn't shown much reaction, nothing like the intense gaze he was giving now.
"Congrats to your class for being the first in history to go from Class C to Class B in just one month," Katsuragi finally said.
"And congrats to your Class A for keeping the highest score after the first month," Shirogane replied.
It sounded like they were sizing each other up.
"Um… are you two planning to keep talking out here in front of the student council office?"
"You're first-years, right? You're probably here for something student-council-related."
Just then, the student council door opened from the inside, and a girl with purple hair tied up in a bun stepped out.
She was Tachibana Akane, a third-year student and the student council secretary. She was usually seen following the student council president around.
"Uh—"
Totsuka, Katsuragi, and Ichinose all looked a bit stiff and awkward.
Shirogane totally got it—this student council door had basically no soundproofing.
So, the four of them headed into the student council room together.
"This is a rare sight."
Inside were just the student council president, Horikita Manabu, and his secretary, Tachibana Akane. The one Shirogane had gathered info on, Nagumo Miyabi, wasn't there.
Still, all four first-years entered together.
"Four first-years, all with the same goal. That's not something you see every day."
Horikita Manabu said that.
And as he spoke, Tachibana Akane stood quietly behind him, like she was his assistant or shadow.
?
Shirogane hadn't paid much attention before, but now he realized that Tachibana Akane's behavior felt oddly familiar. It reminded him of how Katsuragi and Totsuka interacted... maybe even like Sakayanagi and Kamuro.
Though, Sakayanagi was the worst of them—she treated Kamuro more like a pet than a person.
Of course, knowing Horikita Manabu's character, he probably didn't mean anything like that. Tachibana just seemed like someone who followed his lead.
That's what Shirogane was thinking when—
Horikita placed both hands on the desk in front of him.
ps: Today's update.
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