When I reached the classroom, people were buzzing and gossiping about something.
All of them trained their eyes on me the moment I entered the classroom.
Kei was surrounded by girls and she was being questioned. She was smiling nervously and trying to evade answering them. She could have just said the truth but instead, she decided to keep quiet. She must be thinking that if she were to say something and that messed up the situation, it would only mean trouble for me. She must have wanted to prevent that from happening.
I put my bag on my seat and Akito approached me.
"What's the meaning of this?"
He asked. Airi, Haruka, and Keisei were behind them.
Everyone was looking at me to hear my answer.
Horikita also approached me and said, "Will you be kind enough so as to explain what the meaning of this picture is?"
She showed her phone screen to me.
Shown in the picture were me and a girl with a cane walking side by side.
This was the image that had been circulating on the school website since morning.
There was also a sort of note attached with the photo which read as follows: Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and Sakayanagi Arisu know each other since a long time back and have a special relationship. – Ryuen Kakeru.
"If Ryuen had just said so without any proof, I would have dismissed it as just his usual method of provocation but we have a definitive proof here. And there is no way it is edited, is it?"
"No. It is true."
"So, what is this special relationship that you two have?"
All the attention on me was making it quite uncomfortable for me.
While I was thinking about how to answer, my phone rang. I took out the phone but before I could Horikita snatched the phone from me.
She answered the call and put it in speaker mode.
"Hello. Ayanokoji-kun."
From the other side, the voice of the other person in question could be heard. Horikita narrowed her eyes on me and with her eyes motioned me to answer.
"Hello. Sakayanagi?"
"Ah, yes, it's me. It has surely spread wild and fast."
"So it seems."
"I have been pestered since morning to answer their questions and the situation there would be no different, right?"
"It may be even worse for me."
"Right. And here I wanted to keep the fact that we were childhood friends a secret till the very end."
She said as if she was genuinely troubled but I could still pick up on her excitement. She was probably very amused right now.
You could think of it as acting like you were angry when you were teased with your name attached to a girl but being actually and weirdly happy inside.
"Well. There is no point in hiding it now."
"Fufu. Seems so. But it still is a bit troublesome, answering every one. It might be tough for you at the other end as well so we should have this conversation some other time."
'Okay."
With that, she cut the phone and Horikita shoved the phone into my hands.
"You two are childhood friends?"
"Yes."
Horikita then turned towards Kei and asked her, "Is that true?"
"Yes."
She knew about that because after we announced that we were dating Sakayangi had paid a visit personally to Kei in order to make her aware of that fact. I could still remember her angry face back then. She had shouted at me for keeping that a secret from her.
But more than that, for some reason, she seemed relieved and she had said something like 'Thank god that the childhood friend trope applies to the real world as well!'. I didn't understand what she meant by that but left it as it was since she had calmed down.
"I see."
"To think the two of them were childhood friends."
Murmured someone from the crowd of my classmates.
"So that was why she cast her praise votes to Ayanokoji. It was so she could protect her childhood friend."
Ike said with his hands on his chin. Everyone in the class seemed like they had finally found the answer to a mystery.
During that class vote exam in our first year, Sakayangi had cast the praise votes of all in her class for me which had earned me a protection point. There had been quite a lot of suspicions at that time. Although Horikita had managed to calm everyone down with her reasoning they were still suspicious.
"Sakayanagi-san is surprisingly maiden-like, isn't it? She did all that just to save her childhood friend. Isn't that wonderful?"
A girl said and the others started smiling.
Horikita for her part was still glaring at me.
"But why did you keep it a secret?"
"I wasn't particularly trying to keep it a secret. There was just no need to say anything."
"There definitely was a need for that during the class votes exam."
"But you handled it all before I could say anything. And Horikita you also didn't tell that the student council President was your brother, did you?"
"No. I wasn't trying to hide it or anything. There was simply no need for that."
"Exactly my point."
She was able to understand my position more than anyone else because she herself had similar experiences.
"Well, that's true."
After making a huge wave, all the fuss died down as everyone started focusing on their exams.
Just one day before the exams, the school had granted us preparation leave. But even that day, Horikita was conducting the study session.
I encouraged Kei to participate as well, as Horikita had prepared some tests and it would be good for Kei to evaluate her growth.
I had a pre-arranged meeting with a certain someone.
After wrapping up my meeting with him or rather them, I put on my school uniform and went to the study session. In this school, to enter the school premises one had to wear the school uniform even during a day off.
The study session had borne tremendous results. After this much preparation, no one would have trouble getting the average score.
With a tense and competitive atmosphere hanging in the air, the day for the examination finally arrived.
The first day of the exam.
We had to give the exams of two subjects today but no one knew what that would be.
The paper was in front of us with the answer sheet facing down.
Everyone was waiting for the bell to ring.
Immediately after the bell rang, the sound of paper flipping was heard all over the class.
"Japanese literature and Maths."
No one was surprised about the subjects. We all already knew what four subjects would be covered in the examination. After all, we were the ones who decided that.
Everyone started writing on their papers.
Normally I would have tried to get across the 300 marks. But this time, I decided to get full marks in every subject. It was the final special examination after all.
"It's finally over!"
Satou stretched her arms after Chabashira finished collecting the papers. Everyone had a satisfied smile on their faces. Their hard work had definitely paid off.
On the front desk, Chabashira started managing the papers. Before long she finished and left the classroom without any word.
"Will you guys be okay? Or do you need a session today as well?"
Horikita asked everyone. We had finished two but we still had two left.
"We will be fine, Horikita-san. You have done a lot for us already. Rather than us, you should focus on your studies more." Shinohara said with a smile.
Everyone knew how hard she had worked for the sake of the class while still keeping up with her studies.
"I will be fine. If you say you will all be fine, then that's a relief."
The second day of the exam.
We in Class D already knew what today's subjects were going to be.
We were going to give the papers for English and Chemistry.
The questions for all four exams were relatively tough. So it was fair to assume that someone did attain a privilege to that effect.
But even then, our classmates didn't falter. They had worked hard enough and were confident that they would be able to pass.
With this, the final special examination finally came to an end.
Note:
This should have been updated two or three days earlier but because of some reasons, I had to go out and the whole process got delayed. This was my first time out after a very long time.
And, my god!
No matter where I go, all I see are beautiful girls with charms of their own. My eyes were jumping from one beauty to another and my head was spinning all the time. I wasn't able to handle it.
So, yeah, I am not going out again!!!!!
Anyway, there should be now two or three more parts left for this chapter to wrap up.