(Ayanokouji, Kiyotaka POV)
There were now only two days left to the midterms.
With all that happened yesterday in the guidance room, there was a lot on my mind that I needed to process.
But, for the time being, I'd push that to the side and focus on my plan to improve our class's chance of success during these midterms.
And to guarantee our success, I'd need someone's help.
Kikyo Kushida.
The angel within Class D.
Adored by all.
She was the key to ensuring the success of my plan.
I had messaged her after school yesterday, saying I needed her assistance at lunch today.
She was constantly bombarded by individuals inviting her for lunch, so I had to make sure I made my lunch reservation with Kushida in advance.
"Ayanokouji-kun?"
It was lunchtime now, and the wonderful Kushida had already approached me.
"What do you need help with?"
"Would you mind accompanying me to the cafeteria?"
"Sure thing!" Kushida responded with a warm smile.
As we both walked out of the classroom and headed toward the cafeteria. I saw glares with the intent to kill aimed at me from my fellow male classmates. Obviously, they were envious that I'd be getting to spend my lunchtime with Kushida.
We arrived at the cafeteria. It was extremely busy today. I hadn't eaten here many times, but every time I did, there were always large lines and tables full of students.
"So, what are we doing?" Kushida asked me.
"Let's get our lunch first."
"Alrighty~"
We both joined the line to get our meal tickets. After waiting a few minutes, Kushida and I arrived at the ticket booth, ready to pay for our meal sets.
I decided to go with a slightly cheaper option as I was concerned about conserving my points.
When we finally got our meal sets and turned to face the cafeteria.
"Where will we sit?"
"I know where."
I had this planned out already.
While we were in line, I watched to see if any upperclassmen had grabbed the free vegetable meal set.
There was one who did, I noticed him sitting near the back of the cafeteria alone, eating his free meal set.
"Follow my lead," I told Kushida.
We arrived at the table where our upperclassman sat. He seemed to be a bit confused as to why two random juniors would sit with him, but nonetheless, I sat beside him, while Kushida sat across from us.
"Hello, senpai," I started putting my plan into action, "that meal kit doesn't look very appealing. Is it good?"
"What do you want?!"
"I'll cut to the chase. We have midterms coming up soon, and I was curious if I could see your previous midterm from your first year?"
"What! Why?"
"Simple. I want to use it as a study guide in preparation for the exams."
"No, I won't do that. Get lost," he responded coldly.
I turned my line of sight to Kushida. Hopefully, she would pick up my intentions and apply some pressure on our upperclassmen.
"Please~, it would help us very much," without batting an eye, Kushida tried to gently apply pressure on our senpai. She had started to play her role perfectly without any verbal communication between us.
"I could get in serious trouble if I were to just give you the exam."
"I thought you'd say that. So, I am willing to negotiate a price."
"A price?"
"Yes. 10,000 points for the midterms and their answer key."
"No way! 50,000 points at least or I'm walking."
"The most I can do is 20,000 points," I replied.
"50,000 points is all I'll do, nothing less."
Kushida took action once again.
She leaned forward onto the table and took both of the upperclassman's hands into her own.
"Please, senpai. It would help us so much."
She looked at him with slightly teary eyes, trying her best to apply emotional pressure to get him to lower his prices.
"25,000 points, that's my final offer, senpai."
"I-I-I can only do 40,000 as my lowest."
Kushida's pressure was starting to make him crack, but one final push by us both was needed.
"If I were in your position, I'd take any offer I could get. You're obviously low on points by taking the free meal set. And wouldn't any points be valuable in improving your living condition?"
Kushida tightened her grip around his hands, "please~."
And finally, he broke.
"Fine. 25,000 points."
"Thank you for your cooperation. As an added bonus, would you mind sending your first quiz and answer key too?"
"Fine, I will."
"Alright, I'll transfer you half the points right now. I'll transfer the rest once we get our documents."
"Sure."
And with that, Kushida and I left the cafeteria.
The first step in my plan was an overwhelming success. Thanks, to the help of Kushida, without her, I think I would've had to spend more points than I wanted to.
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Kushida and I met up after school on a park bench.
We gave our upperclassmen Kushida's contact information, and he finally sent our required documents.
"There they are!"
Kushida excitedly handed me her phone.
And sure enough, our senpai had sent his quiz and midterm with their answer keys.
Now the next step in my plan.
"Um, Ayanokouji-kun, I was wondering, I see the reason behind getting the midterms to help study. But why the quiz? We already took that."
A good question, and perhaps the idea that was most crucial to my plan.
I grabbed my old quiz from my bag and compared it to the one we had been sent.
"That's because they're the same."
"The same?"
I handed Kushida her phone back along with my quiz.
"Take a look at my quiz and the one we were sent. Do you notice any similarities?"
"Haaa," Kushida let out a gasp when she realized, "they're essentially the same. Some values are different be the essence of the questions is all the same."
"Exactly," I replied. "That means, if these quizzes are almost the same, you could assume the midterms will be close to the same too. Obviously, not word for word, but if you studied those midterms, you'd have a higher rate of success on the real midterms."
"That's amazing! This can help our class so much..." Kushida's excitement stopped for a minute, "but I can't help but think what we did was wrong. Isn't it cheating to buy past tests?"
"Not necessarily. For one, as we confirmed, they aren't the exact same test. Two, when I mentioned buying the tests from our upperclassman, he wasn't too shocked. Which led me to believe transactions like this happen all the time. It's just like Chabashira-sensei said. "Points within this school can buy almost anything."
"I see... say, Ayanokouji-kun, are you some secret genius? I never would've thought of this."
"It was a hunch," I said nonchalantly.
"Uh-huh... Well, we should give this to our class right away!" Kushida got up in a hurry from the bench.
I reached out and grabbed her wrist to pull her back onto the bench.
"Ow~, why'd you do that?"
"Don't release those questions until tomorrow. The day before the exam."
"What, why?"
Kushida was obviously confused about my reasoning, but we needed to hold out until the last moment.
"If we were to release those questions now, tell me, wouldn't the class stop their studying and only focus on memorization?"
"I guess so..."
"That's why we will hold out until the last minute. They'll have had enough time to do their own studying from the syllabus, and then cram the night before trying to memorize these questions. But they would've done an ample amount of studying by then."
"I see, I understand now why we should wait."
"Another thing," I continued, "would you mind taking the credit for this?"
"What, why me? I didn't do anything. You should get all the credit; it was your idea."
"No. You taking the credit for this would be much better. The class trusts you far more than me. So they'll listen to your instructions and focus on preparation for the midterm. Besides, I'd prefer not to stand out."
"Alright, I guess I can if that's what you want."
"Yes, it would help greatly. Make sure to give everyone their questions after school tomorrow."
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"Everyone! Before you leave, I'd like your attention, please."
It was the day before the exam. The final stage of my plan was now in motion.
I decided to sit back and class and watch the scene unfold.
Even now, Chabashira-sensei waited at the door of the classroom, curious about this announcement.
"A senpai, yesterday, graciously gave me his past midterms to use for studying. So I copied it all and made a sample for everyone! So you can come and get a copy from me now and use it to help your studying for tomorrow!"
The class erupted in cheers.
"KUSHIDA-CHAN! You're the best!" Ike cried from his seat.
"What would we do without you!" Yamauchi had fallen onto the floor in praise.
"Come and get your study guide then."
Students one-by-one lined up to get a study guide. I joined the line near the back. Even though I had a copy already, it would seem suspicious if I didn't grab one.
I was in front of Kushida now and grabbed a study guide.
"Thanks."
Kushida gave me a warm smile in return as I turned to leave the class.
"Hey, Kushida, how'd you exactly get these midterms?"
Both Horikita and Fukumoto who were behind me in the line had questioned the authenticity of these study guides.
"I told you, a senpai gave them to me."
"We don't doubt that," Fukumoto continued, "who helped you is what we are wondering..."
"KUSHIDAAAA!!!"
Too bad. They couldn't get their answer now, because Kushida had been swarmed by her friends and Ike and Yamauchi.
They wouldn't find out it was me so easily. I made sure of that.
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(Fukumoto, Akio POV)
The time was finally upon us.
Midterms.
We'd spend the whole day going through hour-long tests and receive our scores by the end of the day today.
I assumed the reason for getting our scores back so quickly would be that expulsion was a real threat this time.
But, since Kushida had given all of us a study guide from previous midterms, our class's chance of succeeding was far higher now.
Still, there were doubts in my mind about how she exactly got the midterms. I know she is an honor student, but I don't think she would've ever thought of this.
"You will be writing your midterms for the whole day. Once you receive your scores, you may be dismissed. I hope everyone used the washroom beforehand because there will be no leaving the class now." Chabashira-sensei started her explanation for the exams.
"You will be tested on every subject, with 1 hour for each test. Any form of cheating results in automatic expulsion. Once, all the tests are handed out, you may begin."
The final test reached my hands.
I took a quick flip through the test before I started, and sure enough, the questions were the same as the one Kushida gave us. I guess I'd have to score decently high now. With my pencil in hand, I started the test.
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Phew.
The heavy atmosphere in the class had finally finished.
Midterms were over.
I felt that I did rather well on them.
But, as I looked to my right. It seemed that we weren't out of the woods yet.
"Which one did you say it was?"
"English."
Horikita was at Sudo's desk now. From what it seems, Sudo did not do as well as expected on the English exam.
"I'm sure I passed. It's just last night, after all the studying, I passed out while studying for English, so I didn't get as much review time..."
Horikita let out a loud sigh at his explanation, "we'll just have to wait and see."
The exam scores would be back any minute now, I'm sure among our class Sudo was the most fearful of expulsion.
After a 15-minute wait, Chabashira-sensei strode back into the class carrying a large poster.
Everyone returned to their seats and waited for the news in anticipation.
Sensei hung the poster on the front of the board for everyone to see.
No red lines.
The whole class cheered about their success.
Many of my classmates flocked to Kushida in gratitude.
I checked my scores from my seat. It looked like I scored all 90s across the board.
But; I checked the English score. And I knew the class's cheery attitude would not continue anymore.
Chabashira-sensei grabbed a red marker and drew one long line over one name.
Ken Sudo.
"As you can see," Chabashira addressed the class, "Sudo, you failed to meet the passing grade for the English exam."
"WHAT!" Sudo roared at the news. "What do you mean?! I got a 37%, that's 5% above the passing grade!"
"No, you did not. You failed to meet the passing grade."
I knew that too.
It was late last night, but I had figured out the passing grade rule.
The passing grade rule was determined by the average of the test. Say, if the average was 79.2%, we would divide that score by 2, making the passing score 39.6%. But, we would also round to the nearest whole number, so the final passing grade would be 40%.
I decided to withhold this information from our class. For one, I believed since we got the midterm study guide, everyone would pass, which I was sorely mistaken. And two, I want to see how this situation would be handled.
"A passing grade is determined by the average of the exam," Chabashira-sensei began to explain to the class the rule, "since the average of this test was 75.2%, we half that score, making it 38% as the passing grade."
I looked to my right to see Horikita hurriedly taking notes about this, "sensei?"
Horikita rose her hand, probably to challenge the explanation.
"If you half the average score of 75.2%, you'd get 37.6%. Wouldn't that make Sudo-kun pass?"
I internally face palmed at her explanation. There was one mistake you made, Horikita.
"Unfortunately, no. The school rounds up to the nearest whole value. Making it 38%."
The class mood shot down drastically now that one of our classmates was going to be expelled.
"Sudo, pack your things and meet me in the faculty room."
Chabashira-sensei walked out of the class.
As soon as she did, Ayanokouji got up.
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"Home. We're allowed to leave once we got our scores back."
No one else in the class left. We all sat silently, grieving the loss of a classmate.
Horikita suddenly got up too and turned to leave.
"You too?" I called out to her.
"Why would I stay now? I can return to my dorm and continue preparing for finals."
The Ice queen turned and left. Only a few minutes had passed since the news, and now students started leaving the class.
Sudo's friends and Kushida tried to console him, but he waved them off and went to pack up all his belongings.
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I don't even know how I got here.
Currently, Horikita, Kushida, Yamauchi, Ike, and I were having a celebration in Ayanokouji's room.
Oh, plus Sudo, I forgot to mention.
"So tell me, what happened again?" Sudo asked Horikita.
"Horikita stopped your expulsion. She has an extremely good way with words and convinced sensei it was too early to judge one person's fate off one score." Ayanokouji responded in Horikita's place.
"Yeah, but like how?" Sudo continued questioning.
"I will leave it up to your imagination Sudo-kun," this time Horikita responded to Sudo.
"Well, no matter how you did it. Thank you."
"Let's cheers!" Suggested Kushida.
So we all grabbed our ceremonial tea and gave one big cheer for passing our first hurdle of the year.
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"I am going to take my leave now."
Horikita got up from Ayanokouji's bed and headed for the door.
"Aw, you sure you can't stay?" Kushida tried her best to get Horikita to stay, but no one could stop her once she made up her mind.
"I must leave to continue my studying."
And without another word, Horikita left the room.
Only a few seconds later, I attempted to make my escape too.
"Welp, I should probably turn in now."
"Well, have a goodnight Fukumoto-kun," Kushida waved bye to me as I left Ayanokouji's dorm.
Since I only lived one floor above here, I didn't need to take the elevator. But; I wasn't planning to turn in just yet.
I went to the elevator to see what floor it was heading to, "the 13th floor, huh."
I turned back and sprinted to the stairwell, I had to move quickly if I wanted to reach the 13th floor before my target.
After a bit of running, I made it to the elevator doors on the 13th floor. The elevator was still on the 10th floor, so I had time to collect myself before my meeting.
After a few moments of rest, the elevator arrived on the 13th floor, and the doors slowly opened.
"What? How'd you get here so fast?" Horikita stood at the entrance of the elevator in complete shock at my appearance.
"I'll leave it up to your imagination. Or you could say it's a secret. Makes me sound more interesting."
Horikita didn't care for my statement and went to walk to her room.
"I need to speak with you privately," I called out to her.
"Why?"
"You'll find out why once we talk."
"Fine. Where shall we talk?"
"Hmmm," I brought my hand to my chin to emphasize my extremely deep thinking, "we could always go in your room. I've never been on the girl's floor. It would be cool to see the inside of one room."
"Hell would have to freeze over before you enter my room," Horikita replied with a stern face.
"Jeez, take a joke. How about the rooftop?"
"I can agree with that."
Horikita and I turned to the stairwell to walk up to the rooftop. We were only a few floors below it, so it wouldn't be too hard of a trek.
Once we had arrived at the door leading to the rooftop, I propped it open for Horikita to enter, a true gentleman's act.
Once she passed through, I closed the door behind us to make sure this conversation was private.
"So why did you want to talk?" Horikita wanted to initiate the conversation, probably to wrap it up quickly.
"How much?"
"How much what?"
"How many private points did it cost to keep Sudo here."
"I don't know what you mean."
I leaned on the ledge of the rooftop. It wasn't a cold night, but the breeze felt nice as we talked in the dead of the night.
"I've been thinking. There's no way you could've talked sensei out of an expulsion. No matter how highly you praise yourself, you're not that good with words."
"That's not true. I am extremely good at convincing others..."
"Did I say you could speak?" It was a cold line that quieted Horikita quickly, I didn't want to be interrupted by her at the moment.
"Now, I'm assuming you used private points to revoke the expulsion. Possibly, by buying a test point so Sudo passed."
"I cannot confirm or deny that statement," Horikita replied.
"Well, I'm also sure you weren't the only one involved in this."
Horikita had stood firmly on the rooftop, not dropping her poker face once, until I let that line loose.
"Ayanokouji also helped, right? No, wait, he was the one to first use the private points to revoke the expulsion."
Horikita seemed to be a little frustrated and shocked at my evaluation, but she stood there quietly, listening.
"Private points can buy almost anything in this school, so I guess, test points fall under that category. Also, the fact you and Ayanokouji left roughly at the same time led me to believe you two paid off sensei. Am I wrong?"
"Not so far," Horikita responded quietly.
"So how much?"
"100,000 points."
I let out a high-pitched whistle in response, "that's certainly not cheap."
Horikita was still quiet, trying to process how I came to this conclusion.
"I'm proud of you and shocked, to be honest."
"W-what?"
"You took my advice. You did all you could to help those in your class. You even purposefully lowered your score on the English exam to help Sudo out."
Horikita had scored 100s in every exam, except English, it was obvious she tried to lower her score in an attempt to help out Sudo.
"How do you know all of this?"
"Add it to the list of Fukumoto's secrets," I replied, "I think you're finally starting to grow, you're finally starting to see that you can't do everything on your own."
"Tch, I've been on my own since the beginning. I only listened to your advice to see if it held any value, I still don't see why we should've helped them."
"You have no idea how it feels being all alone. You've been trying to follow someone's shadow and isolated yourself on purpose there's, a difference."
"..."
Horikita couldn't respond for a moment. It was a hard pill to swallow, being called out like that by someone else.
"You sound like you speak from personal experience," Horikita tried to through my comment back at me.
"Think whatever you want about it."
Horikita walked over to the ledge and stood beside me, staring at the scenery before us.
"Who are you Fukumoto-kun? I can never get a clear reading on you."
"That's what makes me a chick magnet, so many secrets nobody really knows."
Horikita turned to glare at me in response.
"That's not what I meant. I want to know the real you and what you can bring to the table."
"My, my, is this a confession, Horikita? I don't know what to say," I continued my joking tone.
"Answer me truthfully."
"It's not something I want to answer at the moment. But, you have the rest of our school lives to try and find out."
"Tch, you're so annoying."
"And that's why you love me," I went to pinch her cheek, but she immediately slapped my hand away.
Horikita turned and left me on the rooftop, seeming that the conversation ended.
"I'll help."
Horikita reached the door but paused at my statement. After some thinking, she continued on and left me alone on the rooftop.
I stayed on the rooftop alone for a couple minutes. It was a good spot to clear your head.
So much had happened these past few days, and there was more to uncover.
"Interesting..." I murmured out loud, then turned to head back to go to my dorm room.
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(Ayanokouji, Kiyotaka POV)
After Fukumoto left, everyone started to return to their dorms.
Unfortunately, they left me to clean up their mess.
Honestly, why was my room the designated meet spot now? It ruined my daily cleaning.
While I was cleaning though, it seems that someone left their phone on my bed.
I grabbed their phone and turned it on. The screen lit up and displayed Kushida's student ID.
I should probably return this quickly. It was getting late, and she probably wouldn't want to be without her phone.
I left my room to head for the elevator. Kushida was the last to leave my room, so whatever floor it was heading to she probably lived on.
But, when I got to the elevator, it was going down?
I then took the stairs to the lower levels.
As I entered the lobby, I noticed Kushida had gotten off the elevator and left the lobby. I kept a loose follow to see where she was going.
She walked to the edge of a path that had a rail guarding to prevent people from walking into the lake that was right next to it.
I hid behind some trees that were within earshot of Kushida. I was extremely confused as to why she would be here in the middle of the night.
"Ahhh, so annoying!"
Her voice changed suddenly, the opposite of what Kushida sounded like.
"She's so annoying! So stuck up! Think she's so cute and better than everyone else! I hate you, Horikita! I wish you'd die!"
Why was Kushida so annoyed, the sudden change in demeanor was frightening.
"Damn you! She's the worst! The worst! The worst! The worst!"
Kushida had released a relentless amount of kicks on the railing venting her anger.
It felt like I saw a whole different side to the gentle Kushida. A darker side she dared to not show anyone.
I started to back away to not be caught by her, but her phone rang.
Kushida turned around slowly and met my eyes.
"What... are you... doing here?"
I stepped out from my hiding spot, "sorry you forgot your phone."
Kushida made quick steps to get in front of me, only a few inches away from me. She swiped her phone from my hand, "did you hear?"
"Would you believe me if I said I didn't?" I replied.
"I see..."
Kushida using her left hand grabbed onto my wrist, she used her other hand to guide my open palm toward her chest.
She pushed my hand up against her soft breast.
"If you tell anyone what you heard, I won't forgive you," her words were filled with ice and malicious intent.
"And if I did?"
"I'd tell everyone you raped me."
"That's a false accusation, you know."
"Not anymore," Kushida further pressed my hand on her body, "who would they believe, the sweet, helpful girl or the loner boy?"
It was true, anyway, you looked at this, the blame could be pinned on me. I had no escape routes at the moment.
"Your fingerprints are on my clothes, there's evidence. I want you to understand I'm being serious. Do not get in my way."
"I understand, you can let go now."
Kushida finally released her grip on my hand.
"I'm going to keep this uniform in my room without washing it. If you ever try to cross me, I'll hand it over to the police."
"I get it."
Kushida turned back away from me to face the lake.
"Who's the real you, Kushida."
"None of your damn business."
"Well, can I ask why you hate Horikita?"
"Do you understand how hard it is to make everyone your friend? I tried on the surface to get close to her, but her attitude and personality make me mad."
"Huh," I guess Horikita was prickly, but to make someone hate you to this extent seemed extreme.
"Could you have known each other before this school? I can't understand why'd you hate her so much."
Kushida shuddered slightly from my response, "... did Horikita-san tell you something?"
"Nope. Just my own speculation. It was strange when we first met that you knew Horikita's name when she never told anyone. So I assumed you knew each other from before."
"Just shut up, hearing you talk irritates me... Horikita-san is extremely unusual, she's the exact opposite of me."
"I can agree with that," I said under my breath.
"But; she seems to open up to you and Fukumoto-kun, which pisses me off."
"Woah, absolutely not, not me."
"I told you to be quiet."
Kushida let out a massive sigh after.
She then turned around, seemingly reverting back to her normal self.
"Thank you for bringing me my phone Ayanokouji-kun! Guess, you know my secret now, don't ever try and cross me."
The change in Kushida was drastic, so drastic it was like an entirely different person before me.
"I guess so..."
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AN's:
HELLO
I kinda find it hilarious how Ayanokouji got caught by Kushida. I mean like he definitely is not so slow to be caught by her, unless, no, could he want to have been caught???? LOL
Thanks for all the support!
cherrio