As I re-entered the class, chaos was everywhere. People were shouting at each other, some people still in depression.
At moments like this, I truly asked myself. Why am I doing this? The answer came back to me. You will be bored if you didn't.
"Excuse me, everyone. Please pay attention and don't shout. It was literally the first remedy I told you yesterday." I said in a commanding voice.
At this everybody voluntarily became silent, anybody who didn't faced the wrath of the girls.
"Good, now as Sensei told us, our mid terms are in 3 weeks. So our first course of action would be two improve the results and avoiding expulsion. Are we on the same page?"
"Yes!" They answered.
"For that, we will be forming the study groups as discussed yesterday. The study groups would be lead by the students who got atleast 80 or above in the test."
"Ayanokoji-boy, I hope you haven't included me in that list." Kouenji said.
"Don't worry Kouenji, you will be enjoying your freedom. Now the name of the leaders and their group members are as follows -"
I took out a list from my pocket.
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'Hirata Yousuke' group
Ijuuin Wataru
Okitani Kyousuke
Onizuka Kiyoshi
Ueno Itsuki
Sugawara Kazuto
Minami Hakuo
'Yukimura Teruhiko' group
Minami Setsuya
Kikuchi Eita
Sotomura Hideo
Makida Susumu
Miyake Akito
'Horikita Suzune' group
Rino Akari
Yokoyama Misaki
Maezono Masami
Ishikura Kayoko
Onodera Kayano
'Matsushita Chiaki' group
Karuizawa Kei
Shinohara Satsuki
Mori Nene
Satou Maya
Ichihashi Ruri
Nishimura Ryuuko
'Wang Mei-yu' group
Hasabe Haruka
Sakura Airi
Azuma Sana
Inogashira Kokoro
Sonoda Chiyo
'Kushida Kikyou' group
Yamauchi Haruki
Ike Kanji
Hondou Ryoutaro
Miyamoto Soshi
Sudou Ken
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"This will be the study groups, if you have any problems with the list, don't come to me. Learn to adjust, if you don't know anyone in your group, then get to know them. Make new friends. We have to study together for the next three years. No, Karuizawa. I won't be teaching you."
"But why? What did I do wrong?" she said with a pout.
"You didn't do anything, I won't be leading a study group because I will be overseeing each of them. I would suggest the leaders to gather their members and make a chat group. Also decide the timings and the location for the sessions and inform me immediately. I will be making a chat group for the leaders."
Most of them were satisfied. Some were too shy to complain and others didn't get the chance to complain.
"Ayanokoji, I thought you were our enemy. But clearly you are our friend. Thank you for putting us in Kushida-chan's group."
Whole idiot company as we call them were in Kushida's group. Although she was smiling from the outside, she must be cursing me from the inside.
The algorithm that was extracting students information from the school, gave me the past of all my classmates in details. Not only that I have very sensitive information about everyone in this school. That's the most powerful tool you can have in your arsenal.
I made the groups according to their personality that I observed, like Hirata's group was made of the boys who weren't in the boys group and were shy. Similar with Mei's group which had all the shy girls of our class, so that she is not overwhelmed. Every group was made to work efficiently.
But there was one problem.
"I don't have time to tutor anybody, I would like to focus on my studies." Horikita said.
"Why? Where do you spend your time, it's not like you have any friends."
"Ooh, that was a low blow."
"I can spend my time however I want, it's not your business. Moreover, you clearly let Kouenji do whatever he wants." she complained.
"Horikita, I would rather not waste my time. If you remember yesterday, the bet we made. I won that fair and square, so that means you have to listen to everything I say for the whole month. So it will be better for you to shut up."
"But, you tricked me. How did you got full marks, just by writing for 10 minutes. The last 3 questions weren't even from our year."
"I am just better than you, Horikita. Accept that. Which brings me to Yamauchi, you remember your bet right?"
"Oh, yes. I will follow whatever Matsushita-san says. I am not even mad at loosing to you. First you put me in a cute girls study group and now I have to follow another cute girl's orders." he said enthusiastically.
"See, Horikita even Yamauchi is a better person than you."
"Even if she wants this hot body. I suppose, I will have to sleep with her right?" Yamauchi continued.
Too soon, I said that too soon.
"Yamauchi, my first order is to shut your damn mouth. I will only agree to sleep with one guy and that's Kiyotaka." she said the first part angrily and the second part to herself. She thought nobody heard her.
"Eh, what was that Matsushita-san?" Mori asked.
Well, she's not gonna stop teasing Chiaki.
Although, it was all of a sudden. It was kinda expected. Chiaki and I grew a lot closer last month. She helped me in all of my plans regarding the store. We went out to eat a couple of times at weekend. That was not all, we used to have cooking classes everyday. So most of the days I used to have dinner with her.
I got to know a lot about her, her family background, her likes, her dislikes. I even fell asleep in her bed one night and narrowly escaped from getting caught in the morning.
I am getting off topic.
"Ayanokouji-kun, but there's still one problem. How can we live without points for the whole month?" Satou asked.
"Yes, I spent all my points on the game system. Do you know how expensive the games were." said Yamauchi.
"That's easy just sell all the products you don't need to the 'One Stop'. They buy second hand stuff in exchange for some points. You probably wouldn't get much, but atleast you can pass by this month."
Many were relieved after hearing this, although the girls didn't wanted to part ways with their branded fashion clothes.
So during lunchtime. Karuizawa came up with an idea of borrowing 2,000 points from everybody, but that failed as the boys knew better than to get trapped in this scheme and the boys who were dumb enough to fall for this didn't have any points to give. She only got points from those shy girls who didn't talk much.
"Hey, Karuizawa. Would come here for a moment." I called her.
"Kiyotaka-kun, do you want to give me some points too. Well as your future girlfriend, you should." she said that loud. Clearly planning to trap me. People started whispering about our potential relationship.
Karuizawa is exceeding my expectations here, she is cunning. Not only she established that we could be in a relationship in the future, but also I have to give her points, so that I don't come off as a rude guy.
But she chose the wrong guy to mess with.
"Actually, you remember. I brought you clothes of worth 12,000 points. So, now I don't have any points. So can you lend me some points that you collected? I ask this as your 'future boyfriend'."
Now she has to give me points she collected, or she will face the wrath of other girls. I can already see Chiaki glaring at her.
"Uh-huh, ho-how many points?" she asked.
"12,000 will suffice."
"Okay" she said with sad expression.
"Don't worry, I am going to return these to you if you do one job for me." I whispered to her as she got closer.
"Eh, Kiyotaka-kun. I don't do those kind of things for money. Although if you ask me properly like a gentleman. I might." she said with a red face.
"What are you talking about? You just have to go and ask Kushida for points, as much as you can not just 2,000. If possible, tell your friends to do the same." I said.
"Why didn't I think of that, she is too nice to deny me. But may I ask why do you want to do that?" she asked.
"If you want your points back, do as you are told." I said seriously.
"Okay-okay, I will do that." she went back frightened.
My first target in this class was Kushida. Her influence, not only in the class but the whole school was very important to weaponize. Her past was the easiest way to control her.
My prediction is that she puts up a mask of the angel, like me to hide her true self. If that is true then it must be taxing for her given the people she has to handle.
Increasing the pressure on her by giving her the idiot company. Draining her points. Stressing her out will break her and she will reveal herself.
The class for the day ended and by the time I reached my room. The leaders had already given me the timings and the location for their groups.
From here on, monitoring the progress of the groups was important. If any of them started lacking behind, I would have to take control and make some changes myself.
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It had been one week already, since the revelation and many things have happened. Sae gave us the syllabus for the mid terms.
The study groups were going smoothly, but I felt something was off. The school wouldn't be so straightforward. They always hide something, I just had to find that out.
As I was scrolling through the group chats, the bell rang. It was Sunday, afternoon. People were either out for the day or in their room. I wasn't expecting anybody.
I saw through the door camera, it was Karuizawa. So I opened the door and invited her in.
"Karuizawa, what are you doing here? Didn't you have some plans with your girlfriends."
"No, I cancelled them. I actually wanted to talk to you about something important. It may take some time, can I sit?"
"Yes-yes, take a seat. Wait a minute, I will brew some coffee and bring some snacks."
I entered the kitchen and started boiling the milk. I already knew what she came here for. I had predicted this meeting, maybe a week or two later. But she wants to talk about it now. I pour the milk in the mugs and added coffee powder and sugar.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" I asked her taking a seat on the sofa beside her.
"I don't know where to start or how to tell you this, but it is very sensitive topic to me. So I would appreciate if you don't tell anybody, anything about this. I want you to promise Ayanokouji-kun." she pleaded.
"I promise, I won't tell a single soul. But what is it?"
She told me about her past, the bullying she suffered. Every single, awful details. From when she was little, throughout elementary school and junior high.
"After a while, I gave up trying to resist. That's right; I was everyone'svictim. I became cold, robotic. I could cry, scream, or thrash around, but itdidn't matter. I couldn't do anything. All I could do was take it."
"They did all sorts of things. Everything and anything. They'd put tacks in my shoes or stuff my desk full of roadkill. When I went to the bathroom, I'd get splashed with dirty water. They wrote words like 'whore' on my uniform. They pulled my hair and punched and kicked me. Anything you could imagine, basically. I was bullied in every way. Countless times.What I've just told you was just a fraction of what I've experienced. Those were the 'gentler' ways I've been bullied, too. It makes me want to laugh. So, why aren't you laughing? Why don't you laugh at the pitiful loser who's been bullied all her life?"
She broke down on my shoulder. I hugged her tightly. Providing comfort. This was a moment of making or breaking. Either I could break her with vile words, blackmail her to work for me, make her completely dependent on me. Or I could genuinely win her over with kindness. I chose the latter for couple of reasons.
First of all, due to my own influence. I didn't need her to work for me. Just having her on my side would be enough. Secondly, only Sae truly knows, who I truly am. Showing someone else my true self, this early could cause some problems.
Even after everything she'd suffered, she still got back up. She seemed ready to fight again. Her resilience had motivated her to enroll in this school. Still...the experiences she'd recounted weren't enough to explain everything.
"What else have you suffered?" I asked.
"Huh?"
"Have you told me the whole truth?"I believed that something critical had shattered her spirit before this.There had to be some other reason behind her abnormal fearfulness, something that didn't even show up in her file.
"What are you hiding?"
"Wh-what?" Karuizawa lifted her head from my shoulder and lowered her eyes to look down at her left side. I noticed that, of course. I reached over and touched that part of her body, over her clothes.
"S-stop! It's rude to do that." she shouted. Her shouts echoed within the enclosed walls of the room. I grabbed her uniform and pulled it up. There, on her beautiful skin, was an ugly scar. A deep scar, one that had been created by a sharp blade.
"This is it? This is your darkness?"
"E-eek!"
I touched it. This wasn't the result of simple bullying. A serious scar like this had come from a life-threatening attack. Even though she was burdened with that horrible past, she remained tough. She got back on her feet.
"Despair comes in many forms. And you've experienced despair. Haven't you?" I asked.
Karuizawa's dark eyes met with mine. People who carry darkness within are attracted to one another. Slowly, they erode each other. Those who conceal a deep darkness will readily embrace the darkness of others.
"Wh-what are you...you..." she stammered.If her past held her captive, then I had to forcefully free her from her shackles. Even if we weren't close, I could feel the darkness from her, through her skin. Yes. There were profoundly dark things left in this world that even Karuizawa didn't yet know about.
"I promise you one thing. From now on, I will protect you from bullying." I told her that.
"H-how did you know I was going to ask you for protecting me."
"Karuizawa, I have observed you for the past month. You act tough in front of others, as a defense. But that doesn't solve the problem. In fact, it just holds the trouble at bay, like a dam holding water. When the dam breaks, you will be drowned by it. Even asking for protection or depending on others, it just increases your chances of drowning. No. I will not just protect you but teach you to swim."
She was crying her heart out. She hugged me tighter than ever.
"Thank you, Thank you, Thank you so much."
"Hey, that's what friends are for. Now, stop crying. If someone were to enter now, they will get the wrong idea."
"Ayanokouji-kun, I was going to ask you-"
"To fake date me. I know."
"How?"
"Don't think that I am dense. I noticed each and every move you tried to make."
"You are the smartest guy, I have ever met."
"I don't know about that. But there's no need to fake date. Until I am by your side, no one will even look at you the wrong way. But, you need to show the world your true self. Not the bitch, they see you as."
"Hey, you are quite rude you know. First you take of my clothes then you touch me without permission and then call me bitch." she pouted.
"You know how exaggerated that is. Besides it didn't look like you minded me touching you at all. In fact you enjoyed it." I teased her.
"Wh-What, no I didn't. Ah-mou. Stop teasing me."
Just like that she was back to normal.
And that's how I gained my first female friend at this school.
It's baffling how much, life has changed in just one month. At first I only wanted to graduate from this school to escape that place. But now, I'm looking forward to many more things.
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There goes another one.
Before anyone starts asking
No karuizawa is not the pairing. As the title suggest she will be his best friend.
If someone doesn't like Karuizawa, please read with an open mind. She will be a lot likeable here.
Given by the results of the vote last chapter, Ichinose will be the pairing.
I came up with some ideas already on how to progress. So most likely it won't change unless somehow beats her in the voting with a landslide.
I am excited about writing the ideas, that I came up with for the pairing and trust me they are insane.
Anybody who wanted to see other pairings, I am really sorry. But I would request you to continue to read the story as I will not disappoint.
Moreover, Kiyotaka will be interacting with all of them.
Moving on have you guys read y2v11.
Spoilers(kinda)
Although it didn't progress much plotwise. And the Nagumo Ayanokoji showdown was anticlimactic. I liked the characters interaction.
Red Panda-kun got tricked again. After Horikita's food and yogurt maker. Voice of the forest is his third weakness.
It had its moments but not the most entertaining entry.
That will be all for now.
Have a wonderful day.