Amane opened the door to the meeting room.
With a click,
all eyes in the meeting room focused on Amane.
Amane awkwardly looked at the doorknob in her hand, feeling a bit lost.
"This... I don't have to pay for it, do I?"
Horikita Manabu gave Amane a speechless look.
"No, the meeting is about to start. Find a seat and sit down."
Seeing that Horikita Manabu didn't intend to pursue the doorknob incident,
Amane finally breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing that the meeting room was already full, she quickly ran to the last empty seat and sat down.
The most conspicuous thing in the entire meeting room was the huge red-lacquered beech wood round table that occupied two-thirds of the room's space.
Horikita Manabu sat at the head of the table.
Tachibana Akane stood behind him, seemingly in charge of presiding over this meeting for the review and decision of the expelled students.
The members of First Year Class D attending the meeting sat to Horikita Manabu's left in a semi-circular arc. There were six members from First Year Class D, including Chabashira-sensei.
The Student Council members sat to Horikita Manabu's right.
Surprisingly, Ichinose Honami was also present, though she was at the far end of the right side.
When Amane sat next to her, she even greeted Amane.
"Since everyone is here, this meeting regarding the review and decision of the expelled students from First Year Class D officially begins."
After Tachibana Akane finished speaking, she pressed the remote control in her hand.
The projector placed nearby began to operate.
A large data chart was projected onto the whiteboard behind Horikita Manabu.
It listed all the failing students, which meant the names of those about to be expelled, as well as their test scores for all subjects.
And the failing score for that subject was highlighted in red.
"These are the detailed score data for those who meet the conditions for expulsion. After an urgent review of the test papers, all scores are confirmed to be correct."
After Tachibana Akane finished speaking, her gaze turned to Horikita Manabu.
"Regarding the scores, they have been verified under Secretary Tachibana's coordination. These individuals' scores indeed meet the school's requirements for expulsion. However, the same result has already been rejected by the school, which indicates that the school is not satisfied with such an embarrassing result from First Year Class D. On this matter, I would like to hear your thoughts, as members of First Year Class D, on this result."
Horikita Manabu's gaze fell on the First Year Class D attendees.
Chabashira-sensei was about to speak when Yamauchi immediately stood up.
"To be expelled just for failing, isn't that too unfair?"
As soon as Yamauchi spoke, Amane couldn't help but cover her face.
Why was this idiot here?
Now, they were embarrassing themselves in front of the Student Council.
"Yamauchi! What nonsense are you spouting?"
Chabashira-sensei, seeing Yamauchi blurt out such naive words, felt her face redden and quickly reprimanded Yamauchi.
"It's fine. I said I wanted to hear everyone's thoughts, so naturally, anything said here is fine..."
Horikita Manabu first stopped Chabashira-sensei's reprimand, but just as he was about to encourage Yamauchi to continue, his words were also interrupted.
"President, although that's what you said, if the people from First Year Class D only bring up such foolish questions, we, as members of the Student Council, will also feel very troubled. How about I explain to this student, whose name is Yamawhatsit?"
Nagumo Miyabi raised his hand.
"Then I'll trouble Nagumo-san to answer Yamauchi-san's question."
Horikita Manabu gave the floor to Nagumo Miyabi.
This was the first time Amane had really looked at Nagumo Miyabi.
Beneath his blond hair were decent facial features, and his body was clearly defined, suggesting he had exercised. Logically, he should have been a sunny type of guy, similar to Hirata.
But for some reason, Nagumo Miyabi gave her an impression of frivolity and gloom, which was not good.
Nagumo Miyabi looked down at Yamauchi with a condescending gaze.
Yamauchi, who had just been full of anger, began to break out in fine beads of sweat on his forehead.
"Fair? Did no one tell you that if you fail, you'll be expelled?"
Nagumo Miyabi was ostensibly questioning Yamauchi.
But the corner of his eye was glancing at Chabashira-sensei.
"Chabashira-sensei did say..."
"Since it was said, I can assume you are very clear about the rules of this exam. This just goes to show that you and the others in your class started on the same starting line, and no one had a method to ace the exam in an extraordinary way..."
"How could we have started on the same starting line! Hirata even posted the exam answers in the class group!"
As soon as Yamauchi spoke, the others looked at him with expressions as if he were an idiot.
"You mean... someone was involved in cheating, right?"
Nagumo Miyabi seized on the key issue.
"That's right! In the later exams, everyone in the class was cheating! Otherwise, how could they have scored so high! Only I truly took the exam based on my own ability. Even if my grades are failing, that's still much better than those cheaters. If those who followed the rules and took the exam are expelled, isn't that too unfair?"
Yamauchi's accusation made everyone in First Year Class D's faces darken.
Nagumo Miyabi, who had originally been uninterested, now became intrigued.
"The charge of cheating is very serious. You could even be expelled. You can't just say such things unless you have evidence of their cheating."
Nagumo Miyabi deliberately led Yamauchi on.
Yamauchi, completely unaware of Nagumo Miyabi's intentions, directly took out his phone and opened the photos of several test papers that Hirata had sent in the group chat.
"Shimizu? First Year Class B? I don't remember there being such a person in the second year, President..."
Nagumo Miyabi looked at Horikita Manabu as if he was about to watch a good show.
"Shimizu is that male student from Third Year Class D. It seems he leaked the school's exam questions and violated the school's rule against buying and selling test papers."
Under such circumstances,
Horikita Manabu could only conclude that the other party had violated school regulations.
Privately buying and selling test papers was something no one usually bothered with, and the school even supported it, treating the buying and selling of test papers as one of the correct answers that allowed first-year newcomers to perfectly pass their first midterm exam, used to test the abilities of first-year students.
However, this matter could never be brought out into the open, because buying and selling test papers was explicitly prohibited by school rules.
It could be said that Yamauchi had suddenly found a way to break the deadlock. If it was determined to be cheating, then without a doubt, the scores of this exam would be invalidated, and their expulsion would still have room for reversal.
Amane narrowed her eyes.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
The whole thing felt strange.
Was Yamauchi capable of coming up with such an argument?
And outwardly, he seemed to be defending himself, but in reality, he was directly pointing the finger at Hirata.
At a time like this, still not forgetting to play little tricks, it could only be that guy, right?
Amane looked at the person she suspected. The other person smiled at Amane, seemingly admitting that Yamauchi's argument was indeed something she had taught him.
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