Chapter 076 Ryuen Kakeru: Dead-Fish Eyes, You've Been Living Quite the Life Lately!
Class D had 0 points, and the personal point distribution was 0. The entire class was living a miserable, impoverished life.
Naturally, this did not include Hikigaya.
As early as the first day of school, he had predicted today's economic predicament. Therefore, he had used various means in advance to accumulate a large amount of personal points. Additionally, Horikita Suzune and Sakura Airi, who had received the reward from Class B, also avoided the days of poverty.
.
.
.
Lunchtime
"Eh~ Hachi, I want to eat braised pork too."
Hasabe Haruka looked at her own watery mountain vegetable set meal and compared it with Hikigaya's lavish braised pork. The meals were simply worlds apart.
"How about you go scrounge some food from Airi?" Hikigaya silently picked up a piece of braised pork.
"Ka-ka, if you don't mind, I have ribs here..." Sakura Airi proactively pushed her tray toward her friend.
Chomp!
Without a word, Hasabe Haruka leaned in and bit the braised pork directly off Hikigaya's chopsticks.
"?!" Sakura Airi's eyes widened. Across from them, Horikita Suzune's hand holding her soup spoon trembled slightly.
"Mmm~ The braised pork is so good." Hasabe Haruka swallowed the pork with a look of bliss, her little tongue licking the juice off her lips.
She giggled and said, "Hachi has so many points; you don't mind me scrounging a bit, right?"
"At least use your own chopsticks," Hikigaya sighed helplessly.
If it were anyone else stealing meat from his bowl without a word, Hikigaya would have delivered a vertical punch to their face. But when it was a top-tier beauty of the "F-Class" (large bust) variety, that was another story. To say he was unhappy would be pure hypocrisy.
"Hmph... Men." On the opposite side, Horikita Suzune silently packed up her tray and left with a cold face.
Seeing this, Hasabe Haruka secretly made a "V" for victory sign toward Sakura Airi.
'Airi, watch closely and learn well!'
Sakura Airi: (○—○#)
-
-
-
Mid-July
The final exams were to be held at the end of the month. The core rule remained the same: failing meant facing expulsion!
"Sigh~ Summer break is right after the finals. Why do we even have to take exams?"
"Can't we just skip them?"
"What happened to 'Happy Education'!" Complaints filled Class D.
"Kushida-chan, can you buy the test papers from the senpai like last time?" Yamauchi Haruki had a sudden spark of "inspiration."
"Sorry, I don't have any points," Kushida Kikyo said with a fake smile. During the midterms, she had spent 20,000 points out of her own pocket to buy the papers.
Those idiots had accepted them as a matter of course without even mentioning chipping in to pay her back.
"Can't everyone chip in?
20,000 points shouldn't be much, right?" As soon as Ike Kanji spoke, he received looks of disdain from everyone. These few had been bribed by Class C and should have had the most points, yet they had spent every single cent without restraint!
"No, I asked some senpai. The papers for the final exams cost 100,000 points." Hirata Yousuke looked troubled. Being the "nice guy," he had already lent out all his points and hadn't mentioned getting them back.
"What? 100,000 points?!"
"Who can afford that now?" The entire class was currently penniless.
"Speaking of which, didn't Horikita-san get a lot of reward money for helping Class B?" Shinohara Satsuki hinted pointedly.
"That's right! Class B's reward was a full 1 million points!" Everyone's gaze suddenly locked onto Horikita Suzune.
"Please, Horikita-san. A mere 100,000 points shouldn't be much for you, right? For the sake of the class..."
Moral kidnapping.
Sakura Airi looked at her with concern. Because the matter was confidential, the others didn't know the reward had been split three ways. Horikita Suzune personally only received 250,000. Asking her to cough up nearly half her savings at once was indeed demanding too much.
"I refuse. You should pass exams by studying hard, not by using cheating methods like this." For Horikita Suzune, the authenticity of the exam mattered more than personal points.
"Horikita-san is right! Studying is the basic quality of a qualified high school student!" Yukimura Teruhiko voiced his support solemnly. "I... I think so too..."
Wang Mei-Yu chimed in softly. As the few honors students in the class, both strongly supported Horikita's stance.
The majority of the underachievers in Class D looked miserable, but faced with Horikita's "logical correctness" about studying hard, no one could argue back.
"Everyone, please don't worry! I will hold a study group with Kushida-san and do my best to tutor everyone!" Hirata Yousuke proactively took on the tutoring duty.
'I spit on that! You want to teach them, don't drag me into it!!' Kushida Kikyo cursed Hirata in her heart, but she still had to put on her "kind little angel" persona.
"I will also participate in the study group this time." Surprisingly, the usually solitary Horikita Suzune stepped up to take on the tutoring work.
"Has there been some change in your state of mind?" Hikigaya asked with slight curiosity.
"Perhaps I'm just unwilling to give up... I know the hope is slim, but I still want to try." Horikita Suzune had always wanted to be promoted to Class A to catch up to her brother.
'Silly little sister. Have you ever considered that your brother might not want you to chase after him?'
However, Hikigaya knew that even if he said it, the stubborn Horikita wouldn't listen.
"Then work hard," Hikigaya could only offer his blessings. He was never going to work for this "God-tier" (disastrous) class. He would only help those close to him.
The next two weeks were a flurry of academic life. During lunch, Hikigaya studied science with Shiina Hiyori; after school, he tutored Sakura Airi and Hasabe Haruka in liberal arts; and at night, he received math tutoring from Horikita Suzune... Everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion.
Until one day, Hikigaya was once again blocked by Ryuen Kakeru and his group.
"Yo~ Dead-fish eyes, you've been living quite the life lately. Monopolizing our Class C's goddess at noon, having two 'F-class' girls on each arm in the afternoon, and maybe even other girls coming to your room at night..." Ryuen Kakeru mocked sarcastically.
Hikigaya opened his mouth, but found himself momentarily speechless.
"You guy... you're really irritating!"
Ryuen's mouth twitched. Originally, his last sentence was just a made-up taunt, but he hadn't expected to accidentally reveal the truth!
Read ahead (60 chapters) by supporting me on buymeacoffee com/varietl or ko-fi edwriting