Horikita lay quietly on her bed in her room, refreshing her point balance interface once again.
"9,900 points..."
She stared at the number on the screen, repeating it softly, her brows unconsciously furrowing slightly.
"Twenty-five thousand points must be collected before school ends tomorrow"—this figure weighed heavily on her heart like a stone.
With her current balance, she was still far from enough.
Moreover, even if she managed to scrape by, she'd need to set aside some points for daily expenses.
In fact, although Horikita came from a wealthy family, she'd developed frugal habits since childhood.
Since the beginning of school, she'd deliberately avoided buying expensive items, always looking for more cost-effective alternatives.
Her locker contained no branded stationery, and her uniform was always kept tidy. She never casually added extra casual clothes.
Even when dining in the cafeteria, she would carefully calculate every expense, ensuring that points were used for the most necessary things.
Yet even so, the current point deficit still made her feel a touch of anxiety.
"My points... where did they all go?"
Horikita gently bit her lower lip, her fingertips quickly sliding across the terminal screen, pulling up the detailed transaction records.
Fortunately, every expenditure had a clear record, and she decided to carefully check from the beginning.
First day of school—
Because she'd deliberately streamlined her luggage, she had to purchase a large number of necessities: shampoo, laundry detergent, a basin, toothpaste... plus the cost of three meals a day. These were unavoidable expenses, totaling 3,000 points.
Balance: 97,000 points
Second day—
A bottle of mineral water, three simple hair clips, and daily three meals.
Expenditure: 1,500 points
Balance: 95,500 points
For the next two days, her spending was quite well controlled, with daily expenses kept within 1,000 points.
However—
The record for the fifth day made her fingertips pause.
Transferred to Shimizu Akira: 80,000 points
Deluxe meal: 1,000 points
Transferred to Shimizu Akira: 100 points
These three expenditures instantly cut her balance to 13,000 points.
She stared at the screen, silent for a moment.
Her fingertip gently traced the record of the deluxe meal—that was Horikita proactively treating Akira. As for the one hundred points for miso soup, it was merely to repay a favor.
"So... Shimizu-san took most of my points?" she murmured to herself, her tone not so much angry as tinged with self-mockery.
Thinking carefully, this transaction was indeed somewhat unprofitable.
One of the pieces of information bought with 80,000 points was casually mentioned by Kushida after school today.
In other words, what she'd spent a large sum on at the time was just one piece of information about class assignments based on ability.
Strangely, Horikita couldn't bring herself to blame Akira.
The first thought that came to her mind was: Was she too rash?
After all, from beginning to end, the other party had never forced her.
She was the one who sought him out, and she willingly transferred those 80,000 points.
Even more ironically, she had no idea at the time that she'd face the predicament of paying class fees just a few days later.
Horikita never had the thought of getting those 80,000 points back.
She knew very well that if Chabashira had not intervened today, Akira wouldn't have provided the information to Class D for free.
That was a legitimate transaction, a fair exchange of goods for money—clear in content, transparent in process, with no one able to find fault.
But what truly bothered her was a deeper issue of self-esteem.
'I absolutely cannot be looked down upon by him...'
The moment this thought flashed in her mind, she seemed to see Akira's surprised eyes again.
Just imagining that scene made her feel uneasy, and her breathing involuntarily quickened a bit.
Compared to the huge loss of points, this feeling of being underestimated by Akira was even more unbearable for her.
"These twenty-five thousand points... ultimately, they're class fees offered to Shimizu-kun."
Although Chabashira nominally advanced a million points, tracing the source, these class fees essentially still flowed into Akira's pocket.
Thinking of this, she suddenly realized an absurd fact—all the points in her account had, in a roundabout way, ended up in that person's hands.
"Eighty thousand points for information... twenty-five thousand for class fees..." Her fingertips quickly slid across the terminal, suddenly stopping at a certain record. "That's right! I also have that extra five thousand points reward from swimming class..."
These figures rapidly calculated in her mind, finally settling on a startlingly precise amount—105,000 points.
Horikita's recent income was exactly 105,000, and the points Akira wanted from her were also 105,000.
There was truly nothing left!
This number was too perfect, almost deliberately so.
The annoyance that should have surged in her heart was replaced by a more complex emotion.
Horikita's fingertip gently pressed against her lower lip, and Akira's perpetually composed demeanor clearly appeared in her mind.
This feeling of being completely seen through was too familiar, so familiar that it made her chest tighten.
—It was like playing chess, and unknowingly, all her moves had been controlled by the opponent.
It might just be a coincidence, but it was so perfect it seemed like a carefully designed script.
This frightening control made her involuntarily think of the person who always stood high above, looking down at her.
'So much like my brother...'
Horikita Manabu—the elder brother who'd been held up as a role model since childhood, always treated her with strict standards. If not to follow in his footsteps, she would never have chosen this school.
Her fingertips unconsciously twirled a strand of her long hair.
This long, black hair was itself a silent vow.
That time at the pool, Akira was absolutely right.
She just... wasn't willing to admit it in front of the person who always saw through everything.
That day, when Kushida disparaged Akira in front of her, she couldn't help but retort.
Because she knew better than anyone—just how hard that seemingly ordinary guy worked.
At 6:30 AM on the second day of school, when she drew open the curtains as usual, she saw that figure running on the track.
The school's track was one kilometer per lap, and Akira ran ten laps every day, without fail.
This habit had continued from the second day of school until now, without interruption.
As Horikita thought of her brother, her gaze unconsciously fell on her phone screen.
At the top of the contact list, below the name "Horikita Manabu," the message she'd sent after school was still displayed:
{Horikita Suzune: Brother, since I've also joined Advanced Nurturing High School, I will prove to you! I am no longer the person I once was, and I will show you my resolve!}