The message status showed "Read" and had been for several hours.
Just as she was about to give up waiting, the screen suddenly lit up—
{Horikita Manabu: Come find me behind the first-year dorms.}
This made Horikita change into her uniform at the fastest speed, but she suddenly stopped before opening the door.
Because her phone vibrated again.
{Shimizu Akira: Horikita-san, good evening.}
This message instantly froze her fingertips.
Akira actively messaged her?
Outside, the night was deep.
Receiving a message from the opposite sex at this hour made her nerves unconsciously tense.
Her gaze flickered between the door and the screen several times, and finally, her finger typed out a line:
{Horikita Suzune: Is something wrong? I'm very busy, please state your purpose directly.}
The moment she pressed send, she let out a soft breath.
This was already an exceptional response—for anyone else, she'd be reluctant to even give a read receipt.
{Shimizu Akira: Do you remember our last transaction?}
She tapped her fingertip, replying briefly and with restraint:
{Horikita Suzune: I remember.}
The next second, a new message popped up—
{Shimizu Akira: I plan to refund you 16,000 points.}
Her breathing paused almost imperceptibly.
'Refund points?'
Her gaze instinctively swept to her balance—9,900. Adding these 16,000, it would be just enough to make up the 25,000 class fees...
{Horikita Suzune: What do you mean? What are the conditions?}
The other party quickly replied.
{Shimizu Akira: Do you remember the rule I mentioned? I once told you about an 80% discount on information fees. You paid 80,000 last time, so by the rules, I should refund you 16,000.}
After a slight pause, he added:
{Shimizu Akira: This is not meant as charity.}
Horikita stared at the last sentence, her fingertip unconsciously resting on the edge of the screen.
'I see...'
He was merely fulfilling the rules of the transaction, nothing more.
Neither pity, nor ulterior motives.
But a subtle sense of incongruity spread in her heart.
'He clearly calculated it...'
This feeling of being precisely taken care of, unexpectedly, didn't repel her.
But proud as she was, she would never allow herself to unilaterally accept favors.
In the chat box, she'd originally typed a line: I cannot directly accept your points; I will repay you double next month—
'But such an empty promise is meaningless. Next month, I might not even have 50,000 points.'
She pursed her lips, deleting the latter half word by word.
What she finally sent was the most practical return she could offer at the moment:
{Horikita Suzune: I cannot directly accept your points. I'll help you with your Japanese lessons! Your Japanese grades are unbelievably bad, so this will be an equivalent exchange.}
The other end of the screen quickly replied:
{Shimizu Akira: Alright! That would be a great help to me too.}
{Shimizu Akira: By the way, I'm currently taking a walk near the dorms, and I saw your brother.}
It wasn't until she saw this message that Horikita suddenly realized she'd kept her brother waiting for a long time.
Moreover, Akira was walking near the dorms?
She barely had time to reply to Akira, directly closing the door and running out.
Behind the dormitory, Horikita arrived at the agreed spot to find Horikita Manabu already standing there for a long time.
The words she'd prepared caught in her throat.
Thinking of Akira possibly appearing at any moment, she subconsciously blurted out that very unfamiliar address. "Horikita Student Council President, what do you need me for?"
"Suzune..." Horikita Manabu pushed up his glasses. "You're calling me Student Council President?"
"I thought..." He slowly walked closer. "You would, as before, eagerly show me those... insignificant changes."
He emphasized the last word heavily. "Completely disregarding the distance appropriate for a Student Council President."
"It seems..." Horikita Manabu stopped in front of her, and a look she'd never seen before flashed in his condescending gaze. "You've finally begun to understand the proper boundaries in interpersonal interactions."
This almost complimentary tone made Suzune's heart warm.
"Brother... I'm not..." She spoke subconsciously, but the moment the address slipped out, she saw a sudden cold glint in her brother's eyes.
Horikita Manabu took half a step back, looking at her with utter disappointment. "Are you going to talk nonsense again?... It seems my earlier impression was just a delusion."
Suzune felt a suffocating sensation.
Her brother's voice was soft, yet it pierced her eardrums like an ice pick.
"I heard you were assigned to Class D." He sneered. "Exactly like three years ago, always staring at my back, yet unable to see your biggest flaw. Choosing this school seems to be another one of your failures."
"...I was assigned to Class D, it must be something wrong with the class assignment system..." Suzune began to argue without thinking.
Horikita Manabu's voice suddenly rose.
"Enough!"
He suddenly stepped forward. "Still making excuses for yourself at this point? Still questioning the class assignment system? That's utterly foolish! Do you only reflect on yourself after experiencing some hardship?"
Horikita Suzune's shoulders involuntarily flinched.
Her brother's anger enveloped her like a tangible pressure, making even her breathing difficult.
Akira put away his phone and, as soon as he reached the back of the dormitory, heard a heated argument.
"...The class assignment system is unreasonable!"
"Always making excuses!"
'Are these siblings really arguing so openly?'
'It couldn't escalate into a physical confrontation in the next second, could it?'
He raised an eyebrow and simply walked over openly.
Horikita and her brother were confronting each other less than two meters apart—fortunately, the tense atmosphere hadn't yet escalated into a physical confrontation.
"Good evening, you two."
Upon hearing someone speak nearby, Horikita Manabu turned around and began to scrutinize the man in front of him. "You are... that first-year from Sato's Boxing Club?"
A genuine look of surprise appeared on Akira's face. "I didn't expect the Student Council President to remember me."
He was indeed surprised.
But then he thought, after all, his club president was an elite from Class 3-A, and coupled with the attention-grabbing speech at the entrance ceremony, it wasn't surprising that the Student Council President remembered him.
"Hmph~" Horikita Manabu pushed up his glasses. "So, you're Suzune's friend? Also a first-year student from Class D."
Akira shrugged casually. "Something like that..."
"No!" Horikita Suzune suddenly interrupted, her voice unusually urgent. "He's just..."
"Just an unrelated person passing by?" Horikita Manabu sneered, his gaze refocusing on his sister. "Don't even have the courage to acknowledge a friendship? Is that your capacity?"
"So, do you have anything to say to us siblings? Or do you plan to pretend to be a passerby?" Horikita Manabu continued to look at Akira.
"I'm not a passerby, otherwise I wouldn't have shown myself. Actually, on the way here, your conversation was quite loud, and I heard bits and pieces. Since the Student Council President asked for my opinion, I'll offer my perspective."
Akira sighed, looking directly at the two of them, a hint of helplessness in his tone.
"Horikita-san, this is where you're wrong."
Horikita Manabu's eyes suddenly turned cold. "You—"
"Don't misunderstand, Student Council President. The Horikita-san I'm referring to isn't you." Akira raised a hand to interrupt, then shook his head, turning his finger to point directly at Horikita Suzune. "I'm not talking about you, but your sister. This Horikita-san is mistaken."
"Quite clearly, her thoughts and what she says are truly problematic."
Horikita Suzune's eyes widened suddenly, her expression showing a rare moment of wavering, followed by a hint of embarrassment and anger.
'This person just gave me sixteen thousand points! Why is he suddenly slandering me now!'