She suddenly realized something she had missed — the reason why Houtarou hadn't shown such aggressive force in this island exam.
Because this was her request, and he had already fulfilled it.
Ah. Had he put in this effort because she wanted Class A's position to be secure?
Indeed. Before the exam, she had confided in him about her anxiety. Was his uncharacteristically cautious approach during the island exam actually because she wanted Class A to be secure?
"In other words..." Masumi paused, her gaze catching his figure.
As Houtarou emerged from the hallway, she noticed he had a kind of lazy but refined air about him, especially those beautiful dark green pupils.
She had to admit this boy was good-looking. But she never expected that someone like him would take action for her sake.
"Am I important?" She mumbled.
"Hm?" Houtarou looked over curiously at her strange comment.
"Um... No, well—" She hurriedly said, "Actually, Arisu Sakayanagi ordered me to follow you and monitor your relationships. She wants me to report back about everyone you interact with."
Ah. That little princess wanted Masumi to follow him again. But this following was different from before — more like checking for infidelity.
Due to her physical condition, she couldn't travel. Meanwhile, Houtarou and the others would be away from school for over 10 days. During such a time, it would be normal if something happened or hearts fluttered.
However, this only showed how strong Arisu's possessiveness was.
He sighed softly.
Though he found it strange that Masumi had suddenly become so docile, wasn't it good that she was on his side?
As he thought this, he noticed a white thread on her left shoulder — probably a loose thread from her clothes.
Beautiful girls were always very conscious of their appearance, so Houtarou decided to remove it for her.
So…
"Stand still for a moment." He said.
Then he walked over to her. When he was close enough, he put his hand on her shoulder. Masumi was tall, but still a bit shorter than him.
"Eh?" She was surprised.
This guy was very handsome and quite popular with girls. However, because Arisu was in their class, everyone knew better than to get involved.
So. Was he this kind of person?
As these thoughts raced through her mind, Masumi saw Houtarou leaning in, his left hand resting on her shoulder.
So what should she do now? Refuse?
But did she have the right to refuse?
Although most of her experiences at this school had been unfortunate, she couldn't deny wanting to graduate from Class A. She needed both Arisu and Houtarou right now — having them gave her a sense of security about Class A's position.
Besides, she thought, if it's going to be a first kiss, wouldn't it be memorable with someone handsome?
Her heart began to race. After all, Houtarou was the acknowledged heartthrob of their year, and here he was, leaning in close.
Though Masumi rarely paid attention to others' looks, she had to admit — up close, he wasn't just handsome but cute too. His lips were thin.
What would they feel like?
"..."
Then his left hand lifted from her shoulder. He had removed a 6-centimeter thread.
He noticed her closed eyes, long eyelashes trembling nervously.
"Um..." After ten seconds of feeling nothing, Masumi opened her eyes.
"Is the sunlight too harsh?" Houtarou asked, "Did you need to close your eyes?"
??
Masumi: "..."
Had she misunderstood?
"I guess I was in the dark for so long that I'm not used to it." She replied stiffly.
"Oh." He didn't think much of it. His body was different from normal people, so he didn't have such concerns.
However…
"I just removed a loose thread for you." Houtarou said, "You've been doing my laundry these past few days, so I couldn't let you walk around with a thread hanging off you."
He showed her the 6-centimeter thread.
Oh. So he'd given her special attention because she'd been taking care of his laundry. He'd only wanted to remove a thread from her clothes.
Masumi realized she'd just acted like a silly girl with a crush. This would definitely become an embarrassing memory.
She found Houtarou still looking at her.
She quickly put on her usual stern face. After all, she didn't want him discovering her foolish fantasies.
But Houtarou felt relieved.
It proved he wasn't lecherous. Even being so close to Masumi, he hadn't felt any stirrings.
Indeed, he hadn't suddenly become interested in girls just because he'd seen Suzune's underwear. It wasn't that he'd developed some condition where he'd be attracted to anyone.
But didn't this confirm that he was actually interested in that lone girl herself?
Some say love strikes suddenly. Perhaps you dream of someone at night, and when you see them the next day, your mind automatically adds bonus affection points. Or maybe you glimpse a particularly striking side of them, and fall for that.
He felt he'd gained some new experience points.
But at this moment.
[Attention all students.]
Suddenly, teacher Chie from Class B's voice came over the ship's broadcast. She was a cute girl similar to Kikyō — though already a grown woman, her voice remained quite sweet.
However, what she said caught everyone's attention.
[The school has just sent emails containing contact information to all students. Please check your phones and follow the instructions. Additionally, if you haven't received an email, please notify a nearby faculty member. Since the content is very important, please make sure not to miss anything when checking. I'll repeat once more──]
Listening to the ship's broadcast, Houtarou smiled slightly.
"Looks like the exam is starting…" He said.
"Yeah." Though she had just been feeling foolish, Masumi, who rarely saw him smile, found it a bit dazzling, but quickly put on a stern face.
Since she had just been tricked once, she couldn't let it happen again.
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[Attention all students. The school has just sent emails containing contact information to all students. Please check your phones and follow the instructions. Additionally, if you haven't received an email, please notify a nearby faculty member. Since the content is very important, please make sure not to miss anything when checking. I'll repeat once more──]
The announcement echoed throughout the ship, repeating once more as promised.
Including here in Class C.
After paying 50,000 points to Houtarou, Kakeru returned to his class to hold a post-exam reflection meeting with his small group.
"We've completely lost this exam. Class B students recorded our initial deception plan and intend to report it to the Student Council when we return. With physical evidence against us, we'll definitely receive a 100 Class Point deduction." He said.
"So we only earned 50 class points from this exam, dropping our class ranking even further." Satoru added, adjusting his glasses.
The meeting consisted of Kakeru, Satoru, Daichi, and Hiyori Shiina, with Albert standing guard outside.
"Should we be concerned that Ibuki isn't here?" Hiyori asked.
She knew Mio wasn't the only girl in Kakeru's inner circle. Like Hiyori, Mio was valued for her capabilities, having executed the deception plan without hesitation.
So why exclude her now?
Hiyori felt a kinship with Mio — they were both somewhat isolated within the class.
"Ibuki is too direct — I worry others might extract information from her." Kakeru explained, "Plus, she's rather simple-minded. I still can't understand why she let Houtarou Oreki transfer her to Class B so easily."
Understanding dawned on Hiyori, and she dropped the subject.
That was Mio's nature — straightforward to a fault.
"Still, I believe Houtarou Oreki's information is credible." Hiyori offered, "Another exam is likely coming. I've spent most of my time reading in my cabin, and I've noticed the ship keeps circling the island instead of heading back."
Kakeru considered her observation.
He regretted not starting this meeting sooner — it might have saved him from paying those 50,000 points to Houtarou. He'd collected the points from classmates who'd abandoned the exam early and returned to the ship.
After all, why should he struggle alone on the island while others did nothing?
Mio, Daichi, and Satoru were exempt from contributing points since they'd been actively participating. The others weren't so lucky.
So he gathered 50,000 points. Planning to use it as living expenses. But it ended up being swindled away by Houtarou again.
"Since Oreki mentioned the exam might be tonight or tomorrow, we need to make preparations." Kakeru said.
"What should we do this time? We know there's an exam coming, but we have no leads." Satoru said with frustration.
Satoru was one of Class C's top academic performers and strategists, second only to Hiyori in strategic thinking.
"I'm not sure." Kakeru said, "We need to know the specific exam details first. But you haven't been idle on the ship, right? What about Class D — have we managed to infiltrate them? Do we have a spy?"
"We've found a Class D student willing to cooperate, but they're demanding 20,000 points monthly until graduation. It's quite steep." Satoru said, "And now that Class D has earned so many Class Points, they'll likely have points next month too, so this spy might abandon us."
He sighed softly.
Nothing had gone well for Class C since the island exam began. Worse still, if they couldn't turn things around now, their class would be officially demoted to Class D upon returning to school.
This was truly a terrible situation.
"Heh—" Kakeru felt dejected but shook his head, "Don't worry, we can still use that spy. Those Class D students don't have any money. Houtarou Oreki isn't that generous — he even took my 50,000 points. This shows he probably took most of their 650 Class Points."
"That's right." Hiyori said, "A Class D girl told me that Kōenji made a pledge during this exam: if he gets 600 Class Points, he'll take 200, Suzune gets 300, and the remaining 100 points are split among all Class D students."
Kakeru: "...??"
This harsh?
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