At midnight, as I was lazing around in my room, I received a text message. It was from Kushida.
âYamauchi-kun and Ike-kun said OK~ (^ă»Ïă»^)b â
âQuick!â
Ike instantly rejected me with a wave of his hand when I asked him⊠The presence of a girl is clearly a big factor concerning boys. Itâs like they hold infinite power.
âI just contacted Sudou-kun too, and I think heâll agree too (Ï)â
I received another mail. Oh~. At this pace, everyone will really meet up tomorrow.
At this faster than expected development, I contacted Horikita with the news. I sent her a mail about how I was working with Kushida, that Ike and Yamauchi agreed to come, and how Kushida would also be participating in the study group.â
âWell, time to take a bath.â
As soon as I got up from my bed, I got a call from Horikita.
âMoshi moshi?â[1]
â⊠I donât understand your text.â
âWhat do you mean, you donât understand. Isnât it concise and simple? It looks like all three will come tomorrow.â
âNot that. The part where you said Kushida-san was helping. This is my first time hearing that.â
âI asked her earlier. For someone like Kushida who puts great effort in helping her classmates, sheâd want to participate regardless of whether or not I invited her. In short, Sudou, Ike, and Yamauchi are coming. Ok?â
âI donât remember allowing that. She didnât even get a failing score either.â
âHeyâby introducing Kushida into our plan, the chances of success go way up. I just took the simplest measure of increasing the probability of success.â
â⊠Iâm still not pleased with it. Shouldnât you have done that after asking for my approval?â
âI know that you hate someone as proactive as Kushida is. However, itâs to make sure that no one fails. Or do you want to try gathering all students who failed by yourself?â
âThatsâŠâ
Looks like Horikita understood that getting Kushida on board was a good thing.
Because she has too much pride in herself, itâs difficult for her to simply agree.
âWe also donât have much time until the test. Is it not ok?â
Speaking of which, Horikita doesnât have much breathing room for her plan to work. But still, she was caught up on something and didnât say anything. It was silent for a while.
â⊠Fine. We canât do anything without making a sacrifice. However, Kushida-san will only help gather the students that failed. I canât agree to her participating in the study group.â
â⊠No, why is that? That was her condition for helping out. Youâre being unreasonable.
âI wonât accept her participating in the study group. That wonât change.â
âIs this about that? Are you trying to get back at her for when we deceived you?â
âThatâs unrelated. She didnât fail her mock test. Having extra people will only result in extra effort and confusion.â
Her explanations are pretty reasonable, but I donât understand the reason as to why she refuses to let Kushida join the study group.
âDo you just hate Kushida?â
âDo you not feel uncomfortable when you are next to someone you hate?â
âHuh?â
I didnât understand what she meant.
Kushida tried to understand and get to know Horikita more than anyone, and tries to become her friend.
I never thought that Horikita actually hated Kushida.
âWhat if they decide to not come because Kushidaâs not coming?â
â⊠Sorry, reviewing the test material is taking longer than I thought it would. Iâm going to end the phone call because itâs taking so long. Well, good night.â
âH-hey!â
She quickly cut the call. A misanthrope would probably do the same. However, in order to rise up to class A, itâs necessary to compromise. (Note: always think of Hamilton when it says rise up)
I plugged in my phone, put it on the table, then lied down on my bed.
I thought back on the days since the entrance ceremony.
âDefective products, huh.â
On the first day of school, thatâs what the second-year senpais said to us.
In English, that would be âDefective productâ.[2]
Thatâs what they used to ridicule the students of class D. The flawless Horikita probably has some problems too. I could somehow understand what she was saying today.
âWhat should I doâŠâ
Should I try to force her? However, Horikita might leave in the worst case.
If Horikita didnât teach, everyoneâs time would go to naught.
Feeling heavy, I called Kushidaâs number.
âMoshi moshi~â
At first, I could hear the strong wind in the background. It quickly died away though.
âBy any chance, were you drying your hair?â
âOh, did you hear that? I just finished, so itâs fine.â
Kushida just got out of the bath, huh⊠wait, itâs not the time to be having these delusions.
âNo, uh, I have some bad news⊠Can you make it so that I never asked you to gather the failed students?â
â⊠Um, why?â
She answered after a short pause. It seems like she wants to know the reason, rather than getting mad immediately.
âSorry. I canât talk about it at length. Anyway, it got a bit difficult.â
âIs that so⊠I see that Horikita-san really doesnât like me.â
I didnât think I implied that at all, but it seems like Kushida picked up on it over the phone.
âItâs not related to her. Itâs my mistake.â
âItâs fine if you donât try to hide it~. I wonât get mad. I thought she would reject me because it looks like she doesnât like me. It just happened as I thought it would.â
I guess you can call it womanâs intuition.
âAnyway, itâs my bad that I asked you to help.â
âUun, thereâs no need for you to apologize. But⊠? I donât think that Horikita-san can gather Sudou and the others by herself.â
I couldnât deny that.
âHey, what did Horikita-san say, though? Was she against me gathering the others? Or was she against me participating in the study group?â
She got it perfectly right, as if she was listening to the conversation too.
â⊠The latter. Sorry for spoiling the mood.â
âAhahaha, yea. Thereâs no need for you to apologize, though. She has a âDonât get close to meâ kind aura. So I expected it to happen anyway.â
Even so, youâre really perceptive.
âBut everyone agreed to join because I said I would also participate⊠Before inviting me, couldnât you have lied that I wouldnât be able to participate? If you told them now, everyone would probably hate Horikita-sanâŠâ
I feel a bit frightened towards Kushida. She understands everything.
âCan you leave this one to me?â
âLeave this one to you?â
âTomorrow, Iâll take everyone to Horikita-san. Of course, Iâll go too.â
âThatâsââ
âItâs fine, right?â Or can you solve the problem? Is there a way to gather everyone without me, or a way to convince Horikita?â
Itâs too bad, but thatâs impossible.
â⊠I got it. Iâll leave it to you. I wonât know what will happen, though.â
âThatâs fine. You wonât be responsible for any of it, after all. Well, see you tomorrow then.â
The phone call ended. I never thought that Iâd get more tired than I was after the phone call with Horikita. She said that it was fine, but is it really?
Horikita will insult and taunt anything sheâs not pleased with, no matter who is on the receiving end. Itâs clear that this precarious situation will end up in flames. Feeling anxious, I headed towards the bathroom.
Letâs stop thinking about tomorrowâitâll only make me more depressed.
No matter how worried I get, tomorrow will come and go. Things will work out somehow.
[1]. Moshi moshi is the usual greeting for phone calls
[2]. âDefective productâ is in English.
Liked it? Take a second to support Novels on Patreon!