Chapter 202: A Diagnostic Test Organized by Yuto!
Looking at Manabu's puzzled expression, Suzune became confused as well.
"Brother, didn't you ask Shimizu about me yesterday?"
"I didn't."
"..."
"..."
The Horikita siblings fell silent together.
Neither of them was stupid. In fact, both were extremely sharp, so they immediately realized what had happened.
Yuto had lied.
Suzune's breathing gradually grew heavier as irritation appeared on her face.
Manabu adjusted his glasses.
"Why did Shimizu lie to you?"
"Because he has a terrible personality!"
Suzune gritted her teeth.
That infuriating bastard had fooled her yesterday, and now his lie had made her embarrass herself in front of her brother!
How hateful!
Humiliated by Yuto's trick and unwilling to remain there any longer, Suzune hurriedly said goodbye to Manabu and left the student council office with the brown envelope in hand.
Watching his sister leave in such an irritated rush, Manabu instead showed a faint smile mixed with relief.
This wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
A girl should have more expressions.
If she went around with that cold face every day, she would frighten away far too many people.
"Shimizu already has a girlfriend, doesn't he..."
Manabu murmured to himself, looking somewhat regretful.
It was rare for a boy to appear who could provoke such obvious emotional reactions from his sister.
Unfortunately, that boy already had a girlfriend.
What a shame.
...
At that moment, Yuto was spending time with Airi.
The two had gone to a market near the detached apartment to buy ingredients for dinner when Yuto's phone suddenly chimed several times in succession.
He took it out and discovered that every Line message had come from Suzune.
After opening them, his expression became rather subtle.
Then he burst out laughing and slipped the phone back into his pocket.
Airi tilted her head curiously.
"Yuto, why are you laughing so happily? Who sent you messages? Karuizawa or Kushida?"
"Neither. It was Horikita Suzune."
"Eh? Horikita Suzune?"
Airi looked surprised.
"Did she become your girlfriend too?"
"What are you talking about? Horikita isn't my girlfriend. She's just a friend I'm close with."
Yuto couldn't help laughing as he gently pinched Airi's cheek.
Airi blinked while happily enduring his teasing.
Still, she privately thought Suzune might eventually become Yuto's girlfriend.
After all, Kei and Kikyo had originally only been friends who were close to Yuto too.
Now both of them were his girlfriends.
Following that logic, there were quite a few girls around Yuto who could theoretically end up the same way.
Kamuro Masumi and Sakayanagi Arisu from Class A.
Ichinose Honami from Class B.
Matsushita Chiaki from Class C.
Shiina Hiyori from Class D.
Even Chabashira Sae and Hoshinomiya Chie were on good terms with him.
If Airi continued reasoning like that, the list would become absurdly long.
While joking around with Airi, Yuto finished buying the ingredients for dinner.
After returning to the detached apartment, the two joined Chabashira in preparing the evening meal.
Yuto's school life was completely different from Suzune's.
With Airi and the others around him, his days at this school were lively, enjoyable, and full of variety.
...
Time passed, and before long, it was mid-July.
Only seven days remained before the final exam.
After school that day, Yuto once again walked to the front of the classroom.
"Everyone, stay for a moment. There's something I want to talk about."
At his words, the students of Class C stopped packing their books and looked toward him with curiosity.
Their reaction alone showed just how much influence Yuto had within the class.
A single sentence from him was enough to make everyone stay behind and quietly wait for him to speak.
Airi, Kei, Kikyo, and Suzune already knew why he had stopped everyone.
He intended to have them take the old exam papers as a test.
Under the curious gazes of the class, Yuto looked toward Suzune.
"Horikita, come up here for a moment."
Suzune stared at him in surprise.
Why was he calling her up there?
Although confused, she still stood and walked to the front of the room, stopping beside Yuto while everyone watched.
Suzune wanted to ask what he was planning, but with the whole class looking at them, she couldn't exactly question him in front of everyone.
"The final exam is seven days away, and tomorrow and the day after are the weekend."
Yuto addressed the class.
"So tomorrow, I want everyone to take an exam so we can see how well you've mastered the material we've been studying."
"In other words, a diagnostic test."
He looked around.
"What do you all think?"
"I think it's a great idea!"
Kikyo responded immediately.
She energetically turned toward the class.
"We've all been studying really hard lately, so using a proper exam to check how much we've improved makes sense."
After Kikyo spoke, Kei and Hirata also voiced their agreement.
With three influential members of the class supporting the idea, the rest of the students quickly followed.
Yuto smiled in satisfaction.
"Then we'll meet here tomorrow and take the diagnostic test. The schedule will be the same as the midterm exam."
"As for the papers, Horikita has already prepared them for us."
Suzune's expression subtly changed.
Yuto continued before she could stop him.
"Horikita obtained old first-year July final exam papers for us. She also paid out of her own pocket to make thirty-seven copies so everyone can use them for free."
"Eh? Really?"
The students of Class C immediately looked toward Suzune with surprise.
They hadn't expected the normally cold and solitary Horikita Suzune to do something like that for everyone.
"So let's give Horikita-san a round of applause for contributing to the class."
Yuto began clapping first.
A moment later, enthusiastic applause filled the entire classroom.
Standing beside him, Suzune became visibly uncomfortable under everyone's attention.
She wasn't Kikyo.
She didn't enjoy being stared at and thanked by an entire crowd.
Speaking of Kikyo...
She was clapping with the same sweet smile as always.
But there was absolutely no smile in her eyes.
It made her look slightly frightening.
Naturally, the reason was simple.
Yuto had just given Suzune a chance to shine in front of the entire class.
After the applause finally ended, Yuto and Suzune stepped down from the front.
Suzune thought that would be the end of it.
Instead, just as she was about to return to her seat and pack up, several girls surrounded her.
"Horikita-san, I never realized you were this nice!"
"Horikita-san, I'm honestly surprised. I used to think you didn't care about the rest of us. I completely misunderstood you!"
"..."
Their voices made Suzune's head spin.
She instinctively searched for Yuto, hoping he would rescue her from this new predicament.
Unfortunately, he had already abandoned her.
As Yuto passed Kikyo on the way back to his seat, she secretly glared at him.
Her expression was filled with displeasure and resentment, almost as though she'd just caught her boyfriend helping someone she hated.
Yuto smiled helplessly.
He had known Kikyo would become irritated the moment he brought Suzune to the front of the classroom.
Fortunately, he knew exactly how to calm her down.
He took out his phone while returning to his seat and sent her a Line message.
[Kikyo, are you angry?]
[Of course I'm angry! Yuto, why did you make Horikita Suzune look so good in front of everyone? You know I hate her!]
[I know you dislike Horikita. But the exam papers came from her brother, and she paid the copying costs herself. I couldn't just pretend all of that was my own contribution. I'm not the kind of person who steals someone else's credit.]
Yuto replied to Kikyo.
[Ugh... I'm still angry!]
[You're angry, huh? Then come to my dorm tonight, let me coax you.]
[You'd better coax me well!]
[All right, all right.]
Yuto's smile grew wider. Resolving Kikyo's dissatisfaction was actually quite simple—spoil her rotten in the student dorm room.
As long as Kikyo lost her strength and was exhausted, her dissatisfaction and resentment would be washed away.
After arranging a dorm date with Kikyo for tonight, Yuto took his school bag from Kei and prepared to leave the classroom.
By then, Suzune had finally escaped from the girls thanking her.
She immediately blocked Yuto's path.
"Shimizu, didn't we already agree that you wouldn't tell everyone the exam papers had anything to do with me?"
Suzune's expression was clearly dissatisfied.
"How could I not mention you?"
Yuto smiled.
"The papers came from your brother, and you paid the copying costs yourself. Was I supposed to steal your contribution and claim it as mine? Obviously not."
Kei, who was holding onto Yuto's arm, tilted her head.
"Horikita-san, isn't it good that everyone thanked you?"
"...It's not that it's bad. I'm simply not used to it."
Suzune answered helplessly.
For someone who had always kept to herself, suddenly being surrounded and praised by classmates naturally felt strange and uncomfortable.
"You'll get used to it after experiencing it a few more times," Yuto said with a laugh.
Suzune's expression immediately changed.
"Once was enough. I don't want a second time!"
"Hahaha~"
Her reaction made Yuto laugh.
"Who told you to insist on paying for all the copies yourself? If you hadn't been so stubborn about that, I wouldn't have dragged you up there."
"So you're saying this was my own fault?"
"I never said that."
Kei, who was holding onto Yuto's arm, quietly watched him chatting and laughing with Suzune, and she wasn't jealous.
Because the person talking to Yuto was Horikita Suzune.
Although Horikita Suzune was quite pretty, Kei felt that she, with her unremarkable figure, posed no threat.
If it were Kikyo or Ichinose Honami, Kei would have felt a sense of crisis.
Afterward, the three of them left the Class C classroom together and headed for the student council.
...
Because Sakayanagi Arisu, Katsuragi Kohei, Ryuen Kakeru, and several others kept a close eye on Yuto's actions, they soon heard that he intended to use previous years' final exam papers to test Class C's academic progress.
Arisu and Katsuragi didn't pay much attention to it.
They had no intention of copying Yuto and making Class A take an old final exam.
Class A wasn't Class C.
Their academic performance was already excellent.
There was little need for a diagnostic test.
Ryuen briefly considered copying the idea, but eventually abandoned it.
He simply didn't possess Yuto's influence over his class.
The students of Class D hated studying.
Why would they obey Ryuen and come to school on the weekend just to take another exam?
So Ryuen might have wanted to imitate Yuto, but he lacked the ability to make Class D cooperate.
"Boss Ryuen, are we going to get old final exam papers this time too?" Ishizaki asked hesitantly.
"What would be the point? The final exam seven days from now isn't going to reuse last year's questions."
Ryuen sounded irritated.
During the midterm exam, he had listened to Nagumo and obtained previous years' test papers.
The actual midterm exam had turned out to be completely different.
Because of that incident, the students of Class D had complained endlessly about Ryuen.
Some even blamed him for the five students who were expelled.
In their minds, if Ryuen hadn't given them unreliable old exam papers, those students might have studied properly and avoided falling below the passing mark.
That was why Ryuen couldn't be bothered to obtain old first-year final exam papers this time.
...
Saturday arrived.
It was normally a day off.
Even so, students from Class C began arriving at their classroom one after another.
Yuto had told them before leaving school the previous day that they would take the diagnostic test today.
So despite it being the weekend, the entire class followed his arrangement and came to school.
Onodera Kayano, who was sitting in the classroom, looked in surprise at Kikyo, whose steps seemed slightly unsteady.
"Kikyo-chan, why are you walking so weirdly? Did you sprain your ankle?"
"Ah... n-no, I didn't."
…
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