After Hirata paid the sixty thousand points for their "consultation," their deal was concluded.
"You seem much more decisive now," Ren couldn't help but comment. "Did you take my advice?"
"No," Hirata replied with a wry smile. "It's mainly because chatting with you is too expensive. I don't have time to hesitate."
"Then for the sake of efficiency, all our future conversations will be billable."
"Don't!"
The next morning, Ren found a pink envelope in his shoe locker. He sighed. Before he could expand his operations to the other classes, he needed to get his own house in order. He had to find a suitable female classmate to act as a shield as soon as possible. He tore open the envelope, hoping it was a challenge letter disguised as a love letter. It had been two days since he'd "bullied the class beauty." Surely her admirers should have reacted by now.
But it was just a love letter. Horikita was proving to be a surprisingly useless catalyst for conflict. After confirming there were no threats, Ren began dealing with the confessions. He pulled out the class contact list Kushida had given him and sent a simple, uniform reply to every named sender: "You are a good person." For the anonymous ones, he did nothing.
As he walked to class, he reconsidered his options for a shield. Kushida was a possibility. She had a dark side and could certainly handle a rival. Thanks to their recent encounter, she held him in a state of awe and was unlikely to develop real feelings, unless she was a complete masochist. Plus, he had leverage over her. But her goal of being a campus idol meant a public relationship was out of the question.
That left his original target.
The moment Ren walked into the classroom, he was met with gazes that were even more intense than the day before. Now that he knew it was all based on a misunderstanding, he felt a strange pang of guilt. He scanned the room until his eyes met a pair that was not filled with adoration, but with fierce, aggressive energy.
Thank goodness, he thought with relief. You haven't changed, Karuizawa-san.
Kei Karuizawa, the leader of the gyaru clique, was his new target. They stared at each other for a few seconds. Ren searched her eyes for any hint of shyness or affection.
Karuizawa, meanwhile, was panicking. Why is he always looking at me like that? His eyes are like knives! Did he see something? No, I can't look away. I have to be strong. Wait, everyone likes him now. If I keep glaring, will his fans come after me? Should I give in? No, stay strong! Ahh, everyone is watching us! Stop looking at me, I'm scared!
Just as she felt she was about to cry, her fear manifested as an even fiercer glare. Ren, misinterpreting this as a sign of incredible fortitude, nodded to himself in satisfaction and looked away first.
Not bad, he thought. You are worthy of being the shield I have chosen.
With the shield's quality confirmed, he now had to consider the price of her "loyalty."
After returning to his seat, Ren took out his phone and sent a message to his new tool.
To: Kushida Kikyo
Before school is over today, I want all the information you have on Karuizawa Kei.
The message sent. A moment later, a cheerful ding-dong sounded right beside him. Kushida had appeared at the desk next to his—Horikita's desk. She gave him her signature angelic smile, then read the message he'd just sent. The smile faltered, replaced by a look of deep confusion. Karuizawa's information? her expression seemed to ask.
Ren simply turned his head and stared out the window, giving her a look that said, Just do it and don't ask questions.
Kushida immediately understood, her expression clearing. She quickly typed a reply.
From: Kushida Kikyo
Got it. And, Ren-kun, I'm going to do it!
Do what? Ren wondered. Then he realized. She was at Horikita's desk. She was about to put his "lessons" into practice. Unsure of herself, she had waited for him to arrive to witness her first official attempt at a public confrontation.
Oh, there's going to be a show, Ren thought, a secret smile spreading across his face. He turned his attention to Horikita, who was, as always, absorbed in a book. Kushida took a deep breath, leaned over, and with a voice full of beautiful expectation, said sweetly, "Horikita-san, can I ask you to be my good friend?"
"Horikita-san, let's be friends, shall we?" Kushida asked.
"No," Horikita replied without looking up. No.
"Why?"
"Unnecessary."
Kushida fell silent. Horikita, thinking she had won so easily, cast a provocative glance at Ren, as if to say, See? I'm still strong. But then she noticed Ren's expression. He was smiling. A wide, knowing, Cheshire-cat grin.
Not good, she thought. Something's wrong.
The next moment, a huge sound exploded in her ear.
"HORIKITA SUZUNE IS A BAKA! BAKA, BAKA! BIG BAKA!"
Kushida had taken advantage of her distraction, leaned in close, and screamed the insult directly into her ea. By the time the ringing in Horikita's ears subsided and she spun around to retaliate, Kushida was already retreating, a triumphant look on her face. Just then, the bell for the start of class rang out, providing the perfect cover for her escape.
This tactic—strike and run—was straight out of the "textbook" Ren had sent her. He had explained that real-life arguments were different from online ones; you always needed an escape plan to avoid physical repercussions. Kushida had been cautious, using Ren's presence as her first line of insurance and the bell as her second. With double protection, she had executed her first, flawless, hit-and-run attack.
And it was devastatingly effective.
Horikita was seething. It wasn't just the insult. It was the humiliation of being so easily ambushed, of having lost face in front of her "rival," Ren. It took her more than ten minutes to calm down enough to focus on the history lesson. Ten minutes of missed class time, which, due to her obsessive study habits, would require at least half an hour of her precious free time to make up. Kushida's simple taunt had cost Horikita thirty minutes of her life.
For the rest of the day, Ren was perfectly behaved. He had promised Hirata he wouldn't actively destroy class unity. But that didn't mean he had given up on his goal of lowering his favorability. In fact, he was working on it all day, with a new, more covert strategy.
What did he do?
The answer was simple: he did nothing.
He reasoned that the favorability of high school students was fickle. By simply doing nothing, by being boring and withdrawn, their newfound enthusiasm for him would eventually cool and die out on its own.
After school, he didn't leave immediately, but instead secretly stared at a certain blonde gyaru from across the room, planning his next move.
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