"Hello? May I ask who's calling? Ayanokouji? Well, you're an unexpected caller. I never thought you'd be the one calling me. Something important? I suppose so, otherwise you wouldn't be reaching out. What time? Huh? Right now? So urgent? I'm free, sure..."
Horikita Suzune glanced at Amane, who was playing on her phone nestled in the blankets.
"Amane, are you hungry?"
"Mmm, not really yet. Plus, I'm a bit sleepy, I think I'll take a nap first."
Amane placed her phone beside the pillow, then affectionately nuzzled against Horikita's pillow next to hers.
"Then meeting now is fine. It works out, since Amane is planning to rest for a while."
With that, Horikita Suzune hung up the phone.
"Ayanokouji says he has something important to discuss. I'm going downstairs to meet him now. If you get hungry, there are ready-made sandwiches to tide you over. I'll cook for you properly when I get back."
Horikita walked over to Amane's side, moved her phone from the pillow to the desk, tucked the brown bear plushie closer under the covers for her, and snugly rearranged the comforter. Only then, satisfied, did she prepare to head downstairs.
"Suzune... never agree to anything beyond your capabilities, okay?"
Amane's voice came from behind her.
Horikita turned back, surprised.
Amane was wearing a cute smile, clutching her plushie tightly.
Her eyes were even closed.
She looked for all the world as if she hadn't said a word.
"I know. Amane, you stay obediently in the room, alright? Don't run off."
Horikita gave a soft, quick kiss on Amane's cheek, put on her school uniform, and walked out, closing the door behind her.
Listening to the faint sound of the door closing, Amane slowly opened her eyes.
"Ayanokouji... you really do love sticking your nose where it doesn't belong."
Amane murmured under her breath, then let out a soft sigh and closed her eyes again.
After all, Horikita would inevitably be troubled by this matter sooner or later.
Rather than having Hirata come crying and begging, pleading for Suzune's help...maybe having Ayanokouji be the one to ask for assistance would be something Suzune could accept more easily.
Horikita left the dormitory building and spotted Ayanokouji Kiyotaka almost effortlessly, standing in the shadow of a large tree near the entrance.
His expression, it seemed, hadn't changed much since she'd first met him. Combined with the fact they didn't interact much normally, Horikita found she couldn't read any useful information from his face right now.
"What's so important that you called me down here in the middle of the day?"
Faced with Horikita's question, Ayanokouji thought for a moment and decided to tell the truth.
"I'd like to borrow some points from you, Horikita."
Though his expression didn't change, Horikita could still detect a hint of awkwardness in his tone.
"Honestly, it's just points. No need to be so tense about it. I know it's hard for you boys to ask a girl to borrow points, but there's no need to be quite so cautious, is there?"
Horikita noticed Ayanokouji glancing around from time to time.
He seemed to be wary of someone, which she found somewhat amusing.
Was he afraid of someone seeing him in this embarrassing situation of borrowing points? Boys and their pride, really.
"..."
Ayanokouji scratched his head awkwardly.
He didn't try to justify his point-borrowing actions.
This situation was actually relatively common in Class D.
Class D hadn't received any points for a month, and due to the impact of the Sudou incident, they wouldn't get any next month either. Even the most frugal student couldn't possibly still have points left after nearly three months.
"How much do you want to borrow?"
"Fifty thousand."
"What?"
The number took Horikita by surprise.
She couldn't understand it; if it was for normal living expenses, there was no way he'd ask for fifty thousand points right off the bat.
Such a huge amount... not only did Horikita not have it right now, even if she did, she couldn't possibly lend it all to Ayanokouji in one go.
After all, everyone knew that points lent out were very unlikely to be returned.
If Ayanokouji was only borrowing five thousand or ten thousand points, Horikita could probably manage.
But fifty thousand points was beyond her means.
Suddenly, Horikita remembered Amane's warning.
Don't agree to anything beyond your capabilities.
Did Amane already know Ayanokouji was going to ask to borrow points?
"What's wrong? Is it difficult?" Ayanokouji asked, seeing the shifting expressions on Horikita's face and roughly guessing the reason.
"Yes. Right now I have less than thirty thousand personal points left."
As she spoke, Horikita opened her student terminal to show her balance—just over twenty-seven thousand points, barely more than half of the fifty thousand he needed.
This amount of personal points was far from enough.
"I miscalculated. I thought a frugal girl like you, Horikita, might still have some points saved up. I didn't expect your expenses to be quite significant too."
Ayanokouji had heard a little about Horikita's thrifty habits.
But if even Horikita had less than thirty thousand points left...
He certainly couldn't borrow all of it. In Ayanokouji's view, borrowing fifteen thousand from her was probably the limit.
What should he do about the remaining points?
Chabashira-sensei's hint had been to seek out Horikita.
But now, even combining Horikita's points with his own wouldn't be enough to buy a single [test point].
Had Chabashira-sensei misjudged the situation?
"It can't be helped. I have to support two people, so the points naturally get spent faster. Speaking of which, Ayanokouji, why do you need to borrow such a large sum all of a sudden? You're not planning to buy a game console or something, are you?"
Horikita narrowed her eyes.
If it was for daily expenses, she could still lend Ayanokouji some. At the very least, they could scrounge a bit from Amane's side to meet his needs.
But if Ayanokouji was borrowing points for entertainment, there was no way Horikita would lend them to him.
"Actually, it's because..."
Ayanokouji roughly described his conversation with Chabashira to Horikita.
Horikita's first reaction after hearing it was to dismiss the idea of using 120 million points to keep everyone from being expelled.
That idea simply wasn't realistic.
No wonder her brother had said someone would definitely be expelled this time.
When he mentioned later that it was possible to save either Ruri Ichihashi or Airi Sakura...
Horikita Suzune thought for a moment.
"I don't have many points here, but the points on Amane's side should be enough to cover buying that one [test point]... As for choosing whom, Ichihashi-san is on good terms with Amane. Perhaps we can use this method to get Amane's support."
Horikita's analysis was quite logical. Originally, Ichihashi was part of Kushida's circle and had always been on good terms with Amane.
If it was for Amane's sake, she would probably take out a hundred thousand points to prevent Ichihashi-san from being expelled.
"Then I'll leave it to you, Horikita."
Seeing that Horikita Suzune already had a plan, Ayanokouji quickly went with the flow, handing the matter over to her to handle.
"Hey! Ayanokouji, that's rather irresponsible of you. What do you mean, 'leave it to me'? Shouldn't you be the one to go discuss this with Amane?"
Even though Horikita was absolutely confident she could persuade Amane, she was still dissatisfied with Ayanokouji's hands-off attitude.
"I think a girl would be more likely to sway Miyako-san. If a guy like me goes to ask her, I'd probably just mess things up."
Ayanokouji's excuse sounded like a brush-off.
But Horikita knew that what Ayanokouji said wasn't wrong. So now, it was all up to her, Horikita Suzune.
Persuading Amane? Wasn't that as easy as taking candy from a baby?
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.