The next morning.
After a quick wash, Yuki grabbed his bag and headed to class.
Even though the dorm had a personal kitchen, in his previous life he'd been a shut-in, and in this life he was a conglomerate heir with maids handling everything—so his household skills were, uh… not great.
His main plan was still to just spend money at Keyaki Mall and call it a day.
As long as you had money, life at this school could be extremely comfortable.
When Yuki arrived at Class D, he immediately noticed something was off.
The whole classroom was wrapped in a weird atmosphere.
Most students were gathered in small groups, whispering, their eyes constantly flicking toward one corner of the room.
Following their shifting gazes, Yuki spotted Kushida Kikyo—the girl who'd said yesterday she wanted to be friends with the entire school—sitting alone quietly at her desk, head lowered so no one could see her expression.
Yuki set his bag down, lightly tapped Matsushita Chiaki's shoulder in the seat ahead, and whispered, "What happened?"
"Shh!" Matsushita turned back, a finger to her lips. Keeping her voice as low as possible, she handed him her phone. "This is a post someone made yesterday. Read it first."
Yuki took the phone. The post was pretty simple.
It claimed that during middle school, Kushida Kikyo gained classmates' trust, then casually dumped their secrets online, eventually causing the class to fall apart—basically calling her a fake, two-faced snake.
"Is this real?"
After reading it, Yuki asked with obvious surprise.
Matsushita glanced toward Kushida, then whispered, "No idea. It was posted from an anonymous account. It's hard to believe, though… That Kushida would be that kind of person. Yuki, do you believe what it says?"
Yuki shook his head. "Too early to say. I just don't want to suspect my own classmate."
The room felt bizarre. Everyone was quietly speculating about Kushida's "true face."
It had only been one day. Even after introductions, they were basically still at the "I know your name" stage.
A lot of people guessed it was probably a rumor.
But better safe than sorry. Just imagining your secrets getting leaked by Kushida Kikyo was enough to make your skin crawl.
Who you hate, who you like, your painful past—things like that could get turned into jokes. Best case, your relationships collapse. Worst case, you get socially executed.
Kushida looked harmless—almost pitiful, even—but for safety's sake, people decided it was better not to get close.
Behind Yuki, Horikita Suzune was thinking to herself:
"What is this guy trying to do?"
She was 100% sure this rumor came from Yuki.
Yesterday she'd signed a contract involving Kushida Kikyo, and today a rumor about Kushida exploded. There was no way that was a coincidence.
More importantly, Horikita knew she was the one who'd be blamed for it.
"Whatever."
Horikita shook her head and went back to her book.
She didn't care what happened to Kushida. And she didn't believe Kushida could do anything to her anyway.
The classroom grew more and more suffocating, everyone still whispering about what kind of person Kushida really was.
"What do we do…?"
Hirata Yōsuke was panicking inside.
He never imagined something like this would happen on day two.
He knew—
Even if everyone just ignored her, it would cause irreversible damage.
Kushida would slowly get isolated, sink to the bottom of the class, and eventually the only thing waiting for her would be bullying.
Class D would repeat middle school all over again and collapse.
That was the last thing Hirata wanted. He understood how bottomless human malice could be.
"I have to help Kushida."
With that, Hirata stood up.
But before he could move, Yuki was already beside Kushida.
"Kushida, are you okay?"
"Huh?"
Faced with that sudden concern, Kushida Kikyo didn't react right away.
Her head was lowered, her eyes unfocused, her heart completely gray.
Day two.
Her past had already been dug up. Some parts were clearly exaggerated, but most of it was true.
Forget becoming friends with the whole school—she probably wouldn't have anyone approach her ever again.
Of course, with Kushida's social skills, she was confident she could still become an important figure in the class, at least not fall to rock bottom.
But that wasn't what she wanted.
"Kushida, you okay?" Yuki asked again.
Like a beam of light cutting through darkness, Kushida's body trembled slightly, and she snapped back.
"I'm fine!" She lifted her head instantly, already wearing a soft smile. "Yuki… sorry for making you worry."
"Don't worry about it."
Yuki shook his head and spoke gently. "Whoever spread that rumor is seriously messed up. You don't need to take it to heart."
What a fool…
Kushida laughed inwardly.
Even if the rumor had some exaggerations, a normal person's first instinct would be to stay out of it—just like the classmates currently eavesdropping on their conversation.
Only an idiot like Amamiya Yuki would believe her this easily.
Kushida was used to receiving trust—she even enjoyed it—but while she mocked him internally, she also felt oddly happy.
It was the same thing called "trust," but Yuki's trust felt different—like a bit of light in the night, strangely warm.
But that was all.
What mattered now was grabbing the opportunity Yuki had delivered right to her.
"Yuki, thank you. Really."
Kushida gave him a dazzling smile. A few tears shimmered at the corners of her eyes before her voice choked up.
"School just started… why is this happening to me? It's so cruel."
By the end, she covered her face and lowered her head so no one could see her expression.
Like she was venting to Yuki.
The entire classroom fell silent.
Only Kushida's occasional sobs echoed through the room.
No one expected a random anonymous rumor to hurt this "kind girl" so badly.
Whoever spread it was awful—how could they be so cruel to someone so pretty?
A lot of the class immediately thought: Kushida is the victim here. She's too pitiful.
"It's okay, Kushida."
Hirata chose the perfect moment to step in, gentle and considerate. "We're your classmates. We know what kind of person you are."
"Exactly." A girl from China named Wang Meiyu bravely grabbed Kushida's hand. "Don't waste your energy on some coward spreading rumors behind your back."
"Kushida-chan is way too cute to be a bad person. Everyone relax—if I say so, it's definitely true."
Yamauchi Haruki from the idiot trio patted his chest confidently.
The girls slowly gathered around Kushida again, tossing out comfort after comfort.
Hirata didn't define Kushida's character precisely, but it was enough.
The classroom shifted into full "Everyone go comfort Kushida" mode.
Kushida looked like she was recovering too, forcing a small smile as she thanked everyone for caring.
Yuki watched it all calmly, then returned to his seat. This was enough.
Young people had a tendency to trust easily.
Even if they knew most of it could be lies, they couldn't help feeling a little relieved—or clinging to the "maybe it's fine" hope.
Whether Class D believed Kushida's explanation, or Kushida believed in Yuki's "stupidity," it was the same.
But Yuki knew.
Even if people believed her now, the next time they considered sharing a secret with Kushida, they'd hesitate.
In other words, Kushida would have a much harder time obtaining the weapon called "truth."
In Yuki's eyes—
Once other classes understood the school, they'd naturally become wary of people outside their class.
Very few would tell Kushida secrets that could hurt themselves—unless it was a guy like Yamauchi Haruki, who thought with his pants.
Kushida's "weapon" was basically self-targeting.
It had maximum destructive power on her own class, but only about thirty percent effectiveness on outsiders.
"What's the point of you doing this?"
The moment Yuki sat down, Horikita spoke from behind him.
Her eyes stayed on her book the whole time, like she didn't care much.
She didn't name him or provide context, but Yuki knew what she meant.
"We're classmates. Helping a classmate is normal, isn't it?"
Then Yuki turned toward Ayanokōji. "Right, Ayanokōji?"
Ayanokōji reacted quickly to the sudden question.
When Horikita spoke, he'd already sensed something off and wanted to ask her for information.
With Horikita's personality, she wouldn't talk to someone without a clear purpose.
But Yuki had cut off his timing first.
And—
A rumor—or truth—about a classmate appearing on day two meant the most uneasy person in Class D was actually Ayanokōji.
While everyone else worried about Kushida, Ayanokōji cared more about the one operating in the shadows.
No matter what their goal was—
If their goal and identity were unknown, this wasn't a comfortable environment for him to live in.
And the source of the weirdness was the relationship between Yuki and Kushida. They shouldn't have had any contact.
Yuki also wasn't the "helpful guy" type like Hirata. His actions felt abnormal to Ayanokōji.
Since it wasn't a good time to get answers from Horikita, he had to probe Yuki directly.
Ayanokōji said casually, "Sure. It does look like you and Kushida are pretty close."
"Ayanokōji, that won't do." Yuki scolded lightly. "Even if you're just classmates, I think you should help each other."
Then he glanced toward Kushida and pushed back. "Do you think Yamauchi and the others are comforting Kushida because they're close?"
At that moment, Yamauchi and a few girls were still gathered around Kushida, and Kushida seemed to be recovering under their attention.
"Who knows."
Ayanokōji sounded a little down. "What a shame. I don't have many friends, so I can't really understand how Yamauchi manages to get along with everyone."
"You don't have any friends."
Horikita mercilessly exposed him, then added, "And Yamauchi's behavior is called being shallow. It's not a good trait."
"Is that so…?"
Ayanokōji muttered blankly.
Without a solid reference point, and unable to understand ordinary high school thinking, he couldn't judge whether it made sense for a blunt guy like Yuki to comfort Kushida—someone he had no prior connection with.
Horikita had no interest in teaching him, and Yuki clearly didn't want to answer her question head-on.
And—
She didn't care about Kushida either. She was only mildly curious about Yuki's goal. If he didn't want to answer, fine.
Yuki turned back to his seat.
Even if Ayanokōji figured out he was the one who spread the rumor, it wouldn't matter. With Ayanokōji's personality, he wouldn't interfere in something unrelated to him.
Still, Yuki had taken the minimum precautions.
With Hirata leading the mood, the class probably wouldn't bring up Kushida's past again—otherwise it would look like deliberate targeting.
If Ayanokōji missed this chance,
Then with his self-assigned "avoid trouble" persona, it'd be hard for him to ask Horikita for information again. And Horikita was restricted by the contract and couldn't accurately leak anything.
Even if Ayanokōji pieced it together from scraps, with his standing in the class, no one would believe him anyway.
Right before class started, Yuki's phone received a message from Kushida.
[Yuki, thank you so much for caring about me. After school, I want to invite the whole class to karaoke—please come, okay? [cute]]
Seeing the message, Yuki looked up and smiled at Kushida.
She was clearly trying to repair her position in the class. The invitation was probably just for appearances.
But Yuki knew his actions had still sent a small ripple through her heart.