Part 7
“Sorry for calling you out so late, Ichinose.”
That night, at a bit past eleven, I invited Ichinose over to my room.
It wouldn’t have been unusual for her to be on her guard and turn the offer down, but she didn’t seem to have any issues with it.
“It’s totally fine! Though, it’s quite rare for you to reach out to me like this.”
“It’s because I really wanted to talk to you. For the time being, if it’s alright with you, feel free to take a seat on the bed. The floor might be a bit cold.”
After expressing her gratitude, Ichinose sat down on the bed.
“This… My heart’s beating kinda fast…”
“Hm?”
“Oh. No, it’s nothing. How come we couldn’t talk over the phone?”
How come, huh?
I picked up a white cup as I set some water to boil in a kettle.
“I wanted to confirm a bunch of stuff with you that’s difficult to convey just by talking over the phone.”
“I see.”
“I suppose I’ll cut to the chase and ask you directly. What are you going to do about the exam?”
“Are you looking to continue this morning’s conversation? Well, I’ve been putting a lot of thought into how to overcome the exam without anybody being expelled… I suppose.”
“And has anything specific come to mind?”
I took a look over my shoulder and watched as she tried to answer the question.
Of course, it was just something I had said for politeness’ sake.
We both knew that there was no other way to do it besides forking over twenty million private points.
“Uhm, not yet unfortunately… There’s already not much time left, so I’m getting a bit anxious.”
I couldn’t see any signs that she was hiding something based on her words or behavior. I was reminded that, back during the cruise ship special exam, I had been impressed with Ichinose’s unexpectedly adept poker face.
“I was thinking that you might go to president Nagumo for help.”
“What kind of help?”
If they aren’t properly prepared for it ahead of time, posing a question like this might cause the other person to become flustered, yet Ichinose still returned my question as if nothing revealing had been asked at all.
However, what I was about to say next would surely be enough to break her poker face.
As the water in the kettle began to boil, I prepared a cup of hot chocolate and handed it to her.
“Thank you.”
“This supplementary exam is different than the ones we’ve had before. It can’t be cleared without someone being forcibly expelled, with the sole exception being to save up twenty million private points. No matter how many points Class B has saved up, there’s no way you’ve reached twenty million. With that assumption in mind, you would have no other choice but to seek assistance from a third party.”
Ichinose eyes shifted to her hot chocolate, letting out small, steady breaths to cool it down.
“Is that so? Well, Asahina-senpai also knew about it. Though, I didn’t think she’d tell you, Ayanokōji-kun.”
She seemed to realize that there was no use in trying to hide it anymore, immediately making the connection as to how I knew what I did.
“Then, I’m guessing you’ve also heard about his condition for lending me the points we need?”
As I responded with a small nod, a bitter smile took shape on Ichinose’s face.
“Isn’t it just ridiculous? In so many ways…”
Lending out private points on the condition that she enters into a relationship.
Furthermore, she was seriously thinking about accepting this condition.
This was probably what she meant by ‘In so many ways’.
“Nagumo-senpai more or less prohibited me from revealing anything about our deal. He told me that if I did, I can forget it ever existed in the first place. Though, since Asahina-senpai is the one who told you, I should probably be safe for the time being.”
“Don’t worry about that.”
“You say that, but this doesn’t have anything to do with you, right…?”
“True enough.”
It was Class B’s problem, and Ichinose’s decision.
“How many more points do you need?”
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