Karuizawa Kei glanced at Shimizu Akira, her eyes casually sweeping around his dorm room.
The room was almost identical to how it was last time she visited, still lacking proper furniture. Only the open laptop on the desk stood out—the screen was playing an anime. A brown-haired girl was buried under her blankets, her fingers tapping on a phone screen; the recipient's name was noted as "Saki."
Karuizawa Kei wasn't deeply knowledgeable about anime, but having grown up in Japan where anime posters are ubiquitous on the streets, she had absorbed some familiarity with it.
(I didn't expect Shimizu Akira to like watching anime?)
She felt a bit surprised. In her impression, he should be the type obsessed with training, a muscle fanatic who had recently gotten into boxing and spent all his free time in the gym. That didn't really fit the "otaku" label.
Wait... how did he get the points to buy a laptop?
She suddenly remembered that annoying "Hakase" in class mentioning that the other had spent 80,000 points to buy the laptop back then.
And this month, because of last month's surveillance camera rental incident, everyone in Class D had to pay back points, leaving them with only 8,000 points each.
(80,000... Could he have used the money I gave him last month to buy it?)
The more Karuizawa thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. The corner of her mouth twitched downwards involuntarily, her expression looking as if she were dragging around an invisible burden, tinged with an indescribable awkwardness.
Of course, she ultimately didn't dare voice any objection—mainly because she was afraid Shimizu Akira would stop protecting her.
Thinking this, her gaze fell on the crate of water bottles behind the door. She walked over and casually picked one up.
Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at Shimizu Akira, noticing he showed no sign of being upset.
(Huh? Is he tacitly allowing me to take his water?)
Thinking this, she grew a bit bolder this time and proactively sat down on his bed.
Shimizu Akira still seemed indifferent, or rather, his attention had long since left her. He was now engrossed in watching the anime on his laptop.
Karuizawa Kei unscrewed the cap and took a couple of big gulps. The cool water soothed her throat, which had gotten hot from all the cursing earlier. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she swung her legs and couldn't help but glance at the screen—the brown-haired girl was still tossing and turning under the covers, her phone screen lit up. The text messages vaguely showed words like "Sorry" and "Forgive me."
"What anime is this?" she couldn't help but ask, her tone still carrying some unresolved anger but noticeably more relaxed than before.
Shimizu Akira's eyes didn't leave the screen as he mumbled a response: "MyGo!."
"Is it about a band?" Karuizawa raised an eyebrow. She wasn't entirely unfamiliar with the genre; school festivals always had club bands performing.
"Sort of." Shimizu tapped on the computer, switching to full-screen mode. "But the focus isn't on the singing; it's about the band blowing up."
The scene on screen suddenly cut to a night setting. The brown-haired girl was continuously apologizing to someone named Saki, her expression so agitated it looked like she was about to cry.
"They're arguing too," she muttered under her breath.
"Mhm, probably over a misunderstanding. Mainly because that blue-haired girl isn't quite... human," Shimizu Akira finally spared her a bit of attention. "Similar to you guys."
"It's not the same! Who are you calling not human?!" Karuizawa Kei immediately retorted. "We were standing up for Chiaki..." Her words trailed off mid-sentence as she suddenly realized that her argument with Yukimura and the others was, in fact, rather pointless and probably just made Matsushita Chiaki feel more awkward caught in the middle.
"Since it happened yesterday, I'll help you handle it. After all, we have a protection agreement, right?" Shimizu Akira turned to look at her specifically now, his tone serious.
"Really?!" Karuizawa Kei looked at his serious expression and felt a huge wave of relief wash over her.
As expected, he was still honoring the agreement.
"Wait..." She suddenly seemed to sense something, a very bad premonition. "Why did you say 'from yesterday'?"
"Because our contract officially ended yesterday," Shimizu Akira looked at her and explained word by word. "You should remember, the contract started around 5 PM on Friday of the first week last month, right? And today is already the weekend of the first week of the second month."
"...Then I'll just pay you again!" Karuizawa hurriedly interjected, her tone carrying a forced calmness.
It wasn't that she hadn't considered renewing the points this month, but most people in Class D didn't have much spare money. Even after scraping together everything she could, she had only managed to save up 30,000 points so far.
But Shimizu Akira shook his head. "Actually, I don't plan to continue protecting you."
"Why?!" Karuizawa's heart sank violently, her voice trembling slightly, though she still tried to maintain a calm negotiating tone. "I have 30,000 right now... I'll make up the remaining 50,000 as soon as possible. Can you give me a few days?"
"It's not about the points." Shimizu Akira sighed, his eyes turning more serious. "It seems you've violated the initial conditions of our contract."
"What conditions? Wasn't it just me paying 80,000 points and you being responsible for protecting me?" Karuizawa Kei frowned deeply, clearly unaware of the problem.
"My condition was, first and foremost, for you to join the boxing club. That way, I could legitimately protect you under the pretext of a 'club member protecting the manager,'" Shimizu Akira looked straight at her. "But what about you? You've already taken several consecutive days off, haven't you? You should remember the rules when you joined—if you take more than three days off, the club president has the right to dismiss you. Now tell me, how many days have you taken off?"
"..." Karuizawa Kei opened her mouth, but no words came out.
"I had you join the boxing club not only to give me a legitimate reason but also so the club president could look out for you a bit when I'm not around," Shimizu Akira said, looking at her bowed head, a hint of confusion in his tone. "I don't understand. Why did you skip so many days? Were you really that tired? But your work isn't pointless; the seniors should give you point rewards, and they would protect you too. The seniors in the boxing club are very protective of their own!"
The incident with Ichinose the other day was the perfect example.
Karuizawa Kei was slightly taken aback. She hadn't really processed the first part.
Her attention was caught by the latter part.
(Protection from the seniors?)
That's right! Chiaki had also told her before that seniors could be reliable allies.
"The seniors in the boxing club... would they really protect the manager?"
"Otherwise? If a club manager gets bullied, how could the club members just stand by? They would definitely find a way to stand up for you. Recently, the boxing club seniors helped resolve an issue for a first-year Class B student."
Shimizu Akira had no reason to lie to her.
Moreover, she had vaguely heard about that incident involving the first-year Class B student from other classes recently.
She hadn't realized it was the boxing club that intervened?
Karuizawa Kei's heart sank. In her daze, she genuinely felt she had made a mistake—taking all those days off was an utterly stupid decision.
"...Shimizu-kun, um, you can get the club president to go easy on me, right?" Thinking of this, she looked at him with a clear plea in her eyes, her voice softening. "Aren't you two on good terms?"
"I can't help you with that," Shimizu Akira refused without hesitation. "You'll have to rely on yourself."
"This..." Karuizawa Kei's face instantly turned panicked. Her heart felt like it was being squeezed by an invisible hand, the panic growing stronger and stronger.
A look of humiliation spread across her cheeks, and her fingertips began to feel cold.
If she were truly dismissed from the boxing club, Shimizu Akira would most likely really stop protecting her.
If she couldn't find a protector in this school... She didn't dare think about it further.