It was a little after 8 p.m., and Kamio Tatsuya's room received a guest: Kushida Kikyo.
"Sorry to bother you, Kamio."
"Come in. I guess you don't want to be seen, given your situation."
Even though Kamio Tatsuya changed classes, his dorm room didn't change. It was still room 404, surrounded by the rooms of D class guys.
There was a pretty big risk that Kushida would be seen coming to find him.
"Hey Kamio, I haven't heard anything about you wanting to move to C class."
Kushida started complaining as soon as she came in. But this time she wasn't scolding Horikita, but talking about Kamio Tatsuya transferring classes.
"Why would I tell you? You didn't ask."
Kushida's breathing stopped for a second. She sat down on Kamio Tatsuya's bed, looking annoyed.
"But it's so late. I thought you wouldn't come today." Kamio Tatsuya looked at Kushida by the door and chuckled.
"You're so annoying, acting like you know everything."
Kushida showed a clear look of dislike on her face.
"Can't help it. You're just too easy to figure out." Kamio Tatsuya sat in his chair, picked up his water cup, and drank as a way to stall. "So, what do you want?"
Kushida looked surprised for a second, then suddenly burst out laughing.
"Hahahaha. So, you're not all-knowing after all."
"Come on, I'm not a god. I can't read minds. Who knows what's going on in your head?"
After hearing Kamio Tatsuya's words, Kushida's expression went back to normal.
"D class is a total mess right now. The student council released the list of people who helped with the secret photos, and the girls are going crazy. They're all demanding that Yamauchi and Sotomura get kicked out.
And the guys are all focused on what Shinohara did on the island, saying she's the reason you left D class.
Normally, Hirata would be the one to sort things out, but he's like he's broken. No one can step up and keep the class in order right now."
Kamio Tatsuya smiled when he heard what Kushida said.
"Thanks for the good news."
Kushida rolled her eyes. She didn't understand why Kamio Tatsuya hated D class so much.
"Horikita asked me to talk about D class today."
Should have gotten to the point sooner.
But she wants to talk about D class…
I see. So that's why Horikita was at the coffee shop then. She was meeting you.
"Oh, isn't that what you've always wanted? You asked her before, but she always said no. Now she's asked you. You should be happy."
"Stop acting dumb. I only asked her to see if she knew my secret." Kushida looked annoyed.
"So, did you find out anything?"
Kushida nodded.
"Then didn't you get what you wanted? Why are you still so upset?"
"Because Horikita does know about me." Kushida's voice was getting impatient. "Why did she have to come to this school? It's so annoying. Why can't she just die?"
Good news, a weight has finally lifted.
Bad news, the weight fell on me.
After rambling for a while, Kushida suddenly looked at Kamio Tatsuya with burning eyes. "Kamio, I want to get Horikita Suzune kicked out. Will you help me?"
Huh?
How did we suddenly get to this?
"No way."
Kamio Tatsuya turned down Kushida's request without even thinking.
"I'll do anything you want, if you get Horikita kicked out."
As she said this, Kushida stood up, walked over to Kamio Tatsuya, and untied her skirt, letting it fall to the floor.
"I'll even give you my body, if that's what you want."
Kamio Tatsuya was shocked by Kushida Kikyo's actions. Just how much did this girl want to have Horikita kicked out?
With Horikita's grades, even if she got kicked out, she could still study and easily get into whatever college she wanted.
Getting kicked out of this school wouldn't be that big of a deal for Horikita Suzune.
Is it really worth giving up your body, just for that?
Kamio Tatsuya was starting to get a little turned on by the scent coming from Kushida. He made himself calm down.
"What are you so afraid of? Compared to Horikita, you're clearly more trusted and have more credibility.
Even if Horikita showed everyone your true colors, I doubt anyone would believe her. What's the reason you're willing to go this far?"
Kushida Kikyo took a couple of steps back and sat back on the bed.
"Kamio, we're different people. You can easily do things I can't."
"Really? I don't feel that way."
Kamio Tatsuya didn't think he was much better than anyone else. He just had more experience with how society works.
Even though he had a system, it hadn't helped him much so far.
"Hehe, back in May, when D class was having money problems, you were the one who pulled the strings to get them money.
You can't imagine how I felt when I saw Ryuen and Ichinose obediently handing over their points.
Almost everyone in the class was praising you at that time. They didn't know who it was, but they were truly grateful to you.
At that moment, I wondered, why couldn't I have come up with that idea? Even if I couldn't tell anyone, I still wanted that praise, I wanted that recognition."
Kushida glanced at Kamio Tatsuya and continued to mutter to herself, "Do you know how jealous I am of you?
I want to prove myself so badly. I want to stand out so badly. I want to be praised so badly.
I can only feel like I have a reason to live, like life is amazing, when I reach those goals."
People are creatures who want to be praised. No one hates being praised or respected by friends or parents. Even authors are happy when readers say their writing is good.
Being recognized is a good thing, but Kushida's case has clearly gone beyond what normal people want.
It's become a sick desire.
"But I know my limits. I know how far I can go. No matter how hard I study or practice, I can't be the best at those things. And being second or third isn't good enough for me.
I'm the kind of person who gets really upset when I lose to someone nearby. Every time I lose at something, I get hurt inside. I even throw up from the stress.
So I thought I'd just do things that other people can't do. Then I realized that I could be nicer to people than anyone else, I could get closer to people than anyone else."
Kamio Tatsuya already knew that. All of Kushida's kindness was fake.
She just wanted to satisfy herself.
But what does it matter?
Being kind to people sounds easy, but you only know how hard it is when you actually try to do it.
For example, now that Yamauchi has been found out to be a helper in the secret photos, he's going to be rejected by all the girls.
But Kushida will still smile at him. Kamio Tatsuya can't even think about doing that without feeling sick.
Kamio Tatsuya couldn't live like that for a single day, but Kushida could easily do it, and had been doing it all along.
"Thanks to that, the boys and girls all liked me. I felt happy, like I was being relied on and trusted. Elementary school and junior high were so fun…" Kushida's face was full of pleasure, but then it twisted up. "So, I can't stand Horikita. Just her existence threatens the way I live."
You could tell that Kushida really missed that time in her life. Her legs twisted together without her realizing it, and her face even turned red.
Is she going to wet my bed?
"Speaking of which, I should thank you, Kamio. It's so hard to keep doing things you don't want to do.
Especially when I first came to this school and was starting over, I was building up so much stress every day. Sometimes I would get so annoyed that I would pull out my hair or throw up. I felt like I was going to go bald.
But then I met you, Kamio. If you hadn't been there to listen to me complain, I don't think I could have made it."
When she said that, Kamio Tatsuya remembered the first time Kushida came to his room to yell.
"So? If you want to get rid of Horikita because she might show everyone your true colors, what are you going to do after you get rid of her?
Will you get rid of the other person who knows your true colors, like me?
I don't want to sound cocky, but you can't deal with me on your own. So what will you do then? Will you show your true colors and try to get other people to help you deal with me?
Even if you somehow manage to get me kicked out, what about the people you got to help you? Will you get other people to deal with them?
If you keep doing that, everyone at school will know your true colors in the end."
Kamio Tatsuya couldn't help but laugh when he said that.
Kushida was kind of adorably stupid.
"What are you laughing at?"
"No, I just think the reason you want to get Horikita kicked out isn't just because she might show everyone your true colors."
"Then what is it?"
"It's because you and Horikita are complete opposites." Kamio Tatsuya smiled. "You said it yourself. You said you could never be the best at studying or sports, so you chose to be the best at the thing you were best at.
But Horikita is different. I don't know if she can be the best, but she's never given up on studying or sports. And she's actually done pretty well.
Compared to each other, you guys are like opposite sides of the same coin. She chose to keep trying, and you chose to give up.
If people support her, it's like they're rejecting you. Isn't that the real reason you hate Horikita?"
Even though Horikita hasn't really done anything amazing over these past months, that doesn't mean she hasn't done anything at all.
When the three idiots refused to go to Hirata's study group during the midterm exams, Horikita was the first to take action, not Kushida.
Why didn't Kushida take action?
Probably because she didn't think she could get the three idiots to pass.
But Horikita called a study group without hesitating. She had planned for them to pass the exams from the very beginning.
She didn't succeed in the end, but she never doubted herself.
"So, you're so annoying, acting like you know everything." Kushida showed a look of dislike again when she said that. "If you won't help me deal with Horikita, then I'll be leaving."
"Don't be in such a hurry. It's not often we get together." Kamio Tatsuya bent down, picked up Kushida's skirt from the floor, and threw it to her. "Let's talk for a bit longer. I actually understand why you want to get noticed."
Like what Kushida said about solving D class's money problems.
Did you think Kamio Tatsuya didn't feel happy when he heard people praising that anonymous person?
He was actually very pleased with himself.
"At the end of the day, you just want to get noticed, right?"
"What do you mean, 'just'? It's not that simple."
"I say it's simple because I can do it easily. You think it's hard because you don't understand what this school is really about."
"Kushida, this is a school where ability is everything. More than 90 percent of the students here are aiming to graduate from class A.
What good is it if you can be nice to everyone? It doesn't help them move up to a higher class."
"Stop it. Don't say anymore." Kushida seemed to realize what Kamio Tatsuya was going to say. Her expression started to get panicked.
"Even people like Ryuen who aren't liked, if they can lead the class to victory, the other students will naturally start to follow him and listen to his orders. That's how C class is right now.
And it's the same with D class. No matter how bad Horikita's people skills are, if she can lead D class to a higher class, people will follow her, even if they don't want to.
Plus, Hirata is basically shut down right now. Horikita is like a savior who stepped up.
And you are just something people use to vent when they're in a bad mood. You're…"
"I told you to shut up."
Kushida seemed like she had gone crazy. She threw the skirt that she hadn't put on yet at Kamio Tatsuya's head.
Kamio Tatsuya took the skirt off his face and looked at Kushida Kikyo, who had a twisted, devilish face. He kept talking, "At the end of the day, even the things you're best at aren't as good as Ichinose from B class.
Ichinose is nicer to people than you are and she is better at social interactions. Plus, she is doing it from the heart. In addition, her grades and sports skills are better than yours.
She isn't that good of a leader, but she still led her class to a victory on the island."
"I told you to shut up."
Kushida Kikyo took a step toward Kamio Tatsuya. He thought that she was going to slap him, and he braced himself. But Kushida suddenly collapsed to the floor, put her hands on Kamio Tatsuya's legs, and started crying uncontrollably, with her head down.
"Don't say anymore, please…"
Tsk, she broke down already. I haven't had enough.
To be honest, Kamio Tatsuya was really surprised. He thought that Kushida would argue, or fly into a rage.
But he didn't think Kushida would show such a weak side in front of him.
But if you looked at it from Kushida Kikyo's point of view, it was actually quite easy to understand.
She had been working hard at building relationships since the beginning of the school year and had been trying for the last months.
Then she came to Kamio Tatsuya's room today, and he said a few words that made all her efforts worthless.
Plus, she had been building up stress from trying to build relationships…
It wasn't just from the start of the school year. It was the stress that she had built up from her childhood to the present, for more than 10 years. It had all exploded at that moment.
For many reasons, and with Kamio Tatsuya's words as the spark, the bomb called Kushida Kikyo had been lit.
The result was that Kushida Kikyo was almost mentally broken and started crying loudly in Kamio Tatsuya's room.
People say that adults can have a breakdown in an instant, but the stress that Kushida Kikyo had built up was no less than what a regular adult would have.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have offered up her body just to deal with Horikita. Kamio Tatsuya had seen that her mental state wasn't normal from that moment on.
Kushida Kikyo kept crying for more than ten minutes before she gradually stopped.
Kamio Tatsuya looked at his pants leg, which was soaked with tears, and shook his head speechlessly. Then he looked at Kushida Kikyo, who was lying on his bed like a broken toy.
"Here's another thing you can't do as well as Horikita. When that girl gets beaten, she can bring herself back next time, instead of giving up like you are doing right now."
Kushida finally reacted a little when he mentioned Horikita.
"In your eyes, I'm not as good as Horikita anyway."
Here she goes again, acting all dramatic.
"No, I don't think you're not as good as Horikita. Otherwise, I wouldn't have asked you to convince the D class students to sign the contract when we had the special exam, and left Horikita out of it."
When she heard that, Kushida's eyes lit up a little. When she saw the contract being signed and the exam reaching outcome one.
Kushida felt like she had a purpose in life.
She might not have been the one who caused the big change, but she had played a key part in it.
When Kamio Tatsuya had recognized her back then, and admitted that he needed her instead of Horikita, she had been so happy that she almost flew into the sky.
Sometimes, getting recognized by one person can be more satisfying than getting recognized by a group of people.
She and Horikita Suzune are actually quite similar in this regard.
She would rather have her brother recognize her than have all of D class recognize her.
"I know. I'll try to get you to recognize me."
"Okay, good… Huh?"
Kamio Tatsuya just wanted to let Kushida know that she was still useful in some ways, and that she didn't have to give up on herself like this. But why did she say that?
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