Classroom of the Elite

Part 4

"Why did you call me here, Horikita-san?"

After being called out by Horikita to the hall, unwilling as she may have been, she went to meet her.

"I have something important to tell you."

"I don't care what is it. Just make it fast."

With the same benevolent smile plastered on her face, she spat with the tongue of a viper.

Horikita slowly took out her phone from her pocket and inched a bit closer to her.

"Wha-"

Kushida was about to ask what was she doing but stopped mid-sentence after seeing the contents displayed on her phone.

A smile made its way on her face.

"Horikita-san, are you perhaps an idiot?"

"Think whatever you like but that's my way of putting my trust in you."

"Heh. You think that will make me trust you. What if I expelled you given if expulsion is one of the risks for the leader's identity getting exposed?"

"That will just mean that I had been wrong and accept it as a punishment for my naivety."

"Is that so?"

Saying that she made her way back to her classroom.

"Horikita."

After Kushida left, someone called out to her.

She turned around to see Ayanokoji standing behind her.

"Ayanokoji-kun?"

He slowly approached her.

"Ayanokoji-kun, did you hear all that?"

"No."

"But I can guess what you were talking with Kushida. Are you sure about that?"

Even without hearing what they had talked about, he knew what was the content of their talk. It was because he knew of the circumstances between her and Kushida.

"Don't worry."

Ayanokoji scrunched his eyes to see what was being shown on the phone.

"But will doing this essentially mean you would be safe? What if she learns about it from somewhere else?"

After reading what was written on the mail that she had shown to him, he asked.

"Ayanokoji-kun, wait for me here. I will go and get my bag and let's talk about it while returning to the dorms."

He didn't have to wait long and they started walking towards the dorm.

"Your question from earlier."

After coming away quite a bit far from the school building, Horikita spoke.

"I don't think there's a chance of that happening. No one except the leaders knows about the full rules of this exam and they won't be foolish enough to disclose all that information when expulsion is on the line. And you might be thinking that this holds true for Class A and Class B but what about Class C, right? Do you think anyone from Class C would betray Ichinose-san and collude with Kushida-san?"

Guessing what Ayanokoji was thinking, Horikita answered.

"Do you really plan to win over Kushida?"

"Yeah."

She spoke without hesitation. She wondered how many times he had asked this question and how many times she had answered this question.

"Horikita, I don't plan on interfering with what you are doing but I still think that you should go about a different approach."

"Different approach? You mean something like finding her weak spots and blackmailing her?"

Ayanokoji spoke nothing.

"No. Don't expect me to do something of that sort. I have my own way of doing things differently from how you do things."

"I see."

By the time, they had finished talking they were already in the dorm lobby.

They could have gone together but Horikita said that she didn't want to be seen together with him.

But many must have already seen us together while we were walking towards the dorm.

Although he had that thought he didn't voice it out. After all, he didn't know what sort of calamity may befall him if he were to say that aloud. 

They were about to go different ways when Horikita called out to Ayanokoji.

"Ayanokoji-kun, see you tomorrow!"

After that Horikita boarded the elevator as quickly as she could, like a squirrel, without even waiting for a reply.