Horikita Route

Chapter 1 - V2

"Pencils down. Grades will be posted tommorow, see you then."

Chabashira's voice echoed through the quiet classroom, just 20 seconds before the school bell's stinging sound pierced through the ears of Class D.

A wave of both relief and nervousness swept through the students, highly anticipating the outcome and their points.

With a flourish, Sensei stood up from her seat and walked to the door, oblivious or maybe uncaring to the emotions felt by her students.

"Aghhhh, that math thing was hard, man!"

"Goddamnit! I think I mispelt a word in that english essay!"

"Yukimuu! Let's get Boba with Akito and Airi!"

"Sudo! How'd you do?!"

"I don't know, man. I hope I passed."

A cacophany of voices rang throughout the room, students talking about the tests and their percieved scores. Some like Hirata and Kushida were busy comforting students who thought they didn't do well, while others like Ike and Sudo were just trying to forget it all by planning karaoke with some of the more laidback students.

Koenji, being Koenji, of course, just kept on checking himself out in the mirror. Nothing new.

"Great job, everyone! Let's do our best in the next exam too!"

Kei Karuizawa, the ever-gyaru girl that she was, pumped her hands up in joy, getting a resounding 'YEAH' from many of the students of Class D.

"Let's celebrate! Hirata-kun, want to join us go shopping? Let's be carefree for a bit! Ne ne?" Shinohara said.

Matsushita, Mii-chan, Onodera and Karuizawa all nodded along, clearly in favor of Shinohara's request.

"Sure, let's do it!"

Unbeknownst to most of the students, Ayanokouji and Horikita were quietly checking on each other at the back of the classroom in hushed whispers.

"Hey, Kiyo-kun."

"Suzune, this nickname you've decided on is definitely embarassing for the both of us."

"Pfft. Hahaha, whatever. I really do not care. So, are you ready to go? I'm sure you did well in the test."

Ayanokouji and Horikita slowly rose up, continuing to talk.

"And how can you be so sure about that? You never know, I might've purposefully failed on the test for the fun of it."

Adopting a cheeky expression, Horikita replied;

"You won't. If you do, you're basically breaking your own words from yesterday, right?"

'Honestly, this girl. How troublesome.'

"If I remember correctly, you were the one bawling your eyes out, Suzune."

Upon hearing that, Horikita couldn't help but glare at Ayanokouji, compared to her past glares though, this one represented a more pouty look, one that Kiyotaka couldn't help but find adorably pinchable.

Couldn't help himself any longer, Kiyotaka reached out and pinched one of her cheeks and said;

"Stop pouting, it makes my knees weak. Weren't we going somewhere?"

Horikita's glare deepened before being reminded of their plans and suddenly changed into an excited look.

"Oh right, let's go! Let's go! I miss eating at that place."

She moved her face away from Ayanokouji's hands, only to grab it and proceed to drag him away the room.

"Kiyotaka!"

A voice shouted from across the classroom, catching the attention of many of their classmates.

Karuizawa Kei wanted to invite the both of them to shopping, but upon seeing their hands, decided to tease them a bit.

'Hehehe, Kiyobaka, prepare to be E-E-EMBARRASED!'

"Kiyo, wanna join us! We're going shopping with Hirata-kun!"

Many were surprised with how casual she talked to Ayanokouji, their aloof and, sometimes borderline uncaring, sort of leader. While many knew that they got close this past few weeks, they didn't know that it was to this extent.

"I'm sorry, Kei. It looks like I'm being dragged by the devil to eat ramen this time."

His monotone voice, combined with his almost defeated posture and Horikita's glare-pout, made the class laugh out loud. How could they not? The scene is just too funny for them to ignore.

Adopting a teasing face, Karuizawa said;

"That's fine! Tell me all the deets about your date later, okay! Your bestu friendu wants to know all about it!" A huge thumbs up was then threw by the gyaru to the two loners, inciting another round of rowdy laughter.

"K-k-ka-Karuizawa-san! You're misentepreting things! We aren't going on a date! Kiyo, tell her!"

"Fortunately, I don't think Suzune likes me that way, Karuizawa."

"Fortunately? Haa? Are you implying something, Kiyo-wierd-kun?"

"Implying something? I don't think so, no."

Another attack of glare by Horikita, which made the scene more comedic than it was.

With a swift karate chop to the head from Horikita, A flat "owie" from Ayanokouji-kun, and a consecutive dragging away from the room by the said Karate-chopper, the room was left with happy students. Many of them were happy to see their leaders be this way, carefree and normal, as high schoolers should be.

"Ne ne, Karuizawa-san, those two are so close arent they?~" Mii-chan said.

"Yeah yeah, are they, like, a thing or something? Tell us, tell us!" another girl said.

"Ehh? How would I know? And why are you asking me?"

"Cuz you're like, his best friend, right? You always talk about Ayanokouji-kun! Aren't you worried, or jealous, even?"

Karuizawa could not help but blush from their ongoing attacks and assumptions.

"AH MOUU! Stop teasing me!"

All in all, Class D was in good spirits. Whatever the outcome is tommorow, in this moment, they knew that they all did their best.

AN: YOOO LONG TIME NO SEEEE

Got a lot on my plate with College and stuff, even now I'm busy doing other stuff, but this book and the replies I've gotten is just too good! To be perfectly honest, I have zero clue on jow I want to move the plot forward. I have a few ideas, so I might just make a poll of sorts.

Would you be interested in:

A: jealous Horikita Arc, melodrama and stuff, might connect Kei here as the third girl, but not the bad Love triangle trope, might be leaning more into the Oregairu trope, if you catch my drift.

B: a The Defectives style Arc wherein we follow the main plot line but now with a Complicit Horikita as our puppet, similar to the fanfic above but more fluff and romance cuz i love those moments

C: go full on psycho Ayano, I don't really think that this suits my Kiyo because of the different upbringing. By this I mean, betrayal, heartbreak, manipulation

D: add a new girl into the mix, comment who cuz I have no idea, Ichinose? Ibuki? Kamuro? I personally love tsunderes tbh

E: A blackmail arc? Maybe? Chaba being dumb and using Horikita to threaten Ayano

Comment what you want to happen! I might give this a week or two to simmer and see what happens...

So glad to be back writing again, so yeah, see ya later!