Chapter 265: The Combo Move of Kissing, Hand-holding, and Hugging / Contact Might Rub Off Some Athletic Cells
That meal lasted about an hour and a half.
Excluding the time spent eating, the actual conversation time was likely less than thirty minutes. The words Horikita Suzune exchanged with her brother were even fewer—fewer than five sentences in total, and if you excluded punctuation, it wouldn't even total 30 characters.
Regarding this dinner gathering:
Initially, Horikita Suzune was somewhat angry. After all, Shimizu Akira had the audacity to pat her head in a scolding manner right in front of her brother, completely disregarding the occasion.
Her brother had even given him so much meat.
However, as Shimizu Akira and her brother chatted back and forth, she sat to the side listening quietly, and that inexplicable fire in her heart gradually dissipated. Later, Shimizu Akira proactively placed several pieces of meat on her plate. Not to mention, they were grilled perfectly—crispy on the outside and tender on the inside; the taste was quite good.
Afterward, the two of them began talking about university and major choices. She and Tachibana-senpai Akane couldn't get a word in edgewise, so they both took over the grilling work, cooking for the two men.
Shimizu Akira ate with great gusto as usual. She counted carefully and realized that he hardly touched the meat grilled by Tachibana-senpai ; almost everything he ate was grilled by her.
And although her brother didn't seem to intend to give much feedback, when Shimizu Akira pressed him right before they left—asking, "What do you think of the meat your sister grilled?"—he actually said the words, "Not bad."
Just two simple words, but they made Horikita Suzune nearly clench her hands in excitement.
She had finally been acknowledged as "not bad" by her brother's own mouth!
The dinner ended in that subtle atmosphere. Horikita Suzune felt she had gained quite a bit from this meal with her brother.
She finally received a verbal acknowledgment from her brother. She successfully added Tachibana-senpai's contact information. She discovered another side of her "perfect" brother.
On the way back to the dorms, Shimizu Akira patiently explained many things to her.
He said she had indeed been inconsiderate and advised her not to hold overly high expectations for her brother.
Horikita Manabu was just a normal person like him; no one is perfect. Didn't she herself come to this school just to chase her brother's back, without a goal truly her own?
She pursed her lips, unable to refute him, and could only listen to his lecture in silence.
Shimizu Akira was indeed far from a perfect person. His personality was reserved, he wasn't keen on contributing to the class, he operated on the principle of equivalent exchange, and he was exceptionally focused on earning Personal Points.
But he had many strengths too. He was smart, had high emotional intelligence, was good-looking, handled things with great discretion, and... he had always been good to her.
Today was no exception; he proactively talked to her when he noticed her low mood, and the dinner with her brother was thanks to his arrangements. Even when she accidentally said the wrong thing during dinner, he smoothed it over in time.
Her brother's rare "not bad" was only spoken because of his prodding.
All of this kindness probably stemmed from the fact that he really wanted to be intimate with her tonight. After all, she had said it this morning—she would spend time alone with him tonight.
As for her feelings on the matter... actually, she didn't hate it.
It had indeed been a long time since they had been intimate. The last hug was during the VIP exam, exactly seventeen days ago. Even holding hands had a gap of 87 days. That wasn't a short time!
When they reached the elevator, Horikita Suzune quietly looked around to confirm no one was there and whispered:
"Come to my room. You performed well today... I've reserved an hour for you."
Shimizu Akira's footsteps paused, and he turned to look at the girl beside him. Whether it was an illusion or not, those usually cold eyes seemed to flicker with a rare sense of bashfulness.
"Alright," he nodded with a smile.
The rest of the way was filled with a deliberate silence.
Horikita Suzune, seemingly afraid of being caught by the elevator's surveillance, purposely kept her distance from him, leaning against the other side of the cabin with her arms crossed. Only her wandering peripheral vision couldn't help but glance at him several times.
It wasn't until they reached the floor of her dorm room that she somewhat nervously fished her keycard out of her pocket. Her movements were even a bit flurried as she opened the door. As soon as Shimizu Akira stepped into the room, she quickly closed the door and let out a light sigh of relief, as if completing some major ritual.
Shimizu Akira wasn't as nervous as she was.
Instead, he took the opportunity to look around her room again. The cooking utensils in the kitchen area were still a dazzling array, arranged with perfect tidiness. He had always known she loved cooking.
The entire room was spotless, maintaining Suzune's usual standard of cleanliness.
The exaggerated pie chart was still posted on the wall, but upon closer inspection, the content had changed significantly. She no longer allocated all her time to studying; a large chunk was now carved out for physical exercise.
Her sleep time had increased from six hours to eight.
"Suzune, this schedule is quite normal," he nodded sincerely.
A routine like this finally felt like the life of a normal high school girl.
Hearing his evaluation, Suzune's expression softened involuntarily.
'Wait! This person isn't her brother, so why should she feel happy just because of a word of praise from him!'
Also, the name "Suzune." How could he call her that so naturally and intimately? She had only given him permission today, yet there wasn't a hint of awkwardness in his voice.
Was it... that she was too conservative?
No, exclude that wrong answer immediately.
She was quite confident in the fact that she was a normal person.
"There are slippers prepared at the door; you can change into them first," she added, as if suddenly remembering.
"...Blue ones?" Shimizu looked down and saw a pair of deep blue slippers neatly placed on the floor.
Interestingly, these slippers were clearly a set with the pink ones on Suzune's feet, in terms of both style and material. Noticing his gaze shifting between the two pairs of slippers, Suzune immediately explained, "Don't overthink it! It was just a supermarket promotion, buy one get one free."
Shimizu Akira smiled and didn't dwell on the topic. He bent over to change shoes and heard her continue in a voice feigning calmness:
"You can sit on the bed or the chair... whatever you want."
Having changed into the blue slippers, Shimizu walked straight to the bed and sat down. Suzune's body stiffened slightly, and she walked slowly over to him.
"Sit," he patted the spot beside him gently.
Suzune sat down obediently.
'Wait! This is her dorm room! Why is this guy acting as comfortable as if he's the owner?'
"So, Suzune," Shimizu's voice pulled her back from her thoughts, "what is the next step after hugging?"
She herself fell into deep thought.
According to the common progression, it should be kissing, or intimate acts like whispering in the ear or rubbing cheeks together. That's what the romance dramas she'd seen and her search history told her.
But for her to press against his ear and say those embarrassing words? She'd rather be killed. Rubbing her cheek against his shoulder, forehead, or palm—the mere thought made her entire body uncomfortable.
Conversely, she didn't think Shimizu Akira would be able to do that to her either!
Therefore, only one answer remained.
"Kissing..." she muttered.
"For real?" Shimizu's eyes widened in a rare display of shock. His expression was several times more exaggerated than when he heard Nagumo Miyabi was going to be Student Council President.
"I mean... a kiss on the forehead! That's the next step after a hug!" she quickly added as a clarification.
"I thought so," Shimizu said with an expression of sudden realization.
He was definitely looking down on her in his heart again!
But for her to proactively kiss Shimizu Akira? She definitely couldn't do that either.
Or rather, most normal people couldn't! Who goes straight to kissing after just a few casual meetings with the opposite sex!
"Then turn around."
While she was internally agonizing, Shimizu said a word. She turned her head as instructed, her cheeks slightly red, yet she still stubbornly looked him straight in the eyes.
Shimizu raised his hand. Originally, he just wanted to tidy her hair, but his fingers accidentally brushed across her cheek. The sensation was incredibly soft; she was a girl in the prime of her youth, after all, and her skin was so delicate it felt like water could be squeezed from it.
"Can I touch your face?" he asked.
"You can," Suzune's answer was once again too fast for thought. Since she had already agreed to a kiss on the cheek, touching her face should count as a "bonus" benefit... right?
Soon, when Shimizu's fingertips lightly touched her cheek, a subtle tremor ran down her spine, making her eyelashes flutter. His movements were very light, carefully avoiding her tightly pursed lips and staying only on the soft skin below the cheekbone.
Suzune's body was slightly stiff, but her eyes were involuntarily fixed on his face.
"Your face is quite hot, Suzune," Shimizu said with a smile. "Is it because the summer heat is too much?"
This sentence snapped her back to reality, and the temperature on her face rose rather than fell. The air conditioner clearly showed 20 degrees; where was the summer heat? This was clearly just pure shyness.
"Mm... a bit," she responded vaguely.
Shimizu seemed to see through her contradiction. He gave her cheek a light pinch and then withdrew his hand.
"It feels good. Soft. It's a bit addictive."
"You don't need to state your impressions!"
Suzune pursed her lips, her cheeks burning. She really didn't understand why he suddenly had to share those feelings. That familiar tone even made her suspect: Is this guy a serial offender?
"Well then, next is the kiss on the forehead," Shimizu switched topics smoothly, and after speaking, he carefully observed the changes in her expression.
"You don't need to report the procedure either!" Suzune couldn't help but glare at him.
It really wasn't an illusion; this guy was definitely observing her reaction on purpose, playing with her!
But this time, he didn't say more. He just leaned in gently and pressed a kiss onto her forehead. A soft, warm sensation came from her forehead, and Suzune involuntarily held her breath.
Then, Shimizu naturally took her left hand, pulled her into a gentle embrace, and dropped a light kiss on her cheek, taking the chance to lightly pinch her burning cheek with his fingertips.
"You..." This series of movements was so natural that by the time she reacted, she could only stare at him with wide eyes.
"Hm? Didn't you say I didn't need to report the procedure?"
"But... this is a bit too sudden..."
"Look," he suddenly began counting on his fingers. "Hand-holding is okay, hugging is okay, a kiss on the cheek is okay, and pinching is okay. I just put them all together." He paused and added with a serious face, "It's called a combo move."
'A combo move...'
Suzune was deep in thought. Indeed, it was just like how a Pokemon can only carry four moves at a time, and the order and timing of those moves are entirely decided by the trainer. Various chain effects can occur!
Shimizu's set just now could be considered a small combo.
Wait. She suddenly realized—following that logic, wasn't she his Pokemon?
'Who is his Pokemon!'
And there was another problem. It had already reached the "kiss on the cheek" stage! The next step after a kiss on the cheek could only be a real kiss! It seemed... this time... she really couldn't escape.
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6:00 AM.
Shimizu Akira went out for his morning run in his sportswear as usual. When he stepped onto the track, he was taken aback. The track, which was usually empty at this time, actually had several students in the exclusive track and field club uniforms today.
It made sense. As the Sports Festival approached, everyone was starting to intensify their training.
Speaking of training, Shimizu suddenly remembered something. During the VIP Special Exam, he seemed to have told Karuizawa Kei to run with him. He hadn't forced her to keep exercising during the summer vacation, but now, with the Sports Festival, it was a good opportunity to drill her physical stamina.
So, Shimizu took out his phone and dialed her number.
"Manager, time to come out and exercise."
"Ugh... hm? Who is it? Wait—Shimizu? You—you still remember this?"
"I actually just remembered. From your tone, does that mean you've remembered it all along?"
"Uh... well... give me fifteen minutes! I'll be right down!"
A rustling sound came from the other end of the phone, as if something had been knocked over.
Fifteen minutes later, Karuizawa Kei appeared at the track entrance amidst the morning light. Her casually tied ponytail was a bit loose, a corner of her sportswear collar was flipped up,
and she jogged over slightly out of breath. Clearly, she hadn't fully shaken off her sleepiness yet. She gave off the feeling that she might have "morning grumpiness" at any moment.
But she quickly patted her cheeks to cheer herself up.
"Right! Let's exercise together!"
"You're thinking quite clearly this time?" Shimizu was a bit surprised.
"Mm! After all, Manabe and the others will also participate in the Sports Festival... I really want to win once with my own strength," Kei said seriously.
"I can't hide behind you forever."
The two stopped chatting. Shimizu signaled her to follow him in doing warm-up exercises. Kei imitated him somewhat awkwardly. After the warm-up, they stepped onto the track together.
Shimizu kept a steady pace in front. Before completing the second lap, heavy breathing came from behind him. Looking back, Kei was already red-faced, and her steps had become unsteady.
"Take a break," he said, slowing down.
The two stepped off the track. Kei leaned her hands on her knees, panting. Looking at Shimizu's relaxed appearance, she couldn't help but say, "Do you... always keep this speed? When I watched from the dorm window, I didn't think it was this exhausting at all."
"Actually, I've already slowed down quite a bit," Shimizu explained.
From his observations just now, he found that Kei's physical stamina was indeed average—the kind that was neither good nor bad, which happened to match the D-grade rating the school gave her.
Coincidentally, in the past few months, he had come across the entrance test info for many of his classmates. For the record, regarding athletic ability: Koenji Rokusuke and Sudo Ken were A, Horikita Suzune was B+, and Hirata Yosuke and Kushida Kikyo were B-grade.
"Wait! That's just because your standards are too high!" Noticing his slightly evaluative gaze, Kei puffed out her cheeks indignantly.
"I'm definitely stronger than quite a few people in class!"
Shimizu glanced at her. "To be precise, only a very few students."
Class D did have a few students with D- ratings, like Yukimura. Kei's physical stamina was indeed much stronger than theirs. But if you asked if there were students lower than D-? Yes, as far as he knew, there were two, and he knew both of them.
One was Shiina Hiyori, whose athletic ability was only E-grade; the other was Sakayanagi Arisu, who had an E- rating.
Coincidentally, both of them had silver hair; it felt like having silver hair came with an "inherent frailty" buff.
Like Sakayanagi Arisu, Shiina Hiyori probably wouldn't participate in the Sports Festival either.
"Ah..." Kei was momentarily at a loss for words. "So it's only a very few. I was thinking of getting a good ranking in the Sports Festival... Speaking of which, since you're so well-trained, are there any shortcuts or secrets? Teach me!"
"There are no shortcuts in exercise," Shimizu glanced at her helplessly. "At most, I can help you standardize your warm-ups and create a reasonable training plan to prevent you from injuring yourself. In your current state, four or five laps today is enough. In fact, you don't have to train with me every day; training every other day is fine."
This "manager" was always thinking about shortcuts. In fitness, there is no gain without pain. Whether one is slack or diligent, the body reflects it honestly. If you don't train for a few days, your condition will drop significantly. All he could do was guide her in warming up and design a scientific training plan to avoid injury from over-exercising. That was all.
Kei herself leaned in half a step and whispered: "But I heard... if you have more contact with someone with good motor nerves before the Sports Festival, you can rub off some of their athletic talent."
Shimizu was about to refute this illogical claim when his wrist was suddenly gripped by a soft force. He looked to the side; Kei had straightened her back, and as if doing something solemn, she slowly closed her eyes and mumbled: "Please, share a bit of your running talent with me... just a little bit will do."
'Is this classmate gathering a Spirit Bomb?! Hey!'
"Where did you hear this nonsense?" Shimizu asked helplessly.
"Maya said it," she immediately opened her eyes, sounding somewhat self-righteous. "She said someone in another class did it and ran the fifty-meter dash 0.3 seconds faster!"
'That's not 'talent transfer,' that's clearly just hormones!' From a scientific perspective, it was likely that the person's heart rate accelerated and adrenaline spiked from being close to someone, and they mistook physiological excitement for a speed boost.
"Fine then, you better hold on tight so the 'talent' doesn't run away."
.
.
.
"Eh? Shimizu! Look quickly, that senpai is running so fast!" Kei suddenly looked toward the other end of the track.
Shimizu followed her gaze and saw a white-haired figure rushing past the track at an astonishing speed. The person was wearing simple sportswear and had light steps, even overtaking several members of the track and field club who were training.
There were very few students in this school with silver or white hair. As far as he knew, only Sakayanagi Arisu from First-Year Class A and Shiina Hiyori from Class D had silver hair. Both were the types whose physical fitness wasn't great. As for pure white hair, this was the first time he had seen it.
Looking closely, Shimizu suddenly felt the person looked familiar. Wasn't that Senpai Kiryuin Fuka from Second-Year Class B? He had seen her during the last boxing match. She had specifically introduced her name and class, so Shimizu had a strong impression of her.
She gave him the feeling of a female version of Koenji Rokusuke. Whether it was personality or family background, they were very similar in many ways.
Since she was in Second-Year Class B, this senpai also belonged to the White Team; logically, she should be his teammate.
However, the possibility of her cooperating was too low.
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After school that day, Shimizu finally received a text message.
Chabashira Sae: Shimizu-kun, if you have time, please come to the flower bed behind the school building.
'It's here! She finally came!'
Shimizu didn't feel surprised at all!
When he walked near the flower bed, he saw Chabashira Sae holding a watering can, carefully watering the plants. Seeing him arrive, she gently set down the can and turned to face him.
"Shimizu-kun, you were the first person to rent the surveillance equipment, weren't you?" she asked straightforwardly.
Shimizu was slightly stunned, then nodded frankly.
"It was me."
Chabashira blinked, seemingly not expecting him to admit it so readily. But on second thought, given his sharp mind, he likely guessed she already knew.
"Does Chabashira-sensei want to use this identity to threaten me?" Shimizu, thinking of Ayanokouji's situation, asked directly.
"You misunderstand," Chabashira shook her head. "As your homeroom teacher, not only will I not threaten you, but I will help you keep this secret." There was no need to threaten using this identity; rather, once revealed, Shimizu's position in the class would only become more stable.
"What I want to say is, it was remarkable that you thought of this method; it really helped Class D. Thinking back on these few special exams, our class being able to rise from Class D to Class C is largely due to your contributions. The school rewarded me with 1 million Personal Points as a reward for the class promotion."
She looked at Shimizu, and her cold expression softened considerably. "But this achievement isn't just my own effort; it's inseparable from your hard work. So, I plan to transfer them to you."
With that, she tapped on her phone a few times. The phone in Shimizu's pocket vibrated. He unlocked the screen; she had indeed sent 1 million Personal Points.
So, when a class gets promoted, the homeroom teacher receives such a reward. But thinking about it, it was quite reasonable for the school to set up such an incentive mechanism; after all, teachers also need motivation to lead their classes forward. And then! This Teacher Chabashira didn't keep a single cent and transferred all the points to him.
He deliberately paused for a few seconds, as if waiting for something. Sure enough, Chabashira spoke again:
"Shimizu-kun, regarding this Sports Festival, I hope you can participate in the final ten-kilometer race and at least five other events, aiming for first place as much as possible. What do you think?"
The request had finally come. However, unlike during the deserted island exam where the request came before the reward, this time she fulfilled the reward first. Shimizu found this request much more lenient than the last one; last time she explicitly required him to get 250 special exam points, but this time she only hoped he would do his best, with no specific target set.
It was a bit out of character for her. But thinking about it, the factors an individual can change in a Sports Festival are indeed limited. Especially in a Red-White confrontation, he didn't think for a second that Classes B and C could truly defeat Classes A and D! Especially Third-Year Class A—there were too many over-the-top people there. With Horikita Manabu there, and President Sato of the boxing club, along with those muscle freaks from his own club, how were other classes supposed to compete?
"Sure, no problem," he thought for a moment and agreed readily. He had already planned to participate in the Sports Festival to get that 3 million Personal Point reward, and the President had also required him to appear.
"Then I will directly transfer the rewards for every class promotion to you in the future," Chabashira nodded in confirmation.
'Is she using substantial rewards to motivate him to keep working for class promotion?'
"But why didn't you look for Ayanokouji this time? Wasn't his performance in the last VIP special exam quite outstanding?" Shimizu couldn't help but ask curiously.
"His performance... was unsatisfactory." Chabashira's tone suddenly turned much colder.
'That performance was unsatisfactory? What is this homeroom teacher talking about! A complete victory is still unsatisfactory?'
"Shimizu-kun, have homeroom teachers from other classes looked for you recently?"
"The Class D homeroom teacher contacted me."
"Is that so?"
"So, Chabashira-sensei, is there anything else?"
"...No more."
"Then I'll take my leave."
Chabashira Sae stood there, feeling like she understood Shimizu Akira less and less.
He had just earned millions of points from the VIP exam, and with his previous accumulation, he must have at least twenty million in his account. Yet his words and actions were no different from before—he still eyed every opportunity to earn points without the slightest slack. This meant that as long as reasonable point rewards were provided, he was still willing to help Class C.
But a relationship maintained solely by points was far from enough. She took out her phone, hesitated for a moment between the names of Karuizawa Kei and Hasebe Haruka, and finally sent messages to both.
The replies came quickly:
Karuizawa Kei: Teacher Chabashira! The survey results from last time said Shimizu and I are a good match? Is this actually the optimal match from big data? I feel like I've heard something similar before!
Hasebe Haruka: Kiyoshi is indeed a pretty good guy!
Chabashira Sae's tense face involuntarily frowned.
'Karuizawa Kei has heard it before?'
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