There wasn't much time left before the special exam ended, along with the cruise trip. And since today was a holiday with no sessions scheduled, I was still at a loss as to how to spend the day.
Maybe I would just wander around as usual and return to my room at night.
What about spending the whole day sleeping?
No, that was impossible, especially with the others around.
I glanced sideways at Koenji, who was sitting on a chair, staring at his fingernails as he tended to them while humming a soft tune.
It was just me, him, and Hirata in the room. Hirata was staring at his phone and scratching his head as though he was trying to process something.
I went back to staring at the ceiling with a blank expression, hoping that time would pass quickly and all of this would finally be over...
"Hikigaya-kun..."
Suddenly, Hirata closed his phone and stood up, stopping beside my bed.
"Hmmm..."
I stared at him, waiting for him to say what he wanted, but he started scratching the back of his head with an embarrassed smile.
"Horikita-san asked me to go see her..." Hirata said.
So what? Why was he telling me this now?
"Then..."
"She asked me to bring you with me," Hirata said as he held his phone out toward me, displaying a message from Horikita.
"Ah..."
What did that girl want from me? It wasn't as though I was busy, but did she really think I would come just like that?
"What are you going to do...?" Hirata asked as he put his phone away, looking somewhat nervous.
Maybe Hirata didn't want to force me to go and genuinely wanted to know what I thought.
Well, he was starting to understand the situation a little.
"Okay..."
I nodded as I got up from my bed.
I suppose it was better to leave than stay here and stare at Koenji's strange behavior.
"Oh, that's good."
Hirata breathed a sigh of relief after hearing my acceptance, then quickly headed toward the door so he could get there before me.
I grabbed a white shirt and put it over my gray one, leaving the buttons undone. Then I prepared to leave after him.
"Hey, Koenji, close the door behind you when you leave..." I said as I walked out, while he didn't even bother to respond.
Seriously, he did whatever he wanted, but doors were meant to be closed.
"I just wanted to tell you that my problem is almost solved..."
I heard a girl's voice coming from the hallway, talking to the only person outside.
Hirata.
A girl with long blonde hair wearing a blue dress was standing in front of him.
"Really? That's great..." Hirata smiled happily after hearing Karuizawa's news.
She seemed to have returned to her usual self, pretending to be strong as though nothing had happened.
"Ah..."
"..."
Her eyes trembled for a moment when I appeared from behind Hirata in the hallway, as though she hadn't expected to see me right now.
Hirata turned toward me after hearing me close the door and noticing Karuizawa's gaze directed at me.
"Ah, this is Hikigaya-kun from our class..." Hirata said awkwardly, stating the most obvious possibility.
"I-I know... I didn't expect you two to be in the same room..." Karuizawa said as she adjusted her dress.
I dragged my feet as I moved away, leaving the two of them together. I had already heard the rumors about their relationship. There was no harm in respecting it.
"Hirata, I'll go ahead," I said, putting my hands in my pockets as I walked away from them.
Wait, I didn't even know where I was going or where I would find Horikita.
What a reckless move.
However, I suddenly felt a hand gently pressing against my shoulder to stop me.
"Wait... We're already finished. I'll leave with you," Hirata said as he came back and walked beside me.
"Goodbye, Karuizawa-san..." Hirata waved at her as we walked away.
"Hirata, where are you going...?" Karuizawa moved anxiously, seemingly annoyed by his sudden departure.
"I have some work to do with Hikigaya-kun. I'll call you when I'm done," Hirata said as we turned the corner of the hallway.
Karuizawa was left standing alone in the corridor.
I glanced at Hirata from the corner of my eye. He walked calmly beside me without showing any reaction, although his expression seemed troubled.
I wouldn't ask any questions.
Not out of respect for him, but out of respect for myself...
Or maybe because I simply didn't want to.
We walked in silence, our steps in sync, toward a restaurant on the upper floor. As soon as we entered, we saw Horikita sitting at a table in the corner, with Ryuen sitting across from her.
"What is going on there...?" Hirata muttered.
So even he didn't know the details. He had only been asked to come.
"Let's go."
I stepped ahead of Hirata. Since we had already come this far, there was no turning back.
"Oh, hello..." Ryuen said with a half-smile as he held a glass of soda.
I ignored his greeting and pulled out a chair before sitting down. Hirata arrived shortly afterward, sitting beside me with his usual nervous smile.
"Horikita, what do you want?"
There was no need to drag this out any longer. We should just confront the person involved.
"It's not me... He's the one who asked you to come," Horikita said, pointing at Ryuen.
"Hmmm..."
I turned toward the opposite side, where he was sitting with an arrogant smile as he looked at us.
"What do you want?"
"There's no need to rush, is there? I'm here to make a deal, and naturally, I need a mediator," Ryuen said as he placed his glass on the table with a heavy, deliberate thud.
"A mediator..." I muttered, looking at him reproachfully.
What was this? Were they about to make some shady deal? I wasn't getting involved.
"Yes, a mediator. It seems Suzune trusts you, and you appear to be the only one in your class who knows how to talk, so I brought you here..." Ryuen said with a wicked smile, seemingly excited about what was about to happen.
"I acknowledge Hikigaya-kun's unusual abilities. However, I wouldn't call it trust," Horikita said irritably, defending her position.
"Fufufu, is that so?" Ryuen raised an eyebrow slightly, making a pathetic attempt to provoke us further, but it had no effect.
"Okay, okay, let's all calm down... Why don't you tell us first, Ryuen-kun?" Hirata said, trying to calm things down before they escalated any further.
"I came here today to propose the option that would suit everyone, which is to implement the first option of the Dragon Group."
Ryuen threw his proposal onto the table before the eyes of two students from the same group.
However, one of them immediately reacted.
"Tch... In your dreams. We're not cooperating with you," Horikita said angrily, crossing her arms as though she had already decided not to give him any room for discussion.
"The first option... Everyone receives 500,000 private points," Hirata muttered beside me, trying to recall the four options from memory.
Horikita's reaction was quite aggressive. Perhaps she knew that Kushida was the key person, so she considered it an opportunity to earn class points by having the other classes guess the wrong identities.
But wouldn't Ryuen coming here expose everything?
Although there was no obvious reason for him to come.
"Hmmm, Student Council Secretary, what do you think...?" Ryuen threw the ball into my court, as if he wanted me to handle this personally.
"You know you don't need her approval," I said, folding my arms.
The first option required the other students to write down the correct name, excluding the VIP and their teammates.
So Ryuen hadn't come here to negotiate this.
"Really? I thought this would be fun..." Ryuen said indifferently as he slouched back in his chair after dumping everything onto me.
"What are you two talking about...?" Horikita asked, furrowing her brows, unable to keep up with the flow of events.
I turned toward her and calmly watched her writhe in frustration after Ryuen's subtle provocations and his deliberate exclusion of her from the conversation for a moment.
"Horikita, Ryuen knows who the VIP is," I said as I took a napkin from the table and handed it to Ryuen.
"That's impossible..."
Horikita expressed her disbelief. From her perspective, there was no way Ryuen could possibly know.
Ryuen took a pen from his pocket and began scribbling on the napkin with a wicked smile before finishing and handing it back to me.
I stared at the name written in Ryuen's handwriting. It was truly awful.
The surrounding tables were occupied by students. Saying the name aloud wasn't an option.
I placed the napkin in front of Horikita, who stared at it in confusion before giving it a quick glance from above.
"What...?" Horikita's eyes trembled as she stared at the napkin.
Hirata leaned closer to read it as well, but he too froze in shock at what he saw.
"How did this happen...?" Hirata muttered in confusion. This went beyond a mere random guess.
"Finding out the VIP isn't impossible. Who knows? Maybe he solved the entire test or the person in question told him," I said as I reached out to take the napkin back and put it in my pocket.
It couldn't fall into someone else's hands.
"You wouldn't do something like that. I'm sure of it," Hirata said, clasping his hands together in despair, unable to imagine what I was suggesting.
"You're right. She wouldn't do it..." I said, shrugging my shoulders.
Kushida was still the angelic girl in our class.
No one would be able to imagine her selling out her class.
"So what do you want? As Hikigaya-kun said, there is no need to tell us this, is there?" Horikita said, gritting her teeth in frustration and finally lowering her head.
Ryuen simply smiled at her before turning his attention back to me.
Was he trying to push me into doing everything?
I sighed in resignation and took responsibility for explaining what he wanted.
"Okay. First of all, let's make it clear that Ryuen came here to show off his muscles to us..." I said, pointing at him.
He looked at us disdainfully.
His main purpose was to crush their spirit and demonstrate how capable he was. It was nothing more than a cheap show of strength.
"Second, he's lost his credibility..."
"Credibility...?" Hirata turned toward me, unable to understand what I was getting at.
"The other classes won't trust him, so he wants you to convince them to go through with the first option."
Class B, despite having friendly students, still had people like Kanzaki who wouldn't easily trust him.
And Class A certainly wouldn't accept it either, especially after what happened with their agreement during the island exam.
So he wanted the two of you to handle it.
"Hey, hey, I'm starting to feel weird about how you're reading me like an open book," Ryuen said with a careless laugh.
"No. It was just a single page," I replied as I leaned back comfortably in my chair.
"I think this is suitable for now..." Hirata said after realizing that the fate of their group was in Ryuen's hands.
"There's something wrong with this. I won't accept it... I'll talk to Yukinoshita-san first," Horikita said, still unable to give in.
Perhaps she was still searching for a solution to this problem. She wasn't willing to accept this outcome.
"Horikita, did Yukinoshita tell you what the best outcome for this exam would be...?"
"N-No..." Horikita lowered her head as despair began to pile on top of her.
"The first outcome is the most suitable," I said, tapping my finger against the table.
"Huh? Why...?" Hirata asked about my choice.
"In the previous exam, the rewards were only class points. In this exam, there are both class points and private points... So it may be rare to earn private points this easily..."
The whole situation was obvious. The school wouldn't hand out half a million points for free so easily.
"500,000 points..." Hirata muttered as he looked back at Horikita.
"Horikita-san, I think this is suitable..." he said, trying to convince Horikita as well.
"N-No... Do whatever you want," Horikita said in resignation, twisting in her seat.
"Good. Then convincing the others is up to you," Ryuen said as he pushed his chair back after finishing his business with us.
However, without warning, he extended his hand toward me.
I stared at his outstretched hand in confusion. What was he trying to do?
"What...?" I asked.
"Isn't it natural for leaders to shake hands after making a deal?" Ryuen said, looking down at me.
"I'm not the leader. You can shake Hirata's hand," I said, gesturing toward the boy beside me.
"Ah, I'm not actually the leader. We haven't officially appointed one yet..." Hirata said with a nervous smile.
Ryuen pulled his hand back and slipped it into his pocket.
"So you're just a flock of sheep without a shepherd," Ryuen said with a smile, looking at us disdainfully.
"A bear..." I said, staring at him with a blank expression.
"What?" Ryuen said, unable to understand what had come out of my mouth.
"I said I'm a bear."