Honami was still at the scene, her presence finally noticeable.
Until now she had felt like a mere spectator, though she knew she had been invited.
"Um... Actually, I was invited here by Oreki-kun, since I've never spoken with Horikita-san before." Honami said with determination, "But I'll do anything I can to help. Please feel free to ask me for whatever you need."
"I see, thank you…" Suzune replied. She was the stubborn type.
Strangely enough, even though she had just shut down emotionally, when she held Houtarou's hand and received his comfort, her heart miraculously calmed down.
Suzune found herself able to listen to their conversation calmly and even express gratitude.
When she said thank you, even Honami was surprised.
She must have heard that Suzune was difficult to get along with, yet now the girl was showing understanding.
Was there some mistake in the rumors? On the way here, Houtarou had prepared her mentally, saying she might be rejected or scolded by Suzune. Honami had been ready to endure some unpleasantness.
But now? Suzune seemed quite approachable.
In other words, she had truly calmed down.
Suzune said, "I had thought about a solution before going to the classroom this morning. By ignoring rumors and not reacting to them, others would lose interest and stop spreading them. As long as I use time as a weapon, rumors would eventually fade away."
This wasn't just talk; she had always handled things this way in the past.
Because she didn't fit in, or didn't want to waste study time on trivial matters, she had always been alone. Some classmates deliberately spread bad things about her.
She had experienced this before. Her approach was to ignore it. Since they didn't get any response from her, those negative comments gradually disappeared.
But that was for normal situations.
The students at this school weren't normal; they were specially selected, including some outrageous people you might never encounter in regular schools. Her usual approach couldn't work effectively with the current rumors.
In truth, she had never experienced this type of rumor before.
As a sister, she had always looked up to her excellent brother as a role model. She wanted to work hard, but being aware of her limitations, all she could do was try not to cause him trouble.
This was her weakness.
When her classmates went too far today, she lost all control. She completely broke down. And the consequences would only intensify the rumors and their negative impact.
Reflecting on this, Suzune fell silent.
She realized she had handled the rumor situation terribly. Wavering, running away, then shutting down — none of it was admirable.
"You seem calmer now." Houtarou said, "Let's consider how to handle this. With rumors, the key is the central figure. If influence can spread rumors, then influence can also suppress them. As the central figure, you need to respond at this point."
"That means there's quite a lot to address..." Honami gently clapped her hands, "Horikita-san, you should rest today."
Suzune didn't object. Though she wanted to help now, she clearly couldn't face her classmates while maintaining emotional stability. If she could, she wouldn't have run away.
Despite having miraculously calmed down, she still needed to think about specific solutions.
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"Sorry for disturbing your class time and making you skip class too."
Houtarou and Honami went downstairs together as he apologized to her.
It was now two o'clock in the afternoon — well past lunch break — and classes were already in session.
While Suzune might have legitimately taken leave or simply skipped class, both Houtarou and Honami would definitely be marked absent.
Houtarou knew that Honami — the angel of their school — was a student with perfect attendance.
"No, it's no problem at all. If I can be of use, that's enough." Honami said, shaking her head gently. With her characteristic optimism, she added some comforting words, "And Horikita seems to have recovered."
Houtarou couldn't tell if it was his imagination, but he felt she was deliberately avoiding the topic of skipping class, instead focusing on expressing goodwill.
"I suppose so. I hope she improves." Houtarou said.
"I'll advise the students in Class B not to discuss this topic anymore today." Honami offered.
"So the plan is still to have influential people suppress the topic... But that's the plan I came up with. What was your original plan, Oreki? Was it to have Kushida-san take action?"
Honami hugged her notebook to her chest, peering over its edge with curiosity.
"Yes." Houtarou nodded, "She might not be too willing, but we definitely need her channels to take action — not your channels, Ichinose."
"Hmm?" Angel Honami blinked gently.
"Because that would damage interpersonal relationships." Houtarou explained, "The cost is too high. So we need to let Kushida do it."
What could only be done by Kikyō?
Honami listened carefully.
Houtarou said, "My approach is to have her deliberately spread more extreme rumors. For example, claiming that many second and third-year female seniors are selling images and first-year male students are buying them. This would force the school and Student Council to intervene and crack down on all rumors — including those about Horikita."
Honami choked slightly. The plan would indeed prevent rumors from spreading further. It would effectively extinguish all the small flames at once.
But this approach would be deeply disrespectful to the second and third-year female students and first-year boys.
Was Houtarou willing to hurt others just to protect Suzune?
Kikyō might resist such a plan, which would be completely understandable.
People with strong social networks can often trace rumors back to their source. Even without direct tracing, if complications arose later, the friends Kikyō had asked to spread these rumors might question her motives or reliability.
It essentially meant sacrificing your own social connections to spread these rumors.
If Houtarou believed this plan could work, his relationship with Kikyō must be strong enough that she wouldn't mind taking the blame.
'He really is popular...' Honami sighed inwardly.
She felt relieved she hadn't been asked to implement this plan.
It wasn't that she was unwilling to help, but such an approach was fundamentally disrespectful — protecting Suzune while hurting many others. Honami couldn't bring herself to harm others.
If someone had to get hurt, she would prefer that person to be herself.
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The matter was handled quickly.
In the evening, Houtarou and Honami went to see Suzune again. She had recovered enough to go out with them for tea to discuss things.
The next day, as planned, Suzune came to school.
Though the rumor had mutated as it spread, its core remained about her being the Student Council President's sister.
This key point could easily be seized and used as a weapon against her.
However, no one in Class A attacked Suzune. Everyone maintained their boundaries, largely because Houtarou often met privately with her.
Attacking Suzune was essentially equivalent to offending Houtarou.
Additionally, some students knew she possessed over 5 million Points. Since she was the Student Council President's sister, wasn't it possible that the President might transfer his Points to her after graduation?
Suzune was a student from a lower-ranked class. If she received 20 million Points and transferred alone, she would certainly come to Class A.
She could be a future classmate.
Therefore, attacking her wouldn't be wise.
Not to mention that Houtarou and Arisu had conversed in class, during which the little princess had asked if he wanted to use Suzune to gather votes.
See? Suzune was quite useful. So why attack her?
As for Class B, when Houtarou asked Honami for help, she had already restrained her class. She had asked everyone not to discuss this matter.
And as for Class C… let's set that aside for now.
Thus, the only class that needed to be dealt with was Suzune's own Class D.
The rumors had been circulating in the class for exactly three days. Before implementing any plans, these rumors needed to be addressed first.
The method was simple.
As Honami said, rumors are spread by popular people, so they needed a popular person to help.
Kikyō would be the ideal candidate, but since Suzune disliked her for taking the blame, she couldn't be asked now.
Houtarou also noticed that Suzune had started to pull herself together and take action. Adding some difficulty would make her feel more involved.
So they would let her continue to treat Kikyō as the mastermind for now.
Thus, they enlisted another popular member of Class D.
That was Yōsuke Hirata, the all-capable man.
"May I take a moment of everyone's time? There's something I'd like to tell everyone." Yōsuke stood at the podium after the first period of Sae's history class ended.
Sae noticed this situation and didn't leave. Instead, she stood by the door.
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