"Ryo, yesterday when I was learning how to cook, I accidentally used sugar instead of salt, but surprisingly, the dish didn't taste that bad."
The soft female voice carried a subtle sweetness, like a piece torn from a fluffy marshmallow—it was unmistakably Shiina Hiyori's unique tone.
"Cooking is something you learn gradually, no need to rush. Just be careful, the kitchen can be a dangerous place."
Inside the narrow silver-toned elevator, Kitagawa Ryo pressed the button for the fourth floor and responded gently, completely ignoring the hesitant Horikita Suzune standing beside him.
"I will be careful. I even bought beginner-friendly kitchen tools recently. They came with a little pink apron—with a teddy bear pattern."
He wanted to comment that a pink apron wasn't exactly stain-resistant, but he held back.
"Mhm, I'm sure it's super cute."
Stepping out of the elevator, Kitagawa Ryo inserted the key into the door lock while holding his phone between his shoulder and cheek.
"I've got something to do today. Gotta go."
"Oh... then... I'll work hard until Ryo has time again!"
Even over the phone, he could feel her determined spirit. Ever since she tasted one of Ryo's desserts last month, Shiina Hiyori had added "cooking" as a new hobby alongside studying. Perhaps she genuinely took an interest in it—or maybe she just wanted another topic to connect with him.
"Do your best. I'm looking forward to it."
Hanging up, Kitagawa Ryo turned to look at Horikita Suzune, who was standing awkwardly outside his room.
"Why aren't you coming in?"
"I only agreed to have a meal with you, nothing more."
Suzune eyed Kitagawa, who had already changed into indoor slippers, with suspicion. It wasn't that she feared entering a boy's room alone—rather, she had sensed something unusual in the way Kitagawa Ryo treated her. It was as if she had offended him in the past, yet his attitude wasn't purely vengeful. Sometimes, it felt more like a strange sense of disappointment—as if he expected more from her.
"Inviting you in is just so we can eat," he said casually, slouching onto the sofa. "I just didn't feel like going to the cafeteria today. There are ingredients in the kitchen. You know how to cook, right?"
Suzune had lived alone for a long time and was indeed quite skilled at cooking. But cooking for someone else? That was new.
She frowned. "That's beyond what I agreed to. I don't have to accept."
"How about 10,000 personal points?"
Kitagawa Ryo said it like it was nothing, lazily flipping on the TV.
[10,000 personal points.]
For Class D, whose class points were currently zero, that was an enormous amount. Yet coming from Kitagawa, it sounded like he was tossing her a bone.
"Hmph... Fine. I accept."
Suzune didn't feel like she was losing out—in fact, quite the opposite. Cooking a meal with ingredients he already had in exchange for 10,000 points was a good deal. Thinking it was a result of her own negotiation, she even allowed herself a small smile.
Once in the kitchen, Suzune tied her long hair into a ponytail with a rubber band she pulled from her pocket. Rolling up her sleeves to her elbows, she didn't hesitate to use Kitagawa's apron, tying it behind her back with practiced ease.
"Pfft."
Kitagawa chuckled aloud. Suzune turned her head questioningly, but he quickly focused on the TV, pretending to be amused by the comedy show.
Closing the kitchen door, Suzune began selecting ingredients.
"Feels nostalgic."
Kitagawa wasn't paying attention to the TV at all. Watching Suzune tie the apron behind her back reminded him of a previous simulation—one where he tried to change her belief that she didn't need friends because she could do everything alone. Back then, he challenged her to put on a zip-up jacket backward and try to zip it herself.
Of course, she couldn't.
Shaking the memory from his head, Kitagawa opened the right drawer of his desk, then quickly shut it and chose the left instead. Pulling out a stack of printed documents, he stuffed them into a folder, made some arrangements on his phone, and finally slumped onto the sofa again.
"Food's ready."
Suzune worked quickly. In just thirty minutes, she emerged with plates and bowls in hand. Since Kitagawa hadn't specified what to make, she went with something simple. The main dish was creamy stew. She used some frozen dumplings from his fridge to make pan-fried gyoza, miso soup with radish strips, and egg fried rice—not the perfect kind where the egg coats every grain, but a basic version: fry the egg first, then add the rice.
Though the cooking wasn't perfect, the presentation was nice.
When Kitagawa turned on the dining room light and sat across from her, Suzune was a bit flustered by the closeness. Unlike the wide cafeteria, this was an intimate space. She had never cooked for someone else before.
In fact, the last time she shared a meal with someone...
No, she couldn't remember ever doing so after learning to cook. She and her brother had stopped eating together before then.
Spoon in hand, she gently brought the rice to her mouth. Childhood memories surfaced like a long-forgotten road, submerged under time's mossy silence.
They ate quietly, each lost in their own thoughts, moving with an unspoken rhythm—as if they were longtime companions. Even their timing was identical.
"The conditions have been fulfilled."
Suzune even took care of washing the dishes. Once everything was clean and back in its place, she let down her hair, a cascade of black silk tumbling down her back.
"Here. This is what you wanted."
Contrary to her expectations, Kitagawa didn't haggle or press for anything else. He handed her the test answers straightforwardly.
"How do I know this is real?"
Flipping through the pages, it didn't seem fake, but she stared at him, unconvinced. After being tricked so many times, she found it hard to believe he would just hand her something like this so easily.
"Believe it or not, that's up to you. I've already given it to you."
"I have other things to do. You can go now."
Suzune studied his expression, trying to glean some hint of deceit, but Kitagawa was as unreadable as ever.
Still suspicious, she took the answers and left. She planned to review them carefully later. If Class C had inserted a trap, she was confident she'd notice it.
But just as she entered the elevator, a phone call disrupted her plans.
It was from an unknown number. At least, it wasn't in her contacts.
"Hello, this is Horikita Suzune."
"This is Ichinose Honami. May I ask if you're Horikita-san?"
Ichinose Honami? Class B's leader, if she recalled correctly. But they had barely interacted before.
"That's me. Is something the matter?"
"Did you just receive a copy of the 'midterm exam answers' from Kitagawa-kun?"
"..."
Suzune hadn't decided how to respond yet, but Ichinose already picked up on her silence.
"Those answers are fake!"
-------------------------------------
"So you're saying that about an hour ago, you happened to overhear Ryuuen Kakeru and Ishizaki Daichi from Class C conspiring?"
Taking a small sip of coffee, Horikita Suzune cast a suspicious glance at Ichinose Honami across the table.
"Yes, when I passed by the special lecture building this morning, I heard some students from Class C discussing their plans to sabotage Class D."
Ichinose nodded earnestly. "This answer sheet was a fake they had prepared in advance. While each individual answer might be correct, the scope and focus of the test are completely wrong."
Upon hearing that, Horikita didn't open the file immediately. Instead, she questioned Ichinose with a hint of doubt:
"Why are you warning me? Even if Class C really intends to frame Class D, what does that have to do with Class B?"
"I just think there might be more to this," Ichinose replied.
Her intent for a peaceful conversation was swiftly shut down by Horikita's sharp and cold words. Still, Ichinose seemed to understand Horikita's suspicion and offered a calm smile.
"When you say there's more to it, do you mean something like secretly plotting to obstruct either Class C or Class D?"
She gave a somewhat playful yet resigned expression. "You don't need to be so guarded, do you? I genuinely just wanted to help Class D."
"I can't understand your motives or your reasoning."
Horikita turned to look out the window.
"Why would Class B go out of its way to help Class D? And why would the class president personally deliver this warning?"
"This isn't about Class B or Class D," Ichinose responded. "Framing incidents like this could happen to anyone at any time. Since this school is built on inter-class competition, there's always the danger of conflict hanging in the air.
I doubt this is the first time something like this has happened. Class D has probably been targeted by Class C before, right?"
Ichinose explained patiently. Even as Horikita remained silent, she continued:
"If the ones lying always come out on top, it becomes a serious issue. And since I already know about it, I can't just sit back and do nothing."
"I truly hope everyone can compete while still coexisting peacefully. I know it might sound childish, but it's how I really feel."
"You might think it's naive or hypocritical, but I don't carry any heavy burdens with this. I'm just acting in line with my own values."
After hearing Ichinose's sincere words, Horikita finally nodded slightly.
"If we take into account the current point gap between Class C and Class B, then it would actually make sense for Class B to seek an alliance."
Standing up, Horikita replied:
"While I believe I could have seen through Kitagawa Ryo's setup upon examining the answer sheet, I still appreciate the warning."
With that, she turned and left without hesitation. Ichinose, however, showed no signs of resentment—in fact, she looked relieved.
If Class C's ploy failed this time, perhaps they would also stop their ongoing harassment of Class B students. With that hopeful thought, Ichinose took another sip of her hot cocoa and smiled brightly.
-------------------------------------
Horikita Suzune flipped through the test answers on her way back to the dormitory. Just as Ichinose Honami had said, all the answers were technically correct. For someone unfamiliar with the exam scope and key points, it would be easy to be misled.
However—
She pinched one of the pages, a faint curve appearing at the corner of her mouth.
One of the most important topics within the scope—Francis Bacon and the concept of inductive reasoning—was completely absent, despite her repeated emphasis to D-Class students to memorize it.
Just as she told Ichinose earlier—
Even without her warning, Horikita Suzune would have been able to identify the flaws in the answer sheet on her own.
Moreover, she noticed something peculiar earlier when she was at Kitagawa Ryo's apartment cooking. When he retrieved the answer sheet from the left drawer of his desk, he first opened the right drawer, looked at something, then shut it before grabbing the papers. Combined with the overly confident attitude of Yamashina from Class C earlier that day, and this suspiciously misleading answer sheet...
Horikita could now confirm that Kitagawa Ryo had the real answers to the midterm—and they were most likely in that right drawer.
The only problem now was: how to get her hands on the real answers.
To her credit, Horikita was quick-thinking. Reviewing the events of the day, she had already come up with a plan.
"What is it, Suzune?"
Kitagawa Ryo opened the door groggily, clearly just waking up from a nap.
"I think I left a hair clip in your kitchen earlier during lunch. Can I come in and look for it?"
Horikita kept her voice as calm as possible. Kitagawa didn't seem too concerned, yawning as he let her inside.
As Horikita pretended to search for the nonexistent hair clip in the kitchen, her co-conspirator, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, knocked on Kitagawa's door.
"Ayanokoji-kun, right? Room 401 if I remember correctly. What's up?"
Kitagawa raised an eyebrow at the unexpected visitor.
"Ah, it's like this," Ayanokoji said flatly, pulling a pink apron with a bear print from behind his back. "This got blown onto my balcony by the wind. I heard it might belong to Shiina Hiyori from Class C, but I'm not close with her, so I was hoping you could return it."
"Oh, really?" Kitagawa took the apron and scratched his head. "Let me call her first."
But no matter how many times he tried, all he got was a busy signal. Kitagawa sighed.
"Yeah, I guess it really is Hiyori's. Alright, let's go together and return it to her—it'll only take a minute."
"Sure."
And just like that, Kitagawa left with Ayanokoji, heading to the 12th floor to return the apron.
Finally alone, Horikita made her move. She exited the kitchen and walked straight to the desk, holding her breath as she opened the right drawer.
Just as she suspected, there was another stack of printed answer sheets.
Francis Bacon... Inductive reasoning...
Yes. This was the real answer sheet—the one that matched their actual exam scope.
Horikita quickly pulled out her phone and began snapping photos, page by page.
She couldn't wait to publicly expose Kitagawa Ryo's deception after the midterms.
With that thought, Horikita Suzune couldn't help but smile.
This time, she had won.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To Read Advanced Chapters, and support this novel, please join me on [email protected]/geats2000