Chapter 55: Why Is This Broken School Delaying Points Again?
But… It was too late.
With some unknown speed, Ichinose reached them, her full figure blocking Hikigaya's path.
She looked at the boy with innocent eyes, waving at him with a smile.
"And you, good morning, Hikigaya."
"Oh… good morning."
Hearing his half-hearted reply, Ichinose pouted playfully: "You didn't forget my name, did you?"
"Ichinose-san…"
"Yep! Bingo!"
Hearing the boy say her name, the girl beamed with a pure smile.
Unlike Kushida, this smile was absolutely genuine, without any ulterior motives. This girl was a true angel.
Hikigaya could feel that Ichinose didn't give him the same sense of unease as Kushida.
Though it wasn't their first meeting, this was their first real conversation.
"I thought you'd forgotten my name by now."
"Hahaha, you're really good at joking, Hikigaya. You were the first boy I met from another class and exchanged names with at this school, and then you caused such a stir in Class D. It's pretty incredible."
'Sorry about that. Meeting a troublesome guy like me as the first boy must be a hassle…'
Ichinose's words carried no hidden intentions, just a simple recounting of past events.
No deliberate gestures, no fake words—just an instant warmth. No wonder she could unite all of Class B so quickly.
She was practically an angel descended to earth.
But unfortunately, Hikigaya Hachiman wasn't buying it.
Hearing Ichinose, Kushida seemed a bit surprised.
After all, Hikigaya, who'd always been a loner in Class D, had met this grade's social butterfly so early on.
Hikigaya was a bit surprised that she remembered him, though not to the point of disbelief. As a social butterfly, her skill was effortlessly remembering everyone's names. Truly impressive.
In Hikigaya's own memory, even though he'd spoken with that Kaw-something classmate from his own class, he still forgot their name in the end…
As expected, he wasn't cut out to be a social butterfly.
Just the thought of subconsciously memorizing all those popular kids' names was already annoying. Remembering everyone's names? Impossible.
As if noticing something, Ichinose took two steps back, scratching her head sheepishly.
"Is Hikigaya-kun Kushida's boyfriend?"
'Hey, don't say life-threatening stuff so innocently. How am I supposed to answer that…'
Kushida laughed generously and waved her hand: "No way."
'Kushida, you're amazing…'
Ichinose: "Really? I thought…"
Kushida: "I don't have a boyfriend…"
Since Kushida said so, Ichinose didn't press further. Though they stood close in an ambiguous way, it didn't seem like they'd reached that point.
"By the way, did you guys get your points today?"
The topic shifted so fast that Hikigaya and Kushida were momentarily stunned, then both checked their phones for points.
As expected… no surprise, this month's points hadn't come in.
Why did he say "again"…
[Hayama: "This school sure has a lot of surprises."]
[Miura: "Yeah, if it were me, I'd have lost it already. Especially seeing those classmates' fake attitudes—it'd make me even angrier."]
[Hikigaya: "But in this school, there's actually a student as socially adept as Yuigahamai…"]
[Yuigahama looked around, then pointed at herself, confused: "Hikki, are you praising me?"]
[Yukinoshita showed a heavy expression: "In a way, probably…"]
[Seeing Yukinoshita's expression, Yuigahama pouted and grumbled: "Yukinon, your face has no convincing power at all."]
Chabashira: "There was a glitch. Point distribution for first-years will be delayed."
Ike: "Huh?! For real?!"
Yamauchi: "That's the school's fault. Any compensation?"
Chabashira: "I can't help with that. Once the issue's resolved, points will be distributed—assuming your class still has points left."
'Oh? Interesting…'
They'd said last month that points would never be delayed, yet in the second month, they'd already broken the rule set at the start of school.
Looks like… someone's deliberately holding things up.
If it's just the first-years, it means they're caught up in some trouble again. Combined with Chabashira's words… the target might just be our class.
And who has the power to do this? Probably only the school itself, the student council, or the Senseis.
Chabashira-sensei had just made it clear that it had nothing to do with her. So, after ruling out the Senseis, the only ones who could control student points were the student council and the school administration. The administration probably wouldn't micromanage the first-years alone.
'So… there's the answer.'
'What a hassle, one thing after another. We just finished the midterms… and there's probably something even more troublesome coming up.'
On the way to school in the morning, at Ichinose's insistent request, Hikigaya reluctantly exchanged email addresses with her. Just moments ago, he received a message from her.
The content was…
'Hikigaya-kun, please come to the back of the special classroom building after class. I have a favor to ask.'
He could just ignore it or make an excuse later, like 'I turned off my phone during class and only saw it back at the dorm.' But facing this innocent little angel, Hikigaya felt a bit guilty about deceiving her.
And so… after class in the afternoon, he set off alone toward the special classroom building…
( End of this chapter )