Chapter 200: I can sell them to you, but at the original price
"What's wrong? This is the cafeteria; there are surveillance cameras everywhere. What are you afraid of?" Ishizaki Daichi sneered from a short distance away, his voice dripping with mockery.
Karuizawa Kei snapped back to reality, instinctively glancing at the security camera in the corner of the ceiling. It was true; they had arranged to meet in the cafeteria—a public place with omnipresent surveillance. If that weren't the case, she wouldn't have come so easily.
"What? Are we not even allowed to watch Yamada Albert from our own class box?" Komiya Kyogo pulled a popsicle out of a plastic bag, tearing open the wrapper and stuffing it into his mouth as he spoke nonchalantly.
Karuizawa then remembered that Class 1-C's Yamada Albert was also about to compete. In that sense, it was perfectly reasonable for Class C students to want to buy tickets to watch their classmate's match. Furthermore, the Boxing Club President hadn't issued any regulations prohibiting the sale of tickets to other classes.
Thinking of this, she relaxed slightly and asked tentatively, "Then... do you really want to buy all of the tickets?"
The way they spoke carried the thuggish air of street punks. Without Karuizawa even realizing it, her usual bold, "gyaru"-style tone had unconsciously weakened, tinged with a hint of fear.
Ryuen Kakeru curled his lips into a smirk. As a professional "delinquent" who handled business daily, how could he not notice this subtle shift? He immediately sharpened his tone. "Hey! Sit down! What's with you standing up? Are you trying to look down on me?"
These words were like a needle; her body gave an involuntary shudder. The oppressive weight in his voice gave her a sense of suffocating deja vu—fragments of memories involving being bullied and threatened suddenly surged to the surface. Karuizawa's legs felt like they were filled with lead, frozen in place, unable to move.
"Are you deaf?" Ryuen's voice grew colder. His fingertips tapped the tabletop in a rhythm that felt like a death knell. "Or do you think that because Class D won a hearing, you can put on airs in front of me? You're acting quite arrogant, Karuizawa."
Those words struck her heart like a whip. She jerked her head down and walked quickly to the chair opposite him, sitting down so fast her knees nearly hit the edge of the table.
Ryuen raised an eyebrow in satisfaction, his gaze lazily scanning her pale face. "All the tickets. We want them all." He spoke as if it were a trivial matter.
"The price will be whatever you sold them to the others for. I won't short-change you on points."
As Karuizawa pulled all the tickets from her pocket, she could clearly feel the eyes of Ishizaki and Komiya on her, sticking to her like a greasy spiderweb that made her skin crawl.
"There are four VIP seats left, 15,000 each; nine regular tickets left, 2,000 each. The total is..." She whispered the calculation as she counted the stubs.
After ten seconds passed.
"78,000 points." Ryuen stated the total faster than she could, his finger suddenly stopping on the table.
"However, buying your tickets comes with a condition."
Karuizawa's heart sank—as expected, it wasn't that simple. She kept her head down, her voice dropping even lower. "What condition?"
"It's not hard." Ryuen leaned back against his chair and crossed his legs, his eyes tracking her like a snake eyeing its prey, sharp enough to make one shudder.
"Tell me. On Thursday, who was the one who found the witness? And who was the one who got Ichinose from Class B to help? Was it that guy Shimizu Akira? I just want you to give me a name."
These words hit Karuizawa's heart like a block of ice, instantly numbing her fingertips.
'Sell out Class D? Tell him who found the witness?! And he actually suspects Shimizu Akira?!'
Her stomach twisted into a knot—it wasn't Shimizu Akira at all! It was obviously Kushida Kikyo. During the meeting on Friday, Kushida had explicitly said it was a plan she came up with herself.
But even if it was Kushida, she absolutely could not say. If she spoke, wouldn't she be a traitor to the class?!
She snapped her head up, about to argue, but collided with Ryuen Kakeru's bottomless eyes. There was no hint of humor in them, only naked threat—just like the female bullies who used to corner her, telling her clearly with their eyes: "We are targeting you on purpose, and we're going to break you."
Her throat felt blocked. The rebuttals that were on the tip of her tongue were jammed behind her teeth, unable to be uttered. She thought of the points Class C had lost as mentioned in the group chat, and of Ryuen's terrifying reputation in the school... her heart sank further and further.
But at that moment, as if suddenly remembering something, she quickly grabbed her phone and sent a short message to a certain someone.
The moment the "Sent Successfully" notification popped up, a strange sense of confidence bloomed in her heart. She met Ryuen's gaze and shook her head decisively.
"I don't know!"
"Are you kidding me! You're in Class D, how could you not know?!" Ishizaki Daichi exploded instantly, roaring as he slammed the corner of the table with a loud thud.
"Wait! Who did you just message?!" Komiya Kyogo also noticed something was wrong. Her attitude before and after sending that message was like night and day.
"Who I message is none of your business, is it?" With a backup to rely on, Karuizawa's tone gradually regained its usual clear vibrancy.
"Heh, looks like someone is backing you up." Ryuen's gaze circled her face. Her complexion, which had been pale with fear, had somehow softened, and even the cowering look in her eyes had faded.
He was silent for a long time before suddenly baring his teeth in a smile—a smile that didn't reach his eyes and carried an unspeakable gloom. He casually fished a popsicle out of the plastic bag on the table, tore it open, and took a large bite. The icy sweetness melted between his teeth, but his eyes remained locked on Karuizawa.
"You don't have to answer." He spoke around the popsicle, his voice muffled. "Then eat popsicles. Eat five of them right now, and I'll buy every ticket you have and let you go."
At this, his voice suddenly turned heavy, malice swirling in his eyes. "I'm just not in a good mood right now! Your Class D caused three of our classmates to be suspended for a month and cost us 100 class points. I need to blow off some steam, don't I?"
The popsicles in the bag were still emitting tendrils of cold air, condensing into a thin white mist in the late-summer heat. Karuizawa looked at the pile of colorful, frozen things, her mind as clear as a mirror—he was making things difficult on purpose. Just as they had shouted, Class C had lost to Class D, and unable to swallow that bitter pill, they wanted to humiliate her using these items.
Eating popsicles in summer was common enough, but for a girl, two or three was the limit. If she forced down five, she would definitely get a stomach ache, and it might even interfere with the boxing match tonight. That was clearly their plan.
Just as she was hesitating over the pile of ice, a steady voice suddenly came from behind her:
"I'm here. Are you okay?"
Karuizawa jerked her head around to see the boxing club member, Shimizu Akira, carrying a plastic bag and walking toward them with steady steps, a trace of concern in his eyes. She breathed a massive sigh of relief, her tensed shoulders visibly slumping—the plea for help she sent minutes ago had finally received a response.
"You took way too long!" she grumbled, though her tone carried the hint of a pampered girl who had finally dropped her guard.
"Getting here in five minutes isn't fast enough?" Shimizu raised an eyebrow, handing her the bag.
"Besides, I bought you some snacks. Haven't you been pestering me to treat you?"
The crisp rustle of snack packaging from the bag, mixed with his calm tone, was like a warm breeze that instantly dispelled the chill in Karuizawa's heart. She instinctively took the bag. Touching the warmth at the opening, she realized there were two cans of hot milk tea inside.
She glanced at the frosting popsicles on the table, then at the warm tea and snacks in her hands. A clear sense of contrast arose in her mind.
Shimizu's gaze moved past Karuizawa to the pile of popsicles on the table, then swept over Ryuen and the other three. The red-haired boy named Ryuen Kakeru met his gaze without flinching, instead inspecting him with interest, casually dropping his popsicle stick at Shimizu's feet.
As for the three boys sitting across from him, they were familiar faces—Komiya Kyogo, Kondo Reo, and Ishizaki Daichi. Shimizu had seen the class group notification half an hour ago and knew about Class 1-C's punishment. Connecting the dots—that they could only buy tickets through Karuizawa, were gathered in the cafeteria, and she had the stubs in her hand—he had a good idea of what was happening.
Thus, he spoke: "You're here to buy tickets, right? Our 'manager' still needs to prepare for the boxing match. Why not talk to me? I'm also part of the boxing club."
Seeing this, Ryuen grinned again. As the saying goes, when two people meet for the first time, a single sentence can reveal their depth.
He suddenly felt that he might have met a worthy opponent.
This guy hadn't even bothered to ask Karuizawa what happened; it was clear that through observation and analysis alone, he had grasped the situation perfectly. Even better, he had provided Karuizawa with a way out, allowing her to leave this awkward situation naturally.
"Mmh! Um... I'll just wait for you!" A look of hesitation appeared on Karuizawa's face. After thinking for a moment, she just moved closer to Shimizu, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him instead of leaving.
'Stupid woman! She's completely wasting Shimizu Akira's painstaking efforts!'
Ryuen laughed. This laugh wasn't for Shimizu, it was for Karuizawa. The man had practically handed her an exit on a silver platter, and she didn't know how to take it? In a way, he felt a sense of empathy—he was surrounded by a bunch of idiots in Class C too; most of the time, talking to them was useless.
"How many do you plan to buy?" Shimizu shook his head helplessly and asked.
"All of them. I plan to buy them all," Ryuen said, legs crossed, his tone nonchalant.
"I see. Is it to watch Yamada-kun's match?" Shimizu glanced at the tickets in Karuizawa's hand and spoke almost instantly.
"Four VIP seats left, nine regular tickets. That's enough for thirteen people from your class to enter. With the discount, the total is 78,000 points. Let's add each other; you transfer the points to me, and I'll give you the tickets."
Shimizu was naturally aware of the club's rules regarding discounts and original prices.
"..." Ryuen froze. Seeing the other man pull out his phone, he instinctively reached for his own pocket, but just as his fingers touched his phone case, he snapped out of it—he wasn't just here to buy tickets!
This Shimizu Akira spoke without leaving a single opening.
His first sentence gave them a reasonable motive for buying tickets, and his second directly stated the count and total price, naturally leading into adding him as a friend for the transfer... in a way, he had shielded Karuizawa once again.
Perhaps because he had been in Class C for too long and was used to the loud, disorganized people around him, meeting such a logical, step-by-step opponent actually left him momentarily speechless.
Even Sakayanagi Arisu hadn't given him this feeling—after all, in his eyes, she was just a "bratty girl" with a bit of cleverness.
"Wait! I set conditions!" Ryuen's face darkened, and he spoke with an unfriendly tone.
"That business with Class C—the person who found the witness and brought in Ichinose was you, wasn't it!"
"That question is inconvenient to answer, as it involves class privacy." Shimizu refused without a second thought, his tone as calm as still water.
Ryuen was stunned. He refused that bluntly? Well, it made sense; things like that aren't revealed easily.
"Then who's going to compensate me for those five popsicles!" Ryuen added.
"No one is going to eat your popsicles. You have no right to make demands. Even if you buy all the tickets, we won't agree to your so-called conditions—there's no such thing in the rules." Shimizu thought for a moment and added flatly.
After saying that, he turned to Karuizawa: "Since they don't want to buy them, let's go."
"Eh... Mmh! Okay... okay." Karuizawa blinked, as if waking from a daze, and nodded heavily.
"Wait a minute!" Ryuen hesitated for a moment and threw out a sentence stiffly, with a hint of reluctance.
The situation was clear—all first-year boxing match tickets had to be bought through Karuizawa. He absolutely had to go to this exhibition match to see exactly how much skill
Shimizu Akira had. Currently, the only way was to buy tickets from them. There was no longer any room to negotiate "conditions."
"Were they picking on you on purpose just now?" Shimizu ignored Ryuen's expression and turned to Karuizawa, handing the decision-making power over to her completely.
"Whether to sell or not is up to you."
Karuizawa blinked, and then a bright, clear smile spread across her face.
'Letting me decide.'
"I can sell them to you," she drawled, then changed her tone sharply. "But at the original price. And you have to buy all of them."
"Original price?!" Ryuen looked as if he had heard something impossible, his eyebrows knitting together.
How did it come to this? This woman who looked like a fake "gyaru" actually dared to turn the tables on him and demand the original price?
"That's right." Karuizawa lifted her chin, her tone unceremonious.
"Our President said discounts depend on the situation. Unreasonable customers like you are definitely not within the discount range. So now, VIP tickets are 20,000 each, and regular tickets are 3,000 each."
With Shimizu Akira backing her up, the fear in her heart had vanished. Besides, she was absolutely right—discounts were for certain people. Why should someone like Ryuen get a discount?
Ryuen tapped his fingers hard on the table twice. He stared at the undisguised triumph on Karuizawa's face and suddenly gave a low laugh, a laugh that carried the sound of grinding teeth.
"Fine, Karuizawa-san. Your wings have grown strong; I'm truly impressed."
"I'm just following the rules." Karuizawa lifted her chin slightly, deliberately ignoring the pressure in his gaze—with Shimizu beside her, she wasn't afraid of anything.
Shimizu didn't interject, standing quietly to the side like a steady mountain. Watching Karuizawa straighten her back to confront Ryuen, he felt his manager's courage was truly growing.
"All tickets. Original price." Ryuen ground his teeth and squeezed the words out.
"Transferring the points now. Give me the tickets."
"Wait." Karuizawa remembered something and pulled a small notebook from her pocket.
"You have to sign. Our President said large ticket purchases need a name and class registered to avoid disputes later."
Ishizaki Daichi couldn't help but mutter from the side, "Where do all these rules come from..."
"Shut up." Ryuen shot him a cold glance, took the notebook and pen, and signed his name in a flamboyant scrawl. The force of the pen on the paper was so heavy it nearly tore the page.
Karuizawa checked the notebook, nodded in satisfaction, and put it away before handing over the stack of tickets. The VIP and regular tickets were neatly separated, with seat numbers carefully written on the stubs.
Ryuen snatched the tickets and turned to leave, Ishizaki and Komiya following quickly behind. At the cafeteria entrance, he suddenly stopped. Without turning around, he tossed back a sentence: "On the ring, don't let me down, Shimizu Akira."
Once the footsteps faded, Karuizawa let out a long breath. Her legs went weak, and she nearly fell, but Shimizu caught her just in time.
"Just now... was I too much?" She felt a bit of panic in hindsight. "Will he hold a grudge?"
"No." Shimizu helped her stand steady.
"When dealing with people like that, taking a step back only makes them take a mile." He looked at the phone in her hand.
"Did the points arrive?"
"Mmh! The total original price is... 108,000 points!" Karuizawa's eyes lit up at the notification. "That's over 40,000 more than the discount price! The President will definitely praise me!"
Her eyes crinkled with laughter, her previous tension vanishing instantly. She looked like a little animal that had just won a fight, her tail nearly wagging.
Watching her joy, Shimizu's expression softened.
"Let's go to the arena. If we don't go now, Yamada will get worried."
"Okay!" Karuizawa nodded vigorously, clutching her phone as she followed him. She stole a glance at Shimizu beside her and suddenly felt that with him there, even the most difficult problems weren't so scary.
The sound of a noisy crowd was already coming from the direction of the arena, along with the muffled thud of boxing gloves hitting sandbags. A contest was about to begin, and this time, Karuizawa clenched her fists and cheered silently in her heart—not just for Shimizu, but for herself, who had finally dared to face a provocation.
.
.
.
At 6:50 PM, in the arena seating area of the gymnasium, Karuizawa Kei sat in a VIP seat with an excellent view. Clutching her sign-in book, her eyes unconsciously scanned the surroundings, silently confirming if the students from her grade had arrived.
Sakayanagi Arisu and Katsuragi Kohei from Class A; Ichinose Honami from Class B; Shiina Hiyori from Class C... and of course, Ryuen Kakeru, Ishizaki Daichi, Komiya Kyogo, and Kondo Reo were sitting together. Many students from Class D had also come, including Sudo Ken, Koenji Rokusuke, and Horikita Suzune.
As a manager, she didn't need a ticket to watch the match, and President Sato had specially reserved this superior seat for her. Notably, the students were seated in clusters by grade. This was an arrangement she and the other two managers had suggested to President Sato—partly to make it easier for managers to sign in their respective grades, and partly because people of the same age would find it easier to discuss and interact when grouped together.
"Karuizawa-san, what a coincidence! It looks like we're sitting together."
A familiar voice came from her left. Karuizawa turned and realized that sitting next to her was Ichinose Honami.
"Oh, Ichinose!" She immediately put on her playful "gyaru" persona and waved. Since VIP seats couldn't be chosen and first-years were grouped together, it seemed they were destined to sit by each other.
"The fighters enter in five minutes. Who do you think will win?" She took the initiative to start a conversation.
"Shimizu Akira-kun," Ichinose answered without hesitation.
"He's not only very strong, but his precision is also incredible."
"Eh?! Why do you think that?!" Karuizawa was taken aback.
She herself believed Shimizu would win—after all, she saw him running every morning and exercising for two hours every day after school. Even when she asked President Sato before the match, he was certain Shimizu would win, saying his physical fitness made it obvious.
However, because it was an exhibition match, the President had already agreed that they would hold back slightly for the first three minutes of the first round before going all out in the subsequent rounds. So Karuizawa estimated that by the second round, Shimizu would finish it quickly.
But her judgment was based on those reasons—how did Ichinose know? "Very strong" made sense, but what did "precision" mean? That sounded a bit specific.
"Actually, last Wednesday, I went out for fun with Shimizu Akira-kun once, and I saw him bowling," Ichinose explained with a nod.
"He chose the heaviest balls, and the speed at which he threw them was exaggerated."
The scene of that bowling date was still vivid in her mind. Every time, Shimizu picked the heaviest ball and threw it with incredible speed, hitting the pins with nearly perfect precision and no deviation in angle. Although she hadn't bowled much due to her family circumstances, she often went out with classmates and had never seen anyone throw a ball that fast.
However, Karuizawa didn't register a word after that.
'Wait! She went out with Shimizu? From her tone, was it just the two of them? Two people going out alone... isn't that a date?!'
Besides Suzune, another girl was close to Shimizu? This was already the second one. But seeing as she still called him "Shimizu Akira-kun," she figured they were probably just in the early stages of a budding relationship; whether they could go further was uncertain.
Karuizawa felt a strange sense of unease. She really didn't want Shimizu to have a girlfriend—and to be clear, that was definitely not because she liked him! It was just that if the guy had a girlfriend, he would definitely get distracted.
Thinking of this, she asked with a nonchalant air, "Ichinose, did you go on a date with Shimizu from our club? Which of you asked the other out?"
"Actually, President Sato's girlfriend suggested we go out together," Ichinose answered honestly.
"After all, I still owe the boxing club a favor."
Hearing this, the stone hanging in Karuizawa's heart suddenly dropped, and her breathing became lighter.
'So that was it... someone else set it up.'
However, Karuizawa stole another glance at Ichinose Honami and saw a faint smile on her face; she didn't look forced at all.
'Wait, what does that mean?'
"Was that date... fun?" she followed up.
"Mmh!" Ichinose nodded, her tone sincere.
"Shimizu-kun is a very gentle person, and he helped relieve a lot of my stress."
Karuizawa instinctively pouted, her tone carrying a hint of testing.
"Shimizu? Him? He didn't ask you for tens of thousands of points?"
She muttered to herself that she had paid a literal "protection fee." If he was that nice to Ichinose, surely there had to be a price?
"Points? No," Ichinose shook her head gently and said frankly.
"In the first month, I actually wanted to give him 80,000 points to show my thanks, but he returned them later."
"What?!" Karuizawa was truly stunned now, her eyes widening.
'What's going on? Why did he only take mine? Come to think of it, last time he took quite a few from Horikita Suzune too!'
The difference in treatment was too obvious!
She thought for a moment, then let it go. She didn't have time to dwell on points! The priority was to see if the other girl had feelings for Shimizu.
"Well! I'm the boxing club manager! If you're interested in that Shimizu guy, I could... introduce you to him!" she thought, then blurted out almost instinctively. She immediately regretted it.
'What on earth am I doing?!'
"I think I'll pass!" Ichinose Honami suddenly thought of the thing Shimizu had confessed during their date and gave a bitter smile.
"Shimizu-kun's feelings were hurt; he currently needs some time to recover and heal."
"What?! Shimizu Akira's feelings were hurt?! Who was it?"
She had never heard of this. Did he confess to Horikita Suzune and get rejected?! For no reason, she felt a strange sense of secret pleasure. Although she felt sorry for him, she couldn't help but feel a bit gleeful.
"...I'm not quite sure who it was," Ichinose shook her head. Given her personality, she wouldn't publicly disclose someone else's business—especially since she really didn't know who it was.
"Alright, alright! I specially saved you a VIP seat, so it's okay if you don't say the name, just tell me the details of the confession! I swear, I absolutely absolutely won't tell anyone else!" Karuizawa struck while the iron was hot. With her personality, how could she miss out on this gossip? The more detailed, the better.
She figured that with Ichinose's personality, she wouldn't easily reveal a person's identity, so she deliberately mentioned how hard it was to get VIP tickets and emphasized that she would keep the secret.
As expected, Ichinose showed some hesitation before finally relenting.
"Well... since Karuizawa-san promised, then okay. Actually, it wasn't Shimizu-kun who confessed; it was a female student who confessed to him."
"Eh... is, is that how it was?!" Karuizawa's smile froze, and her heart skipped a beat.
'Wait! Didn't I confess to Shimizu Akira in the first month?' A strange sense of unease crawled up her spine.
"The purpose of that girl's confession was to get Shimizu Akira to protect her, without allowing any intimate couple-like behavior. To put it bluntly, it was a 'couple' in name only," Ichinose continued, her tone carrying a knowing sigh.
"So Shimizu-kun seems to have suffered quite a trauma. When we went on a date last time, he spoke about it lightly, but something like that definitely isn't easy to get over."
"What did you say?!"
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