Is Sakayanagi Arisu gay?
Regarding this question, many people had their own answers.
Some thought:
"Yuri is justice! Cute girls sticking together is the best!"
Some believed that Sakayanagi Arisu's orientation was normal, and that she only chose girls because her health was poor and she had no other option.
Others thought:
"Wasn't she gay already? She's glued to Kamuro Masumi all day. Who knows how many times they've been cuddling in private?"
And some even thought:
"Yuri? Lesbian? That's great! If I can conquer Sakayanagi Arisu, wouldn't that be double the win?!"
As for Horikita Suzune—
Her response was simple:
"Boring."
Whatever happened with privileged students had nothing to do with her.
She didn't care.
Right now, only two things mattered to her.
One was "Horikita Suzune in other people's eyes."
The other was "Kushida Kikyo, the one known as the Two-Faced."
…Oh, and there was also one more thing.
That "limited loan service" someone had mentioned to her.
Loans.
A synonym for spending in advance.
Something Horikita Suzune had always considered dangerous and never planned to touch.
But perhaps, for the current Class D, it carried unusual significance.
"Please, I'm begging you—just lend me ten thousand points! Next month, once I work hard and get points again, I'll pay you back!"
"Even if you stare at me like that, I'm not lending you anything! Stop looking! If you keep staring, I'm calling Hirata!"
"…Seriously, without Kushida around, there's no one left to borrow points from, huh?"
Voices drifted in from all directions.
Despite yesterday's chaos, after sleeping one night, everyone acted as if nothing had happened.
They went on with their usual routines.
Those begging for money humbled themselves as much as possible.
As long as they got the points, they'd probably change their attitude later.
But for now, they were willing to act like servants for money.
Originally, Yamauchi Haruki should have been one of those desperately borrowing money.
He should have been paying for his mistakes, running around trying to sell the expensive brand-name game console he had just bought.
Instead, he had become one of the few wealthy people in class.
Although most classmates still disliked him, he hid behind Hirata for protection.
And Hirata silently allowed him to use his name like a shield.
All in all, nothing had really changed.
They showed no signs of reflection whatsoever.
If there was any change at all—
It was that they had tacitly chosen to ignore Horikita Suzune.
Horikita had never planned to socialize much anyway.
She had always believed she didn't need friends.
But after yesterday's incident, the sense of isolation had only grown stronger.
It was obvious.
She could feel it slowly developing into something close to bullying.
However, with Hirata Yosuke around, it would probably never truly become bullying.
…Probably.
After hesitating for a while, Horikita decided not to follow Asakusa Toru's suggestion of using his loan service as a way to talk to her classmates.
First, she felt that if she used her classmates as mirrors, their "quality" was too low.
She still wouldn't be able to see herself clearly.
Second, she felt that if Asakusa really lent them money, given their poor credibility, he'd probably never get it back.
Though his mouth was foul and his behavior extreme at times—
She thought he was a good person.
At least, that was what she believed.
A good person's money shouldn't be wasted on trash.
After weighing everything, Horikita chose to stay silent.
She had already decided who she should befriend.
And who she should use as her mirror.
Dormitory Building
With a soft ding, the elevator opened on the ninth floor.
Horikita walked out briskly.
Soon, she stopped in front of her target room.
Several gift bags were placed outside the door.
Someone had probably come to visit.
But judging by their untouched state, the person inside hadn't opened the door at all.
That was fine.
Horikita had ways to make her open it.
"Ding dong ding dong ding dong—"
She pressed the doorbell repeatedly.
The noisy ringing echoed down the hallway.
But inside, it was like someone was dead.
No response at all.
It seemed she had decided to play dead.
"..."
Horikita took a deep breath and glanced around.
The ninth-floor hallway was empty.
No one should be able to overhear.
And even if they did—
It wouldn't matter.
She suddenly remembered the proper way to use the diary's speech distortion.
"Open the door. If you don't, I'll copy the messages from the diary and spread them all over the school."
Her calm voice echoed lightly in the corridor.
Any words involving the diary would be distorted into something meaningless to outsiders.
She wasn't sure if people who also knew about the diary could hear it properly.
But that didn't matter.
Even if they couldn't, she could always take the risk and say it again.
After waiting patiently for a moment—
The locked door finally opened a crack.
Messy hair.
Terrible complexion.
A gloomy face with none of her usual charm.
The girl behind the door was Kushida Kikyo.
"…Come in."
Her hoarse, un-sweet voice slipped from her lips.
She removed her left foot from the door and opened it wide enough to let someone pass.
Horikita stepped inside.
To be honest, at first, Horikita had thought Kushida was just absent because she was sick.
She hadn't overthought it.
But after realizing that the "Two-Faced" in the diary and the "Handprint Sister" on the message board were both Kushida—
She finally understood.
The real reason for Kushida's absence.
Despair over Class D's zero points.
And the urge to escape after her true nature had been exposed to Horikita and others.
Many eyes were watching the message board.
It wasn't fully public—
But it might as well have been.
Even without names, anyone could tell.
Just like "Little Princess" obviously referred to Sakayanagi Arisu,
"Two-Faced" clearly meant Kushida Kikyo.
She didn't know how many people had diary copies.
But it was impossible that only the two of them had them.
So—
Kushida had curled up in her tiny space,
Silent and unmoving.
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