"Look at that!" a girl voiced, grabbing the attention of Yuto and the others.
"Was it a collision?"
Yuto didn't say anything and began running towards Horikita while Sudo said, "I'll go get the first aid kit!"
Kneeling beside her, Yuto gently lifted Horikita by the shoulder. "Are you okay, Suzune?" he said in a worried tone. "I might have gotten a minor sprain, nothing much," she said while being supported by Yuto, who looked at Kinoshita, the girl who collided with Horikita, with a grimace.
_________________________________________
Horikita sat on a bench, looking down at her slightly swollen leg. She turned to her right to see Yuto bringing the first aid kit. He knelt on Horikita's level with a small smile as he sprayed a sterilizer. "I can do it myself," Horikita said with a tinge of pain due to the sterilizer. "I insist," Yuto replied calmly. Horikita nodded hesitantly.
Her attention inadvertently turned to Yuto. His azure eyes, focused on her leg, framed by long, attractive lashes. A single auburn bang fell across his forehead. These details, unnoticed before, became apparent now. 'Too close,' she thought as he continued to stare at Yuto.
"It's done!" Yuto announced softly, looking up at Horikita.
'Eh?'
A faint pink hue tinged Horikita's features as Yuto's face flushed slightly. Their prolonged gaze broke, and Horikita cleared her throat. "Thank you," she managed. Yuto snapped out of his reverie, rising with a warm smile. "My pleasure."
Horikita silently looked at her bandaged leg, but her attention was cut when Yuto sat down next to her. She looked at him and opened her mouth to speak but didn't say anything. She didn't know what to say. Her thoughts were interrupted when Yuto spoke while looking up at the tent, "Don't push yourself."
Horikita leaned down as she said, "I'm surprised you aren't trying to stop me." Yuto shrugged while looking at Horikita, who in turn looked at him as well. "Telling you is futile. I know you better than anyone, even better than your brother, I dare say." Horikita was immediately going to oppose this but stopped, struck by Yuto's comforting smile, who added, "I just have to make sure to take care of you so that you don't hurt yourself even more."
Horikita's face turned red as her widened eyes gazed at Yuto's infectious smile. Her heart began pounding a bit faster as she continued to stare at him with an expressionless facade. She got up and began walking away. "I need to get ready for the piggybank joust. See you later," she said as she walked away, leaving a confused Yuto behind.
Ayanokoji, who saw all this, sighed as he thought, 'I really do wonder how he can be so dense with Horikita.' He then narrowed his eyes as he looked at Yuto, who was looking down at the ground with a smile and thought, 'So my timer has started, I see... Within this limited time, I need to make Kazuki Yuto my tool. This may be what people call 'a once in a lifetime' opportunity.'
_______________________________
"I see that they all targeted you," Yuto said as he sat down next to Horikita, who looked grim, and unresponsive. Yuto let out an audible sigh as he relaxed his body.
There was silence.
Glancing sideways at Horikita, Yuto's grin broke through the quiet. "You owe me a nice cold ice coffee if I win the piggyback joust," he declared, teasingly. With that, he rose to his feet, ready to depart. A faint smile appeared on Horikita's lips as she muttered under her breath, "You're impossible, idiot...."
_______________________
"Tsk!" Ryuen gritted his teeth as he looked at Yuto smiling at the crowd. "Team Red may beat us at this rate," he muttered to himself but then grinned. "Looks like I have to crush Suzune after all..."
"Ahhhh! Arigato!!" Yuto exclaimed with delight as he grabbed the coffee can Horikita had beside her. Downing the contents eagerly, he glanced at Horikita, who observed him intently. "Want some?" he offered, holding out the can with a neutral expression.
Horikita blushed slightly as she declined, prompting a nod from Yuto. As she took a sip of water, Yuto changed the subject abruptly. "There's a traitor in our class," he stated matter-of-factly, causing Horikita to almost choke on the water by how random the statement was. "I know. It's Kushida-san, right? Ayanokoji-kun told me," she replied. Yuto nodded, rising to his feet.
"Anyway, I have urgent matters to attend to. We'll meet after lunch," he declared, waving a casual farewell before Horikita could respond—though she wasn't exactly eager to engage in small talk anyway. Gritting her teeth in frustration, she pondered, 'Why do I always rely on him and Ayanokoji...'
An hour or so passed... Horikita was still sitting in the same position, looking down. That's when she heard a voice.
"Oiii, Horikita-san!" Kushida yelled as she came running to the tents.
"Can I help you, Kushida-san?"
"You see, Kinoshita-san got hurt real bad!" Horikita's eyes widened momentarily as Kushida continued, "Now they want you to come to the nurse's office!"
"Very well."
___________________________
"So, who is the traitor anyway?" Kei asked Ayanokoji, who was eating his food.
"I'm afraid I can't tell."
"Eh?! How come?" Kei shouted.
Ayanokoji simply ignored the question as Hirata asked, "If you knew who the traitor was, then why did you submit the leaked submission form?"
Ayanokoji looked at Hirata with a 'what do you mean?' expression as he replied calmly, "We didn't, though." Kei immediately spat out her food as she snarled at Ayanokoji, "Then how the hell are we losing from the girls' side?!"
Ayanokoji looked at her with a deadpan tone as he said, "Two reasons."
Hirata and Kei looked at him intently as he continued, "Firstly, we didn't change anything from the girls' side so that the traitor didn't know we changed the boys' sets."
"So the traitor is a girl then?"
Ayanokoji ignored the question as he continued, "Secondly, the girls don't have a Yuto." Hirata chuckled softly, understanding Ayanokoji's point, while Kei scowled. "It's not our fault Horikita-san got injured!" she protested, feeling unfairly targeted. Ayanokoji simply nodded, which made Kei even more pissed!
"But then, did you change the sets randomly?" Kei asked knowing that the original sets were carefully optimized.
Ayanokoji shook his head. "No, we based our changes on Class C's leaked submission form," This time, Hirata was the one to spit his food as Kei started to choke on water.
"WAIT! There is a traitor in Class C?!" Kei was the first to respond.
"No, there are 6 traitors in Class C," Ayanokoji said in a straight voice, causing Kei and Hirata to look at him with a 'WTF' expression
______________________________________
[A/N: If anyone is wondering who the 6 traitors are. 3 of them from the special annex and the 3 who bullied Kei.]
Creation is hard, cheer me up!
"Kinoshita says you knocked her over on purpose," Ryuen said.
"Don't be absurd!" Horikita exclaimed, but Kinoshita mumbled, "When you knocked me over, you said, 'I will never let you win.'" Horikita's eyes widened as she bellowed, "You're lying."
Ryuen flipped over the blanket covering Kinoshita to show a completely swollen leg. "You think something like this happens on accident?" He snarled with a smirk. The argument got heated when Ryuen threatened to tell the school about this. That's when Kushida suggested a compromise.
"Give a million private points and maybe I'll let this go," Ryuen said with a wicked smile. Horikita's eyes widened as she was visibly taken aback.
"Don't give me that bullshit," a familiar voice spoke.
The four turned to the door with stiffened features as they saw Yuto scratching his long hair. Ryuen smirked as he said, "What do you mean? It's a reasonable price for dismissing this complaint." Yuto clicked his tongue as he spat while pointing at Kinoshita, "It's extremely illogical for Suzune to hurt herself to remove such a useless piece of the board."
"That's rude, Kazuki-kun!" Kushida bellowed as she glared at Yuto. "I was just stating it as I see it." Yuto shrugged as Horikita simply observed the situation. "Logic isn't always the answer," Ryuen said as he paused, "Kinoshita herself said that Suzune did this."
Yuto started whistling as he took out his phone from his pocket. Kushida thought, 'This is too familiar,' as she continued to look at Yuto.
That's when he began to play a video of Kinoshita getting her leg beaten by Class C goons. Kushida gritted her teeth for a second before putting her hands on her mouth and acting surprised. "That's horrible," she said.
"Was this the urgent matter you were talking about?" Horikita questioned, to which Yuto nodded. Ryuen clicked his tongue as he began to leave. "Where are you going?" Yuto asked in a disgusted tone.
"This plan is dead, and you can't report this since Kinoshita gave her consent to do this," Ryuen said in a slightly annoyed tone. Yuto smirked, "Then why is she shouting 'stop! it hurts!' in the video? If I present it to the student council now, I can play it off as you threatening her to say that." Horikita intervened, "You are going to be expelled, Ryuen!"
Yuto looked at her with a 'Are you high?' face as Ryuen also took a second to notice before he scoffed.
"Ryuen is not there in the video directly so we can't link him to what happened to Kinoshita," Yuto said in a deadpan tone, making Horikita feel incredibly stupid.
"However," Yuto paused as he looked at Ryuen. "There are six students in this video excluding the useless girl. One of them being Albert as well. I doubt expelling these six students will do your class any good." Ryuen narrowed his eyes as he asked, "How much do you want?"
Yuto innocently smiled as he tapped his head while musing openly, "Well... Since you asked Suzune for 1 million, I think it's only right for me to ask you for 2 million." He smirked. Ryuen's eyes widened for a second before he regained his composure, "Let's negotiate," he stated.
"The price just rose to 2.5 million," Yuto said with his hands in his pocket. Ryuen's face became grim as he hissed, "I'll pay the 2 million."
Yuto shook his head. "Nuh-uh, if you want to pay the price to go back to 2 million, then you owe me this." Ryuen turned around and he said, "Owe you wha-" He was cut off as he felt a rock-hard punch land on his cheek. Ryuen staggered a few steps as he placed his hand on his cheek and felt it swell a bit.
"That's for calling Suzune by her given name," Yuto said coldly as Ryuen clenched his jaw. Kushida's eyes grew wide as Horikita's expression froze. Kinoshita, who was watching the entire scene unfold, had a pale complexion as she saw her class leader in his pitiful state.
"I'll pay the 2 million but delete the video in front of me," Ryuen hissed, not wanting to escalate the situation. "Looks like we struck a deal," Yuto grinned.
Kushida, meanwhile, looked at Yuto with tightened lips.
'I need to expel him...'
__________________________________________________________________
Horikita, Kushida, and Yuto began walking back to the tents in dead silence. Horikita couldn't shake off the feeling of bewilderment after witnessing Yuto's bold confrontation with Ryuen. She knew there was more to him than met the eye.
"How did you know that was going to happen?" Horikita finally broke the silence, her gaze fixed on Yuto with curiosity.
"I'm just good at reading people, I guess," Yuto shrugged, his expression unreadable as he glanced at Kushida walking beside him. "But, Kazuki-kun, I didn't like it when you were being so mean to Kinoshita-san," she said with a slightly angered expression.
Yuto instantly furrowed his brows and spat, "That bitch deserves whatever I said and more for trying to pull something like that with Suzu. I don't care if it's orders or whatever."
Horikita was slightly shocked by how protective Yuto was of her. Kushida simply pouted and ran ahead. Yuto was helping Horikita walk so they stayed together. Yuto looked over at a few Class C goons as he said to Horikita, "After the sports fest, we are going to be in Class C."
Her eyes widened as she looked at Yuto with utter shock. "What do you mean?" Yuto's eyes were shadowed as he said in a straight tone, "We will overtake them in class points." Horikita raised a brow, "How are you so sure?"
Yuto abruptly stopped walking as he glanced at the huge scoreboard displaying Team Red and Team White's scores.
"I am going to crush Class C myself..."
_________________________
[A/N: Hey guys! I going on a vacation starting tomorrow so the chapters will come out lesser. I am still going to upload chapters albeit less frequent.]
Have some idea about my story? Comment it and let me know.
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