Kapitel 87: Asada-kun, are you here?

　　Arriving at school, Shinichi didn't go straight to class, but walked to the Student Council office.

　　He had been absent from work for a week, and the paperwork he might have to deal with had already piled up like a mountain. If he didn't start work earlier, he was worried that he would have to "work overtime" until today's afternoon, and he might not even be able to finish until tomorrow.

　　Luckily, the library committee members didn't have many important official duties, so it wasn't too much of a burden for the president and the others.

　　Grasping the cold metal doorknob with his hand, Shinichi pushed open the heavy sandalwood door, and there was a creak.

　　The Student Council room was quiet, and the curtains tightly blocked the rising sun outside, making it difficult for people to see the innermost scenery clearly.

　　Shinichi entered in the dark, turned on the light, and at the same time when the surroundings lit up, he also looked around the room, and immediately saw two piles of documents neatly placed on the coffee table, and there was a small table on it.

　　He opened it suspiciously, and there was a small cake in the box, with a note attached.

　　"To Asada: Even though I don't know what you're busy with, it's still hard work. Please work hard to finish the next job! ——Shirogane, Shinomiya, Fujiwara, Ishigami, Iino."

　　Shinichi felt a little warm in his heart.

　　"This really is Student Council style..."

　　Even if they were usually noisy and unserious, the members of the Student Council all had a kind heart for others, only in this way could they stand above the heads of all the students and guide them to grow.

　　Shinichi knows that not only does he want to watch Shirogane and Kaguya's love drama, he also has to work hard to become a worthy member of the Student Council for those people to repay this attention.

　　Putting the box aside, he glanced at the pile of documents, his eyes paused on the first sheet of paper, and he muttered.

　　"The secret code is... First, third, fifth, seventh, and ninth characters... skip the line here, and decrypt according to the frequency of dashes and commas...'box', 'sub', 'clamp', 'layer'?"

　　Quickly cracked the most common encryption method used by Shinomiya Kaguya. Shinichi fingered the box a bit, and took out a note from the bottom of the box which was rather thick.

　　"The president seems to be in trouble recently, let me investigate?"

　　You have to ask yourself this kind of thing! Do you like testing presidents the most?

　　Even though Shinichi really wanted to complain like this, it must be because the problem had grown to the point where it couldn't solve itself, so Kaguya would ask for help.

　　What's more, Shinichi is also very curious about Shirogane's problem. If possible, in exchange for cake, it's fine to ask him to help out as much as possible.

　　Throwing the note into the shredder to destroy, Shinichi hugged a small pile of documents and boxes, turned off the light, closed the door, and left the Student Council room.

　　....

　　In the morning, the second period ends.

　　"Asada-san, you are here?"

Furuhashi handed over a bar and she was still chewing one in her mouth.

　　Shinichi stopped correcting the pen, raised his eyes from the thick document and said with a sigh.

　　"Furuhashi, can you stop eating snacks after your second period?"

　　"I don't eat much for breakfast. I won't last until noon." Furuhashi placed the chocolate on her table, then poured a cup of black tea from the kettle, and said with a smile. "I found a delicious way to make black tea, come and drink it, Asada-san."

　　"Black tea?" Shinichi looked at the clear liquid on the lid of the kettle, as if he was thinking about something, suddenly took out the uneaten cake from the drawer in the morning, "Black tea must be paired with cake, you want to eat some of it?"

　　"Okay!" Seeing the cake, Furuhashi's eyes lit up instantly. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but Shinichi even faintly heard the sound of gulping behind him.

　　"Wow~ This is a strawberry cake, did Asada-san bring it from home?"

　　Shinichi cut a small piece of cake for Furuhashi, and explained casually: "Someone gave it to me, is it a condolence item? Since I'm having lunch later, I don't want to finish all the cake, and you're my student, so I'm sharing some with you."

　　"Actually, I don't need to talk about the rest, I understand." Furuhashi waved her hand as usual, and when she picked up the cake with chopsticks and was about to eat it, her hand suddenly stopped.

　　(Given by someone else? Apart from me and Ricchan, who else would give Asada-san a cake?)

　　Could it be... Nakano Ichika?

　　Furuhashi suddenly became nervous, and quickly stuffed the cake into her mouth, thinking as she chewed.

　　Since the day Ichika expressed her thoughts about Shinichi, it was like a joke. The other party didn't try to approach him at all, and didn't ask for introductions anymore in the chat on LINE, which almost made Furuhashi forget about it.

　　Thinking back carefully now, she also found that the other party showed a lot of flaws, such as a completely unqualified appearance, and overly exaggerated words and deeds, which made her suspect that Ichika was not very interested in Shinichi, but it's for someone else.

　　Combined with the cake shared by her and Shinichi, Furuhashi was surprised. Could all of this be in Ichika's plan?

　　First, she used her clumsy acting skills that flashed through when she was calm to put her on guard, but then she calmed down and kept her cool. When he almost forgot about it or lowered her guard, she went straight for the target's attack, and caught her off guard.

　　What a terrible strategy!

　　Furuhashi swallowed her cake, then grabbed the lid of the pot beside her and drank her black tea.

　　Even if she misunderstood Ichika's character, it was fine, what mattered was what she would do next… No, she had to first confirm whether it was the cake Ichika gave him. Furuhashi also doesn't want to misunderstand others.

　　So, she asked Shinichi indifferently: "Who gave it to you? Giving you a strawberry cake as a present, that must be a very cute girl, right?"

　　"Girl?" Shinichi frowned and thought for a moment. Shinomiya Kaguya, Fujiwara Chika, and Iino Miko are undoubtedly very cute girls. If they were actually suggesting gift giving, then Furuhashi wasn't wrong in saying so.

　　After thinking about it for a while, he hesitantly replied: "Yeah, I don't like judging her when she's cute, but she's still popular with the students."

　　Popular?

　　Furuhashi immediately became alert. Ichika's personality is gentle and friendly like an older sister. She got along very well with other students within a week of enrolling. She heard that several seniors asked her to come out and confess to her, making the boys in the same class beat their chests like orangutans and burst into tears.

　　It just fits the setting!

　　Furuhashi wanted to keep asking, but Shinichi kept talking to himself.

　　"But no matter what, if five people choose this kind of gift item together, it's also possible for those two people (Shirogane and Ishigami) to choose it… It's surprising that there's such a girly heart."

　　Five peoples!

　　As soon as the keywords entered her ears, Furuhashi was so surprised that she almost slapped the table.

　　Could it be that Ichika wants to go after Shinichi, and has the quintuplet sisters behind her as a support team?

　　How cunning! In this way, if Ogata really likes Shinichi one day, Furuhashi will be the only one in the support team, and she won't be able to win at all, right?