Sudou had learned some lessons along the way and suffered a lot.
He had been very depressed at first and felt that his whole life had gone down the drain and that his school life would be nothing more than that.
But the warmth of the senpai's palm suddenly seeped in from his shoulder.
"I see. Thank you senpai. I will not let you down."
This bit of warmth and comfort made Sudou feel a lot better.
He even felt a little guilty as he couldn't help but wonder if all this was really his fault.
As he walked off, the manager of the basketball club was left behind with a dazed look on his face.
'Did I say something wrong? Why do I feel like I have let him down? The boy doesn't seem to have very many options now, does he? I wonder if he has been bullied into such a position.'
"What a poor kid."
Looking at Sudou Ken who walked away in a low mood, the manager had also found it within him to feel some sympathy for this one-brain-cell child.
Shaking his head to rid it of the thoughts, he began to arrange the training equipment for the club members.
Sudou, who left with his head down, immediately returned to the school block and found the student council office.
"Is there anything else you wish to speak about, Sudou-san?"
Seeing Sudou had come back, Horikita Manabu was a little surprised.
But he naturally wasn't too worried about the boy's presence.
The worst situation would be that he had found out something and wanted to hit Manabu, but in that case, there were no other options for him but to be kicked out of the school directly.
"Please, help me, President!"
Having prepared what he wanted to say for a long time, Sudou Ken seemed to have turned on a strange switch within him and bowed as far as down as he could go.
It seemed that he had already apologised countless times today, so it wasn't as hard to bow so submissively just this once.
"Huh?"
Horikita Manabu was surprised.
'What's going on here?'
"Say what you need to frankly, Sudou."
"I..."
Sudou paused and then told the older boy about his situation.
He was simply here to beg for mercy and ask Manabu for help.
He hoped the student council could help communicate with the basketball club about his resignation.
"Sudou-san, our student council only does things according to the rules, and generally we don't get involved in the management of the various clubs. This time, the report was proposed by the victim, Ying Ye, and we rejected it as a matter of principle. If the basketball club intends to kick you out, that's their internal matter. Even if they were to come and find us, it would be useless. Is it possible that the basketball club itself thinks you are not suitable to stay in their club?"
Horikita had not expected that his classmate would not blame him directly.
He was just asking for help from himself, so Manabu didn't have to explain himself much.
"My manager told me that as long as president is willing to let me go, I have a chance. I, I know what I did wrong. I really know that I was wrong, and this kind of thing will not happen again. I can accept any other punishment, as long as it does not involve being expelled. Please help me..."
Sudou Ken broke down a bit as if he was about to cry.
He had made more concessions today and endured more hardship than he had ever conceded in his whole life.
Seeing Sudou like this, Horikita was left speechless for a moment, as he had seen how violent this kouhai of his could be.
Ying Ye Zhenshi's bloodless assault made him almost break down and cry.
As expected, if you wanted to attack someone, you had to attack something very important to them.
Thinking of what Ying Ye Zhenshi had said once before, Horikita learned a lot about the modus operandi of Ying Ye Zhenshi, his sinister little kouhai.
Fortunately, they were not in the same year, otherwise, he didn't know how he would have been slandered to the point of no return.
Horikita Gaku silently mourned for the first-year students.
He also thought about reminding the sinister little fellow not to bully his little sister too much.
Or he could tell his own sister to pay attention and be careful of Ying Ye.
The sis-con still paid the most attention to his sister even at this time.
Anyway, Sudou was not forgotten either.
"The main cause of this matter is your classmate, Ying Ye Zhenshi. Since that is the case, you should talk it out with him. If you can persuade him otherwise, bring him over to the student council. The student council doesn't mind getting involved in this matter again. We can then help you communicate this with the coach of the basketball club. And remember, don't be so violent anymore."
Horikita reminded Sudou with an intense gaze.
However, the ball was lifted out of his court now.
Anyway, he had thrown it to Ying Ye Zhenshi, the culprit.
What would happen as a result was all up to Ying Ye Zhenshi.
In any case, Manabu didn't have much of an opinion of how things played out.
"Ying Ye Zhenshi..."
Sudou's breathing hitched all of a sudden.
"That's right. This is something you have to sort out. Is there an issue?"
Horikita looked at him and asked.
"No, no. I will work hard. Thank you, President."
Sudou Ken knew that his task would be very difficult, but he thanked the older boy and then left.
"This kid is really..."
Evidently, he had also been one of those who had been involved in bullying the poor kid, but in the end, the boy still wanted to thank him.
Horikita didn't know if it was because he was too bad and it was too dark to be bullying others, or if the boy was just too honest and because he couldn't see through anything, that he was left feeling a little stuffy inside.
After leaving the student council office, Sudou was also at a loss about what to do next.
He was like a ball being kicked back and forth.
And after all of it, he was left exhausted time and time again.
He had already been kicked away twice in a row, and now he didn't know what to make of it.
When he first went to the student council office, he had thought that the president would be his life-saving straw, but unfortunately, it seemed that Ying Ye Zhenshi was at the centre of everything.
Sudou already knew the difficulty of his task even before he went to find his classmate.
It would probably be a hundred times more difficult than persuading the student council and his manager to let him off.
Moreover, with their current relationship, it would be almost impossible for the boy in question to let him off.
— — — — — —
T/N: Lowering the bar.
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