Bab 10: Chapter 10
The end of finals was signalled by the quietest of sighs by the students of class A.
Everyone was exhausted by the massive level difference in normal school exams and Kunugigaoka. Of course, the mid-semester exam had been difficult as well, but the mid term exam was on a different level. It made the students earn their ranks.
Gakushuu insisted on everyone taking a complete break from studies and everyone gladly took it on. Araki had noted that there would be a chance of rebellion if Gakushuu had insisted on studying. He laughed at the silent threat Araki delivered (his first).
The silence before the results almost made Ayaka blow up, but thanks to the timely arrival of their teacher and the glaring of half the class, the results were delivered on time.
Gakushuu scored the first rank with a total of 499 marks, which almost made him internally sigh. It was Japanese, he was sure of it. Ren would be scandalized.
Ren tied with Gakushuu in Japanese though, to Gakushuu's absolute surprise, though his other subjects brought his overall score down. Araki came in second rank and scored his best in Social Studies. Akabane Karma scored best in math, but his rank decreased to 4th, with Hinata getting 3rd rank.
He, along with the rest of the class, turned as one to stare at Hinata. She had her hands over her mouth as she stared at the results. She blinked a few times and started crying.
"I-I can't," she sobbed out, "I can't believe I got it." Amami stepped in arm range and Hinata launched herself at the other girl, laughing and crying at the same time.
Amami stumbled but caught herself with Miya's support who was looking at them happily. Even Morisuke's scowl eased up at the genuine joy in Hinata's laugh.
When she finally wiped her tears away, she bowed to the rest of the class.
"I promised myself that if I got in the top 5, I wouldn't transfer schools. My cousin will join from the next semester and I wanted to leave the school. But I couldn't!" She closed her eyes tightly as she confessed.
"I'm really sorry for worrying everyone! And," then she looked at Gakushuu and smiled brightly, "thank you for helping so much, Gakushuu."
Gakushuu blinked a few times before he flushed red. He nodded, pretending he didn't feel the heat of his skin, and tried to stifle either a smile or a scowl.
Ren smiled brightly at the class.
There was a class trip at the end of the midterm exam that they gave every year to the three classes who scored the best.
Kunugigaoka was actually a place where you couldn't get in without paying through your nose. Of course, it wasn't too big a problem for an average salary man, but it was more suited to the kids of the rich people who wanted their kids to succeed at both academics and life.
A class trip to a good place was slightly excessive, but not something that hurt them much. Unlike most excellent schools, Kunugigaoka didn't spend money on the best teachers, or even a lot on the facilities.
And the better things the main building had, the worse they would feel about being dropped to class E.
So, Gakushuu had been about the only one who had been thinking about the class trip for being the best class, while his classmates spent time studying for the exams.
There were three spots that were booked, and out of those one was given to each year. As the son of the Principal, he obviously snatched first right of choice.
There was a beach venue, a mountain terrain and a wildlife area.
The wildlife choice was the most varied and Gakushuu had been unsure about how his class would react to something like that, so he had chosen the mountain terrain.
Though, even he wasn't sure what exactly his father meant by 'mountain terrain', he was pretty sure it would be a luxury reward for the rich kids of class A, at the minimum.
He had to admit though.
Looking at the glistening glass mansions perched on the mountain side, as they rode up to it in a bus. It was absolutely gorgeous. And he had underestimated his father.
When they reached the nearest mansion, which had floor to ceiling glass doors and a clear view to the mountain range on which the sun would set.
He could honestly feel the luxury in the place. There was a man who welcomed them politely and after identifying Gakushuu, explained that they would get two of the mansions to themselves, and they would have a couple chefs who would make their meals at set times.
Then he was introduced to another man who would take them out for whatever adventure sports, hiking, or whatever they had available.
Ayaka pounced almost immediately at the idea of food and the class snacked as they discussed how to divide the rooms. It was decided to do it based on gender, but there seemed to be a number of girls who seemed oddly disappointed about it.
Gakushuu had to admit to being slightly disappointed as well. He would have liked to spend more time with the girls in his class. He could always tell them about him.
But.
Gakushuu ended up taking over one of best rooms in the boys mansion. He had plans , which involved waking up at dawn, a cup of coffee and a book.
He would get wonderful alone and peaceful time in a place like this.
Not to mention, it was cold. They were high up on a mountain, and mist occasionally gathered up, but it just made the place seem even more enchanting.
The path between the mansions were also lined well, and you'd have to actually jump over the rails to fall over. And even then, Gakushuu had spotted another surface right below the edge, they probably won't get anything more than a twisted ankle and in the worst case, a broken bone.
It was surprisingly safe.
When they met up again, Hinata was almost bursting with excitement at the chance to go paragliding while Amami seemed to be shaking her head fiercely at the thought.
Morisuke insisted that he wanted to check out hiking spots and even Gakushuu was actually tempted. It was a beautiful place and he hadn't been hiking with other people before. He was sure it would be fun.
But Hinata's insistence along with a few more who joined in after looking at the amount of things they could do, convinced the rest.
They decided to spent the first day on Hinata's idea, and the second day would be an optional hiking, for people who wanted to.
Gakushuu would have been content just staying in the mansion itself for a day though. It had everything they needed to entertain themselves. He was sure a few of the girls were planning to swim in the indoor pool he had seen both the mansions have.
And so the first day was an absolute rush . It was hard to deny Hinata but, Gakushuu wondered if putting the hiking first wouldn't have been better.
He felt like he was being converted to a complete adrenaline junkie. They jumped from the highest places they found, and felt like they were dying half a dozen times.
There was a moment where Kazuki almost cried but he got pushed into trying out paragliding since their next destination was closer to the landing spot.
Gakushuu was honestly surprised at the number of people absolutely thrilled (and screaming) through everything they tried out.
He would have said they almost forgot to eat, but with Ayaka around, it was literally never a worry. She had an almost infinite amount of snacks with her and she bought whatever peaked her curiosity.
He was surprised to find, Shimizu was their hoarder. She would buy specialties of each spot and maybe a few more items and sneak it into her bag like she was doing something shady.
No one questioned her but she received a few odd looks.
After they were exhausted out of their minds, damp from the slight rain and decided to go back, they found Kimiko and Miyuki, one of the most unlikely pairs ever, who had both decided to stay back and not take part in the whole ride of an adrenaline junkie that the day had turned out to be.
They were relaxing in the indoor pool. Miyuki had been eating fruits but when she spotted them coming back, she let out a soft 'eek' and blushed; while Kimiko, alerted by Miyuki's response, gave them a wave as she continued to read a book.
Kazuki, along with a few girls, approached the pool and the two girls. He stuck his hand in the water and gasped at the warmth he found there.
Then, he immediately jumped in, to the shrieks and horror of the girls. Gakushuu facepalmed and Ren tried to slide away from the mess but Araki stopped it by putting his hand on his arm. He sighed silently before sending Gakushuu a pitiful look. He really didn't want to get involved when he was already so tired.
Gakushuu smiled at him before waving Ren and Araki away. Kazuki's personality was well known to the class so the other boys had run away so they wouldn't be forced to deal with whatever mess he made.
Kazuki floated on the water with a blissful smile, and a few of the girls scrunched up their noses in disgust. Miyuki meekly got out and even Kimiko huffed out a breath before getting out.
Kazuki was making the pool dirty and they didn't like it.
"That's enough now," he sighed, dragging a drenched Kazuki out from the pool. Fortunately, there was a pile of towels nearby that Gakushuu opened and wrapped around the other boy who was shivering too hard to protest.
"This is way too-" he sneezed, when Kimiko opened a window. "Close the window!!" He yelled at her, trying to curl even more into the big towel.
"Just go and change in your room," Gakushuu cut in. Hinata shut the window and Kazuki sighed in relief. Then he started sending longing looks at the pool.
"We'll gather at this pool for dinner. For now, everyone just go clean up and change," he lightly shoved Kazuki towards the stairs and then he turned to look at the girls with a slightly apologetic look.
"You guys can just bring a change of clothes and dress in my room, it's clean, I promise." Kimiko ran her hands through her mostly dry hair.
"We were waiting for you guys in the first place, so no worries," then she smirked, "and we've already been using your room, there's no need to give us permission."
Gakushuu nodded, laughter in his eyes. It was one thing he had liked about Kimiko. No matter how proper she had seemed in first glance, she sometimes acted like a bona fide gangster. She spoke in their group chat crudely, and crossed over all the lines of propriety when it inconvenienced her. If she started to get into fights, he would have had to take a second look at her family history in relation to Akabane.
But she also knew how to put on a mask and do what society asked of her. It was just that, this time, Gakushuu asked them to show their true selves to each other.
Gakushuu looked at the other girls, some were dipping their legs in the pool that was rapidly becoming cleaner, some had already left for the girls' mansion, some were looking at him and Kimiko, some were leaning into each other, giggling.
It was the same for most of the girls in class. Girls were forced to adapt to their surroundings the most, their truest selves unaccepted by majority.
People only wanted them to show what they wanted to see. It was just, this time, Gakushuu had asked them all to show their true selves. He didn't interfere if they hated each other and argued, like with Hinata and Kimiko previously, or if they didn't like people in general, like Shimizu.
He only stepped in if someone was trying to force them to conform to society, like the only time one of their classmates, Akira, had commented on how the girls should stick to just learning to be a wife, when he saw them starting to learn basketball under Gakushuu.
It had infuriated him, and the retaliation had stopped the boys from making any more sexist comments. Akira had perhaps the most genuine 'hatred' for Gakushuu in class, but he couldn't retaliate because he was aware of his status as the Principal's son.
The girls had left behind the masks they had started to make for themselves, to be truly themselves. Maybe it wouldn't be for long, or maybe they hadn't completely opened themselves, like Miyuki, the shyest one in their class.
The boys had been easier in this aspect. He had the strength to hold their respect, and well, that was a pretty good start.
The boys gathered up first, while Gakushuu went through the controls for the indoor pool. It extended from one side of the room to the other, at the very back. There was a gentle trickle of falling water from a trio of balls that made the pool look shallow and for show.
But when the trickle of water was shut off, they could increase the water flowing to remove any dirt or stagnant water; which Gakushuu assumed they did before the students had arrived.
The water was warm, the same temperature as the room, actually. Gakushuu would be going through its mechanisms as soon as he could get his hands on the blueprint, someone with know-how, or some time to himself in the place (how convenient that everyone else left when night fell).
It wasn't enough for all the students, but he doubted everyone was that interested anyway. And he was right.
Everyone was tired, but after eating, they put their feet inside the water and talked. There were groups and people talking across the groups and at one point Gakushuu was talking to three people at the same time, but it was light-hearted. It was relaxing.
Even Miyuki talked to Kimiko, and Ayaka used her rarely used indoor voice, though downtimes the volume went slightly out of control.
They swapped life stories, and Gakushuu caught more than 20 developing psychological issues from their stories alone, but he didn't focus on them. The most he would do was nudge someone's friend in a direction.
But they were kids. They created their own issues and got over them with the same gutso. Not to mention, teenagers were dramatic.
He was dramatic.
He knew but, whatever. He was also pretty competent so it worked out.
He did end up talking about his father once, but the reaction was pretty lukewarm from everyone, even if some- more than he had been expecting- were forcing it.
But he didn't particularly care.
His father was the Principal of their school. They already had a few stiff interactions outside the office, and there were rumors, though he hadn't gotten the specifics, after getting the gist of it from Ren.
To his surprise, it was Miyuki who took up talking after he talked about his father.
She talked about how she used to get abused by her divorced father before he died, and then her mother got custody and she was doing better. She seemed embarrassed, but she spoke because she wanted to comfort Gakushuu.
Which was pretty cool, actually.
What was even cooler, was the way most of his class couldn't close their mouths.
Then Kimiko picked up after.
"It's not anything as bad as Miyuki's but, I my aunt almost ended my ballet career two years ago. She was a trainer and her daughter was learning too, but she was jealous of how talented I was," Kimiko smiled, a small cold thing that Gakushuu had seen on the rare occasions when someone pissed her off.
"I didn't know then, but if I hadn't gone to the doctor when my mom insisted, I probably would have had to drop dancing all together."
There was a slight coldness after she ended, but he could feel something was beginning to give.
"It's nothing as bad," Morisuke started, so everyone's visible surprise. He took in the looks and scowled.
"Shut up, I'm human too!"
He looked away, but when Miya put his hand on Morisuke's shoulder, he took a breath, his eyes flickering to Gakushuu before he settled on looking at the pool surface.
"My coach…" he started, and Gakushuu felt like he got the first inkling of why Morisuke seemed more dead set on Gakushuu than normal, "-he got fired for helping me," then the story continued in an unexpected direction.
"My dad's in textile manufacture," and the class receive yet another blow at the news. Morisuke was tall for his age, he looked like he would turn out to be a buff, but he still wore glasses and studied with them in the library. But now there was textile??? Their understanding of Morisuke was shattered a third time.
"And I've always been good at studies even if I didn't look at it, so I used to follow him around. But one day after school, one of his employees came after me. I wasn't very good at fighting then, so I almost got held down and raped or whatever it was that guy wanted to do," he said quickly, his eyes darting about, embarrassed, as the class started to listen in with surprising fierceness.
"My coach hit the guy over the head, and almost gave him brain damage. He got fired, and my father sued him to keep his mouth shut," he shrugged uncomfortably.
Then there was silence.
No one knew what to say to something like that.
Would consoling be a good option or something else?
An image of Akabane flashed through his mind. Mid-fight and alive, frustrated at his loss but exhilarating.
"If you know how to fight, you should just come to the club and fight me," Gakushuu opened his mouth and said something. Morisuke snorted.
"As if someone as wimpy looking as you can beat me," Gakushuu grinned at the challenge.
""Funny. That's exactly what Akabane said before I beat him."
Then everyone shouted in surprise at him
"EH??!!!"
"Akabane Karma??? That Akabane Karma?"
"What is the class rep doing with that delinquent?!"
"But that guy!! He's terrible!"
"He's really crazy, Gakushuu!"
The class continued to bitch about Akabane and Gakushuu shot a look at Ren. He shrugged, looking amused.
"You seemed to like him. And you've kept your meetings away from the public so far."
"I would have still liked to know how bad the rumors had gotten!" He hissed back under his breath.
"They're talking about actual incidents I've already told you about. The student body heard about them and came to the conclusion that Akabane was batshit crazy on their own," Araki piped in from the other side.
"He is batshit crazy," Ren pointed out.
"Asano is batshit crazy," Araki mumbled under his breath.
Gakushuu rolled his eyes.
The topic devolved from there to talking about the rumor mill in Kunugigaoka. There was news about the student council being unstable and shady things going on in 3-A of High School. Random news about the student council secretory being secretly a lesbian, or some senior dating 2 girls at the same time and got demoted a class when he lost his grades for it.
They were gossiping and talking shit about random people, late into the night. When it started raining, a gentle patter of rain hitting the window, Gakushuu clapped his hands loudly.
"All right, I'll make sure the girls all get to their place. Everyone else can continue or just clean up and go."
A few people let out a groan of dismay, but quite a lot of them were already yawning. Ayaka giggled and buried her face in Hinata's shoulder and Anaya yawned a few times, running her eyes to get rid of the sleepiness.
"Let's just go," Kimiko complained when Miyuki took time, struggling to find her glasses that she had lost sometime.
Miya handed it to her with a smile and Miyuki shyly accepted it.
The night was cold to the point he wondered if he should have gotten a few sweaters. Everyone started shivering almost immediately.
Tomomi, Emiko, Satsuki and Yuzuki huddled up together like the group of childhood friends they were, and the rest inched closer to Gakushuu, trying to seek warmth from him.
When they finally reached their mansion, they barely gave a wave to Gakushuu before running inside. Hinata hesitated, wondering if she should ask him to cane in, but he just walked away after he saw everyone get in.
Ayaka was almost asleep, hanging onto Hinata, and she focused on getting the other girl to wake up enough to brush her teeth and sleep.
Gakushuu walked back, his hands in his pockets. The cold wind froze his skin, and the slight rain felt like drops of ice.
But in spite of all that, he had a small smile on his face.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
Siera_Knightwalker
Siera_Knightwalker Students of class A: (for reference)
Gakushuu
Ren, bestie of the year
Araki, new info gatherer
Tadashi Morisuke, self declared eternal rival
Miya, silent support for Morisuke
Kazuki Mimeya, messy guy
Akira, sexist dickbag
Masa(chika) Satoi
Seiji Shiba
Asahi
Kaito
Kimiko, ballet girl.
Amami, introvert friend
Hinata, extro crier
Anaya, stoic babe
Keiji Shimizu, independent loner
Ayaka, loud baby of the group
Miyuki, shyest
Tomomi, baby#1
Satsuki, baby#2
Emiko, tired of shit
Yuzuki, proud richie
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone