The school life for Ayanokoji Kiyotaka is inching closer and the final battle has been announced. The exam will test the abilities of the students, both academic and athletic. But this time, the exam will be conducted in two different phases. And no...
After receiving the message from Sakayanagi I was heading towards where she had called me.
The school was already over and students were returning to their dorms so I doubt there would be anyone else around.
I was walking leisurely when I spotted someone standing alone in the council room. The door was open.
I thought the figure looked familiar and tried peeking through the door.
The girl noticed me and turned her head towards the door.
"Ayanokoji-kun?"
"What are you doing here, Horikita?" I came out of my hiding and decided to talk to her.
She said nothing but motioned me to sit in the empty chair.
I did as she told me.
"Face the other way."
"Huh?"
"Just do it!"
Buckling under the pressure of her voice, I did as she told.
I heard the sound of someone dragging a chair close to where I was and joined it with mine. Horikita sat on that chair.
We were now sitting in this council room, with our backs to each other.
Although the chairs were preventing from our backs touching, I could still feel the tip of her hair brushing against my neck.
"It was all your doing, right?"
"Yes."
She sighed.
Just before the class started today, I had transferred 40 million points to her. She must have been surprised why I sent her so much money and how did I get them in the first place.
"If not for you, we would have been penalized."
"That's true. But the reason why it happened in the first place was because I gave that privilege to him."
Horikita was silent.
Normally, she would have asked me what did that meant.
Does that mean she has already connected the dots herself? That would be amazing but I felt that that was not all. There was something else.
"I failed."
Yes, she had failed to realize her dream. That must have been the reason why she was so down in the dumps.
Ever since coming to this school, her dream had been to be acknowledged by her brother, and for that, she had made reaching Class A her goal. She had worked hard and didn't spare any effort in reaching her goal. But despite all this, she had failed. It must have hurt quite a well.
While I was thinking that, she started speaking. "And...," and what she said was something that I had never expected, "I failed in proving myself to you."
"Proving yourself to me? What are you talking about?"
Wasn't her dream getting to Class A so that she could be acknowledged by her brother? Where did I come from?
"My dream had been to be acknowledged by my brother but before I could prove myself he graduated. It doesn't mean that that goal has changed but at some point, without me realizing, I had already developed a goal to be acknowledged by you." She stopped as if trying to hold in her tears.
"I know how amazing you are. There was a time where I thought I wanted to be like you. But realized that we were fundamentally different. That was why that I thought that I wanted to be someone who could support you and have your back. I wanted to get acknowledged by you."
"And for that, you wanted to reach Class A."
"Y-Yeah."
Her voice was shaking and breaking. She was definitely shedding tears. I could hear her sobs.
She must be pretty down in the dumps. If not, then the girl named Horikita wouldn't confide all this in to me.
"What would getting acknowledged by me mean? Or so you might say. But for me it was everything. It was the sole reason that pushed me forward and every time, whenever I thought I was going to give up, that was the sole reason I was able to press forward! So don't you dare say that!"
That was exactly what I would have said if not for her.
She wasn't even trying to hide the fact that she was crying right now.
There was no trace of the usual Horikita in her. She was crying like a child and yelling like a child. She was frustrated and acting like a child would when he failed to win the race in grade school. But this was in no way an illusion. It was not false. This was what the girl in front of me truly felt.
"Horikita, if your goal was to reach Class A then you have failed. That's that. However, if it was to be acknowledged by me then you had achieved that long ago."
"Huh?"
Her tears stopped, trying to comprehend what I meant.
"Horikita, you remember how you were at the beginning?"
"Yeah."
Although it had just been three years, it felt like a long time ago.
"You were always alone and didn't talk with others. You looked down on others and that was what was holding you back."
"However, look at you now. You have changed. You have developed into a leader. A brilliant one at that. Those classmates that trash-talked you, now, believe in you. They follow you. In their eyes, you are a leader and a highly capable and respectable classmate. You finally broke out of that shell and proved your worth as a human."
Yes, as a human. Something that I don't think I will have ever managed to become.
I would never manage to be like Horikita Suzune, a leader worthy of respect and praise.
Yes, she failed as a leader and failed to reach Class A but she had evolved into a much better person. Out of everyone, she has grown the most.
"That's why, Horikita," I stood and turned around to face her-as a human far more superior than me, "I have acknowledged you a long time ago."
More tears spilled forth but the meaning behind those tears was different.
After a few moments of crying, she wiped her face with her sleeves like a child and stood like a leader.
She extended her hand towards me and I accepted it.
At that moment, Horikita Suzune looked so much dazzling that I almost had to look away.
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