Unveiling the Mastermind - Classroom of the Elite Reaction

Sudo's Trial - Love Advice For Ichinose

"Well, judging by the videos we've watched, Ayanokoji seems knowledgeable on quite a few subjects. Maybe he's also some kind of secret love guru?" Hashimoto suggested, his smile indicating he had no confidence in his own proposal.

"Absolutely not," Kei had to restrain from saying this out loud.

"No, definitely not. There's no chance of that," Haruka rejected Hashimoto's suggestion quite forcefully.

"Well, he does seem quite dense when it comes to social situations," Kobashi agreed, "It was hell convincing him to come to a party,"

Apparently, my reluctance to attend that particular gathering had not been lost on Kobashi.

"Huh? A party?" Sato looked interested.

"Oh, I invited him to a small party we had on the cruise ship. He helped Chihiro-chan on the island so I thought it was only right,"

Although that was technically true, she had clearly had ulterior motives when inviting me on that occasion.

"I'm surprised you would attend a party like that, Kiyotaka," Keisei said, "You don't strike me as the type to enjoy such events,"

"I felt sort of obligated," I replied.

Being pushed and prodded into attending gatherings like that happened to everyone. Peer pressure wasn't an easy thing to overcome. That was especially true when you were close with those doing the pressuring. Coincidentally, Himeno had become a regular victim of this within Ichinose's own class.

"I'm now going to start the video," Mashima announced.

There were four dorm buildings on campus. Three were for students, who stayed in the various dorms to which they were assigned from first through third year. In other words, our dorm building this year was the same one where last year's third-year students had lived. The fourth building housed the instructors and school employees.

What I'm saying is that since all of the first-year students live in the same building, inevitably we would meet students from the other classes. Someone entered my field of vision. Our eyes naturally met.

"Ichinose again?" Kanzaki was the first to recognise who I'd encountered.

"Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure." The girl spoke these grateful words to the dormitory manager, then called out to me.

"Hey, Ayanokouji-kun! Good morning. You're early."

She had beautiful long, wavy hair and big eyes. The second button of her blazer strained over her large chest. Her upright posture matched her dignified personality. I found myself more attracted to her cool temperament than how cute she was. Ichinose Honami, that first-year Class B student, had found me again.

"Hmm? What was that about being attracted to her?" Amikura immediately commenced a vicious attack.

Rather than allow her to launch a full-on interrogation I decided to counter her, "Is there something wrong with that?"

"What? Of course not, I didn't mean anything like that,"

Even though it was obvious she had not meant anything malicious with her question, I responded in a way that suggested she had. To a person with genuinely good intentions, asking such a question would make them falter and make sure the other person didn't take offence. Once she had done this, Amikura would find it difficult to continue probing.

As intended, she didn't follow up.

"I woke up a little earlier today. What were you talking about with the manager?" I asked.