Chapter 55 - Tail

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( Ayanokoji POV )

Winter was just around the corner. Most of the shops in and around Keyaki Mall had already began decorating for the festive season.

From what I'd heard from Keisuke, winter is quite the exquisite festival in Japan. There's apparently a lot of decorations, sales, food and stuff to look out for. He said that it was his second favorite season, after fall.

Even though I don't get the hype.

"Oi, Kiyopon. You zoning out again?"

A voice called out to me, and I turned to look at Haruka Hasebe, who was staring at me with questioning eyes. "Knock knock, you there?"

"Leave the poor man alone, Haruka," Akito said, as he absentmindedly stirred his coffee. "You know Kiyotaka's the type to stay in his own world."

"Well, it's kinda boring if he does it when we're around as well!" Haruka insisted. "Don't you agree, Airi, Keisei?"

"Y-yes," Airi Sakura said. She had grown to become a much more confident and mature woman around Haruka. Maybe it indeed was necessary for her to get some friends so she could open up on her bottled up feelings and let it all out.

"I'm not sure I concur," Yukimura sighed, as he closed his book. "It indeed is rather strange to zone out in the middle of a conversation, but if we're gonna stay quiet throughout, then I don't think it's much of an issue. Besides, it's not Kiyotaka's fault if he spaces out a bit while we're being boring."

"Aww, I didn't want a logical explanation!" Haruka said, and she flailed her arms about like a child begging for a toy. "I just don't want Kiyopon to feel lonely!"

"I'm not feeling lonely, Haruka," I said to dispel the confusion. "I was just spacing out, like Keisei said. Don't worry about it. It's not lonely to be around you guys at all."

"Woah, Kiyotaka actually complimented us," Akito said astonished. "Even though that didn't sound like a compliment, I'm gonna assume that it was....."

"Hey, I'm gonna go get a refill on coffee," Haruka said, as she stood up. "Do you guys need anything?"

"You don't have to pay for us," I added in. "I'll come, too."

"Don't fret it, Kiyopon!" Haruka said proudly. "I'm doing this because I need to flaunt off my new balance and status!"

Akito stifled a chuckled, and even Airi and Keisei cracked a smile.

The mood in Class 1-D had improved significantly ever since our thorough crushing of Ryuuen's Class.

Or maybe I should say, Class 1-C.

We were the first class in our year to get promoted.

Chabashira-sensei had walked in yesterday in class, and announced it to everyone. The Class Standing currently stood at —

Class 1-A..... Led by Sakayanagi..... 974 CP

Class 1-B..... Led by Ichinose.......... 653 CP

Class 1-C..... Led by Takeyama....... 533 CP

Class 1-D..... Led by Ryuuen........... 342 CP

It was indeed a huge gain for our class. Not only had we crossed the 500 Point barrier, Class A winning the Paper Shuffle against Class B meant that we had closed our gap with Class B by 200 Points in just one swoop. Though our overall gap with Class A did not see a net change, we're still much closer to the summit than we were a measly 4 months back.

"All the credit goes to Takeyama," Keisei said. "He's the one who's been pulling our class along. Horikita-san deserves some praise as well. Besides, I've heard rumors that Ryuuen and Takeyama had some sort of altercation again, and Takeyama-kun came out on top."

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