Classroom of the Elite: Alter - Solace

Vol. 4.5: Chapter 10.1 - Go Along

Summer really is the time to have fun. For someone like me, though? Fun would be lazing around in my room reading light novels or manga. I may have lots of friends, but that was thanks to my position in the class a while ago. If I chose to hide my abilities and lay low, no one would've been remotely interested in even talking to me. Well, I guess someone like Kikyou or Hirata might, but most of my classmates would probably just see me as that one gloomy guy. 

In the end, I'm not a social kind of person. Being with a crowd drains my energy more than any physical work and talking to others isn't my forte. I wouldn't be able to last long unlike someone of Ichinose's caliber. And even then, someone like her would also get extremely drained from time to time.

Now then, what's with the whole spiel about my social ineptitude? You see, I initially planned on spending my entire day consuming narrative content, just like yesterday but...

"Kiyotaka-kun, hey! Sorry, did you wait long?"

"Oh, Ryuuko. It's fine, I just got here."

It's what I initially planned... But for some reason, I'm currently out here, on another shopping session with a friend. Well, it was actually a half-truth. My real plan was to buy something and then spend the rest of my day lazing around.

"What will I buy?" you ask? It's currently the 31st of August and tomorrow is the birthday of my friend, Hirata Yousuke. I consciously chose to not get any gifts in advance because I thought it'd be fine to buy something the day before. This should be the case for most of the guys who intended on buying him a present, so Ryuuko's call surprised me a bit.

She told me that she was too busy to buy anything at an earlier date. Well, I'm glad we could accompany each other.

"You look fresh in that get-up. I like it." Ryuuko grinned as she commented on my clothes. It's nothing special though-- just a decent polo and jeans.

"Your outfit looks really nice, too. It suits you," I replied.

Ryuuko wore a gray trucker jacket with a soda orange peasant blouse underneath. Paired with her top were dark denim jeans. She was already pretty enough as she is, but having a good combination of clothes made her look even more attractive.

"Thanks," she smiled.

I don't how they do it, but my friends always look great when wearing their casual clothing. I wish I had their fashion sense. 

I remember Kikuchi telling me that fashion sense can be developed. If that really was the case, then I'll do my best to learn.

"Okay then. Just as we planned last night, we'll both buy men's wear for Hirata-kun. Do you have any idea where you wanna shop?"

"Nope," I answered flatly.

"Fufun~, I thought so. Alright, follow me." Ryuuko took the lead with confidence and walked ahead.

We reached a store full of expensive clothes with the idea of creating a high base standard for our gift. 

"There are a lot of nice things here, but let's look deeper. The ones outside are mostly just summer wear," she said.

We looked through different types of clothing that might suit Hirata, but Ryuuko and I just chuckled to ourselves after realizing that almost everything in this store suited someone like him.

"Hmm... So how many points do you have again, Kiyotaka-kun? I have about 290,000 left."

"I've got around 285,000 points or so," I replied.

The students in our class have received a total allowance of 399,200 private points as of August 1st. An average high school student should have an allowance of 8,000 yen a month which is equal to a 40,000-yen allowance for five months. However, this can't really apply to us who came here without bringing anything other than some clothes and personal belongings. Most of us had to buy our own everyday necessities, and a large portion of our initial budget was spent on room decorations and new clothes.