COTE: Ayanokouji's Return

Chapter 10 - A Ghost

2nd April

Kiyotaka's POV

I woke up on the usual time and started my morning exercises.

After that I usually would go to the gym, but I still didn't know whereabouts of the one here.

I made a mental note to check it up later today.

While stretching myself, I started to think about my biggest dilemma today.

Namely, how I should behave towards class D and if I should share my findings with them.

A normal student would probably share everything at the first occasion and basked in the glory of success.

Such person would definitely be named as class leader or at least a key person in the class.

I would be quite popular and became center of attention not only in my class, but also in other classes.

At first glance it sounds great, but it's actually quite troublesome.

Popularity among masses was like double edged sword.

When you are doing good, they will like you. When you are doing bad, they will stop to like you, even start to hate you for worse results.

I would be judged for all of my behavior and actions. I would need to constantly care about my image in my classmates eyes.

I would also need to pay attention to all annoying things and people. They would put a responsibility on my back without my consent as if it was the most natural thing to do.

And that was something I disliked and would want to avoid.

I prefer my freedom much more. I wanted to use my private time to do things that I like or would be beneficial for me.

My contact with students from the other classes would also be very limited and probably would be misunderstood most of the time.

As class leader, meeting with enemy students in my free time would be considered as trying to spy and acquire information for the class competition or me trying to betray my class.

Just thinking about trouble I would get while meeting with Fuka or Masumi in such scenario gave me a headache.

As if I would give up on spending my time with them because of that.

I genuinely didn't have any interest in this competition.

My goal from the start was to make a lot of acquaintances and allies for the future. It would be hindered, if I was actively helping my class.

I didn't want to sacrifice possibility to befriend those 120 students for my 39 classmates.

But on the other hand I needed to make an individual reputation for myself.

For now many people will treat me as a member of the worst class and a defective student. Not a good start.

I couldn't afford to be looked down upon. It would be a detrimental for me and my plans.

Fortunately, an opportunity already showed itself for me to play a role that would make me respectable for other students, despite my class D student status.

I needed to become a member of Student Council, preferably a Vice-President.

Such position would give me attention, but I could still stay neutral. If I showed everyone that I have no ambition towards class competition, people would treat me as someone important, but not dangerous. At least to some degree.