COTE Year 2 Reimagined

Volume 7:Part 3

After the rest of the day went by, it was finally time to leave. But unfortunately for me, I wasn't allowed to do so. I had to remain in the classroom to see what Horikita wants from me.

"Matsushita-san wanted to check out the locations we could rent for the café. Since you're the manager, I thought you should be there with us."

Horikita finally explained her intentions. I sighed and waited in my seat. Matsushita was looking through her phone and probably noting down any location she was interested in. She took about 15 minutes and scouted five locations in total. When she was done, we all got up and followed her.

"Horikita-san. Shouldn't we do anything about Hasebe-san? She's clearly dissatisfied. I don't know if she'll cooperate with us at the festival."

Horikita nodded at her.

"I'm concerned too. I've thought of multiple ways to deal with the situation, but I don't see a need to take action yet. She hasn't done anything wrong so far."

I decided to interrupt the conversation.

"Please leave Haruka to me. She's my friend so I'll take care of the problem."

Horikita looked at me with a somewhat concerned expression.

"Are you sure?"

I nodded at her. Mii-chan and Satou glanced at me when I said that, but they didn't say anything.

"Very well. I'll leave Hasebe-san to you."

Horikita then kept moving forward towards our first location. I walked alongside Horikita as we moved from floor to floor. We checked a classroom on the 3rd floor, then two other classrooms, which were identical on the 2nd and 1st floor. The 1st floor would be ideal but it's obviously more expensive to rent. The girls were arguing about which one would be best, and I let them go at it without intervening at all.

We were also going to check a few spots outside the school building, but we ran into Hashimoto before we could do that.

"Yo Ayanokoji! Are you out here scouting spots for the culture festival with your harem?"

Unfortunately, he decided to address me first. The company I was keeping currently was the furthest thing there was from a harem. The fact that Horikita was here should make that clear enough. I can't even imagine her being part of a harem.

I decided to ignore him, and Horikita stepped up to talk.

"Are you here to irritate us with your foul mouth, or do you have some business with our class?"

Horikita was probably offended to be described as a member of a harem. Hashimoto looked somewhat surprised at her insults but quickly smiled again.

"It was just a joke, ya know?"

He started laughing, but Horikita wasn't amused in the slightest.

"Anyway, I'm here to ask you some questions. What kind of show are you putting up for the cultural festival? Sato?"

He addressed Sato specifically, and she looked nervous upon hearing her name. If he wanted information, then Sato would be his safest bet. Matsushita is too smart to let anything slip, and Mii-chan would probably be too embarrassed to even speak to him.

Before Sato could answer, Horikita stepped in again.

"As if we would tell you. Stop interfering with our affairs and leave."

She glared at him, and he looked a little shaken. He put his hands up in defeat and smiled again.

"Alright, alright. Just gonna give you some advice before I leave. Don't trust Ryuen."

He smirked at Horikita, then turned around and walked away. Horikita kept a straight face, but Matsushita was definitely worried.

"What does that mean? Do you think Ryuen will betray us?"

Horikita took a deep breath and spoke up.

"We shouldn't worry ourselves right now. It's possible that Hashimoto-kun is simply trying to scare us. Let's keep going and decide what location to choose."

Matsushita nodded reluctantly, and we all kept moving. We spent almost an hour moving from one location to the next, and then we spent even more time discussing which one would be ideal. They were taking forever, so I decided to join the conversation and offer up my opinion. In the end, we chose a classroom on the first floor like I recommended.

The next day was passing by normally until Ike burst into the classroom yelling.

"Hey guys, what the hell?!? Are we doing a made café for the culture festival?"

Most of the students looked at him in confusion, but everyone who knew about the café looked horrified. If Ike knew, then it must mean one thing. Someone leaked our idea.

"Where did you get that idea, Ike-kun?"

Horikita stepped up as usual and started figuring out the situation.

"Ishizaki and some guys from Ryuen's class are talking about it in the hallway!! Is it true??"

Ike looked worried, and so did the rest of the class now. Horikita got up to leave the classroom. It was probably an attempt to confront Ishizaki, but she was met by Ryuen standing outside our class.

"Is this your doing Ryuen-kun?"

Ryuen smirked at her with his hands in his pockets as usual, then leaned against the wall.

"Of course it is. Can't let you win now, can I?"

Matsushita looked especially alarmed at what was happening, but she didn't intervene. Horikita glared at Ryuen now.

"I should've known you couldn't be trusted."

Ryuen chuckled at her words and nodded.

"Yeah, you should've. That's not all, too. I'm doing a maid café of my own and will beat you at your own game. How about that?"

Most of the class was shocked at this revelation, and their worried expressions only grew.

"Are you stupid? If you do that, then both of our classes will lose out. Is beating us the only thing you care about?"

That was true. If we both offer the same services, then we'll be stealing customers from each other. We might both end up in the bottom four at this rate.

"What else should I care about? I'm making it to class A either way. Might as well have some fun crushing you first."

Ryuen was confident in his abilities. I couldn't blame him, though, since the gap between his class and class A keeps shrinking every special exam.

"Let's make it even more fun. The class with more profits will pay 5 million points to the other one. How about that?"

Horikita looked surprised at that offer, and her expression changed for the first time during this conversation. She quickly regained her composure and shook her head.

"Absolutely not. I won't bet any points from my class."

Horikita turned around and ignored Ryuen. He scoffed at her and walked off as well. When Horikita went back to her seat, she was instantly bombarded with questions from the entire class. Seems her day just got worse.

She glanced at me for help, but I looked out of the window and ignored her. Sorry Horikita, you're on your own here.

She started answering their questions one by one while I remained in my seat. 5 million points for whoever makes more profit? I might take Ryuen up on that offer. On the off chance I lose, I already had 2.5 million and could take 2.5 from Nanase. But I doubt it would come to that.

7.5 million points doesn't sound too bad. Judging by how useful they are, I'll have a lot more options to deal with any trouble I might encounter.