Chapter 551

“Miyuki!”

A familiar voice called out from behind, and Miyuki's expression soured just a fraction.

But only for a moment. Her expression quickly brightened, putting on a welcoming look at the sight of her childhood friend.

“Hello, Tetsuya.”

Tetsuya dashed up to her side and waved.

He wore a look of disappointment he couldn't quite hide.

Meeting her eyes through his shaggy hair, he spoke.

“Why have you been going home alone lately? You read my messages but didn't reply...”

“Ah... I'm sorry. That was...”

Just as Miyuki tried to explain, she caught sight of Matsuda passing through the main gates in the distance.

Her face lit up, and she started to call out to him, but—

“Matsu—”

Watanabe Takashi sprinted up behind him and smacked the back of his head so hard it let out a loud thwack! Startled, she covered her mouth.

“Ah...!! Aaaah!! Wait...! Just wait a second...! I was wrong!”

Watanabe immediately began getting beaten to a pulp, with Matsuda putting on an absolute clinic.

Watching the two of them, Miyuki felt a surge of resentment toward Watanabe.

‘To think he would interrupt their reunion like this... wasn't he also in the Superi circle?’

‘I should take care of him right now...’

‘Oh, right.’

Matsuda had mentioned it before. When he was getting beaten up for leaving the circle, Watanabe Takashi had protected him.

They were close, so she didn't harbor the same level of grudge against him as she did the other circle members.

That didn't mean she was thankful, though.

Seeing him provoke Matsuda into using violence was deeply unpleasant.

It wasn't that she hated violence itself. It was simply that Matsuda was currently walking on thin ice at the Academy, and if any teachers caught him doing this, it would cause problems.

Even if it was just typical horseplay between friends, the beating seemed a little too intense for a joke.

She had no desire to control his every move. But he really needed to save this kind of roughhousing for after his reputation had improved, just to avoid any fallout.

He was in a situation where he needed to watch out for even a falling leaf.

That was exactly where Matsuda's current reputation stood.

“There he goes again...”

Lost in her worries about Matsuda, Miyuki snapped back to reality at the sound of Tetsuya's exasperated voice beside her.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I mean Matsuda. Every time I see him, he's pulling this kind of crap.”

Tetsuya had suffered quite a bit at Matsuda's hands.

Strictly speaking, most of the bullying actually came from Watanabe rather than Matsuda, but Matsuda still looked down on Tetsuya a little... no, a lot.

So it was only natural for Tetsuya to hate him.

He had mentioned before that they were like oil and water—that he just felt this instinctive revulsion toward him, hadn't he?

Recalling Matsuda's exact sentiments about Tetsuya, Miyuki offered a stiff smile.

“That might be true right now, but I think he'll change his ways soon enough.”

“Huh?”

Tetsuya stared at her in total disbelief.

Feeling suddenly awkward, Miyuki tried to change the subject, but—

Tetsuya didn't miss her reaction, which felt completely absurd coming from a girl who had always despised Matsuda.

“M-Miyuki, you actually think highly of him...?”

“Ah, well... the other day on the train...”

“That? I heard about it. You have no idea how terrible I felt that I couldn't be there to help... You didn't even tell me it happened...”

“It all happened so fast... and it's not like I actually got hurt. Anyway, watching him then, I realized he has a lot of good qualities.”

“What are you...”

“You wouldn't understand, Tetsuya.”

With that, Miyuki turned and walked away.

Tetsuya couldn't hide his bewilderment as he hurried to follow, but she didn't pay him a shred of attention, already mentally reviewing her schedule for the day.

*

Bang—!

It was the break period right after first period.

The back door suddenly slammed open, drawing every eye in the room.

The person who opened it was Watanabe Takashi.

He wore an expression of sheer panic, and the person he was desperately looking for was, naturally— “Hey! Ken!”

Matsuda.

He made an enormous fuss, completely ignoring the stares of everyone else as he shook Matsuda awake from where he lay slumped on his desk. Miyuki's brow furrowed at the sight.

“What.”

Matsuda slowly pushed himself up, his voice dripping with annoyance. Watanabe stared at him, absolutely dumbfounded.

“Are you crazy?”

“What? Why the fuck are you throwing a fit?”

“Did you not do what Samoyama sunbae-nim ordered?”

“Ordered?”

“That thing! In the afternoon with those guys... that thing!”

Watanabe cast a furtive glance around the room and dropped his voice to a whisper.

Miyuki immediately caught on to what Watanabe was talking about.

He was referring to the task Samoyama had ordered Matsuda to handle at the Park at two in the afternoon on Saturday.

‘Was that today?’

‘No, it's morning right now. Judging by what Watanabe just said, he was supposed to take care of it yesterday.’

‘Then... did Matsuda intentionally ignore Samoyama's orders?’

The answer presented itself instantly.

“Yeah. I didn't do it.”

Matsuda shrugged, acting as though it were the most trivial thing in the world. Watanabe's jaw dropped.

“You crazy bastard... do you have any idea how much sunbae-nim...”

“Is pissed off?”

“Yeah...!”

“Who gives a shit.”

“Y-you've completely lost your mind, haven't you...?”

Judging by Matsuda's nonchalant reaction, he hadn't forgotten Samoyama's orders at all. He knew exactly what he was supposed to do.

‘He explicitly told me yesterday that he didn't have any plans...’

That could only mean Matsuda had deliberately defied Samoyama's orders.

‘Could it be... because he had to study with me?’

‘No...’

Rather than that, it felt more like Matsuda had taken her words to heart—the words she had said about him showing potential for rehabilitation.

Watching Matsuda start to glance over at her desk just now before stopping himself, she felt absolutely certain.

He was so admirable. It was driving her absolutely crazy how proud she was of him.

It might just be a wild assumption, but she had been through so much with Matsuda already, spending almost every single day by his side.

Because of that, she could tell exactly what he was thinking, turning her assumptions into certainty.

When he acted like this, it made her want to shower him with praise.

‘Should I just plant a bunch of kisses on his cheek?’

‘If I come on too strong all at once, he might just pull away. It's probably better to act like I figured everything out on my own and approach him by saying how deeply moved I am.’

Busy painting a rosy picture of the future in her head, Miyuki was abruptly ripped from her thoughts by Watanabe's frantic voice.

“Anyway, they told you to come up to the Rooftop right now...! The sunbae-nims are all waiting. They said Yeboni got completely humiliated because of you...”

‘Humiliated Yeboni, my foot... They don't have a shred of loyalty to the Academy, yet they still want to hide behind its name?’

‘What a pathetic bunch. They should just admit the Superi circle itself got humiliated instead of dragging Yeboni into it...’

‘Every single student in that circle is so unbelievably immature.’

‘Except Matsuda, of course.’

“Tell them I'm not going.”

At Matsuda's cynical reply, all the color drained from Watanabe's face.

“Are you trying to get me killed?!”

“Why would they kill you? The sunbae-nim didn't even order you to do anything.”

“I hang out with you all the time! Of course they're going to take it out on me...!”

“Rest in peace.”

“Fuck off...! I'm not taking the fall for this, so you go...!”

“I told you, I'm not going.”

“Then the sunbae-nims are going to march down here and beat you to death!”

“That would be a bit annoying.”

“Right?! So just go up there, get on your knees, and—”

“I don't know about the knees part, but let's go.”

At those words, color returned to Watanabe's pale face.

Watching Matsuda follow him out the door, Miyuki rose from her seat.

Matsuda wasn't afraid of getting beaten up.

He had only agreed to go because he was worried about dragging the other students in the classroom into the mess.

He usually acted sly and laid-back, but considering his firm belief that his problems should only involve the people directly responsible, it was the only logical explanation.

“Miyuki, where are you heading?”

Honoka asked just as Miyuki was stepping through the open back door.

Miyuki glanced back at her and replied evenly.

“The Student Council Room.”

“What for?”

“I have some business to take care of.”

Samoyama was an incredibly violent person.

If she didn't get there fast enough, Matsuda's handsome face was going to get bruised.

She needed to stop this before anything happened.

Leaving the classroom behind, Miyuki sprinted up the stairs until she reached the hallway leading to the Student Council Room.

Just in time, she spotted the sunbae-nim who had taught her about the general affairs duties stepping out of the room. Miyuki immediately rushed over to her.

“Sunbae-nim! Hello!”

Taken aback by Miyuki's rapid approach and the absolute fire blazing in her eyes, the sunbae-nim flinched and instinctively took a half-step back.

“W-what...? Who are you...?”

“I'm Hanazawa Miyuki, the class representative of Class 1-A!”

“Ah! Hanazawa, you say...”

“Thank you for recognizing me! But right now, a delinquent circle is about to cause a massive incident on the Rooftop!”

“Huh...? Really? Are you talking about the Supe—”

“Yes! Them! They're about to gang up and assault an innocent student! I'm absolutely certain!”

“T-that's serious...! We need to head there right now... Wait...”

“You mean the P.E. teacher, right? I'll go get him!”

“Uh...? Ah, yeah. Please do.”

The P.E. teacher was a massive, physically intimidating man, and he was one of the faculty members who viewed the Superi circle as an absolute eyesore.

He was always the very first to step up whenever that circle caused trouble in the school, and this time would be no different.

Though momentarily overwhelmed by Miyuki's rapid-fire delivery, she quickly snapped back to her senses.

Perhaps she had some experience dealing with these types of situations, because the Student Council sunbae-nim immediately pushed open the door to the Student Council Room to gather help.

Seeing that, Miyuki immediately bolted toward the Faculty Office to get the P.E. teacher.

She was going to drag Matsuda away from that childish gang of thugs before he could get hurt.

Right now, that was the only thought running through Miyuki's mind.