5 Chapter Five

Kenji absently looked at his phone, observing the amount of points he was allotted, or the lack thereof.

Kenji chuckled, turning off the phone's screen and putting it back in his pocket. Leaning back and pressing the back of his seat to the desk behind him, he tilted his head back, his brown hair falling on the desk of Ayanokoji.

"What do you think?"

The emotionally challenged boy looked at him for a second before answering with his own question.

"About what?"

Kenji had a small stare-off with the emotionless boy before rolling his eyes.

"About the points or the lack of them currently in everyone's accounts."

He hummed and just shrugged as an answer.

Welp, he was out of options to entertain himself. Kenji tilted his head up and straightened up in his seat, reaching for his bag and taking out a sketchbook he had to pass the time.

He would need it because the teacher was not going to come into the classroom for a dozen more minutes.

Grabbing a pencil, he started drawing from memory, The classroom itself was simple enough to draw, but remembering the placements of everyone was a tad bit more challenging.

The tip of the pencil glided across the paper, leaving a black trace everywhere it touched, outlines formed, and shapes were made, details were little details were discarded.

Shading, colors, and abnormal positions of the chairs are ignored for the bigger picture.

Finally, the sketch came into place and Kenji looked up, to see if he got everyone right. Memorization was something worth working hard on developing, memorizing everything as if it was just a picture was harder but not unobtainable. A useful skill anywhere.

Nodding at the accuracy, he closed the sketchbook and placed the pencil on the cover, leaning back and relaxing in the seat again.

Looking to the side, he observed the outside for a bit, it was cloudy. Hopefully, it would rain, it was something he enjoyed.

Finally, Sae-Sensei walked inside the classroom, and Kenji just leaned his head on his hand, enjoying the scene that was about to unfold.

___

"Oi, stop sighing like an old man."

Kenji pointed out, elbowing Ayanokoji on the shoulder as they sat in front of the pool as the entire class was having fun, even after the insults Sae-sensei threw at us.

But at least some of the suspicions he had were confirmed. The point system, or the "S" system was a 100 times multiplier, at the start, we had 1000 points as a whole class, and all of that was completely gone.

Stretching his hands over his head, feeling the shirt shift with the movement.

"Did you already have it figured out?"

Ayanokoji spoke up, looking at him with a blank stare. Kenji, in return, shrugged.

"Had my suspicions, but who would even believe me if I did say anything?"

He hummed and tilted his head slightly.

"What gave it away?"

Kenji looked up at the ceiling, thinking for a second before answering.

"The free items at the store, the security camera in the classroom-"

He shrugged.

"A lot of things, but mostly the second years of class D."

Ayanokoji listened and turned his head back to the pool again.

"Now that you say it, it seems obvious..."

Kenji did not believe that, not one bit. Kiyotaka Ayanokoji knew all this, he figured it out, Kenji had no idea when, but he knew.

"What are you two brooding about over here?"

Kenji looked to his right, past the emotionless boy, and stared up at Horikita... In a swimsuit. Now, call it however you want, but Kenji was still, in essence, a hormonal teenager.

And as a hormonal teenager, he could see beauty when it was aiming a rocket-propelled grenade at his forehead.

Horikita Suzune was beautiful, and that fact was slapped into his mind like a permanent tattoo.

As she and Ayanokoji talked, he looked away to avoid any name-calling, preferring to observe Koenji as he swam like it was his life mission.

"Hey, there Horikita, do you maybe wanna come swim with us?"

My eyes focused on Kusida who just came out of the water, smiling, wearing the same school swimsuit Horikita was wearing.

"Would you please go away?"

Came the reply from the black-haired girl, as dismissive as ever.

"You don't have to be mean, are you a bad swimmer or something?"

This girl just couldn't take the hint, could she?

"I am an incredibly average swimmer."

Incredibly average conversationalist too, Kenji guessed blandly, looking back at the pool until the short-haired girl's focus shifted to him.

"What about you, Kenji-kun?"

His eyes met Kushidas for a moment and Kenji sighed, standing up and reaching for the hem of his shirt, pulling it off and tossing it to the side.

"Sure, I could use a swim right about now..."

He mumbled, stretching out his arms and walking to the edge of the pool, diving in.

Maybe he could take his mind off a few things by swimming.

Unfortunately, it did not work...