49 #49 Cooperation

[Will you finally stop ignoring me and pick up my call? Or are you so eager to die tomorrow?]

*sigh* 'This is already 12th message, she already called me more than 5 times. She is a persistent one, I will give her that.' Yuichi sighed with a tired expression while reading Horikita's messages. He thought of turning his phone off but that wouldn't matter since there is a telephone line system in the entire dorms.

[If you come to my room, I might talk to you] Yuichi decided to send this message since it was already close to 8 PM and boys were definitely forbidden to go to the girls' floor but oddly there was no rule about girls visiting boys' floor.

'Talk about double standards but it's understandable since boys are usually bigger perverts than girls...or at least they are very bad at hiding it.' Yuichi thought, thinking that Horikita wouldn't agree to this and as he thought, his message was signed as "read" but Horikita stopped bothering him.

He waited a few minutes before he smiled in relief.

"Good grief...that was worse than-" *Knock* *Knock* Yuichi couldn't help but mutter to himself but his voice was interrupted by someone knocking on his door.

'Are you kidding me? Why is she so fixated on this? I mean, yeah, I am kinda using her but her goal should be to get to Class A, what do you care about what I do? Why do you care about the methods you use to get there?' Yuichi thought, slightly irritated but he knew that he should have never replied to her, to begin with.

He got up from his bed and went to open the door.

When he opened the door, he saw Horikita standing there with a darkened expression while holding a math compass.

'Is she yandere or tsundere?' Yuichi couldn't help but think inwardly when he saw the sight in front of him.

"Excuse me..." Horikita said and forced herself inside despite the fact that Yuichi never invited her.

"..." Yuichi just let her in since he practically invited her through that message.

"Hm? Your room is neater than I expected..." Horikita muttered while glancing around.

"Am I perhaps pig in your eyes? You know what...don't answer that. Aren't you afraid to be caught being here? After all, it's almost 8 PM, if someone will discover that you are here, you might be in trouble" Yuichi asked with a blank expression before closing the door.

"That rule only applies to boys, there was no such rule about girls visiting boys' floor, after all, what healthy girl would voluntarily go here..." Horikita replied sharply with folded arms, emphasizing the word "voluntarily" as if she was forced to be here.

"Fine, I never expected you to be so brave to come here so late...Go ahead." Yuichi folded his arms and said with a faint smile.

"You must be the one who gave those test papers into my bag, right?" Horikita asked suspiciously.

"Hm? Maybe it was Ayanokoji-kun..." Yuichi replied with a bit confused expression just for amusement.

"There was no way he would be able to sneak them inside my bag, however, at that time when he said he wants to talk to me outside of the classroom would give you the time to do this." Horikita said her deduction.

"Well, you are good, I will give you that, detective Horikita." Yuichi replied in a villain manner with a false cold smile.

"Were you planning to use me once again?" Horikita asked with a visibly upset expression as she frowned down on Yuichi.

"I am not using you, if I wanted to use someone to hand these test papers out I would go to Kushida since she wouldn't refuse such a "noble" request" Yuichi said with a faint smile.

"Then why not go to her with such a request?"

"*sigh* Frankly speaking...I hate monopoly"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Yuichi's reply slightly confused Horikita.

"Her popularity is already quite high, there is no reason to give people more reasons to like her. I would like someone to negate her popularity, at least within this class." Yuichi said with a serious expression.

"And that someone is me? I won't do this, I hate popularity, to begin with, it is nothing but a bother." Horikita immediately refused.

"If you want to advance to Class A, you need to be popular. You will have to become something akin to the class leader, just that role alone will give you more than enough popularity so if you want to advance, there is no way for you to avoid popularity. However, instead of avoiding it, you can embrace it and start from early to gather the support of many students." Yuichi explained with a calm tone as if he didn't really care what will she choose to do.

"Maybe you are right but I don't think I need to do this." Horikita refused with closed eyes and a calm tone.

Hearing her answer, Yuichi closed his eyes and faintly smiled.

"However...I might do this for you if you will help me with my plan to advance to Class A." Horikita suddenly opened her eyes and declared with a confident expression.

"...Am I not doing that right now? And previously too?" Yuichi asked with a confused expression.

"You are doing this just to save your friend." Horikita replied confidently.

'I don't really consider Sudo as my friend yet...Though I admit that for others it might look like we are pretty good friends.' Yuichi thought with slightly dull eyes while looking sideways at the window.

"So? What is your answer?" Horikita asked while extending her hand to him.

Yuichi glanced down at Horikita's extended hand before accepting it with his own hand.

"I will help however I can but don't expect from me to use my brains since you are far more intelligent than me." Yuichi said while shaking hands with her.

"Then how did you come up with the idea to get old test papers?" Horikita frowned and asked the question she was meaning to ask since the beginning.

Yuichi wanted to just say that her brother helped in that a lot but she would definitely question how he knows her brother since she doesn't know that he was there at that time when she met up with Manabu.

"Chabashira-sensei told me when I was in the Staffroom." Yuichi replied, not exactly lying at the same time.

"She...told you...?" Horikita asked suspiciously since for her it was unimaginable that Chabashira-sensei would tell him what to do.

"She hinted it...She said that despite this abrupt change, all of us can waltz through the midterms without problems. Only then I realized that her words of encouragement 3 weeks before the midterms weren't just to comfort students. She said that she is fully confident that all of us can pass the midterms, despite knowing that she told us the wrong topics which the midterms are supposed to cover." Yuichi replied with a smile.

"And you have deduced all of that just from one hint?" Horikita asked with narrowed eyes in suspicion.

"Yes...You would have been able to deduce it too, anyone would..." Yuichi replied with a calm expression which prompted Horikita to think that he isn't lying.

"Fine, I will hand out those test papers tomorrow after classes, still, can you be the one to stop everyone from leaving? There is a higher chance for them to listen to you." Horikita released a low sigh before she said which prompted Yuichi to nod to her request. After that, she turned around and approached the door and stopped in front of them, glancing back at Yuichi who was just waving at her with a bright smile and closed eyes as to say farewell.

'Iwamura Yuichi...Who the hell are you? Ayanokoji is hiding his academic and physical abilities while Iwamura is just going with the flow. Both of them are so different yet both were sorted into Class D...I have to discover why was Iwamura sorted here otherwise I won't be able to fully trust him during our cooperation.' Horikita thought while looking at Yuichi's face as he was waving to her. She quickly bid farewell as she left his room, retreating to the girls' floor.

.

.

.

The next day after the classes ended for the day. Yuichi quickly went on to the podium before anyone could leave the classroom.

"Everyone! Could you please wait a minute before returning to the dorms? We have good news to tell everyone." Yuichi garnered everyone's attention as Horikita went to the podium next to him. She just stood there next to him with a composed expression and closed eyes while holding a stack of papers.

"Sure!" Kushida, Karuizawa, and many other girls quickly agreed, taking their seats.

Hirata also agreed with a smile however his smile was most likely formed thanks to seeing how everyone agreed to their classmate's request.

Well, almost everyone...Ike and Yamauchi who saw how almost all girls agreed without a second thought, wanted to quickly disappear. Sudo wanted to block their path for their own sakes but Yuichi shook his head.

Sudo was confused by this but he still stepped aside.

"Ike-kun, Yamauchi-kun, these news concern mostly two of you, and most likely two of you will appreciate them the most. I recommend you to remain here unless you want to be expelled." Yuichi said with a bright smile while looking at them with slightly narrowed eyes.

His words immediately prompted a lot of people to look at them before redirecting their sight at Yuichi with surprised expressions.

'Oops, I guess that sounded a little bit like a threat~' Yuichi immediately knew why is everyone so surprised.