After the entrance ceremony ended (which was mainly the chairman and the principal explaining a brief history of the school as well as the basic rules and regulations), Kiyotaka decided to head back to the dorms for an early rest, because he desperately needed one after everything that's happened today. Thankfully, he didn't get any notifications nor a 'heroine summary', which must be the system letting him rest for a while until it decides to make him suffer again...
However, he knew that he still needed to eat something for dinner later on, so Kiyotaka decided to take a detour at the convenience store to buy some instant ramen. Just something quick and easy to prepare for dinner, so that he can have an early sleep as well. He could always handle this tomorrow or some other day.
After picking out three packets of instant ramen, Kiyotaka headed to the counter, where he placed his basket of goods at the same time as someone else. He turned to look at the person who was beside him, who just happened to be his black-haired neighbor as well as his second 'heroine'.
"Horikita."
"Ayanokouji-kun."
He looked at the basket she carried with her, and noticed it was filled with a bottle of shampoo, conditioner, face wash, powder, and pretty much everything else that a teenage girl needed in her everyday life.
"Are you picking out essentials?" he asked, taking notice of the items that she picked out.
"That's right. I wanted to do this right away so I wouldn't have anything to worry about until a few weeks at least," she answered, before looking at the items he was going to purchase in return. "What about you? Are you doing the same?"
Kiyotaka sighed. "I'd love to do the same but unfortunately, I am in need of an early rest today. Perhaps I'll do this tomorrow instead."
"After what he did to comfort me after seeing Nii-sama earlier... I can understand why he feels tired now," Suzune thought to herself, feeling guilty for her friend's current condition. She berated herself for still feeling emotionally weak around her brother until now because if she wasn't, then there would have been no need for Kiyotaka to do what he did for her. "I should return the favor to make it up to him. Spending a few points to buy him something shouldn't hurt."
Making up her mind, Suzune turned to her seatmate and took a deep breath.
"Ayanokouji-kun, would you like to-"
"Hold that thought. Something's happening outside," he interrupted her before she could complete her sentence. Although Suzune felt annoyed that he just told her to shut up out of nowhere, she looked at the store's front door, where they could see one of their classmates arguing with three other people.
Sudo Ken, who was the red-haired boy with a short temper that refused to introduce himself earlier in class, found himself in an unfavorable situation at the moment.
He found himself face-to-face against three upperclassmen, who all bore smug looks on their faces as if they had found a new source of entertainment and Sudo didn't like that one bit.
"If you three don't stop messing around with me, then I'll personally make sure you learn not to mess with me!" he warned the three other students, who all laughed at his attempt to look and sound intimidating.
"Oooh, we're totally scared! Oh, hold me, guys!"
"You're gonna teach us a lesson? You and what army, dude?"
"Maybe you should just listen to us. This ain't your spot, it's ours. Now go home to your dorm before we do something that we'll regret."
The red-haired teen clenched his fists. Who the hell did these guys think they were? Just because they've been here for a year longer than him, they think they can claim ownership of a place that didn't even belong to them in the first place? It was just ridiculous.
"I can stand wherever I want, you punks! Come on, bring it!"
"You asked for it!" the one in the middle grinned as they cracked their knuckles.
"Senpai, would you mind explaining what is going on here?"
Unfortunately, they wouldn't be able to do anything else as a voice cut through the tension between them like it was a knife.
Ayanokouji Kiyotaka walked out of the convenience store with a calm look on his face, before staring at both Sudo and the three other students.
Remembering Kiyotaka's face from earlier, Sudo quickly tried to tell him to get out of here since this didn't involve him. "Oi, stay out of this-"
"May I ask what's your problem with my classmate, senpai?" Kiyotaka interrupted him, as he turned towards the upperclassmen for an answer.
"Well, this punk was standing at our spot so we told him to piss off," one of them scoffed.
"Yeah, no one hangs out here other than us!"
"But the guy wasn't listening!
Unsurprisingly, Sudo quickly let his anger get the better of him after hearing their excuses.
"Bastards. Do you think I'll lie down and kneel to you just because you're a bunch of second-years?"
Kiyotaka stepped forward and threw his left arm out, stopping Sudo from advancing any further. Because of this, the red-haired teen shifted his anger towards him, but Kiyotaka remained calm and continued to stare at the three students who were being a bother.
"Is that so? I suppose I'll take this up with one of the teachers, then. This school doesn't take bullying very lightly, if I recall. You three are clearly bullying my classmate, and I can't let that happen any further."
"Hah! Good luck trying to convince them when you don't even have any proof!"
"Oh, I can convince them easily."
Much to Sudo's surprise and to the horror of the three bullies, Ayanokouji-kun pulled out his phone from his pocket and played a recording, which was the conversation that just transpired between the two parties, particularly how the three were trying to provoke his classmate into fighting them.
"Damn it..."
"We're so dead..."
"You better delete that right now, or we'll-"
"If you don't want me to release this recording, I suggest staying away from my classmate and the rest of us, senpai. If you even try to do this again, I will send this recording to the teachers. Since you are upperclassmen, you must know what happens to those students who get caught bullying other students, right?" Kiyotaka warned them, ignoring their empty threats because they had no way out now.
His threat was enough to strike fear into those three students, so much it made them run away without looking back.
With the three gone, Sudo turned his attention towards Kiyotaka. A mixture of embarrassment and anger was on his face, most likely from having to be saved by his classmate from something bad as well as the fact that Kiyotaka intervened in something that didn't even involve him.
"Oi, what the hell was that about?! I could have handled that on my own!"
Kiyotaka gave him an unamused look. "You were clearly giving in to what they wanted."
"What?!"
"If I didn't step in, you would have been in a fight with them and in the case that a teacher sees you, you would have been punished. Surely, you don't want to experience your first day in this school with a punishment, right?"
"I would have told them that those three jackasses started it!"
"Any teacher wouldn't believe your words that easily. They would need concrete proof of what really happened, and that's exactly what I did," he explained calmly. "Now I have leverage against them if they try something again."
Sudo tried to say something to defend himself, but couldn't find the right words to do so. Deep down, he knew that Kiyotaka was right. He was almost baited into giving those upperclassmen what they wanted, and he had no one to blame for it but himself. free webnovel.com
"Y-You're right..." he sighed in defeat, directing his anger towards himself instead. "I'm a dumbass. I should have been smarter about the whole thing."
"I don't think you are. You just have to control your temper and learn not to give in to your anger easily. Earlier during class, you were just being asked to introduce yourself. You could have refused politely. There was no need to lose your cool in front of your classmates. They'll have a poor opinion of you if you keep on doing that."
"I guess I have to work on my attitude, then..." Sudo smiled nervously while scratching the back of his head. "You're Ayanokouji, right?"
Kiyotaka nodded. "That's right. And you are...?"
"Sudo Ken," the red-haired teen then threw out his hand for a handshake."Thanks for the assist with those guys."
"No problem," Kiyotaka accepted the gesture and the two shook hands for a few seconds. "Are you heading back to the dorms?"
Sudo shook his head slowly. "Nah. I think I'll walk around a bit before calling it a day. Don't worry, I'll stay out of trouble this time. See ya tomorrow, Ayanokouji."
As Sudo left, Suzune walked up towards Kiyotaka and handed him his plastic bag that had the goods he purchased from the store. Before he went off to help Sudo, Kiyotaka told the girl to hold his purchases for a while after paying for them at the counter. Suzune only agreed and after paying for the items she picked, she watched the whole interaction from nearby while concealing her presence from them.
"That was an ingenious way of handling those three students," she remarked, complimenting the way Kiyotaka dealt with those upperclassmen without instigating a fight. "I'm impressed."
pαndα`noν?1--сoМ "You flatter me. I simply utilized the rules of this school and used it against them," he waved off words, although it was nice to hear them from a person like Horikita. "We better get a move on."
And the two began to walk. Things were quiet between them at first, but Suzune was feeling tempted to continue what she was about to say earlier, before getting interrupted.
Right now was her chance. They could still take a detour before reaching the dorms, and she would treat him to a quick snack to repay him for what he did. Kiyotaka liked ice cream, right? She could buy him a cone or two and then they can continue on their way. All she had to do was ask him...
"Ayanokouji-kun, do you want to—"
"Hiya, Ayanokouji-kun~!"
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