Chapter 163 Meritocracy - Part 4
The room was silent—well, it was filled with a silent unrest.
But in reality, the tension was all fictional.
The result had been decided since the beginning.
Not the beginning of the meeting, but the beginning of the year.
***
"I vote for Furukawa."
It was that simple.
In reality, not even the bribe was necessary for her.
...
It's always easy to read people's body language. To be truly in disguise is to hide anything that gives away your intentions. It's not easy for normal people to control this, because it's something built so deeply in the subconscious.
But it's also hard for normal people to notice.
***
The room was filled with sudden chatter. Students rushed to talk with each other. The vote was hung once again.
"...surely Kaoru already won."
"...how long are we going to have to stay here."
There was a sigh of relief from Furukawa.
I guess he's counted my vote too. I didn't mind.
I looked over at Itsuki. She was quietly tapping the edge of the table. For someone of seemed to blend into the background most of the time, she clearly showed overt emotion on her face. With her eyes directly on Hayashi, it was clear what this was.
Hayashi stood up and made her way toward Furukawa.
"I'm sure you'd make a good leader, Kai."
Suddenly, Itsuki moved to position herself between the two of them.
"Why are you calling him Kai."
Hayashi sighed.
"It's just his first name, is it not?"
"What's your relationship with him?"
Furukawa noticed the commotion and decided to pull Itsuki back a little.
"Please, she's just someone I know from a long time ago. Can we talk about this later?"
Itsuki seemed annoyed but still listened to him.
Hayashi continued to walk toward the two of them. Tension was growing once again but the class seemed more interested in the outcome of the vote. Furukawa had technically won, but it seemed that the idea hadn't really sunk in for the rest of the class.
The room was filled with chatter, and both Kaoru and Furukawa didn't seem to know what to do.
I simply sat and looked around the class.
Furukawa approached Kaoru.
"I assume you understand what you have to do."
"What do you mean."
"The outcome has been decided."
"I know."
"You know what that means."
"I know!"
For the first time I'd ever seen, Kaoru seemed to be completely losing her composure—in fact, it looked as if she were about to cry. With conversations still filling up the background, no one else really noticed.
But from my angle, it was clear that she wasn't taking it well.
She must have been struggling for a while.
"Are there any last things you'd like to say to the class?"
"Why... are you asking me that now?"
"You know, Kaoru, it's not like I hate you."
She didn't look him in the eye.
"Then why are you doing this?"
"Because you're not strong enough to take me where I want to go."
...
The two of them continued to talk, quiet to the point I couldn't hear them. I guess that was enough eavesdropping from me. I stretched my arms a little and waited for the meeting to end.
Furukawa raised his voice.
"That's it then everyone. I'll be taking care of the class from now on."
With that, he and Itsuki began making their way out of the room. It still seemed that things hadn't fully settled in, as many people were just eager to leave the meeting. Still, there were going to be some big changes to happen.
Everyone slowly flooded out of the room, I was waiting for the end, but there seemed to be another girl who wasn't eager to leave.
"What are you still doing here?"
It was Hayashi Yui.
"I'm just waiting for others to leave first."
"That's weird."
Ah.
I looked away, hoping she'd just ignore me.
"You never seem to talk much."
It looked like that wasn't happening.
"I guess I don't."
"You remind me of someone."
"Is that so."
"I can't seem to put my finger on it."
...
A few moments later, Furukawa made his way back into the room. I was just about to leave, but his sudden arrival was unexpected.
"Mizuhara, what are you still doing here?"
"I was just waiting for everyone else to leave first."
"Oh, well, um."
I guess he was having some sort of secret meeting with Hayashi. I didn't feel like intruding so I got up.
"What are we going to do about him, Kai?"
Ah, they were talking about me straight in front of my face.
"Don't worry about it. Mizuhara isn't the type to spread rumours."
"I sure hope so."
Hayashi acted quite differently to her appearance. Despite looking like an innocent, quiet girl, she spoke more like a delinquent. I guess that was a common theme for students of this school.
I began to leave.
"Mizuhara."
Furukawa called out to me.
"Yeah?"
"Who do you really support? Me or Kaoru."
"Does it matter that much now?"
He pressed his hands on the table, leaning toward me a little.
"I need to know if you're a friend or a foe."
I wasn't either.
"I'm not going to do anything regardless."
He didn't give up.
"It's more emotional than anything practical. I just want to know, Mizuhara. Are you someone who I can trust?"
"I guess if I had to say, I was leaning toward support for Kaoru."
His face went darker.
"So why didn't you vote for her?
Ah, this was a bit annoying.
"I just don't care that much. It doesn't matter that much to me either way."
"You're an interesting person."
"I'm not really."
Eventually, Furukawa turned to Hayashi instead. And thus, I was given a chance to leave the room. Closing the door behind me, I looked over at the two of them talking.
I guess there was something going on behind the scenes of the class. Not only that, Itsuki likely wasn't as close to Furukawa as she thinks she is.
I'm sure this would come back at some point in the future.
I made my way back towards my dorm room.
This chapt𝙚r is updated by fr(e)ew𝒆bnov(e)l.com