Chapter 143: I Have No Grudge Against You, Shimizu!
"I'm the teacher, yet I needed one of my students to restore my dignity. I'm rather pathetic," Chabashira sighed.
"How are you pathetic? I'm extremely happy that you're my homeroom teacher," Yuto answered seriously.
Chabashira glanced at the troublesome boy.
"Shimizu, what you're really happy about is having me as your housekeeper, preparing three meals a day for you and Sakura."
"Of course not~"
Yuto laughed boldly without the slightest trace of guilt.
His handsome face lit up with a brilliant, sunlike smile that possessed an overwhelming presence. For a moment, Chabashira found herself captivated by it.
As an adult, however, she quickly recovered.
She suppressed the emotions the troublesome boy had stirred inside her and hurriedly changed the subject.
"Shimizu, the matter is over. I'm going back to the teachers' office."
"You should return to class too. Lunch break is almost over."
"Mm." Yuto nodded.
Chabashira then walked away at a slightly hurried pace.
She lowered her gaze toward her hand.
The warmth of a certain troublesome boy's palm seemed to linger there, leaving her heart strangely warm as well.
'Chabashira Sae, stop thinking about ridiculous things.'
'You're his teacher, and he's your student. Besides, that troublesome boy already has multiple girlfriends. He's hopelessly unfaithful...'
Chabashira silently tried to persuade herself.
Unfortunately, once someone's heart had begun to stir, convincing it to stop was never that simple.
...
Yuto left the student council building alone and raised an eyebrow at the two figures waiting near the entrance.
They were Nagumo and Tonokawa.
Were they deliberately waiting to confront him?
"Shimizu Yuto!"
Nagumo glared at him through gritted teeth.
Their relationship had completely collapsed, so Nagumo no longer bothered maintaining false politeness and directly called him by name.
Facing his furious glare, Yuto smiled refreshingly.
"Nagumo Miyabi, why are you two still here?"
"Oh, I understand. You forgot to collect your belongings from the student council office and came back to pack them before leaving, right?"
"You should hurry. Classes resume in about ten minutes."
"Shut up!" Nagumo roared.
He pointed angrily at Yuto.
"I have no grudge against you! Why did you target me so relentlessly?!"
Yuto's smile disappeared.
In an instant, he slapped Nagumo's pointing hand aside.
Smack!
Who gave this guy the right to point at him?
"Hiss!"
Nagumo sucked in a breath and clutched the hand Yuto had struck.
Yuto sneered.
"Nagumo Miyabi, those words should be coming from me."
"I had no grudge against you. Why did you order your lackeys to harm me?"
"..."
Nagumo fell silent before finally speaking bitterly.
"Because you were going to join the student council."
"If someone who already had conflicts with me entered the council, you would inevitably oppose me."
"So you decided to eliminate me first."
"You secretly cooperated with Ryuen and created a plan to have me expelled. Is that right?" Yuto asked coldly.
"..."
Tonokawa looked astonished.
He was shocked that Yuto somehow knew about their cooperation with Ryuen.
Nagumo barely reacted.
Ever since Ryuen's scheme failed, Nagumo had suspected that Yuto already knew they had worked together.
"Shimizu Yuto, what exactly is your relationship with Chairman Sakayanagi?"
"You were actually able to convince him to intimidate Shiraki until he revealed everything," Nagumo asked resentfully.
"We're merely acquaintances who get along reasonably well."
"Actually, I was able to persuade him so easily thanks to you, Nagumo."
"What do you mean?"
"You arranged for Ryuen to take the midterm despite his suspension."
"Because of that, the chairman felt that the school had treated me unfairly, so he readily agreed to help frighten the insignificant pawn you sent after me."
"Without the Ryuen incident, I'm not sure I could've persuaded the chairman to help."
Nagumo froze.
If Chairman Sakayanagi had not helped Yuto, Nagumo believed Shiraki would never have betrayed him.
Did that mean his removal from the student council had ultimately happened because he helped Ryuen?
In reality, that was not quite true.
Even if Yuto had failed to recruit Chairman Sakayanagi, he would simply have brought Manabu instead.
As student council president, Manabu might not possess Sakayanagi's status, but he was more than intimidating enough to terrify Shiraki.
"If you two have nothing else to say, I'll be leaving."
Yuto restored his refreshing smile and casually walked between Nagumo and Tonokawa.
He showed no concern that either of them might suddenly attack him from behind.
Nagumo and Tonokawa could only watch his arrogant departure with anger and frustration.
After everything that had happened inside the student council office, Yuto had already left a substantial psychological shadow on both of them.
They were genuinely afraid of this first-year student.
...
Yuto leisurely returned to the Class D classroom.
Although he had failed to have Nagumo expelled, he had successfully forced both Nagumo and Tonokawa out of the student council.
Without access to such an influential organization, Nagumo's options for targeting Yuto in the future would become much more limited.
Kei was chatting with her friends when she noticed Yuto entering the classroom.
She immediately said goodbye to them and hurried toward him.
"Yuto~"
With a beautiful smile, Kei naturally wrapped both hands around his arm.
"Did you solve your problem?"
"Hmm... Not completely. I only solved about half of it," Yuto answered with a smile.
"I see."
Kei tilted her head upward.
"Can I help with the other half?"
"I appreciate the thought, Kei, but unfortunately, there isn't much you can do."
"Okay."
Kei accompanied Yuto back toward his seat.
Yuto smiled toward Kikyo, who had been glancing at him from time to time.
Kikyo, who had only been halfheartedly chatting with her friends, blinked before returning him a sweet smile.
Yuto then looked toward Airi.
She had her head lowered and was concentrating entirely on studying.
With the midterm drawing closer, Airi had become increasingly serious about her studies.
She absolutely did not want to fail and be expelled.
More importantly, she did not want to leave Yuto.
Yuto sat down.
Kei, seated directly in front of him, placed her pale hand on his desk.
Her slender fingers lightly tapped the surface as though silently telling him to hurry up and hold them.
Yuto looked at her.
Her eyes sparkled, while a faint blush colored her cheeks, giving her an adorably shy expression.
"Kei, I'm pretty good at palm reading. Want me to read yours?" Yuto asked with a smile.
"R-Really?! Then hurry and read it for me!"
Using palm reading as an excuse, the bashful Kei placed her hand in Yuto's.
The two quietly enjoyed their sweet little moment together.
Unfortunately, it did not last long.
The bell soon rang, signaling the beginning of class.
...
With Class D maintaining relatively good discipline, the two afternoon lessons passed without incident.
After school, however, Yuto unexpectedly noticed Suzune still sitting at her desk with her usual cold expression.
Normally, she would already have packed her books, grabbed her school bag, and headed to the library to tutor Sudo, Ike, and Yamauchi.
"Horikita, why aren't you rushing to the library today?" Yuto asked curiously.
Suzune's expression became even colder.
"Sudo Ken said the basketball club has an important skill assessment today."
"Ike Kanji and Yamauchi Haruki both invented various excuses, so there will be no study session today."
"I see."
Yuto smiled at the cold-faced Suzune.
"Looks like they wasted your goodwill."
"..."
Suzune silently nodded.
She had worked hard to teach them and improve their grades, yet they responded by finding excuses to avoid her tutoring.
She genuinely felt as though her efforts had been trampled on.
"Kei and I are going to study at the library. Want to come with us?" Yuto asked.
Kei's cheeks puffed slightly.
She did not want a cold-faced third wheel hanging around while she and Yuto enjoyed their sweet time together.
"Okay," Suzune answered immediately.
Kei's cheeks puffed even more.
Yuto laughed helplessly and poked one of them.
"Kei, what kind of reaction is that? We're only walking to the library together. It's not like we'll sit at the same table."
That was true!
Kei's dissatisfaction disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.
Yuto, Kei, and Suzune left the Class D classroom together and headed toward the library.
When they reached the noticeboard in the first-year building, they saw a crowd of students gathered around it.
Apparently, the school had posted another announcement.
"I'm going to take a look. You two can head to the library first," Yuto said, pointing toward the board.
"I'll look too," Suzune replied.
"Then I'm coming too!"
The three changed direction and approached the crowded noticeboard.
There really was a new announcement.
Yuto raised an eyebrow when he saw its contents.
It concerned him.
More specifically, it concerned what had happened during lunch that day.
The announcement stated that Class 2-A students Nagumo Miyabi and Tonokawa had instructed Class 2-D student Shiraki Ryuichi to commit a serious violation against Class 1-D student Shimizu Yuto.
As punishment, Shiraki was required to submit a thousand-word reflection, which would be publicly announced, while half his personal points were confiscated.
Nagumo and Tonokawa had reached a settlement with the victim, Shimizu Yuto.
They transferred all their personal points to him and resigned from the student council.
The students reading the announcement could not help marveling at how many school-wide disciplinary notices had appeared recently.
Only several days earlier, Ryuen Kakeru of Class 1-C had received one.
Now three second-year students had been publicly disciplined as well.
Would the third years be next?
More importantly, why did both incidents involve Shimizu Yuto?!
Yuto had only one explanation.
Apparently, no one could tolerate seeing an innocent student like him living peacefully, so everyone kept scheming against him!
"Yuto! Was this what you went to deal with during lunch?" Kei asked in surprise.
"Yeah." Yuto nodded.
"Shimizu, what exactly was the serious violation?" Suzune asked with a slight frown.
The student council announcement did not specify that Nagumo's group had forged midterm examination papers.
The matter affected the school's authority and reputation, so that information could not be casually made public.
"About that... I'll explain while we walk," Yuto said.
"Okay."
The first-year students did not react particularly strongly to the announcement.
They merely wondered why someone had provoked Shimizu Yuto yet again, only to be thoroughly dealt with by him afterward.
The second- and third-year students reacted completely differently.
They knew exactly who Nagumo Miyabi was.
Within a single school year, Nagumo had led his class from Class B into Class A and had nearly brought the entire second year under his control.
Yet someone that formidable had been defeated by the demon Shimizu Yuto.
Both Nagumo and Tonokawa had even been driven out of the student council!
The announcement caused an enormous uproar throughout the second-year building.
"Boss Nagumo was kicked out of the student council? That's impossible!"
"How is it impossible? The student council posted the announcement themselves."
"No wonder Nagumo and his lackeys looked so terrible this afternoon. So they were thrown out of the student council."
"The important person here is Shimizu Yuto. It sounds like Nagumo was removed because of that demon."
Nagumo had known that his departure from the student council would create enormous discussion and chaos.
Therefore, the moment classes ended that afternoon, he immediately left the academic building.
Unfortunately, there was no escaping the situation.
Numerous students contacted him by phone, some intending to comfort him and others merely wanting to mock him while confirming whether the notice was true.
The overwhelmed Nagumo eventually turned his phone off completely.
Unable to contact him, the curious students turned toward the student council instead.
Eventually, someone obtained the entire story from a friend inside the council—Tachibana Akane.
That finally confirmed that everything written on the noticeboard was true.
…
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