"Asakusa-kun, you should know why I called you here, right?"
Hoshinomiya Chie, whose alcohol smell had mostly faded after a full period of sobriety, sat behind her desk and looked up at Asakusa Tōru with a smiling expression.
"Huh? What could it be? I honestly have no idea," Asakusa Tōru replied without the slightest hesitation.
Of course he knew why Hoshinomiya Chie had summoned him.
At most, it was either about his absence on the first day, or about why he'd been hanging around with Class C.
But putting that aside—if it weren't for the fact that she was a teacher, Asakusa Tōru really wouldn't want to deal with this woman at all.
After all, in his impression, Hoshinomiya Chie had absolutely nothing that could be described as "professional ethics."
Showing up to class like today—still reeking of alcohol, not even having showered—wasn't because school had just started, nor because something had gone wrong in her personal life.
It was simply because this was how she normally was.
Her personality and her nature were rotten to the core; the only thing passable about her was her face. That was the homeroom teacher of Year 1 Class B: Hoshinomiya Chie.
Speaking of Hoshinomiya Chie, it was impossible not to mention her close friend—her bestie—who had once been in the same class as her, had also studied at Advanced Nurturing High School, and was now the homeroom teacher of Year 1 Class D: Chabashira Sae.
You really had to say—it was only fitting that they were best friends. These two were both top-tier trash.
One of them clung obsessively to the past, endlessly regretting the choices she'd made as a student. She'd even developed the fixation that, even if it wasn't herself, if only the class under her charge could make it to Class A, maybe she'd finally be able to let go.
And yet, she had absolutely no intention of taking action for the sake of that obsession. Forget acting—while lying flat and doing nothing, she even had the spare energy to stab the class she was responsible for in the back and trip them up.
Pure trash.
The other maintained a façade of friendship that had lasted over a decade, but deep down still harbored resentment over things from their student days. The reason she'd chosen to become a teacher had nothing to do with liking the job or being suited for it.
It was simply to keep her so-called best friend under constant watch, to make sure that the class under her friend's control would never actually rise to Class A.
The former referred to Chabashira Sae. The latter, naturally, was Asakusa Tōru's dear homeroom teacher.
…Though, in the eyes of other students, she was probably just a cheerful, approachable big sister type, whose only flaw was that she liked to drink.
In truth, if you didn't bring her "best friend" into the equation, aside from the drinking, there wasn't much about Hoshinomiya that was unforgivable.
If.
But once you were inside Advanced Nurturing High School, it was basically impossible not to get entangled with that woman.
No matter what you did, it could be twisted into an action taken for class competition. And whenever it involved class rivalry—whenever it had anything to do with keeping her best friend's class firmly crushed underfoot—Hoshinomiya Chie would stop at nothing.
"Ahaha, Asakusa-kun, honestly, don't play dumb," Hoshinomiya Chie laughed, waving her hand. "Weren't you standing all buddy-buddy with Class C yesterday?"
"For a moment there, I almost thought you were planning to transfer into Class C right after enrollment."
"But seeing you come to class properly today did put teacher at ease, you know?" Hoshinomiya Chie propped her cheek up with one hand, casually wagging her index finger with the other. "So, could you tell me why you were with Sakagami-sensei yesterday?"
"You weren't seriously planning to transfer to Class C, were you?"
Transferring classes required twenty million points—information that couldn't be disclosed for free at this stage. While it wasn't directly related to the first month's special exam, it was still a very obvious hint.
Hoshinomiya Chie didn't think Sakagami Kazuma would make such a mistake.
But the student in front of her really had been hanging out with another class's homeroom teacher.
That… genuinely piqued her interest.
"If I said I was, what would you do about it, sensei?" Asakusa Tōru replied casually, sweeping his gaze around the office.
In fact, he'd already been here once yesterday with Sakagami Kazuma.
The teachers' office wasn't exclusive to Hoshinomiya Chie. Several other homeroom teachers shared the same space. At the moment, however, those teachers didn't seem to be back yet, making the room feel rather empty.
There was actually a consultation room right next door, but Hoshinomiya Chie showed no intention of taking him there. Instead, she simply sat in her chair and had him stand there talking to her.
Asakusa Tōru couldn't quite tell whether this was meant to put pressure on him, or if she'd simply forgotten that the consultation room existed.
Either way, it didn't matter. He had no intention of playing the role of a model student, nor of meekly accepting a lecture.
Abandoning the idea of dragging over a chair from another teacher's desk, he instead plopped himself down directly on top of Hoshinomiya Chie's desk.
If she wanted to look up at him, then he'd get closer and let her.
"Eh—?" His words and actions were completely unexpected, and instead stirred Hoshinomiya Chie's curiosity even more. Though she was slightly displeased by him sitting on her desk, she cared more about his reason.
She put on an expression of pure curiosity.
"Why? Why?"
"..." After staring at Hoshinomiya Chie for a moment, Asakusa Tōru changed his tune outright. "I'm kidding. I don't plan on transferring."
That was pushing it too far.
Was this woman actually starting to get genuinely curious?
He'd been thinking nonstop these past few days about how to write his diary, and without realizing it, he'd started to provoke emotional reactions out of habit.
He needed to rein that in.
Even though the chance of exposing a flaw here was small, it wasn't zero.
…He should try not to blur the line between his in-diary persona and his real one.
After a brief moment of reflection, Asakusa Tōru stopped stringing her along, surrendered cleanly, and presented the excuse he'd already prepared.
"Actually, Ryūen from Class C and I are old acquaintances," he said. "Since we ended up at the same high school again, I couldn't help but go over and catch up with him a bit."
"And before I knew it, I'd followed him over to Class C's seating area. By the time I realized it, it felt awkward to go back to my own class, so yesterday turned out like that."
Heh—if Ryūen heard that, he'd probably laugh himself to death.
Old acquaintances. Catching up.
Catching up to the tune of two million personal points.
"Oh, I see." Hoshinomiya Chie cooled off instantly.
A very reasonable reason. A very normal explanation. For a high schooler who had just enrolled on the first day, this kind of thing wouldn't feel strange at all.
But—
It was boring.
...