I'm in a real religion, why are all the people who confess to me girls?

The "ball-throwing" social interaction is the fastest way to build relationships.

The server throws out a question to the other person, who then answers with their own thoughts. This back-and-forth exchange deepens their understanding of each other. Some observant people can even deduce more private details such as personality and lifestyle from the other person's words and actions.

But there's one awkward thing about this kind of social interaction: if the server throws the ball to a "fool," the other person might not be able to catch it or might not return it after catching it, which would naturally interrupt the conversation.

That's the situation right now. Horikita Manabu cleverly used black tea as a topic to maintain a certain level of communication with Amane. Amane also showed no resistance to his arrival, and at the same time, she didn't have any bad feelings towards him.

This situation was undoubtedly a good start for Horikita Manabu, but just as he was about to get to the point, the conversation ended with Amane taking over.

If the ball-toss social interaction is interrupted, the best way is to let the person who interrupted the ball become the server.

It looks like the two sides are having a friendly interaction and exchange, but if Horikita Manabu is still the server, it will give people the feeling that the other party clearly does not want to talk to you, but you are making conversation for the sake of it.

That's why the situation reached a stalemate.

Just as Amane was wondering why Horikita Manabu seemed to want to say something but was trying his best to hold back, Horikita Manabu finally couldn't help but bring up the topic again.

"Speaking of which, you've already reached the B class rankings in just your second semester. Such a speed of advancement is probably among the best in the entire school's history. Rin must be very proud of her achievement, right?"

Horikita Manabu's first words made Amane frown.

"We've fallen to Class C."

"I heard that in this final exam, Class B of the first year chose to compete against Class A. I think luck played a big part in Ryuen's promotion to Class B. Will she be easily brought back to square one this time? Although I haven't had much contact with Sakayanagi, her abilities are outstanding throughout the entire high school. If we disregard athletic ability, even I'm probably far inferior to her. If Ryuen wants to compete with Sakayanagi in academics… I probably don't need to say more. It's only a matter of time before you both return to Class B."

Horikita Manabu clearly wasn't very optimistic about Ryuen, or perhaps he already had inside information about the first-year final exam results?

However... as a third-year student, Horikita Manabu doesn't seem to need to pay so much attention to the minor squabbles of first-year students.

"Well then, thank you for your kind words. Speaking of which, Horikita-senpai, you didn't come here just to talk to me about these trivial things, did you? If you need anything, just say so. If I can help... we'll see."

Tianyin's words were quite direct.

Horikita Manabu couldn't help but show a look of amusement on his face.

It depends on the situation. It sounds like he should help according to his own circumstances and within his ability. But in Horikita Manabu's view, this is Amane clearly telling him, "If you have something to say, I'm listening. But since you're about to graduate, you're not of any value. If you want help, don't ask."

"I came here to talk to you about two things. The first is both business and... a little personal, which concerns Kiriyama Ikuha. As the new student council president, you know almost nothing about him, and you've even had an argument before, so there's some conflict between you. He's not a generous person, so you need to be careful of Kiriyama's retaliation. The second thing..."

Horikita Manabu's expression seemed somewhat reluctant to speak.

However, after hesitating for a moment, Horikita Manabu looked at Amane with a serious expression.

"The second thing is that I want to entrust Lingyin to you; this time I'm serious."

Chapter 66: Back to Class B

Today is the day the final exam results are announced.

Horikita arrived at the notice board with a mix of trepidation and excitement.

Despite it being such an important day, only Horikita and Hirata were listed as students in Class C on the first-year bulletin board.

Even if you include the one outside, there are only three people who are still concerned about the changes in class points at this time.

Since the school has been on holiday since the beginning of the month, even the exams were only taken out of the holiday and hastily completed in one day. This has been the case since the end of the final exams.

The students, whose nerves had been on edge since the sports festival, were finally able to let go of the heavy pressure and enjoy the rare long school holiday.

Besides Horikita and Hirata, several students from other classes also came to the notice board. In Class A, Sakayanagi, supported by Kamuro, stood in front of the notice board to look at it. However, from her confident and composed expression, it was clear that she was determined to get the results of this final exam.

Besides Class A completely outclassing Class B in academic ability, Sakayanagi also held the important position of vice president in the student council. Even the task of posting school notices might have been assigned to student council officers by Sakayanagi.

It wouldn't be difficult for her to know the outcome in advance. As for why she came here today... perhaps it was to enjoy the defeated person's exasperated appearance?

Unfortunately...

The representative from Class B standing to the side seemed to be Hiyori Shiina. She was looking up at the announcement, her face somewhat gloomy, and she had a helpless expression on her face.

The essence of this exam is actually unrelated to intelligence, strength, or other factors. If one's academic ability is consistently at a high level, like in Class A, then even without resorting to tricks, one can easily win this exam that tests academic ability.

Class B, due to inherent disadvantages, had no choice but to resort to extreme measures in an attempt to gain a glimmer of hope, and the result was obvious.

Ryuen's schemes were utterly insignificant in Sakayanagi's eyes. He easily subdued Ryuen and also managed to subdue Katsuragi in the process.

When the second year begins, they will face a Class A that is completely unified under the one-man rule of Sakayanagi. At that time, their situation will probably be even more precarious.

As for Class D... Horikita remembered that a girl came over, took a picture, and left. Anyway, the result wasn't particularly important to them at the moment.

After all, there are only two purposes to improve the class score: one is to make the school fulfill its promise of guaranteed admission during the enrollment process, and the other is to make other classes treat them differently.

The other is that they need to increase their class points to ensure they have the personal points they need to survive, which is to meet their personal material needs.

With Class A seemingly a distant dream, Ichinose and her classmates have become infamous as a "weak team" due to a series of foolish and failed decisions.

With the school's promises no longer expected to be fulfilled, everyone's focus shifted to material needs.

So after Ichinose's efforts, Class D temporarily satisfied their material needs and lost the will to continue competing with other classes. Instead, they seemed to be planning to close themselves off and live their own little lives, helping out when they could to improve the favorability of other classes. Apart from that, Class D seemed to disappear in the first year and was almost never mentioned.

At least on the surface, they did indeed give up the competition.

Horikita looked up at the notice board.

The changes in grade 1 points are announced as follows:

First Year Class A (Sakayanagi): 795 points. Homeroom Teacher: Majima Tomoya.

Grade 1 Class B (Horikita): 456 points. Class teacher: Chabashira Sae.

Grade 1 Class C (Ryuen): 299 points. Class teacher: Kazuma Sakagami.

First Year Class D (Ichinose): Homeroom Teacher: Hoshinomiya Chie.

"Finally back in Class B!"

Horikita couldn't help but blurt out a somewhat heavy-sounding sigh.

With Tianyin's help, they went from Class D to Class B after two exams, which is the closest they can get to Class A.

In less than four months, they went from being last in the class to showing signs of challenging Class A. Undoubtedly, they were the center of attention during that period.

Just as they were riding high and ready to press their advantage, they were unexpectedly struck by the disaster of the sports festival, which caused their class to drop to Class C.

Although the turmoil in the second half of the sports festival was closely related to Amane, the changes in class points, which were closely related to class rankings, were not entirely Amane's fault.

Tianyin reduced the class points of all classes by 500 points. Although this resulted in a significant loss in individual point gains, the reduction for everyone was essentially the same as no change at all.

The reason why the class ranking dropped was because Horikita Class was physically inferior to Ryuen Class during the Sports Festival. As a result, they finished second by a narrow margin, allowing Ryuen to get the crucial fifty class points to advance to Class B.

If we're talking about responsibility... aside from Horikita's flawed decision-making, many people in the class actually bear some responsibility, because at least a third of them performed terribly in the team competition, and their rankings seem to improve faster from the bottom.

This indirectly resulted in the class having a lower total score than Longyuan Class, and thus losing its ranking as Class B.

In highly competitive exams or competitions, it's normal to have wins and losses. If you make a mistake this time, you can win it back next time. People won't take it too seriously.

The problem is that this sports festival was where Horikita was responsible for most of the battle plan and arrangements, and it was also her first battle as a class leader. As a result, she lost the ranking of Class B right away, which made many people have a lot of opinions about her in private.

Fortunately, the class regained its ranking this time, so Horikita is now qualified to handle the class disputes.

"It's true what they say, some are happy while others are sad. Horikita is over there happy to be back in Class B, while Shiina is heartbroken to have fallen back to Class C. As they say, life is unpredictable, and today's experience proves it true. Masumi, let's go back."

With a victor's smile, Sakayanagi walked between Horikita and Shiina.

Then came a few pleasant but contemptuous sneers.

Horikita looked curiously at Shiina, who had a calm expression.

He remained unfazed by Sakayanagi's cheeky mockery; no wonder Ryuen sent Shiina to check the public notice.

"Shiina-kun, aren't you angry? Sakayanagi only won a small round because of the overall academic advantage of Class A, and you're so smug. I can hardly stand it anymore. How can you remain indifferent?"

Horikita spoke very subtly and tactfully, but Shiina still caught a hint of goodwill in his words.

If they were to practice against Class B, even Sakayanagi would be somewhat wary, right? But unfortunately... now is not the best time. This defeat may not seem to have changed much for the people in the class, but for Ryuen, it is a crisis that will shake his dominance. This defeat will show some people with ulterior motives that there are still many people who can defeat Ryuen, and thus they will have other ideas.

Therefore, Ryuen must rebuild his powerful image by defeating a class on his own. Shiina judges that now is not a good time to cooperate with Horikita, because Horikita himself is also Ryuen's target.

Of course, it's impossible to tell Horikita these things.

"I'm reminded of a famous saying: 'Peaceful meditation doesn't necessarily require mountains and rivers; extinguishing the fire in your heart brings coolness itself.' That perfectly describes my current situation."

Chapter Sixty-Seven: Someone Who Says One Thing and Means Another

Outside the teaching building, everything was already covered in a blanket of white snow.

This year's first snow arrived much later than usual, but it still managed to decorate the school before Christmas Eve.

At first glance, it does indeed resemble the Christmas atmosphere in my memory.

The snow was still falling, though it had lessened considerably, but it showed no signs of stopping.

Today, it wasn't just the class leaders and a handful of other people who came here to check the public notice.

The number of people could even be described as large, but the vast majority remained outside the teaching building.

On the one hand, students must wear school uniforms to enter the teaching building, regardless of the time of day.

But the current weather makes it hard to muster the courage to walk around the school building in just a school uniform.

Therefore, many people naturally chose to wait outside the teaching building.

Of course, this is only one aspect.

On the other hand, what truly stopped them here was the girl who was neither using an umbrella nor wearing thick clothes in the snow.

A girl dressed entirely in black from head to toe stood motionless in the cold wind and drizzling snow, her solemn expression meeting the gazes of students from each class.

She was wearing only a thin, professional black unisex shirt on her upper body. Although the workmanship looked very exquisite, its ability to keep out the cold was almost negligible. In addition to her professional attire, she also wore a tie in a very detailed way. Combined with the girl's solemn face, if everyone were not already very familiar with her, they might mistake her for a school leader.

"Tianyin, aren't you cold?"

Ibuki asked with some concern.

Who would go out in the dead of winter, in snowy and windy weather, wearing only a shirt? If such a person really existed, Ibuki would definitely wonder if the other person had something wrong with their head, or if they were simply doing it for the sake of so-called style.

To put it simply, it's about pretending.

"This little bit of snow is nothing to me. Don't worry, I'm very healthy, Mio, you should know that."

Amane reached out and gently brushed the snow off her shoulder, giving Ibuki a knowing look in the process.

Enraged, Ibuki couldn't help but spit in the direction of Amane.

"Pah! You deserve to freeze here!!! It would be best if you froze to death, you bastard, then everyone would stop worrying."

Ibuki crossed her arms and feigned disdain, muttering words that sounded almost like a curse. However, it was clear to anyone with eyes that Ibuki and Amane had a special relationship. Just because Ibuki could say certain things didn't mean they could speak so freely.

"Koomio"

Even if you beg me now, I won't give you a single piece of clothing to keep you warm.

As Ibuki spoke, she quickly took off her coat. Just as she was about to hand it to Amane, Amane shook her head.

"That's not what I want. I just want to remind you that I think the school has a rule that spitting in public will result in a fine."

"W-what? Why are you only telling me now? ...Wait! Why didn't you stop me just now?"

"I think I mentioned it to you last time, it seems that Sakayanagi helped you cancel the fine..."

Faced with Ibuki's counter-accusation, Amane could only shrug helplessly.

She was about to remind Ibuki when she saw her make that move, but Ibuki's whole action was so seamless and coherent that Amane hadn't even had a chance to speak before Ibuki finished vomiting.

Amane even suspected that Ibuki might have specifically practiced these kinds of behaviors, since she had suspected Ibuki before... but considering that no one would be so bored as to do such practice, she didn't pursue the matter further.

"..."

Ibuki blushed with anger at Amane's words and then viciously stomped on Amane's foot.

However, Amane nimbly dodged her several times. In a fit of anger, Ibuki threw her coat into Amane's arms and then turned and ran away.

"I'm not going to care about you anymore!!!"

Hmm, it seems she's still saying one thing and meaning another, just like before. Tianyin looked down at the coat in her arms and had no choice but to put it on.

Actually, she didn't feel cold at all. On the contrary, she was very happy with the weather. Compared with the snow in Hokkaido, the snow here was just a drizzle.

Although some people left, the remaining people seemed completely indifferent to it, including Longyuan.

That's right, Longyuan is also waiting here.

To avoid unnecessary conflict, Sakayanagi bribed Amane beforehand to stop everyone at the entrance. If anyone wanted to enter the teaching building to check grades, Amane was instructed to allow one or two students from each class to enter in the name of the student council.

The reason given was to prevent congestion and unnecessary trouble caused by everyone crowding into the teaching building to check their grades, but in reality, it was to prevent Longyuan from taking any special measures out of resentment.

For example, violence.

Sakayanagi felt that with her small frame... she was no match for Ryuen.