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

"It's nothing, she just said there's no money in my student card. That's ridiculous, do you think I'd be short of money?"

Sato was met with Karuizawa's well-intentioned question, and despite not wanting to speak to her, Sato had no choice but to answer.

Looking at Sato, who had her arms crossed and looked confident, and recalling Sato's usual spending habits, Karuizawa did not doubt Sato's statement. When they went shopping, they would either spend very little or tens of thousands of yen at a time. Sato's financial strength was much higher than Karuizawa's.

Karuizawa, who has little experience, buys clothes and bags almost entirely for social needs. She only spends a lot of money on things she sees that are particularly beautiful. She usually saves the pocket money that Amane gives her carefully. Therefore, although everyone knows that Karuizawa is incredibly powerful after receiving Amane's help, they rarely see her buying anything.

On the contrary, when Sato was vying for the position of female leader in the class, he often took the girls in the class out to spend money, which left many people with the impression that Sato was very wealthy.

Even Karuizawa thought so, so she never doubted that Sato would one day encounter financial difficulties.

"Could there be something wrong with the machine? Is it because of the barcode scanner?"

Karuizawa didn't understand these things, but that didn't stop her from continuing the conversation.

The girls immediately started discussing what the problem was.

"After checking, we have confirmed that there is no problem. Our equipment is working properly, so it is likely that your balance is insufficient."

The cashier said "maybe" quite tactfully, but the meaning behind her words infuriated Sato.

"What nonsense are you spouting? Fine, I'll show you how many points I have left on my card. Honestly, it's clearly a problem with your machine, but you just won't admit it..."

Sato's voice abruptly stopped.

Karuizawa glanced at Sato's expression and quickly took out his phone.

"Speaking of which, I didn't give you a decent gift for your birthday last time, Maya, so I might as well make up for it today. Please scan my QR code."

Karuizawa completed the payment before Sato could.

"Do you need my bag packed?"

"No need, she looks fine carrying it. We'll be going now."

Thank you for your patronage. We look forward to your next visit.

Karuizawa's actions, while understandable from all angles, were somewhat abrupt. The girls following Karuizawa had a general idea of ​​what was going on and were exchanging glances with each other behind her, trying to signal to Sato, who was being led along by Karuizawa in a daze.

As for what happened afterward, Sato had no recollection of it. She didn't know how she got back to her dorm or how she lay down on her bed without even bothering to hang her clothes on the hanger.

All she could remember was the 28455 personal points she had left in her account.

Oh, I still remember the shop assistant's disdainful look, Karuizawa's unnatural acting, and... those unheard jeers.

She realized that she had ruined the image she had painstakingly built up because of a single handbag.

She can't afford to lose face like this! Especially not in front of Karuizawa!

Because a long time ago, when she failed to win over Karuizawa, she mocked him as a shameless slut who sold her body for points. She said her boyfriend didn't have any other women, he only cared about her, and he would never betray her. She, Sato Maya, would be a hundred times better off than Karuizawa! She would be much happier.

To her surprise, not long after, she had fallen to the point where she needed Karuizawa to cover for her so as not to embarrass herself in public.

Sato was not grateful to Karuizawa for this. On the contrary, she felt that Karuizawa deliberately wanted to embarrass her. Whenever she recalled the pitying look in Karuizawa's eyes, Sato felt so uncomfortable that she wanted to vomit blood.

But it was Karuizawa that reminded Sato of Hirata.

And she made Hirata her first choice for conquest.

Sato shook her head quickly and forcefully, trying to shake off those painful memories that made her feel ashamed. After calming down a bit, Sato began to work on her plan.

That is to find a way to arrange a Q&A session between herself and Hirata, and then deliberately answer Hirata's name when Hirata asks her questions such as who she likes. In this way, rumors about the two of them will be generated, which will also form the basis of public opinion.

The thought that Hirata had finally accepted her confession, whether due to public opinion or other reasons, and that she had gone from being a stray dog ​​to being a star in an instant, made Sato unable to help but smile smugly.

In order to achieve her goal of challenging Hirata, she must first let Hirata know about her paper.

"Oh dear, it's so hot! Yosuke, I'm going to take a shower first. Don't peek at me, okay?"

Sato deliberately unbuttoned two buttons at the top of her collar, revealing a patch of white skin underneath. She said she didn't want Hirata to peek, but her winking and coquettish tone clearly showed that she was trying her best to seduce Hirata.

Seeing Sato's affected manner, Hirata's smile gradually returned to calm, and he nodded with a slight frown, indicating that he understood the matter.

Seeing Hirata's stubbornness, Sato became increasingly exasperated.

"You have absolutely no sense of romance. Yosuke, no girl will ever want to sleep with you like this."

"I have never had any lewd thoughts about you or anyone else."

"Tch, what are you pretending for? Every man I've met has wanted to do 'that' with me. Let me make this clear: if you want, while I still have feelings for you, accept my confession. I'll grant you whatever you ask. But once I lose interest in you, even if you beg and cry, I won't give you another chance."

After finishing her sentence, Sato left the tent in a huff without waiting for Hirata's reply.

Hirata glanced in the direction Sato had left before looking away, then his gaze fell on the three notes on the table that Sato had seemingly 'accidentally' left behind in his haste.

"Although her purpose was to leak the contents of the note to me, what she just said was the truth, wasn't it? You must have worked hard, Ayanokouji-san."

Chapter 162: Escaping the Ward

In the girls' changing room of the public bathhouse at the forest school.

As Sato tidied her wet hair, she scrolled through her phone screen, beginning to regret not discussing the challenge with Hirata directly.

Originally, she planned to challenge Hirata after he saw the contents of her note, which is why she made such a fuss. But now that she's in the locker room, she has no idea whether Hirata has even noticed the note she left behind. If he hasn't seen it, wouldn't she be wasting her time by doing this?

Moreover, while cleaning her body, Sato finally realized an even more serious problem: why would she think that Hirata would take the initiative to challenge her after discovering her paper?

The two of them hadn't discussed any special challenges beforehand, so even if Hirata saw what was on her slip of paper, he should have pretended not to know.

Otherwise, she could easily stump Hirata with a simple question like, "How do you know which cards I have?" You should know that according to the rules, if one of them peeks at the other's cards, they will be disqualified from the competition.

To avoid this situation, Hirata will definitely pretend not to have noticed the contents of the paper, so in the end, she will still have to initiate the challenge.

It's fair to say that her actions this time were completely futile.

"Really, it seems I was careless this time. But it doesn't matter much. I'll just tell Yosuke when I get back."

After making up her mind again, Sato got up to find a hairdryer to dry her hair. Then, after changing her clothes, she looked in the mirror again and again to make sure she looked perfect before smiling and walking towards their tent.

Sato reached out and lifted the tent flap. As soon as he entered the tent, he saw Hirata sitting cross-legged reading a book. Sato glanced at him and found that Hirata seemed to be memorizing history.

'He finally has a chance to spend the night with a girl, yet he's inappropriately reciting his lessons? Could it be that Hirata Yosuke, despite appearing exceptionally talented, is actually a clueless blockhead? That shouldn't be the case…'

Sato glanced at the three pieces of paper that belonged to her on the small table. They were placed in the exact same spot as when she left, which meant that Hirata probably really hadn't seen the hint. This made Sato feel a sense of frustration.

Why is it that other people seem to have perfect teamwork when doing this kind of thing, but her partner doesn't cooperate with her at all?

While it's true that she forgot to leave a hint for Hirata, if Hirata cared about her even a little, he would have definitely noticed the piece of paper she left on the table!

So this is entirely because Hirata simply doesn't care about her at all!

"Ahem, I'm back."

Welcome back.

Hirata briefly looked away from the pages of the book, glanced at Sato standing there, and then quickly turned his gaze back to the history book.

Although his tone was as gentle and approachable as usual, Sato felt something was off about him.

"It's so hot now, Yosuke, aren't you going to take a bath? Girls all like clean guys."

"Sato-kun, what weird thing are you planning to do now?"

Hirata put down his book with a helpless expression, looked up and met Sato's gaze.

"What nonsense are you talking about? I was just reminding Yosuke to pay more attention to personal hygiene, how did that turn into me wanting to do something weird?"

Hirata sighed in response to Sato's innocent-looking statement. He had believed Sato's innocent act last night, which led to the current situation where the two of them were sharing a tent.

"Have you forgotten that you destroyed your tent last night while I was taking a bath? Sato-kun, do you really think I'd let you stay here for any length of time?"

Upon hearing Hirata mention what happened last night, Sato's face immediately darkened.

"I had no choice! It's your fault for not accepting my confession. If you had accepted earlier, I wouldn't have used such an embarrassing method, making it seem like I can't find a partner."

Sato may complain, but she still has to face reality. Right now, apart from Hirata, who is always thinking about his classmates, no one else who has heard about Sato would consider dating her before understanding her situation. In addition, they are about to finish the first semester of their second year!

This means that even if she finds a new boyfriend right away, she'll only have a year and a half left to date him. What can she do in that time? She'll just be playing around.

Seeing that Hirata remained unmoved, Sato had no choice but to get straight to the point and talk about the quiz game.

"Speaking of which, Yosuke, I remember that this physical fitness test included a question-and-answer game like Horikita's, right?"

Hirata frowned slightly at Sato's act of calling him by his first name. He had just discovered a troublesome problem. From his perspective, he had let Sato stay in the same tent with him last night simply to help her and prevent her from catching a cold.

Besides, they were the only group on the mountaintop, and no one else saw them, so Hirata lowered his guard.

But to his utter surprise, he had underestimated Sato's methods.

While she was still fast asleep in the morning, she took a picture and posted it in a small circle of girls she was close to, showing it off. At first, it only caused a heated discussion in that small circle, but someone leaked the photo, and it spread wider and wider. People kept coming to her to confirm her relationship with Sato, and finally, a girl posted the photo in the group chat of Class 2-A.

The group chat immediately erupted, with many boys and girls sending him private messages asking if he and Sato had started dating.

After all, anyone who saw Sato, disheveled, lying next to Hirata, fast asleep, would more or less think about a romantic relationship. Although some sharp-eyed people noticed that Hirata was sleeping in a sleeping bag, all his rebuttals were pale and powerless in the face of the flood of rumors.

In fact, this was not the first time Hirata had encountered such rumors; he had considerable experience in dealing with these kinds of matters.

The only tricky part is that as long as he is willing to clarify the rumors, coupled with his credibility in everyone's eyes, almost no one will choose to question Hirata's denial. But there is one person who is probably useless no matter how much he denies the rumors.

That's Kiyotaka Ayanokoji.

Hirata's understanding of Ayanokouji was limited to that of a student who had hidden his strength, whose abilities were highly praised by Amane, and who was often asked by Amane to do things in private.

Although Hirata hadn't had much contact with Ayanokouji, as a boy, he naturally knew how Ayanokouji would react when he saw the photo. Even though Hirata hadn't established such a relationship with Sato, the fact that he and Sato lived in the same tent was enough for Hirata to refute.

So no matter how Hirata explains that he only shared a tent with Sato because he was afraid she would catch a cold, it will be to no avail. If Ayanokouji were a normal person, he would probably definitely suspect his previous relationship with Sato, and might even suspect that the two had a past relationship.

Of course, such a thing is impossible; no matter how much Ayanokouji investigates, he will not be able to find any evidence. However, what Hirata is afraid of is not what evidence Ayanokouji is looking for, but rather that Ayanokouji will use this conjecture as an excuse for him to get rid of Sato.

For example, he might have discovered that Hirata and Sato were having an affair, which is why he broke up with Sato. In that case, not only would Hirata's reputation be damaged, but Sato's innocence would also be ruined.

The reason why everyone could understand Sato's repeated outbursts in class was because she was a victim of a third party's interference, and was dumped by Ayanokouji without any reason. Everyone sympathized with the weaker party, and because of this, when Sato made a scene, almost everyone in the class, except for a few people from Amane's faction who remained non-interfering, began to condemn Ayanokouji.

The reason for this outcome is Sato's victimhood. If Ayanokouji wants to change the class's opinion of him, all he needs to do is muddy the waters. By insisting that Sato and Hirata had a private relationship, he can easily destroy Sato's perfect victimhood image.

While the criticism against him has subsided considerably, he may even gain some sympathy and support from male students.

Sato's situation will become even worse then.

So Hirata had already noticed the rumors were spreading, but he didn't rush to stop them. The best time to clarify the rumors was when they became more and more outrageous, and when everyone doubted the authenticity of the rumors. At the same time, he was also on guard against Ayanokouji's anger, which he might unleash at any time.

However, Sato's words about Yosuke made Hirata realize that his actions were completely futile, and no matter how much he wanted to distance himself, he couldn't stop Sato's actions.

Putting everything else aside, how is he supposed to explain Sato calling him by his name so intimately? What if Sato insists that they've already had a relationship?

For the first time, Hirata had the thought, "If I had just watched her freeze outside, it might have saved me a lot of trouble."

After realizing that he had actually harbored such a wicked thought, Hirata was deeply tormented by his conscience.

Even though nothing has happened yet, he hastily concluded that Sato is a woman who would do such a shameless thing, which is nothing short of prejudice and labeling Sato.

In order to see the real Sato, Hirata planned to follow Sato's arrangements step by step. Once things go too smoothly, people will inevitably lower their guard a little, and then he will have the opportunity to see the real Sato. After confirming Sato's true nature, he will consider the next step.

Thinking of this, Hirata first nodded in affirmation of Sato's question, and then continued on the topic that Sato had deliberately brought up.

"The school has regulations in that regard, but you can rest assured, Sato. Even if we encounter a situation like Horikita's, we can plan ahead in advance what kind of problems we might encounter. This way, we won't be caught off guard or have our privacy compromised when problems arise."

Hirata's statement was essentially the same as a 'behind-the-scenes manipulation,' except that in order to make it less obvious than Horikita and Airi's, they simply avoided three questions to end the challenge. Hirata's suggestion was to secretly coordinate the questions beforehand, and then have someone deliberately avoid one question at the end to decide the winner by a very small margin.

Hirata's suggestion was a perfectly normal strategy. The two were from the same class and were not enemies. If the game could be resolved in a dignified manner, it would be better to do so in a dignified way.

But Sato didn't interpret those words the same way.

'Yosuke must have secretly read the note I left behind to say that. Honestly, I thought he was an honest person.'

Sato smugly twisted her waist and crossed her arms, just as she was about to agree to Hirata's request, when suddenly she remembered something.

She had once heard Tianyin say that when communicating confidential information, misunderstandings could arise because the two parties could not speak openly about certain aspects.

To make sure that Hirata and she were talking about the same thing, Sato decided to double-check with Hirata, just to be on the safe side.

"I remember that you can only apply for that special challenge if both parties have the same three slips of paper, right? Yosuke, do you have three identical slips of paper?"

Sato's direct question startled Hirata slightly. According to the rules, he was not allowed to reveal to Sato what type of cards he had, but Sato's question was not "Do you have three XX cards?" This meant that Sato's question was an answerable one.

Hirata nodded.

Sato clapped his hands happily when he saw Hirata admit that he had three identical pieces of paper in his hand.

"In that case, let's hurry up and apply for the special challenge!"

Sato's smile grew even brighter.

She certainly wasn't after the physical fitness test rewards or the tens of thousands of personal points; that's why she was so eager to take on Hirata for the special challenge.

Sato wanted to participate in the competition with Hirata because he was interested in the Q&A format, which allowed them to ask each other questions that touched on personal matters.

At that time, she only needs to ask questions such as who Hirata likes or whether he dislikes Sato Maya, and she can easily create the impression that even without a confession, her relationship with Hirata is a closer one that goes beyond friendship.