I woke up a little earlier than usual because I needed to talk with one of the girls during breakfast. To my surprise, everyone in Shimada's group (except Shimada) were still fast asleep.

Last night, they all turned into bed pretty early. Because of that, I didn't get to know them very well. Aside from Kouji and Yamamoto, who I was already well acquainted with, the other three were still strangers to me.

Even though I'm working with Shimada, I barely know anything about him. He claims to know me from the past, but I don't remember his face at all. Unfortunately, being transferred to his group was part of the plan, so I didn't have a choice in the matter.

Then again... maybe it's a good thing I barely know Nakajima. Every time I run into him, it seems like something bad is bound to happen. Personally, I'm not looking forward to living with him the most. I've got to keep my guard up at all times.

Finally, there was Kishida, a quiet boy from Suzune's class. He seems harmless enough, but I don't like the way his eyes move... it almost feels like he's observing everyone all at once. Not just our group, but everyone else's as well.

I sighed. Despite all my grievances and doubts about this group, at least the breakfast is delicious. The tamagoyaki and pickled radishes here tasted especially good.

After finishing eating by myself, I headed outside and sat down by the waterfall. While waiting for the person in question, I splashed my face with some of the cool water coming from the stream.

"Ara, what are you doing out here? Are you preparing to take a shower or something?"

"...hmm? I'm just freshening myself up."

The one giggling at me was Yogen Emica, an incredibly whimsical girl from A Class, and one of my now allies. She was the person I've been waiting for.

"Maybe I should join you. I still feel a little drowsy, after all..."

Yogen yawned, sitting down next to me. I shrugged and ran a hand through my hair, shaking off the excess water.

"Won't you ruin your makeup, or something like that?"

"Do you really think the school would let us bring stuff like that into the outdoors school?"

"...I guess not."

Even so, I didn't notice any difference in Yogen's appearance from usual. I knew she used makeup at school, but I never imagined her to look so beautiful without it regardless... in some ways, I kind of preferred this natural look of hers.

"So, did you miss me?"

"Not really."

"Eh? Even though you made Sakigamiya-san go out of her way to tell me to meet you all the way out here?"

"If I went up to speak with you, it'd look suspicious. You're always hanging out with other A Class girls in your free time."

"Sounds like excuses to me. I bet you were just embarrassed to ask directly."

"I don't exactly have the best track record with talking to girls from A Class. They all seem to hate me."

"Aww, you poor thing... hey, at least I don't. Aren't you glad?"

"...not really."

"Are you sure? It sounded like you hesitated there."

I glanced at Yogen out of the corner of my eye. She was smiling at me cheekily, like usual.

"...well, maybe just a little."

"Ara? Ara ara? So you did miss me after all!"

Yogen grinned, nudging me in the ribs before folding her arms with a triumphant laugh.

"...where's this coming from?"

"I understand, I understand. It's been a whole four days since you've talked to me after all. I've missed seeing you too, Takanori-san~."

"I have no clue what you're talking about. The only reason I didn't contact you was because you were doing your job of supporting Alice-san perfectly."

"Oh. Maybe I should start doing a bad job then on purpose..."

"Please don't... if you wanted to talk to me, then you could've done so at any time."

"Is this an invitation to join you at dinner this evening?"

"I mean... if you want? But I'll warn you, Yukina is there."

"Oh, I know. You also eat with Kouji-san too. Actually, one time, you ate outside with Oshita-san, didn't you?"

"...you noticed that?"

"What can I say, I like keeping an eye on you."

Yogen smiled cheekily. I wiped my face and put on my sunglasses.

"That's not weird at all..."

"I'm just curious about what you're scheming this time. I heard secondhand that you traded groups."

"Yeah, I did. I also heard from Alice-san that no trades happened on the girl's side either."

"That's right. Surprisingly, everyone was fine with their current groups."

"The competition over there must be extremely close then..."

"Yeah. Ichinose-san's group is leading the pack, but not by much. Even the groups in the bottom places are only one or two points away from surpassing each other."

"Amazing... well, keep up the hard work then."

"Of course. I want to make a good first impression on you and your class, after all."

Somehow, it felt a little reassuring that Yogen was on our side.

"Enough about that. I called you out here because I wanted to ask you about something."

"Sorry, but my three sizes are a secret."

"...why did you jump to that?"

"What? Don't you wanna know?"

"Why would I ask that now? In the first place, I'm not interested."

"Aww, but I was sure you'd ask something perverted like that. After all, you've been surrounded by nothing but gross, smelly, uncouth men this entire week, so I'm sure you're pent up."

She whispered the last part into my ear, blowing into it.

"There you go again with your ridiculous imagination... it's nothing like that. I wanted to know why you told Ryouta-san about me."

"Ah— wait, he told you about that?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, I didn't expect that..."

Yogen put a hand to her chin and closed her eyes.

"Oi, don't tell me you don't have a reason why..."

"No no, I do. I was just thinking of the ways I could tease Ryouta-san over it later..."

"I think instead of teasing him, you should be comforting him..."

"That guy doesn't need comfort, he does all the comforting in our class."

"I don't know. He's had it pretty rough these past couple of days."

"Yeah, no doubt thanks to you."

I raised an eyebrow and looked away.

"...I had to do what I had to do."

"Anyways, I didn't tell him about you for no good reason. In fact, I told him this all the way back in April, believe it or not."

"You had your eye on me since then...?"

"More or less, hehe. Back then, I was still completely on A Class's side, so I thought it'd be worthwhile just warning him about you since everyone else was more hung up on B Class and D Class."

"And he didn't take your warning very seriously, huh?"

"Nope. In fact, everyone pretty much laughed at me when I called you out... they were all like, "This loser? No way. Not only is he one of the big three loners in E Class, but he also wants to marry his mom too! What a freak!", and stuff like that."

Oi, how did the rumour escalate from having a crush to wanting to marry her...

"Look at how the tables have turned, I guess."

"Indeed. It was during May that I decided I'd play both sides in order to make sure I'd come out top no matter what. In the end, you were the one who proved yourself more worthy of my time and attention."

"...to think this feels like nothing but a distant memory now."

"Yeah... those were some crazy few weeks, weren't they? The only bad part about this whole thing is Ryouta-san being more aware of you as a person now."

"Well, after revealing my true abilities in front of everyone during the Test Shuffle, he's not the only one who has their crosshairs on me."

"Sure, but what I mean is he'll be looking at you more closely than anyone else from now on."

"...you think so?"

"Mhm. I wouldn't underestimate him if I were you. He may look harmless, but Ryouta-san's a lot like you in that regard."

"Don't worry, I'm not that foolish to look down on somebody else."

"I'm glad to hear. If you're ever in a pinch though, you can always rely on me."

Yogen giggled and smiled, hugging my arm.

"Thanks, but I think maybe you'd be better off thinking of yourself less highly..."

"I know my worth in spades and diamonds, and you should too."

"Whatever you say."

I got up to leave. As I did however, Yogen grabbed my wrist.

"Hey, what's the rush? We're finally alone for once, so we should enjoy the moment."

"I don't have anything else to say to you."

"That's unexpectedly cold of you..."

"I just have others things to do."

"Like what? I know you spend your spare time reading books in the library. Doesn't that get boring?"

"...you even know about that?"

"You're the only person who ever visits it."

"Well, you got me there... I was going to read a book."

"Eh? Which light novel, hmm?"

She even knew what kind of books I like reading? I'm starting to think Yogen might be some kind of psychic... that, or she's been keeping a closer eye on me than even I expected.

"...if I told you, you wouldn't get it."

"Ara? It must be a really ecchi one, huh?"

"It's a mystery."

"I don't think it's much of a mystery that you like ecchi novels. I wonder what kind of characters you like the most... it's got to be busty ones with blonde hair, right?"

"I meant the genre... the genre."

"Ara, so it's a mystery ecchi? Let me guess, the protagonist is trying to find a missing classmate's panties from a pervert thief, right? My, how riveting~."

I sighed.

"...wait here, I'll grab the book from my room to show you."

I ended up spending the rest of my free time talking about the light novel I was reading to Yogen. She was a surprisingly good listener, even if she kept teasing me about it being an ecchi (which it wasn't) the entire time.