“Kamuro Masumi-san, you wouldn’t want anyone to find out that you were stealing from the supermarket, would you?”
The atmosphere instantly turned incredibly weird.
Tsugikuni Shiki’s mouth twitched.
(Did this bratty loli even know what she was saying?
How did things end up like this?
Why did it suddenly turn into a doujinshi plot?
This is basically blackmail, right?
Should I call the cops?)
A million question marks popped up in his head.
Suddenly, he felt that it made perfect sense for Sakayanagi Arisu to be placed in Class A.
Just look at the two Class A students he had met so far: a thrill seeking thief and a naturally evil little brat.
Neither of them was normal!
It seemed Class A was just like Class D—completely full of absolute “masters” at being weird!
Despite all the chaotic thoughts running through his head, he was actually really looking forward to what would happen next.
As someone who loved watching drama unfold, he was curious if Kamuro would be blackmailed into…
slowly falling into depravity, or if she would put on a brave face, gritting her teeth and glaring defiantly…
Tsk, tsk, either scene would be far too beautiful to watch.
However, reality completely disappointed him.
Kamuro’s emotions suddenly spiked.
Acting like she had nothing left to lose, she whipped out her phone, ready to just turn herself in.
“Enough!
If you’re going to hold it over me, I’ll just report it myself!”
“Wait.” Sakayanagi pressed a hand over Kamuro’s, her eyes narrowing slightly.
“Don’t be nervous.
I’m not here to report you.
I simply want to be your friend, okay?”
Kamuro’s movements slowed down.
Keeping her secret safe was definitely better than self destructing.
Even though Sakayanagi Arisu did not look like a good person at all, who would throw everything away when there was still a sliver of hope?
Seeing her expression, Sakayanagi knew her initial ‘training’ of this child was pretty much complete.
“Alright, can you show me what you took?”
Even though it was worded as a question, her tone left absolutely no room for refusal.
Kamuro looked conflicted for a second before letting out a heavy sigh.
“Here!”
She dug into her shoulder bag, pulled out a can of beer, and handed it to Sakayanagi.
Sakayanagi tucked it away safely.
“Don’t worry, I will handle this for you.”
Shiki guessed she was probably going to secretly pay for it at the supermarket.
Even if the school’s security cameras didn’t cover every single inch of the campus, there were still an insane amount of them.
A place like a supermarket obviously had plenty.
The fact that Kamuro chose to strike there just proved she was completely unhinged.
Sakayanagi smilingly introduced the two of them.
She was clearly in a fantastic mood after successfully capturing a brand new tool.
“This is Kamuro Masumi-san from our Class A.
I already introduced her, so I won’t say more.
Masumi-san, this Giant Panda here is Tsugikuni Shiki-kun from Class D.
Even though he always looks like a lazy slacker with zero energy, he actually has his good points.
I hope you two get along nicely.”
“Giant Panda…” Kamuro cast a pitying glance at him.
She figured this guy was probably just as unlucky as she was and had also been blackmailed by Sakayanagi.
“Don’t listen to this brat’s nonsense.
If I were lazy, would I be carrying all these bags for a nuisance like her?” Shiki’s mouth twitched.
“Brat…” Kamuro’s lips curled up slightly.
She felt this nickname suited Sakayanagi perfectly, especially after how arrogant and bossy the girl had just acted.
“What does this ‘brat’ mean?” The sheltered young lady Sakayanagi didn’t understand internet slang.
Shiki replied with a completely straight face, “It means someone is very cute.”
“Shiki-kun, do you take me for a fool?
Or are you worried that now that I have Masumi-san, I will give you the cold shoulder?
Are you playing middle school pranks just to get my attention?” Sakayanagi Arisu refused to lose the argument.
Kamuro completely backed up Shiki’s point.
“He’s right.
It definitely means cute.”
Sakayanagi Arisu didn’t say a word.
She just stared fixedly at Kamuro.
Her incredibly oppressive gaze made Kamuro’s scalp tingle, leaving her wondering how this little shorty was going to torture her next.
Just as Kamuro Masumi was about to crack under the pressure, Sakayanagi Arisu suddenly laughed.
“My, my, I didn’t expect you two to get so close in such a short amount of time.
Is it love at first sight?”
“Huh?
What kind of weird nonsense are you talking about?!
I’m literally meeting him for the very first time,” Kamuro Masumi frowned.
“Isn’t there a phrase called ‘love at first sight’?” Sakayanagi blinked innocently.
“That’s just called being thirsty”, Shiki sighed.
“Are you a little kid, Sakayanagi?
Seeing a boy and a girl talking and immediately saying they like each other—I didn’t expect you to have such a childish mind.
And Kamuro, you should just ignore her.
The more you react, the more she enjoys it.”
Kamuro was really not used to being lectured.
She muttered, “What the heck, you sound just like you’re scolding a kid…”
They hadn’t even taken two steps before he spoke up.
“Oh, right, Kamuro!”
Kamuro turned her head, only to find a fully packed shopping bag shoved right in front of her.
Her purple eyes looked at him with pure confusion.
“What?”
“Help Sakayanagi carry her stuff!” Shiki said, acting like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Aren’t you her sla—uh, friend?
This is exactly what you’re supposed to do.”
Since Sakayanagi had found her new tool, he wasn’t going to play the nice guy and carry things anymore.
Kamuro was completely dumbfounded.
She stared blankly at him, not even bothering to argue about the slip-up he almost said out loud.
Seeing that she wasn’t moving, Shiki lifted the shopping bag a little higher to prompt her.
“Wait, wait, wait!
Let me think about how to respond to this…” Kamuro grabbed her head, feeling like her brain was short circuiting.
After a long moment, she suddenly looked up at him.
“Why should I have to do this?”
“I already told you, you’re her friend.
Isn’t it completely normal for friends to help each other out?” Shiki said with a completely serious face.
“That actually sounds kinda reasonable…
Wait, no!” Kamuro furrowed her brows, staring straight at him.
“Aren’t you her friend too?
Why can’t you carry it?”
“Who told you I was her friend?” Shiki said.
“Please allow me to politely decline the great honor of being Sakayanagi’s friend.
You can keep that privilege all to yourself.”
“Ara ara, and here I thought of you as the very first friend in my entire life.
To think you viewed me like this…
Shiki-kun, trampling over a girl’s pure feelings is incredibly cruel, you know.” Sakayanagi Arisu shook her head and sighed, acting as if he had just committed an unforgivable sin.
Fortunately, neither Shiki nor Kamuro paid any attention to Sakayanagi’s dramatic acting.
Kamuro glared at Shiki like she was looking at a total traitor, but Shiki remained completely unfazed.
After thinking for a long time, Kamuro, whose brain was totally empty, reluctantly took on the heavy burden of being “Sakayanagi’s friend.” She snatched the bag with an unwilling face and glared fiercely at a certain traitor.
Seeing her depressed expression instantly put Shiki in a fantastic mood.
There was nothing more joyful in life than shifting your own burdens onto someone else.
And if there was, it was watching that person look completely miserable because of it.
According to the Law of Conservation of Smiles, smiles don’t disappear; they just transfer from one person to another.
And right now, that smile was planted firmly on Tsugikuni Shiki’s face.
Kamuro felt like she had never had a worse day in her entire life.
She got caught red handed stealing on her very first day of school and was instantly forced into being someone’s servant.
The panda eyed guy she thought was a fellow victim turned out to be completely fine.
After all that, the only real clown here was her…
Sigh, what a miserable day!
Under the setting sun, two total sadists and one incredibly miserable victim walked back together.
The slanting evening light dyed the world a brilliant red.
Their long shadows swayed with their steps, slowly melting into the deepening darkness.
______________
Around 6:20 the next morning, Shiki’s internal clock woke him up.
He glanced at the slightly bright sky outside, then checked the time.
(Yup, exactly one minute before 6:20!)
He turned off the alarm on his phone, quickly got out of bed to wash up and change, and put on a light black tracksuit.
In about ten minutes, he was out the door.
A morning workout was a normal routine for him.
His goal in life was extremely simple: study hard, get into a decent college, join a good company as an average employee, live a perfectly normal life, and die a peaceful death.
But to achieve that, having a healthy body was absolutely necessary.
That was why he had built a habit of working out every morning.
Even back when he was constantly working part time jobs, getting barely any sleep, and completely exhausting his body, he never gave it up.
In a tragic sense, dropping dead from overwork seemed like a pretty normal ending for an average workhorse.
Plus, rumors said that dying like that was totally painless.
Shiki didn’t know if that was true or not, but he was honestly quite curious to find out.
When he arrived at the track, there were already a few scattered students there.
Wearing tracksuits or tank tops, they jogged along the lanes.
Some people were stretching their legs, warming up before their run.
Shiki found a quiet spot, finished his warm-up, and started jogging around the track.
He tightly controlled his breathing, keeping a 3 3 rhythm—inhaling for three steps, then exhaling for three steps.
It was the perfect technique for long-distance jogging.
After running for nearly twenty minutes, he suddenly sped up, launching into a full speed 400 meter sprint.
That counted as one full set.
After finishing the sprint, he rested for a few minutes to let the lactic acid in his muscles settle down, and then started his next set.
Halfway through his second set, he unexpectedly spotted a familiar figure.
Their eyes met in the air.
After thinking for exactly one second, he completely wiped it from his mind and pretended he hadn’t seen a thing.
Life is just like this.
Sometimes, playing dumb is the only way to survive…
Shiki sighed in his heart.
“Hey!
You definitely just saw me!
Why are you pretending you didn’t?!” The person completely failed to read the room, speeding up to run right next to him.
(Hey, shouldn’t you be pretending you didn’t see me either?
The second we make eye contact, a battle automatically starts?)
Shiki put on a completely blank expression.
Upon seeing the girl’s annoyed face, he acted as if he had just realized who it was.
“Oh, it’s Kamuro-san!
Do you come to the track to work out in the mornings too?”
“Don’t change the subject.
I know you saw me.” Kamuro , with beads of sweat forming on her forehead, glared at the guy playing dumb.
“If I told you I was near sighted, would you believe me?” Shiki lied through his teeth.
“I just saw a blurry figure earlier, so I wasn’t sure if it was you.”
“What do you think?” Kamuro rolled her eyes.
Even though her grades weren’t amazing, she wasn’t stupid enough to fall for that.
And just like that, for absolutely no reason at all, Shiki’s solo running team acquired a brand new Thief Girl Pokemon.
The two of them jogged side by side, chatting casually.
“How long have you been here?” Kamuro Masumi asked.
“I got here around 6:35,” Shiki replied.
“Huh, I couldn’t tell at all!
You always look so lazy.
Instead of sleeping in, you actually got up to work out.” Kamuro looked surprised.
“I thought you were the type to just mope around all day with zero energy.”
“If I got enough sleep, I wouldn’t have these panda eyes, would I?” Shiki retorted.
Kamuro was amused.
“True.”
After that, the two fell into a comfortable silence, the only sound being their clear, rhythmic breathing.
“I’m speeding up.” Shiki announced before his final set.
He suddenly accelerated, shooting forward like a bolt of lightning.
Kamuro paused for a second before hurriedly picking up her pace, trying to catch up.
But the gap between them only grew wider, leaving her to watch his figure get smaller and smaller.
Her own breathing rhythm was thrown completely off by trying to match him.
Her legs felt numb and sore, but her mind was filled with the stubborn refusal to lose.
Gritting her teeth, she pushed herself harder.
Shiki finished his morning workout.
Taking several deep breaths in and out, he managed to calm his breathing down.
He waited for a little while before seeing Kamuro sprinting over, completely out of breath.
She came to a dead stop right in front of him.
Normally, her stamina wouldn’t be this bad.
But because of her highly competitive nature, she had completely lost control of her pacing.
By desperately trying to pass the guy in front of her, she had winded herself.
Kamuro gasped for air, bending over and resting her hands on her knees.
Her mouth tasted bitter, and her arms and legs felt incredibly numb and heavy.
Right then, a slightly gloating voice echoed in her ear.
“You okay?”
(Of course I’m not okay!)
That highly amused tone completely pissed Kamuro Masumi off.
She fiercely raised her head to glare at him, but instantly felt a wave of dizziness.
Her vision went completely black, and she started falling backward.
(I’m doomed!)
Kamuro Masumi closed her eyes, bracing herself for a very painful collision with the ground.
But unexpectedly, a strong, sturdy arm caught her.
Seeing Kamuro collapse from a sudden lack of blood to her brain, Shiki jumped in sheer panic.
His body instinctively jumped back, throwing his hands straight up into the air.
(What the hell, are you trying to scam me?!)
That was the very first thought that popped into his head.
But seeing that she was about to faceplant onto the concrete, he quickly caught her to stop her from falling.
He was the closest unlucky bastard right now.
If something actually happened to her, he wouldn’t even be able to cry about it.
“Calm down first.
Come on, take a deep breath.
Don’t rush it.
Slowly.
Fix your rhythm.
Good girl…”
Hearing him muttering in her ear—specifically the words “Good girl”—Kamuro Masumi’s eyes snapped wide open.
Her purple eyes, filled with deep embarrassment and anger, glared at the guy trying to care for her.
“Are you trying to soothe a toddler?!”
“There’s basically no difference.
Who works themselves out so hard they almost faceplant onto the ground…” Shiki’s voice got quieter and quieter until it completely disappeared.
The embarrassment on Kamuro’s face grew even stronger.
Her glare stabbed into him like sharp needles, looking as if she wanted to poke a few holes right through his body.
“I’ll help you over to rest for a bit.”
Kamuro didn’t refuse.
She really was exhausted.
Shiki carefully held onto her arm, making sure to keep a very safe distance.
He cautiously guided Kamuro over to a nearby bench, absolutely terrified of making any moves that crossed the line.
After being ambushed by Wakaba Mutsumi and locked in a dark room, he wouldn’t exactly say he ran away from all women on sight, but he definitely had some serious lingering trauma.
He was deeply terrified that one wrong move would instantly unlock a “Game Over” CG.
Kamuro felt angry and embarrassed, but not shy.
She just felt like she had completely humiliated herself.
Yesterday, she got caught red handed stealing by this exact guy, and today she almost collapsed like a weakling right in front of him.
In her entire life, she had never been this embarrassed.
She had never been a superstitious person before, but right now, she really wanted to find a shrine to pray at, hoping to completely wash away all of her terrible luck.