It wasn’t long before school let out for the day.
Axel End had just gotten ready to stand up when the phone in his uniform pocket suddenly buzzed.
He took it out and looked—
[End-kun, we left in such a hurry last time.
I was wondering if you might have some free time today to properly get to know each other?]
The message was from Kikyō Kushida.
Axel End shot a glance at Kikyō Kushida, who at that very moment was harmoniously mingling with her little clique, and confirmed this was a scheduled, auto-sent message.
“I heard today is the club recruitment day.
The student council president is apparently going to show his face—are you going?”
He didn’t reply right away, instead looking over at Suzune Horikita, who was tidying her desk beside him.
The girl’s movements visibly paused for a beat.
“You knew?”
“I guessed it the moment you brought up that so-called ‘upperclassman.’ Don’t forget, the student council president introduced himself at the opening ceremony.”
Suzune Horikita was left momentarily speechless.
She hadn’t considered that detail at all.
But…
“Go or don’t, it’s up to you.
But if you do decide to go, pass along a message for me while you’re at it—I’ll pay you an errand fee, of course.”
“…What message?”
The errand fee didn’t matter; Suzune Horikita only wanted to know whether Axel End was scheming something again.
“I’ll send it to your phone in a bit.” Without any change in expression, Axel End cast a sidelong glance at Kiyotaka Ayanokōji in the corner, who was still studying how to become an ordinary person.
Then he looked toward Airi Sakura, who also hadn’t yet left the classroom.
“Sakura-san, see you tomorrow.”
“S-See you tomorrow…”
Airi Sakura silently watched Axel End’s retreating figure until it vanished from view, then—hunching her shoulders in a very furtive manner—stood up and slipped out of the classroom.
Kikyō Kushida, who had been secretly keeping tabs on the goings-on at the back of the classroom the whole time, saw that Axel End had not only left her message on read, but had even walked out as if nothing had happened at all.
A flame of anger flared up in her heart.
Yet on the surface she still kept up that same sweet image.
“Kushida-san, there’s a club recruitment event later—shall we go take a look?”
“Does anyone have a club they’d like to join?”
Kikyō Kushida had no interest in club activities, since they would eat into her freely disposable time.
But there was no helping it—that was simply the school culture around here.
So if she could, she would pick a club obscure enough to tolerate ghost members.
Just as Kikyō Kushida was letting her mind wander while going through the motions of her clique’s chatter, she suddenly felt her phone vibrate.
Could it be?
The message was, naturally, from Axel End.
The girl’s mood brightened just a touch.
“How about we go sit at the coffee shop for a while later?”
“There’s no rush with the club recruitment—I heard it runs for a whole week, so it’d be better to look into things properly and then pick one we’re interested in.”
With a little steering, she brought the topic to a close.
Kikyō Kushida’s influence was already beginning to show.
Before leaving the classroom, she cast a glance at Suzune Horikita, who was likewise rising to leave, an obscure, inscrutable shade flickering through her eyes.
…
…
Fifteen minutes later.
Axel End watched Kikyō Kushida stroll into the coffee shop with her girlfriends in tow, a smile that didn’t reach his eyes plastered on his face.
“End-kun, what a coincidence~”
“Kushida-san?
It really is a coincidence.”
Come on…
Girl, fooling other people is one thing, but whatever you do, don’t go fooling yourself too.
Ham it up any more and it’s overkill.
The moment Axel End had seen the message, he’d already guessed roughly what Kikyō Kushida was after—either she wanted to do a Task, or she wanted to use him to get close to Suzune Horikita.
Too bad—you made the wrong choice.
Had she gone to the club recruitment venue, she could have crossed swords with Suzune Horikita; but by choosing to meet with him instead, today’s Task quota was already spent.
A lose-lose, girl.
“These two must be Inogashira-san and Wang-san?
Hello, I’m Axel End.”
When re-introducing himself, Axel End deliberately pronounced Mei-Yu Wang’s name once in flawless Celestial tongue.
Sure enough, the girl’s eyes lit up.
“Such authentic Celestial tongue?
End… don’t tell me you’re from the Celestial Empire, End-kun?”
“Yes.
I’m glad to run into a fellow countryman here, Wang-san.” Axel End continued to answer Mei-Yu Wang’s question in the Celestial tongue.
And so, when one fellow countryman meets another, both their eyes brim with tears.
As everyone knows, cultural differences are actually quite hard to adapt to and overcome, so ever since Mei-Yu Wang had followed her parents over to Neon, she’d never quite been able to get used to the culture and customs here.
Especially the school culture.
She’d endured no small amount of grief; it was only because her emotional intelligence wasn’t bad that she’d at least managed to avoid the most severe bullying incidents. This story is hosted at novelping(.)com.
Even so, her days were still far from easy.
And so her floodgates of conversation burst wide open all at once.
As the leader of her little clique, when Kikyō Kushida saw Axel End actually chatting up a storm with her girlfriend right in front of her—and that she couldn’t even understand a word they were saying—her temper flared up once more.
“End-kun, what are you two talking about?”
“Come to think of it, you never mentioned you were from the Celestial Empire back during homeroom—you kept us in the dark so cruelly~”
Axel End was utterly unmoved by Kikyō Kushida’s malicious display of feigned cuteness.
But Mei-Yu Wang got a little flustered.
“Sorry, sorry~ Kushida-san, we didn’t mean anything by it.
We just got a bit excited just now and chatted about some everyday household things, that’s all.”
“Because it’s really not that important a matter, and bringing it up tends to invite strange looks, so naturally I didn’t say anything.”
Axel End helped smooth things over.
After all, he had deliberately used the Celestial tongue to draw Mei-Yu Wang’s attention, precisely in order to put pressure on Kikyō Kushida.
But this pure, adorable little girl harbored no ill intent, and shouldn’t be made to take the fall for him.
“Fine~”
Kikyō Kushida could only swallow the silent loss.
Her seeking out Axel End today was, naturally, not because she had nothing better to do… she was already itching to take on her second Task.
Although she was not unaware of the principle that [should she run into a Task she was unwilling to do, she would suffer a rather severe punishment], still… the good things the Exchange Store offered were simply too plentiful.
So even though she could sense that Axel End seemed to be deliberately keeping a certain distance from her, she still chose to take the initiative.
Not to mention, now she had one more reason.
Axel End and Suzune Horikita were getting too close!
Granted, given Suzune Horikita’s personality, she’d disdain dealing with people at all—but one could never be too careful, and Kikyō Kushida would never gamble on someone else’s goodwill.
“I understand that feeling, so feel free to chat at your leisure in private—but for now, you’re not allowed to leave me and Inogashira-san out in the cold.”
“My bad, next time for sure.”
Axel End merely smiled.
If he were to interact frequently with Mei-Yu Wang in private, you’d probably start sulking again and then take your anger out on that poor little cutie.
Then again, that was exactly what he wanted to see.
That iconic scene of pressing a fingerprint was something he absolutely had to secure, because it was simply too perfect for issuing Tasks.
As for Mei-Yu Wang, he could only offer her an apology in advance.
Whatever hardship she suffered at Kikyō Kushida’s hands, he would be sure to make it up to her properly down the road.
Please keep reading~ Please keep reading~
This little flop of an author is willing to do anything.jpg
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