“Do you want to swim?
I can teach you.”
After hearing Ai Morishita’s words, Hikaru Naruse raised an eyebrow slightly.
“Are you good at swimming?”
Naruse really hadn’t expected Ai Morishita to be skilled at swimming—or rather, even though the two of them had become friends, he still didn’t know what she actually liked.
“Of course.
You can trust me, Naruse.”
After saying this, Ai Morishita suddenly did something Hikaru Naruse hadn’t anticipated at all: she reached straight out and grabbed his wrist.
“Get in the water first, then I’ll teach you.”
The girl’s tone was as flat as ever, but her movements were decisive and resolute.
Before Hikaru Naruse could react, she was already pulling him by the wrist, striding toward the pool.
“W-wait a second!”
Hikaru Naruse tried to struggle, but Ai Morishita was standing very close, and both of his arms had fallen into her hands, so his center of gravity lost its balance.
Splash!
A huge spray of water burst at the edge of the pool, like a white flower blooming in an instant.
Hikaru Naruse was dragged entirely into the pool, and then his hand brushed against a patch of soft skin, the sensation supple and yielding.
“…”
Spitting out a mouthful of pool water with force, Naruse wiped the droplets from his face with his hand.
“Couldn’t you have given me a moment to ease into it first?
I never said I disagreed.”
Ai Morishita was now standing in the pool as well, her body pressed almost against Hikaru Naruse’s, those beautiful eyes fixed straight on him.
“Can I teach you now?”
Naruse was a little speechless, unable to figure out where her persistence came from.
“Fine, fine.
You really win.”
The two of them played in the pool for a while, and once their bodies had grown used to the water’s temperature, Ai Morishita began instructing Naruse on his swimming form.
Naruse’s swimming skills could only be called those of a beginner, but under Ai Morishita’s guidance he really did pick up some more advanced techniques.
After a while longer, while Hikaru Naruse was resting, his gaze inadvertently swept across the other side of the pool.
In the corner over there, two girls were sitting on the steps at the pool’s edge, chatting.
One of them was, naturally, Asuka Shiraishi, her long golden hair tied into a high ponytail with a hair band, exposing her smooth, fair forehead and slender neck.
Her figure looked all the more striking against her swimsuit, forming a sharp contrast with Ai Morishita.
As for the girl sitting beside her, she was a different sight altogether.
She had long black hair, tied into two braids that fell over her chest.
Her features were delicate and pretty, and her lively eyes glittered with a sly, teasing light.
She was…
Ryōko Nishikawa?
The last of the Three Great Goddesses of Class A—Ai Morishita, Asuka Shiraishi, Ryōko Nishikawa—the Three Great Goddesses were now all gathered.
Naruse recalled the plot in his mind and couldn’t help wanting to laugh.
This girl loved teasing boys and collecting all sorts of interesting information—she’d even bring out her own experiences of being confessed to and share them with others, completely indifferent to the pride of the boys who had done the confessing.
If he had to describe her in a single word, it would be: a mesugaki with wicked tastes.
Just as Hikaru Naruse was about to withdraw his gaze, he suddenly felt a big splash of water thrown at his face.
“Pfft…”
He wiped the droplets from his face, then opened his eyes to see Ai Morishita standing right in front of him, less than a meter away.
“Naruse, what are you looking at?”
“Looking at the other girls in our class—is that not allowed?”
Naruse shrugged.
It wasn’t like she was his girlfriend, so did she really need to keep him on such a short leash?
“Allowed, sure, but isn’t this practice time right now?”
Ai Morishita glared at him with blazing eyes, the pressure of her stare astonishing.
“Fine.”
Ai Morishita drew close again and gripped Naruse’s arm, but this time she subconsciously glanced toward where Asuka Shiraishi was, then quickly pulled her gaze back.
“You need to practice properly in today’s first lesson, Naruse.
No slacking off.”
“Aye-aye.”
What Hikaru Naruse didn’t know was that, at the very moment he and Ai Morishita were splashing around in the pool, the subject the two girls on the other side were discussing happened to be none other than himself.
Asuka Shiraishi sat on the steps at the pool’s edge, her hands propped on the tiles behind her, her head tilted slightly back, her gaze occasionally drifting toward Hikaru Naruse and Ai Morishita.
“Shiraishi.”
Ryōko Nishikawa, sitting beside her, suddenly spoke up, her voice carrying an obvious gossipy undertone.
“Are you and Naruse on good terms?”
Asuka Shiraishi withdrew her gaze and turned her head to glance at Ryōko Nishikawa.
“More or less.”
The girl thought of how a certain someone had made her go buy a drink for another girl, and suddenly added a remark.
“Though Naruse’s personality can be a bit rotten sometimes.”
“Oh?”
Ryōko Nishikawa’s eyes lit up instantly, her interest piqued in a flash.
“Rotten how?
Care to tell me all about it?”
“Mm…
never mind.”
“Why?”
“Because Naruse is really petty, and I’m afraid that if I tell you and he finds out, he’ll bully me.”
Asuka Shiraishi’s tone carried a complaint, but anyone watching closely would notice that a smile lingered at the corner of her mouth the whole time.
Looking at her pretty face, a meaningful expression surfaced on Ryōko Nishikawa’s own.
“Heh heh, if he’s someone who bullies you, then why do you chat with him so often?”
Nishikawa and Shiraishi lived on the same dormitory floor; the two were quite close—best friends who had known each other since the term began.
“Because Naruse is interesting, that’s all.”
Asuka Shiraishi thought of her mission.
If it were simply a matter of carrying out the task of surveilling Ayanokōji Kiyotaka, it might have been rather dull, but Naruse’s appearance had brought her a different kind of enjoyment.
At the very least, she had never been able to see through what sort of boy Hikaru Naruse was—his character free and unrestrained, yet he also seemed to care deeply about certain things.
Over these past few nights, she had run into Hikaru Naruse out on his evening jogs several times, and sometimes he’d even treat her to a drink.
All in all, he was someone worth observing over the long term.
“Is that so?”
Ryōko Nishikawa watched her reaction, the smile at the corner of her mouth growing a few shades more pronounced, but she didn’t press further.
Instead, she suddenly fished her phone out of a waterproof bag beside her.
“Never mind, let’s drop that.
I’ll tell you something you’re sure to find interesting.”
As Ryōko Nishikawa spoke, she swiped quickly a few times across her phone screen and opened a webpage.
“Some upperclassman took the lead in setting up an anonymous poll, right there on the student forum.”
“What poll?”
Asuka Shiraishi tilted her head slightly, a trace of curiosity flickering in her eyes.
Ryōko Nishikawa held the phone out in front of Asuka Shiraishi.
The screen displayed a popularity ranking page, but the title was utterly outrageous.
“Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School · Handsome Guys Ranking!”
Looking at those words, Asuka Shiraishi’s eyes couldn’t help widening a little.
“Handsome Guys Ranking?”
“That’s right!”
Ryōko Nishikawa nodded vigorously, her tone brimming with excitement.
“It’s an anonymous voting system—each account can only cast one vote, and this ranking isn’t just for us first-years.
The second- and third-year seniors joined in the voting too.”
Asuka Shiraishi’s gaze swept quickly over the ranking page.
Sure enough, the names on the list were annotated with each student’s grade and class.
After happening to catch one person’s grade information, Asuka Shiraishi looked even more surprised.
“There are even third-year seniors on here?”
“Of course!”
Ryōko Nishikawa replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Picking out handsome guys doesn’t need to be split up by grade, and besides, this vote is anonymous—no need to worry about anyone finding out who you voted for.”
Asuka Shiraishi nodded slightly, then went on browsing the ranking.
Her gaze moved upward all the way from the bottom, skimming past name after name and vote count after vote count.
The higher up she went, the wider the gaps in votes became, and the competition grew fiercer and fiercer.
“Nishikawa, who did you vote for?”
“Scroll up and you’ll find out.”
Following her instructions, Asuka Shiraishi dragged the ranking page upward, and then her finger suddenly stopped.
Because the very top of the ranking had appeared strikingly before her eyes.
First place: First-Year Class A, Hikaru Naruse — 105 votes.
The accompanying photo was the most ordinary enrollment ID shot—the boy wore the same wine-red uniform as everyone else, with a fair face, the corners of his mouth slightly upturned, and those amber eyes that stayed bright even under the flash.
Even though it was just the most ordinary ID photo, without any filters or retouching, that face was still so good-looking that one simply couldn’t tear their eyes away.
“…”
Asuka Shiraishi paused, her gaze continuing to move downward from the first-place spot.
Second place: Second-Year Class A, Miyabi Nagumo — 55 votes.
Third place: First-Year Class D, Yōsuke Hirata — 38 votes.
From fourth place onward the vote counts shrank drastically, basically only in the teens, a huge gap from the top three.
“Naruse is actually in first place?”
“Yep!”
Ryōko Nishikawa nodded vigorously, her tone full of gossipy excitement, and then said,
“Do you want to cast a vote for Naruse too?”
Asuka Shiraishi was slightly startled, then gave an answer that caught Ryōko Nishikawa off guard.
“No.”
Her tone was crisp and decisive, without a trace of hesitation.
Ryōko Nishikawa was slightly stunned, and just as she was about to ask why, a voice suddenly came from behind them.
“Shiraishi.”
Hikaru Naruse was standing at the pool’s edge, about two or three meters away from them, his hair dripping wet, droplets sliding down the tips of his hair and falling onto his shoulders, glistening crystal-clear under the lights.
His upper body was bare, his fair, well-proportioned physique looking especially refreshing under the warm yellow lights of the swimming hall.
Male beauty was beauty too—seeing him like this, Ryōko Nishikawa’s heart clearly skipped a beat faster.
“What are you saying ‘no’ to?”
The boy’s tone carried a hint of curiosity, the corners of his mouth slightly upturned, looking as though he was in a rather good mood.
A playful smile surfaced at the corners of Asuka Shiraishi’s mouth.
“We were just talking behind your back, Naruse.”
“Really?”
Asuka Shiraishi nodded with a beaming smile, her eyes curving into two crescent moons.
“Really.”
Looking at the blonde girl before him, Naruse activated Emotion Perception—and found that she was unexpectedly happy.
What was that supposed to mean?
____
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