We have been in the library for a quite long time.

"I hope you had a good time with us, Ryuen-kun. Unfortunately, I have to help Ishizaki-kun and a some other people with studying, so I won't be able to accompany you two here anymore."

Shina said while packing her books into a bag.

Ishizaki and the rest are studying for the next exam, huh. In our classroom, however, there has never been a problem with grades, because I immediately understood the problem with points and exams in the first days. This school at the beginning wanted to screw us all over.

They fed us with sweet monthly 100 thousand private points, so that later they can pull the wool over our eyes. Only those who didn't let themselves be fooled by these speeches and the wonderful school of dreams managed to stay on top.

When everything turned out to be a manipulation, they all fell into some ridiculous state of depression that they were so stupid to believe that. How pitiful.

"Hmpf, it was actually nice. I had fun."

I responded honestly to her, even if it was just spending time reading a book, we sometimes talked about class topics and other things. Maybe there wasn't fun to entertain every person, because not everyone likes to read a book, but I had some quiet here and that was enough for me.

"See you later, Kiyone. Excuse me then."

She left while waving goodbye to Ayanokouji, with a warm smile on her face. Hmm, it looks like they are meeting here quite often and are close. After these conversations, I also don't think Ayanokouji would want to get any information from her or manipulate Hiyori. However, I don't believe that this is only about friendship when it comes to her.

"Goodbye Hiyori." Ayanokouji returned her goodbyes and Shina walked out of the library.

I took out the phone to check the time.

[6:23 p.m.]

In fact, it was closely approaching 6:30 p.m. and now I noticed that I got engaged in reading this novel, which I took for over an hour.

I only managed to read half of this book, which is quite an achievement anyway judging by its great number of pages.

I glanced at Ayanokouji to see her expressionless face. Considering by the fact that she had already finished her book, it looks like she probably already wants to leave soon.

I looked at the books that she managed to read and I made a rather surprised face.

'Did she manage to read two whole novels in just an hour and a half? How is this even possible?! She would have to flip the pages every few or several seconds.'

"How the hell did you manage to read it all in less then two hours?"

She just looked at me with these clear light brown eyes and shrugged her shoulders.

"I guess I just read fast." She said plainly in a monotonous tone.

I looked at her with disbelief. She always uses such neutral answers. Ayanokouji will never admit her abilities, but never deny them either.

She gave me quick glance, I guess she noticed my doubts "Anyway, I should be going, it's quite late."

When someone wants to ask her something more about her skills or personal things, she quickly changes the subject using prepared typical book-like responses to avoid unnecessary conversations from what I see.

"Would you like to accompany me to the dorms, Ryuen?"

'Huh?' I frowned my eyes.

"Why would you want me to do that?"

I asked straightforwardly, avoiding meaningless question like "Why would you want me to accompany you to the dorms?".

This is too weird for her to ask that. She has no reason to request me to do that. Is she planning something? No, it doesn't make much sense. It also doesn't look like trap, so she has a hidden purpose. I'll see where it goes for now.

"I may simply want to get to know you better and maybe even become friends."

I looked at her surprised by an unexpected reason and kept myself from bursting with laughter.

'Kukuku, such an obvious lie.'

Even if it's an obvious lie, when you're around her, it's hard to accept that it's really a lie. Whenever you speak with such a plain tone like her, it's just hard to tell it and you can only count on your deduction.

But she, wants to be friends? What a foolishness. I can only laugh loud.

I gave her a curious smirk of mine.

"Fine, I will go."

Let's play with her and see what she wants.

We just started to walk through the park to shorten the way to the dorms. Ayanokouji walked on my left side, and I walked on my right sidewalk.

Ayanokouji was still in her school uniform, she probably went to the library right after school with Shina.

I was wearing a black shirt with short sleeves and one unbuttoned button at the top of the shirt and wore green loose pants with black sports boots.

There was now quite a pleasant silence for some time and I waited for Ayanokouji to finally start the conversation.

"You decided to drop out of school."

She started straight the subject I had expected.

"So you noticed, as expected from monst-you."

I've corrected myself from calling her that. I'm not some bastard who calls girls that even if they don't want to.

"Anyway, how do you know?"

I asked if she had any arguments for this assumption.

"Your actions say so. When I was passing by your classroom today during the school break, I noticed that it is in chaos and there are different discussions about you. Judging by the fact that you sat there and ignored everything, it was predictable.

When I saw you in the library my theories were already completely confirmed and I was 100% sure that you were going to drop out of school."

'Kukuku, 100% sure, huh?' I smirked at her nochalantly.

"Is that so? Although you're pretty sure of it, it's still just your speculation." I said to push her into giving me the full result to her thoughts.

She looked at me now and her eyes reflected the shine of the setting sun behind the horizon, so they gave a golden-orange glow. It was similar with her hair, which looked more blonde than brown and was winding by breeze of wind.

"I also noticed that Hiyori behaved quite calmly around you. Hiyori as a person is a very calm and reasonable, but it is easy to see her nervous when one of her classmates are about to drop out of school even if it's you.

Despite the conversations and confusion she had in class before she was neither sad nor nervous, and that just means that you haven't told anyone yet, except maybe Ibuki, Ishizaki and Albert, that you are about to drop out."

I didn't expect her to finish this, but now I'm taking into account her thought process. As I see, she doesn't miss a thing, even the slightest. Now I know that she is very sharp in many ways.

'Wait...'

I stopped for a while and stood still thinking. She lifted one eyebrow slightly and also stopped as well. My confident smile cracked now.

I realized something.

'Why did she even tell me that?'

There is no reason for her to do something like that.

"Why are you giving me all these.. Tips? Why are you asking me if I am going to drop out of this school or not?"

After all, she knows I'm going to drop out of school soon, so what's all this for?

What is its purpose? Why does she give her opponent all these indirect clues? Does she really want me to beat her so much?

She glanced at me with those expressionless eyes and sighed.

"Ryuen, I think you misunderstood." She said.

I approached her a little closer and looked into her eyes. We were about half a meter apart.

These light brown, almost golden in shine eyes. I can't read her, I cannot say what she thinks right now at all.

I frowned my eyebrows and glared at her. Even dumb person could immediately say that I was mad. But I'm not impulsive when it comes to such things. I am angry, but not hasty.

'DAMN. What do I not understand, what does she mean?'

'Wait. She has asked me to accompany her to the dorms and then started a conversation. It seemed to me that she only wanted to confirm her assumptions about my decision, but now I don't know any longer.'

"Do you want me not to drop out of school or what?"

I tried to ask questions that just came to my mind.

"Oh no, it was never my intention, Ryuen."

"What? Ayanokouji, even I don't understand what do you mean right now." I said annoyed.

"Eh, still no guessing even though I said this before? *Sigh* I suppose you're not familiar with these things as well. Ryuen, you're mistaking me for your enemy. But I never was one. Only classes compete with each other, not us. You got into the class leader too much and overlooked one simple thing." She said with her monotonous tone, but you could see it was obvious to her.

'What is she saying? What did I overlook?'

"Enough of this shit, I don't have time for this nonsense, tell me what you want."

"Maybe I just wanted to became friends from the beginning?"

A light breeze of wind passed us and there was only silence.

"Tch. To hear such nonsense from your mouth is definitely uncommon. You are not someone who wants friends, and I am sure of that."

The sun was getting more and more behind the horizon and you could see the lamps that were already on and illuminated the path. For some people it could look like a perfect scene from a romantic movie. Definitely when Ayanokouji Kiyone looked really beautiful right now despite her apathetic aspect.

"It is true that I put myself first and I could sacrifice my friends right away without any hestination." She said surprisingly severe. I looked at her with disbelief, because it actually seemed like her true words. There is nothing wrong with putting yourself first, but the very sacrifice of friends is considered a bad and negative thing. At least I think so.

"As I said before, we are opponents as separate classes, but as normal students we can make friends and relationships. I had a really pleasant time today, so Ryuen, would you like to become my friend?"

'Even if I don't trust her completely in matters of friendship, she probably too. Kukuku, so that is we are opponents as a class, but friends as students? How exciting.'

Even if I wanted to destroy her and Karuizawa on the roof completely. She says these words as if yesterday's day and events hadn't happened at all.

"I w-"

"Hahahahaha." Somebody's laughter interrupted me.

We both looked towards the sound of laughter and saw a figure appearing from the shadows.

I frowned my eyebrows and looked seriously at the very sight of the person, and Ayanokouji looked apathetic like always.

"What do we have here, lovebirds?"

Before us stood Vice President Nagumo.