Felix's Classroom Of The Elite

"Hate me all you want" I calmly closed my eyes after saying this to Karuizawa.

But instead of hearing curses or slaps nearing my face, I felt hands wrapped around me.

"thank you..." She whispered and this caused me to open my eyes in shock. This was probably the first time in this life I was so surprised. I expected her to throw a few curses at me and I even considered an extremely low chance of her forgiving me but I never expected her to actually thank me.

"You did it for me...Didn't you?" She asked me while looking straight into my eyes with a determined face. Her expression also surprised me because just looking into her eyes made it hard to lie, well not like I had any intentions to lie to her in the first place.

"That doesn't matter. I betrayed you and that's a fact!" I said with slight anger. I was too confused...

Why is she thanking me?!

What's up with that trust in your eyes while looking at me?!

I betrayed you, let you suffer yet it seems that you trust me even more?!

My breathing started to become unsteady with all the confusion I felt but I quickly closed my eyes to calm myself.

"Maybe you 'betrayed' me but thanks to that I was able to do something I was never capable of...standing up against the bullies. Even now, I can still feel my heart fastly beating due to adrenaline. I don't know if what I felt back then was what strong people feel but I really liked it. And all of it is only thanks to you, if you wouldn't force this situation on me I would keep on being a coward" She quickly explained when she saw me totally confused.

"*sigh* I did it for you but there was no way I could know that you are going to stand up against them...it was dangerous bet and I still planned it all out despite knowing this." I reprimanded her with a sad smile.

"You would have still saved me in case I failed..." She resolutely said. Was this blind trust or something else?

Tch, this girl...*sigh* I sighed and decided that this is not the best time to argue about such things. She was squeezing me so hard that it felt like she didn't want any gap between our bodies to exist...I could feel her heart beating extremely fast, perhaps from fear and adrenaline all combined. I embraced her and ruffled her hair with a genuine smile.

"Maybe...but you shouldn't trust me that much you dumb girl! By the way, is your heart really beating only due to adrenaline?" I teased her to ease the mood. After hearing this she immediately blushed and turned her head away from me.

"of course....baka" She whispered in cute voice while burying her face in my ċhėst. Her heart started beating even faster and it almost made me feel worried if I didn't know the reason behind it.

Seeing her reaction I couldn't help but chuckle. I set aside bangs covering her forehead and gave her quick peck there.

"We should leave this place before anyone else comes here" I broke the hug and walked to the door but I noticed that she wasn't following me.

I turned around and saw her standing there absent-mindedly with a fully red face.

Was it too much for her to take?

"Are you coming?" I asked her and an affectionate smile formed on my face without me being conscious of it.

"Ahh?! Y-yes, wait for me!" My voice woke her up and she run to me, she also almost tripped when she looked at me...

"Hihi, let's go back!"

When I saw her childish attitude I couldn't help but shake my head with a warm smile on my face, I didn't try to shake her off.

I am still a bit skeptic about the entire situation but I think that Karuizawa is one of the few people I can truly trust. I am able to blackmail Manabe's group right now but I shouldn't push them too far because I don't want the school to investigate the entire situation. The video I recorded is also double-edged weapon since it also shows how Karuizawa was beaten and showed her weak side. I don't think they figured the secret behind Karuizawa but if they report this to Ryuen then it will be an entirely different matter. He is already eyeing Karuizawa because of me...well, it doesn't really matter because I already decided that if anyone even touches Karuizawa's hair, then I will crush that person! I clenched my fist while thinking about dangers awaiting for Karuizawa in the near future.

Also if I ever get to know who is the cause of that nasty scar on her torso then I am going to kill that person with my own hands. Be it a girl or boy, I don't care.

...

"Thank you for accepting my invitation, Walker-kun" Hirata said with a genuine smile but dark circles were still slightly visible under his eyes.

After helping Karuizawa I was invited by Hirata to have lunch together and I immediately accepted because I wanted to know the result of his 'suffering' these days. He looked much better now so it was apparent that he won't do anything drastic which could already be called good outcome but I still have hopes for his 'evolution'. The old Hirata won't be of any use to me...let's see if he returned or turned over a new leaf.

"No problem but let's cut the chase shall we? What is your answer?" I lightly asked with my eyes closed.

"I have been thinking about what you told me without any sleep. No...I couldn't sleep because I always woke up due to a nightmare. I couldn't really find the answer no matter how hard I thought about it until I started having hallucinations from the lack of sleep. In those hallucinations, I started seeing Sugimura-kun. After some time I finally decided that I want to keep helping others and spreading kindness..." He said with a sad, nostalgic smile

"...but I also want to prioritize my friends over strangers. I don't even know what I have been thinking about treating my friends on the same level as strangers. I realized that even if I returned to the past I still wouldn't be able to save Sugimura-kun without prioritizing him over his bullies. The way I am right now I would try to solve that conflict without violence but that wouldn't save him, no, he would perhaps suffer even more." He continued explaining with a sad smile on his face.

It seems that he finally realized his weakness.

"Thank you for waking me up, Walker-kun!" Hirata bowed to me.

"Stop that..." I shook my head.

"I did nothing notable, you are the one who reached the answer" It felt pretty weird to be thanked for nothing and not to mention him bowing to me in public place.

"You did more than you even think... *sigh* As I thought...you are really amazing person. I don't get how they could place you in Class D but I will be selfish and say that I am happy they did so, I am really happy to be Walker-kun's classmate and friend" Hirata changed his sad smile back into his cheerful one.

"I think you are really overestimating me, it's always better not to have high expectations. And even you are smarter than me yet you were placed in Class D too." I said modestly and smiled at him upon hearing his 'selfish' words. If Hirata will keep on advancing with this mentality he might become someone very useful. He has a lot of potential.

Then he kept on arguing with me how he might be academically smarter but I am more mȧturė and know much better human nature than him which slightly startled me. I will have to be more careful around him, he has talent in reading people's nature. It was already getting closer to our last meeting and I had to take some measures no to be discovered very last day of the exam. Ichinose is definitely someone who won't stay silent, she wants to clear this exam by uniting the entire group, which means that she doesn't need to quickly find the target but if she won't have any idea who might be target then she will definitely take more forceful action.

The only thing that can actually give my identity as target away is the mail on my phone. I already created a believable picture of the mail, me not being the target but that will only work if they won't take my phone from my hands. If they will want me to give it to them I will have a hard time convincing them. I can alternate the mail, although teachers said that we can't do that unless we want to be expelled but I won't exactly be alternating. I can do much more sophisticated things with it but I don't know if there is still a chance of being expelled.

Should I risk it? Should I try a different strategy? I could switch phones with Karuizawa but I already inspected the phones given to us by the school and even though you can switch SIMs, they won't work properly and knowing how smart and cautious Ichinose is, she will definitely make use of that. Simply put, the phone doesn't even need your own SIM inside to be able to receive calls.

I am pretty sure that inside this school, this can be resolved with private points but I guess it would be quite expensive plus I don't want to spend my points on something I can resolve myself.

I will just have to make a few changes on my and Karuizawa's phones and after the last meeting ends, I can quickly switch it back. I don't know if there is a risk of expulsion for tempering with your phone but I guess I will have to take a risk. Hopefully, everything will work as it should do.