Stealing Spree

"Huh? What? Do you want me to praise you? Alright, come here and let me pat your head."

Without releasing my hold on Nao to let the girl see that I wasn't going to change my mind on what I declared, I acted like I took a moment to think of a reply to her words before directly facing her again. Naturally, I matched that haughty expression worn on her face.

In this way, she would feel like she met someone who's as egocentric as her.

I mean, that's what I read and observed from her behavior. Moreover, despite suffering a loss from how I ordered her, she chose to approach us, perhaps in the hopes that she could mount a comeback.

However, instead of being able to pick out the odd details about me, the girl had focused more on that goal in her head; to get on top of this situation.

And so, the reply I came up with hinged more on how she would take it rather than talking to her at the same level.

For prideful girls like her, it's always a must to raise your chin higher than them. That would result in either them losing interest or pressing more to not be put at a loss.

If I could compare this situation to anything from my past, I could say that she's a little unique. While similar when it comes to being prideful, Miho and Mizuki's situations back then were, at least, reasonable. One was a genius pianist while the other was a mature, business-minded girl.

As for this girl, the only thing she had going for her was… her popularity, be it a positive or a negative one due to rumors and perhaps her normie group. Maybe there's more to her than this but that's my initial impression.

That's why… I decided to try this approach on her.

"Who wants to be patted by you?! Senpai, don't get ahead of yourself. You only have, what? A handsome face? That's not enough to get my attention."

Ah. Look at this girl. Is that shamelessness I see?

"Not enough to get your attention, huh? Aren't you looking for me?" Upon saying this, I released Nao to approach the girl. Nonetheless, before doing so, I leaned close to my girl and whispered to her, "I'll handle her for a while, you can interject anytime you want to."

"Okay. She's rude. Ignoring me and focusing on you when she's talking to me. I wonder how she will look with chocolate cream on her face." Nao whispered back, her tone a little sharp as if she was holding herself back from stabbing the girl in front of us.

Mhm. I got a correct read on my girl. Although she didn't say a word again when I stepped up earlier, there's no way she'd be okay being set aside. Even more so when I was just next to her.

And if not for me holding the situation well, she also didn't see the need to step up. Now that I gave her the freedom to step up anytime she wanted, I began anticipating that moment.

For now, I already reached the girl. I stopped just a step away from her which resulted in the girl raising her head to meet my gaze.

Obviously, the first thing she did was take a step back. She didn't like being literally looked down upon by someone else.

Really, she's a prideful girl. I wonder how can her friend or her alleged partner tolerate her? Maybe she's different when in front of them? There's only one way to know.

"Psh. Dream on, senpai. If anything, aren't you going to explain yourself by staring at me?" The girl went into a defensive position. If I closed in again, she would probably push me back.

In any case, she's still not backing down. And even when I closed in on her, she remained clueless or she probably didn't bother checking. All she had in mind was how to revert this.

"Know what? You don't have to explain. I get it. It's rare for a girl to be as beautiful as me. And that senior over there that you claimed to have taken your breath away? She can't reach my level."

And there she goes… proving my conjecture. But how should I say this? It's a little laughable how forced it was.

The girl puffed up her chest as if trying to match Nao's size and smugly raised her chin while giving the two of us sidelong glances.

I was about to counter her but my girl chose to interject at this moment. She didn't need to wait for a chance, the haughty girl herself presented it on a silver platter.

"Not at your level, you say? Hey, junior. I think I remembered who you are. You're pretty famous. Aren't you that one rumored to be in a relationship with a teacher? I guess I'm really not at your level. That's an accomplishment you can be proud of."

As ironic as it was considering she was also in the same state before, Nao also put on a shameless mask and used that point to hit the girl where it would hurt.

And sure enough, the haughty girl already broke her posture halfway through Nao's words. One of her eyebrows irritably twitched followed by a vein popping up on her temple.<novelnext></novelnext>

She then icily glared at Nao as though she was already imagining the girl being impaled by imaginary icicles formed from it.

However, before the girl could respond, I dipped my fingers in it, piling another one to demolish her prideful stance, "Oh, that's her? No wonder… Hey, junior. Congratulations! You earned yourself an impossible achievement."

Saying that sarcastically along with a sigh of amazement and a round of applause, I then used the moment to enter her personal space.

Observing her from this close, the girl had started shaking either from embarrassment or anger. Her hands dropped to her side and her hands clenched into a fist.

However, even with that, she never lowered her head. She remained in silence though.

So for the next few minutes, Nao and I worked in tandem in adding more to what we just said. And obviously, considering I only know what I know from the file, we had to improvise.

Nao didn't find it hard to do so. She could simply circle around the topic of rumors while I squeezed my brain for every piece of information I have about her.

For example, I brought up her closeness to her teacher and then how her friends defended her. Then, Nao made up a rumor on the spot which pointed on how the girl was allegedly seen together with the said teacher.

Little by little, we started exaggerating it to the point that the girl's shaking body almost looked like she was vibrating.

But even then, she never backed down. She held her position just glaring at us.

Around a minute or so later, the girl strongly bit her lower lip that I wouldn't be surprised if it starts bleeding.

And possibly reaching her boiling point, the girl loudly huffed as she finally uttered or shouted a response. In other words, she burst out.

"No! Where the hell did you pick that up?! I'm tired of answering that totally nonsense issue. Why will I, an extremely gorgeous girl, get into a relationship with that man? Huh? Just because I'm trying to butter up to him for bonus points, I became suspected of dating him. That's utterly idiotic!"

"Anyway, you two are also full of nonsense with everything you just said. Senior or not, I refuse to be looked down upon by you." Adding that in the end, the girl then turned around before releasing a long sigh.

From the looks of it, she's already in the process of calming herself down. Her hands and shoulders relaxed and the shaking of her body became nonexistent. The only thing I could see was how she started heaving for breath. Most likely, she held that in for too long, and after blurting all those out, she's now short of it.

In any case, the way she responded was definitely something I wouldn't see every day. Furthermore, our malicious barrage of rumors was deflected that easily by her. What a girl.

I glanced at Nao and the same as me, she probably thought the same. My girl shrugged her shoulders before joining me again as we stood side by side behind the girl from Class 2-3.

We're successful in extracting information from her mouth… If everything she said was the truth then she's really clean. However, the urgent question is, how will we deal with the aftermath of this?

My mind whirled for a proper response but in the end, I couldn't come up with anything.

Due to that, I settled on putting in another attempt to pull more information about her, "Alright, junior. Let's just say we believe in what you just said. The rumors are false and are just out there to malign you. However, have you ever stopped to think that your behavior is problematic? You're a little rude and too full of yourself."

It took longer than a minute but the girl eventually responded, "Problematic? Rude? There's nothing wrong with telling the truth."

"Truth. Is it a universally accepted truth or just the truth only you can perceive? Alright, you can skip answering that. Can you turn around and face us? Let's talk if you still choose to continue skipping the third period here."

I already buttoned and zipped up my pants so there was no worry that she'd find my pants a little loose or that the bulge was too obvious.

Rather than talk to her back, isn't it better for us to face one another? Besides, Nao was also thinking the same.

To have a better chance at handling this situation, it's a lot better to level ourselves with this prideful girl than compete with her.

Whether this would be fruitful or not was still up in the air though. There's also the fact that she might finally notice my different school uniform.

That's fine. If talking wasn't enough, scaring her by being a little forceful might do the trick. But if possible, I don't really want to get there.