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ArabicClassroom of the Elite: Standing Firm in Class A — Chapter 38
Chapter 38: Kamuro Masumi’s Sense of Crisis
“Let’s go, we still need to buy some food.” Kaedehara Tetsu’s calm voice broke the heavy air settling between them. He pushed the metal shopping cart forward, taking the lead and guiding the two girls deeper into the store.
Thus, a rather strange procession formed in the brightly lit supermarket aisle.
Kaedehara Tetsu walked in front, setting a leisurely pace. Shiina Hiyori followed closely by his side, her curious gaze drifting over the colorful rows of snacks lining the shelves.
Meanwhile, Kamuro Masumi was forced to maintain an uncomfortably close distance to him, tethered by an unspoken dynamic she could not easily escape.
“Tetsu-kun, you told me last time that some things shouldn’t be judged by their surface, and that you have to dig deeper to discover the real fun hidden inside. I finally have some understanding of what you meant recently!” Shiina Hiyori said, looking up at Kaedehara Tetsu with a bright, earnest expression.
The things she referred to were the complex plot threads of a particularly complex mystery novel they had discussed.
But as those words reached Kamuro Masumi’s ears, her cynical mind automatically decoded the sentence into an entirely different, highly suggestive meaning.
Dig deeper… discover the real fun hidden inside… stringing those words together painted a picture full of ambiguous, intimate implications.
‘Thieving cat.’
Kamuro Masumi’s sharp gaze locked onto Shiina Hiyori once again.
She needed to evaluate the situation. She had to accurately measure this woman’s true value and her actual level of threat.
From the outside, this silver-haired girl was the absolute picture of harmlessness. She had a petite figure, a soft and cute face, and eyes so entirely clean they lacked even a single trace of impurity. Her tone of voice was perfectly innocent, and the look in her eyes when she gazed at Kaedehara Tetsu was one of pure, undisguised adoration.
Was this a seasoned hunter wearing a flawless disguise?
Or was she just an idiot, hopelessly stupid and naive?
Kamuro Masumi leaned heavily toward the former. In this cutthroat academy where strength, merit, and deception ruled everything, a true naive innocent could not possibly survive for long. That excessive, blinding purity radiating from Shiina Hiyori was, in Kamuro’s view, the greatest unnaturalness of all. It had to be a brilliant, carefully crafted mask.
Kaedehara Tetsu pushed the shopping cart, leisurely turning the corner around a tall display, and arrived at the snack section.
“Want to eat anything?” His voice pulled Kamuro Masumi’s racing thoughts back to reality.
“Potato chips, spicy ones.” Kamuro Masumi answered almost subconsciously, crossing her arms.
Kaedehara Tetsu reached out, grabbed a large bag of the specific potato chips she wanted from the shelf, and tossed it casually into the shopping cart.
Then, he turned his attention to Shiina Hiyori on his other side.
“What about Hiyori? Is there anything you like?”
“I, I’m fine with anything!” Shiina Hiyori didn’t seem to know much about junk food. She looked at the dazzling array of bright packaging and clearly had no idea what to choose.
“Then let’s go with this.”
Kaedehara Tetsu picked up a box of exquisitely packaged chocolate cookies. “When you’re reading for long hours, replenishing some sugar helps your brain think.”
Shiina Hiyori smiled warmly, then looked over at the silent Kamuro Masumi. She seemingly wanted to find a common topic to ease the somewhat awkward, rigid atmosphere hanging over the group.
“Um… Kamuro-san, do you like reading too?”
Kamuro Masumi’s gaze shifted slowly from the store shelf to the silver-haired girl’s face.
“No.”
One word, concise and absolutely freezing, instantly blocked back all the friendly conversation Shiina Hiyori had prepared.
Shiina Hiyori’s gentle smile froze on her face. She looked up at Kaedehara Tetsu with a hint of helplessness in her eyes.
“Kamuro here, she’s not very interested in words.”
Kaedehara Tetsu smiled faintly to smooth things over. The hand he had resting casually on Kamuro Masumi’s shoulder gave a slow, deliberate squeeze. It was a gesture meant to soothe, but the weight of his fingers carried a distinct, unspoken warning. “She prefers things that are far more direct. Things that can bring actual physical stimulation, right?”
His words carried a heavy, dark implication. Kamuro Masumi’s cheeks flushed imperceptibly under the fluorescent lights.
She didn’t dare refute him. She just turned her head to the side, stubbornly avoiding his amused gaze.
“Physical stimulation?”
Shiina Hiyori clearly didn’t understand the hidden meaning behind the exchange. She tilted her head and asked curiously, “Does that mean… like horror novels?”
“Something like that.”
Kaedehara Tetsu answered vaguely, his tone laced with dry amusement. He picked up a carton of milk and set it into the shopping cart. “Let’s go, it’s getting late.”
They continued walking forward, but Kamuro Masumi’s mind was spinning faster than before.
This Shiina Hiyori, does she really not understand, or is she just playing dumb?
Every single one of her questions, every innocent expression, seemed so perfectly natural. If she was acting, then her skill level was simply terrifying. It was high enough that even Kamuro, who was used to watching people closely, couldn’t spot a single crack in the armor.
Kamuro Masumi decided to probe one more time.
When they passed the brightly lit freezer section, Kamuro Masumi abruptly stopped walking.
“I want to eat ice cream.” She said, her voice not loud, but firm enough to halt the cart.
Kaedehara Tetsu stopped and looked down at her. “What flavor?”
“The same as you.” She said smoothly.
The moment those words left her lips, she locked her peripheral vision tightly onto Shiina Hiyori’s reaction.
This was a blatant declaration of territory. She was directly telling the girl in front of her, ‘He and I share intimate preferences that you know absolutely nothing about.’
However, Shiina Hiyori’s reaction once again completely derailed her expectations.
Shiina Hiyori just blinked, revealing a look of mild realization. “Tetsu-kun, I didn’t expect that you liked eating ice cream. I thought someone like you would prefer things that perk you up, like black coffee.”
Her focus had completely veered off course.
She didn’t even pause to consider any possible romantic or territorial meaning behind Kamuro Masumi’s demand to share the exact same flavor.
Kamuro Masumi’s heart sank, bit by bit, leaving her entirely frustrated.
She actually began to waver.
Perhaps… in this twisted world, there really did exist single-celled organisms whose brains couldn’t hold anything other than library books?
Or perhaps, her opponent’s level was truly so monstrous that she could perfectly bury all her dark emotions and calculating thoughts beneath that flawless, harmless skin?
While Kamuro spiraled in her own thoughts, Kaedehara Tetsu had already taken two boxes of rich vanilla ice cream from the freezer and dropped them into the cart.
Then, he reached in and took out another box, this one strawberry-flavored.
“Hiyori, this is for you.” He handed the small pink box of ice cream directly to Shiina Hiyori.
“Eh? I, I don’t need…”
“Take it. Consider it a thank-you gift for keeping me company while shopping.”
Kamuro Masumi watched this scene unfold in silence, her eyes darting between the matching vanilla box in her own hand and the bright pink strawberry box in Shiina Hiyori’s hands.
“We’ve bought just about everything.”
Kaedehara Tetsu’s voice rang out, cutting through the quiet. He pushed the shopping cart filled with their goods and walked toward the front of the store. “Let’s go, time to pay.”
There was only a short line in front of the checkout counter, and it was soon their turn.
The cashier skillfully scanned the items, the prices dancing rapidly across the electronic screen. Kaedehara Tetsu took out his student ID phone, and after a soft electronic beep, transferred the required Personal Points to settle the total.
The three of them walked out of the supermarket carrying their plastic shopping bags. The evening breeze blew against their faces, carrying a pleasant hint of a chill that easily dispersed the stuffy, artificial air from inside the store.
The setting sun dyed the sprawling sky a warm, vibrant orange-red, and the shadows of the academy buildings were stretched long and thin across the pavement.
“It’s getting late. If we don’t eat it now, the ice cream will melt.”
Kaedehara Tetsu stopped next to a wooden bench provided for passing students.
He took the three boxes of ice cream out of the shopping bag, tore open the plastic packaging, and handed one of the vanilla ones to Kamuro Masumi, keeping the identical one for himself.
Finally, he handed the pink strawberry ice cream to Shiina Hiyori.
The three of them sat on the bench just like that, quietly eating their cold treats as the sun dipped lower.
They occasionally chatted about some minor, interesting things that had happened around the campus recently, the tension from the aisles slowly bleeding away into the cool evening air.
The small boxes of ice cream were finished very quickly.
Kaedehara Tetsu stood up, tossing his empty box into the nearby trash can with a casual flick of his wrist.
“Hiyori, where do you plan to go now?” His voice broke the comfortable silence.
“Um… I plan to go back to my dormitory to read.”
“Then let’s walk together. It’s on the way.”