Classroom of the Elite: Standing Firm in Class A — Chapter 61

Chapter 61: Sakura Airi

After spending a quiet hour sorting through his thoughts in the library, Kaedehara Tetsu decided to clear his head with a stroll. He handled the bustling pedestrian street winding along the outskirts of the campus shopping mall. The afternoon sun cast long, slanted shadows across the pavement. As he approached the sleek entrance of a large electronics retailer, his footsteps came to a sudden, deliberate halt.

Just ahead, a solitary figure stood frozen outside the store’s automatic glass doors.

Sakura Airi.

She wore the standard school uniform, though her posture made it look a size too large. A pair of thick, oversized glasses obscured the upper half of her face, while her long, unkempt bangs hung heavily over her eyes, cloaking her features in a perpetual layer of gloomy shadow. A bulky camera bag rested against her back, yet the camera itself was clutched desperately in her trembling hands.

She leaned forward, her weight shifting onto the balls of her feet as if mustering the courage to step inside. The motion sensor caught her approach, triggering the glass doors to slide open with a soft hiss. The moment the gap widened, Airi flinched, shrinking back a full step. The doors slid shut. She leaned forward again. The doors opened. She retreated.

This agonizing dance repeated itself several times. Every line of her posture screamed of hesitation, intense internal conflict, and an overwhelming, paralyzing fear.

Tetsu leaned his shoulder against a nearby lamppost, watching the spectacle with a faint, calculating amusement. Airi would periodically dart a terrified glance through the glass, only to whip her head away a second later, the dread on her pale face deepening with every look.

Following her line of sight, Tetsu peered through the transparent barrier. Through the clear glass, he could see a slightly chubby man in his thirties dressed in the standard uniform of a store clerk. He was making absolutely no effort to attend to the sparse afternoon customers. Instead, his neck craned repeatedly toward the entrance, his eyes locked onto the girl outside. A greasy, unsettling smile stretched across his lips, practically dripping with predatory anticipation.

The scene clicked into place, perfectly aligning with the plot etched into Tetsu’s memory. The true identity of the popular internet idol ‘Shizuku’ had been discovered by this ill-intentioned clerk. For a girl like Airi, burdened by a social anxiety so severe she could barely string three words together, crossing that threshold was no different from a lamb willingly walking into a trap.

But if she didn’t go in, what was she supposed to do about her broken camera? That suffocating dilemma pinned the timid girl firmly to the pavement.

Pushing off the lamppost, Tetsu straightened his posture. He adopted the casual, unassuming gait of a classmate passing by, masking his predatory awareness as he approached her from behind. His footsteps were light, barely making a sound against the concrete, but Airi’s nerves were already stretched to the breaking point. The mere shift in the air was enough to trigger her hyper-vigilance.

Sensing someone drawing near, her entire body shuddered violently. She curled inward, pulling her shoulders up to her ears. She didn’t dare turn around. Instead, she buried her chin into her chest, looking as though she desperately wished the ground would split open and swallow her whole.

Tetsu halted his advance, deliberately leaving two paces of empty space between them to keep her from bolting.

“Do you need any help?”

Airi’s shoulders jerked. Like a startled bird caught in the open, she hugged the damaged camera tightly against her chest, treating it like a physical shield. Inch by agonizing inch, she pivoted on her heel and raised her head.

Through the thick, distorting lenses of her glasses, her wide eyes met Tetsu’s calm, slightly cold features.

Her mind flatlined instantly. She had no idea how to react.

“You’ve been standing out here for quite a while,” Tetsu noted, his tone mild and unhurried. “It looks like you’re having some trouble.”

“N-n… no…”

Her voice was thinner than a whisper, a fragile, mosquito-like hum that would have been entirely lost to the wind if the street weren’t so quiet. She shook her head in rapid, jerky motions. Her panicked gaze darted toward the pavement, absolutely refusing to meet his eyes.

According to her usual survival habits, she should have already turned and sprinted in the opposite direction. Yet, the ingrained politeness of a high school student chained her feet to the ground; ignoring a direct greeting from a classmate felt like a crime she couldn’t commit. She forced herself to stay rooted to the spot, but the crushing weight of her anxiety strangled her vocal cords, making a complete sentence impossible.

“Your camera…” Tetsu let his gaze drop to the device crushed against her chest. “It looks like it took quite a fall.”

At the mention of her most precious possession, Airi offered a subconscious nod, the movement so subtle it was barely a twitch of her chin.

“This store has a dedicated repair counter,” Tetsu continued, perfectly playing the part of a helpful, oblivious bystander. “Why not take it inside and have them look at it?”

“I… I…”

A heavy, choked nasal tone crept into her voice, slurring her words into a disjointed mess. “B-because… of some things… it’s… it’s not convenient for me to go in…”

The suggestion seemed to strike a raw nerve. She let out a short, ragged gasp, immediately dipping her head even lower. The curtain of her bangs fell forward, completely masking her eyes and hiding whatever terrified expression currently gripped her face.

Tetsu observed her trembling form in silence. He didn’t press the issue. Pushing a cornered animal would only guarantee it bolted. He let a calculated beat of silence stretch between them, feigning a moment of thoughtful consideration before delivering his hook.

“If you don’t mind, how about I take a look at it for you?”

Airi’s head snapped up. Behind the thick glass of her lenses, her eyes widened into massive pools of utter disbelief.

Help her… fix the camera? They were practically strangers. They shared a classroom, but they had never exchanged more than a passing glance.

“W-why… would you help me?”

“There is no why.” Tetsu kept his voice smooth and entirely devoid of pressure. “I happen to have some experience repairing electronics, and you happen to need a repair. That’s all.”

His features remained perfectly neutral. There was no overwhelming enthusiasm to scare her off, nor any creeping warmth that might suggest an ulterior motive. His cool, detached demeanor stood in stark, comforting contrast to the predatory, greasy smile of the clerk lurking behind the glass doors.

A fierce internal war waged within Airi’s chest. On one side stood the repair counter and a man who represented an immediate, terrifying threat. On the other stood a male classmate—an unknown variable, a stranger offering an unexpected lifeline.

Her gaze dropped back to the shattered glass of her lens. She desperately needed it fixed. That camera wasn’t just a piece of technology; it was her shield, her voice, and her only safe medium for interacting with the real world.

Slowly, the desperate need to salvage her lifeline eclipsed her paralyzing fear of the unknown.

With hands that shook like leaves in a winter gale, she extended the camera toward him.

“Then… please.”

Tetsu accepted the device, his fingers brushing the cold metal. He inspected the damage with a critical eye. The front glass of the lens was completely spiderwebbed with cracks, and several deep gouges marred the outer casing.

“It looks like the brunt of the impact was taken by the lens,” Tetsu diagnosed, turning the device over in his palm. “The main body doesn’t seem to have any major structural damage on the outside, though I’ll still need to open it up to be certain.” He looked back at her. “I should be able to have it fixed by this time tomorrow.”

“R-really?”

For the first time since he approached her, a genuine spark of hope flickered to life in Airi’s eyes, piercing through the gloom of her heavy bangs.

“Of course.”

Tetsu slipped his smartphone from his pocket, tapping the screen to wake it. “Let’s exchange contact information. I’ll message you the moment it’s ready.”

Airi flinched in a brief moment of panic before hurriedly fishing her own phone from her skirt pocket. With trembling thumbs, she handled to her messaging app, and the two quickly swapped details.

“See you tomorrow, then.”

Without waiting for a reply, Tetsu pocketed his phone, secured the broken camera in his grip, and turned away. He didn’t linger to offer any false reassurances, simply walking off and letting his figure blend smoothly into the afternoon crowd.

Airi was left standing alone on the pavement, staring blankly at the space he had just occupied. Slowly, she lowered her gaze to the glowing screen of her phone. Sitting at the very top of her sparse contact list was a newly added name: Kaedehara Tetsu.

She had actually done it. She had just handed over her most precious possession to a boy she barely knew.

As the cool afternoon breeze brushed past her, she clutched the phone to her chest, entirely unsure if she had just made a terrible mistake or found a genuine lifeline.