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ArabicClassroom of the Elite: Surviving with the Intel System — Chapter 48
Chapter 48: You Just Gave Me 16,000 Points! Why Are You Slandering Me Again!
The message status displayed a mocking ‘Read’ for several hours.
Suzune stared at the screen in her dimly lit room. Just as she considered abandoning her vigil, the display flared to life, casting a pale glow across her face.
Horikita Manabu: Come find me behind the first-year dorms.
She immediately moved to change into her uniform, her movements sharp and hurried. Yet, just as her hand reached for the doorknob, she froze in place. Her phone vibrated a second time.
Shimizu Akira: Horikita-san, good evening.
The text locked her fingers against the cold metal of the handle. Shimizu Akira was actively initiating a conversation?
Outside her window, the night had already deepened into a heavy, quiet darkness. Receiving a message from a male classmate at this hour caused an involuntary tightening of her nerves. Her dark eyes darted between the closed door and the glowing screen. Finally, her thumbs tapped out a measured response.
Horikita Suzune: Is something wrong? I am very busy, please state your purpose directly.
She released a quiet breath the moment she hit send. This was already an exceptional level of courtesy. Had it been anyone else, she would have begrudged them even a read receipt.
Shimizu Akira: Do you remember our last transaction?
She tapped the glass, keeping her reply brief and guarded.
Horikita Suzune: I remember.
A new notification popped up almost instantly.
Shimizu Akira: I plan to refund you 16,000 Private Points.
Her breathing caught in her throat. A refund? Her gaze flicked instinctively to her digital balance. It sat at 9,900. If she added his proposed 16,000, it would bring her exactly to the 25,000 required for the class fees.
Horikita Suzune: What do you mean? What are the conditions?
The other party replied without hesitation.
Shimizu Akira: Do you remember the rule I mentioned? I once told you about an 80% discount on information fees. You paid 80,000 last time, so by the rules, I should refund you 16,000.
A brief pause followed before another line appeared.
Shimizu Akira: This is not meant as charity.
Suzune stared at those final words, her fingertip hovering over the edge of the smooth glass.
‘I see…’
He was merely executing the rigid parameters of their previous transaction. Nothing more. There was no pity hidden in the transfer, nor any ulterior motives lurking beneath the surface.
Yet, a strange, subtle sense of incongruity rippled through her chest. He had clearly calculated this exact amount. This sensation of being precisely managed and accounted for did not, to her own surprise, trigger her usual repulsion.
Even so, her pride remained an immovable fortress. She would never permit herself to unilaterally accept a favor. She began typing a rejection in the chat box, intending to promise him double the amount next month.
She stopped. Such an empty promise held zero value. Next month, she might not even possess fifty thousand points to her name.
She pressed her lips into a thin line, deleting the draft character by character. Instead, she offered the most practical equivalent exchange she possessed.
Horikita Suzune: I cannot directly accept your points. I will help you with your Japanese lessons. Your Japanese grades are unbelievably bad, so this will serve as an equivalent exchange.
Shimizu Akira: Alright. That would be a great help to me too.
Shimizu Akira: Speaking of which, I am currently taking a walk near the dorms, and I saw your brother.
The words hit her like a splash of ice water. She had kept her brother waiting in the cold. And worse, Akira was wandering near the exact same location? She barely registered her own hasty reply before shoving her phone into her pocket, throwing the door open, and breaking into a sprint down the corridor.
The area behind the first-year dormitories was shadowed and quiet. Suzune arrived to find Horikita Manabu already standing there, his posture straight and unyielding.
The apologies she had rehearsed on the run died in her throat. The lingering thought that Akira might emerge from the darkness at any second made her hyper-aware of her surroundings. She forced herself to use a distant, formal title.
“Horikita Student Council President, what do you need me for?”
“Suzune…” Manabu adjusted his glasses, the lenses catching the faint moonlight. “You are calling me Student Council President?”
He closed the distance between them with slow, measured steps. “I thought you would, exactly as before, eagerly show me those… insignificant changes.” He placed a crushing emphasis on the word, his tone dripping with quiet authority. “Completely disregarding the distance appropriate for a Student Council President.”
He stopped just inches away. A strange, unfamiliar glint flickered within his condescending gaze. “It seems you have finally begun to understand the proper boundaries in interpersonal interactions.”
That faint shadow of praise sent a sudden rush of warmth through her chest. The strict facade she had built instantly crumbled.
“Brother… I am not…”
The forbidden address slipped past her lips before she could stop it. The moment it did, the brief warmth in Manabu’s eyes vanished, replaced by a freezing, absolute zero glare.
He took a half-step back, looking down at her with unadulterated disappointment. “Are you going to speak nonsense again? It seems my earlier impression was nothing but a delusion.”
A suffocating pressure seized Suzune’s lungs. His voice remained quiet, yet every syllable pierced her eardrums like a sharpened ice pick.
“I heard you were assigned to Class D,” he sneered, the sound devoid of any familial warmth. “Exactly like three years ago. Always staring at my back, yet entirely blind to your own fatal flaws. Choosing to enroll in this school seems to be just another one of your failures.”
“…I was assigned to Class D because there must be something wrong with the class assignment system…” Suzune argued, the desperate words spilling out without logic.
“Enough!” Manabu’s voice cracked like a whip in the silent night. He stepped forward, his presence towering over her. “Still making excuses for yourself at this point? Still questioning the very foundation of the system? Utterly foolish. Do you only reflect on your own incompetence after you are forced to endure hardship?”
Suzune’s shoulders flinched violently. The sheer weight of her brother’s anger enveloped her, pressing down on her chest until drawing a single breath felt agonizing.
A short distance away, Shimizu Akira pocketed his phone. The moment he rounded the corner of the dormitory building, the harsh sounds of a one-sided dispute reached his ears.
“…The class assignment system is unreasonable!”
“Always making excuses!”
‘Are these siblings really airing their grievances this openly?’Akira thought, his footsteps silent against the pavement.’At this rate, they might actually escalate into a physical brawl.’
He raised a brow, deciding there was no point in hiding. He stepped out of the shadows, walking openly into the clearing.
The siblings stood less than two meters apart, locked in a bitter standoff. Fortunately, the hostility had not yet crossed into violence.
“Good evening, you two.”
At the sound of a third voice, Manabu turned his head. His sharp eyes immediately locked onto the intruder, analyzing him from head to toe. “You are… that first-year from Sato’s Boxing Club?”
A flicker of genuine surprise crossed Akira’s face. “I did not expect the Student Council President to remember me.”
It was an honest reaction. But upon further reflection, it made sense. His club president was a prominent figure from Class 3-A, and combining that with his own rather noticeable presence during the entrance ceremony, a man of Manabu’s caliber would naturally keep a mental file on him.
“Hmph.” Manabu pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “So, you are Suzune’s friend? Another first-year student from Class D.”
Akira offered a casual, noncommittal shrug. “Something like that…”
“No!” Suzune interrupted, her voice spiking with sudden, desperate urgency. “He is just…”
“Just an unrelated person passing by?” Manabu cut her off, his sneer returning as he shifted his gaze back to his sister. “You lack even the courage to acknowledge a basic friendship? Is that the absolute limit of your capacity?”
Manabu turned his attention back to the boy. “So, do you have anything to say to us siblings? Or do you plan to continue pretending to be a mere passerby?”
“I am not a passerby. If I were, I would not have revealed myself,” Akira replied, his tone entirely devoid of intimidation. “Actually, on my way over, your conversation was quite loud. I heard bits and pieces of it. Since the Student Council President is directly asking for my opinion, I suppose I will offer my perspective.”
Akira let out a quiet sigh, looking between the two of them with a faint trace of dry amusement.
“Horikita-san, this is where you are wrong.”
Manabu’s eyes narrowed into dangerous slits, the temperature around him dropping instantly. “You—”
“Do not misunderstand, Student Council President. The Horikita-san I am referring to is not you.” Akira raised a hand to stall the older brother’s rising temper. He shook his head and shifted his arm, pointing his index finger squarely at Suzune. “I am not talking about you. I mean your sister. This Horikita-san is the one who is mistaken.”
He kept his finger leveled at the girl. “Quite clearly, her entire thought process and the things she says are truly problematic.”
Suzune’s dark eyes widened in sheer disbelief. The rigid mask she wore cracked, revealing a rare, chaotic mixture of deep embarrassment and sudden fury.
‘This person just gave me sixteen thousand points! Why is he suddenly slandering me now!’