Under a gaze with one part puzzlement, two parts shock, three parts disbelief, Aoki's line landed.
Faster than usual, the reward chime came immediately:
[Option 2 complete. Language-Learning Gift granted.]
He didn't yet know what that meant, but he had more pressing issues—
Satisfying to say; a pain to deal with.
"Aoki-kun, launching into a personal attack without explaining—isn't that inappropriate?"
Her already icy tone dropped several degrees.
She wasn't wrong; a defense would've been more rational.
But he wasn't about to bow now. And he wasn't entirely wrong—
"Is slandering someone outright 'appropriate,' Yukinoshita-san? For the record, I did explain—your body doesn't interest me. My eyes drift when I think."
She paused.
He had a point: she'd led with an accusation. And his reason was plausible.
Whether it was "unconscious" didn't matter; so long as he stuck to it, she'd be the one in the wrong.
She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, breathing in slowly.
Annoyed as she was, in round two she had to concede she started it.
"Insinuating and threatening was my fault. I apologize. But choosing escalation when there was a better way—please apologize for that."
Her original words—"If you keep staring, I'll call the police"—had bite, but not that much.
A single sentence would have cleared it up; he chose to escalate.
Aoki realized the game's options had all been bad this time. Realistically, the best choice was "explain without apologizing."
Too late. He'd taken the bait.
He could complain after the reward, but he still had to play the hand.
He sighed. "Yeah… my bad. I let it get to me because I think of you as my enemy."
"…Enemy?" she frowned.
He bristled at her bafflement. Hey, he'd been first in his old school for two years. Don't look down on me.
He threw down a gauntlet.
"Yukinoshita-san, perennial first place—I'll beat you with my grades this year."
She'd seen him only once in the club in nearly a week. But his explanation clicked.
"So Aoki-kun is confident he can beat me?"
Confident? He'd conceived dozens of ways to keep her from taking the exam for that scholarship money…
But considering the Yukinoshita family's power in Chiba, he'd shelved the legally questionable ideas.
Without tricks, on pure exams vs. a genius like her—could he guarantee a win? Not really.
But capitulating wasn't an option.
"Of course. I'll definitely win," he said.
Hiding a small smile behind her paperback, she watched the braggart.
She didn't answer at once.
A summer breeze through the open window lifted a gauzy strand of her black hair.
Then she tilted the corner of her mouth and said, cool and confident:
"If you're confident, let's compare next exam results."
Her voice rang with fierce competitiveness.
"If I win, you'll offer a sincere, formal apology for your earlier insult…"
Still holding that grudge, huh.
Aoki wasn't chasing first to "prove himself" to anyone—he wanted the scholarship. He didn't need this bet.
And though he'd just claimed confidence, he wasn't sure.
He shook his head and cut her off.
"No need, Yukinoshita-san."
He glanced at his phone. Over thirty minutes—time to go.
He stood. "Not interested. Find someone else."
He headed for the door.
Behind him: "Are you afraid, Aoki-kun?"
That kind of bait wouldn't fool a kindergartener…
His foot stopped.
Excuse me? Ten years of study and you throw that at me?
He took a deep breath. "Fine. If I score higher than you, then what?"
-------
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