Chapter 169 Horikita Suzune: You Can Make a Request One Step Beyond a Handshake
Shimizu Akira naturally noticed the strange look his seatmate was giving him. After all, her gaze was far too direct; when one person stares at another, the latter can usually sense it.
"You aren't thinking something like, 'Why is Brother so nice to Shimizu Akira but his attitude toward me is so poor,' are you?"
"…Yes." Horikita Suzune's body stiffened involuntarily, and she subconsciously pursed her lips.
'What is going on? He guessed correctly again!'
Just how well did this man understand her?
"Then let me ask you one thing, Horikita. Since enrollment, have you ever taken the initiative to go to the Student Council office?"
"No…"
"Let me ask you further: Do you understand your brother's current situation? Any of the problems the Student Council President is facing, such as the troubles he's encountering?"
"I'm not very clear on that…"
"Then let me ask you one more time: Since enrollment, have you helped your brother with anything? Do you even know who his opponent is?"
"This..."
Faced with this barrage of questions, Horikita Suzune was almost entirely speechless.
How could she have taken the initiative to go to the Student Council? The last time she went, she was practically dragged there by Shimizu.
As for her brother's current situation? She really didn't know much about it. As the Student Council President and the top official of the school's student body, could he actually be in trouble? And things like giving her brother a gift or helping him—she had never even considered them.
"As for me, I've been to the Student Council several times to see the President, and I consider myself relatively well-informed about his situation.
For instance, he regularly subsidizes students who don't have enough points, and he's currently facing a conflict of ideals with Nagumo Miyabi—he leans toward the conservative side, protecting the weaker students.
I also helped him with a favor that wasn't exactly small, so we've been friends for a while. If I ask him if he's free in the evening, of course he'll reply to me—what's so strange about that? If you could do the same, your relationship with your brother would naturally improve as well," Shimizu answered in a matter-of-fact tone.
To him, this was perfectly normal. After all, he had helped the President pressure Nagumo Miyabi last month. Simply asking if he was free now was hardly something to make a fuss over.
Horikita Suzune's expression remained somewhat strained. She quickly processed his words in her mind but found herself unable to pick out a single flaw. If everything Shimizu said was true, then it was indeed logical for her brother to treat him well. On the contrary, she, his own sister, showed far less concern for him than the person sitting right next to her.
"Thank you... for helping my brother. Although... I don't know what you did for him this time." Horikita Suzune remained silent for a long time—so long that Shimizu thought she wanted to drop the subject—before he finally heard this slightly hesitant thank-you.
"Don't mention it. Your brother has already given me the appropriate compensation," Shimizu responded.
After two months of getting to know each other, although Horikita Suzune was still blunt at times, her most obvious growth was learning to take the initiative to apologize when she realized her own negligence. To her, this was a significant step forward. After all, on the first day of school, she had interrogated him simply because he looked at her. Compared to the Horikita Suzune of that time, she was like a completely different person; her rate of growth was staggering.
This gave him a strange sense of an "evolutionary" or "raising-sim" relationship. To be honest, it was a pretty interesting feeling.
However, he suddenly remembered that the Student Council President had asked him to look after his sister, so he took the opportunity to ask: "By the way... has anyone strange approached you recently?"
"?! Why are you asking that all of a sudden?" Horikita blinked, asking back.
"Nothing, I just thought that the Student Vice President, Nagumo Miyabi, looked at you a certain way last time, as if he had designs on you. Has he come looking for you lately?"
"No. I have no interest in a frivolous guy like that. Speaking even one word to him makes me feel disgusted."
Horikita Suzune clearly looked down on Nagumo Miyabi from the bottom of her heart—the mere way he looked at her made her feel nauseous.
She truly couldn't understand why her brother would recruit someone like that. Honestly, she felt that if it were her, she could definitely do a better job—at the very least, she would support her brother wholeheartedly and never act like that man.
But she only dared to let these thoughts swirl in her mind. If she said them aloud, she would likely be mocked by Shimizu again. As she thought this, she even turned her head away instinctively. Her seatmate could now read her unspoken thoughts just by looking at her expression.
For Shimizu, however, learning that Nagumo Miyabi hadn't approached Horikita recently provided him with the answer he most wanted to know. He had handled the task entrusted to him by the President well enough. After all, the man had paid him 500,000 points as a reward.
Next, his gaze shifted unconsciously to his other neighbor—Sakura Airi. Recalling that she supposedly had a hidden identity as a gravure idol, Shimizu couldn't help but steal another glance.
"Shimizu-kun... is there something you need?" Sakura Airi asked timidly.
See? When one person stares at another, the other person really does notice easily. Shimizu mentally noted that this theory had been validated once again and replied smoothly: "Is your camera fixed? I remember running into you at the electronics store last month."
"Yes... it's fixed..." Sakura Airi responded weakly.
"Is that so? That's good then." Shimizu quickly looked away.
Since she was deliberately hiding her identity as an idol, she clearly didn't want others to know. Then again, he wondered how someone so shy managed to take self-portraits. It wasn't like she had a setting where she switched to a different personality the moment she took off her glasses, right?
"...What reward do you want?" Beside him, Horikita Suzune suddenly spoke up out of the blue.
"? What do you mean?" Shimizu was somewhat confused.
"Last month, you helped me ease the tension with my brother. Over this past month, he has indeed sent me several messages every week." She paused, her tone still carrying a forced composure.
"So, what do you want me to do for you?"
"I see." Shimizu subconsciously rubbed his chin.
Horikita Suzune had indeed said last month that if he helped her reconcile with her brother, she would give him a reward. He had to admit, he quite appreciated this side of her—keeping her word, just like her brother.
Horikita Suzune shot him a glance.
"If you still want a handshake, come to my room tonight. My room number is 1201."
Shaking hands in front of the whole class last time made her feel like she wasn't being herself. That action carried a strange sense of shame, and she still felt uncomfortable thinking back on it. After careful consideration, she decided to set the location in her own room—that way, she wouldn't have to worry about anyone else walking in on them.
However, since last time was only a one-minute handshake, she felt that it was a bit unfair to Shimizu considering everything he had done for her. She didn't like doing things that were unbalanced.
After thinking it over, she added: "This time... you can make a request to me that goes one step further than a handshake."
'One step further?!'
Shimizu suddenly felt that Horikita Suzune's words were somewhat alluring. Last time, she had claimed Kushida Kikyo was seducing him, but listening to her now, Horikita-san's words were the ones that truly deserved to be called a "temptation."
"I understand. I'll go to your room tonight." Shimizu smiled and nodded, accepting readily.
Horikita Suzune immediately turned her head away and said nothing more.
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