Classroom of the Elite - Volume 9 Chapter 5 Intro

“Spreading Rumors”

The weekend passed by and it was now Monday morning.

After getting out of the shower, I dried my hair with a toothbrush in my mouth. I had spent some more time relaxing than usual. The plan was to wait until I was a little late before leaving for school.

I remembered that I had turned off my phone before I went to bed last night, so I turned it back on.

My phone screen lit up immediately and displayed all of the messages that had accumulated over the night.

[Kiyotaka-kun, do you have a bit of time this morning? Is it fine if I come by your room?]

The message was from Airi, and it seemed to have arrived just after I got in the shower.

There was also a missed call from Kei, but I’d get back to her later.

[Sorry. I was in the shower so I didn’t notice your messages. There isn’t much time right now. Can we talk at school?]

[That’s fine. Don’t worry about it. It can wait for later.]

Her response came back immediately after I sent the message.

The speed of her response made me wonder if she had just happened to have been looking at her phone, or if she was waiting for me to respond.

Nonetheless, her response told me that it probably wasn’t an emergency.

That being the case, I concentrated on straightening up my appearance first.

I didn’t have time to slow down. I finished my preparations for the day and called for the elevator to take me down to the lobby. Many students commute to school in the morning, so the elevator is pretty busy and doesn’t come immediately after calling for it. I had waited until the last possible moment to leave for school, but I still wasn’t able to avoid the wait.

In the meantime, I took out my cell phone and sent a message to Kei.

[What was your call about? If possible, I’d like to meet up with you this evening.]

The message was marked as read immediately after I sent it.

[I didn’t call for any reason in particular, just forget about it. Anyway, I’m fine with meeting up, but can you make it earlier? I already have plans to go out with my friends tonight.]

In which case, I decided to suggest a time around five o’clock.

[Does 5 work? Anytime before 6 is fine.]

[Okie~ 5 o’clock then. What’s it about?]

[I’ll explain when we meet.]

The elevator arrived as soon as I sent the last message.

Hirata was the only one onboard.

“Hey. Good morning Ayanokouji-kun.”

“How unusual, Hirata. We’re both pushing it to the last minute, aren’t we?”

Hirata was an honors student, so he usually left for school in the mornings with quite a lot of time to spare.

It would be unusual for him to be one of the students leaving late, but it was even more so for him to be pushing it to the utmost latest time possible like this.

“To be honest, I had planned on leaving earlier, but…”

As his words trailed off, his expression changed to a somewhat complicated, bitter smile.

“But?”

I questioned Hirata as we got off the elevator on the first floor, only to find several girls waiting there.

They weren’t all from one class. Instead, the girls standing before us were from Class A all the way to Class D. I had to think for a moment about why they had all gathered together, but I quickly caught on to the situation.

“Good morning, Hirata-kun!”

“Yes. Good morning.”

He had a refreshing smile on his face, but it still appeared somewhat strenuous.

“This… is for you!”

In a chorus, all six girls presented him with Valentine’s Day chocolates at the same time. This scene had probably already repeated itself many times. As he went back to his room with the chocolates, I figured that he was probably pushing it so late due to having already made a few trips back to his room.

I parted ways with Hirata and decided to hurry to school.

It would’ve been easy to wait for him, but I lost out to the pressure of not wanting to get in the way of the girls.

So today is Valentine’s Day, huh?

“I’ve never been given chocolates before…”

I accidentally muttered such a thing.

Before I consider whether or not I want a girlfriend, I think it’d be nice to receive chocolates.

I was surprised that I even had such a desire.

(Introduction End)