COTE: Horikita Is My Childhood Sweetheart

Chapter 15: The villain's revenge starts from morning to night!

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None of them understood why Chairman Sakayanagi appeared at this time. In previous years, the admission of new students was always overseen by the student council president, with the school administration never interfering or making an appearance.

"Hmm, Sae-chan," Hoshinomiya Chie whispered in the ear of her best friend, Chabashira Sae, her crystalline lips barely moving. "That's the chairman, right? What do you think he's planning by coming on stage now? Does he have something important to announce?"

Chabashira Sae, feeling her personal space invaded, distanced herself slightly from her overly curious friend and replied coldly, "I have no idea."

"If you don't know, then you don't know. Why do you have to sound so certain?" Hoshinomiya Chie teased.

Chabashira Sae ignored her friend's playful tone. Just because she didn't have an answer didn't mean she couldn't be confident about it.

Meanwhile, Arisu Sakayanagi, sitting in the audience, watched her father, Narumori Sakayanagi, as he approached the front of the stage. She was equally confused—what was her father up to?

Rin Matsuoka, on the other hand, gazed at the old man with whom he had spent over an hour earlier and suddenly felt a sense of dread creeping up on him. He couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen.

'Narrator, what's going to happen next?' Rin silently asked the narration system for guidance, but there was no response.

"It crashed again!" he muttered to himself.

Narumori Sakayanagi leaned in to speak briefly with Horikita Manabu, who then handed him the microphone and stepped away from the podium.

Taking over, Narumori Sakayanagi, with a friendly smile, spoke into the microphone, "Good afternoon, freshmens. I am the chairman of the board of directors of Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School."

…

Narumori Sakayanagi continued with a long, drawn-out speech filled with pleasantries, which quickly made the freshmen feel drowsy. However, his next words jolted everyone awake.

"I assume you have all explored the campus to some extent," he began. "Now, I will randomly select one of you to come up and share your first impressions of this school."

"Who will be the lucky one?" he asked with a smile.

The four homeroom teachers exchanged puzzled looks. What was Chairman Sakayanagi up to?

The freshmen, meanwhile, grew increasingly anxious. They silently prayed not to be chosen, lacking the courage to speak before so many people.

Rin Matsuoka's sense of foreboding grew stronger. Narumori Sakayanagi, standing on the podium, was smiling right at him.

That smile sent chills down Rin's spine; it was filled with a mischievous intent.

'He wouldn't mess with me just because I beat him at chess, would he?' Rin thought nervously.

"Then I will begin the random selection," Sakayanagi Narumori announced, taking out his cell phone and pretending to select a student at random.

"Oh, the lucky new student is… Rin Matsuoka!" he declared with an exaggerated flourish. "Rin, please come up."

Just as Rin had feared.

He felt his mouth twitch in frustration.

It's all fake…

All of it!

All his talk of being magnanimous and open-minded was a sham!

This old man seemed to let things go easily, but in reality, he had already planned his revenge.

"As they say, a gentleman's revenge takes ten years, but a petty man's begins by morning and ends by night. This old man is a petty man if there ever was one. It's been less than two hours since our chess game, and he's already getting his payback," Rin muttered to himself.

Relieved that their own names hadn't been called, the other students sighed with relief. Those in Class D turned to look at Rin Matsuoka.

After all, Rin was the most handsome student in Class D, and his name was one that no one could forget.

Horikita Manabu, who had not left immediately but remained on one side of the gymnasium, wore a slightly surprised expression. "Rin Matsuoka? Rin? He's a freshman, too? But why didn't I notice him earlier?"

Rin, who had been "randomly" called by Narumori Sakayanagi, walked toward the platform with a blank expression.

"This guy is going to be humiliated," Ike Kanji and Yamauchi Haruki whispered to each other, snickering. They had never been associated with the word "handsome," so they took pleasure in seeing handsome guys like Rin potentially embarrassed. The more misfortune that befell them, the happier they were.

Watching Rin step up to the platform, Horikita Manabu was momentarily stunned. "Is that Rin?"

Horikita Manabu recalled that, before he came to this school, his neighbor's little brother, Rin Matsuoka, had been a short and skinny boy. He hadn't expected that in just two years, Rin would have grown so much. Now, Rin looked so different that Horikita Manabu hadn't recognized him at first.

Rin offered Narumori Sakayanagi a polite, albeit forced, smile. "Hello, Chairman."

"Hello, Matsuoka-Kun," Narumori Sakayanagi replied, smiling broadly.

Arisu Sakayanagi, watching from the audience, looked at Rin with interest.

"So, he is Rin Matsuoka, the troublemaker who gobbled up all of my father's chess pieces before he could even checkmate," she thought, amused. Arisu could roughly guess why her father had called Rin up, but she was surprised that her typically calm and reserved father would do such a thing.

"What a handsome young man!" Hoshinomiya Chie exclaimed, her eyes lighting up. Chabashira Sae glanced at her friend with disdain, knowing that Chie was infatuated once again. "At your age, you're still acting like a lovesick teenager," Sae thought.

In truth, Narumori Sakayanagi had no intention of humiliating Rin. He simply wanted to have a bit of fun with the young man. His plan was to ask some guiding questions to lead Rin into giving answers. With such guidance, even someone who was nervous wouldn't stand there in a daze, speechless.

However, Narumori Sakayanagi was surprised to find that Rin, standing confidently on the stage under the scrutiny of everyone present, showed no signs of nervousness. He remained calm and collected.

"The school's environment is very pleasant," Rin replied smoothly. "The scenery is beautiful, and the air is fresh."

Rin shot a quick glance at Narumori Sakayanagi, thinking, "The only downside was running into a petty old man under the pavilion."

Throughout the question-and-answer session, Narumori Sakayanagi grew increasingly surprised. Rin wasn't just pretending to be calm; he truly was composed, showing not a hint of stage fright.

Then, Seimori Sakayanagi remembered the written record of Rin Matsuoka from the Admissions Office.

"Why does this kid's record say he's shy?" he wondered. "He's bold enough to impersonate someone else to take an entrance exam—which is completely illegal! If the educational authorities find out, the consequences could be severe!"　　

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Give me some power stones