COTE: Horikita Is My Childhood Sweetheart

Chapter 25: Who! Who would eavesdrop?

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Although information related to class points could not be disclosed, Chabashira Sae did not prevent Rin Matsuoka from obtaining it. On the contrary, she welcomed the idea.

At the start of the school year, each class was awarded one thousand class points by the school.

These class points could be deducted for any violations of discipline committed by students during class.

However, class points weren't just subtracted. Students could also participate in special exams set by the school, and by performing well, they could increase their class points.

Due to this unique system, the school prohibited anyone from revealing the class points of freshmen during their first month.

If Rin Matsuoka could figure out the class points ahead of time, Chabashira Sae believed he might be able to help Class D maintain or even improve its class points.

Chabashira Sae found herself quite eager to see if he could do it.

Chabashira Sae tilted her head slightly and looked at Horikita Suzune, who was now standing next to Rin. "Horikita, I haven't finished my conversation with Rin yet. You should leave."

"...You're not done yet?" Horikita Suzune asked.

"No, it was Rin who was asking me questions just now, and I haven't asked him what I wanted to," Chabashira Sae replied.

"Oh." Horikita Suzune turned to leave again, but Rin called out from behind her, "Horikita, don't try eavesdropping again after you leave."

"Who? Who would eavesdrop?" Horikita Suzune's somewhat annoyed voice came from outside the teacher's office. Rin smiled at Chabashira Sae and then tiptoed toward the door.

Chabashira Sae didn't stop Rin. She just watched him with a slight smile on her face.

Rin peeked out and was surprised to find that Horikita Suzune had genuinely left and wasn't lingering nearby to eavesdrop.

After all, she got caught once. How could someone as proud and thin-skinned as Horikita Suzune stay behind to eavesdrop?

Rin returned to Chabashira Sae and shrugged. "Horikita is really gone."

"Really?" Chabashira Sae replied, a smile playing at her lips. "Rin, you seem quite familiar with Horikita, and you appear to have a good relationship with her. Are you two friends from junior high school?"

"Well, we could be considered childhood Friends who aren't really that familiar anymore," Rin replied hesitantly.

"Childhood Friends, but you're not familiar?" Chabashira Sae teased.

"Well, two years ago, Horikita and I did spend every day playing and studying together, but we haven't communicated much over the past two years."

Chabashira Sae, speaking from a woman's perspective, confidently asserted, "She must have grown up, realized the differences between boys and girls, and decided not to play with you anymore."

"Maybe."

But actually, it wasn't quite like that.

The main reason was that Horikita Suzune was quite shy.

Ever since her brother, Horikita Manabu, came to this school, Horikita Suzune had lacked the courage to invite Rin over to her home. Plus, she was a classic tsundere...

And as everyone knows, tsundere girls never take the initiative; even when they do, they go about it in a roundabout way.

Such a classic tsundere!

Rin, for his part, had been too embarrassed to go over on his own without an invitation.

One was a shy tsundere; the other was too self-conscious to visit without being invited. As a result, Rin had not been to Horikita Suzune's house once in the two years since Horikita Manabu had left home.

"Let's not talk about Horikita anymore. It's my turn to ask you something," Chabashira Sae said, turning the conversation back to Rin.

"Alright, go ahead, Chabashira-sensei," Rin replied readily.

Chabashira Sae handed the student file she had found to Rin Matsuoka. She raised her slightly pointed chin and asked, "Rin, this is your student file. Can you explain why you received zero marks in all subjects?"

Rin took the file, glanced at it, and after reading through its contents, put on a very serious expression. "Actually, Chabashira-sensei, I'm a very capable person."

Chabashira Sae looked at the serious expression on Rin's handsome face and found herself believing him.

[You are too naive, sensei.]

'Narrator, stop complaining. You go silent when I ask for help, but appear when I don't need you. That's enough.'

Rin inwardly complained about the narration system.

In truth, Chabashira Sae did believe that Rin was indeed quite capable. After all, if he wasn't, how could he have noticed something was off just from the school's decision to transfer 100,000 personal points to students every month?

"So, Rin, why did you receive zero points on every test?" she asked.

"All zero points—doesn't that perfectly showcase how talented I am?" Rin replied confidently.

…Huh?

"I'm not quite sure I understand, Rin. Could you explain in more detail?" Chabashira Sae asked, a puzzled expression on her pretty face.

"Because I managed to avoid every single correct answer perfectly!"

Rin's answer made Chabashira Sae close her eyes and take a deep breath. Her soft, white blouse stretched under the fitted women's suit she wore.

Rin, feeling the gravitational pull, glanced over a few times.

Wow, Chabashira-sensei's suit is quite elegant and... pleasing to the eyes!

Chabashira Sae took another deep breath, calming the frustration that had risen from Rin's words, and swallowed back the urge to tell him to "get out."

"Stop with the nonsense and tell me the truth," she demanded.

Rin noticed the familiar coldness and hint of murderous intent in Chabashira Sae's eyes, just like when Horikita Suzune was about to blow up. Realizing he couldn't keep joking around, he decided he needed a plausible excuse to get himself out of trouble.

After all, he couldn't very well admit that he didn't take the exam because he had taken it for someone else, which was why he had received zero marks in all subjects.

"Well, actually, I was sick during the exam period. Too sick to even show up, so I ended up with zeros in every subject," Rin answered as 'honestly' as he could.

"Is that so?" Chabashira Sae eyed him suspiciously.

"Yes," Rin nodded solemnly.

To further convince his stern and beautiful homeroom teacher that he wasn't lying, Rin nodded even more vigorously.

Despite Rin's earnest expression and steady gaze, which seemed to be full of conviction, Chabashira Sae's female intuition told her that he was still hiding something.

"Then how did you manage to get admitted to this school?" she pressed.

"I hadn't taken the exam and was planning to repeat a year, but the admissions office from this school approached me. I shared some information with them, and they allowed me to enroll here."

"Since I didn't have to repeat a year and the school seemed quite excellent, I decided to join and continue my high school education."

Rin hadn't lied about these last two sentences. That was indeed how he had come to be a freshman at this school.