COTE: Popularity System

Kushida Kikyo placed her hand over her chest. A light mist appeared in her eyes, and her eyebrows drooped slightly, making her look exceptionally lovable.

"Takada-san approached me to talk back then, and when I heard that he knew Horikita-san was our class leader, I immediately panicked, and he found a flaw."

"If I had acted better back then, Takada-san might have thought he guessed wrong and wouldn't have blackmailed us into signing this contract."

Kushida Kikyo lowered her head slightly, her voice choked. "I'm so sorry. If only I had performed a little better then, this problem wouldn't have happened."

The most popular girl in the class was blaming herself.

The other students quickly diverted their attention and began comforting her.

"Kushida-san, don't blame yourself too much."

"Takada-san correctly guessed the leaders of the other three classes in one go. He must have extreme confidence in his judgment. Even if you had tried to hide it, you probably wouldn't have been able to fool him."

"You did well enough."

"But..."

Even with everyone's comfort, Kushida Kikyo's mood did not improve. Instead, she grew even more sorrowful.

"If I hadn't suggested that everyone keep this from Horikita-san, things definitely wouldn't have turned out like this."

Hearing that, Horikita Suzune and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka were slightly taken aback.

"Kushida-san, why did you tell everyone to keep it from me?" Horikita Suzune felt puzzled and asked with a confused expression.

"Because..."

Kushida Kikyo's voice was still choked up, speaking with a sob, "Horikita-san was already trying so hard during the exam, yet Takada-san still correctly guessed the leader."

"I was afraid that telling you about this would damage your confidence, so I only told everyone when the exam was almost over, hoping we could keep it a secret until the end. But I didn't realize you actually had a solution."

"If only I had known your idea sooner."

Kushida Kikyo lowered her head, covering her face and crying, preventing anyone from seeing her expression. Only the sound of her sobs conveyed her current sorrow.

'They signed the contract right when the exam was about to end? No wonder they managed to hide it from me.'

Hearing her words, the confusion in Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's mind was resolved.

He had thought his observational skills were declining, failing to notice an entire class plotting secretly behind his back.

It turned out that Kushida Kikyo and Hirata Yosuke had deliberately concealed the matter to avoid exposure, only informing the class when the exam was close to finishing.

It was highly likely the contract was signed just yesterday. At that time, he was busy taking care of Horikita Suzune and replacing the leader. By the time he returned to the base, everyone else was already asleep.

There was no way for him to know what had transpired. However, he still had some doubts.

"Well... I can understand not telling Horikita out of fear of damaging her confidence."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka said calmly, looking quite innocent. "But why didn't I know about this either?"

Hearing his confusion, Hirata Yosuke offered a somewhat resigned smile. "Kushida-san and I thought you were close to Horikita-san. If you knew, Horikita-san would quickly find out too, so we didn't tell you either."

Ayanokoji: "..."

It's Kushida again!

Although he hadn't witnessed the scene where Kushida Kikyo kicked the railing, as depicted in the original series, he still realized that this girl, who appeared to be an angel on the surface, was actually extremely twisted inside and constantly targeted Horikita Suzune both openly and subtly.

Especially during this exam, she not only actively set the stage by assigning the leader role to Horikita Suzune, but also deliberately concealed the fact that the leader had been exposed until the very end during negotiations with Takada Hikaru of Class A.

If it weren't for her interference, Horikita Suzune would have become Class D's most celebrated hero due to the Deserted Island Exam, instead of being stuck in this impossible situation.

"I'm sorry, it's all my fault..."

Kushida Kikyo continued to cry into her hands, her soft sobs sounding heartbreaking.

Yamauchi Haruki said sympathetically, "Kikyo, stop blaming yourself. It's all Horikita's fault. If she hadn't been clumsy and let others discover her leader status, none of this would have happened, right?"

"Exactly. You were just trying to spare Horikita's feelings. Who knew that Horikita wanted to play the hero, keeping her solution secret and messing everything up?"

The students of Class D continued to comfort the crying Kushida Kikyo.

They didn't know that, hidden behind her hands, Kushida Kikyo's lips were slightly parted, revealing a smile that others couldn't see.

Ehehe.

Finally, I've managed to dump all the blame onto that bitch Horikita.

You like solving problems all by yourself, huh? I'd like to see how you solve this trouble now.

— — —

The cafe on the luxury cruise ship.

Takada Hikaru found a seat and quietly sipped the milk coffee in his cup.

To outsiders, he just looked like he was spacing out while drinking. But in reality, he was watching the farce unfolding in Class D through the animated perspective provided by the system.

'The situation escalated quite a bit."

After watching the dispute between the Class D students and Horikita Suzune, Takada Hikaru felt amused.

His plan was successful.

Kushida Kikyo certainly deserves a lot of credit. This most popular girl in Class D is not as gentle and kind as she appears, she actually has a past she cannot bear to look back upon.

In junior high school, in order to gain the affection of her classmates, she willingly became their emotional dumping ground, listening to them recount all sorts of dirty and rotten secrets.

Later, unable to bear the overwhelming negative emotions, she secretly posted some of the incidents anonymously online, relying on the complaints of commenters to relieve her stress.

However, a classmate of hers accidentally saw her post online, and because many of the details had only been told to Kushida Kikyo, that classmate quickly realized the person who posted it was none other than Kushida Kikyo.

Then, that classmate told the rest of the class. Everyone thus learned that Kushida Kikyo was the vile woman who secretly posted their secrets online.

After the incident, Kushida Kikyo, in order to protect herself, simply exposed all the secrets of everyone in the class—like best friends who actually called each other bitches, or guys who seemed like good buddies but one had stolen a lot of money from the other...

After these things came out, everyone in the class started fighting, and all established friendships were instantly shattered. Afterward, everyone in the class stopped coming to school and the class completely collapsed.

Following this, Kushida Kikyo received an acceptance letter from Advanced Nurturing High School, hoping to start anew in a fresh environment.

However, at this school, in the same class as her, there was a student who had attended the same junior high school.

That was Horikita Suzune!

In junior high school, Kushida Kikyo and Horikita Suzune were not in the same class.

But Kushida Kikyo could not guarantee whether the latter knew about her role in causing the class's implosion. Therefore, she constantly sought ways to get Horikita Suzune expelled.

Failing that, she needed to push her to the lowest rung of the class hierarchy, ensuring that anything Horikita Suzune said held absolutely no weight among the classmates.

That way, even if she truly knew about the junior high school incident, her words would not be trusted by the class. Her image as a pure and innocent person would thus be preserved.

Takada Hikaru capitalized on this mindset of Kushida Kikyo's and cooperated with her. The final result was exactly as he had expected.

After she learned that this incident could undermine Horikita Suzune's standing in the class, she used various excuses to hide the information until the very end. The goal was to give Horikita Suzune no time for damage control.

By the time Horikita Suzune realized what was happening, the matter would already be over, leaving no room for remedy.