"Everyone, listen to me. This is just C-Class's side of the story..."
Hirata tried to explain, but Yamauchi and Ike wouldn't let it go. They kept yelling that it was all Hikigaya's fault and that he should take responsibility. The rest of the class started wavering, clearly unsure of what to believe. Hirata, being too kind, was stuck between trying to calm everyone down and not wanting to blame Yamauchi and Ike too much.
"Come on, everyone, Hirata knew about this from the start! He just kept it from us to cover for Hikigaya, the real culprit, while letting Ken take the blame for nothing!"
Ike was furious, also accusing Hirata of favoritism and being unfair.
Yamauchi, who had never liked Hirata, quickly backed up his friend and joined in on criticizing him.
This was where Hirata's biggest flaw became obvious—he had influence, but not enough authority. When conflicts came up, his first instinct was always to smooth things over so that no one got hurt. But in the end, someone always did.
"Shut up, both of you!"
Out of nowhere, Horikita slammed her hands on the desk and stood up. The usual icy expression on her face was replaced with rare anger. Her sudden outburst startled Yamauchi and Ike, but once they saw it was her, they just looked annoyed.
"What the hell, Horikita? This has nothing to do with you!"
"This has nothing to do with me?"
Horikita let out a small, angry laugh. "Then what does? Listening to you two constantly calling him with wrong name? Can't you read, or did no one ever teach you to respect people's names?"
She shot a sharp glare at the dead-eyed boy beside her, looking like she was frustrated at his lack of response.
"I-I just said it without thinking! Besides, his name is way too hard to pronounce!"
Yamauchi hurriedly tried to defend himself.
"Let's put that aside for now."
Horikita remained cold as she turned to Ike. "But don't you realize how stupid and ridiculous you sounded just now?"
"Hey, Horikita! What's that supposed to mean?"
Ike, embarrassed from being called out in front of everyone, shouted back.
"What do I mean?"
Horikita scoffed like she had just heard the dumbest thing ever. "Do you actually think you're smart? You wanted Hikigaya to go beg the student council president, bribe him, and pull some strings? That's basically admitting that Sudou really did attack those guys! Not only would you be screwing over someone else, but you also just showed everyone how dumb your little scheme was!"
Ike's face turned bright red. He tried to argue, but Horikita didn't give him the chance.
"And besides, Hikigaya got into the student council because of his skills. But you? What do you even contribute? Your crude jokes and pervy comments? And who do you think you are, speaking on behalf of me, the class, or anyone else? Who gave you the right to say such shameless things?"
The room went silent. Horikita's words hit so hard that even Ike couldn't say a thing. His face was burning with embarrassment.
It was clear to everyone—Horikita was genuinely angry. Normally, no matter how much trouble these two caused, she never got involved. She definitely never argued with them in front of the whole class.
Though calling it an argument might be too generous—this was more of a one-sided beatdown.
Hikigaya and another emotionless boy exchanged glances, both thinking the same thing: "Yep, that's Horikita for you." After all, they had both experienced firsthand how deadly her words could be.
"Hey, Horikita, why are you defending Hikigaya so much?"
Yamauchi, desperate to turn things around, suddenly smirked as if he had figured something out. "Wait a second… don't tell me you like that dead-eyed guy?"
Horikita gave him a cold, dismissive glance. "Are you a grade-schooler? Next time, try making a joke that isn't so childish. No one finds this funny."
"I-I… you…"
Yamauchi stuttered, unable to say another word.
"Horikita, Kanji and Haruki were just standing up for me..."
Sudou, who had been quiet the whole time, finally spoke up, trying to defend Ike and Yamauchi. But the moment he met Horikita's sharp glare, his words caught in his throat. At the same time, he shot Hikigaya a look filled with jealousy and frustration.
The whole class was shaken by Horikita's dominance. Every sentence she spoke completely crushed the two troublemakers, leaving them no room to argue.
Ike, furious but helpless, wanted to fight back. But facing Horikita's sharp tongue, he had no idea what to say.
Then suddenly, his eyes lit up as he spotted someone.
"Hey, everyone, don't let Horikita distract us!"
Ike pointed at Hikigaya, who was sitting next to Horikita, and shouted, "The reason Ken got into trouble with Class C is all because of Hikigaya! Even those Class C guys said so themselves. So this whole thing is Hikigaya's fault! Horikita, how do you explain that?"
Yamauchi, who was already in a bad mood, quickly jumped in to agree, loudly accusing, "That's right! It's all Hikigaya's fault! He's the one who caused this!"
"Everyone, calm down. Also, Hikigaya is a member of the student council. Class C students often break school rules, so it's normal for them to hold a grudge against him, isn't it?"
Surprisingly, someone unexpected stepped in to defend Hikigaya—it was Kushida, the "angel" of Class D. Even Hikigaya gave her a surprised look. However, instead of calming Ike and Yamauchi down, her words only made them even angrier.
"Why are you siding with that dead-fish-eyed guy, Kikyo-chan?"
"Yeah, Kikyo-chan! You must've been tricked by Hikigaya!"
For a moment, Kushida didn't know how to respond. She had also noticed the doubtful looks from the other boys, as well as Karuizawa and the others.
"You two idio—"
Horikita seemed just as furious. She was about to start scolding the two idiots when an unexpected voice cut her off.
"You two really are a couple of dumb monkeys. Did you sneak in here from a zoo or something?"
Hikigaya didn't speak loudly, but somehow, everyone in the class heard him clearly.
At first, there was silence. Then someone let out a laugh. And in the next second, the entire class burst into laughter!
Even Horikita had to turn her face away, trying hard to suppress a smile. The only ones who weren't laughing were two certain idiots, whose faces had turned as red as monkeys.
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