Part 2

That night, I got a phone call from Kei.

For the most part, it had to do with the special exam.

Yeah so, this exam. What should I be doing?

Youve started forming a group around you, right?

Well, kinda. There are seven girls in my group.

She listed off the names of the girls other than herself.

They were all girls that Kei usually got along well with.

After all, everyones totally scared of getting expelled. If Im being real with you Im not sure how many people hate me.

It wouldnt be that strange if you got a few censure votes.

Uhm. Shouldnt you be telling me otherwise, even if you have to lie about it?

Kei angrily snapped back at me from the other end of the phone.

For now, the best course of action is to act quietly so that you dont attract too much attention. Its possible that you could become a candidate for expulsion if you stand out in a bad way.

Gotcha. Ill make sure not to do anything stupid.

Good. Also, the fact that youve already broken up with Hirata by now may be advantageous for you.

Eh?

Hirata is very popular with the girls. If you were still together with him some of them may have planned to use expulsion to forcibly separate the two of you.

Eep, thats spooky. Although totally possible

Other students might do something impulsive purely because of the anonymity of the vote.

You should be fine right? You dont stand out because you stick to the shadows, and your grades are average too.

In the eyes of most of the class, there shouldnt be anything to criticize or praise me for.

Keeping a low-profile can have its advantages.

But its possible for you to get a censure vote from Sud-kun, isnt it? Like, in order to get rid of a rival aiming for Horikita-san. Though, well, thats probably just what he thinks.

Maybe.

Because there was no other choice but to vote for three people, everyone would probably get a couple of censure votes. Though, it wouldnt be enough to be worth worrying about.

Out of the whole class, Id say that the three idiots and Kuenji-kun are all kinda terrible, right?

It appeared as though Keis group of friends had come to a similar conclusion as the Ayanokji Group.

Theyre the top choices, but we still dont know what will happen. That said, Kuenji probably isnt in a very good spot at the moment.

Hes not the type of person who would make groups and coordinate votes, is he?

Yeah.

Ike, Yamauchi, and Sud would obviously form a small group to support each other.

Kuenji, on the other hand, was helpless and alone. He also had a tendency to make enemies thanks to that headstrong attitude of his.

Furthermore, on the very day the exam was announced, he had a tense argument with Sud in front of the whole class.

So what are you gonna do? Who do you plan on using your censure votes on?

I havent really thought about it yet, but I plan on picking people I dont expect to be useful to the class moving forward.

How level-headed of you. But thats your style, isnt it?

Seeing as someone inevitably had to leave the school, this was the only way for me to make my decision.

Ah? Theres no way, but youre not talking about people like me, right?

Youre important to the class. Theres no way Id do that.

R-really. W-well of course.

Her surprised reaction sounded just a little embarrassed.

If the class makes a decision on the students to get rid of, that is, if you notice that theyve made a decision about who exactly theyll be using their censure votes on, let me know. Its difficult for me to get that kind of information myself.

Okay~

I ended the call with Kei.

Even though I had told her I would pick people I didnt expect to be useful moving forward, that was only my personal opinion on the matter.

Since I wasnt actively involved in the class, I didnt have any intention of getting deeply involved with manipulating the votes.

Accordingly, I intended to wholeheartedly accept whatever outcome the class came to, no matter which groups went at each other. Of course, if I were to come under fire, that would be a different story altogether.

Anyway, just as Kei had mentioned earlier, the chance of Ike, Yamauchi, or Sud being expelled isnt low. Kenji as well. Furthermore, on the girls side of things, the ones with poor grades like Inogashira, Sat, and Airi probably arent safe either. Moving forward, however, groups would gradually begin to take shape. Large numbers of votes would start to move around for reasons completely unrelated to academic ability. Isolated people like Kenji and timid people like Airi who dont have many friends would also become easy targets.

I wonder whatll happen next.

I just had to collect information to prepare for any unexpected developments and keep an eye on the trend of the vote.