Classroom of the Elite: Alter - Self-Test

I was mesmerized by Horikita's beautiful smiling face. When she felt that I was staring at her for an extended period of time, only then did Horikita realize that she was actually smiling.

"E-Eherm," she cleared her throat, returning to her cool and collected state. "Anyway, this is good news, Ayanokouji-kun."

It seems like Horikita wants to avoid talking about what happened just now. If that's the case, then it would be disrespectful of me to tease her about it, as much as I want to.

"Yeah, do you want to tell Hirata and the other tutors?" I asked.

"No need. The fewer people involved, the lesser chance for these to be leaked accidentally." Horikita answered with a serious expression.

"Do you not trust them?"

"That's a tricky question. It's not that I don't, but I won't ask for their help when I don't need to," she explained. "I have no problems cooperating with my classmates, even with someone like Kushida-san. Your words and abilities gave me a wake-up call, after all... But I think it's not a good idea to rely on someone else all the time."

Considering her "I don't like people" attitude during the first week, this mindset of hers isn't the worst development. But it would've been better if she could put more trust in someone like Hirata.

"That's true. Forcing cooperation between people isn't always the best option— I agree with you on that. You're someone who doesn't sugarcoat anything, so being friends with a thick-skinned guy like me is the only way to go," I joked.

"Thick-skinned? I see. I thought you were just a masochist back then." Her face told me that she wasn't joking at all.

"You didn't have to do me like that, Horikita." I tried to keep the conversation going, but Horikita had already turned away from me.

"In any case, I want you to send those test questions to me later. I'll let you handle the explanation part tomorrow." Horikita opened her book once more. "You can go chat with your other friends now, Ayanokouji-kun."

Horikita didn't have to be so adamant in shooing me away. But given that I saw her smile, I guess everything was worth it.

Time passed by and I'm now in my room. After sending the images to Horikita, I proceeded to chat with my friends until it was time to sleep.

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When the next day came, Horikita and I finally decided to tell Hirata and Kushida about the plan. They promised to help us gather the class later. And when Chabashira-sensei left us after the last homeroom period, Hirata stood up and got everyone's attention.

"Everyone, I know we all agreed for this last day to be a self-study day, but there's something Ayanokouji-kun would like to say before you leave," he announced.

Hirata instantly attracted everyone's eyes and ears. Meanwhile, Kushida and Horikita divided the number of papers among the two of them so they could be distributed. I walked up and stood behind the lectern, facing the students of Class B.

"Everyone, what you're holding right now are old test questions given to me by a senpai," I declared.

"Huh? Old test questions?"

"Will we use these for studying?"

"Are the topics even the same?"

Everyone voiced their questions and opinions on the matter, but after giving the papers a quick scan, they noticed that the questions were very similar to the study materials that they'd been using.

To be honest, even I was amazed. According to Hirata and the other tutors, Horikita had the biggest contribution in terms of picking the topics that would most likely be on the test. Seeing the similarities between her sample questions and the old test questions, I can only praise Horikita in my mind for her amazing feat.

"Those test questions and the ones that will appear in the exam for tomorrow are most likely going to be identical or at least close to being identical," I said. "I advise everyone to memorize the answers for each subject."

The class erupted the moment they heard those words.

"Ayanokouji, are you serious?!" Ike cried.

"D-Doesn't that mean we can get a perfect score if we just memorized all of these?" Karuizawa said.

"The heck?! We wouldn't have needed to study our butts off if we had these from the start! Ahaha!" Yamauchi complained even as he laughed.

Everyone was celebrating. At this point, Kushida tried to give a copy of the questions to Kouenji, who decided to stay inside the classroom for some reason.

"Kouenji-kun, please take one if you like. I'm sure it'll help." She handed one set to him with a smile.

"Hmph, thank you for your concern, girl. But I will gently decline. I have no need for such things. I merely stayed to hear whatever beautiful things Ayanokouji-boy had to say." He stood up and grabbed his bag. "Since he did not disappoint me, I am now satisfied. Goodbye."

Kouenji exited the room with his usual elegant strides. Seeing him like this was a normal occurrence for Class B.

Hirata raised his hand to shift the attention back to me.

"Ayanokouji-kun, can you explain how you knew about this?" He finally addressed the elephant in the room.

I elaborated my theory similar to how I did to Horikita. Of course, I nitpicked some details that can be omitted, like specifying Ken and the others' poor academic abilities. As expected, everyone was incredibly shocked by my explanation.

"Y-You're insane, Ayanokouji!"

"How the hell do you even think of that?!"

"As expected of Class B's leader!"

"Ayanokouji-kun is such a genius!"

The boys praised me with vigor while the girls cheered in excitement.

"I only suggested this because I believe that everyone is ready for the exam by now. At the end of the day, what I said were all theories- speculations at best," I explained. "If you can afford to give this day up, please use all of your remaining time to memorize the answers to these questions."

"I'm sure everyone's more than ready for the exams now, Ayanokouji-kun! We'll try our best to memorize these answers and get a high score!" said Kushida.

"You got it, Kiyotaka. I won't let your hard work get wasted." The usually silent Akito spoke up for me as Haruka and Ken cheered behind him.

"Let's do this, everyone! Class B will aim for an all-perfect scorer!" yelled Ike.

"Yeah!"

What Ike said was impossible, but everyone cheered with him regardless. Our class has become quite lively, hasn't it?

Class B dispersed after getting their sets of test questions. When I got back to my room, everyone in the class group chat continued talking about me, showering me with praises and compliments.

"I wonder if this is what Kushida was referring to when she talked about being noticed by everyone," I muttered.

Someone like her would be over the moon about this, but I can't say I'm the same. Of course, I feel very happy that my classmates appreciate me, but not to the point where I would constantly look for their compliments and approval.

If I'm being completely honest, there's a point where I'd rather not get praised. As someone who innately dislikes attention, I'd need some time to get used to this.

When I got back to my room, everyone was talking about the answers we gave them.

(15:40) [This totally feels like a cheat sheet!]

(15:40) [But thanks to Ayanokouji, I don't feel guilty at all!]

(15:40) [I know, right?! Like, Ayanokouji-kun is so smart for thinking this!]

(15:40) [Heh, I'm gonna get perfect scores, for sure!]

(15:41) [You're not even studying yet!]

They should probably get on with the memorizing as soon as they can. 

(15:41) [Ike, Yamauchi, stop chatting and get on with your study materials. Lol.]

I chatted before closing my phone.

With all those said and done, I'm expecting my classmates to achieve very high results.