Chapter 908

Then I'll punish you... by going to my house! To guide me!

First-year Class A.

Morning light slanted in from outside the window, spreading a warm brightness over the desks and floor.

Natsume Chikage pushed open the back door of the classroom.

Almost the moment he stepped in, people in several rows of seats raised their heads, and immediately, more gazes focused on him.

"Natsume-kun is back!"

Someone whispered.

In the blink of an eye, several circles of people gathered around his seat.

The boys' eyes were complex, the girls' eyes were shining, and questions surged like a tide.

"Natsume-kun, I heard you shut out Senior Shinohara with a 158 km/h fastball this morning? Is it true?!"

"Did you secretly practice pitching before? That ball speed is too exaggerated!"

"Natsume-kun, Natsume-kun, will you join the baseball club later?"

Natsume Chikage spent quite a while getting rid of these people and let out a light breath.

Afterward, he walked toward his seat by the window.

—In that row by the window, near his seat, were three familiar figures.

Classmate Tengyuan Kui, Yue Dao Lin, and Xiyuanji Qilai.

All three were looking at him.

In their expressions, it was clearly written that they were not very happy.

A subtle premonition flashed across the back of Natsume Chikage's neck.

He was the first to pull up the corners of his lips, trying to greet them as naturally as possible:

"Haha... good morning, everyone."

Classmate Tengyuan Kui's eyebrows stood up, her fingers on her waist pressing hard.

"Natsume-kun—"

She dragged out the tail of her sentence, her tone filled with suppressed anger.

"You and Shinohara Shingo made such a big scene, why didn't you tell us at all?"

Xiyuanji Qilai didn't speak.

But she puffed out her fair cheeks, lowered her eyelids, and muttered in a small voice:

"Natsume-kun promised before... saying that if there was anything in the future, he would consult with us."

"But this time... he still didn't say anything..."

Yue Dao Lin didn't echo their questioning.

She just narrowed her eyes slightly.

That cold face was a few degrees colder than usual.

But when she looked at Natsume Chikage, the emotions in her eyes were far more complex than "anger."

—There was shallow guilt, there was unspeakable shame.

And a trace of a different kind of fluctuation that she herself hadn't clearly captured yet.

"If it weren't for the classmates in the class spreading it."

"We wouldn't have known that Shinohara Shingo had gone to trouble you that day."

"Why... didn't you tell us immediately?"

She bit her lip.

"This matter, no matter how you look at it, was caused by me."

"He had a crush on me, confessed to me, was rejected by me—and then he took his anger out on you."

She looked up, looking directly at Natsume Chikage.

"As long as you told me, I could have gone to Shinohara immediately and said it clearly and dead-set to his face."

"I could have also gone directly to the teachers, or even called the police."

"His behavior was enough to be defined as harassment and threats."

"But why... did you have to agree to that kind of wager?"

"Why were you so foolish?"

Natsume Chikage stood in place and explained:

"Because his existence would continuously affect my high school life."

"Even if I told the teachers and got Shinohara Shingo expelled, Shinohara Shingo could still harass me outside of school."

"Treating the symptoms but not the root cause."

"Only by getting the student council involved could this matter be completely resolved."

Yue Dao Lin heard this, and her heart felt as if it had been lightly bumped by something.

This guy probably chose this path because he didn't want her to continue being pestered by Shinohara...

It must be like that...

He is so foolish, really so foolish...

Her cheeks floated with a thin layer of red that she couldn't control.

She bit her lower lip, lowered her gaze, and her voice carried a hint of softness that she hadn't even noticed herself, approximating a complaint.

"Even so... you... you should have at least told us..."

"Why do you always have to carry it alone?"

"Did you never think... what would happen if you lost and were expelled?"

Natsume Chikage met her gaze and smiled.

"I won't lose."

That smile was frank, without any haze.

Yue Dao Lin's heart jumped heavily in her chest.

She suddenly turned her face away, her voice muffled: