Chapter 19: The Villainous Cadre Perfectly Integrates into the Class

Stepping on the long-unheard class bell, Hoshino Gen walked towards Class 1-A.

The closer he got, the more he could hear the chaotic and noisy sounds.

The sounds of roughhousing, chatter, and people jumping on and off desks all blended together into a cacophonous medley.

Hoshino Gen slightly furrowed his brows and reached out to push open the classroom door.

In an instant, it was as if someone had hit a mute button in the classroom.

Everyone stopped what they were doing, and dozens of pairs of eyes turned in unison to look at Hoshino Gen.

“Wow—look, a handsome guy just arrived!”

A girl exclaimed almost immediately.

Hoshino Gen swept his gaze across the room.

Including himself, the class had a total of twenty-one students. Including himself, there were only three boys; the rest were all girls.

Among the eighteen energetic, sailor-uniform-clad girls, fifteen were looking at him with expressions akin to discovering a heavenly being.

Two girls were facing each other, fingers tightly interlocked, their posture looking like they were practicing kissing, though the look in their eyes was slightly lacking.

That left one last girl.

She just glanced up briefly to see what was happening before lowering her head again, her eyes fixed on her phone.

He happened to know this girl.

It was Ziteng Sayaka.

Girls were truly visual creatures.

Upon discovering such a handsome new student, many of their eyes lit up with interest, and they immediately began crowding towards the door.

However, before they could take more than a few steps forward, they seemed to see something frightening and quickly retreated to their seats.

Hoshino Gen didn’t even need to look back to know what had happened, because he could already smell it—the fresh scent of women’s shampoo coming from beside him.

The person standing behind him was the homeroom teacher for Class 1-A, Duanmu Yan.

She was the one who had given him his enrollment application.

Tap, tap, tap.

Duanmu Yan swept her shoulder-length hair back with her hand.

The sound of her high heels clicking crisply against the floor echoed as she walked into the classroom first and stepped onto the podium.

“Today, our class has a new student. From now on, he’ll be studying with everyone. Let’s give him a warm welcome!”

The girls below the podium were very obliging, immediately erupting into enthusiastic applause.

Hearing Duanmu Yan say this, Hoshino Gen felt momentarily dazed.

This scene was far too classic, stirring up many memories.

Duanmu Yan said, “Next, let’s have our new student introduce himself.”

Hoshino Gen stepped onto the podium, standing even taller than Duanmu Yan in her high heels.

He gave a slight bow to his classmates and said, “Hello to all the national producers, I am…”

Ugh!

When it came to self-introductions, this was the first thing that came to his mind.

He almost blurted out singing, dancing, rap, and basketball all at once.

Not a single person below the podium understood this “national producers” bit, all of them wearing expressions of complete bewilderment.

Hoshino Gen hurriedly restarted his introduction.

“Hello, classmates. My name is Hoshino Gen. My hobbies are fitness, cooking, and light novels. I hope we can all become good friends in the future. Please take care of me in the days to come.”

Teacher Duanmu said, “Alright, Hoshino Gen. There are still quite a few empty seats in the class. Take a look and see where you’d like to sit.”

“Over here, Hoshino-kun!”

“Come here, come here! I have lots of light novels I can share with you!”

Many girls enthusiastically invited him, wanting to become his desk neighbor, but he politely declined each one with a smile.

“I’m sorry, I prefer a quieter corner.”

Which seat to take had, of course, already been decided long ago.

Hoshino Gen walked straight towards Ziteng Sayaka’s seat and sat down beside her.

The latter was completely unaware, still looking down, her face flushed with agitation as she typed frantically on her phone screen.

It looked a bit like she was fighting with all her might to protect her family in a game.

“Hello, I’m Hoshino Gen. From now on, we’ll be desk neighbors. Please take care of me.”

“Mhm.”

Ziteng Sayaka looked up, forcibly suppressing the anger on her face and squeezing out a smile.

“Alright, Hoshino Gen.”

Seeing Hoshino Gen’s extended hand, Ziteng Sayaka didn’t think twice, instinctively reaching out her own hand as well.

However, having just snapped out of her immersive battle, she suddenly realized a very serious problem and urgently tried to pull her hand back.

But her reaction was a beat too slow.

Before she could retract her hand, Hoshino Gen had already taken the initiative and grasped it.

Ziteng Sayaka’s eyes instantly widened.

“You…”

Hoshino Gen let go of her hand, looking somewhat confused.

“What about me?”

Ziteng Sayaka had never encountered a situation like this before.

Usually, everyone who shook her hand would be left with a deep impression of her.

Yet Hoshino Gen seemed completely unaffected by her.

Ziteng Sayaka cautiously asked, “Just now… did you feel any discomfort in your body?”

Hoshino Gen blinked, appearing not to understand why she would ask that.

“Discomfort? No, not at all.”

Ziteng Sayaka also felt her gaze was a bit impolite and turned her face away.

“Oh, okay then. It’s nothing.”

The first class passed quickly.

Hoshino Gen listened attentively, while Ziteng Sayaka kept her head down, locked in combat with her phone.

Duanmu Yan acted as if she couldn’t see it at all.

‘Is this really the special honors class?’

Hoshino Gen couldn’t help but wonder in his heart.

During class, girls kept turning their heads frequently, wanting to admire Hoshino Gen’s peerless beauty a few more times.

After class, it went without saying.

The moment Teacher Duanmu left the classroom, the next second—whoosh—a large group of female classmates swarmed over, crowding the small corner until it was packed solid.

They chattered away, asking all sorts of questions.

Hoshino Gen acted a bit flustered but managed to handle it appropriately.

Then, he pulled out his prepared ultimate trump card from his bag: the crispy fried fish bites he had made that morning, and shared them with all his classmates.

“I like making friends with generous people like you.”

The few boys in the class walked over.

After tasting them, they praised Hoshino Gen’s cooking skills profusely.

“Hoshino-kun, right? I’m Kaikawa Shotaro. My hobby is music.”

“I’m planning to form a Chiyu Academy High School Division boys’ band. Are you interested in joining?”

A band?

‘Ikkunī?’

“But don’t you need at least four or five people to form a band? Isn’t three of us a bit too few?”

Hoshino Gen asked.

“There’s another person in the class who hasn’t come yet,” Kaikawa Shotaro said.

“Itou-kun didn’t come to class today for some reason. He’s a photography expert. I’ll introduce you to him when I get the chance.”

Hoshino Gen rubbed his nose.

“Alright.”

The crowd came quickly and dispersed just as fast.

Not wanting to let Hoshino Gen be troubled by his classmates’ enthusiasm, everyone basically left satisfied after tasting his cooking.

Hoshino Gen finally had a chance to talk to Ziteng Sayaka beside him.

“I have some dried fish bites here. Would you like to try some?”

“No, thank you.”

Ziteng Sayaka’s gaze remained firmly locked on her phone.

Hoshino Gen glanced at Ziteng Sayaka’s phone screen and saw she was on a chat interface.

The chat partner’s ID was exactly: Shiratori Saori.