Arina Avenira's closest buddy in the Big Five -- if you stop and think for a moment, perhaps it would be either Seo or Asano you may come up with, but no. Surprisingly, it was actually Sakakibara Ren.

She may not like Ren at first, but through time, she learned that they shared a lot in common. They were both imaginative and can jump from idea to idea, were both into literature, aesthetics, fashion, self-care, were both hopeless romantics, and were both easy to get bored of everything.

Ren -- being a philanderer as he was -- casually hunts girls he found attractive and dumps them later after getting bored of his prey. Hence why he would find Arina pretty attractive for failing to hunt her down. However, Arina was smart enough to spit and pick her nose in front of him to make him get over and began to call her one of his 'guy friends'.

Consequently, Arina was out in the game of hunting attractive girls. While he had hunted most girls down, there was the only one left that made him obsessed over for so many years.

Nagasawa Juria, again the school queen bee this time. For years she had been crushing over the one and only prestigious Asano Gakushuu, making Ren a background character in her eyes. No matter how hard he tried, he still got rejected by this girl. And seizing the opportunity this summer vacation with his class, he had plotted every move to win her over.

And knowing Ren, he overlooked every aesthetically unpleasing-looking girl or unfit girl (though still played with their feelings) which led him to overlook many hidden gems.

Shirayuki Sae -- a quiet kid in class 2-A, always fading into the background. At first, one may think she was a guy judging from her looks, which were hideous. She wore a big pair of glasses, and her uniform looked as though she had never ironed them before. Grey, uncombed pixie-cut hair, her bangs completely concealed her bushy eyebrows, and underneath them were her mesmerizing light grey eyes; unfortunately, no one barely noticed them in the presence of the thick glasses.

Most of the time, being ugly was no problem if you have a fun personality, though Sae had none.

Nagasawa Juria was enjoying herself strolling in the hallway upon countless male gazes along with her sidekicks when Sae boldly marched forward and plunged straight into them causing the popular girls to stumbled.

"Excuse you, Shirayuki!" complained Juria, wincing in despise.

"Fuck you, Juria," Sae casually said whilst walking away carrying her usual expressionless face.

On her way to the overall scoreboard after the exam, as though fate had set them up, she accidentally bumped into the reputable philanderer -- Sakakibara Ren, as he stopped to toy with her feelings.

"Well, hello there baby girl," chirped Ren, winking at her. He especially emphasized the word 'girl' to make it as that he was the only male in this world who recognize her as a girl.

"Need my help escorting you into this crowd~?"

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders but she swiftly removed his arm.

"Here's something I don't understand," Sae's eyebrows narrowed, giving away her daily piercing stare. "By what factor determines a human's natural cognitive tendency? Like -- straight out from birth? Yours is sickening though, I feel bad for you," she lifted her glasses.

After receiving that cold response, Ren couldn't care but shrug and walked away, mumbling how Sae might be aromantic.

See -- that was Sae's problem, now that she continued to question do other species share human cognitive functions. Whether it's natural or not. And whether it's due to the revolution. She resembled Asano in one thing -- they both take one idea and delve deep into it, though, Sae used it as her dominant function.

As a result, she constantly claimed how superior she was compared to other humans (only in her head). Those who don't know her may call her a pick-me girl when in reality she was a pick-me human. Not even Asano Gakushuu was intimidating to her, sitting at the back of the class she always thought about how better she was compared to him. In terms of academics, she had no problem with it, as she occasionally scored a hundred in all subjects, except for...Japanese -- the thing that held her back by a mile.

If the Japanese subject never existed, she would have easily competed with the prestigious Asano on occasion. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. To add more to her weaknesses, she was an anti-social person. Extremely introverted. Sae wasn't shy, she just hated people because most of them were too narrow-minded and lame creatures.

Getting close to the overall scoreboard, Sae clicked her tongue upon seeing her name ranked 16th place in grade. Even though she had done a great job in every other subject, most of them even scored a hundred, Japanese still pulled her down nevertheless.

Nagasawa Juria ranked 13th this time, securing her title as the highest-ranking girl in her grade, and above was the top 12 smartest guy, including two of Juria's followers: Toda Sejiro and Mori Iori, and the two enemies with each other: Fujii Hiroyuki and Torii Hidetoshi, and of course, the Big Fives, with Asano Gakushuu always sitting on top like a king.

It was extremely difficult to compete for ranks in this school, considering there were many gifted prodigies and highly competitive students who buried themselves with intense-level coursework and their routine consisted of none but eating and studying, making Arina perceive the 29th rank she scored this semester as something she should celebrate of.

"Oh, dear Asano-kun! Are you proud of me now?" exclaimed Arina breathlessly, intertwining her hands as her eyes sparkled.

Asano Gakushuu — famous for being ambitious and having a high standard — told her it was simply not enough and she should be striving harder. But Arina was all about living her life to the fullest, as she opted to throw a party to celebrate this occasion, and was upset that Asano refused to come for disapproving of her contentment with that pathetic rank.

"But Asano-kun! At least I passed the exam!" cried Arina bitterly, but soon regret it as Asano gave her a full speech about why she should never have the 'at least' psychology in her and should always feel unsatisfied and strive for greater things. And now they were mad at each other (again) as Arina felt he should at least acknowledge her big improvement since the last exam, considering she just jumped from rank 39th to 29th. That was 10 ranks gap!

Nevertheless, without Asano, Arina still threw a party and invited everyone she knew, which the rest of Big Fives all attended. If you hear the term 'party', you may picture a typical party with loud music and stuff, but no. These rich kids who considered themselves as 'high-class' people only into soirees or similar stuff.

For this year, the prize for class 2-A for their excellent performance on the final exam for this semester was a 3-day 3 nights trip to Bali. A series of delightful anticipation brought Arina flying into the shopping mall with her eyes shining, cheeks faintly flushed with pink, and her silver-blonde hair streaming behind her in a torrent of brightness.

"Oh, Mei-chan," she exclaimed happily, "I've always dreamed of traveling to a sunshiny place with ocean waves washing my feet while I gape in awe at how soft the sand feels underneath; I will lie right down there and make a sand angel and roll over it. Do you suppose building a sand castle would be fun too? I've made a snow castle before and it's rather difficult with gloves on so I may assume building with sand would be so much ever more satisfying. And when the heat is getting too overwhelming -- but that is the best part of it, Mei-chan! We're going to relax in the shades of those big umbrellas and eat ice cream -- think of it, Mei-chan -- ICE CREAM! Oh, Mei-chan, you could never imagine the amount of happiness a little Normadian girl is undergoing now that she's about to experience such lovely things for the first time in her life."

For the rest of the week, Arina continued to talk Bali and thought Bali and dreamed Bali. One time shopping for swimsuits and beach items wasn't enough as she woke up in the middle of the night and call Minami Mei for another shopping day.

On Sunday Arina confided to Ami on the way to The Escape Room in Tokyo that she grew actually cold all over with excitement when the principal announced the Bali trip from the assembly.

"Such a thrill as went up and down my back, Ami-chan! I don't think I'd ever really believed until then that there was honestly going to be a trip to Bali. I couldn't help fearing I'd only imagined it. But when a principal says a thing in the assembly you just have to believe it."

Not only Ami, she also "confided" to the deceased students from the bus accident, class 3-E, comrade brothers during her visit to the youth detention center, and some close friends in her class.

"You set your heart too much on things, Arina," said Asano, who had too much advice for someone like her. "I'm afraid there'll be a great many disappointments in store for you through life."

"Oh, Asano-kun, looking forward to things is half the pleasure of them!" exclaimed Arina. "You may not get the things themselves, but nothing can prevent you from having the fun of looking forward to them. When curiosity hit me and even though I'm not a Christian, I still pick up the bible and there was one line saying, 'Blessed are they who expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed.' But I think it would be worse to expect nothing than to be disappointed."

Class 2-A was divided into groups that day for the upcoming trip, and even when they were given the free choice to choose their groupmate, Asano Gakushuu was still the one to decide for everyone.

"Arina," called Asano, approaching her with Ren and Koyama by his side. "Do you want to join us?"

Ren freaked out. Normally Asano would have invited Juria and her girlfriends, so why would he decide to choose Arina now? That would make his plan to hunt Juria in vain, whilst Juria standing nearby also overheard Asano's invitation to Arina and exploded in jealousy and anger.

Fortunate for both of them, Arina for wanting to help Teppei out with Ami, clasped her hands together and declined the invitation.

"I see," said Asano, placing a hand on his chin. Since a group must consist of three boys and three girls, he went over to Juria's gang as they squealed in delight.

Group 1, which was his, consisted of him, Ren, Koyama, and Juria's gang. Group 2 with Seo, Teppei, Akeboshi, Arina, Ami, and Mei. Group 3 with the K squad members, Torii, Sejiro (it was Fujii at first but Asano reckoned they had beef with each other so he went ahead and switched Fujii to another team), and Iori. And the rest were also decided in the following. Sae and Fujii were put on the same team.

Preparations and activities for the trip all also lie in Asano's hands. And using that as an advantage, Arina constantly came up to him and ask for ridiculous things, for example attempting an experiment to see if sharks are really drawn to human blood by having the students ride on boats to where sharks live and cut themselves and jump into the water. Asano instantly went mad and scold her for having reckless intentions.

Eventually, the Bali trip was merely a day ahead as Arina stayed in Seo's house and talked about the trip all night not letting the guy go to sleep.

"Oh my goodness go home!! We have a flight tomorrow morning!!" he shouted indignantly.

"Oh, Seo, but I couldn't go to sleep when the thrill within me is simply too overwhelming. I reckoned you might be too so I came here so we could let the thrills out. Now that your thrill is gone how could I spill the rest of mine alone?" faltered Arina. "If I keep it bottling up I might gonna explode."

"Then explode!" replied Seo unapologetically. He led Arina out of his house and shut the door to her face.

"Remember the strategies to get Teppei and Ami-chan together!" Arina's ecstatic voice was heard behind the door.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," said Seo sleepily, as he yawned and went to bed.

The next morning arrived and Seo was found dragging the sleepless Arina by his side to the airport along with her suitcase, making them the last people in the class to arrive.

When Asano first saw this, he facepalmed, thinking about how he will have to manage his class for the duration of this trip, whilst Mr. Gojou Botan -- their homeroom teacher – was completely forgotten.

A Bali trip, which the school organized to help the students relax their minds to improve their studies in the meantime, turned out to be nothing more than love dramas between the students. A chaos trip.