Give me a ninety-degree bow and apologize!

But this whole process had failed once in recent years.
Yes, it was Kyosuke Hojo.
Although this child had excellent grades, he basically never interacted with other classmates. Takeuchi, out of curiosity, had observed him and realized it wasn’t a lack of social skills.
On the contrary, this child was extraordinarily mature. When Takeuchi spoke with him, he could hardly feel that he was a sixth grader. If they were on the phone, one would definitely think he was a working adult.
Naturally, such a child was bullied in class. After Kyosuke Hojo came to Takeuchi to complain, Takeuchi called the bullies over and casually scolded them a few times.
Later, Kyosuke came a few more times, saying he was still being bullied, but Takeuchi didn’t take it seriously. He even found it a bit amusing—trying to act mature, and now tasting the bitterness.
But what Takeuchi didn’t expect was that the one who would suffer was himself.
Takeuchi received a call from the police while he was sleeping at home. By the time he arrived, the principal was already waiting for him.
The bullies who had been tormenting Kyosuke Hojo had gathered more children and beaten him up.
After being beaten, Kyosuke Hojo didn’t come home crying like other kids; he went straight to the police to report it.
Takeuchi’s vision darkened, and he nearly fainted.
The matter had escalated, and excuses wouldn’t work anymore. If it weren’t for the fact that his sister was the principal’s wife, he would have packed up and left.
The incident ended with the original bullies apologizing, compensating, and transferring schools. Besides Takeuchi and the principal, no one else in the school knew about it. The children were just puzzled why so many classmates suddenly transferred.
Because of everything that had happened, Takeuchi didn’t want to say a word more to Kyosuke Hojo, who stubbornly remained in his class; he just wanted to get him out of the way quickly.
Shoko Nishimiya, confused by Miki Kawai’s explanation, followed them out.
As soon as they left the classroom, the students inside erupted with excitement.
“Hojo is so brave!”
“Yeah, so cool! I never realized there was such a handsome boy in our class!”
“I’ve talked to him before, but he always sounded like an adult. He felt reliable but hard to approach.”
“I’m decided—I want to be his friend!”
“……”
Unlike the others, Naoka Ueno was filled with fear and regret inside. She vaguely sensed that Masaya Ishida had acted out to vent his anger on her behalf, so she was worried that Ishida might face severe punishment.
She also regretted that Shoko Nishimiya was publicly humiliated like this in front of the entire class and feared that Kyosuke Hojo might dislike her because of it.
“Ishida, apologize to Nishimiya,” Takeuchi said casually.

“Hey, sorry.”
Masaya Ishida turned his head to the side and looked at the ceiling, offering a half-hearted apology.

“Wait a minute!” Kyosuke Hojo shouted.

“What now, Hojo?”

“Nishimiya still doesn’t understand what happened. You need to explain it to her first.”

“Hey, Kyosuke Hojo, you’re meddling too much. I already apologized. I’m going back to class.”

Masaya Ishida had been startled by Kyosuke standing up and directly confronting the teacher, so he gave a swift apology, hoping to end things quickly, just like Takeuchi. That’s why his apology was so perfunctory.
But now Kyosuke wasn’t letting it go, and the boy’s stubbornness flared up immediately.

“……”

Takeuchi covered his forehead. If he could, he would tell Ishida, “Why provoke him? Just go along with whatever he says and quickly end this.”

“I don’t care anymore. I’m going back to class.”

After saying that, Ishida tried to push past Kyosuke, who was blocking the classroom door, but Kyosuke didn’t budge. Instead, he looked straight at Takeuchi.
Takeuchi recognized that gaze. The last time this boy came to him complaining about bullying, he had casually brushed him off. Back then, Kyosuke had stared at him for about a minute with an emotionless gaze.
That very night, Takeuchi was summoned to the police station. He always felt it wasn’t a mere coincidence. Bullying among kids rarely escalated into such serious fights, yet he found it hard to believe a sixth grader had such scheming.

“Step up straight, Ishida. Apologizing requires some attitude.”

Takeuchi grabbed Ishida’s shoulder and pulled him back.

“What the heck!”

Ishida protested, but he had no strength to resist under Takeuchi’s grip.

Only then did Kyosuke nod in satisfaction, lowered his head, and took a notebook from Shoko Nishimiya, who had been holding it throughout. He wrote down what had happened just now—how Ishida had mocked Nishimiya’s speech.
Shoko had been confused outside, watching the quarrel unfold. Now she finally understood.

“Thank you, Hojo.”

After reading the notebook, Shoko Nishimiya immediately thanked Kyosuke. Luckily, the words were brief enough for him to understand.

“It’s nothing, as long as Nishimiya is okay. Ishida Masaya, apologize to Nishimiya now.”

“Sorry.”

Ishida still looked at the ceiling, trying to maintain his last shred of dignity.

The moment Ishida apologized, Shoko Nishimiya immediately bent forward to return the bow but was grabbed by Kyosuke.

“Is this how you apologize? Look at the person properly! Didn’t your mother teach you how to apologize? Look at me and then bow!”

“Ishida, be sincere!”

Takeuchi also spoke up, not for Nishimiya’s sake, but just wanting to get rid of this little troublemaker quickly.

Shoko seemed to understand Kyosuke’s words and quickly waved her hands.

“I’m fine. This is enough.”

Unfortunately, she said it a bit hastily, and Kyosuke didn’t understand.

“Nishimiya, I’m sorry!”

Faced with the stern voices of both men—especially the “adult” homeroom teacher—Ishida lost his last bit of stubbornness.
He gave a deep, ninety-degree bow and shouted his apology loudly enough for the entire classroom to hear.

“No way, Ishida actually apologized?”

“Hehe, Ishida must be scared out of his wits.”

Squint-eyed Kazuki Shimada raised his oversized shirt sleeve to cover his mouth and teased.
Listening to him, one wouldn’t guess he was Ishida’s daily playmate.

“Hey, Shimada, Ishida is your friend. How can you say that?”

Naoka Ueno immediately objected.

“Hehe.”

Shimada just smiled and said nothing more.
Shoko Nishimiya continued bowing in response to Ishida’s apology, while Ishida slammed open the classroom door and ran inside.

The little girl looked terrified and at a loss, but Kyosuke was amused and gently ruffled her hair, reassuring her that everything was fine.

Takeuchi looked down from above at the scene, twitching at the corner of his mouth. Well, so he was pursuing a girl after all. No wonder this usually indifferent kid was so proactive this time.

“All right, you guys should go in too.”