Thin Presence

"Thin Presence" (希薄な存在) is a short story from Melon Books' store privilege for the fourth volume of You-Zitsu light novel series, together with another short story.

Summary
On the cruise ship not long after the 2nd special exam starts, Kei Karuizawa goes to the Rabbit exam room earlier than usual to avoid a meeting with Manabe and her group.

Upon entering the room Kei sees Kiyotaka Ayanokōji and ignores his presence. She sat away from him and passed the time by chatting with her friends on her phone, while casually belittling her other D-Class classmates; who are all boys, that are in her group. Kei worries about her social authority, as most of her friends, are together in the same group and the possibility of them gossiping about her was likely. But after a brief chat log check, she concludes that her presence was enough to stop the gossiping.

To pass the time Kei asks Kiyotaka if he was the target of the Rabbit group or not, whom he simply answers with no. Kei was exasperated at Kiyotaka's lack of dialogue skills, saying that he had the looks to compete with Yōsuke Hirata, but not the charisma to stay popular. She criticises all the boys but Yōsuke in D-Class and strengthens her resolve to stick with Yōsuke.

However, she says with foresight that Kiyotaka would eventually become the most important and irreplaceable person in her life for the next three years.