Chapter 7
What good is understanding Japanese? I don't even know the formulas.
I want to start learning from Miyuki already.
I resisted the urge to tear up my math test, guessed every multiple-choice answer, and slumped over my desk.
There are still five more tests left, but it was better to get some proper rest and prepare for the next one than cling to something I couldn't do.
Even so, considering how terrible I was at studying, my failure was practically guaranteed.
Ding-dong! Ding-dong!
I'd been dead asleep, but the moment the bell rang, I sat upright.
The girl sitting to my right looked at me and giggled.
My bleary eyes and the imprint of my arm on my cheek must have looked funny.
“Is it that funny?”
She flinched at my rough tone, but soon gave a small nod.
“No... Sorry. Your face got pressed down... You must've been really sleepy. Want some gum?”
Since I'd been showing everyone my gentler side lately, even students who would've avoided me before had started striking up conversations with me.
I smacked my lips like someone worn out from exhaustion and held out my hand.
“Give me one. No, wait... Just one.”
“Yeah. Here...”
She held it out shyly.
I took the gum, put it in my mouth, and chewed it with a smack. It tasted like blueberry.
But had I ever eaten a blueberry before?
It tasted good, so who cared?
Deciding not to overthink it, I thanked the girl.
“Thanks. Let's be friends.”
The girl's face immediately turned pale.
It looked like she'd misunderstood something after hearing me. What was it?
She didn't think that when I said let's be friends, I meant something sleazy was going to happen to her, did she?
Just as I was thinking that, a middle-aged professor approached and collected my test paper.
“Matsuda-kun. You mustn't chat until I've collected the test papers.”
“Yes.”
Maybe because I'd been obedient lately, the professor gave me a favorable look despite my mistake.
When he saw my test score, he'd probably turn pale and start swearing at me, which made me inexplicably anxious.
During the break after the test was finally over,
I gestured with my chin toward Miura, who was diligently looking over his workbook.
“Hey, Miura.”
“Yeah?”
“How'd you do?”
“I... I think I got about half of them right.”
This guy wasn't particularly good at studying.
That was why TokiAka had an event where I studied with Miyuki.
“Half? That's pretty good. Didn't expect that.”
“Wouldn't half mean I did badly rather than unexpectedly well...?”
“Then does that make me a moron for guessing every answer?”
“No... I didn't mean it that way. Sorry.”
After Miyuki had told me in the infirmary to apologize to Tetsuya and get along with him, I started exchanging a few words with him now and then.
Of course, I never apologized.
Even so, Tetsuya seemed to dislike me less than before.
Maybe it was because I'd stopped bullying him every day and only talked about random things now, but talking with him made me feel like I was going to explode.
I also didn't like the way he kept his hair so shaggy in the middle of summer.
Still, I put up with him for the sake of improving my relationship with Miyuki.
I glanced toward the front and saw Miyuki discussing the exam questions with her friends.
She was probably the top scorer, even without looking.
**
“Did you do well on the test?”
It was the professor I'd met during the molestation incident asking me that.
I snorted and asked in return,
“Do I look like I did?”
“No.”
“You know that perfectly well, so why ask?”
“What an attitude... Today is your last day of cleaning, right?”
“Yes.”
“I thought you'd quit after a few days, but you even came in on weekends to clean. Honestly, it was a surprise. This is why prejudice is so frightening.”
“Is that a compliment?”
“It's a sincere compliment. See it through today. Next semester, study hard and join a club too.”
A club? Of course I would.
I was going to join the kendo club, where Renka, one of the main heroines, was a second-year student.
Our Renka would be taking in a delinquent freshman the moment she returned from her shoulder injury... I wanted to see her soon.
“I'll think about it. This lousy student will be going now.”
“So you know, at least. Go on.”
Would it have hurt him to deny it?
Grumbling, I left the faculty room and headed for the bathroom.
On the way, I ran into Miyuki.
She approached with several books in her arms, and when she spotted me, she gave me a bright smile.
“Hello, Matsuda-kun.”
That smile had been appearing so often lately that it put me in a good mood.
“I already said hello this morning. You're saying it again?”
“Am I not allowed to?”
“It's not that, but replying is such a bother.”
“It isn't hard to say one word, is it? When I talk to you, Matsuda-kun, you seem like someone who lives in a different world from me. We don't mesh at all.”
“Then do you think we'd mesh well?”
“See? You're being sarcastic again. Try to fix that too. Did you do well on the test?”
“Are you asking that seriously?”
“Ah... I made a mistake. Sorry. Of course you didn't do well.”
Even if I was bad at studying, that was just prejudice.
Of course, I really hadn't done well.
But we'd gotten pretty close, hadn't we?
We were even able to have casual conversations like this.
Should I say it now? If not now, I might not even get another chance.
I scratched the back of my head and cautiously broached the subject to wide-eyed Miyuki.
“Hey, Hanazawa.”
“Yeah?”
“Could you maybe teach me how to study?”
“Huh...? Study...?”
Miyuki's already large eyes grew twice as wide.
She couldn't speak for a while, but when she saw my serious expression, she grew serious too.
“It's admirable, but... are you serious?”
I was serious.
And think about it. Summer vacation is long.
Without a mentor to guide me down the right path for two months, what do you think I'd spend my time doing?
I'd meet up with delinquent friends, drink and smoke as a matter of course, and get up to all kinds of delinquent nonsense.
By the time vacation ended and school started again, there was a very high chance I'd be back to being the piece-of-shit Ken Matsuda.
I'm telling you to consider all those factors.
You're smart. You can think that far, can't you?
“Yeah. Tutor me or something. I'll pay.”
“N-no... It's not about the money... Did the midterms really shock you that much?”
“Hey, forget it. I'm leaving. I'm trying to have a serious conversation, and you're just making fun of me... You're annoying.”
I frowned and walked past Miyuki, but she hurried after me and called out,
“I wasn't making fun of you. I was just thinking it over, so why are you leaving?”
I stopped dead and turned back to Miyuki.
“Then you'll do it?”
“I just said I was thinking about it. One of your problems is that you're impatient. So wait.”
“How long?”
“Matsuda-kun.”
“Fine. I'll wait, all right?”
Grumbling, I leaned against the hallway wall.
After I'd waited for Miyuki in a slouching pose for about a minute,
Miyuki, who had been thinking hard with her head tilted slightly to one side, asked me,
“Are you sure you can really do this?”
“Probably.”
“Tell me clearly. I don't want to waste my time on someone who has no desire to improve.”
“What do you think? Do I look like I'll really do it? Evaluate me objectively.”
“Why should I evaluate you? You should ask yourself.”
She didn't give me an inch.
Of course, I understood, since I'd suddenly asked her to teach me how to study.
I stood straight in the hallway and looked down at Miyuki.
Then I said without a hint of hesitation,
“I'll really do it.”
“Really...? All right.”
Though she made me wait, she unexpectedly agreed without much fuss.
I barely managed to suppress the twitch at the corner of my mouth and asked,
“Where should we do it? Should I come to you?”
“Hmm... Meeting halfway would be nice, but where do you live, Matsuda-kun?”
“The southern part of Nerima Ward.”
“Really...? That's close...? I live in northern Suginami. Then should I teach you at a café halfway between us? The library isn't ideal since we have to be quiet...”
She really wasn't going to invite me to her house. How sad.
“Don't cafés have to be quiet too?”
“That's true. Hmm... It's hot, so the park wouldn't be ideal either...”
“If our houses look reasonably close on a map, do you want to do it at my place? It'll be empty.”
“Huh...? That might be a little difficult... Your parents might be there too...”
“They're dead.”
“.....”
When I said it as casually as if it were nothing, Miyuki pressed her lips tightly together.
Her pupils were shaking as though there'd been an earthquake, so she must have been pretty flustered.
“I-I'm sorry... I...”
“What are you sorry for? I don't care. They've been dead so long that I don't even remember their faces anymore.”
“M-Matsuda-kun...! Could you phrase that a little more gently...?”
Her flustered state was cute.
I let out a quiet chuckle and held out my phone.
“Give me your LINE ID. We'll discuss the details once we get back. I have to clean the bathroom.”
“Ah, right... Okay...”
“You're really going to teach me?”
“Yeah. I'll teach you... But you really have to work hard. If I see you slacking off even a little, I'll quit immediately.”
“Got it.”
Tetsuya would ask Miyuki for the same favor.
Miyuki would naturally agree, then suggest that the three of us study together.
It was a shame I wouldn't be alone with Miyuki, but it didn't really matter.
All kinds of events would start happening once summer vacation began.
It was enough if I took Tetsuya's place.
Or we could study as a group of three.
I just had to make sure Tetsuya never got to be alone with Miyuki.
The early part of TokiAka was spent securing money to use in the game and learning information about it.
Put simply, it was the tutorial.
And I had just finished that tutorial.
It was time to truly enjoy TokiAka.
**
“Wow... Nice house... Right, Tetsuya?”
“Yeah. It's huge...”
Tetsuya and Miyuki were already chatting away outside the front gate.
In the end, we'd decided to meet at my house.
The biggest advantages were that it was an empty house where we could make as much noise as we wanted, and that it was close by.
As I'd expected, Tetsuya joined the study group, so the two of them came to visit me.
I turned the air conditioning all the way up, put on my slippers, and came out into the living room.
I crossed the stone path overgrown with weeds and was about to open the front gate when
“Matsuda-kun! We're here!”
Miyuki called out in her big voice.
I let out a dry laugh and opened the front gate.
Then I scolded the two of them, who were looking around curiously.
“Why are you shouting when there's a doorbell? You're here, huh? Miura.”
I gestured toward Tetsuya with my chin, and he awkwardly raised one hand.
“Hi, Matsuda.”
What kind of greeting was that...? This indecisive bastard couldn't even choose one of the three heroines and kept wavering.
I cursed him inwardly and moved aside.
“Come in.”
Miyuki stepped inside with a bright expression.
Her outfit today consisted of a white T-shirt and a skirt that fell just above her ankles.
Her snow-white, slender ankles, revealed with every step, stirred my desire.
“Where do we go?”
Miyuki turned her head and asked.
I came to my senses while walking beside Tetsuya and answered her.
“Just follow the path and you'll reach the living room.”
“Isn't it normal for the homeowner to lead the way? And, Matsuda-kun, don't you do anything about the weeds?”
“Do I really have to?”
“That's so like you, Matsuda-kun. But...”
Miyuki trailed off and looked toward the flower bed.
When she saw the drooping plants, she fussed over them and scolded me.
“Matsuda-kun...! What are you doing leaving the plants like that? They're dying...!”
Dying? Weren't they already dead?
“Then what am I supposed to do with them? Throw them out?”
“That's not what I mean...! Why is the watering can so old?”
“Because I don't use it?”
“I really don't understand you...”
Miyuki looked around, found the faucet outside, picked up the watering can, and headed over to it.
She carefully washed the watering can and checked the condition of the plants.
It felt strangely like my girlfriend had come over to move in with me.
If only I could get rid of the vermin beside me, this would be so much fun... But it couldn't be helped.
“What are you doing? Let's go inside.”
“Ah, right.”
I took Tetsuya into the living room and began unfolding the round table we would use for studying.