It was almost ten o'clock when they returned to the apartment.
He had originally thought Nanao Akane's grades were bad enough, but he hadn't expected Kushiro Arisa, who came over this time, to be another tough customer.
Fortunately, he hadn't organized his buddies to study with him, or they definitely wouldn't have been able to handle it.
Hayato routinely asked Kushiro Arisa how she had done on her previous Japanese language test. She patted her small chest and said, "It'll definitely be fine," but after digging deeper, he realized it was ridiculously far off the mark.
For example, "In the ancient Chinese classic 'Journey to the West,' the woman with the iron fan whom the protagonist and his party meet at the Banana Cave near the Flaming Mountains is called (— —)."
This should have been a very basic and simple fill-in-the-blank question, and the answer was clearly visible.
Kushiro Arisa did indeed read the question carefully, and then she found the answer within the question itself.
She lifted her pen and wrote the answer in a single stroke.
"alpaca princess!"
Also, "Born in the Huaxia Dynasty, renowned as one of the 'Three Sus' and one of the 'Eight Great Prose Masters of Tang and Song,' widely befriended throughout the land, with numerous friends, the literary giant who penned the famous work 'Prelude to Water Melody' is ( )."
It was another very basic fill-in-the-blank question.
This time, Kushiro Arisa was smarter; she understood the phrase "one of the Three Sus," so this person should be surnamed "Su." She continued to study the question and finally gave her answer.
"Su Youpeng!" — Su Shi had many friends, so he should be called Su Youpeng, right!?
Hayato was almost fainted from anger.
And ever since he parted ways with Mizuno Lian and reunited with Kushiro Arisa, the girl's gaze towards him had been strange.
She even quietly discussed "does it hurt" with Akane, a completely nonsensical question, and even brought up something about the "slackness of the flesh"… Please, Arisa, with your grades, if you get into medical school, it won't be a green smoke rising from your ancestral grave, it'll be your ancestral grave rising out of the green smoke, alright?
In short, it was a headache.
Hayato, uncharacteristically, did not maintain his Sima face, but returned to the apartment with a pained expression.
He was just about to walk in.
He almost bumped into Yukino Fuyumi, who was also about to enter.
"Ah, you're back," Hayato greeted indifferently.
Yukino Fuyumi shrank back, wanting Hayato to go first. Hearing his question, she thought for a moment, and finally nodded: "…I'm back."
She had originally wanted to mock him with "you're home so late," but seeing his tired face, she swallowed the words.
She had rarely seen this boy with such an expression.
As for Yukino Fuyumi's late return, it was due to overtime. To make up for the financial deficit from staying home before, and to prepare for upcoming events, she had been working long hours recently.
Yukino Fuyumi suddenly remembered that customers who seemed to be high school students had complained about "final exams" when they came to the store today. It seemed this boy must be facing the same troubles.
She had originally wanted to say, "You worked hard studying," but after pursing her lips, she still didn't say it.
Hmph~ Why should I care about him? Yukino Fuyumi thought.
"You worked hard," Hayato said instead.
"Eh…?" Yukino Fuyumi initially wondered if she had misheard, but after confirming it had indeed come from the boy's mouth: "…You worked hard studying too."
Immediately after, she still said the words.
Hayato smiled: "Same to you."
Yukino Fuyumi walked beside him, her eyes curved into a smile.
The distance from the door to inside the house was short, even with the stairs, it was only twenty or thirty steps. But just these few steps, and a few words with the boy, Yukino Fuyumi felt a strange sense of healing. She glanced sideways at the boy, who was yawning to himself.
She suddenly thought, if… he could hug her properly right now, it would be like recharging, and all the fatigue from work would disappear.
But how could she possibly voice such a request!
"Then I'll head back to my room first. You should go to bed early too," Hayato said. His hand was already on the doorknob of "404." He suddenly remembered something, turned back, and said to Yukino Fuyumi, who was still watching him enter his room: "Oh, by the way, just to let you know, I won't be in Tokyo during the summer vacation. I'll be going out."
"…Eh?" Yukino Fuyumi was startled, then revealed a sweet smile, though terrifying blue veins had just begun to pop out on the pale skin at the corners of her eyebrows. She really wanted to ask Kobayashi, "just to let you know"… what did that mean?
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