Shirogane Miyuki's nervousness was obvious to the naked eye—his breathing even sped up a little.
He planted both hands on the table and spoke with a grave expression.
"Fujiwara-san, cramming at the last minute doesn't mean much. Shinomiya said it before too—exams are meant to show your true level. There's no need to review at all."
He turned to look at Shinomiya Kaguya.
"Right, Shinomiya?"
Shinomiya Kaguya put on her trademark smile-that-wasn't-a-smile.
"Oh my, oh my, President, that's not quite right. People like us, of course, don't need to review—we use exams to verify our own abilities."
She paused slightly, then continued smoothly.
"But Fujiwara-san is finally motivated to study for once. Surely we can't stop her, can we?"
With that single sentence, Shinomiya completely blocked Shirogane's retreat.
"Fujiwara-san, friends should help each other. I'll tutor you."
"Kaguya-chan, you're the best!"
Deeply moved, Fujiwara Chika threw her arms around Shinomiya Kaguya.
Shinomiya gently patted Fujiwara's back—and shot Shirogane Miyuki a blatantly provocative glance.
Now she had a perfectly legitimate reason to study. While teaching Fujiwara Chika, she would definitely take the opportunity to read as much as she could.
[Fujiwara-san, you truly are my best friend.]
Ishigami Yuu: Fujiwara-senpai actually started studying… Looks like her online romance crashed and burned, so she's using studying to distract herself?
Well, I'm not studying. Has nothing to do with me.
Perhaps she really had been stimulated by Tanaka Masao, because Fujiwara Chika began studying seriously in the student council room.
Shinomiya Kaguya tutored her with full concentration. If one looked closely, they'd notice that while teaching Fujiwara, her eyes barely blinked at all—she was frantically absorbing knowledge herself.
Seeing this scene, Shirogane Miyuki's eyes practically bulged out of his head. It felt as if countless tiny bugs were crawling all over his body—unbearably uncomfortable.
[No, this can't go on. If this keeps up… I'll have to study. I must study!]
"Ishigami, exams are coming up. You're not reviewing?"
Ishigami Yuu shook his head. "No need. I'm confident."
Shirogane didn't give him any chance to refuse.
"That won't do. Student council members are held to academic standards. As president, it's my duty to help you."
Under Ishigami's unwilling gaze, he was forcibly dragged off by Shirogane to study.
Shirogane Miyuki and Shinomiya Kaguya exchanged a glance—sparks seemed to crackle in the air.
Fujiwara Chika noticed none of this. She was fully focused on studying, eagerly absorbing Shinomiya Kaguya's knowledge.
...
Meanwhile, at the Tanaka household.
Tanaka Masao stretched and yawned.
"Done reviewing. Guess I'm actually pretty amazing."
Yukinoshita Yukino pinched the bridge of her nose and relaxed slightly.
"Your fundamentals are solid—that's why you finished reviewing so quickly. Still, I'm curious. With that foundation, you really shouldn't have ranked dead last on the entrance exam."
"Maybe I just didn't perform well. Who knows."
"There are two days left until the exam. Since you've mostly finished reviewing, let's spend the remaining time doing practice problems."
Tanaka Masao had no objections to Yukinoshita Yukino's suggestion.
Grinding problems? He was very familiar with that.
"How many mock exams per subject per day?"
Yukinoshita Yukino was momentarily speechless.
"Where would we find that kind of time? Over the next two days, being able to do one full paper per subject is already good enough."
"Only one? Doesn't that feel a bit… empty?"
Tanaka Masao sounded worried. Back in his previous life, at his peak, he could do two full papers per subject per day.
"It's not too little. These two days are mainly about paying attention in class and taking good notes. The teachers will be reviewing key material—it'll help a lot for the exams."
She continued calmly.
"I'll share my notes with you. Doing one paper to identify your weak points will be sufficient."
"Oh, then thanks a lot, Yukinoshita-san."
The anxiety in Tanaka Masao's heart—caused by a lack of test papers to fill it—finally settled.
"Oh right, Yukinoshita-san. You've been supervising my dieting and helping me review. I should thank you properly. How about after the exams, on the weekend, I treat you to going out together?"
"The weekend…"
Yukinoshita Yukino frowned slightly, hesitating.
She was free that weekend. She was just unsure whether she wanted to go out with Tanaka Masao.
But she didn't need to hesitate for long—his next sentence made the decision for her.
"Let's go to Tokyo. I heard the zoo just got two new pandas—they're pretty popular."
"…I happen to be free this weekend. Let's go together."
As soon as she heard it was the zoo to see pandas, Yukinoshita Yukino immediately agreed.
Pandas were extremely popular in Japan to begin with—and with the word cat in their Chinese name, a certified cat lover like Yukinoshita Yukino had no resistance at all.
A faint, barely noticeable smile appeared at the corner of Tanaka Masao's mouth.
He knew it—inviting Yukinoshita Yukino to see pandas at the zoo would definitely work.
Of course, that was also thanks to the time they'd spent together recently.
If he'd invited her right after they met, even pandas wouldn't have convinced her.
"Pandas? What kind of creature is that?"
Jahy voiced her question.
"A panda is a very cute creature," Yukinoshita Yukino explained.
The moment she heard the word cute, Jahy instantly lost interest.
"Huh? It's called a bear, right? I thought it'd be some super powerful creature."
"Calling it powerful wouldn't be wrong," Tanaka Masao said, explaining to Jahy.
"Pandas are also known as iron-eating beasts, and in Huaxia legend, they were the mount of one of the Three Sovereigns, Chi You."
Just the name iron-eating beast already made Jahy feel like pandas were incredible. And the name Chi You gave her the image of a demon god, a war god—something overwhelmingly powerful.
Even Yukinoshita Yukino was a little surprised. She hadn't expected Tanaka Masao to know so much about pandas and Huaxia lore.
To Tanaka Masao, this might have been common knowledge—because in his previous life, these things were widely known.
But abroad, what you consider "common sense" can easily be obscure trivia no one's ever heard of.
Even Yukinoshita Yukino only knew about pandas from encyclopedias. She was aware of the alias iron-eating beast, but she genuinely didn't know they were said to be Chi You's mount.
She silently memorized the name, planning to look it up properly later.
Tanaka Masao continued.
"So don't be fooled by how lazy, clumsy, and cute pandas look now. Their ancestors were fierce too."
"Gaooo—super fierce."
Yukinoshita Yukino couldn't help laughing at Tanaka Masao's goofy performance. An image popped into her head—a cute panda baring its teeth, making an "I'm super scary face."
[Somehow… that just makes it even cuter.]
Jahy also became interested in pandas.
"Then I want to go to the zoo and see this panda too."
If someone as impressive as Chi You chose pandas as his mount, there had to be a reason.
If she could tame one herself…
Tanaka Masao looked at the small, would-be third wheel.
"If you want to come, then come."
Whatever—bringing Jahy along wouldn't really change anything.
After all, his relationship with Yukinoshita Yukino hadn't reached that stage yet. Having Jahy along might actually help Yukinoshita relax more.