"Ahaha, yeah. I think I got bitten by a bug while I was sleeping."
"Is that so? Please take care of yourself."
Tamari Honoka even began to wonder whether Hishiro Chizuru was really the brainy top student everyone thought she was. She was almost too easy to fool. Or perhaps Hishiro Chizuru had already noticed, but simply chose not to expose the lie and was not actually unaware of it all.
In truth, Tamari Honoka was deeply grateful to those who cared about her, but she did not want too much attention. She needed space to breathe on her own; otherwise, it felt as though fate had her tightly by the throat, leaving her unable to catch her breath.
Tamari Honoka hesitated for a while, then decided to ask.
From a certain perspective, Tamari Honoka's athletic talent was similar in nature to Hishiro Chizuru's academic brilliance. Since Tamari Honoka could be envied and excluded by those less talented, had Hishiro Chizuru experienced the same thing?
People always needed to seek a sense of belonging.
People who had gone through the same experiences were most likely to empathize with one another, and that empathy made it easier for them to understand each other.
It gave them a sense of security.
"Hishiro, have you ever hurt the people around you or gotten into conflicts because you were too smart?"
"I don't think my intelligence is harmful."
"Mm, I don't mean physically!" Tamari Honoka said.
"Like being disliked by others, discouraging them, or making them think that if you're so capable, you should just do everything by yourself in the future."
"I don't really understand what you mean."
"Sorry for asking something so strange. Just forget it!"
And so, that conversation came to an end. After lunch, they returned to the classroom. But