Enduring

Fingertips hovered over the phone's call button for several seconds before Horikita Suzune finally pressed it.

This action exhausted some stubborn persistence, her knuckles turning slightly white from the force.

"Moshi moshi? Oh, it's Horikita-san?" Kushida Kikyo's voice came through the receiver, sweet with just the right amount of surprise. "What a surprise! Is there something you need?"

She naturally knew that the classmate had just given her number to Horikita Suzune, and that she had been waiting for this call.

"..." A brief silence.

Horikita's voice sounded as if squeezed from a dry throat, with a deliberately flattened tone.

"Regarding Hirata's study session. Sudo, Ike, Yamauchi, they didn't participate."

She skipped all pleasantries and cut straight to the point.

"Ah, that matter," Kushida's tone immediately shifted to one of concerned thoughtfulness.

"It is indeed quite troublesome. Horikita-san is worried they'll drag the class down on the exams, aren't you?" She pointed out the meaning behind Horikita's words.

"...Their grades will affect the class points," Horikita corrected stiffly.

Admitting the word "concern" was still difficult for her, but she forced herself to continue: "I..." Her words faltered between her teeth for a moment. "Need your assistance." The last three words were spoken with some weight.

"You want my help?!" Kushida's tone suddenly rose, with obvious surprise. "Really? Horikita-san is willing to ask me? That's wonderful! Leave it to me!"

Her enthusiasm seemed abundant. "It's to have them participate in the study session, right? I promise I'll handle it! Oh, right," she changed the subject, "shall we exchange LINE IDs? That way, communication will be more timely!"

The chirpy tone from the receiver made Horikita's jawline tense.

That excessive enthusiasm did not alleviate her discomfort; instead, it made the embarrassment of actively seeking help even clearer.

She could almost imagine what kind of thoughts were hidden behind Kushida's friendly smile at that moment.

"...Okay." Horikita's response was mechanical and cold.

She recited her ID.

The busy signal of the call ending rang out. Horikita leaned against the cold dormitory door and slowly slid to the floor.

The breath that had been building in her chest was finally exhaled, long and silently, with a sense of exhaustion and depletion.

The feeling of actively seeking help from Kushida Kikyo, whom she instinctively rejected and intuitively found suspicious, was more bitter than she had anticipated.

But her older brother's cold mockery and the glaring "zero score" reality of Class D left her no choice.

She closed her eyes.

This was not compromise, but necessary action.

To achieve the goal of ascending to Class A, some things could not be done alone.

The atmosphere in the library corner was somewhat heavy.

Kushida Kikyo's social skills were indeed not to be underestimated. A few precise "compliments,"

such as telling Sudo Ken, "Sudo-kun's basketball talent requires top-tier judgment; I'm sure you can break through in your studies too," and to Ike Kanji and Yamauchi Haruki, "Ike-kun and Yamauchi-kun are so loyal; you wouldn't watch your friends struggle alone, would you?"

finally brought the three resistant-looking boys to the chairs opposite Horikita Suzune.

Sudo Ken crossed his arms, his chair's front legs dangling and rocking, his gaze stubbornly fixed outside the window.

Ike Kanji and Yamauchi Haruki fidgeted restlessly, their fingertips tapping anxiously on their desks. The creases on their textbook covers revealed their inattentiveness.

"Alright, let's begin now!" Kushida clasped her hands together, her smile bright as she tried to ease the atmosphere. "Horikita-san is a top student in the grade; you'll definitely pass if you follow her!"

Horikita did not respond to this deliberately created warmth.

She silently opened the workbook.

"Starting with basic formulas." Her voice was steady, her pen tip landing on the math chapter. "Solving linear equations with one variable, for example—"

"Wait!" Yamauchi looked up abruptly, scratching his head in confusion. "O-one variable? What does that mean?"

Horikita's explanation halted.

She closed her eyes for half a second, and when she opened them, the fluctuation in her eyes had subsided. "It's an equation containing one unknown and with a maximum degree of one." Her pen tip left a mark on the scratch paper. "2x + 3 = 7, find x."

Ike Kanji stared intently at the formula, his pen almost bending. "x is... 3.5? No, that's not right... 2 times 3.5 is 7, and adding 3 makes it 10... but the right side is only 7?"

He clearly hadn't even grasped the basic logic of transposition.

Horikita's knuckles turned slightly white, and her gaze shifted to Sudo. The latter had his entire face buried in his arms, a muffled voice coming from within. "Don't look at me... I can't even recognize the alphabet."

The absurdity poured down like ice water, yet it didn't stir any waves.

The extreme lack of basic knowledge in the three before her formed a huge gap with her goal of ascending to Class A. Her older brother Horikita Manabu's mockery of the "Zero Score Class" echoed in her mind, and the feeling of bowing to Kushida still made her uncomfortable.

The words, "What right do you have to enroll?" almost escaped her lips, but she merely tightened her lips.

Strategic necessity, not emotional release—this realization gripped the surging disgust like a steel cable.

She had to find an effective method.

When she looked up again, her eyes were calm. "My judgment was flawed."

Turning to a somewhat surprised Kushida, her tone was unquestionable. "Find some first-year middle school math textbooks."

"The current situation..." Her gaze swept over the three of them. "We need to completely re-plan the teaching strategy from the very basics."

The tip of her pen left a deep mark on the blank page.

This line meant she had to thoroughly adjust her strategy and let go of unrealistic expectations.

The air grew heavy.

Ike Kanji's Adam's apple bobbed silently, Sudo Ken's fingernails dug into his palms, and Yamauchi Haruki instinctively hunched his shoulders.

What emanated from Horikita Suzune wasn't anger, but the oppressive feeling of calmly stating facts, and the clear risk of "expulsion" contained within was conveyed to the three of them.

They exchanged glances, understanding the consequences of resistance or perfunctory effort.

In the silence, the three lowered their heads and reluctantly opened the first page of their First Year Middle School textbooks.