My classmate Yukino is definitely crushing on me

Seeing her conflicted and hesitant expression, and recalling the candy she had given her that morning, Yukino finally realized something.

Miura was worried about her...?

She let out a helpless sigh, took Miura's hand, and led her downstairs. "Have a little faith in me too."

Miura, her hand held by Yukino as they walked forward, felt like she was walking on clouds.

Heart? What heart?

She felt her whole body heat up, light and airy, as if her soul was about to squeeze out of her body and into her head.

Something in her chest swelled, leaped, and surged, as if it would overflow from her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

She couldn't think about anything else anymore.

--Scary.

Scary, scary, scary, scary!

Such intense, terrifying emotions...

Yukino led a remarkably well-behaved Miura downstairs. When they reached the bulletin board, they saw a large crowd gathered around it.

She couldn't see anything, only hearing occasional exclamations of "Wow" or cries of "Ahhh" from the innermost part of the crowd.

At the same time, she noticed that as she approached, some people looked at her strangely, as if with a hint of admiration?

Was it because she was holding Miura's hand?

Yukino quickly let go, belatedly feeling a bit embarrassed.

In Japan, holding hands between girls was a very intimate gesture. She didn't feel anything about it, but perhaps Miura had been startled by her sudden action.

Thinking this, she turned and saw Miura beside her still looking somewhat dazed.

At this moment, the petite and cute Onozawa Kaho finally emerged from the crowd.

"Yukino Yukinoshita!"

She pushed through the crowd and ran up to Yukino, her face full of excitement and exhilaration, her eyes seeming to sparkle.

"Yukino Yukinoshita, you're second!!!"

Many people who were already paying attention to the area immediately looked over.

Onozawa excitedly grabbed Yukino's hand. "You're second in the entire school! That's amazing! How did you do it?"

Second?

Yukino was also a little surprised.

She originally thought she wouldn't be able to make it into the top three in her grade this time, and even pessimistically estimated she wouldn't make it into the top five.

Ono wouldn't stop talking like a machine gun, "The first place in the whole school is still Hasegawa, but that person is a prodigy specially recruited by Sobu High School. He's a monster who competes with monsters like Shijo Tei and Shirogane Miyuki, so he can be excluded from the ranks of ordinary humans, so he doesn't count!"

At Sobu High School, academic performance was a very, very, very important value orientation.

She excitedly shook Yukino's hand, "Rounding up, classmate Yukino got first place in the entire school after only a month of review. That's amazing, let me soak up some of your academic aura!"

Rounding up, one of humanity's greatest inventions.

Yukino remembered she had a side quest for first place in the whole school, right?

[System, can rounding up count as first place in the whole school?]

The system didn't respond.

Rounding up is the most useless invention in the world, bar none. Get lost.

Kamizawa, who had also squeezed in, speechlessly pulled Ono back. She saw Miura next to Yukino, looking bewildered about what had happened.

A bunch of useless teammates!

At times like this, it was naturally up to her.

Kamizawa let out a light cough and said casually, "In mathematics, classmate Yukino scored two points higher than Hasegawa. That's amazing!"

The main reason for saying this was to give a heads-up in advance, to prevent some people from deliberately spreading rumors that Yukino had cheated.

But it seemed Kamizawa didn't need to say much. The gazes from the surrounding crowd looking towards Yukino's side were all shining as if infected by Ono.

Those whispers, which had been mocked countless times by certain people in secret, "[Yukino is doing problems]", "[Yukino is memorizing words]", "[Yukino is doing practice tests]", now each sentence and sound had become proof that Yukino had indeed worked hard.

"So amazing..."

"I heard she only studied hard for over a month... Classmate Yukino, is she a genius?"

"Speaking of which, classmate Yukino hasn't been flirting with that guy for the past month, has she?"

"She's clearly getting serious now. Kouko and I bet that Yukino was just putting on an act that day. How mean!"

"Hehe, just forgive her. After all, Matsumoto, whom she likes, confessed to classmate Yukino and failed not long ago~"

"Classmate Yukino is smart and beautiful, and also super good at volleyball. If I were Matsumoto, I would definitely choose Yukino too."

Haruno Yukinoshita, a current university student who had just finished class, took out her phone to check a message and couldn't help but laugh.

In the chat page, there was only a screenshot of the ranking that had just been sent. Although there were no words, Yukino's smugness was almost overflowing the screen.

Haruno: [You're showing off about this? My grades haven't dropped from first place since high school!]

Yukino: [A fool who can't even recognize her own sister has the nerve to talk (smiling.jpg)]

She really wasn't going to let this go, huh?

Haruno thought for a moment and sent a message.

[After we got back from the banquet that day, did I say anything strange when I was drunk?]

The other side was probably busy, as it took a while for a reply:

[Yes, you said your head was messed up and asked me to be more considerate in the future.]

[Scram!]

Haruno put her phone back in her bag and sat back in her own sedan. Smiling at the driver, she said, "Yes, let's go to the company today."

She leaned her head back against the seat, closed her eyes, and rubbed her forehead, letting out a silent sigh.

As expected.

That night was just a dream.

Toyogasaki Academy.

Kasumigaoka yawned and slumped over her desk, ignoring the teacher's murderous gaze from the podium as she sent a message under the desk.

Anyway, she was first in the school mock exam again, so no matter how angry the teacher was, it would only result in a few nagging words.

[My foolish disciple, have your mock exam results come out yet?]

[If you're too embarrassed by your grades, don't cry in front of your teacher like a spoiled child (smiling.jpg)]

This childish back-and-forth with Yukinoshita always managed to amuse her so easily.

Although she was sharp-tongued, Kasumigaoka guessed that Yukinoshita should have done well this time. As Yukinoshita's private tutor, Kasumigaoka was very clear about her progress with the knowledge points this month.

She should be in the top forty of the grade, right?

But Yukinoshita would definitely not be satisfied with such results. Without saying it, that girl was incredibly arrogant. She would undoubtedly consider such significant progress a disgrace.

Kasumigaoka had even thought of how she would cope if Yukinoshita acted tsundere and stubbornly denied it.

The message she sent half an hour ago was finally replied to by the good student who absolutely never looked at her phone during class.

On the image sent over, Yukino Yukinoshita's second place ranking in the grade was very clear.

Kasumigaoka: ????????

This is unscientific!!!

Although she knew Yukino was both smart and diligent, it had only been a month. How was this possible?!

Yukino: [Next month's mock exam, I'll copy your happy hometown (smile.jpg)]

Kasumigaoka pursed her lips.

A sense of inexplicable panic and being caught off guard quickly struck Kasumigaoka.

Kasumigaoka would have been happy for Yukino if she had done well on the exam, but when Yukino did unexpectedly well, Kasumigaoka didn't feel as relaxed.

At this very moment, a terrible, dark thought flashed through her mind.

If only Yukino hadn't done so well this time...

Would Yukino, who had reached second place in the grade after a month of effort, still need a tutor?

Then, without this tutor as a bridge, she and Yukino would no longer have any reason to connect.

Wouldn't she then fall back into that twisted, tangled, painful swamp?

Compared to her former self, who needed medication to sleep, Kasumigaoka hated herself even more for having a mind full of dark thoughts like this.

Moreover.

Looking at it this way, wouldn't it seem as if she couldn't do without Yukino?

Perhaps it was Yukino's personal misperception, but she felt that since the results of the school's mock exam were announced, the atmosphere among most students at Sobu High School towards her had changed completely.

Not to mention anything else, it was very clear even within her own class.

Those classmates who, in the past, wouldn't even glance at her, as if afraid of getting something terrible on them, now looked at her as if she were some genius celebrity.

Yukino, who had studied abroad for several years, found this kind of emotion quite unfamiliar.

It could only be said that in the entire Greater Asian sphere, no matter how much they played the guise of "happy education," the deep-rooted tendency towards exam-centricity was truly ingrained.

Miura's good friend, Onozawa Kaho, even came over during break time, wanting to absorb some so-called spiritual energy from the genius.

Then she was pulled back by Junko Kamizawa with a dark expression and given a lecture.

Meanwhile, Yukino was still mentally reviewing possible points she might have lost on this exam. After going through the major questions for all five subjects in her mind, Yukino had to admit one fact: she hadn't given her all on this exam.

Except in front of her older sister, Yukino could be said to have always possessed a subtle, unspoken arrogance regarding her talent in academics.

Although she only had a month to prepare, she had also gained many mental attributes over the past month. If we're talking about thinking speed, knowledge acquisition speed, and memory capacity, she had improved several times over compared to before.

Even so, she was still nearly thirty points behind the top student in the grade in total score.

It was simply embarrassing.

Yukino Yukinoshita's expression was serious as she wrote the name Hasegawa Jutaro on her scratch paper.

Next time, she would definitely take back the school's first place from this person.

[System, System, can you reveal what the surprise reward for achieving the side quest [School First Place] is?]

The System, like an excellent ex-girlfriend, was as silent as death.

After quickly planning her study schedule for the next month, Yukino Yukinoshita couldn't help but glance at Miura at the next table.

She propped her forehead on her hand and looked at the lecturer, appearing to listen attentively, but Yukino Yukinoshita knew she was definitely spacing out.

Ever since the results were announced, she had been in this state, suppressing some kind of emotion.

Finally, school was over. As soon as Miura grabbed Yukino Yukinoshita's hand, she ran out of the classroom, a string of hushed exclamations following behind them.

The two stopped, slightly out of breath, behind a teaching building.

Miura grabbed Yukino Yukinoshita's shoulders, "Second place! Yukino Yukinoshita is second in the grade!!"

Huh?

Ms. Miura, you're only just realizing this now?

And you're emphasizing it so deliberately, it's really embarrassing. It's as if I just won the Nobel Prize.

Perhaps due to her excitement, Miura spoke extremely quickly, "That's great! That's great, Yukino Yukinoshita!! Now everyone will know how outstanding you are!!!"