Watching a Movie in the Exam Hall Is Perfectly Normal

The tail end of April carried a slightly chilly breeze that made one's heart itch with restlessness.

Shangguan Che sat in the classroom early in the morning, habitually activating his Clairvoyance skill to scan the activity throughout the school building.

He didn't know what he would find until he looked, but he saw a mountain of test papers piled up in the office, with the cover of the top stack printed with the words "April Quiz."

What was even more coincidental was that his eyesight was too good; while sweeping over the desk, he accidentally caught a glimpse of the answer sheet pressed beneath the papers.

No way, does this count as intelligence "delivered to my doorstep"? Shangguan Che muttered to himself, his fingers tapping the desk unconsciously. But the school hides its documents like they're state secrets; who knows if this test is the legendary "Special Exam." If I mess this up and get expelled, that would be a disaster.

Shangguan Che pondered for a long time and decided to observe the situation in the class first.

Sudo was still slumped over his desk catching up on sleep, Ike and Yamauchi were huddled together chatting about last night's game, and even the few students who were usually somewhat diligent didn't show the slightest sign of nervousness.

It seems highly likely that this isn't a Special Exam. Shangguan Che let out a sigh of relief. If it really involved class points or expulsion, the school would be trying to make this group explode. Besides, with the grades Sudo and the others have, if we went by university failure standards, how could only a few people be expelled from the second and third years?

Having figured this out, Shangguan Che took advantage of the break to secretly copy a few math problems and English reading answers that were prone to errors onto a slip of paper and stuffed it into Sakura's hand.

"Sakura, take this. In case these questions show up, just consider it a preview," Shangguan Che said, lowering his voice, his eyes darting around as if he were doing something illicit.

Sakura froze for a moment, taking the note, her fingertips feeling slightly warm. "Shangguan-kun, this is..."

"Don't overthink it. It's just that when I was doing problems yesterday, I felt like these might be on the test, so I organized them for you to look at." Shangguan Che quickly made an excuse and turned to slip away, afraid that Sakura might press him for more.

As for Karuizawa Kei, Shangguan Che didn't dare to deliver the answers to her personally. It wasn't that he feared rejection, but rather because he had "accidentally" seen a confession scene worthy of a TV drama using his Clairvoyance.

That night, Shangguan Che had intended to see what Karuizawa was doing in the dormitory, only to find her pulling Hirata to the end of the hallway, her eyes red and her voice sounding like she was on the verge of tears (or so Shangguan Che surmised).

Hirata frowned, his face full of concern.

Karuizawa shook her head, and tears fell.

Finally, after a few seconds of hesitation, Hirata nodded gently.

Shangguan Che was shocked on the spot. No way, this looks exactly like a confession, but isn't it too sudden? Shouldn't this be the kind of scene that only happens after years of knowing each other and experiencing life and death? How can they just be together like that?

To confirm, Shangguan Che even specifically asked Hirata on his phone: [Hirata, do you have a girlfriend?]

A few minutes later, Hirata replied: [Is something the matter, Shangguan-kun?]

Shangguan Che had a flash of inspiration and replied: [Nothing much, just that someone else asked me to check. Don't worry, the person is female in both mind and gender.]

Soon, Hirata's message arrived: [Then please apologize to her for me; I already have a girlfriend.]

[OK.]

As it turned out, it didn't take long for the whole class to know that Hirata and Karuizawa were dating.

Watching the gossiping eyes of his classmates, Shangguan Che exclaimed internally: This news spreads way too fast—faster than me using Clairvoyance!

Later, he handed the answers to Hirata, asking him to pass them on to Karuizawa. When Hirata received the answers, he asked suspiciously, "Shangguan-kun, why don't you give the answers to the whole class?"

Shangguan Che had anticipated he would ask this, so he immediately put on a pitiful expression and, draping an arm around Hirata, said, "Hirata, it's because I don't even know if these answers are correct!

I just secretly asked a senior for them; who knows if they're accurate.

If they're wrong and you tell everyone, I'll definitely be mocked by the whole class, and I'll suffer social death. I don't want that!

Please, don't tell anyone else."

Seeing his pathetic state, Hirata softened. "Alright then, I won't tell anyone else."

"I knew you were the best!" Shangguan Che immediately beamed and patted Hirata on the shoulder. "I know you want to ask me why I gave them to Karuizawa, go ahead."

Sure enough, Hirata followed his lead and asked, "Why is that?"

"Because you and I are best friends, aren't we?" Shangguan Che said, lightly bumping his fist against Hirata's shoulder. "Isn't helping a best friend's girlfriend the natural thing to do?"

Hirata's eyes widened in shock. "How did you know I was dating Karuizawa?!"

Shangguan Che grumbled internally: Shouldn't you have asked when we became best friends first? You're focusing on the wrong thing.

But on the surface, he acted very calm. "Basically everyone in the class knows, so don't dwell on it. Hurry up and give the answers to Karuizawa; class is about to start."

Hirata finally snapped out of it, took the note, and hurried away.

The third period was Social Studies with the homeroom teacher, Chabashira Sae. As soon as the bell rang, Chabashira-sensei walked into the classroom carrying a stack of test papers, her face expressionless and as stern as usual.

Hirata was the first to raise his hand, voicing the question on everyone's mind: "Sensei, are we having a test?"

"Yes, since the end of the month is here, we are having a quiz." Chabashira-sensei handed the papers to the student in the first row. "Pass them to the back."

The papers were passed back one by one, and the atmosphere in the class instantly grew tense.

At this moment, another student raised their hand and asked, "Sensei, is this quiz a Special Exam?"

Chabashira-sensei lifted her eyelids, and the corners of her mouth actually curled up slightly. Although it returned to normal quickly, it was still captured by Shangguan Che.

"This test will only serve as a reference for the future and will not be reflected on your report cards." She paused and continued, "There is no risk, so don't worry. However, cheating is strictly prohibited, of course."

Watching Chabashira-sensei's rare smile, Shangguan Che felt puzzled. This smile is too strange. Is she in a good mood because this test isn't important? Or is there something fishy behind this quiz? It couldn't be that she likes Hirata and is smiling at him, could it?

The more he thought about it, the more interesting it seemed. Come to think of it, Hirata is indeed handsome and has a good personality. Could Chabashira-sensei be into younger men? Haha, just kidding, she doesn't look like the type to engage in a teacher-student romance.

Suddenly, Shangguan Che remembered that at the start of the school year, Chabashira-sensei had said that a homeroom teacher would lead a class for three years.

Does moving up a grade benefit the homeroom teacher? Just as this thought popped up, the test papers being passed from the front interrupted his train of thought.

Forget it, why think so much? Let's just take the test first. Shangguan Che picked up his pen and began to answer the questions seriously.

Twenty minutes later, he checked his test paper over, then began to let his mind wander: "Actually, the way Chabashira smiled might just have been a simple smile, nothing special. Yeah, that must be it."

Shangguan Che activated Clairvoyance and swept a glance over the surrounding students.

Sakura was sitting to his left, head down and focused on her test, so he couldn't see her paper; Hirata in front was nearly finished, living up to his reputation as a top student; Karuizawa's progress was average, so it seemed the answers he provided had come in handy.

Shangguan Che took the opportunity to check on the other classes, finding that everyone was taking the exam seriously, with not a single person cheating.

"I was actually hoping to see what the punishment for cheating was; how boring," Shangguan Che muttered, curling his lip.

By the time he handed in his test paper, his mind was still replaying clips from the movie he'd watched that morning; he had almost cried when the protagonist died at the end.

Walking out of the exam hall, Sakura hurried to catch up with him and asked in a low voice, "Shangguan, did you find this quiz difficult?"

"It was alright, not too hard," Shangguan Che said with a smile. "How about you? Were there any questions you couldn't do?"

Sakura nodded, then shook her head: "Most of them weren't as hard as the problems you had me do, Shangguan. I understood all of those."

"That's good, you'll definitely get a good grade," Shangguan Che said, patting her on the shoulder. "Come on, let's head back to the classroom; we're going to the cafeteria together later anyway."

He hadn't even realized it himself, but without knowing it, he had grown accustomed to studying and eating with Sakura. This simple, warm daily routine made him feel that life at this Advanced Nurturing High School wasn't actually all that bad.