"Hehe, the miso soup is here~"
Wearing thick oven mitts, Honami carried over the steaming pot and joined everyone.
After setting it down, she tilted her head slightly.
"Is everyone getting along all right?"
"With Ichinose here, no one can stay mad, even if they want to."
Sakayanagi's expression didn't change as she gently complimented Honami.
It was just a few words, after all. No harm in it.
Kamuro was already numb to it all.
"Sakayanagi can call Makoto by his first name now, so why do you still call me Ichinose?"
Honami pouted slightly as she voiced her dissatisfaction.
Makoto, who found the scene oddly familiar, ladled a big spoonful of soup into his bowl.
A little something to whet his appetite first.
"Careful, it's hot."
Honami hurriedly warned him when she saw what he was doing.
Did she think he was three years old?
Makoto gave her an odd look and blew on the bowl. It wasn't as if he had a mouth of steel or an iron esophagus.
He was an ordinary carbon-based life-form.
And as everyone knew,
carbon-based life-forms didn't do well with high temperatures.
"Hehe, Honami really is adorable~"
Sakayanagi giggled at the sight and gave Kamuro a look.
Kamuro understood and ladled a big spoonful of soup into Sakayanagi's bowl, then a small one into her own.
She preferred rice, after all.
"Yeah. But sometimes, she can be pretty bold, too."
Kei nodded. The two of them had been making out right in front of her at lunchtime.
She was jealous.
But she planned to take things slowly, since she didn't have the decade-plus head start Honami did.
She knew that haste made waste.
"The way she acted just now was like a newlywed wife in a TV show. Your relationship is really enviable."
Kushida could understand why Makoto had fallen for Honami.
Putting herself in his shoes, she thought she'd have fallen for her, too.
With a childhood friend like that, what regrets could you have in life, barring some unexpected disaster?
Makoto would say there were nothing but regrets.
Having the ability to do something and choosing not to use it was foolish. Knowing what would happen and not even trying to change it—
He couldn't forgive himself for that.
"Oh, stop it. If you say things like that, even I'll get embarrassed~"
Honami took off her mitts and covered her faintly reddened cheeks.
She was so happy~
She moved to Makoto's other side and traced the edge of the soup in his bowl with her spoon.
The soup was cooler where it touched the bowl, so it was just right to drink.
Honami brought the spoon to her lips and closed her eyes in contentment.
"Oh, right. I've got copies of the actual questions from the next exam. Does anyone want one?"
As if something had just occurred to him, Makoto got up and took a stack of papers from the cabinet beside his bed. He waved them up and down casually.
Some upperclassmen had recently given them to him for free.
He spent a lot of time with Kiryuin-senpai, so when the midterm exams drew near as expected, the upperclassmen had eagerly presented him with the papers, complete with answer keys.
Makoto thought they were worrying over nothing. Did Kiryuin-senpai seem like the sort of person who'd care about something like that?
She couldn't care less.
Still, they'd gone to the trouble of helping him, so he'd accepted them without hesitation.
Now, he could do them a favor by passing them along.
"You actually have something like that?"
Kei looked surprised. She took the papers Makoto handed her and examined them closely, but clearly had no idea what she was looking at.
"Yeah. According to the upperclassmen, they use the same test every year for the first-year midterms. It's practically a tradition."
Makoto said it casually. Honami and Sakayanagi gave him strange looks.
Their expressions seemed to say, "Did the upperclassmen really tell you that?"
"Hey, what's with those looks? Do I seem like the kind of person who'd lie about something like this?"
Makoto's face darkened. He'd known about the actual exam papers for a while, but the upperclassmen really had told him about them, too.
So if you looked at it one way, it was basically the same as them telling him.
No problem, right~
Kushida, Kei, and Kamuro tilted their heads, all looking confused.
Wasn't this a good thing? Why was Makoto saying that?
And what exactly had Sakayanagi and Honami found out?
Kushida's instincts kicked in.
She kept a perfectly composed expression, but inside, she was agonizing over it.
She should've asked more last night.
Though Honami hadn't seemed like she'd tell her.
Seeing the two of them with their inexplicably smug-looking expressions made Kushida feel a little strange.
This secret might just be the most valuable piece of information she'd ever collect.
"No, thanks. This time, I'm going to get through it on my own merits."
Kei ultimately turned him down.
For someone whose academic ability had been rated D-minus on her entrance evaluation, that was real progress.
"Then I'll gladly take them, Makoto~"
Kushida accepted the papers with a beaming smile. She planned to use them to improve her standing in the class.
No one ever minded having too many bargaining chips.
"You could tell everyone in class about these papers two days before the exam. That should give even the students in Class D a decent boost over that time."
Makoto offered the suggestion in good faith. He figured Kushida would come up with the idea herself anyway.
It was only a matter of time.
"Mm-hmm."
Kushida glanced at Kei, who didn't seem to mind.
For some reason, it left a bitter taste in her mouth, but she still accepted the good advice.
Why did she suddenly feel like she'd dropped a rank?
"Then, Honami, do you want one, too?"
"Since it's a gift from you, Makoto, I'll take it."
Honami accepted the papers openly and put them in her bag.
Making the actual exam papers public to her class would solidify her standing in Class A. Why wouldn't she?
Besides, Makoto had handed them to her himself.
She liked that~
"Will Class B be all right?"
Sakayanagi brought it up. Three people there were from Class A, two were from Class D, and Makoto was the only one from Class B.
"I'll tell my classmates the day before the exam."
Class B was different from Class D. A day would be plenty of time for them to look everything over. They weren't memorizing answers, just learning the key points, so they'd get through it quickly.
Class A, of course, was the same.
As for Class C... Makoto had heard Ryuen thought academic ability was worthless, so he wasn't going to worry about them.
"Everyone, let's eat first. It's cooled down enough."
Honami called the others, who'd just stood up, back to their seats.
They'd all gathered here to eat. They could deal with the exam papers later!
"She's right. I'm starving."
Makoto obligingly plopped down beside Honami, picked up a hefty chunk of meat with his chopsticks, and popped it into his mouth in the blink of an eye, chewing heartily.
No one objected. Everyone quietly sat in their seats and finished the meal.
They all knew better than to talk while eating.
Question: According to the official ratings, Sakayanagi Arisu has A in academic ability and A in intelligence; Horikita Suzune has A in academic ability and A-minus in intelligence; and Ichinose Honami has B-plus in academic ability and A in intelligence.
So, who ranked first on the entrance exam?
Before you continue