Final Exams Begin, and Sakayanagi Arisu Has a Backup Plan / A Busy Night and Kushida's Invitation
After taking control of Class C, Ryuen Kakeru seized all power and, unlike Ibuki who used to enjoy discussing things with everyone, kept every plan to himself, unknown to anyone else.
"That's good."
"Then, please leave."
Katsuragi Kohei got up to see the guest off. Although he had collaborated with Ryuen again, the two had never been friends.
395
Chapter 395 Final Exam Begin, Sakayanagi Arisu Plan.
As we approached mid-December, the long-awaited Final Exam finally arrived.
As the final exam of the semester, this is not only an important assessment of everyone's learning progress, but now, with the addition of special rules, it has also become a major battleground between classes. After all, the rules are simple: it's about comparing scores.
During our student days, this was the most common and simplest form of competition.
The Final Exam are held over two days. The first day's subjects are Modern Literature, English, Japanese history, and mathematics. The second day's subjects are social studies, physics, biology, and chemistry. After the Final Exam, winter break will not begin until the end of December.
After finishing his morning run, Hashiba Hikaru entered the classroom of Class A of the First Year. He found the atmosphere inside to be quite tense. After all, even if everyone is well-prepared for such a large-scale exam, they will still feel a little uneasy when they actually face it.
"Light, you've come!"
Ichinose Honami greeted her boyfriend with a beaming smile. Although it was exam day, she had spent the night in Hashiba Hikaru's dorm, and a rosy glow still lingered on her face.
"Um."
Sitting in their seats, Hashiba Hikaru and everyone else waited for the exam to begin. The students in Class A of the First Year all knew that the exam they were about to take was made by the students in Class D, and they were all very curious about how difficult it would be.
It's eight o'clock; the exam is about to begin.
The first bell is the preparatory bell, which reminds everyone to put away all their review books and materials. There are many lockers at the back of the classroom, and everyone should put all their things there.
The only things allowed on the desk are pencils and erasers, etc., for writing.
After the preparatory bell rang, Chie Hoshinomiya approached the classroom. Today, she was wearing a rather dignified teacher's uniform. Standing on the podium, she began distributing the test papers. Whenever it was time for an exam, this somewhat eccentric teacher would become serious.
"We are now beginning the first subject of the Final Exam, Modern Literature. Please do not turn the exam paper to the front after receiving it. You may only turn the paper after you hear the bell signaling the start of the exam."
After receiving the exam papers, everyone remained silent. Talking was strictly prohibited; everyone could only stare at the back of the papers, trying their best to concentrate.
Soon the bell rang, announcing the start of the exam, and everyone immediately picked up their pens and began the tense process of answering the questions.
After Hashiba Hikaru turned the test paper over, he didn't start with the first question, but quickly scanned through all the questions.
As the first exam paper, this can help the students grasp the question-setting tendencies of Class D, or rather, the selection criteria for difficult questions.
Because this exam requires the combined score of two people working together, Hashiba Hikaru was confident that she could get a high score, but her partner Shiranami Chihiro's score was only so-so. After a relatively long period of review and preparation, her academic performance had made great progress.
According to the rules of the Final Exam, each person needs to take exams in eight subjects, with a total score of 800. If a pair of students is to score above the average, according to Hoshinomiya-sensei, they need to score at least 700 points.
This isn't a particularly strict rule, and Hashiba Hikaru is quite confident about it.
After reviewing all the questions, the boy finally began to answer them seriously. The exam time for each subject was not long, but for Hashiba Hikaru, whose grades had always been very good, he encountered almost no obstacles in answering the questions and progressed smoothly.
As a class that had been working hard to review from the very beginning, the students in Class A of the First Year did not show too much tension during the break between the first day of the exam. In fact, since most students answered the questions quite smoothly, they seemed quite relaxed.
In contrast to the relaxed atmosphere here, the atmosphere in Class D of the First Year, their opponent, was slightly tense.
Apart from a few people who consistently achieved good grades, many others looked rather grim.
After all, this set of test papers was created by Ichinose Honami and her classmates with a lot of effort. Not only did it meet the school's requirements in terms of difficulty, but more importantly, it contained many tricky questions, which could easily lead to mistakes if one was not careful.
During the break before the English exam, Kushida Kikyo glanced at Horikita Suzune sitting in the back row. She had received several tutoring sessions in Hashiba Hikaru's dormitory, and this time the short-haired girl had to give it her all.
Horikita Suzune naturally understood the significance of this English exam. She was still reviewing her books during the final break, which showed how seriously she took the exam. No one wants to lose an exam, especially since the girl had two bets to play.
As time passed, the first day of exams quickly came to an end.
After Chie Hoshinomiya announced the end of the exam, every student in Class A finally breathed a sigh of relief. After all, exams require maintaining concentration for a long time, which is not an easy task.
"Then please get some rest, everyone. There's still one more day of exams tomorrow, so you can make the most of your time to review tonight."
After collecting the test papers, the young female teacher turned and walked out of the classroom.
Hashiba Hikaru watched the other person's retreating figure, she felt a surge of anticipation for the final results to be revealed; she figured there would be plenty of entertainment to watch then.
The classroom door of Class B of the First Year.
After the first day of exams, Sakayanagi Arisu was about to leave the classroom with Kamuro Masumi when they were stopped by Katsuragi Kohei.
"Is there something you need, Katsuragi?"
The silver-haired girl smiled knowingly and asked the other person what they thought.
"I want to ask Classmate Sakayanagi, if our Class B fails this exam, will you take responsibility?"
"Of course, after all, I'm the class representative, and I'll take responsibility if we really lose the exam."
Sakayanagi Arisu nodded slightly.
I hope you can keep your word.
After giving the other person a deep look, Katsuragi Kohei quickly left the classroom.
"Is this alright?"
After he left, Kamuro, who was standing behind Sakayanagi, asked.
"Of course, no problem. After all, he will never discover my backup plan. Just wait and see, Masumi- kun."
"... OK."
396
Chapter 396 A busy night, Kushida's appointment.
After the first day of Final Exam, the atmosphere at school briefly relaxed. Although there was another day of exams tomorrow, the streets of the Keyaki Mall were still bustling in the afternoon.
As a class with a significant advantage, Ichinose Honami plans to hold a study session tonight at Hashiba Hikaru's dorm. Besides studying, she also seems to want to buy some snacks and drinks, intending to treat everyone to a relaxing evening.
"Hikari, what do you think of this? I think everyone will like it, right?"
A pink-haired girl, holding a bag of salt and pepper potato chips, asked her boyfriend behind her a question.
"I think it's great! I've heard this flavor has received a lot of positive reviews, and I think everyone will love it."
Hashiba Hikaru wasn't a big fan of snacks, but since it was a group gathering, he couldn't just leave empty-handed, so he went to the supermarket with the girl, just as she wanted.
"Okay, then I'll buy more. We can store any leftovers."
Ichinose Honami Hashiba Hikaru wandered aimlessly, preoccupied with many worries, whether it was the Student Council or other matters, none of which were easy to handle.
As they reached the corner of the shopping shelves, Ichinose Honami immediately lunged towards a snack shelf, while Hashiba Hikaru discovered that she had received a text message from someone.
"Didn't I tell her I was busy these past two days? Why is she texting me now?"
Feeling somewhat helpless, Hashiba Hikaru took out her phone and opened her chat with the other person.
Kushida Kikyo: Are you free tonight? I want to see you.
Hashiba Hikaru: I'm having a study session with my classmates in the dorm today, and Honami might be staying overnight, so I don't have time to go over.
Kushida Kikyo: Does she have to stay overnight?
He looked up at the pink-haired girl putting snacks into her shopping cart, then continued typing his reply.
Hashiba Hikaru: We'll most likely be staying overnight. We're shopping at the supermarket; we bought a lot of things today.
Kushida Kikyo: Is there no way to solve this? I really wanted to see you today.
"..."
Looking at the text message sent by the other party, Hashiba Hikaru sighed. This was the downside of wanting everything. Because he wanted to satisfy everyone, he had to control everyone's schedule. Once a conflict arose, things would become very troublesome.
Touching his chin, the boy was caught in a dilemma. After all, he needed to spend time with his girlfriend first, and making up an excuse wouldn't be appropriate, since she was also important to him.
"Hikari, what are you thinking about?"
When Ichinose Honami was pushing a shopping cart, saw Hashiba Hikaru spacing out, she ran over with a grin and took his hand.
"I'm just thinking about tomorrow's exam. Has Honami made his choice yet?"
"Okay, let's go pay the bill."
Pointing to her nearly full shopping cart, the pink-haired girl said that this shopping trip was very enjoyable. There were quite a lot of people tonight, so she bought a lot more.
After paying, Hashiba Hikaru swiped his student ID. As he walked out of the supermarket carrying two large bags, Ando Sayo and Himeno Yuki appeared in front of them.
"Classmate Hashiba, and Ichinose, could we change the location for today's study session?"
Ando proposed a new solution, which suddenly brightened up Hashiba Hikaru's eyes, who had been struggling with her decision.
"What's wrong?"
Ichinose Honami looked at the other person with some confusion.
"Since Shiranami wants to study in her dorm today, why don't we go to her place instead..."
Ando glanced at Hashiba Hikaru before continuing to explain to Ichinose Honami, "What are your thoughts Ichinose?"
"Well..."
Ichinose Honami received a subtle hint from Ando: ever since Shiranami Chihiro's confession was rejected by the girl, she had started to intentionally control how often she appeared in the group, and even rarely went to Hashiba Hikaru's dormitory.
The reasons couldn't be explained too much, since revealing these things would only put Shiranami Chihiro a difficult position. Ando and Ichinose Honami both understood the depth of the situation and could only nod with wry smiles.
"Alright then, let's go study at Chihiro-chan's dorm today. It's all the same wherever we go."
Ichinose Honami glanced at her boyfriend.
"That's settled then, let's wrap this up early for today."
Hashiba Hikaru smiled; it was truly a wonderful coincidence.
If we're having a study session at Shiranami Chihiro's dorm today, the chances of Ichinose Honami staying overnight at her dorm will be greatly reduced, because the girls are very likely to switch directly from the study session to the Girls' Gathering, which has happened frequently before.
"Uh-huh."
After the group gathered at Shiranami Chihiro's dormitory, just as Hashiba Hikaru had predicted, the study session ended at seven o'clock. Then, the girls naturally began their Girls' Gathering' nighttime chat, and the boys had to leave.
After greeting Ichinose Honami, Hashiba Hikaru left Shiranami Chihiro's dormitory. He declined Shibata's suggestion to go with him and went back into the elevator after they left.
Chat interface.
Hashiba Hikaru: I'll be right there.
Kushida Kikyo: I'm ready, come on over.
She skillfully arrived at the door of Kushida Kikyo's dormitory. Almost at the same time, the door opened, and a fragrant breeze wafted into Hashiba Hikaru's nose.
"Hikaru-kun, come in quickly~"
"Then let me in first."
Hashiba Hikaru put her arm around the girl's waist, quickly went inside, and closed the door.
Back in the familiar place, he looked at Kushida Kikyo's pretty face and asked softly, "What's wrong today? Did you not do well on your exam?"
"... I guess so. I feel like I didn't answer one question correctly, and I might actually lose to that woman, Horikita."
The short-haired girl nestled into Hashiba Hikaru's arms, tightly hooking her arms around his waist.
"There's nothing we can do about it. Since it's a competition of scores, this kind of situation is bound to happen."
Hashiba Hikaru knew that Kushida Kikyo's hostility towards Horikita Suzune was not something that could be easily changed.
"Are you going to take her side again?"
Kushida Kikyo nudged him with her head in a muffled motion.
"I didn't even say my name, does that even count?"
Hashiba Hikaru gently stroked Kushida Kikyo's back and said softly, "It's okay if you really lose. I believe Horikita- san won't reveal your secret."
How can you guarantee that?
The girl looked up, her gaze fixed intently into his eyes.
"Uh... she's my partner, she trusts me a lot."
"Hmph, such a lame excuse. I bet you just want to add that woman Horikita to your harem so she'll listen to you!"