"Hey, Sudo, why'd you sit back down?"
"We thought we'd get to leave early today." Ike and Yamauchi, seated beside Sudo, looked disappointed and complained unhappily.
"Shut up! You want me to beat you up?" Sudo had just sat down, and he was already seething. When he saw those two pushing their luck, he shoved a fist right in their faces. They hurriedly backed away, frightened, and returned to their seats.
"Tch, can't even say anything," Yamauchi muttered under his breath. His eyes drifted toward Honami Ichinose, who had come over with An Xiao, and visibly lit up.
"Ike, isn't that the girl from Class B standing next to that guy? The one with the chest..."
"Yamauchi, shouldn't we just focus on studying?"
As soon as Yamauchi got halfway through his sentence, Kikyo Kushida hurried over. She gazed at him with big, watery eyes and asked in a gentle voice.
"Haha, if little Kushida's asking me, then of course I'll study hard... And if you could teach me right here beside me, little Kushida, I might become a genius in no time!"
Kushida was leaning forward over the desk, looking at him with a pitiful expression. Yamauchi couldn't help letting his gaze wander downward. He immediately forgot what he'd been saying and started spouting nonsense without a second thought.
A little creepy... no, downright creepy.
An Xiao's mouth twitched.
Wasn't he the one who'd loudly made a scene about this at the swimming pool last time?
Did he really not care what anyone thought of him?
Or had his shamelessness reached a whole new level?
"Sorry, Yamauchi. There's something I'd like to discuss with An Xiao and Honami." Kushida kept her warm smile and spoke apologetically.
"Oh, I see... No worries, no worries. Go ahead, little Kushida." When he saw Kushida was about to leave, Yamauchi looked displeasedly at An Xiao standing nearby, then immediately turned back to Kushida with a smile.
"Then please wait a moment, Yamauchi," Kushida said with a smile. She then led An Xiao and Ichinose to a relatively quiet corner.
Horikita watched the scene, glancing at several of the Class D students before finally fixing her gaze on Kushida as she walked away. Her brows furrowed, but she said nothing, only moving her pen a little faster.
Meanwhile, Kushida bowed to An Xiao and Ichinose in thanks.
"Thank you so much for earlier. If it weren't for you, Sudo might have just left."
"No, no, I didn't do anything just now. It was all An Xiao," Ichinose said, waving her hands repeatedly.
"It was nothing. I only said a few things," An Xiao said, scratching his cheek awkwardly.
For some reason, An Xiao felt a strange sense of familiarity with the girl in front of him.
"But in the end, Sudo stayed, so I still have to thank you," Kushida said earnestly. Then, as if remembering something, she took out her phone and asked An Xiao, "Um, could we exchange contact information? After all, this is technically our second time meeting."
"Sure." An Xiao agreed readily. But after they'd exchanged contact information, he seemed to realize something and asked in surprise, "Wait, we've met before?"
At his question, Kushida's hand paused almost imperceptibly as she put her phone away. Then she smiled and said, "On the first day of school, at the entrance!"
"Sorry," An Xiao said with an embarrassed smile.
"It's fine, it's fine. We'd only just met then, after all." Kushida waved it off carelessly, then pointed toward the Class D study session. "I'll head back now. The study session still has to continue."
After thanking them once more, Kushida jogged back to her original seat.
Watching Kushida walk away, Honami Ichinose remarked with some feeling, "They're having a pretty hard time too."
"Some of them are, anyway."
"Then let's head back."
"Wait a moment. There's something I want to look up." An Xiao pointed to a machine in the corner that could be used to search for books.
"Then I'll wait for you."
An Xiao went over to the machine and operated it with practiced ease, but soon stopped.
"What's wrong? Can't you find it?" Ichinose leaned over curiously to see what book An Xiao was looking for. But when she saw the keywords he'd entered in the search bar, she froze.
Past first-year exam questions for every subject at Advanced Nurturing High School, with answers and explanations.
"Um... An Xiao, I don't think you should do that," Ichinose said after carefully choosing her words.
"What's wrong with it?" An Xiao asked, puzzled by her reaction.
Wasn't it perfectly normal to practice with last year's exam papers—or even papers from several years ago—before an exam?
In fact, at schools back home, it was practically standard practice.
So An Xiao didn't understand why Ichinose was hesitating.
"Though it's a shame..."
An Xiao stared at the blank search results and tried several different keywords, but in the end, he couldn't find so much as a single question, let alone a complete exam paper.
Would he have to ask Hoshinomiya-sensei after all?
Just thinking about that teacher, who was nine parts unserious out of ten, gave An Xiao a headache. He leaned over the machine, irritably running both hands up through his hair.
Ichinose had been about to say something, but when she saw An Xiao sweep up the hair that had hung over his brow for the past month, covering the upper half of his face, she froze.
"U-um, An Xiao, could you turn around for a moment?"
"Huh? What's wrong?" Though puzzled, An Xiao stopped what he was doing and turned to look at Ichinose in confusion.
"No, it's just..." Seeing An Xiao's hair fall back down, Ichinose suddenly didn't know what to say. Her hands fluttered helplessly in front of her chest. Then, in a burst of nervous energy, she reached out and brushed his hair up.
"What are you doing?" An Xiao was startled by Ichinose's sudden move and hurriedly backed away a few steps, but her hand clung to his hair as if it were glued there.
"You're... An Xiao, right?"
Looking at the unusually handsome boy in front of her, Ichinose sounded uncertain, but there was also a hint of inexplicable excitement in her voice. She couldn't help pinching his cheek a couple of times.
Then she seemed to remember something and quickly took a spare hair tie from her pocket. Holding it out in her palm, she asked An Xiao, "Do you want a hair tie? If you don't know how to use it, I can teach you."
An Xiao looked at the hair tie held out in front of him, then raised his eyes slightly. The corner of his mouth twitched.
Hey, hey, do you realize how blinding the light in your eyes is right now?
Before you continue