Chapter 17

First Semester: Chapter 16. Library Encounter! Was Ichinose thinking about something strange? After returning to his dorm, Yuan Yuyuan couldn't wrap his head around it. It wasn't that he hadn't noticed Ichinose's slip of the tongue, but he felt that such a strange word choice would only make things awkward for both of them. How did they even end up talking about marriage? He had stopped being self-conscious for a long time (two whole days), but Ichinose... she definitely had feelings for him, right! After figuring this out, Yuan Yuyuan left satisfied, pulled out a novel, and began reading it absent-mindedly. Could this be the legendary mutual attraction? Honami really was a shy child; as a man, he should be more proactive, but it just felt wrong somehow. At this moment, a famous quote surfaced in Yuan Yuyuan's mind: "Effort doesn't guarantee success, but giving up is always easy." The scene of his over-self-consciousness felt like it happened just the day before yesterday, so he decided to forget it. It was better to keep such thoughts to himself; if he actually acted on them and Ichinose didn't mean it that way... Yuan Yuyuan lost the will to live just thinking about it.

In the blink of an eye, over half a month had passed. Yuan Yuyuan gradually grew tired of his routine of moving between the dorm, the classroom, and the Student Council. For Class B, this test that had started since enrollment had completely become an open-book exam, and the remaining ten days were nothing but garbage time. During this period, Yuan Yuyuan also took the opportunity to learn about the people in other classes who required attention. First and foremost was the bald Katsuragi, who shared power over Class A with Sakayanagi Arisu. He was a typical honor student who only thought about holding onto Class A's position to get through his three years of high school; his desire to attack was basically zero, and he looked like a character who couldn't defeat that female devil. Then there was the red-haired delinquent Ryuen Kakeru, who had successfully turned Class C into his own personal fiefdom through violent means. He was the polar opposite of Katsuragi and often sent his subordinates to harass Class A and Class B. There were also Yosuke Hirata and Kushida Kikyo, who held significant influence among the opposite sex in Class D thanks to their outstanding appearances and "good guy" personalities. However, Yuan Yuyuan was skeptical about this; even if the two were just inferior substitutes for Ichinose, they shouldn't have fallen to the level of Class D, not to mention that both had advantages that Ichinose lacked, so there was likely a significant hidden story there.

"So boring. Why doesn't this school have incidents like bullying to deal with? I actually have to spend another ten days living like this." Yuan Yuyuan sat at the desk and complained to Ichinose, who had already become his secretary. "You shouldn't say things like that. If others hear you, it will cause a bad influence." After spending so many days together, Ichinose seemed to have forgotten what happened before, though she became increasingly distracted while working, watching Yuan Yuyuan bow his head to process documents. With Ichinose's tacit approval, Class B had formed a situation where Yuan Yuyuan handled external affairs and Ichinose handled internal ones. Though, since the start of school, the only external affair had been Yuan Yuyuan selling information to Class D. "It's just the two of us here, and these documents don't have any nutritional value at all. I don't want to be stifled into a poker-faced sis-con." "Umm, Yuyuan, just bear with it. It will get busy once this month passes, probably?" Amidst Yuan Yuyuan's complaints and Ichinose's soothing, the two finished the Student Council's business and headed to the cafeteria as usual. Other students were already long accustomed to seeing this handsome man and beautiful woman together all day.

Afterward, Yuan Yuyuan lay on his bed and suddenly discovered the book he had borrowed from the library a while ago was still on his nightstand. It seemed to be long overdue, but because the Student Council work was so busy, he only wanted to lie in the dorm during his free time, making a trip to the library a bit of a chore. However, Yuan Yuyuan decided to change himself! After more than two weeks, he returned to the library. With the intention of not letting it be overdue again, he decided not to borrow any more books and simply picked one up to find a spot to kill time. "Excuse me, may I sit here?" The person who arrived was a girl with an elegant temperament, silver hair, and purple eyes. Yuan Yuyuan squinted to observe her. Seeing that there weren't many people around and no necessity for her to sit there, he still smiled and nodded at the girl in front of him. "Please, feel free." "Thank you. I am Shiina Hiyori from Class 1-C. Please treat me well." "Yuan Yuyuan from Class 1-B. Please treat me well." Shiina Hiyori blinked, seemingly at a loss for how to handle the situation, but she gathered her courage and asked, "Does Yuan-kun like reading mystery novels?" "It's alright. I'm quite interested in that area, though I might have just grabbed a book to kill time." "That's not true. I say that because I saw Yuan-kun borrow a mystery novel before, and now you are reading The Maltese Falcon."

She was truly meticulous. In that case, had he simply found a kindred spirit? Yuan Yuyuan decided to take the initiative to open the conversation: "Last time? Does that mean Shiina-san comes to the library to read every day?" "Yes, because I have loved reading mystery novels since I was a child, so I noticed you after you came here." It was a reason with absolutely no loopholes. If it were fabricated, it would be a huge waste to use such a smart child to scout for information. Yuan Yuyuan felt increasingly shaken—could it really just be a coincidence? "Originally, I hoped to chat with you, Yuan-kun, but because of... some personal reasons, it didn't happen. You haven't come to the library for so long, did something happen... I'm sorry, I was too abrupt." Halfway through, Shiina Hiyori felt that such a question might be prying into personal privacy, but because she had almost no friends, she found it difficult to control the sense of distance between people. "Don't take it to heart. There were just too many trivial matters in the Student Council, which made it hard for me to get away recently." "Did you join the Student Council, Yuan-kun? That's a pity. I was hoping we could exchange thoughts on reading if you had time." "It's fine. It's just that the President often pushes work onto me. I'll just have a word with him later."

This way, he could use the excuse of dealing with spies from other classes to push all the work onto that tsundere sis-con, and then tell Shiina that he tried his best but couldn't escape the exploitation of the President, that devil. This way, he could rest in the dorm for a while. Shiina-san had been a huge help! "Really? That's great! Because I have always hoped to have a book friend." "It's my honor. However, I'm very sorry, I came to the library to kill time while waiting for someone, so I have to go now. Let's chat next time." Yuan Yuyuan still felt that picking up girls in the library was too much like a novel plot, so he decided to leave Shiina alone for now. If his judgment was wrong, he would just have to apologize to her... in his heart, of course. "I see, that can't be helped." "Let's exchange contact information. That way, you can let me know in advance if you have time, okay?" Yuan Yuyuan really couldn't handle Shiina's watery eyes and ultimately chose to give up resistance, exchanging contact information with her.

First Semester: Chapter 17. A Test for Reference Only. Before he knew it, only two days remained in the first month. Yuan Yuyuan was still living his dull life as usual, except for the fact that Shiina-san would occasionally invite him to read together—even though he had said "next time" every time. It seemed Shiina was indeed a social klutz. On the last class of the morning, Hoshinomiya was acting as she usually did, as if she had picked up...