A Sudden Little Test

"Everyone, quiet down."

As soon as she entered, Chabashira-sensei shouted at the Class D students.

"Little Sae, with a temper that hot, you must be on your period."

But Chabashira-sensei ignored Yamauchi's verbal teasing. After scanning the room, she said:

"It's the end of the month. Today's a quiz. Pass the test papers back."

"What, a test? You never mentioned it!"

"Yeah, sensei, you didn't give us any notice."

Listening to the students' chatter below, Chabashira-sensei let out a light laugh and said:

"This test is just for future reference; it won't reflect on your report cards. Of course, no cheating!"

After receiving his test paper, Takahashi gave it a quick look. One subject per section, five subjects total, twenty questions, each worth five points, for a full score of one hundred. He skimmed the questions—effortless.

Before half the time was up, Takahashi had already answered everything. He set down his pen, stretched his hands, closed his eyes, and shook his head, thinking to himself:

I didn't notice those last three questions were on a completely different difficulty level from the ones before. But for me, it's all the same, heh.

Chabashira-sensei caught Takahashi's movement and fixed her gaze on him. Takahashi noticed her stare, propped his chin on one hand, tilted his head up slightly, blinked at her, then smiled. She looked away, ending the exchange.

"Takahashi, wanna hang out after school?"

Takahashi put down his phone and looked up at Ike, who was speaking to him.

"Sorry, I've got something to do after school."

"What is it? I'll let you in on a secret—little Kushida's coming too. Hanging out with a cute girl like that is bound to be impressive. You sure you don't want to join?"

"I'd love to, but unfortunately, I really do have something important to do after school."

"Alright then, I guess it'll just be me, Sudo, Yamauchi, Ayanokouji, and little Kushida going out."

"Have fun."

After Ike walked away, Takahashi opened his phone. The screen showed a conversation with Shiina about meeting at the library to discuss their thoughts on a mystery novel.

After school, Takahashi hurried to the library. Shiina was already waiting there, with a copy of The Hell of Brains on the table. They exchanged smiles and dove into a lively discussion. Shiina brought up a unique viewpoint—that the protagonist had been in a dream from the very start, and all his experiences were illusions. Takahashi praised her insight highly.

When the discussion ended, Shiina said she'd stay at the library to browse other mystery novels and would recommend any good ones to Takahashi.

Takahashi left the library alone.

Just as he reached the vending machine, someone came up beside him. Takahashi glanced sideways—it was Hasebe Haruka from his class. A very cute girl, hailed by Ike, Yamauchi, and the others as one of the cutest in Class D, often fantasized about as their dream girlfriend.

Takahashi looked away. He wasn't like Ike or Yamauchi, who couldn't move past a pretty girl.

Besides, the Takahashi family was a prestigious one. According to family records, their ancestors were descendants of Emperor Xian of Han from China, so they carried superior bloodlines compared to the average Japanese. The current prime minister was a member of the Takahashi family. Having grown up surrounded by plenty of excellent, beautiful girls, Takahashi wasn't particularly impressed by Hasebe's looks. He just wanted to buy his drink and get back to the dorm to read another mystery novel, The Black Death Hall Murder Case.

But before Takahashi could speak, Hasebe addressed him first.

"I think your name is Takahashi Shinma, right?"

Takahashi slowly turned his head, a smile on his face.

"Haha, I thought Hasebe-san might not remember such an ordinary, unremarkable person like me in the class." (Inner thought: *Baka, I was this close to getting back to my dorm, drinking my soda, reading my book, and enjoying the evening breeze from the window. ? ? ??? *)

"Takahashi-kun isn't ordinary at all. You're really good at swimming—I watched from the sidelines group."

They chatted for a while longer, sitting on opposite ends of a bench, drinking their sodas and talking about funny things in class. Hasebe mentioned to Takahashi that he often came up in the girls' group chats, ranking second on their handsome guys list, just behind the sunny boy Hirata Yosuke. She added that if he hadn't seemed so aloof and hard to approach at the start of the semester, he might have taken first place.

After parting ways with Hasebe, Takahashi bought another bottle of soda and walked back to his dorm, thinking to himself:

At the start of the semester, I was too busy figuring out the school's rules and wandering around, mapping out the campus in my head. I really neglected interacting with my classmates. I should talk to them more from now on.