"Chiba! Over here."
As soon as Chiba Yu walked into the library, he spotted Hirata standing not far away with a group of girls. He glanced over them, and most of them were people he knew.
Karuizawa Kei, Sato Maya, Matsushita Chiaki, Mori Nene, and the others...
As expected of Hirata. He'd easily managed what Chiba Yu couldn't.
Chiba Yu shed envious tears inside, but kept a calm expression.
Walking over to Hirata and the others, Chiba Yu asked, "So, why did you call me to the library on the weekend?" As he spoke, he glanced at the girls behind Hirata, his intentions obvious.
Strangely, for a moment just now, he'd felt someone glaring at him. Had he imagined it?
"Sorry, sorry." Hirata looked a little embarrassed, then gave Chiba Yu a faint smile. "Actually, I asked you to come today because I wanted to ask you for a favor..."
Could someone please tell him why things had turned out this way?
Looking at Karuizawa Kei and Mori Nene, who were sitting across from him and working hard on their problems, Chiba Yu could only regret not checking his horoscope before leaving home.
He'd been perfectly comfortable in his dorm when Hirata suddenly called him and summoned him to the library. Now he had to tutor the girls, too. Chiba Yu couldn't help wondering where things had gone wrong.
At first, Chiba Yu had wanted to refuse outright, even claiming that he'd scored worse than Matsushita on the quiz. But for some reason, when Hirata looked at him with the corners of his mouth turned up, Chiba Yu had inexplicably agreed?!
After Chabashira-sensei had called him in that time, Hirata had tested his abilities again. But when the scores ranged from 80 all the way up to 85, he'd fallen silent.
After that, Hirata had pretended to believe that Chiba Yu's abilities were probably around that level and said he wouldn't bother him again. But as for what had happened later... The situation now spoke for itself.
At that moment, Chiba Yu deeply regretted stopping at 60 points in every subject on the entrance exam just because he couldn't be bothered to do more...
"Um... Chiba, how do you solve this problem again?"
As he was lost in thought, Mori Nene asked him with her workbook in hand. With no other choice, Chiba Yu dealt with the problem in front of him first.
"First, do this. Then draw an auxiliary line here, and then... There you go."
After casually solving the solid geometry problem in front of him, Chiba Yu handed the workbook back to Mori Nene.
"Oh, so that's how it works! I get it now. Thanks, Chiba."
"It's nothing." For Chiba Yu, this sort of problem really wasn't difficult.
As she took back her workbook, Mori Nene glanced at Karuizawa Kei, who was still working hard beside her, and casually asked, "There's something I still don't understand. Chiba, if you're so good at studying, why do you insist on hiding it?"
Hearing Mori Nene's question, Karuizawa Kei, who had been ignoring Chiba Yu the whole time, secretly perked up her ears, ready to hear his answer.
Hirata had told the girls about Chiba Yu keeping his scores low right from the start. Damn it, why had Hirata never even doubted him and simply assumed he really was holding back?
To win their trust, he'd even shown them Chiba Yu's score from the previous quiz.
After seeing their dumbfounded expressions, Chiba Yu had naturally stepped into his new role.
"There's no particular reason. If I had to give one, it's just that I don't want to cause myself trouble."
"But I still don't understand. How does getting high scores cause you trouble?" Mori Nene asked again. In her opinion, Chiba Yu's reasoning was beyond what an ordinary person could understand.
"..." Chiba Yu thought for a moment, then slowly replied, "Look at me right now. Isn't it obvious?"
"You right now, uh... Do you mean tutoring us like this?" That was the only thing Mori Nene could think of.
As expected, Chiba Yu nodded. "I told you at the start of the school year, didn't I? I hate troublesome things. If Hirata hadn't asked me to come, I'd probably still be lying around in my dorm."
Mori Nene wasn't upset that Chiba Yu considered tutoring them a hassle. After all, they were the ones imposing on him.
But then Karuizawa Kei, who had been sitting quietly to the side, couldn't help speaking up. "In that case, why didn't you just refuse from the start?"
Chiba Yu could hear the displeasure in her tone. Thinking it over, he didn't seem to have done anything to upset her.
But Karuizawa Kei's little outburst didn't bother him. In the same calm tone, he replied, "I was just thinking about that myself, so you're not wrong."
Hearing the boy in front of her agree with her, Karuizawa Kei was stunned. She'd been bottling up her frustration, but even the emotions she'd worked up vanished in an instant.
"What's that supposed to mean..." Karuizawa Kei pursed her lips and went back to working on her problems.
"So Chiba came here because Hirata invited him, right?"
"Yeah..."
"Chiba? And Hirata, you're here too?"
Suddenly, a voice cut into their conversation. Turning around, they saw Kushida Kikyo and Horikita Suzune approaching with a few others. Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was with them as well.
"Good afternoon, Kushida. You're here to study too, right?" Looking at the three people behind them, Chiba Yu figured Horikita Suzune had organized this tutoring session herself to help them. It looked like Ayanokoji had been dragged along as an extra pair of hands.
"Yep. Horikita wants to improve Sudo and the others' grades, so she brought them here."
"I see."
Unlike Chiba Yu, the few Yamauchis standing not far away couldn't help gritting their teeth as they watched the scene, speaking with envy. "Damn it! Why is Chiba hanging out with Hirata and studying with so many cute girls?!"
"Exactly! Isn't he always going on about some 'energy-saving philosophy'? What's he doing in a situation like this?!"
Ignoring the trio's wailing, Chiba Yu turned to greet Ayanokoji. "You got dragged out here too, didn't you?"
"I see. Looks like you did too."
"Could this be a curse?"
"Could this be a curse?"
For a moment, they'd thought of exactly the same thing. Chiba Yu couldn't help marveling once again at the strange bond between him and Ayanokoji. When he'd left the dorm that morning, he hadn't run into Ayanokoji for once. He'd thought his sincere prayers had touched the heavens, but it turned out this was where fate had been waiting for him.
"Are you two talking about something?" Seeing them muttering to themselves, Kushida walked over, curious, and asked.
"Nothing. Since we're all here to study, let's do our best." Chiba Yu casually brushed aside the matter and sat back down.
After exchanging a few words with Kushida, Mori Nene returned to her seat as well. As for Karuizawa Kei, she wasn't part of Kushida's circle to begin with, so there wasn't much for them to talk about.
Hirata had also tried to invite Horikita Suzune to study with them, but Horikita had flatly refused. She'd said she could handle this on her own and didn't need their help.
Honestly, no one in Class D was easy to deal with.
"Hey, how do you solve this problem?"