Saturday Tutoring

When Kiryu Yume arrived at the library on Saturday morning, Sakayanagi Arisu was already seated by the window.

Her cane rested against the table. In the natural light streaming through the window, her silver-white hair carried a faint golden sheen. An open book lay before her, turned to the middle, and an unopened can of black coffee sat at her side.

"Kitten, you're two minutes late. I was just about to add five questions to your exam fee." She lifted her violet eyes and glanced at him.

Kiryu Yume sat across from her and pulled his notebook and sticky notes from his bag. "If two minutes counts as late, then last time you were more than two minutes slower than me getting to the slope."

"That was the slope's problem, not mine." Sakayanagi Arisu opened her coffee and took a small sip. Her lips had regained far more color than last week, and the fingers curled around the can no longer trembled quite so faintly.

Kiryu Yume noticed that she had not adjusted her breathing in advance today. Her stride had remained steady all the way from the lobby to the library.

Kamuro Masumi emerged from behind the bookshelves carrying a stack of reference books. Her long straight purple hair was tied into a low ponytail today, draped over one shoulder.

She set the books on the table, sat beside Sakayanagi Arisu, then pushed two of them toward Kiryu Yume.

"These are the books Sakayanagi had me look up in advance. They might be useful for the exam."

"When did you start looking?"

"Last night. Sakayanagi said we'd need them today, so I looked until one in the morning."

Kamuro Masumi opened her own can of coffee and took a sip, her tone as indifferent as ever.

Sakayanagi Arisu opened Kiryu Yume's notebook, her finger tracing along the edge of the sticky notes.

"Your notes are neater than I expected. Kitten's handwriting has improved, though the curves on your horizontal turns are still too wide."

"Is handwriting on the exam too?"

"No, but people with nice handwriting organize what they memorize better. That's experience." She flipped the notebook to the page with the sticky notes and pushed it back to him.

"Write it out from memory. Everything I marked as important last week."

Kiryu Yume picked up his pen and began writing.

Halfway through, his peripheral vision drifted beneath the table. Sakayanagi Arisu's calves were crossed beside her chair, and a thin ring of lace showed above her knees at the edge of her white thigh-high stockings, like a light layer of frost spilling over the edge of a cream puff—fluffy and soft against her skin.

Kamuro Masumi's ankle was diagonally across from him. Thin black stockings wrapped around the bone, and under the cool white lights, the black fabric gathered into an extremely fine highlight over the protruding ankle bone, like the untouched film of moisture on the surface of mousse after it had just set.

Kiryu Yume's pen paused on the page.

A thought flashed through his mind—Sakayanagi Arisu's calves looked like the cream puff displayed on the highest shelf of a cake case, while Kamuro Masumi's ankle resembled the final mirror glaze on a chocolate mousse before it was removed from the mold. He swiftly pushed the thought down and continued writing, though his grip on the pen had clearly tightened.

"Kitten." Sakayanagi Arisu's voice came from across the table. It was not loud, yet every word landed precisely against his eardrums.

"You were looking under the table just now. Is there something more interesting under there than the sticky notes?" She raised her coffee and took a small sip, looking at him over the rim of the can with violet eyes. The curve of her lips deepened slightly.

Kiryu Yume raised his head. Her expression was as composed as usual, but the fingers holding her coffee tapped lightly against its side. The rhythm of that tap was as patient as the silence waiting for his answer.

"I was thinking about the questions." Kiryu Yume lowered his gaze back to his notebook.

"Your pen may pause when you're thinking about questions, but your eyes wouldn't sweep under the table. Next time you make an excuse, remember to make your actions match it." She set down her coffee, speaking like a teacher grading a paper with two wrong answers, then turned her head and glanced at Kamuro Masumi.

Kamuro Masumi set the reference book in her hands down on the table, making a sound half a beat louder than the rustle of turning pages. "Where were you looking? Last time, you were looking at legs in the convenience store. This time, you're looking under tables in the library. Are you going to look under the desk for answers during exams too?"

Before Kiryu Yume could reply, Sakayanagi Arisu spoke first.

"Masumi, he was looking under the table, not for answers. Are you so angry because he saw your ankle, or because he chose to look during tutoring?" Her tone was flat, as though she were analyzing a logic question.

The tips of Kamuro Masumi's ears abruptly turned red, the color spreading from beneath her black hair down the side of her neck. She turned a page in her reference book, the paper slicing crisply through the air. "Sakayanagi, don't analyze things for him at a time like this. Wherever he looks, he deserves a kick. It's just inconvenient to kick him in a library."

"So what you mean is, if this weren't a library, you would kick him." Sakayanagi Arisu lifted her coffee and took another sip.

Kamuro Masumi did not answer. She lowered her head to stare at the sticky notes before her, while the redness at her ears continued to spread deeper toward her collar.

Kiryu Yume fixed his gaze firmly on his notebook and kept writing, but the cream puff and mousse in his mind still sat side by side, not yet fully gone.

When he finished writing from memory, Kiryu Yume pushed the notebook over.

Sakayanagi Arisu read through it from beginning to end. When she reached one page, she paused for roughly three seconds, then pulled out a red pen from her pencil case and drew a tiny star beside one line.

"This answer is the best one. The logic of your argument goes one layer beyond even the outline I gave you." She put the red pen away. "No extra exam fee. The star cancels out one question."

Kiryu Yume glanced at the star. It was tiny, but neatly drawn. "What's the standard for drawing a star?"

"There is no standard. I draw one if I feel like it." She closed the notebook. A faint smile appeared in her violet eyes, and then she looked up at him and said something unrelated to the sticky notes. "Oh, and when you were looking under the table just now—your excuse was terrible, but your taste is fairly normal."

It took Kiryu Yume's mind a beat to understand what she meant. Before he could speak, Kamuro Masumi had already pushed the sticky notes in front of him.

"Next, look at the section I organized. You can handle Sakayanagi's questions, but you might not handle mine." She flipped the sticky notes to the page tucked inside and tapped it once with her finger.

Kiryu Yume looked down at Kamuro Masumi's handwriting on the sticky notes. Every key term had a line beneath it, and every line was perfectly aligned.

"Mom Kamuro," he said.

Kamuro Masumi's hand froze as she turned the page, and the edge of the sticky note trembled lightly against her fingertips.

"It's tutoring time right now." Her voice was half a degree lower than before, but she did not raise her head.

Seated beside her, Sakayanagi Arisu lightly tapped the leg of Kiryu Yume's chair with her cane.

"Kitten calls Masumi 'Mom' so naturally in front of me. Last week, you called me that before the slope. This week, you're calling Masumi that in the library. Your number of Class A girls you call Mom is about to catch up with your number of failing subjects."

Kiryu Yume turned to look at her. "Last week, you said calling you that on my own counted as an exam fee. Does this one count today?"

Sakayanagi Arisu lightly tapped a finger against the notebook cover. "Last time was in the morning before the slope, and that was already counted as an exam fee. Today is during tutoring, so this time—I'll collect it voluntarily. No extra exam questions. Instead, bring one extra can of black coffee next week."

"You already make me bring one every morning."

"Bring the extra one for Masumi."

Kamuro Masumi raised her head and looked at Sakayanagi Arisu. Her long straight purple hair swayed over her shoulder as she turned. "I don't need him to bring me coffee."

"You go to the vending machine for more coffee every lunch break. Bringing one in the morning saves you a trip." Sakayanagi Arisu took a small sip of her black coffee, her tone as even as if she were discussing the weather.

Kiryu Yume watched Sakayanagi Arisu set her coffee can back on the table.

On the surface, she was assigning him an errand. In reality, she was saving Kamuro Masumi the time she spent lining up at the vending machine during lunch break.

This person never directly said, "I care about you." She tucked her concern into "bring an extra can of coffee," wrapped it in "for Masumi," then drank her coffee as though nothing had happened.

"Mom Sakayanagi," he said.

Sakayanagi Arisu blinked, her violet eyes shifting from over the coffee can to his face. "That's the second time today. Kitten calls people Mom twice as often during tutoring as before the slope."

"You said I called Masumi that naturally in front of you. Now you've been called that too."

Sakayanagi Arisu set down her coffee, reached out, and lightly tapped Kiryu Yume's forehead with her fingertip. It was the same gesture as before the slope last time, but after tapping him, her finger lingered on his forehead for an extra beat before withdrawing.

"Being called Mom is one thing. Being compared to Masumi is another. There was too much comparison in that 'Mom Sakayanagi' just now. Minus one point."

"Does losing points have consequences?"

"The consequence is that next week's black coffee becomes two cans. One for Masumi and one for me."

Kamuro Masumi turned another page of her reference book beside them, the paper cutting through the air half a beat louder than usual.

Kiryu Yume turned to look at her. She pushed the sticky notes back in front of him, tapping the final point twice with her fingertips. "You've finished Sakayanagi's questions, but you haven't passed mine yet. Don't think you can get out early today just because you called us Mom twice."

The redness at her ears had spread to the side of her neck. Then she looked up at Kiryu Yume and added,

"And don't think calling us Mom means you can keep looking under the table."

Kiryu Yume pulled the sticky notes closer and lowered his head to continue answering. The system panel flickered twice at the edge of his consciousness.

[Kamuro Masumi: 3/30]

[Sakayanagi Arisu: 3/30]

Another half hour passed before Kiryu Yume finished every question on the sticky notes and pushed them to Kamuro Masumi.

She read through them from beginning to end, then used a mechanical pencil to draw another star beside one line. It sat in the same box as Sakayanagi Arisu's star, one red and one gray, crowded side by side at the edge of the sticky note.

"This corresponds with the supplementary key point on page three of the notes I gave you last time. It's not just rote memorization. Add one star." She set down the mechanical pencil.

Kiryu Yume looked at the two stars beside each other. "Your star and Sakayanagi's star are in the same spot."

"Coincidence." Kamuro Masumi closed the reference book and stood up, her movements crisp and decisive.

Sakayanagi Arisu also closed her book. Using her cane to support herself, she rose with a steadiness greater than at any previous time. "Kitten's performance today—your history section passes. But I already had Masumi give you next week's note preview range. Fill it in and hand it to me before Friday."

Kiryu Yume packed the sticky notes and notebook into his bag. "Then how is next week's exam fee calculated?"

Sakayanagi Arisu walked several steps toward the library entrance, her cane tapping softly and rhythmically against the floor. As she passed him, she spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear. "The exam fee isn't points. It's only black coffee. And—next time you look under the table, remember to come up with the excuse first. At least make one that makes me want to ask another question."

After saying that, she continued forward, the tips of her silver-white hair swaying at the edge of the doorway.

Kamuro Masumi followed behind Sakayanagi Arisu. When she reached the entrance, she suddenly looked back at Kiryu Yume. A faint blush still lingered at her ears.

"Deliver black coffee to my dorm room door at seven-thirty in the morning. If you're late, I'll kick you twice—once for Sakayanagi and once for myself." After saying that, she turned away and walked several beats faster than usual, her ponytail swinging in an arc behind her shoulder.

Kiryu Yume picked up his bag and followed them out. In the corridor outside the library, the two figures were one ahead of the other.

Sakayanagi Arisu's cane led the way from the front, while Kamuro Masumi's purple ponytail followed behind. Their strides were off by one beat, but their direction was exactly the same.