That afternoon, in the study area on the Library's second floor.
Ken Kaneki and Shiina Hiyori sat in a two-person seat in the corner, their shoulders pressed together, looking like conjoined twins.
Quiet conversation was permitted in this area, and most of the students around them were also in pairs, presumably couples who had come to study.
Hiyori wore a light-colored casual dress, her long hair falling smoothly over her shoulders. She had a youthful air mingled with the languid allure of a young wife.
She held a mystery novel in her hands, reading with relish.
Hiyori's gaze was focused. After finishing a page, she extended her slender, delicate fingers to turn it, repeating the process over and over.
Ken Kaneki, meanwhile, held a laptop and looked through some data.
He turned his head, his gaze shifting to Hiyori's pretty face, and could not help raising his right hand to stroke her head.
"Hiyori, how's your exam preparation going?" Ken Kaneki asked casually.
He knew her grades were among the best in their year, so he was not worried at all.
Hiyori narrowed her eyes in pleasure at his touch, rubbing her head against his palm like a kitten. Then she put down her book and turned to look at him.
"My revision's been going pretty well lately. The first-year courses aren't that difficult, and since the exam only covers what we've been taught in class, that makes it even easier."
Hiyori spoke softly, pursing her lips to signal that she wanted a kiss from Ken Kaneki.
Ken Kaneki gave a wicked smile. While no one around them was paying attention, he swiftly pressed his lips to hers, showing a complete disregard for the surveillance cameras.
"Don't be impatient. Since your grades are pretty good, let me give you an examination tonight."
Hiyori froze, a trace of confusion flashing through her purple eyes. A few seconds later, she caught on, and a blush instantly spread across her fair cheeks, reddening even her ears.
"Ken, you're awful." Hiyori gave him a reproachful look and raised her hand to pat his arm lightly.
After everything she had been through, Shiina Hiyori was no longer the quiet girl who knew only how to read. She was less introverted now, and more animated.
Ken Kaneki found that very gratifying. After all, he could be said to have directly changed Hiyori's life.
Ken Kaneki caught her wrist, taking the opportunity to enclose her small hand in his palm and tightly interlace their fingers.
Hiyori did not pull away. She merely lowered her head with a blush, an irrepressible smile on her lips.
Just as the two were enjoying their time alone, a jumble of footsteps came from the stairwell, breaking the tranquility.
Ken Kaneki looked up and saw several familiar figures enter the study area one after another.
Horikita Suzune led the way, her face as stern and unsmiling as ever, a thick stack of study materials in her arms.
Close beside her was the sweetly smiling Kikyo Kushida, followed by Ayanokoji, who looked utterly dead inside, the noisy Ken Sudō, Kanji Ike, and Haruki Yamauchi, and finally Okitani, who walked with his head lowered.
Horikita Suzune stopped in front of two long tables pushed together, then turned toward Kikyo Kushida beside her with a frown.
"I'll ask you one more time. Why did you come along? This study session is for struggling students on the verge of failing."
Horikita's voice was cool, her tone distinctly displeased.
Kikyo Kushida pressed her palms together, an impeccable smile on her face.
"Don't be so cold, Horikita. I actually need tutoring too. The only reason I scored so high on the last quiz was pure luck.
"I guessed all the multiple-choice answers. It would be awful if I failed the midterms and got expelled."
Horikita Suzune stared at Kikyo Kushida's innocent face, so infuriated by her faux-innocent attitude that her breasts hurt.
Absolutely no one in the class would believe that nonsense. If she could score that high by guessing, why didn't she just sprout wings and fly? This was an outright insult to everyone's intelligence.
But Kushida was utterly shameless about it and insisted on joining the study session. Horikita could find no legitimate reason to send her away.
"Do whatever you want. As long as you don't disturb anyone's studying, I can't be bothered with you."
Horikita pulled out a chair and sat down, setting the materials in her hands heavily on the table.
The others took their seats one after another. Ken Sudō made a tremendous racket pulling out his chair, drawing sideways glances from several nearby students.
He paid them no mind. After plopping down, he stretched his legs straight out without restraint, nearly touching Horikita Suzune's calves.
Kanji Ike slumped over the table and yawned.
"Horikita, the passing mark's only thirty-two, right? We just need to cram a little and scrape through with thirty-something points. There's no need to take this so seriously."
At Ike's words, Haruki Yamauchi nodded repeatedly in agreement beside him. He did not want to work that hard either.
Horikita Suzune swept a cold glance over them, divided the materials on the table into several sets, and pushed them toward the boys.
"Your target is fifty points. If you aim only for the passing mark, even a slight mistake on the exam will get you kicked straight out of this school.
"These materials cover the exam scope and key question types Chabashira-sensei identified. You must understand all of this before the exam. Understood?"
Ayanokoji sat at the outermost end of the table, his gaze shifting slightly.
Honestly, he was rather surprised too. The three of them had analyzed Chabashira-sensei thoroughly and understood that she was the sort who was indifferent to her own students and could not even be bothered to provide necessary explanations. What was going on now? Had she been possessed?
The main reason, actually, was that Ken Kaneki had won her over in bed. Now that Chabashira-sensei had something to look forward to, she naturally began working diligently, serving as a teacher during the day and at night as well.
Horikita took out a test paper and circled a question with her pen.
"Look at this question first. It's a basic system of simultaneous equations. Try solving it yourselves."
Ken Sudō picked up his pen and stared at the numbers and letters on the paper. The three unknowns, x, y, and z, tangled together like an impossible knot of thread, making his head hurt.
He scratched his red hair, twirled the pen between his fingers a few times, then irritably tossed it onto the table.
Kanji Ike and Haruki Yamauchi gave up outright, leaning together to discuss in low voices a game that had come out over the weekend.
Meanwhile, Kikyo Kushida took the initiative to sit beside Okitani, leaning forward slightly to move closer to him.
"Okitani, how are you planning to solve this question?"
Kushida's voice was gentle, accompanied by a faint fragrance.
Okitani's face instantly flushed crimson, and he stammered, "I... I'll substitute the first expression into the second one first..."
"Mm-hmm, that's exactly the right approach. You're actually very smart, Okitani." Kushida smiled encouragingly, then picked up her pen and wrote two steps on his paper.
"Look, once you simplify it like this, doesn't it become much clearer?"
With Kushida's guidance, Okitani soon wrote out the correct calculations.
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji propped his chin on one hand, utterly uninterested in the study session before him.
He turned to survey his surroundings, his gaze passing through two rows of shelves and landing squarely on Ken Kaneki and Shiina Hiyori in the corner.
Ken Kaneki happened to be looking their way too, and his eyes met Ayanokoji's.
He did not stand up, merely raising his right hand and placing his index finger against his lips in a shushing gesture before pointing toward Horikita and Sudo.
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji immediately understood. He withdrew his gaze and went back to staring blankly at the empty scratch paper in front of him.
Ten minutes passed. Horikita Suzune stood up and walked behind Ken Sudō and the other two to check their progress.
Their scratch paper was completely blank apart from a few haphazardly drawn lines.
Horikita Suzune's expression darkened completely. She picked up a pen and quickly wrote a series of formulas on the blank paper.
"The key to this problem is elimination. Express x in terms of y and z, then substitute that into the two equations below, and you'll get a system of two linear equations in two unknowns.
"Why can't you understand such simple logic?"
Horikita spoke very quickly, her pen scratching across the paper.
She explained everything entirely according to her own thought process, skipping a large number of calculation steps along the way.
Ken Sudō stared at the densely packed numbers on the paper, his brows knitted tightly together.
He already had no room in his head for this stuff, and after being mocked by those two second-year upperclassmen in the Basketball Club over the past two days, his nerves had been constantly on edge.
"What the hell are you explaining? You keep jumping around! Who's supposed to understand that?" Ken Sudō shouted impatiently.
(Guys, the thirteen-day mini-break is almost here. How about sending a few free little gifts my way? I'll post some extra chapters then. What do you say? ☆: .｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:☆)
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