Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, everyone!

"Don't go. Don't leave me."

Early that morning, Sae Chabashira opened her eyes groggily, her long eyelashes trembling slightly as she lingered between sleep and wakefulness.

Her mind was a muddle, and she murmured something unconsciously.

Chabashira-sensei instinctively stretched out her fair arm and felt around the bed beside her.

Fortunately, her fingers touched that warm, firm body.

Sae Chabashira's anxious heart settled instantly. She let out a long sigh of relief, knowing that everything last night had not been a dream.

She turned her head, her gaze falling on Ken Kaneki, who was sleeping soundly beside her.

Honestly, aside from their deal, the bigger reason she had taken the initiative to text this rascal and invite him over yesterday was that she had been having naughty dreams lately.

Every one of those dreams featured the man before her, and the pleasure in them left her needing a shower every morning when she woke up.

All this forced Sae Chabashira to face her own feelings. She really had been missing Ken Kaneki a little.

She thought it was only a little, but was that really true?

Looking at Ken Kaneki's flawlessly handsome face, Sae Chabashira found herself entranced for a moment.

Remembering last night's wildness, she couldn't help smiling. Chabashira-sensei had certainly had her fill yesterday.

Really, she had even become a cream puff.

She knew perfectly well that their current relationship was by no means love in the traditional sense, but an exchange of benefits.

Yet Sae Chabashira felt she wasn't losing out in the slightest. That experience, that physical pleasure that nearly sent her to heaven, was something she had never known before.

In the quiet of the morning, Chabashira-sensei had shed all her disguises. At that moment, she was like a girl in love, admiring her boyfriend's sleeping face.

As if under a spell, she reached out her slender fingers and gently stroked one of Ken Kaneki's cheeks.

The sensation beneath her fingertips made her heartbeat quicken. She could feel her heart fluttering wildly in her chest.

Driven by that fluttering, Sae Chabashira closed her eyes and quietly leaned forward, blushing, wanting to leave a kiss on Ken Kaneki's cheek.

However, just before her fiery red lips could touch his cheek, Ken Kaneki woke without warning.

He abruptly lifted his head, aimed unerringly for those luscious red lips, and gave Sae Chabashira a wet French kiss first thing in the morning.

"Mmph..."

Chabashira-sensei clearly hadn't expected this. She instinctively tried to pull back, but was utterly defeated by Ken Kaneki's domineering assault.

For a moment, his kisses left her dazed and a little short of oxygen.

Her body, which had recovered some of its strength, instantly went limp. She sagged into Ken Kaneki's arms like a docile kitten, able only to make a few faint sounds through her nose.

Only when Sae Chabashira could barely hold on any longer did Ken Kaneki release her lips.

Sae Chabashira leaned against Ken Kaneki's firm chest, panting, her cheeks flushed and her eyes shimmering.

"Were you trying to suffocate me?" Chabashira-sensei was a little angry and gave him a light, petulant swat.

After taking a moment to recover, she finally regained some of her reason and asked softly, "Are you really confident about Sudo and the others?

There aren't many days left before the midterms. If they fail, we're finished."

Ken Kaneki reached out and stroked her hair, twirling it around his finger before patting her head and reassuring her:

"Don't worry, Sensei. Things will naturally fall into place from here. You can rest completely easy."

Meanwhile, over in the Library.

When Ken Kaneki and the other two had parted ways yesterday, Ayanokoji had gone to find Horikita and told her about this.

After an enormous amount of effort and the signing of many unequal treaties, Horikita Suzune had, at any rate, agreed to set aside her pride and bring her review materials to the Library to continue holding their study sessions.

Not far away, the idiot trio of Ken Sudō, Kanji Ike, and Yamauchi Grandpa had already arrived early and claimed seats.

As for Okitani, something seemed to have spurred him on recently. He had begun quietly studying on his own, and his grades had improved noticeably, so he no longer attended these basic tutoring sessions.

When they saw Horikita Suzune approaching, the atmosphere immediately grew somewhat stiff. Remembering how he had nearly lashed out in a rage yesterday, Ken Sudo looked a little awkward too.

However, to everyone's surprise, when Horikita Suzune reached the table, she did not mock them as she usually did. Instead, she took a deep breath, placed her hands at the sides of her school uniform skirt, and bowed slightly to the three of them, her tone quite sincere.

"I was also responsible for what happened yesterday. I failed to consider your grasp of the basics or your feelings, and I used the wrong approach to communicate with you. I'm truly sorry."

This left Ike and Yamauchi dumbfounded. Even Ken Sudō, who had the shortest temper, froze.

Honestly, he hadn't believed what Ken Kaneki had said yesterday. Didn't he know exactly what Horikita was like? There was absolutely no way she would soften her attitude.

But seeing her today, he felt he had been wrong-and wildly wrong at that.

Ken Sudō had already braced himself to endure every humiliation when he came here, but he had never expected the usually haughty Horikita to lower her head of her own accord.

Ken Sudō scratched his head of striking red hair, his face turning rather red. Then he abruptly stood up and took the lead, saying loudly:

"I'm the one who should apologize. I lost my temper yesterday and nearly got physical... Anyway, I'm sorry. I'm counting on you for these next few days. I absolutely don't want to get expelled!"

Seeing that even Sudo had backed down, Kanji Ike and Haruki Yamauchi hurried to apologize as well, admitting that their attitudes had also been wrong yesterday.

After clearing away their earlier resentment, they sat back down, and the tutoring session officially began.

This time, Ken Sudō abandoned his usual habit of getting irritated and shouting the moment he saw a textbook.

Although facing those complicated formulas still felt as agonizing as trying to read an incomprehensible script, he gritted his teeth, knitted his brows, and worked through calculations on scratch paper with his pen, clumsily but with the utmost seriousness.

Whenever he encountered something he didn't understand, he also forced down his irritation and patiently asked Horikita for help.

Watching Ken Sudō work desperately hard to stay at school and pursue his basketball dream, a trace of surprise flashed through Horikita Suzune's eyes before giving way to gratification.

She patiently slowed her explanations, breaking down the basic concepts step by step.

Watching Sudo and the others finally begin to solve the most basic problems, however slowly, Horikita Suzune felt an unprecedented sense of accomplishment well up inside her.

She suddenly felt that, as a member of this class and the organizer of these study sessions, she really could play an important role.

This feeling of being needed and leading a team forward didn't seem so bad.