Volume 2 - CH 13

The summer vacation felt longer than expected since there were no extracurricular activities, but when the new term started, I began to miss it.

I spent most of the rest of the summer studying with Kanade.

The rest of the time I spent studying with Kanade. Kanade’s concentration when we were learning was amazing, and I could study more deeply as if pulled along by her concentration. At the end of the summer, Kanade and I took the National Unified Mock Exam, and we both succeeded in raising our grades.

And one more thing, there was a slight change after the summer vacation.

———

‘Bing bong.’

I ring the intercom, and a loud slamming sound approaches from behind the door.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Yuu-kun. Shall we go to school then?”

I had been going to school alone for the first semester, but from the second semester, I would be going to school with Kanade. It had been a long time since I had commuted to school with someone else, and I was kind of happy, and when I saw Kanade’s face, I grinned sloppily.

“What are you grinning at?”

“Well, it’s been a while since I went to school with someone like this, so I’m kind of happy.”

“Yuu-kun, you were lonely the first semester, weren’t you? If I wasn’t always busy in the morning, I would have gone with you.”

Yes. Kanade is very bad in the mornings.

She always arrives at school just in time for her normal school day, but only when there is a function or event, she wonders why she wakes up so early. When I asked Kanade about it, she told me that she just gets excited and repeats sleeping and waking up.

“No, it’s fine. You’re weak in the morning but you did all right today, didn’t you? I was prepared to wait quite a while.”

“Moou, what do you think I am? Even I could do it if I wanted to!”

She turns her head to the side while preening, but soon smiles at me and says, “This is kind of fun, isn’t it?” I naturally stroke Kanade’s head as I say, “Yes, it is,” because Kanade is so cute like that. Kanade squints her eyes pleasantly and is stroked without resistance. Then, when my hand touches her ear, she lets out a small “nn”.

I came back to myself at that word and was surprised to find that I had naturally stroked Kanade’s head.

“Oh, I’m sorry I patted you on the head.”

“It’s okay. It made me happy, so you can pat me on the head more from now on, okay?”

“I’ll try to.”

After the summer festival, she began to tell me what she wanted to do without hesitation. Since then, Kanade has been making me feel flustered more and more.

But it never makes me feel bad, and deep down I hope that she will continue to be selfish only with me in the future.

———

“Oh, good morning. I haven’t seen you since our study group the other day!”

The four of us had gathered together before the final exam, and we regularly held study sessions during the summer vacation as well. The initiator of the study group was surprisingly Tanuki-san.

“Did you study hard after that?”

“Just a little bit. Because I want to get into a university too!”

“Yeah. But Kanade was really great, you know? You didn’t take it, but your score on the national mock exam went up quite a bit.”

“That’s right, Satoru-kun. I studied so much during the summer vacation that I got a “B” in the school of my choice!”

There was Kanade with her hands on her hips, showing off her gorgeous smug face.

“For real! Miyama-san is awesome… Maybe I should have taken the mock test too.”

“I’ll take the next one, too, Satoru. Satoru, let’s take the test together then!”

“I’ll definitely take it too then. But I’m not sure if I’ll be able to handle it with my academic abilities…”

“Mishima-kun, if you don’t show some seriousness, you might just end up going off on your own, you know?”

“Oh, it’s Kozue-chan! Good morning!”

Before we knew it, Tanuki-san was lined up next to us and naturally entered the conversation. Tanuki-san sometimes loses her presence…

“Yeah, good morning. You worked really hard during the summer vacation, didn’t you, Kanade? I got a lot of inspiration from you. So, if you want, I’d like to have another study group with everyone after the second semester.”

“I’d love to! Let’s do it! Since I studied with everyone, my motivation went up quite a bit.”

“Oh, me too! Tanuki-san and Yuuri’s teaching style was really good, so it really helped me.”

I am really glad that I studied with the four of us. I was able to improve my grades in subjects that I used to be bad at by having Tanuki-san teach me. When I study with Kanade, I can deepen my understanding of the subject by teaching her what she doesn’t understand, but when I don’t understand something, I have to look it up by myself, which is not efficient. So there was no way I could be unhappy with the four of us studying together.

“Well, do you want to go back to the library once or twice a week to study?”

“We can’t talk much if we always go to the library, so let’s go to a family restaurant again once every two weeks or so!”

“I agree. Studying is good, but it was fun to have a casual conversation after studying, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, yeah! Let’s do that!”

It was strange that we were talking about studying, but we were having a good time as if we were going out to have fun. But I guess the four of us can talk happily about any topic.

To be honest, when the first semester started, I was dreading going to school, but I can only thank the three of them for making me feel so happy.

“Speaking of which, aren’t we about to decide on what we’re going to put on for the school festival?”

“Yeah, it’s our last festival in high school, and we want to make the best memories!”

“Yeah, since it’s the last one, we definitely want to make it a good festival.”

“I know it’s a bit old-fashioned, but I like maid cafes. I wonder why girls in maid suits are so cute?”

“Yeah, I don’t like Satoru-kun’s naughty-looking face.”

Kanade and Tanuki-san were staring at Satoru with stern looks in their eyes. Satoru was upset by their stares and waddled over to me and said, “You understand it right Yuuri?” I blurted out, “I don’t know.”

But to tell you the truth, if Kanade and Tanuki-san were dressed as maids, I’d want to see them so bad too! To put it bluntly, I’d get down on my knees and pay for it. As I was thinking that, Kanade said to me, “Yuu-kun has a little naughty face too.” Damn, even my perfect poker face doesn’t work in front of Kanade…

“Well, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but let’s definitely make this the best cultural festival ever!”

I declared to everyone in a high voice as if to change the topic.