"Hyunda, what is this!? Why am I so hyped right now?!"

"How am I supposed to know?! Ah shit, we are ten minutes late! We're gonna get scolded so hard... I knew it was a bad idea to tell you all of this so suddenly."

"N-No! I'm super glad you decided to tell me all about it! That's why I'm hyped right now! Because my financial situation might just change!"

"I can't believe you're getting excited over two coins... Talk about desperate..."

Before arriving at the classroom, Hyunda and I had this roundup conversation before parting ways. The chilly weather was making my thumbs frozen instantly but since we were in a rush, we barely noticed any of that.

Something that was bothering me was how I was taking this new betting system way more seriously than the exam that we were about to face.

Well... We would only face the exam once it was 9 am, and since that was the case, it would mean...

Main classroom. Block F. 8:40 am.

"Both of you get one warning, sit down."

I cruelly decided to accept my fate of getting one warning which is the equivalent of a walk into the principal's office and since our absence was being taken into consideration, the class had not started yet.

"Shit!"

For the record, I didn't say that. Hyunda did.

"Two warnings."

"Motherf- Alright, I get it. My bad."

Hyunda kept on cursing towards Basara-sensei but he eventually stopped and took his seat. What was eating him? Oh right, he's somewhat mad that we talked this out for way too long and that is why he's regretting it.

While I'm thankful, he sure isn't.

Also, getting a warning is no joke.

"Now that the remaining retards have arrived, let's have a grand total of 20 minutes of class because that's apparently what this comes to! By the way, should anyone try something as funny as this again, it will be 5 warnings!!" 

Oh no, he's angry. Christ, he even slammed his hands into his desk. It provoked such a grand sound that it completely caught everyone's attention straight up. Although, he was the only one who got remotely angry. All of the others didn't mind this because this meant that they would get some free time before starting class.

But, as soon as I took my seat, something caught my attention and that was, our number of students in this classroom severely decreased.

Noticing this, I couldn't help but question Basara-sensei about this right away.

"Basara-sensei, how come you are starting class without Ikkiri and Arkalee...?"

I'm surprised that no one bothered to question this. It wasn't just those two, but Akihiko as well. Akihiko's case was already explained, but what about those two? Why were they able to not be present?

"Their absences are entirely justified. However, you'll have to ask your homeroom teacher about that. Your absence can only be justified if you actually have a valid reason to skip. However, the only one who can see whether or not that reason is justifiable isn't me, but her."

By her, he meant Yuka-sensei, no doubt. Still, what the hell is this? Why are three people just missing? What the hell?

I know that I could have paid a visit to Akihiko, but I just couldn't be bothered to do so.

"Thank you."

Ultimately, after thanking Basara-sensei, I didn't bother to insist anymore since I could just ask Yuka-sensei later on. Nevertheless, it was still bothering me.

How were the pairings that are missing be able to perform if their other partner was away? I have no clue now that I think about it...

Maybe I should've asked Kawahara about that...

Or, I could try my luck with someone else...

Though, as soon as I looked in her direction, it's like I was entering a frozen tundra. Her seriousness invited no one in. Just a simple glance at her made me realize that talking to her would most likely not result in a positive manner.

Her fashionable look which mostly lied in her long luscious pink hair and stylish nails could fool just about anyone into thinking that she would be friendly yet the cold reality was that she would immediately turn you down.

Regardless, I didn't let that bother me. She might know something.

"What happened? You know something, don't you?"

With two girls entirely missing from the scene, there was a very vast chance that she might've caught onto something, however, instead of answering my question, she went with something else.

"You remembered to wash your teeth this morning? Impressive. You're no longer a sewer rat. Congratulations."

Crude bitch. Who the hell is a sewer rat? Fuck you and your high standards. Also, I'm not minimally presentable because of you.

Knowing this, I decided to force the question once again.

"So? Do you know something or not?"

"Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you. I'm not bothered to know whatever goes through their lives."

"Oh, I see."

So she knows nothing. Why not just tell me that from the start? Do you actually think that I would bother with someone like you? If there was someone else next to me, then I wouldn't bother to even ask you.

But, the option to ask this to the ones that are in front of us is still an option, but they are sometimes too fierce or just not active enough to approach.

I'm talking about Sana and Akihiko yet the former is out of the scene, thus Sana is firmly paying attention to class like nothing's on her mind.

"Hold on. What was that just now?"

Oh, what? She's still talking to me? Why?

"A confirmation. Don't tell me you need to know what confirmation is?"

Do I need to show her the actual meaning of it? If so, then pulling out a Google definition should be fun. However...

It's the end of the month and I don't have any mobile data. There is no Wi-Fi here in this entire block.

It appears that I'm going to have to swiftly be logical about this because apparently she's not understanding something fairly simple.

"Of course I know what it is. What I meant was that what you just did makes no sense at all."

"What? How does it not make any sense at all? Are you dumb? I asked you a question, you didn't know the answer, that's it, we are done. No room for further discussion. This makes perfect sense."

This was additionally bothering me. To the point where I even stopped pulling out my notebook from my schoolbag.

However, although this rarely happens, she stopped noting down what Basara-sensei was writing on the board with his white chalk and looked in my direction.

One thing that worried me was how fiercely she looked at me once she did exactly that.

"I am not dumb, you're dumb. You ask a question and you expect an immediate positive answer? Ridiculous. You're supposed to ask a question to that person in a manner that the person finds it fit to give you the answer."

That's actually a good remark, but there was no way in hell that I would just say: 'Hey, you're right. My bad'.

No, fuck you. A question is a question, it doesn't get more simple than this.

"It doesn't matter now. You don't know the answer to that question anyway. You even confirmed it."

She really doesn't and she actually confirmed it herself. She can't possibly deny this. Plus, teasing her on these occasions is starting to become worthwhile because her pissed off expression just makes me want to smirk.

"I thought I told you that I can't be bothered. It's not a question about not knowing the answer, if I wanted to know the answer to that question then I could easily. However, it's not worthy of my time."

"Oh, alright. Sure."

It seems that she cares a great deal about something that entirely regards her. Although she's not showing in her words that she does, her face tells it all.

Such a shame though. She looks adorable but then you find out that she's a wolf wearing sheep's clothing once you minimally interact with her.

Though, this is pretty good. I finally can interact with a girl without having to care about her entire feelings and just say whatever comes to my mind.

"Stop. I get sarcasm. Don't do that in my presence. Answer me seriously. Do you actually think that if I put enough effort into something that I can't just know the answer to it?"

Not sure if she noticed, but this was revenge for the first time she answered me. Although, she wasn't being sarcastic most likely. That was her oblivious rude opinion about myself.

"You're probably useless. Win this exam if you can, then maybe I'll change my opinion about this."

No way she wins this exam. Plus, when I was betting, I made absolutely sure to write her name along with Tsudo firstly. This just shows how confident I am that she's going to fail.

There is just no way of winning for her. When you are paired up with someone like Tsudo, you are not winning. It's over.

"Prepare to face defeat. You'll regret this."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Woah, look at you. Don't break yourself down with that fake attitude."

However, she did not reply to my insult and grabbed her pen once again while forming silence.

Wait, is she serious? No, even if she is, she can't possibly win. She's argumentative and far too arrogant to win this. How can someone who only excels individually possibly win an exam that contrasts the former saying?

And, I forgot about something important. Because right now, someone is staring at me like she wants to condemn me to hell.

Come on, it's just a simple conversation, nothing is actually happening...

9 am.

"Bad luck in the exam, morons."

You're supposed to say good luck... I'm seriously and sincerely glad that he's not our homeroom teacher anymore.

And noticeably, Yuka-sensei wasn't here. That's because yesterday, she told us that we should move to the P.E field instead of waiting here.

Which meant that we would have to ultimately move by ourselves. That's actually perfect now that I think about it. And also, since we are going to do physical tasks, every single one of us is already on their P.E clothes.

Considerably, I'm dressed in all black. Black shoes, black pants, black shirt, black hair, you name it.

After Basara-sensei left, the majority of the pairings either left together or just went straight to the field. However, I went to search for someone who was already far ahead of me.

Well, she was walking with fast steps, for some reason. I only took a short notice of this when leaving through the main door located at the left end of the classroom. Of course, I immediately went to her location even though she looked like she didn't want to meet me...

"Hey. Hey, Yulia... Yes, you, Yulia, can you hear me...? Oiiii."

I even put myself in front of her just to make sure that she would notice a bit of my existence and it worked, but...

"Yes, I can hear you. What do you want?"

But she just kept on walking while going in another direction.

"Are you mad at me? Was it because I was talking to her? Don't be, I can actually explain..."

This was the only reason I could think of, and taking into consideration certain events that happened yesterday, I could totally understand her intentions.

Nonetheless, Yulia has to understand that it was actually a stupid argument with only sour intentions being displayed.

"Oh, you already know it then. Start talking."

Fortunately, we were all alone since the majority of the pairings or just the overall students from our class had already taken off. Otherwise, this would've raised a strong level of controversy. As a matter of fact, I would very much avoid someone to get a look at this.

Kawahara's words came to my mind once again. How I had to portray a genuine act yet not be genuine.

If so, then I will once again deliver my genuine act.

"I asked her if she knew something about Ikkiri and Arkalee. You might not know this but I'm quite curious at times, so I decided to ask the person that was closer to me, physically speaking, about it. However, we ended up arguing about it because she refused to give me a straight answer about it."

Although, our conversation prolonged itself due to my own teasing, but mentioning that is absolutely out of the question.

"And you couldn't wait to ask me instead?"

How foolish of me. Forgetting to prioritize her opinion. I'm still green in this it seems.

"You are right. I am sorry. I should have waited and just asked you. I got greedy due to my own curiosity. Alright, from now on, I will prioritize your opinion above my curiosity, I promise."

If I were to take into consideration how I should have acted, then I'm definitely in the wrong here. There's no excuse for this.

"With that said, let's get going or else we will be late. In the meanwhile, tell me about it, please."

I made sure to add the please in the end to show just how much I care to her.

As we descended downstairs, our steps' pace slowly decreased.

Naturally, I would comment on how pretty she looks despite being in her gym clothes. I like to think that if you are in your gym clothes, then your essential appearance would decrease in terms of vigor and prestige, but that's not the case at all.

This is also not the first time I have witnessed this. However, perhaps it's in the way that she walks or in the way that she swings her hair braids, she always looks astonishing. Furthermore, her skin is so well taken care of that it really makes me think that she put a great deal of effort into taking care of it.

Though, her hair braids are new ones this time. Waterfall braids, if my memory is correct. Yet as mentioned, now is not the time to praise her looks. That can come later.

"I said that you should have asked me earlier for a few reasons, however, the main one would be, I know why they are not present. Although I have no direct contact, I heard Akimiyashika and Hinagiku murmuring something about Ikkiri suffering from a stomachache. And considering that both Aki and Hina are close to her, I would say that's entirely true. However, I have no idea what happened to Arkalee. She has not left her room whatsoever."

Thus, according to Yulia, Ikkiri is suffering from stomachache and Arkalee's reason for her absence is also unknown. It doesn't actually matter honestly.

I could have just asked Yuka-sensei about this when I'm with her. Though, that would miss out on the whole point. Sure, getting information earlier about this is nice yet the main reason why I bothered was to make sure that Yulia would view my action as an action that would show that I care for her.

Hopefully, she sees that I bothered to ask her all of this for this reason.

"I see, you do know a lot about this. You're knowledgable. Thanks. I was simply curious because Akihiko is missing as well and according to Yuka-sensei, he's also absent for reasons that are not so different from both Ikkiri and Arkalee."

Though, I have no clue why Arkalee is absent. What exactly happened regarding that? Doesn't this mean that Hyunda is in trouble?

"Well, you know, once you get to know me, I really do know a lot when I want to know. And I wouldn't miss out on this, at all. I also got curious too when I noticed that they weren't present, but the reason for Ikkiri's absence immediately connected to what I heard from Aki and Hina earlier.

Yulia's smiling while saying all of this which makes me believe that she isn't that worried about the trifling matter of me speaking to my table partner at all.

Now that I'm through this and now that there is no more necessary room for discussion, I suppose I should show a progressive increase of caring from my part.

"Did you sleep well? I'm sorry for still not asking about this."

Not the greatest starter, but at least I have to start somewhere. That's what actually matters.

"A-Ah.. I slept well, thank you for asking. But... It... took me a while to sleep... because... you know..."

"I-I see...!"

I do know why, but it's suddenly awkward to look at her in the eyes for some reason. Subsequently, I'm feeling a dreadful sense of shame right now.

Furthermore, I'm starting to regret certain words I said back then because right now, this sensation of tingling embarrassment is consuming the hell out of me.

"What about you...? Did you also have the same similar trouble?"

Considering how you didn't explain your actual trouble, it's hard to tell. However, if we are talking based on assumptions and if mine is entirely correct, then without a doubt...

"Yeah... It took me a while to sleep. I think I stayed up until like an hour or two. It got incredibly hard for me to sleep... Ahh... I don't really wanna talk about it..."

In order to hide my embarrassment, which was manifesting itself now, out of all the times, I placed my two palms on my face to completely hide my face and visible embarrassment.

"Talk about it, please!"

But I should've known better. Because Yulia's the type of person who asks such unreasonable things at the most inconvenient times...

Yet right now, if I am to be consumed by this embarrassment; it's a bad thing. The whole point is to show and portray a genuine act. Therefore, that implies being truthful on my behalf.

"Look... I wasn't expecting to say it, but I did, and once I thought about it, later on, I got..."

"Y-You got....?"

It also doesn't help the fact that she's basically on my face. I can't hide my face in my palms any longer, thus I avoided looking directly at her all this time, but right now...

"I got stupidly embarrassed. I think I wanted to commit suicide on the ninth degree. I wanted to hide in a hole. And never come out of it. That's how embarrassed I got."

It was actually way more than that. However, to keep my sanity, I constantly reminded myself that this was all for the greater good of passing the exam and nothing else.

Though, if the words back then were immensely genuine then I would have most likely just straight up kermit.

Depending on someone else's emotions is something completely orthodox to me.

"Why would you want to commit suicide....?"

As soon as she asked me that question, I looked at her and saw the resemblance of a small dangerous expression, which probably meant that she misunderstood something.

If that's the case then I will have to further my act... Who knew that being genuine even for the sake of pulling out an act could be this outrageously hard...

Damn you, Kawahara!

"Ahhh! Don't misunderstand, please! It's just... Those were words I never thought I would say to anyone at all... That's why I said that I wanted to commit suicide because it was unthinkable of me to say those words in the first place."

Future self, friendly reminder, although portraying yourself as genuine might initially sound easy, it's actually not.

"I-It was embarrassing for me too! Don't think that you were the only one who went through ordeals of shame..."

Oh, I'm really grateful to hear that. My virgin heart is racing as we speak, but that's not exactly making me feel more relaxed. In fact, it's giving me an insane amount of exhilaration. 

"But... What's done is done. I don't regret saying those words to you. Don't misunderstand that, that's all I ask you."

It would be extremely bad for me if she thought of my words as fake or superficial. Convincing her that that's not the case at all is an important part of this.

"Me too... I don't regret it. You know, it feels pretty good to open yourself up to someone when you have never done it in your whole life. These words right now, they always remained unthinkable and surely, I didn't imagine that I would meet someone who I could be this open to, especially in a place like this. But, it happened. Therefore, I will treasure every single moment of it!"

I might be starting to slowly regret pulling this act. If Kawahara is surely correct, then it was ultimately worth it. But if not, then I'm entirely screwed. Although, I will kill Kawahara if he's incorrect.

He must think to himself as the strongest, but he's no match for me, at all.

"Do you remember when you asked me if I had something planned for the end of the month?"

"Y-You remember that....?"

Barely honestly. It almost slipped my mind, but now that it came across my thoughts, I could utilize this chance to give her a stronger emotional connection. 

"Of course I remember. How could I forget? But regarding that, I wanted to ask you something."

"Oh, ask, ask."

Her crooked expression from below was weirdly showing how curious she was about my upcoming question. 

"Can I meet your parents?"

"Eh?"

Yulia's expression went blank, but it wasn't for just a random reason. I was aware of my own question and what a girl would often interpret from this. 

However, this is such a good card. I never truly understood why it was always underrated. 

"I was thinking about it. Since at the end of the month we can leave school, shouldn't we pass our time together? It's just such a waste to spend my time if it's not with you, Yulia."

Even though I've already said to Kuzan that I would accompany him, realistically speaking, I could very well just alter the events to my own convenience. Plus, since Kawahara already said that he's going along with him, I'm not entirely needed.

Yet I'll still go if I have the time. Kawahara's taunt hasn't left my mind.

"Why are you saying stuff like that right now!? Don't you know how embarrassing it is?! Geez!"

Good point. But I already knew that it was embarrassing. It was meant to force out your reaction, though. And it didn't backfire.

Your facial expression mixed with your rare visible embarrassment is something worthwhile, Yulia.

"S-Sorry. I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I...?"

Am I?

I'm perfectly aware of my own intentions yet she isn't. That's why I'll go out of my own way to explain them.

"But what do you want to meet my parents for...?"

Most likely, she's trying to confirm my intentions and that's completely fine. Why would I ask something like that? Why would I give up my free time that only happens once per month just to meet her parents?

Surely, she must've thought to herself that I am not someone who would vastly prioritize her, but she's wrong.

It doesn't matter if I know she's wrong, I have to show her that she's wrong.

"Oh, why? You see, that's because I need to tell them something urgent. I was really aware of it all this time, but now, I feel the need to let them know. It has to be them in specific."

Almost all the time, whenever attempting to understand or visualize something, or simply perceive something as a whole, there is always a singular thing that just about everyone else will miss.

I, however, rarely miss those things and right now, it became completely obvious. Nevertheless, I already knew all about it, really.

"W-What is it? Did something happen? What is this urgent thing that you must absolutely tell my parents?"

Our pace is quite slow, which means that if we continue this conversation we will arrive late. And considering what happened this morning, I would say that's out of the question.

Of course, unlike Hyunda, I will not massively curse if I am reprehended with two warnings, but I'll still be angry about it, even though I won't show it.

And just like that, we had arrived at the edge of the block. Slowly but surely, I pushed the main entrance door which emitted a rusty noise. 

Looks like this will work. After all, as soon as I say these words, I should be able to get her on a high emotional state which will benefit me and of course, I will have to run for my life.

Not because the danger is about to reach the surface but because I can't talk to Yulia after I say these upcoming embarrassing words.

Enough is enough.

"So you really want to know? What I must tell your parents in specific? I'm afraid that they don't know this. Otherwise, it just wouldn't make any sense for someone of your caliber to be here."

Yulia started to pout because I wasn't telling her a single thing and I was slowly but surely only getting into it. Am I getting this from Kawahara?

No, no way.

"Just tell me what it is! I want to know!"

"Even if you don't know it?"

"Even if I don't know it!"

I wonder if someone has told her this already? If so, that's unfortunate. However, if fate is on my side, then I will be the first one.

Ah man, this chilly weather is becoming a serious problem right now. My sacred thumbs feel like they are about to go numb. Given that that's the case, I ought to hurry up, which means I have to end this now.

"Hehehe, alright. Listen up, this might come to you as a surprise, but it seems no one knows this yet. I'm lucky to be the first one to notice it, so don't be too shocked!"

"Oh my gosh, just tell m-"

"You're beautiful."

Alright, nigerundayo.