“Congratulations, everyone. You’ve all officially finished the agricultural planning examination.” Mr. Buscher sighed, clapping for all of them and shooting them a weak smile from the front of the room. “And according to the initial results, it looks like you’ve all passed.”
He squinted at his teacher’s monitor up at the front, glancing over the scores for each of the students. “Yes, it looks like you’ve all done very well, too.” He murmured, turning and smiling at their crowd. “You can all be quite proud of yourselves for your performance today.”
“That took forever.” Someone whispered from the back of the class, sighing heavily at the end of his complaint. “That second-year sure took his time with the exam.”
“Everyone else was done way before him!” A girl hissed back, scoffing at the end of hers. “Why did we all have to sit here while he finished?”
Hidari hummed at their complaints, tuning them out and smiling at the back of Gen’s head. It looked like Gen had indeed been the last one to finish.
Hidari had finished his exam a while ago, around the same time as the first six or seven finishers, and he’d just started studying for other classes in the meantime. No one was allowed to leave the room until all testers were finished, but usually, most classes finished all tests in around an hour or two.
When the time started creeping closer to the three-hour limit, Hidari had glanced up from his study materials to see Gen’s head before him, still locked within the headset.
As the rumors said, the redheaded boy had taken his time with the simulation.
Hidari had no idea what he actually ended up doing in those sims that took so long, but he always seemed pretty pleased with himself when he came out of them. It was like he went in wanting to make sure he would finish with absolutely no regrets. Whatever he did in the sim, he’d do it to the fullest extent.
Hidari liked that about Gen.
“How was it?” He asked kindly, watching the taller boy’s head turn around to look at him.
Gen’s eyes were sparkling like always, and a huge grin crossed the boy’s face as he held up a thumbs-up. “Awesome!” The redhead chirped, beaming at Hidari. “I fixed my little issue from last time and got the village set up to take care of itself again.”
“That’s great.” Hidari smiled gently at the older boy, taking in the happiness radiating from the other’s face. He had no idea how something so simple would’ve taken so long, but Gen wasn’t one for many words. There was probably a lot more that had happened in the sim than the soundbite he offered up for everyone to hear.
“How did yours go, Bunny Boy?” Gen asked next, still grinning at Hidari. “Was it difficult? Sorry if this offends you, but I really can’t picture you farming or anything.”
Ah yes. The good old “Bunny Boy” nickname. Honestly, Hidari wasn’t even sure where Gen had picked the nickname up from. If it had been coming from anyone else, Hidari probably would’ve asked. But something about Gen made him feel like there genuinely wasn’t a good reason for it – it was just how Gen remembered his face.
But that wasn’t the piece of Gen’s statement that was tripping Hidari up the most. No. It was the reminder of farming that was getting him this time.
Hidari was careful to keep his expression schooled into a gentle laugh, rather than exposing the grimace that he wanted to give at hearing the horrible word. “Farming isn’t my strong suit.” He simply agreed, shrugging lightly. “It was…challenging, to say the least.”
Hidari paused there, looking at Gen carefully. He seemed like such a hard worker, and he was obviously very physically fit. Unlike Hidari, Gen was built for outdoor activities and demanding physical tasks, like farming under a blazing-hot sun at noon. He wondered if the older boy had ever actually experienced difficulties in sims involving physical labor. How did he handle those sorts of obstacles?
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“Gen,” Hidari began, opening his mouth to ask about it. Unfortunately, he was cut off before he could get too far.
“Hidari! How did the simulation go for you?” An excited voice asked as a girl came running up, standing beside Hidari’s desk eagerly. “Of course you passed, you’re perfect, but how did you go about it?”
“I bet he found a super effective way to do it!” Another boy chimed in, running up on Hidari’s other side with adoring eyes directed right at Hidari. “Right, Hidari? You probably have the highest score in class!”
Hidari laughed softly as more of his classmates came running up, holding his hands in the air in an effort to calm them down. “I really don’t think my score is all that impressive.” He smiled at them all, heart sinking on the inside as he slowly realized he was surrounded yet again. “Really. You all probably did much better than me.”
He was just trying to end the conversation so he could get back to Gen, but he should’ve known that statement wouldn’t have done the trick. It only made things worse.
“We could never!” The girl – Hidari recognized her as his classmate Marilyn – cried, clenching her fists in fiery determination. “Hidari is the most wonderful person in the entire school!”
“Everyone in the sim probably realized that, too!” The boy – Xiao Lu – agreed frantically on the other side. “They were probably moved by Hidari’s presence around them to start fixing everything themselves!”
…Yeah, maybe not so much.
When Hidari had arrived in his sim, the entire village had initially tied him up in the elder’s house to hold for ransom because they’d assumed he was a noble’s daughter. It had taken him three days alone to convince them he was just another peasant, and four more days besides to prove he wasn’t a girl. He hadn’t even been allowed to touch a farming implement prior to that, and his admittedly lackluster farming skills didn’t exactly set a good pace for the revitalization of the village afterwards.
He’d basically just established an agricultural plan, convinced everyone to follow it with his natural charisma, and provided a (feeble) helping hand every now and then until the sim deemed his set-up adequate.
He was no guiding agricultural light.
Gen, on the other hand, probably had something interesting to talk about.
“I appreciate your support everyone.” Hidari smiled, standing up from his desk. He tried to peer around the students now milling around the front of his desk, hoping to spot Gen, but there were too many bodies in the way.
And in general, he was too short to see over the bodies anyway. Curse his puberty for not ever kicking in.
“I think we should all continue to head to our next classes.” Hidari said briskly, looking around at all the students by his desk. “There are still a few periods left in the day, after all.”
“Can we just talk a little longer?” Marilyn begged, the entire crowd pressing in closer around him with her words. “Please? Just a little, Hidari?”
“I don’t have another class with you today!” Someone cried from the back. “I won’t be able to see you until tomorrow! How will I make it that far?”
“The same way you’ve done it every day this semester, perhaps.” Hidari thought to himself, forcing out a laugh in reality, instead. “That’s very sweet of you to say, but I’m sure you’ll all be fine. Now come on. Let’s head out.”
“But Hidari!” A hand suddenly reached out of nowhere and landed on his shoulder.
Oh no.
Alarm bells immediately began to go off in Hidari’s head as his blue eyes flicked to the hand, anxiety curling slightly in his lower stomach. “Michael,” He said swiftly, addressing the boy it belonged to. He only had a few seconds remaining to save this kid’s life. “Please let go of me before-”
“Who’s touching my brother?!” An angry voice growled, a new hand suddenly latching onto Michael’s wrist. With a sharp twist, Michael’s hand was ripped off Hidari’s shoulder, and Micahel began to cry out in pain as the twisting continued, finding his arm pressed firmly and uncomfortably against the small of his back.
“Don’t touch him.” Migi growled, her sharp eyes flared with fury as she leaned in behind Micahel. “We’ve had that rule established since day one. No. Touching.”
“I-I understand, Migi. I understand.” Michael stammered quickly, wincing as his hand dug into his back. “P-Please let me go!”
“Migi.” Hidari said gently, resting his fingers lightly on his twin’s shoulder. “He’s got the point.”
Migi growled once in Michael’s ear for emphasis, then released the shaking boy, scoffing at him as she took her place by Hidari’s side.
Hidari shot an apologetic smile at Michael, feeling a little guilty about the excessive aggression his older sister often showed, but the relief of being out of the clutches of his cult overpowered it.
“Again, let’s head to our next classes.” Hidari said aloud, gesturing at the open door to the classroom with a smile. “I’ll see you all tomorrow.”
Thank goodness he had a personal bodyguard walking around with him 24/7. He would never be able to escape these kinds of conversations as easily without her.