I Chose the Plain Girl Instead of the Class’s Top Three Beauties, and Somehow She Became the Heroine - 32

Chapter 32: Studying for the Test

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《Hiroko Anno’s POV》

After consulting with Onee-chan, I decided to take action. So I woke up thirty minutes earlier than usual, and took three deep breaths in front of the mirror. I brushed my hair and lifted the position of my hairpin just a little. Normally, I was scared to show my face. But now, I wanted Mukei-kun to look at me the way he looked at Kiritani-san and the others. My lip color was a light shade. The light novel I had borrowed was in my bag. The rabbit keychain made a small sound as it swayed.

“Yeah, it’s okay. Mukei-kun said I was pretty.”

At the entrance hall, I wiped my glasses. I slowed my steps on the stairs, then counted in front of the classroom door. One, two, three.

“G-good morning, Mukei-kun.”

I had already checked that Mukei-kun was inside the classroom. My voice came out slightly louder than yesterday. Mukei-kun turned to me.

“Good morning, Anno-san.”

My chest felt lighter. I didn’t run away and kept going.

“For lunchtime today… Is it the courtyard again?”

“Of course.”

I was happy! Our little secret time, just the two of us. I went back to my seat and took out my textbook. On the top right of the blackboard, it said: “Midterms — One Week Left.” A restless murmur spread through the class. Okabe-kun laughed from the front, calling it “hell week,” and everyone laughed. I quietly wrote the date on the cover of my notebook. During the break after the first period, I stood up from my desk. 

One, two, three.

“Mukei-kun, is this word correct here?”

Miura-san was showing an English worksheet to Mukei-kun and asking him a question. That was supposed to be my question.

“Yeah, it’s correct. Are you bad at English, Miura-san?”

“I am, thanks.”

She refused to end it there. She took one more step.

“Mukei-kun, which subjects are you good at?”

“Math and English, I think. I like reading in Japanese class, though.”

That was the question I wanted to ask him!  And he was smiling so happily… Break time ended. I thought to myself, I had to get it next time for sure, but… Until the morning ended, I couldn’t talk to him again. Lunchtime came and we were at our usual bench.

“The test is coming up. How do you feel about it, Anno-san?”

“I like Japanese. Math takes time for me to understand though.”

“Then… If you want… Should we study together? There’s only one week until the test, right? How about if we study together an hour after school in the library? If it’s the two of us, maybe we can overcome our weak spots.”

My heart sped up at the suggestion. I opened my mouth carefully so I wouldn’t drop my words.

“Is it okay… If it’s me?”

“Yeah. I want to study with you, Anno-san.”

“Yes. Please.”

Mukei-kun checked his schedule.

“After school today, let’s tackle English and Math.”

“Yes. I’ll bring the Japanese quizzes.”

“Okay, I’m looking forward to it.”

The promise was decided. I wrote the time into my planner. The tip of my pen made a small sound. We ate our bento under the camphor tree. When I got nervous I ate slowly, so I still had a tamagoyaki and one umeboshi rice ball left.

“Is that enough?”

“Yes! No problem!”

I was a small eater to begin with, so a little food at lunch was fine by me.

“I see. Then, I’m counting on you after school.”

“And I am counting on you!”

My chest felt warm.

“I want to set just one more study rule.”

“Yes.”

“Ask questions right away. Don’t stay stuck for five minutes. If you get stuck, you speak up.”

“Understood. If I get stuck, I’ll tell you right away.”

The chime rang. I organized what I needed for going home in my mind and stood from the bench.

“At four o’clock at the library entrance then?”

“Yes. I won’t be late.”

The afternoon classes had a lot of numbers involved. Every time my hand almost froze while drawing lines in my notebook, I remembered our four o’clock promise. That alone helped me straighten my posture again.

After school. I arrived at the library five minutes early. Through the small window in the door, I peeked inside. Half the seats were occupied. The librarian sat at the counter. I checked the clock. Two minutes until four. My heartbeat rose. One, two, three.

“Sorry. Akira called out to me, so I barely made it in time.”

“No, I just got here too.”

Mukei-kun had a reference book and loose-leaf paper. I had a vocabulary book and a workbook. We took a seat in a hidden spot in the corner of the library. It was a little dim, making it harder to see the words on the page. But because it felt like a seat just for the two of us, my heart pounded.

The chair legs scraped quietly across the floor. I adjusted my knees and placed one pencil on the desk. He set the timer and started it. We began with an English passage. I underlined the text and wrote the key points for each paragraph. I asked my first question at the five-minute mark.

“In this paragraph, does ‘which’ refer to the previous noun?”

“Yeah, the antecedent here is the decision. It’s a relative pronoun.”

His answer was short and quick. The time I spent stuck grew shorter. The sound of writing continued. Next was math. Quadratic functions and their maxima and minima. I found the vertex, then rewrote the range. I stopped once.

“I’m not sure about the signs here.”

“You’re correct up to this point. Just the last inequality flips. The direction changes before and after substitution.”

I drew the line again. One mistake disappeared. My chest felt a little lighter. The twenty-five minutes ended, and we took a five-minute break.

“You’re really focused.”

“Yes. With two people, even if I stop, I can move forward again right away.”

The next twenty-five minutes. This time it was Japanese summary writing. I handed my summary to Mukei-kun. He corrected punctuation and repetition with a red pen.

“These two lines overlap in meaning. Keeping this one will make it cleaner.”

“Thank you.”

We marked each other’s mistakes in red. I didn’t feel bad. If anything, I could see things I couldn’t see before. The final twenty-five minutes were for individual review. I moved my mouth silently as I went over the English example sentences. Mukei-kun reworked two function problems on a separate sheet.

The timer rang to signal the end. My shoulders relaxed. I cleaned the desk and gathered the eraser shavings. After that, I wiped my bottle.

“Thank you. I made a lot of progress.”

“Me too.”

We said it to each other and smiled. My voice was small, but it came out straight.

“Let’s do it again tomorrow.”

“Yes. Please.”

When we left the library, the hallway air felt slightly cool. On the stairs, I stopped once.

“Mukei-kun.”

“Yeah?”

“Today… I was able to talk to you first. Um… I was really nervous.”

“I noticed. I was happy. Thank you.”

Just that was enough to make my feet lighter. I walked to the entrance and changed my shoes. On the train home, I flipped through my vocabulary book during my one station trip. Then I read my light novel and closed the page. I had gained one more promise today. A quiet calm settled within my heart.

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