I’m a Loner, Gloomy Guy Who Accidentally Witnessed the Moment the Top Girl in the Class Got Dumped. I Didn’t Know What to Say to Comfort Her, So I Just Gave Her a Cola and Somehow We Started Having Lunch Together~ - 37-38

Chapter 37: An Important Talk

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By early July, the temperature had risen sharply. The bench behind the gym was in the shade, so it was still better than most places, but even so, it was hot. As I ate my lunch, a thin sheen of sweat seeped out on my forehead.

“Isn’t it way too hot today? At this rate I feel like I’m going to melt and fuse with the bench or wait, what’s wrong?”

I had been about to make some small talk with Amamiya-san beside me, but I stopped midway.

I had noticed that she was staring straight at me.

“…Actually, I have something really important to talk to you about.”

Amamiya-san’s demeanor was heavy, and she wore an unusually serious expression. Seeing her so different from her usual self, I instinctively held my breath.

“I think you’ll be pretty shocked when you hear this. …You might even die of shock. Are you prepared?”

“…I’m not prepared for that at all. I don’t want to die yet, and you don’t have to force yourself to tell me—”

“Then here I go…!”

Apparently, in Amamiya-san’s mind, what she was going to say had already been decided from the start.

What was the point of asking me, then? Or wait, does she think it’s fine if I die?

Feeling a little sad at being treated so casually, I still gave a small nod.

“You know how my looks give off that ‘super smart, really intelligent girl’ vibe, right?”

“Huh, sorry. I’ve never really thought that—”

“But actually… I’m completely terrible at studying!!”

Grabbing the hem of her skirt tightly with both hands, Amamiya-san let out a full-force shout. Apparently, this was the content that was supposed to be “shock-death level surprising.” However, I was not surprised at all. Of course, I didn’t die of shock either. If anything, though it felt rude to think so, it made perfect sense to me.

I had spent a considerable amount of time with Amamiya-san up to now, but I had never once felt any sense of intellectual sharpness from her. I had kind of suspected it already, so my honest impression was more like,”I knew it!” Honestly, I would have been far more shocked if she had said something like, “Actually, I’m smart enough to rank in the top ten of the grade!”

Still, trying to read the room, I replied.

“W-What!? No way!”

Since I was saying something I didn’t believe even a little, it came out as a painfully flat delivery, but that couldn’t be helped. I hoped she would forgive me.

“Right!? You must’ve thought it was super unexpected, but it’s true!”

However, Amamiya-san didn’t see through my stiff acting at all. She fully believed I was surprised and didn’t doubt it in the slightest.

She really seems like the type who’d get scammed easily…

Her sheer gullibility made me worry about her future.

“You remember the midterms we had in May, right? Well, my scores back then were kiiiinda bad… So if I don’t do my best in the finals next week, I’m in real trouble.”

“When you say bad, how bad were your midterm scores?”

“Ninety-two.”

“…………”

I was left speechless. The shock made me choke on my words.

“Just to be clear, that wasn’t the average per subject or anything, right?”

“Of course not! That’s the total for everything!”

There had been twelve subjects on the midterm exams, each worth up to 100 points. If you got a perfect score on everything, that would be 1,200 points. Taking that into account, a total score of 92 points was… Awful. Far too awful. It easily went beyond what could be brushed off as just “kinda bad.”

How did she even get accepted into this high school…? This was the second-ranked academic prep school in the city.

“I heard Murase-kun is really smart, right? So that’s why… Teach me how to study!”

“Huh, me?”

As Amamiya-san said, my grades were fairly good. In the midterms, I had placed in what people would call the “top group” or “one of the smart ones.” Even so, I couldn’t bring myself to nod yes.

Up until now, I had never once taught someone else how to study. I really wanted to help Amamiya-san, but I was worried about whether I could actually teach her properly.

“If I get similar scores again, it’ll be remedial classes, remedial classes, remedial classes… A storm of remedials! If that happens, my precious summer vacation will be ruined…! So please, Murase-kun! Save me!!”

Leaning forward, Amamiya-san tightly grabbed both of my hands. Her face as she looked up at me seemed like it might burst into tears at any moment. Her desperation came through so strongly it almost hurt. When she begged me like that, there was no way I could possibly refuse her.

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Chapter 38: Studying for the Test

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That day after school. I brought Amamiya-san with me and returned to my house. The reason I brought her here was nothing other than to immediately fulfill our promise that I would “teach her how to study.” The two of us entered my room and sat facing each other across the low table.

“First, I want you to tell me which subjects you’re good at and which ones you’re bad at, Amamiya-san.”

Final exams were next week. There wasn’t much time left. Teaching every subject to the point where she could score reasonably well would be quite difficult. In that case, studying blindly wouldn’t work. We needed to be strategic.

So I decided to set priorities. For subjects she was good at, she should be able to score decently even with less study time. We didn’t need to spend much time on those. Instead, we would devote that time to studying the subjects she was weak in. We would focus intensively on her weak subjects.

That was the plan I intended to follow.

“Hmm, let’s see… I don’t really have any subjects I’m good at, and the subjects I’m bad at are studying!”

Amamiya-san winked, closing one eye with a snap. On top of that, she somehow struck a smug pose, even though this was absolutely not the situation for it.

Oh no… This was way more serious than I had expected. I was already losing confidence before we’d even started studying. Still, this was a problem…

Amamiya-san’s weak subjects were all of them. That meant my plan of narrowing things down to just her weak subjects wouldn’t work. I would have to think of a different approach. She could probably handle memorization-based subjects to some extent even without me nearby, so it would be better to focus on something else.

In that case, we’d start with… This subject. I took a single book out of my school bag and spread it out on the table. It was a math textbook.

“Let’s do math today.”

“Okay! Nice to work with you! …Ah, wait a second.”

Amamiya-san pulled a white headband out of her school bag and wrapped it around her forehead. After tying it tightly, she shouted energetically.

“Alright! Ready to go!”

Why does she even have a headband in her bag…? Does she carry that around all the time?

I wanted to point it out, but time was precious right now. Suppressing my curiosity, I decided to start test prep. I explained the concepts while actually solving problems for her. At the same time, I went over common mistakes and important points to watch out for.

As I did so, Amamiya-san nodded repeatedly in agreement. Her expression was extremely serious, and I could tell she was sincerely engaged.

“Okay, now try solving this problem on your own.”

Once I finished the basic explanation, we moved on to the next step. By having her solve a problem herself, I could check whether she had really understood what I’d explained.

“Alright! I’m gonna get this one right in one shot!”

“Yeah, that’s the spirit. Do your best.”

Well, getting it right on the first try was probably going to be difficult. Considering her midterm test scores, it was rude to say, but the odds weren’t great. Most likely, I’d end up explaining where she went wrong. That was what I was thinking, but—

“…It’s correct.”

The result was unexpected. Not only was the final answer correct, but even the steps along the way were right. In other words, it was perfect. Completely flawless.

“It’s perfect! Congratulations!”

“Fufuun. This is the true power I unleash when I’m serious.”

With her arms crossed, Amamiya-san struck a smug pose again. This time, unlike the earlier wink, the smug look was perfectly appropriate.

“And your teaching was really good too, Murase-kun. It was super easy to understand!”

“…T-then let’s move on to the next problem. Try doing it on your own the same way.”

I was happy to be praised, but when it came so suddenly, I felt like I might start grinning uncontrollably, so I wanted her to stop. I hurriedly gave the next instruction. This problem was harder than the previous one. Surely this time the problem would be too much for her.

“…………Correct.”

Once again, my prediction was wrong. Even after raising the difficulty, Amamiya-san solved it perfectly. As she struck yet another smug pose, I stared at her wide-eyed. I certainly felt admiration, but at this point, surprise outweighed everything else.

“This might sound rude, but honestly, I’m amazed. It’s hard to believe your midterm scores were that bad.”

“My motivation is totally different from back then. I really don’t want to lose my summer vacation.”

“Come to think of it, you said something like that during lunch too. Is there something you want to do over summer break?”

“Yeah. I want to hang out a lot with you, Murase-kun and with my precious friends and make tons of fun memories!”

The reason Amamiya-san was working so hard… It was for my sake.

I never imagined she cared about me this much. As a friend, there was nothing that could make me happier.

“Amamiya-san. Thank—”

I tried to express my gratitude honestly, but my voice broke. Before I could finish, tears spilled out. Overcome with emotion, I ended up shedding tears of happiness.

“Ahhh? Whaaat’s wrong with you?”

Amamiya-san asked in an exaggerated tone. She knew perfectly well. She was just being mean. If she did that, how was I supposed to say my words of thanks?

“Okay, next problem.”

“Eh, wait a second, Murase-kun. No matter how you look at it, this one’s way too hard—”

“Okay, start!”

I presented a problem far more difficult than the previous two. It might have been a bit mean, but I wanted her to accept this as her well-deserved punishment.  Returning meanness with meanness, that was my way of doing things.

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