My Ex-Girlfriend Who Dumped Me, the Top Student, Is at Risk of Failing and Repeating a Year—but I’m Too Busy Tutoring a Former Shut-in Beauty To Get Back Together With Her - 1

Chapter 1: Discarding a Convenient Tool

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“Hey, Kashiwagi-kun. Why don’t we just end things?”

We were in the classroom after school. By the window where the sunset was streaming in, I—Minato Kashiwagi—was told it was over by Rina Aikawa, the girl I had been dating for three months.

At those abrupt words, my thoughts momentarily ground to a halt. However, the words that came out of my mouth were surprisingly calm, even to me.

“……May I ask why?”

“Why? Hmm, how should I put it? I mean, Kashiwagi-kun, you can’t do anything but study, right?”

Rina looked at her nails with a bored expression and let out a short, mocking laugh.

“Even when we’re together, the conversation is way too serious and boring, and our dates are always just picking out reference books or going to the library. Honestly, it’s suffocating.”

“That’s because you came crying to me saying, ‘If I fail the next test, I’ll have to repeat the grade,’ isn’t it? I only spent the time like that for your sake.”

“Ah, yeah, yeah. So I’m saying that condescending attitude of yours is what I can’t stand.”

A dry thud echoed. Rina tossed a single notebook onto my desk. It was the “Final Exam Prep: English & Math Complete Predicted Questions” that I had stayed up all night creating yesterday. It was a masterpiece of mine where I analyzed Rina’s weak areas from past exams and extracted only the key points with a high probability of appearing. With this, she should have been able to get an average score with ease.

“I don’t need this anymore. My new boyfriend is the ace of the soccer team. He’s not smart like you, Kashiwagi-kun, but he’s super fun to be around. He actually understands me.”

The ace of the soccer team….

Oh, she must mean Hasegawa, whom she’s been talking to a lot lately. He certainly is flashy, a central figure in the class, and the exact opposite type of person from a plain, bespectacled boy like me.

“Besides, I don’t need to study for tests anymore, do I? Hasegawa-kun said, ‘Studying is useless once you get out into the real world,’ and I agree.”

Rina wore a triumphant smile as she slung her bag over her shoulder.

“Well, that’s how it is. Thanks for doing my assignments until now, Kashiwagi-kun. Why don’t you do your best at just studying?”

“See ya,” she said with a light wave, and she walked out of the classroom. From the hallway, I immediately heard a sugary voice calling out, “Ah, wait for me, Hasegawa-kuun!”

The only things left behind were me and the discarded notebook. I let out a sigh and picked up that well-worn notebook.

“……Useless, huh.”

I am Minato Kashiwagi. My looks are average, and my athletic ability is mediocre. My only redeeming quality is studying. I haven’t yielded the top spot in my grade once since enrollment, but that’s all I am.

To Rina, I was probably nothing more than a “convenient answer-generating machine.” The contract period under the name of ‘lover’ had expired, and she moved on to a higher-performance, better-looking brand-name product. That was all there was to it.

“……Ridiculous.”

A dark emotion swirled deep in my chest. It would be a lie to say there was no resentment. But more than that, an intense sense of futility hit me. 

I should stop working hard for someone else’s sake. I only have studying anyway. In that case, I’ll push it to the limit by myself. I’m fed up with being jerked around by uncertain elements like other people.

I shoved the notebook roughly into my bag. It would be better to just go home and memorize English vocabulary. It was just as I had made that resolution and was about to leave the classroom….

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“—Kashiwagi. What’s with that gloomy face? You look like it’s the end of the world.”

Standing at the entrance of the classroom was a woman with her arms crossed. She wore a white lab coat loosely and had her long black hair tied back haphazardly. It was my homeroom teacher, Kyoko Saejima-sensei.

She taught chemistry. She was a cool beauty characterized by her almond-shaped eyes, and she was incredibly popular with students regardless of gender. She always seemed listless, but she faced her students’ problems with sincerity. She was that kind of “capable adult.”

“……Saejima-sensei. This is just my usual face.”

“Liar. You think you’re keeping a poker face, but your right eyebrow twitches when someone hits the nail on the head.”

Saejima-sensei approached, the clicking of her heels echoing, and she flicked my forehead.

“Ow……”

“Did something happen with Aikawa? I saw her running down the hallway in high spirits just now.”

“……You’re sharp.”

“I haven’t been a teacher for nothing. Well, it seems she lacked a bit of brain capacity to understand your value.”

Sensei took a lollipop out of her lab coat pocket and tossed it to me, saying, “Here, sugar replenishment.” If she didn’t have this way of treating me like a child, she would be even cooler.

“If this is consolation, I’m fine.”

“It’s not consolation. It’s an advance investment for the work you’re about to do.”

“Huh?”

“Kashiwagi. You’re free right now, aren’t you? You aren’t in a club, and your date plans with your girlfriend have vanished.”

“……Watch your phrasing.”

She lacked delicacy, but she cut to the core. Sensei gave a smirk and thrust a printout and a thick envelope at me.

“I have a favor to ask. It’s a job I can only ask of you.”

“Only me?”

“Yeah. It’s impossible for anyone but you, the top genius in class.”

I was slightly disarmed by Sensei’s words. Being told “I want to ask you because you’re a genius” immediately after being dumped for “only being able to study” was quite ironic. On the printout were an address and a map. And the name of a certain student was written there.

“Kotone Kisaragi……?”

I frowned at that name. She was a “truant” who hadn’t come to school once since the opening ceremony in April. Rumors in class said she had anthropophobia, or that she was a “ghost student”—not a ghost member of a club, but a ghost student.

“Please deliver this printout and these assignments to this girl’s house. While you’re at it, I want you to see how far behind she is in her studies.”

“You should just go, Sensei. Student guidance is the homeroom teacher’s job.”

“If I go, the mother over there might get overwhelmed and prostrate herself. Is it because I look scary?”

“So you are self-aware.”

“Shut it. Anyway, I thought she might feel a bit more at ease if it were you, a classmate.”

Sensei’s expression suddenly softened, and her tone became serious.

“It seems she has the intention to come to school. She just lacks a catalyst. …With that stiff, stubborn head of yours, you might be able to knock on her tightly closed door.”

“…Is that supposed to be a compliment?”

“It’s the highest praise I can offer to you. I’m counting on you, Kashiwagi. I’ll even add some color to your internal records as ‘special supplementary lessons’ for this.”

Sensei gave my shoulder a pat and hurried back to the staff room, her lab coat fluttering.

“Sigh……”

I looked down at the map in my hand.

A babysitter for a truant right after being dumped by my ex-girlfriend, huh. When you’re out of luck, you’re really out of luck.

As far as the map showed, the place was about a twenty-minute walk from here. Lacking the energy to refuse, I reluctantly readjusted my bag.

Even if I go home, I’ll only feel miserable looking at that notebook. I should just think of it as a way to kill time.

“……Might as well go.”

With heavy steps, I left the school behind.At this time, I didn’t know yet… That this capricious detour would end up changing my life in a big way.

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