The Charm of the Popular Beautiful Succubus in Class Doesn't Work on Me ~ For Some Reason, This Beauty Keeps Trying to Hold My Hand ~ - 48

Chapter 48: …No. It Has to Be Today

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Even after the infamous “Kisara vs. Akanashi” incident, my study sessions with Kisara continued like normal every day. During these sessions, she thoroughly drilled me on my weak subjects, and outside of our study sessions, I still followed her instruction. I went through my textbooks ten times. And today, I finally finished my final exams without any issues.

“So, how do you think you did, Mr. Ranked 200th in the grade?”

Walking beside me, Kisara peered up at my face with a mischievous smile on her face.

“I know it sounds cocky to say this myself, but I think I’m actually a genius. I did surprisingly well.”

“Really? I thought there were quite a few tough questions in the test.”

“Some of the stuff you taught me came up exactly as it was, so there weren’t any questions I couldn’t answer at all.”

“If you didn’t have any  questions you couldn’t answer, you might even beat me, you know?”

Kisara chuckled, looking clearly amused.

“Yeah, right. I highly doubt I could beat you, but up until now, I used to turn in my test sheets full of blank spaces. That was the normal thing to do for me, this time, I could at least take an educated guess even for questions I wasn’t sure about and write something down.”

“Ohh, looks like my lessons are really sinking in.”

“For real, I owe you everything, Kisara-sama.”

“You really did a great job.”

Kisara beamed at me with a smile so radiant that all my exam fatigue vanished. That smile alone made me genuinely glad that I had worked so hard. And more than anything, having her acknowledge my effort made me happy.

“Seriously, thank you. It’s all thanks to you, Kisara.”

“Wha-…?! It’s too soon to thank me! What if your score ends up being really low in the end?”

She made a teasing face at me, sticking out her tongue in a playful gesture. That said, it was painfully obvious she only did that to hide her embarrassment. Still, she seemed to be in an especially good mood today, probably from the relief of having the exams done and over with. The little hums she occasionally let slip made that pretty clear.

“Hey, hey, Michihito-kun. Now that exams are over, don’t you feel like blowing off some steam?”

Surprised by her sudden suggestion, I turned to look at her—only to find her gazing up at me with those big, expectant eyes. Her gaze was filled with excitement and curiosity, as if she were tempting me into something.

“Well, yeah… We’ve been studying nonstop lately, so I guess we haven’t had much fun…”

Thinking she was up to something again, I responded cautiously on purpose.

“Then, how about this?”

Kisara brought a hand to her mouth and formed a circle with her fingers as she made some kind of gesture.

“……Uh, soft-serve ice cream?”

“Wrong!”

She then mimed opening and closing her mouth like a fish.

“……Wait, could it be…”

“Yep! Exactly what you’re thinking.”

“Karaoke!”

We shouted in unison.

“So, let’s go to karaoke! If we head into the city center right now, we should be able to find a cheap place to sing.”

Karaoke, huh… I crossed my arms, pretending to think it over. Normally, I’d say yes without a second thought, but something had been on my mind.

“Kisara…”

“Hmm? What?”

“You haven’t been sleeping much these past few days, have you?”

“(Guh…!)”

Kisara’s expression immediately stiffened as she awkwardly averted her gaze from me. I had noticed it for a while now. Faint dark circles were evident under her eyes. 

“You’ve been pushing yourself really hard just to tutor me, haven’t you?”

“N-No, no, no, it’s got nothing to do with that. I’ve just been having a little trouble falling asleep lately. Besides, I don’t even need to study to get good scores anyway.”

Her eyes darted around anxiously. It was a rare sight to witness.

Looks like I hit the mark. I guess the pressure of being the top student in the grade is even heavier than I imagined and on top of that, she still made time to teach me… Kisara… She’s really… But now that I knew, I couldn’t just let her keep pushing herself like this.

“Let’s call it a day for now and go to karaoke another time.”

“…No.”

In response to my suggestion, Kisara pouted her lips and immediately refused, like a stubborn child.

“I mean… We can go to karaoke anytime we want. There’s no need to push yourself.”

“…No. It has to be today.”

“You’re being unreasonable—”

“Because…”

“…Because?”

“June is almost over, you know?”

Just moments ago, she had been sulking stubbornly, but now Kisara pressed closer. She was practically pleading with me. Overwhelmed by her intensity, I instinctively took a step back. She had a point… June was ending soon, and summer vacation was just around the corner. Not that I didn’t want to go to karaoke. If anything, I wanted to go too, but I couldn’t shake the guilt of having pushed her too hard because of me… 

I stared at her and Kisara was gazing up with ridiculously tearful eyes. She looked like she was putting on an exaggerated performance. If real life had a sound effect, I would be hearing the “sparkling~ sparkling~” sound by now. 

…Haah. Fine. The tests are finally over anyway. It should be okay to go to the karaoke today… Right?

“Alright, I got it. But we’re heading home before it gets too late. Three hours is the limit!:

Hearing that, Kisara’s face instantly lit up.

“Yes! That’s perfect! If anything, three hours is way too long!”

She actually looked kind of adorable when she was this excited. 

“Alright then, let’s head downtown. Get ready, because my amazing voice is gonna leave you completely mesmerized!”

I gave her a thumbs-up teasingly. 

“Fufu~ Michihito-kun? A good singer? I really can’t imagine that at all~”

“Hey, I’ll have you know, I’m actually confident in my singing.”

“Ohh~? And what genre is your specialty?”

“You’ll have to wait till we get there to find out.”

With that, Kisara and I hopped onto the tram. The ice-cold air from the A/C made it feel like summer had already arrived.

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