When an Oblivious Handsome Older Man Went Back in Time and Was Building Harlem - Chapter 13

Ten days until the midterm exams. With club activities on break, the school is completely focused on the tests. Since I’m still a second-year high school student, there’s no atmosphere of entrance exams at all, and not even the atmosphere of tests. I feel that among the five subjects tested in the midterms, the math-related subjects are the ones I’m least good at, so I was heading to the library to study for them.

The library was crowded because of the upcoming tests, and there were no empty individual study desks, and almost all the group tables were also occupied. The only available seat was next to Miwano-san from my class. I hesitated a bit to sit next to a girl whose name I didn’t know, but thinking it wouldn’t be a problem since she was an acquaintance, I took my seat.

“I’m sorry, excuse me for sitting next to you.”

I whispered to Miwano-san and opened the textbook. Even though I said I wasn’t good at it, since I had done it at least once before, most of the time when I reviewed the class, I thought, “Ah, I did this kind of thing back then.” I would look back at the class and make a rough guess, but since my guesses rarely turned out to be correct, I didn’t trust this intuition. I was the type who learned by writing, so I kept writing important-looking formulas.

Repeating that for an hour already. Just as I was thinking of taking a short break, I noticed Miwano-san next to me, tilting her head and groaning. As I stretched my back, it seemed she was also studying math. I was studying the vector section of Math B, but Miwano-san was studying Math 2.

“Do you not understand this part?”

I ended up talking to her as if she were a kindergarten kid, but as soon as she saw me studying math, her eyes lit up and she looked my way.

“Takai-kun, you understand…!?”

“I understand, but I don’t think I’m very good at teaching, so don’t expect too much from me.”

By the way, the scope is the arithmetic and geometric means. Nostalgic. Teaching others what I understand also helps my own learning, so I willingly taught Miwano-san. It reminded me of output, but I thought that as I got older, I was becoming less and less able to output. There were many times when I couldn’t remember things I wanted to remember at all, but maybe the brain of a high school student is young, so that wasn’t the case at all.

“…How about this? Does this work for you?”

“Wow!! That was super easy to understand! I think I can do well on the test now! Thank you!!”

“I’m glad.”

I couldn’t help but think that the way she was expressing joy was like a Chihuahua getting its head petted, almost like a small animal, and it was cute. I know it’s inappropriate to think someone in high school is cute given the age difference, but once the thought is there, there’s no helping it. I felt a bit down, but coming back to this world, or rather this era, where everyone around me is in high school, might be pulling my thoughts closer to that of a high schooler.

“Th-Thank you, Takai-kun!”

“Yeah. If there’s anything you don’t understand, just let me know again.”

Again. When I said that, Miwano-san hesitated a bit.

“No, it’s okay! You even helped me with the parts I didn’t understand and the areas I hadn’t studied enough yet. It’s already 5 o’clock, and my mom is coming to pick me up, so I’m heading home now.”

“Be careful on your way home, well… see you tomorrow.”

“…Yeah! See you tomorrow!”

I see. Miwano-san’s mother is picking her up. Since she was previously a victim of groping, commuting—no, going to school—was a concern, but if that’s the case, I feel relieved. More than that, I feel like time flew by so quickly; it was already two hours after I started teaching Miwano-san.

Even though I got tired from studying for just one hour, I was fine teaching for two hours. I think the human brain is conveniently designed.

“Haa… I guess I’ll head home too.”

Today, I was able to tackle the math concerns at the same time, and I thought I would study other subjects after returning home, so I headed back.