Chapter 24: On Reassessing the Past and Building Toward the Future

It had been two weeks since my painfully awkward, straight-to-the-point confrontation with “Senpai”—
In other words, nearly a month had passed since Hikari Ardegan transferred to our school.

By that point, of course, the summer break exams had been graded and handed back.

Because of that, the mood in the classroom that afternoon was a strange mix of joy and despair.

“This time’s test wasn’t half bad for you, Nitta. Looks like you really put in the effort over summer break.”

The teacher who handed me my exam paper was smiling brightly.

“Ooh, let’s see here.”

“…Why are you the one checking it?”

When I got back to my seat, Gōenji snatched my paper like it was his God-given right.

Then, as if I’d just betrayed him personally, he gave me a sharp, suspicious glare.

“Y-You… you’re not the real Nitta-kun, are you!? The one I knew was a fellow warrior in the red zone—a noble rival in the fight for failing grades!”

“Gōenji, that’s not what you call a noble rivalry. That’s called a toxic relationship.”

“B-But still…”

“Fufufu… It’s all thanks to me, you know. Yep, for Yousuke, this is a stellar result.”

A voice chimed in from behind, throwing a comment at the still-unconvinced Gōenji.

Our seats by the window were arranged vertically—Gōenji, me, and then Hikari—so even during class, it was easy for the three of us to chat.

“Hm? Thanks to you, Ardegan-san?”

“Of course! I’ve been tutoring him one-on-one. With me as his teacher, there’s no way he wouldn’t improve!”

Hikari proudly stood tall and puffed out her chest.

To that, Gōenji muttered under his breath, “Hmm… private study sessions for two… so bittersweet…”

…Setting aside the weird reaction, it’s true that I’d been getting help from Hikari with my studies.

She managed to catch up on an entire year’s worth of coursework ridiculously fast—like a sponge soaking up water.

Of course, part of that had to be because she already had a solid foundation through middle school.

That, and her mom apparently ran a borderline-Spartan household.

Though according to Hikari herself, the real reason was “My brain’s just built different.”

And sure enough, in just one week, she’d completely surpassed me.

“Well, I’m grateful to Hikari. Thanks to her, I don’t have to get nagged by my mom anymore.”

Being childhood friends, I had a pretty good idea of how she’d react to that.

She’d definitely flash a smug grin.

Something along the lines of “You can praise me more, you know!”

I was sure of it. So when I turned to look at her—

“…Well, to be fair, your grades being so bad before was kinda my fault too.”

—she didn’t smile at all. She just lowered her gaze.

…That’s not something you need to feel bad about.

I was the one who insisted on continuing the search. That was always my decision.

“Hikari-saaan! Help me toooo! I don’t get why this is wrong!”

“Got it! Give me a sec!”

But before I could say anything, a girl called out to her from across the room, and Hikari cheerfully raised her voice and trotted over to help.

“…Hmmm. Ardegan-san’s adapted to the class surprisingly fast. You’d think her first day was just a bad dream. Not that I’m complaining, of course.”

Gōenji muttered, despite the nostalgic tone clinging to his voice.

…He wasn’t wrong. These days, Hikari had become a full-fledged class favorite.

The cold stares from her first day were ancient history.

Thanks to her bright, outgoing nature, her circle of friends kept growing, and by now, whatever rumors had followed her in were completely overturned.

I’m honestly grateful for it.

Even if her gender had changed, she seemed to be genuinely enjoying school life again.

“Sorry, Nitta-kun~! Guess I stole your beloved girlfriend~”

As I watched Hikari, lost in thought, a girl walked over to me, almost like they were switching places.

She was one of the classmates who’d recently gotten close to Hikari.

“It’s not really like that…”

“Aha, you’re blushing. But I better stop teasing you—if I push it too far, Mikoto-chan might get jealous~”

Not that she’d come to start a long conversation. From the looks of it, she just wanted to poke a little fun.

She gave a quick laugh at the way I awkwardly scratched my cheek, then promptly strolled off to another seat.

…Just from watching that, it was clear. My position in the class had slowly started to shift over the past month too.

The reason? Hikari had no problem teasing me in front of everyone.

Especially when we were around people she felt comfortable with or trusted—she let loose completely.

As a result—

“Once you actually talk to him, he’s not that scary. If anything, he’s kind of pathetic.”

Little by little, even if only in a small circle, the image people had of me was beginning to change.

“…I don’t think Hikari would get angry over something like that, though.”

I murmured it to no one in particular, still sitting at my desk.

My relationship with Hikari was just for show—meant to ward off any creepy guys who might latch onto her.

We were just childhood friends. There’s no way she’d get jealous.

And yet, Gōenji—completely misunderstanding the situation—leaned over and scolded me like it was life advice:

“Confidence is fine and all, but if you let your guard down, someone might swoop in and snatch her away. You should stay alert. Just today, Ardegan-san was called up to the roof again—she’s still in high demand!”

…That’s right.

The whole “confession situation” with Hikari still hadn’t been resolved.

To be clear, after that one-on-one talk, the members of that “Senpai” group stopped messing with her.

Actually, they avoided eye contact entirely, like they’d seen something terrifying.

Thanks to that, there was a peaceful period where no one was calling her out after school, and Hikari had been in an incredibly good mood.

So then—why did the confessions start up again?

The answer lay in Hikari’s own personality, as mentioned earlier.

Put simply, it wasn’t prank confessions anymore. More and more guys were genuinely falling for her.

—Even if she had a boyfriend, that didn’t matter. If anything, they assumed she was being forced into the relationship against her will.

Lately, the ones who had been calling her out were, according to her, boys even more determined than Gōenji had once been.

The kind of guys who, in their passionate tunnel vision, charged forward with their feelings no matter what.

And because of that, Hikari found it really hard to turn them down.

Though she did admit—laughing, of course—that when it came to the ones who already had girlfriends but still tried to make a move on her, she made sure to “deal with them properly” as a form of stress relief.


…While I was lost in thought, it seemed Gōenji misunderstood and assumed I was feeling lonely or left out.

“H-Hey! Since we’re in the same group now, why not take this opportunity during the field trip to flirt with Ardegan-san as much as you like! It’s a joint-grade event, after all—if everyone sees how close you two are, maybe it’ll scare off the ones trying to butt in!”

He blurted it out in a panic.

—The field trip.

It was an event scheduled for the first week of October—a hiking trip to the mountains.

Each group had four members: me, Hikari, Gōenji… and Koshimizu.

Well, I hate to admit Gōenji made a fair point, but I did need to keep a close eye on Hikari.

She had this tendency to get way too excited when it came to events like this.

And I knew that from personal experience.

To make things worse, we had another guy in the group who shared that same reckless energy.

If the two of them started running around in high spirits, it wouldn’t be out of the question for us to end up with a full-blown “missing students in the mountains” situation. That meant it was up to me—and ideally, Koshimizu—to somehow keep them in check.

That said, at the time, I was feeling far too comfortable.

School life—for both me and Hikari—was going more smoothly than I’d ever expected.

So much so that it never even crossed my mind that someone in class might not be happy about it.

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