"Grandma."
Every summer, Nanao Akane would go to a small country town called Yaso Inaba to visit her grandmother.
Of course, always alone.
But now Hayato said he wanted to go with her,
Nanao Akane opened her mouth. From the boy's eyes in front of her, she read an emotion called "seriousness." Her heart and liver simultaneously skipped two beats. Suddenly, she felt like crying, and also had a desire to say something, but after opening her slightly sticky lips, she couldn't utter a single word.
She just nodded vigorously.
It seemed like a long time passed before she finally answered.
"Okay."
Hayato put down the laptop. He stood up and walked to Nanao Akane's side.
Then he opened the exercise book on her desk.
As she had said, before Hayato arrived, she had been doing math problems, and they weren't homework assigned by the teacher, but test papers she had bought herself.
This surprised Hayato.
Although he always admonished this girl to study hard, and even took time to check her homework—which she naturally completed—Hayato hadn't expected that she was even doing extra-curricular problems.
Nanao Akane held the burger with both hands like a hamster, then carefully asked:
"Will there be many mistakes?"
Hayato casually flipped through a few pages: "Not bad. When did you start doing these?"
"A while ago," Nanao Akane said.
She was actually a very laid-back person. When she couldn't continue with the swimming club, she chose to quit, without the slightest bit of sadness like "my dream is shattered." This was true for her life and her studies.
She only sought to get by, but not to live particularly well.
In her studies, it was always "as long as I can understand it." In fact, even after Hayato told her to "study hard," she still maintained this lazy attitude.
Then she was surprised to discover...
Shigen Ryouka, who usually had good routines, had been coming to school with dark circles under her eyes recently.
Nanao Akane thought it was because her previous remark, "Lin-chan will go abroad later," had hurt Shigen Ryouka. After cutting off her fantasies about Hayato, this girl was now immersed in the tragic recovery period of "brokenheartedness" (unrequited love also counts as love).
Akane even thought about comforting Shigen Ryouka.
As a result,
"Studying has been too tiring recently," Shigen Ryouka said with a smile, her expression tired but with an unusual sense of satisfaction.
"Eh?"
"I want to go abroad too."
Hearing Shigen Ryouka say this with a smiling face, Nanao Akane's hairs on her back immediately stood on end. She froze, and then for the entire day, she was lost in confusion and bewilderment.
And Shigen Ryouka's eyes remained firm.
She yawned countless times, yet still focused on the blackboard, diligently doing her homework. Nanao Akane even saw a book titled "Kimi no Huaxia Yu Hontou Jouzu" peeking out of her bag.
That's when Nanao Akane felt a sense of crisis she had never experienced in her life.
She couldn't go on like this anymore.
Nanao Akane told herself, 'If you can't even become a good student, what kind of girlfriend are you to Lin-chan!'
So, based on the idea that bad students have more stationery, she bought set after set of reference books.
"Why didn't you mention it?" Hayato asked.
"Because, if I said 'I started trying, but the result was terrible,' you would definitely laugh at me," Nanao Akane said, somewhat embarrassed, pinching the burger wrapper.
Logically, the "90-100" stage is quite difficult, but "60-80" should be relatively easy. However, Nanao Akane didn't feel much improvement herself.
Although she had already made up her mind to work hard, there's a saying, "It's easier to change rivers and mountains than one's nature"... So many times when Hayato contacted her, she actually couldn't help but secretly play on her phone again.
Hayato didn't speak. He flipped through a few more pages of the exercise book.
Akane's handwriting wasn't neat, but the strokes were rounded, looking somewhat childish and cute.
Perhaps it was just this girl's misconception.
At least in Hayato's opinion, many of the problems were answered well, much, much better than her previous ruined quiz paper.
"This problem of yours—"
Hayato placed the exercise book on the desk and began to lecture, pointing at a problem.
When he first scored first place, Hayato's "math" level was still terribly bad. The scores he got in "Chinese" and "English" were indeed at the expected level, but his math still relied on the augmentation of an external brain—but his current level is incomparable.
Hayato didn't like the feeling of teaching all problems to the system for thought, and this included "math" as well.
The fact that the "Red ● Secret Scroll Math 700 Problems" book was for his own use was also true—he had been improving his math level, plus he could directly ask the system about problems he didn't understand, making it easy to figure out the solution steps. This is commonly known as getting private tutoring anytime, anywhere, so his progress was quite significant.
Now, for Nanao Akane's error collection, Hayato could immediately provide the Ideas (solution approach).
"...Understood?" Hayato asked.
"So that's how it is," Nanao Akane replied, somewhat dazed.
Hayato looked at Nanao Akane.
She was staring at the exercise book, deep in thought, the light from the desk lamp reflected in her large, blinking eyes.
Her face was small and delicate, with dignified features that held a hint of charm, yet blended perfectly with the innocence of a high school girl.
"Akane," Hayato called her.
"Huh?" Nanao Akane looked up.
Hayato pointed to his left cheek.
Nanao Akane paused for a moment.
Hayato sighed, about to raise his hand to do something.
Nanao Akane giggled, then, like a chick pecking rice, quickly pecked Hayato's cheek.
Using lips as soft as jelly.
"Hehe," Nanao Akane chuckled naughtily, "I didn't expect you, Lin-chan, to have such a mischievous side! Alright, I'll satisfy you properly—"
Before she could finish, she saw Hayato pull out a napkin.
Then he reached out and rubbed her soft left cheek vigorously.
"You got salad dressing on your face," Hayato said.
"...Eh?" Nanao Akane froze, then her face flushed crimson.
"Ah? What were you saying just now?" Hayato asked again.
But seeing the mischievous smirk on his lips, Nanao Akane knew he was deliberately pretending not to have heard her bold statement just now.
"N-nothing!" Nanao Akane said.
She pouted, turned her head away, and then began fanning her burning face, making "shhh, shhh" sounds.
Damn it, was she the only one who was so excited?
This was too embarrassing.
But she didn't notice that Hayato also looked up at the incandescent light on the ceiling.
Was his heart beating within a normal range just now?
Hayato asked himself.
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