Chapter 81: Special Lessons

  "The scores for Japanese, English, and Math are okay; at least passing is not a problem. But for the other subjects, it’s a bit of a struggle,"

  "It looks like your subject preference isn’t too serious, but your foundation is rather weak."

  "Fortunately, the range of topics for this midterm exam didn’t involve too many difficult points..."

  In the library, the boy held the exam papers while analyzing the issues they revealed. The girl opposite him had her head lowered, clutching the pen tightly. It was hard to tell if she had understood what the boy had said.

  This was already the second day of one-on-one tutoring, yet Sakura still seemed very anxious, visibly nervous.

  Hikigaya rubbed his forehead. It seemed that Sakura’s issues were rger than he had imagined. He wasn’t referring to her grades. To him, her grades weren’t bad enough to be unsalvageable; as long as she put in some effort, getting above the passing line shouldn’t be difficult.

  But her emotional state was erratic. She had trouble focusing and was easily affected by external factors. It was well-known that, compared to everything else, exam mentality was the most important.

  There were many students who performed well during regur studies but underperformed during important exams. Thus, Sakura’s mental state was crucial. Otherwise, she might end up failing due to her mindset, even though she had the ability to pass.

  On this front, Hikigaya and Sakura were complete opposites.

  Though Hikigaya hadn’t reached the point of "floating in the chaos of life, neither fearing nor enjoying it," he was nearly there.

  "I'm… sorry, am I too stupid?"

  The girl carefully raised her head.

  "If you're an idiot, then the 'fool trio' should just commit seppuku," Hikigaya replied.

  Sakura froze, clearly aware of the 'fool trio's' reputation. She couldn’t help but ugh a little but quickly covered her mouth, lowering her head in embarrassment.

  However, her self-esteem seemed to have lifted a little.

  "Hikigaya-kun, you’re really funny," Sakura said sincerely, recalling the joke about "position scores" from swimming css.

  Hikigaya was confused; he didn’t get the joke at all. He was just speaking honestly, yet here she was calling him humorous. Could it be that he actually had a talent for humor?

  "I'll expin the approach to answering questions now," Hikigaya continued, shifting back to tutoring.

  He began going over the assignments with Sakura, helping her reinforce the basics. After the slight distraction earlier, Sakura’s mood seemed to have improved. She no longer stared silently at the ground but gathered enough courage to ask Hikigaya about points she didn’t understand.

  Tutoring wasn’t just about teaching—it required feedback from the student to be effective. In the past, Sakura’s personality had made it difficult for others to gauge how well she understood the material, which made the process less efficient.

  As time passed, the usual study session, which felt like an eternity for a socially anxious girl like Sakura, seemed to be flying by. It had already been over half an hour, and she hadn’t noticed.

  "Alright, let’s take a short break," Hikigaya said, stretching.

  "Th-thank you, you’ve worked hard," Sakura said shyly.

  Feeling a bit thirsty, Hikigaya stood up to get a drink and asked Sakura what she’d like. She blushed and responded with her usual, "Anything is fine."

  A short while ter, Hikigaya returned with two cans of coffee, only to find that Hiyori had somehow appeared next to Sakura.

  "Huh? Hiyori, what are you doing here?" Hikigaya asked, surprised. Normally, Hiyori should have been tutoring other students, not alone in the library.

  As he spoke, he handed the coffees to both Hiyori and Sakura. Hiyori took it casually, while Sakura hesitated, only reaching out to take it after seeing Hiyori’s action.

  Holding the coffee, Hiyori had a frown and sighed, "I’ve been abandoned~"

  Sakura nearly choked on her first sip of coffee. Hikigaya shot Hiyori a weird look, thinking, "What’s wrong with you, girl?" Hiyori stuck out her tongue, seemingly realizing her bad joke didn’t nd well.

  "I’m unemployed," Hiyori pouted. "Now that the css isn’t worrying about the midterm exams anymore, there’s no more need for me."

  Hikigaya’s expression didn’t change, but he had a suspicion, "Hiyori, are you saying…?"

  Hiyori sighed and nodded, "Ishizaki-kun went to senior students and bought st year’s past exam papers, so now everyone in css is celebrating because they’re 'sure to pass' the exam!"

  Hikigaya remained calm, though he was clearly perplexed, "What about Ryuen? Didn’t he stop them?"

  "I’m not sure," Hiyori replied helplessly, "but if Ryuen didn’t approve, Ishizaki and the others wouldn’t have dared to act on their own."

  At this point, Hiyori suddenly became angry, "What’s wrong with everyone? Even if they have st year’s past papers, they shouldn’t act so smug. All the hard work we put in to create a positive study environment in css has gone to waste!"

  Her anger wasn’t about the past papers but rather the bad influence they brought.

  Originally, everyone had been working hard to avoid being expelled after the midterm exams, and even students like Ishizaki and Yamaguchi, who usually didn’t care, had picked up their books to study. This atmosphere of hard work was exactly what Css C cked.

  But now, just as Css C was about to develop a solid learning environment, it was all destroyed. That was what made Hiyori so angry. As for whether her tutoring effort was wasted, she didn’t care much.

  Hikigaya could tell that Hiyori genuinely cared about the css, but many things couldn’t be changed by one person’s will. If the leader of Css C had been Hiyori instead of Ryuen, perhaps the situation would have been different.

  "I may be an outsider, so it might not be appropriate for me to say this, but hasn’t Ryuen thought about the impact of releasing the past papers so early? If they were given out on the st day, perhaps that would have been the best decision..."

  Hikigaya subtly reminded Hiyori.

  Hiyori paused for a moment, then gave a bitter smile, "Yeah, if the past papers were handed out on the st day, maybe that would have been the best decision. But it seems like Ryuen doesn’t care about creating a positive atmosphere in the css."

  To Ryuen, as long as Css C followed his orders, nothing else mattered.

  Hikigaya felt the full extent of Ryuen’s arrogance and pride. The nickname "tyrant" was, in some ways, quite fitting.

  Ryuen’s dictatorial methods were showing their harmful effects, and though Ryuen was intelligent, decisive, and effective, his narrow vision made him more clever than wise.

  There were countless smart people, but those who had wisdom were rare.

  As Hikigaya reminded himself to stay humble, he understood the danger of assuming that knowing something made one omniscient. When you believe you know everything, that’s when ignorance sets in.

  Clearly, after Ryuen used his force to become the leader of Css C, his arrogance had swollen to the point where he thought he could manipute the rules of the school.

  He had mistaken his limited knowledge for complete understanding of the school.

  Whether it was dealing with Haruno or Hikigaya, Ryuen had always been testing the boundaries of the rules, walking the fine line between right and wrong. His actions reflected a gambler’s mentality, which was precisely what Hiyori was worried about.

  It was clear from Hiyori’s mood that she was very upset. She had tried to open the tab on her coffee can several times but couldn’t. Her frustration was obvious.

  Hikigaya instinctively reached out, took the can from her hand, and easily opened it with a soft "pop." Hiyori grabbed it without hesitation and took a rge gulp, her mood visibly improving.

  Sakura quietly watched this scene, instinctively looking down at the coffee can in her hands and the tab beside her, confused.