Volume 2 - Prologue

Late November.

It was shortly after Fujiwara Sandai had arrived to pick up Shino, his gyaru girlfriend, from her part-time job as usual that he noticed something was off with her.

Usually, when Sandai came to pick Shino up, she would have a smile on her face as if to say she’d been waiting for him, but… today she was oddly quiet and looked like she was brooding over something somehow.

“What’s wrong?” Sandai asked.

Shino looked away, and then suddenly stopped in her tracks and bit her lower lip.

“……” 

Shino was the type who would immediately speak if something was up, but her keeping silent like this was really unusual.

At a time like this, even if he were to forcibly get her to speak, it would only make it unnecessarily hard for her to speak up. Sandai stopped walking, and decided to wait for Shino to start talking.

After several minutes had passed, as the streetlight flickered repeatedly, Shino finally opened her mouth. “So I have a… request to ask…” Shino shut her eyes tightly, put her palms together, and then energetically bowed her head. “Help me study! I want to avoid failing the finals! You said before you’ll help me study if I’m having a hard time for the finals, right? Sorry, I’ll rely on you!”

Apparently Shino wanted Sandai to help her study, and so took up on the offer that Sandai had said before about her relying on him when push comes to shove.

So that’s why, at the same time as Sandai finally understood why, he wondered as well, is it a request to be so worried about?

Sandai wasn’t the type who would hate to help study, and he had mentioned that before, so Shino should understand that as well.

Then why?

Sandai thought for a bit, and then realized—he realized that there was hardly any time left until the finals.

“I don’t mind helping you study, but aren’t you a little late in asking me? The finals are a week away…”

Indeed, there was only one week left until the finals.

The scope of the finals would be broad, cramming would be hard to do as well, and it would be difficult to deal with it with only so many days left.

Sandai had certainly told Shino to rely on him when push comes to shove. That said, that had been at the beginning of this month, roughly three weeks ago.

At that point in time, including the remaining one week from now, there had been almost a month to spare before the finals. Precisely because there had been that much time to spare, Sandai had confidently told her to rely on him.

It was beyond his expectation to be asked to help her somehow with one week left.

I’d sure love to have at least two weeks. I wish she could’ve asked me sooner, though… nah, I can’t turn back time. Now that she came to me, just contemplating stuff is a waste of time.

Some people would get angry and exasperated at a time like this, but Sandai held no such feelings and simply looked forward.

For one, that was because they were a couple, but because he also sympathized further with Shino’s circumstances and feelings.

Shino usually put a lot of her spare time into her part-time job and didn’t have the luxury to think about tests. And in the midst of such a circumstance, she became aware of the looming finals, remembered her boyfriend’s words, and tried to rely on him.

So if he were to get angry at and exasperated with Shino, that would simply be insensitive. There was no way Sandai would be able to do such a thing.

Anyhow, trying to do what he could do for now, Sandai took out a textbook and workbook from his bag, and went into thinking about how he should help her study in this one week as he walked.

“Are you angry…?”

“I’m not angry.”

“Really?”

“Really. Right now I’m thinking how I should help you study. Wait a bit.”

Although not absolute, there was the so-called trend for questions that would come out for each subject and teacher. Sandai had gotten the grasp of that to a certain extent.

After taking that into account, a one-week time frame was as difficult as it was reckless. Though, since he was being relied on, as her boyfriend, he wanted to do something somehow as her.

“…Sorry. I should’ve asked you sooner.”

“There’s no need for you to apologize. I’m the one who said you could rely on me. I’m responsible for my words. I have duties to fulfill my own responsibilities.”

“…”

“It’s the last minute, so it’s gonna be a week full of studying.”

“…Okay.” Looking slightly relieved, Shino gave a small nod.

Sandai smiled and rolled up the textbook in his hand.

“Let’s work hard.”

“Yeah! I’ll give it my—nn? Hey Sandai… there’s something I wanna ask…”

“What’s wrong?”

“Why’re you rolling up the textbook?”

“I’ll say it again, but I’m not angry. Neither am I exasperated. That said, there are only so many days. You know that, right?”

“I understand that we only have a week, and not another week!”

“That’s right. Thinking normally, it’ll become spartan in a situation like this, right?”

“Eh—mmmmnnnnggg.”

“It’s gonna get like this, right?”

“Y-You’re angy, you’re totally exasherated!”

“No, I’m not.”

Sandai pushed and pressed the end of the baton made from a rolled up textbook on his adorable girlfriend’s squishy cheek.

He was not angry nor exasperated, not in the least. He genuinely just had a sense of duty to guide Shino to avoid failing.

However, Shino would probably get demotivated with just a stick alone, so some kind of carrot would also be necessary. The issue was what kind of carrot should be prepared.

Anyhow, the days of making Shino study hard began.