Volume 2 - CH 2

Volume 2, Chapter 2: The First Number I Got From A Girl...But It Wasn't My First Time

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Don't go

When I came out of the restroom, Azumi was there with a pouting expression on her face.

From her words, it seemed like she was waiting for me, but was there something she had to do?

"You've been in there for too long despite being a guy!"

"That's prejudice. My average is around 7 minutes."

"You're disgusting today, and it's creeping me off."

"You're as cute and as annoying as ever, too."

"Why do you make me feel so irritated! Why can't you just be cute?!"

"Why do you make me feel so irritated! It's just fine the way it is!"

I felt like could keep going with this exchange with Azumi for a long time.

When I occasionally mixed in compliments about her appearance, her cheeks were gradually turning red, which was cute.

Well, I knew when to back off, because it seemed like she was going to explode if I exceeded a certain point.

"Sigh...enough. Just take it out."

"...An extortion?"

"No! I said your phone!"

But you didn't say that...was what I thought, but I kept my mouth shut and offered her my phone.

Azumi then took it and started operating it intensely.

Was it fine for her to be that rough? She was going too fast that I was afraid it might get worn down.

"Here."

"Oh."

After handling it for a while, Azumi returned my phone. Handing it back, she casually wiped off her fingerprints with a handkerchief, which I thought was very typical of Azumi for some reason.

But I was fine with her fingerprints...wait, maybe I was being too perverted.

"I registered my number."

"Huh~, is that fine?"

"What do you mean?"

"I think Azumi's number is worth a lot of money, you know? Some guy might be willing to pay 50,000 for it."

It wasn't that I was exaggerating, but that I really thought so.

I was just worried whether this was okay, since I got her number without any difficulty.

"What an overreaction."

"Don't think so. Rather, why did you bother waiting here?"

The fact that she was waiting for me in front of the restroom meant that she saw me going inside.

Because of the location of my classroom, Azumi's, and the restroom, she must have seen me from a considerable distance away.

There, she could have stopped at my classroom or the hallway and the exchange could have been made on the spot.

"In front of your classroom... I just can't do that there."

"...Ah, I see what you meant."

Azumi looked down at an angle and looked somewhat embarrassed.

Even though she did nothing particularly wrong, she must have done this because she wanted to avoid being seen.

In other words, she didn't want Tendou to find out.

"I wanted to talk to you about cosmetics and all that stuff...I couldn't help it."

"I see."

"I'll ask you for help next time I have plans."

"A date?"

"No, it's not!"

You didn't have to so red like that while denying.

If you didn't like the idea that much, it couldn't be helped. When I did go shopping with Azumi, I should take Koudzuki-san with us.

"Then...see you later, Jimichi. Just so you know, don't bother pointlessly contacting me."

"Yeah yeah, see you, too."

As she said this, Azumi ran off. Then, I interacted with my phone after she left.

Ikuto: The earrings look good on you.

Reika: Don't waste your time contacting me right away! And, thank you!

Such a cute tsundere.

Ah, don't stick to your phone while walking, okay?

――――

――

―

I was on my way to the school entrance after parting with Azumi. I passed by my classroom which was no longer populated.

Without thinking about anything in particular, I peeked my head through the door that had been left open, and noticed that one female student remained.

She was sitting at her desk, staring at some kind of paper. Naturally, I knew that she was a classmate, but I did recognize her profile.

I saw a similar expression recently. I was curious, so I called out to her.

"Hareyama, you're still here?"

"Ah, Jimichi-kun, you startled me~.”

Hareyama's shoulders shook lightly, and when she recognized it was me, she her face returned to its previous dull look.

Since it didn't feel like she was pushing me away, I approached her.

"Didn't you go out with the others?"

"Yeah, in a while. But I couldn't help but worry..."

What Hareyama stared at was a questionnaire for a test.

Answer sheets were collected, but questionnaires weren't, so a good number of students wrote down their answers and looked back at them.

However, how many of them would actually review the test immediately after it was over, and even stayed inside the classroom to do so?

"You said you were worried. Is it about your score?"

"Yes. I felt that English was too tough..."

I was aware of that, too. Hareyama was basically bad at all subjects, but she was particularly worse at English compared to all of them.

She was able to solve the sets I gave her, but only English was different from the others.

"Hareyama is a just a genuine Japanese."

"That's right~. Japanese people don't need to speak English~."

Said the person with a light-coloured hair that looked like she was somewhat half-Japanese instead.

She might have had a foreign ancestor. That style, especially her bun-buns, were too far from being a native.

"You are so cute." (Spoken in English.)

"...Hm? Yu wa soukyuu (the hot springs are azure sky)? Do you mean the hot springs are blue?"

"So cute (in English). S-o-c-u-t-e."

"Soukyuutu...soukyuutu...sou oka (a pair of hills)?! A pair of hills at the hot springs?! T-t-that's...that's lewd!"

"...That's not what I meant. What kind of translation did you do?"

Hareyama's face turned bright red and started covering her chest.

Generally, soukyuu meant azure sky, and sou oka must have been a play on words, or so what I thought.

In case you were wondering, I used middle school English, but she was still airheaded as usual.

A cute but silent airhead, or Aimuppon (kawaii mupponkotsu) for short...no, it didn't sound good.

"C-u-t-e, cute. I said you're cute."

"C-cu...that's embarassing, too..."

Hareyama stopped hiding her chest and covered her face instead, so cute.

Meanwhile, I took the questionnaire from her and began went at it rapidly.

"Ah! T-that..."

"..."

In an instant, the blush she had vanished and Hareyama's expression darkened once again.

As I spared a glance at her, I could see that she was anxiously watching me.

Maybe she thought I would get mad at her because even though I went through the trouble of teaching her, she got such terrible results.

"S-sorry...even though you taught me so much ――"

"―― Amazing Hareyama. You did a great job."

"Eh...?"

Hareyama's effort was immediately apparent. In just a few days, she brought her English skills from such an abysmal level to this.

The listening part seemed to be hopeless, though. When she mentioned earlier that soukyuuto meant 'the hot spring is blue', I had a bad feeling. I was hoping that she could have at least gotten one question right.

"Y-you're not angry...?"

"I'm not angry. I know Hareyama did her best."

"But, Susumu-kun..."

Hareyama seemed relieve and had a relaxed expression, but then a shadow fell on her face again as she remembered something.

It seemed like Tendou got mad at her. Well, I could understand what Tendou felt, but getting angry at her... I personally thought that it was counterproductive for someone like Hareyama.

"Although... about 36 points. That's a red mark, Hareyama."

"Uuu...I knew it..."

"Don't cry, stupid. 36 points is fine."

I gave hope Hareyama who was tearing up. Of course, I didn't just say this out of the blue, but because she really did have a chance.

But I wondered what was this? Her crying face...why did it look so cute?

Hmm~, I felt like messing with her.

"Don't say I'm stupid..."

"It depends on the average score the entire grade, but the failing grade was usually at around 40."

"You mean...? There is a possibility that I wouldn't fail...?!"

"No, first of all, you did fail."

"Don't raise my hopes up like that then bring it down..."

Oh no, this is bad. She was really going to cry if I kept at it.

I intentionally said it in a roundabout way. Rather, if you didn't know what I was about to say, it was that Hareyama's score wasn’t too far off.

"Students who are within minus 10 points of failing may take a follow-up exam."

"Follow-up exam? W-was there such a thing?"

"There is. If you score around 10 or more in that test, you will be exempt from the penalty."

"I didn't know about that... But then, that would mean I still have hope!"

However, not knowing about the supplementary exam meant that Hareyama hardly ever scored more than 30... Hmm~, definitely Aipon.

Light returned to her eyes and Hareyama finally smiled. Her tears were gone and she was full of motivation.

Knowing that everything was fine, I started to heading out the classroom.

"W-wait...don't leave me..."

"So, you're going to cry after all."

A girl was clinging to my leg with tears streaming down her face. It didn't look good from an outsider's perspective, so please refrain from that if possible.

I told Hareyama that if she wanted to study, she should annoy Tendou instead, but she didn't want to him get frustrated with her.

"Please! Let me put it in! Please let me save my number of your phone!"

"What's with that phrasing?"

Therefore, I had no choice but to exchange numbers and told her to contact me only when she absolutely had to.

It seemed like Hareyama was going to participate in the class outing now. She asked me to go along, but I politely declined, and went my separate way with her.

Ikuto: You know, a red mark is a red mark. You'll still have your allowance reduced.

Hanae: I didn't want to hear about thissss!!!