What a twist! The loser heroine!

"Do you feel... that you're not good enough for her?" Wen Shui asked at the opportune moment.

In front of her friends, Ayano said without reservation, "Yes, I do feel that way."

“But Shao Yan has already confessed to you, so just honestly reciprocate her feelings.” Wen Shui recalled the plots and lines from the romantic comedies she had watched and tried to comfort Ayano: “Even if you feel that you are not good enough for Shao Yan, then just make yourself better so that you can be worthy of her.”

"Haha, Wen Shui, you're absolutely right. I was being stubborn." After a long pause, Ayano slowly said, "Yes, I know what I need to do now. From now on, I will work even harder to become a man worthy of Lemon."

[Keep those thoughts to yourself; I'm not going to be your witness.]

Wen Shui smiled helplessly, but then another excited voice suddenly came from the other end of the phone.

"I don't need any sense of being worthy or unworthy!!"

The voice was familiar; after all, I heard it in class every day.

"Lemon?! Weren't you sleeping?!"

Ayano's alarmed voice clearly reached Wen Shui's ears, and he could only smile wryly and move the phone a little further away.

Oh dear, someone's been caught red-handed.

"They say I'm fast runners and popular, but isn't that true for Koki too?! She consistently ranks in the top ten in her grades and gets praised by the teachers every time—"

"Hey! Lemon! Don't be so loud—"

"When I was preparing to take the Shilu exam, you even taught me how to get a score that would be recommended by the school, how to please all the teachers as much as possible, and you even looked up their birthdays and wedding anniversaries!"

"I was able to enter Shilu through this method entirely thanks to Guangxi! Why do you have to belittle yourself like this now?!"

“This…I…” Ayano was speechless at Shao Shi’s sudden words. He stammered in response, and even through the phone, Wen Shui could imagine his embarrassed expression.

So he silently pressed the button to end the call.

Alright, let them talk about the rest themselves.

He took one last look at the unchanging street scene, smiled, shook his head, and put his phone back in his pocket.

"Has my brother finished talking?"

With these words, the younger sister appeared on the balcony.

"Didn't I already tell you to wash first?" Wen Shui patted her sister's head helplessly.

“Brother, you must be very tired today. Yoshiki would like to let you relax a bit first.”

“I also participated in student council activities for a whole day.”

"Warm water retorted irritably."

Since my sister has said so, I'll wash myself first.

He walked toward the glass door of the balcony, and just then, Yoshiki leaned against the balcony railing and looked up at the moon hanging high in the sky.

She said softly, "Brother, the moonlight is so beautiful."

Wen Shui paused, turned around, and once again let the moonlight stroll into his eyes.

For some reason, he suddenly thought of the newlywed couple who might be having a heart-to-heart talk right now.

Ayano Mitsuki and Yakishiro Lemon, two people who have relied on each other since the second grade of elementary school, have finally come together. Congratulations!

He looked away, smiled, and nodded.

"Yes, Yoshiki, the moonlight is beautiful."

"...!"

Jia Shu suddenly turned around, her beautiful eyes filled with joy.

"Hmm? Yoshiki, what's that expression?"

"Whoa! Don't suddenly pounce on me!"

~Seventy-ninth defeat~ The prelude to exam week

On Monday, with midterms approaching, even the usual restless atmosphere seemed to have been somewhat dampened.

Students wearing Shilu school uniforms walked side by side in twos and threes, sharing their progress on reviewing, some looking worried and others full of anticipation.

Wen Shui wasn't worried about the exams, since based on the results of various mock exams, her grades were considered to be in the upper-middle range.

Whether they can make it into the top 50 is still unknown, but at least they won't be called into an emergency family meeting by their parents.

but……

"By the way, Hime-miya, how's your studying going?"

"Hmm? Not bad, but my grades are just average, so I probably won't make it into the top 50."

After getting off the bus, Karen Himegami seemed to be in a particularly good mood, probably because she heard the news that Ayano and Shio Yaki had successfully started dating.

[However, this should be Yanami's reaction, right? Are certain traits between best friends contagious?]

After keeping his complaints to himself, Wen Shuihe said, "The first midterm exam won't be too difficult. Maybe we'll even get on the bulletin board?"

"Let's take it one step at a time. My parents don't really care much about grades," Himeko said with a smile.

"However... things might be different for Chihaya."

She sighed softly as she finished speaking.

Upon hearing this, Wen Shui paused for a moment, then remembered the information that Ji Gong had previously revealed to her.

Chaoyun's parents are both highly skilled professionals, and they have very strict family rules. If her relationship causes problems during this midterm exam...

He pursed his lips and asked, "Hime-miya, did you call Asahi-kun?"

"Yes, I called to check on her as soon as I got home yesterday, but she seemed quite calm," Himeko confirmed.

“We all thought she was ‘emotionally stable’ before, but yesterday she was like that—” Wen Shui paused here.

He felt it was unfriendly to talk about others behind their backs, so he didn't continue. However, Himegami immediately understood what he meant.

"Don't worry, Chihaya told me that she'll be focusing on her studies these days, and her parents haven't said anything," Himegami said with a smile. "Besides, I'll go find her for lunch break."

"That's good."

◇

As usual, I entered the school building, went into the classroom, sat in my seat, and quietly waited for the homeroom teacher to start the class meeting.

However, this time, Teacher Gan Xia did not use her signature long strides.

With a look of deep sorrow on her face, she lowered her head as if she had suffered a great blow, and slowly moved her feet onto the podium.

Her strange demeanor made many students nervous. If Teacher Gan Xia could say such outrageous things even in her normal state, then what was going on in this situation...?

Seeing that all the students below the podium were paying close attention, Teacher Gan Xia didn't say anything profound or wise. She just sighed deeply and then gripped the chalk tightly in her hand.

"Everyone has been doing well with their revision these past few days, right?" Teacher Gan Xia's deep voice echoed in the classroom.

The classroom was completely silent. No one in Class C dared to answer, so Xiao Ganxia continued, "Very good, it seems you've all studied well, hehe...hehe..."

"Listen up, you guys! Treat this midterm exam like you're treating your first love! Do every single question well!" She waved chalk wildly in the air, muttering incomprehensible words.

Teacher, while I understand your desire to encourage us, why use such a strange metaphor?

Ms. Gan Xia's resentment seemed to reach its peak at this moment. She slammed her hand heavily on the table: "Otherwise, you'll end up like me, being bombarded with all sorts of questions by parents!"

"For example, why did I get this big question wrong? Why didn't I master the knowledge points properly?"

As Teacher Gan Xia spoke, tears gradually welled up in her eyes, and her ramblings became increasingly incoherent: "It's like, why don't you show yourself off at the social gathering? Why don't you use sweet words to win a man's heart?...Aren't these things that Xiao Ye would do? It's too much to ask of people!"

[Oh, I see. This guy's being pressured to get married.]

Wen Shui nodded in understanding.

Just then, Gan Xia's escalating resentment suddenly stopped.

After a moment of silence, she said softly, "I should have become a VTuber. All you have to do is make your voice sound cute, and people will send you money. You don't even have to show your face. Hmm, I'll go get a costume when I get back. I can use these kids as my first audience to build up my popularity..."

What is this guy even talking about?! Please, just do your job as a teacher properly first.

It seemed that the gentle teasing had worked, and Ms. Gan Xia finally remembered what she should do as a teacher. She tapped the blackboard and said loudly, "In short! This midterm exam is a very important one, so everyone must not let their guard down!"

"Alright! Meeting adjourned!"

As she said this, she threw down the chalk and stormed out of the classroom, leaving behind a group of bewildered students from Class C.

Wen Shui sighed.

Perhaps every student dreams of having a homeroom teacher who is unique and has a strong personality.

However, sometimes a homeroom teacher being too individualistic can actually be a form of torture for students...

After questioning once again about the fairness of the Japan Teachers' Association's teacher recruitment process, Wenshui turned to the page of today's lesson in her textbook.

◇

The first two periods of the morning passed quickly. Since the midterm exams were scheduled for Thursday and Friday this week, most of the students in Class C chose to review during the breaks, and the sound of them discussing with each other could be heard from time to time.

After all, Ishibuki High School is a well-known high school in Aichi Prefecture for its academic advancement. Most people who can get into this school understand the importance of grades and naturally will not slack off.

Of course, there were also a few small groups who usually liked to get together and have fun, but they couldn't stand the atmosphere of studying in the classroom, so they chose to go out for some fresh air.

The noisiest person who usually hogged her spot left, and Wen Shui naturally agreed wholeheartedly. However, it seemed that her break between classes wouldn't be as peaceful and uneventful as she had imagined...

"Hey, Wen! How do we solve these math problems?"

Wen Shui smiled professionally as he looked at the salted lemon that had suddenly slapped him on the back during the break.

She was holding a workbook given to her by her math teacher, looking at Wen Shui with a pleading expression. As Shao Yan spoke, unfriendly stares instantly filled the air from all directions.

[You're staring at the wrong person! This guy's already taken!]

While mentally ranting and raving, Wen Shui smiled and offered her suggestion:

"Um, why don't you ask Ayano? I remember the Special Class isn't far from us."

"I'm afraid of disturbing his studies. Koki said he wants to be in the top ten this time, and it wouldn't be good if I dragged him down."

At this point, Salted Lemon scratched his head somewhat sheepishly: "Uh... I hope I'm not disturbing your studies?"

Faced with Shao Yan's request, Wen Shui could only maintain his smile: "No, I've pretty much finished learning what I needed to learn. Which question do you want to ask?"

"Yay! That's the one circled in red!" Shao Yan cheered, taking over the seat in front of Wen Shui.

For some reason, the gaze from behind suddenly seemed to intensify.

Wen Shui could only cough lightly and steel himself to take the exercise book from Shao Yan's hands. After flipping through it slightly, his ahoge (cowlick) went limp and flat.

The exercise book was covered with dense red circles, looking as frightening as a battlefield map marked with attack locations. Among the few questions without red circles, which had written out the solution steps, there seemed to be errors in the solution steps, and the correctness of the answers was even more obvious.

【This is because I don't know how at all.】

He sighed and took out the notebook.

It took Wen Shui almost an entire break between classes to explain some key points to Shao Yan through a few typical questions. However, seeing her half-understanding expression, Wen Shui couldn't guarantee that Shao Yan had fully grasped the concepts.

[I've been teaching other people math problems since the book club started, I feel like I could be a teacher myself.]

Wen Shui thought of this for no reason.

"...I think I understand." Shao Yan nodded gently as he looked at the solution steps laid out by Wen Shui.

"'I roughly understand' basically means 'I don't know yet'."

Wen Shui gave a wry smile and changed the subject: "But Shao Yan, you don't usually care much about grades, so why did you suddenly want to ask me about your studies?"

"Well, I'm a student recommended for sports, so I shouldn't have to worry about my grades."

Shao Yan lowered his eyes and explained softly, "But after yesterday, I suddenly felt that I also need to work harder on my studies."

Wen Shui immediately understood: "Did Ayano say something to you yesterday?"

When the conversation from yesterday was mentioned, Wen Shui deliberately lowered her voice.

Judging from Shao Shio's expression, he didn't seem to want to make his relationship with Ayano public for the time being, so he naturally had to help keep it a secret.

“Well, Mitsuki said he wants to study at a university in Tokyo. I want to go with him, but I’m not sure if my athletic ability will be enough for me to go to Tokyo with him.” Roasted Salt Lemon said, then slumped onto the table, her eyes filled with confusion: “So I’m planning to work harder on my studies.”

At this point, she chuckled softly, "Don't let my appearance fool you. Many people in my family have gone on to attend good schools, and quite a few have become scholars and lawyers. Does that mean I also have a talent for studying?"

"Probably, but you're only in your first year of high school and you're already thinking about college?"

"Hehe, isn't this just being prepared?"