Even the Student Council Has Its Holes! ~I Reincarnated but My Science Grades Are Still Hopeless~
Mizunoe Ume is a genius—at humanities, anyway. Perfect scores in Japanese and social studies, literary awards under his belt, top of the year. There's just one problem: his math and science grades are so catastrophically bad that he's one makeup exam away from being held back. And to make matters worse, he's been reincarnated—with memories of a past life where he was *also* hopeless at science. No cheat skills. No second chances. Just the same weaknesses, carried over intact.
Enter Hiratsuka-se
Even the Student Council Has Its Holes! ~I Reincarnated but My Science Grades Are Still Hopeless~ - The Night Before Final Exams: Operation Avoid Failing at Love
Outside the window, the wind was shaking the bare cherry branches. A dry rattle tapped against the glass, then faded.
Mizunoe Ume spread his textbooks across the long table in the student council room. His math notebook was still blank. His short black hair was sticking up again today. The old wristwatch on his left wrist ticked, tick, tick, sinking into the grain of the desk.
(Tomorrow the finals start...)
Numbers and symbols tried to swirl into shape in the back of his mind, then crumbled apart. Quadratic functions. Factoring. Square roots. Even in his past life, he remembered his fingers freezing on this exact chapter.
"Sigh..."
His breath fell onto the open textbook.
The door opened.
"Ume-kun."
Her long black hair swayed quietly around her shoulders. Her sharp black eyes caught Ume straight on. Her posture, back perfectly straight, carried the ingrained form of kendo.
"Oh, President. Hello."
When he looked up, Hisako's cheeks flushed faintly red.
"Um, Ume-kun."
Hisako clasped both hands in front of her chest. Her fingertips were trembling slightly.
"I... I have feelings for you, Ume-kun..."
Her voice thinned out midway. Hisako took one deep breath.
"I like you."
—And in that instant.
"President, that's not fair."
Fluffy brown hair slid in through the gap in the door. Her big brown eyes narrowed into crescent moons.
"I'm fond of Ume too, you know."
Arisu said it and stepped up beside Ume. Close enough that their shoulders barely brushed.
"Huh? Wha? Hold on a second."
Ume's voice cracked.
"Tan likes Ume too!"
A blonde ribbon headband popped up from under the desk. Round blue eyes sparkled mischievously.
"When did you even get down there!?"
"From the very start. You didn't notice, Ume-kun? You're kinda dense."
Tan latched onto Ume's arm.
"Get away from him."
Arisu's right foot sank into Tan's stomach.
"Gweh."
Tan's small body rolled across the floor.
"Um, um... I too..."
A small voice came from the shadow of the doorway. She shrank her already tiny frame even smaller and timidly poked her face out. Big eyes, like a stray cat's.
"I respect you, senpai..."
Having said only that, Komaro turned bright red and hung her head.
"Wait, wait, wait! How did it come to this!?"
Ume clutched his head.
"Okay, let's sort this out. So the President likes me, Arisu-senpai's fond of me, Tan likes me, and Komaro respects me... that's all of you!"
"You're so popular, Ume-kun."
Tan laughed from where she sat on the floor.
"I'm not popular! Why does it turn into that!?"
"Oh my, aren't you happy?"
Arisu tilted her head.
"Happy or not happy, that's not the issue here!"
"Then what is the issue?"
"The issue is that finals start tomorrow!"
The moment Ume shouted, the air in the room went dead still. Only the sound of the wind outside the window seemed strangely far away.
"...What are you all making a racket about?"
A low voice. In the doorway stood Hiratsuka Toshimi. A cigarette in his mouth. Stubble on his chin. At the appearance of the head of year, everyone's face went pale.
"M-Mr. Hiratsuka..."
Hisako's voice shook.
"Finals start tomorrow. Is this any time to be playing at romance?"
Hiratsuka came slowly into the room.
"Especially you, Mizunoe."
"Huh!? Why me!?"
"What do you plan to do about your failing science grades? At this rate, moving up a year is going to be very tough."
Ume couldn't muster a single word in protest.
"...Arisu, you too. Pay back what you owe from your time off with these tests."
"...Yes."
Arisu nodded solemnly.
"Hisako, you'll probably be fine, but don't get complacent. Tan, you've got middle school exams too. Komaro, you as well."
At Hiratsuka's words, everyone turned pale.
"...I-I'll teach Ume-kun science!"
Hisako suddenly raised her voice.
"Huh?"
"Ume-kun, let's study together! I'll teach you science!"
Hisako's eyes shone with determination.
"...President, you're saying that right now, in this situation?"
"I'll teach him too. I won't lose at math."
Arisu stepped forward.
"Tan's gonna get taught Japanese!"
Tan bounced up.
"I... if it's memorization subjects..."
Komaro timidly raised her hand.
"Are you all on good terms or bad terms...?"
Ume gave a wry smile.
"...Well, I'm counting on you."
—And so began the strange study session.
Textbooks and notebooks were spread across the desk.
"Okay, let's start with the basics of math."
Hisako sat down beside Ume. Close. A faint, pleasant scent came from her hair.
"Can you try solving this problem?"
What Hisako pointed at was a linear equation.
"Um... move x to the left side..."
Ume gripped his pencil.
"...Huh? When you move it over, the sign changes, right?"
"That's right. Addition becomes subtraction, subtraction becomes addition."
"I see... then what about this one?"
Ume moved on to the next problem.
"...Hmm."
His hand stopped.
"Here, first you clear the denominators. Multiply both sides by six..."
"Oh, right. ...Um, then that gives 3x+2=..."
"...No. You multiply the right side by six too."
"Oh, the right side too. ...Yeah, of course."
Ume scratched his head.
"Um, here... ah, it's my explanation that's bad."
Hisako suddenly started blaming herself.
"I'm sorry, Ume-kun. I'm so bad at teaching..."
"No, it's my fault."
Ume hurried to reassure her.
"Your explanations are easy to follow, President. It's just that my brain simply refuses to accept math."
"...Refuses to accept. That's harsh."
Hisako let out a little laugh.
"Well, it's the truth."
"Then I'll teach him next."
Arisu cut in between Hisako and Ume.
"President, please take a little break."
"Eh, ah, yes..."
Hisako yielded her seat with a slightly disappointed look.
"Ume-kun, try solving this problem."
What Arisu pointed at was a quadratic function problem.
"...Um."
Ume stared hard at the problem.
"...I don't get it."
"You can't even solve this? You learned it in middle school."
Arisu's voice turned cold.
"Ugh... I failed it in middle school too."
Ume confessed honestly.
"...It can't be helped."
Arisu's tone softened, just a little.
"Then I'll teach you from the basics. Do you know how to complete the square?"
"...What was completing the square again?"
"Sigh..."
Arisu let out a deep sigh.
"Listen. The basics of quadratic functions is transforming y=ax²+bx+c into the form y=a(x-p)²+q. That's what completing the square means."
Arisu carefully wrote out the formula in the notebook.
"...Ohh."
Ume watched her hand.
"Understand?"
"...Probably."
"Probably isn't good enough. I'll explain it again."
Arisu began explaining once more, slowly.
Beside them, Tan was peering into Ume's Japanese notebook.
"Ume-kun, I want you to teach me how to read this classical Chinese."
"Ah, this is read as 'yayamosureba.'"
"Whoa... first person Tan's ever met who's better at Japanese than her."
Tan looked at him with eyes full of respect.
"Japanese is the one thing I'm confident about."
"Then teach me this one too."
"Sure, which one?"
While Ume was teaching Tan Japanese, Komaro raised her hand timidly.
"Um... senpai, is there anything you're bad at in memorization subjects...?"
"Memorization... I just can't seem to remember world history dates."
"Then shall we make some mnemonics?"
Komaro smiled brightly.
"Mnemonics?"
"Yes. For example, the 794 move of the capital to Heian-kyo is remembered as 'Naku yo, uguisu, Heian-kyo.'"
"Ohh, that's easy to remember."
"There's also the 1192 Kamakura shogunate: 'Ii kuni tsukurou, Kamakura bakufu.'"
"Komaro, are you a genius?"
"N-not at all..."
Komaro blushed and looked down.
"But lately the 1185 theory is considered more likely, so be careful about that one."
Hisako chimed in from the side.
"President, you know your stuff."
"History is my strong suit."
"Must be nice. If I could just do science, things would be so much easier."
"Ume-kun, you're head and shoulders above everyone in the humanities, so have some confidence."
"That's right. Ume-kun's Japanese is seriously god-tier."
"God-tier... that's an exaggeration."
"But it really is amazing. Getting a perfect score on a mock exam isn't something just anyone can do."
"...Well, only in the humanities."
Ume gave a wry smile.
(But still, everyone's gathering like this for my sake...)
Something deep in his chest grew warm.
(Somehow... this isn't so bad.)
The study session went on for a while.
"Phew... shall we take a little break?"
Hisako pulled juice out of the refrigerator.
"Agreed!"
Tan raised her hand.
"Tan's gonna eat pudding."
"You've been eating nonstop this whole time."
"But I got hungry."
"...Well, breaks are important."
Hisako handed out juice to everyone.
"Thank you."
Ume took the orange juice. The cold can felt good against his palm.
"...You know, nothing good will come of being involved with me."
Arisu suddenly murmured, quietly.
"Huh?"
"My nickname from middle school is still a rumor around campus."
Arisu was looking out the window. Evening was slowly settling on her profile.
"...The Psycho Cutting Board Monster, right?"
Arisu's voice wavered, self-mocking.
"I told you I want to go out with the you of right now."
Ume looked straight at Arisu.
"A nickname from the past doesn't matter."
Arisu slowly turned toward Ume. Her fingers tightened just slightly around the can.
"...You really are strange."
The corner of Arisu's mouth loosened, just a little.
Hisako watched that exchange from a short distance away.
(Ume-kun said something that direct to Arisu-san...)
Something deep in her chest ached sharply.
(I want to convey my feelings like that too, and yet)
(...I can't get them out.)
Hisako clenched her fist. Her nails dug faintly into her palm.
"...Ume-kun."
Hisako put on a smile.
"Break's over. Try solving just one more."
"...Yeah."
Ume turned back to his notebook.
He never noticed the frustration hidden behind Hisako's smile.
The study session ended in the evening.
"Thanks for today. Thanks to you all, I feel like I understand a little more."
Ume bowed his head to the four of them.
"Let's do our best on tomorrow's test."
Hisako smiled.
"I won't forgive you if you fail."
Arisu drove the point home.
"Tan's cheering for you too!"
Tan hopped up and down.
"Senpai, do your best..."
Komaro sent a quiet word of encouragement.
"Are you all on good terms or bad terms...?"
Ume gave a wry smile.
"...Well, I'm counting on you."
A strange bond had formed among the five of them.
—Out in the hallway, a man was secretly peering in at the scene.
It was Hiratsuka Toshimi.
"Those kids are turning into a better team than I expected."
Hiratsuka gave a small laugh, his cigarette bobbing.
"...But whether you move up a year or not depends on the tests starting tomorrow, Mizunoe."
Hiratsuka's murmur faded into the twilight hallway.
Whether Ume would advance to the next year—no one knew yet.
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