COTE: Someone Extraordinary (Kiyotaka x Honami)

Arc 1 Chapter 6: Mid-term Preparations

Part 1

People had been studying together informally for the last week, following the revelation on May 1st. Today, a week later, the scheduled study groups were due to begin in earnest.

The night before, Ichinose had messaged me confirming the study group would begin right after class, for 2 hours in the library. I hoped those 2 hours would be more enjoyable than I was expecting them to be.

After an especially long day, class finally finished and Ichinose gathered the study group members before we all walked to the library together.

"Maaan! I hate studying! Amikura, can you try and make it somewhat enjoyable?"

"Haha, I don't know Shibata-kun, I'm not a teacher. But I'll do my best for you and the rest of us. I won't allow anyone to drop out."

Shibata and Amikura chatted loudly ahead of us. Amikura had agreed the week before to help tutor for the study group. Shibata on the other hand didn't perform amazingly in the short test, scoring 54 points. He came along to boost his grades.

I and Ichinose walked slightly further behind with the other group members who were also struggling. Chihiro, Sayo and Taira Hikari had all agreed to work hard to boost the class average.

Hikari was a quiet and reserved girl but was well-liked within the class. She had blond hair tied up in a short ponytail extending down to just the nape of her neck and had light blue eyes. It's a shame she scored the lowest out of everyone in the class though, 40 points on the dot. Ichinose was clearly going to have to tutor her extensively to ensure she passed.

"Remember when you were called to the faculty office, Ayanokoji-kun?" Ichinose suddenly asked me.

"Yup, what about it?"

"Oh, nothing really. I just wanted to know what you discussed. Did you get anything valuable information-wise from her?"

Valuable in what sense?

"If you mean information on the school, then no. It was nothing like that."

"I see. Did you perhaps discuss something more personal then?"

"You could say that, it wasn't anything interesting though, I assure you of that."

I was able to answer her vaguely, so I admitted to it.

"I understand. I won't force you to talk about something personal to you."

"Thanks, if I discover something interesting you'll be the first to hear about it."

Ever since the reveal last week, Ichinose had been obsessed with finding out more about the school. She was convinced they were hiding a lot of information from us.

I had to agree. Even as early as homeroom last week, Hoshinomiya-sensei wasn't even going to reveal Class A's average scores on the test, until Ichinose asked for them directly.

I guess you can discover almost anything about the school, just as long as you have the bravery to ask about it.

If I wanted I bet could ask Hoshinomiya-sensei every question about the school I could think off and I'd get at least something useful out of it. I was too lazy to do that though. Dealing with her is tiring, to say the least.

"Honami-chan, what do you want us to cover in today's session?" Amikura asked turning around.

"Hmm? Since it's the first session, we'll just review what we covered in today's lessons, just to keep it simple."