Generic Love Story

Generic Love Story!! 11!

The library was quieter than usual, the soft ticking of the clock echoing through the still air as Rei stared at her notebook. Her brows were furrowed in concentration, but the lines on her forehead deepened with each passing moment. In front of her lay a complex math problem, a series of equations that should have been straightforward. But instead of clarity, all she felt was confusion tightening around her like a vice.

She scribbled down another attempt, her pencil digging into the paper with frustration. —"Why can't I get this?" she muttered under her breath, glancing around the room. Her heart raced, she could feel her hands starting to sweat

Go again. Make the questions into fractions, by logic if A is x then B must be x-321, the sum of the initial amount data would be 52914, and A is 4k and B is 2k then k is equal to 8819, then...

God damn it

Again. If A/B is proportional to 4/2 then A is 4k and B is 2k, then if they invested 321 times the amount of times A won money is x and the times A lost money are 321-x, considering that the proportion resembles the amount the ended up with at the end of the project it can be assumed that...

Again. If in the end A ends with 4k and k is equal to 8819 then A ends up with 35276... And at the start A had 50 000 then in total A lost...

Again. Again. Again.

Rei's mind was starting to spin. No matter how she looked at the problem, no matter how many times she changed the approach or the angle of the equation, the answer eluded her.

Why couldn't she solve it? This was supposed to be simple, a walk in the park. Why was it giving her so much trouble? Did she miss something? Was there a crucial detail she'd overlooked?

Her pencil dug deeper into the page, forming a deep indent. It was getting harder to breathe. Once again she scribbled down the process. Wrong. Again. Stuck. Again. It made no logical sense. Think, think, just think—

In a sudden burst, she ripped off the pages with failed attempts and even some blank ones, crumpling the paper into a tight ball and tossing it as far as she could

But the feeling of failure still clung to her, burning her insides. She could feel her vision slowly clouding, tears prickling at the edges. No. No. This was not happening, not now, not because of a stupid math problem. This was completely ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. She was Rei Tsuki, the genius, the one everyone looked up to, and she was falling apart over an arithmetic problem like a child

Rei shoved her things into her bag and marched out of the library. If she was going to make a scene, at least let it be somewhere else, at this hour there are just a few students from the clubs-

Sure enough, the hallway was mostly empty, a few students hurrying off to their clubs or sports practice. The familiar scent of the hallways, the lingering hum of the last class, it all felt cold and distant.

Rei's steps echoed in the empty corridor, each thump of her feet on the cold, polished floor sending a dull pain through her. This was getting out of hand. She had to pull herself together. It was just a math problem. Just a problem. She could solve it, she had to, it was just—

The tears felt heavy as they rolled down her cheeks, she could feel every single one, her ears burning, the weird breathing, no, this was just ridiculous, pathetic.

She walked towards the nearest bathroom with as much calm as she could manage. Just a few more meters and she'd be there. She could do this, it was just a few more steps, she was almost—