Kagerou Daze II - A Headphone Actor

Yuukei Yesterday III

A midsummer day.

Outside of the window was a bright, blue sky. In the far-off distance, huge cumulonimbus clouds could be seen.

".... It's no use, I don't get this at all ...."

In the classroom, a furious summer course was unfolding.

Haruka was breezing through the piles of worksheets in front of him, but as for me, I was barely getting through this tough battle as I decoded each question.

Quite some time had passed since that Culture Festival, and we had become second year students in high school.

Although, as usual, the only students in this class were Haruka and I, and unfortunately, the homeroom teacher was still Tateyama-sensei.

As we became second year students, the material gradually became more difficult, and as for me, who honestly wasn't very smart, my score averages continued to drop.

"Huh? Takane, your hand stopped moving again. Do you want me to show you how to do it one more time?"

Haruka had already done nearly twice as much as I had, and earlier, I'd tasted the humiliation of having him teach me the problems that I just couldn't understand at all.

"Sh-shut up! I'm almost done solving it, so be quiet!"

Even as I said this and went back to concentrating on my worksheet, I barely understood what I'd written down.

Even though it was math, there was English as well, and rather than answering, it was writing out formulas; it was a mess.

"Ahaha, sorry, sorry. That's true, there's no point if you can't do it yourself when possible! Good luck!"

Haruka struck a guts pose, and returned to working smoothly on his own work.

Damn it .... Couldn't he have stayed with me for a little while longer?

This was bad. At this rate, I'd be the only one left behind in the classroom again.

Whenever Haruka finished his problems, he always asked me, "Want me to help?"

He was probably just purely trying to cooperate, but if I kept allowing him to do so, all my dignity would disappear.

That's why today, just as usual, I drove him off by saying, "I want to do it on my own, so hurry up and go home!"

Ahh .... What was I even doing? My valuable summer vacation was being wasted because of my bad grades and strange pride.

My initial plans had been to prepare for the upcoming game tournament by doing a self-training camp in my room, but I never would have dreamed that I'd be losing time over something like this.

"Haah, what do I do? I feel like I'm completely out of practice .... And I haven't logged in for two days, either. Maybe I should just give up this time ..."

I complained as my dropped my cheek on top of the worksheets. At the same time, Haruka muttered, "Done," and started gathering up his papers that had all the answers filled in.

"Eh!? Haruka, you're finished!? Eh, wait, you're leaving already!?"

In my surprise at him finishing so quickly, the words that came out of my mouth sounded like I'd be lonely if he went home. I started to correct myself, but Haruka didn't pay any attention to me, and put his bag on top of the desk.

"Ah .... W-well, you can leave if you want. Just go home and stuff yourself silly. I'll be fine working here on my own."

I'd ended up overdoing the excuse. As I crossed my arms, however, Haruka glanced sideways at me and said "Eh? But I'm not leaving," and took out a laptop from his bag.