Are all that matters.

=11=

Yume had won by a landslide, and every student in Four Star Academy had witnessed that. This officially proved that even with a school-issued challenge, Nijino Yume is no doubt the undisputable Queen of the school. Yume settled her phone down onto the table and sighed, she still didn't understand the purpose of this challenge. At least, she won't have anyone named Hoshizora Nozomi to pester her anymore and hinder her from achieving her results.

That is a major relief.

Yume turned to see Nozomi with her fists clenched on her lap. She seemed extremely frustrated and looked like she was going to pull something on Yume if she could. But it was decided, "As per Nijino Yume's conditions, Hoshizora Nozomi will now be the student with the lowest rank and will be suspended for one month. The title of Rank 10 will not be handed to anyone until the next schoolwide test. That is all."

Yume walked down from the stage and went to her friends. All of them congratulated her, starting with Koharu, "Yume-chan! Congratulations!"

"Yeah, you had me worried for a moment there when Principal Moroboshi said everything taught until today was going to be tested!" Asahi joined into the conversation.

Yume cocked her head to the side and asked, "Why would you be worried about that?"

"Eh? Because you weren't in class for two whole weeks...?"

"If you're talking about the topics that were newly tested in that challenge just now, I learnt it about three months ago." Yume said calmly while everyone but Subaru listened in shock.

"Three months ago...?"

That was when the dorm mates knew, trying to take Yume's rank wasn't impossible for them. They just needed to put in much more effort than Yume did, many more times that she ever did.

~

During the one month that Nozomi was being suspended, Yume had a relatively peaceful life, aside from the occasional friendly challenges by students who meant no harm. The keyword within that whole sentence was 'relatively'. No matter how much Yume tried to distract herself or kept herself busy with something else, her mind always brought her back to Subaru.

No matter how disappointed she felt towards Subaru, she couldn't bring herself to get angry at him.

Yume could sit there and think of plenty of reasons why she should be angry at him, but she couldn't bring herself to be angry at him.

Even she realised it, that at this point in time, all she seemed to do was avoid this human being called Yuuki Subaru since she met him again.

However, being the methods she tried became somewhat not so meaningful, she did try to help other students who weren't doing so well with their studies. Of course, the students she was helping with weren't too against her either. They would spend about an hour after school everyday at the library studying with the topics that they weren't doing so well.

Yume gave her absolute most to attempt to help them even though it was her first time teaching people things. With these mini study sessions happening, Yume was unintentionally spreading new through the students that she helped, saying that she wasn't anything close to how the rumours made her to be. In fact, Yume didn't even know that news were being spread until she met some other students who asked her for help.

Yume also tried opening up to the students a bit more, sharing bits and pieces of her life without revealing too much. The imaginary wall that was built by the student population was slowly crumbling, they started to view Nijino Yume as a student, slowly but surely.

To them, Yume was a hardworking student who has put in countless hours of studying to finally reach where she was. They learnt that staying Rank 1 in the school wasn't easy, the amount of time she puts in a day to study was incredible, and to keep doing that day after day was nothing less than mind-blowing.

But this method didn't last very long. Session after session, Yume realised that her attention span was getting shorter and shorter. Although the students didn't pick up on it, Yume found it incredibly annoying. Not allowing herself to put this off any longer, she went to Koharu for some advice.

"Koharu-chan, it's me, Yume." She said as she knocked on Koharu's door.

Koharu answered the door and let Yume in. Her hair was slightly damp, telling Yume that Koharu had probably just finished her shower. She sat down next to Koharu on the bed, Koharu asked, "Is something wrong Yume-chan?"

Should I tell her everything? Or should I just tell her the important parts? Should I even mention his name at all?

Yume was trying to phrase the sentences in her mind. It was her first time trying to consult someone for advice. She was the type who bottled everything up and tried to solve everything on her own, now that she took her first step, it was overwhelming for her.

"Take your time Yume-chan, I'll wait." Koharu said reassuringly.

"I'm not sure if uh, Subaru told you guys, but we've known each other since we were young. That's such a weird thing to say, god. I think it's more accurate to say that he's known me since he was young. So apparently he left when he was a kid without telling me, and according to my memories, I'd like to think he really did try to tell me the truth? That he was going to leave. But I was a kid and I couldn't really tell that he had lied to me, even back then, that bitter smile he showed me... I couldn't even tell.

After he left, I blocked my own memories of him, or that's what my parents said. I couldn't cope with it as a kid and that was my brain trying to cope with it. I recently got my memories back and I just don't understand. Why didn't he just tell me? Why did he lie to me? He said that he just wanted me to keep smiling, but I get the feeling that there's something more to it. Why is it that I can be disappointed at him, but not be angry at him? I can think of more than enough reasons to be angry at him, but I can't. I just can't." To Koharu, Yume's last words were mixed with confusion and sadness.

"Yume-chan, have you tried to think of reasons why you can't be angry at him? I'm sure you have the answer somewhere in your mind, you just have to be willing to accept it. Besides, maybe you should give him another chance to explain himself. The both of you may not be able to become friends like how you were once, but you can start again, and take as long as the both of you need." Koharu suggested.

Reasons why I can't be angry at him?

Knowing that she has more things to think about, Yume thanked Koharu and left the room.

Yume stood in her room, leaning against the door with phone in hand, screen showing Subaru's chat.

Making up her mind, her fingers typed the message.

'I'll meet you at the balcony on Christmas' Eve. 11.30 at night.'

[To be continued...]

Written on: 12 December 2019

I swear I meant to upload this yesterday. I'm so sorry. :( 

And announcement! The next chapter will be uploaded on Christmas, it'll be a Christmas chapter!

Therefore...

Next update: 25 December 2019!