With Tragic Eyes and Bloodshot Dreams

Chapter 9: Some Look For Trouble While Other's Don't

This time, Gakushu is prepared for the exam. He brings his earplugs along, and takes deep breaths before the exam starts.

He needs to focus.

Get this over with as fast as he can.

Akabane is seated next to him, but has his head pointedly turned away from him.

It doesn't matter, Gakushu tells himself. He doesn't care if Akabane wants to be a brat. He has other friends to wish good luck.

He offers last minute advice to Nagisa, Hazama and Isogai. He wishes Kataoka, Kayano and Yada good luck.

He sits back down when the test is about to start, and finds Akabane staring at him strangely. The boy grits his teeth like he wants to say something but can't.

Gakushu puts his ear plugs in and ignores him. He doesn't have the mental energy to even think about Akabane right now.

The exam commences, and Gakushu's pencil moves swiftly to the beat of his racing heart. He reads passages, solves equations, and bubbles in the answers. It goes by fast, and when he sets his pencil down, he doesn't think he did too bad.

Three days go by before they receive their exam results. Those are 3 long days. Gakushuu impatiently waits for them to pass, until finally, it's result day.

Koro-sensei stands at the front of the class, about to announce the results. The entire class looks antsy, but Gakushuu knows for certain he's the only one with adrenaline pumping through him, the sound of his own pounding heart deafening him.

He struggles to keep his face calm.

He's terrified and excited all at the same time. He knows he'll be disappointed no matter what, but he still needs to know.

"All right, I'll go ahead and announce the results. Starting with English. E Class's top scorer is...Nakamura Rio." The class cheers, as Nakamura stands up to accept her score sheet. Gakushu claps politely, forcing down his frustration. He must not have done as well then. He knew it was a possibility; he lost this position last year as well. And Nakamura must have worked extra hard. It was a fair win.

Not any less painful, however.

"A perfect score," Koro-Sensei comments, "Asano-kun missed one point, following you in a close second. Nagisa-kun also worked hard, but you need to fix your spelling errors."

One point. Gakushu clenches his fist. He was so close to a perfect score.

"Moving on to Japanese lit. The top scorer is...Asano Gakushu!"

Gakushu doesn't really feel any emotion at those words. Just a slight relief. Like a heavy weight that's been lightened, but still heavy. Nowhere near happiness.

But he forces a smile. For some bizarre reason, everyone expects him to be genuinely happy when he gets a perfect score. But it's basically a requirement for him. An obligation.

He needs to stay on the top, anything short of that is failure . So no, he isn't going to celebrate it or anything like that.

"Man, that Asano's really racking up points." He hears someone comment.

"The tests were way harder, and he still aced them...just what you'd expect from a guy ranked #1 in the country."

Gakushu watches as Akabane quietly walks out of class.

No one else has noticed him leave. Not his usual style; Akabane likes to storm out deliberately.

Why would he sneak out with his head held down like that?