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The test period finally ended and today the results were published. I studied at my usual pace, so I have no issues. I’m feeling anxious for Kirigamine.

「How did you do?」
「5th place again.」

Aiba beside me asked, so I answered. I’m not feeling frustrated at all, but how do you even get perfect points for every subject? It’s impressive that there’s not even one careless mistake.

「Kisaragi! I did it!」

Lunchtime. I was about to open my lunchbox when Kirigamine came charging in. The whole class instantly had a displeased look but after hearing what she said, it changed to shock. Well, yeah, after what happened, she’s happily going in my direction, it’s an understandable reaction.

「What place did you get?」
「19th place. It’s all thanks to you, Kisaragi.」

That’s great. As the one who taught her, I’m really glad. By the way, she decided to call me by family name when in academy grounds. I don’t really mind if she used my given name though.

「You can’t relax yet. After all, you need to maintain your grades for the next time as well.」
「I know. I’ll work hard during summer break too.」
「Having a break is also important. Don’t work yourself so hard, alright?」

Just studying during the whole summer break is so miserable, after all. As a student, playing is a part of your job. I plan to work the whole summer though.

「Thank you for the notes too. If not for the notes, I might have not made it.」
「They’re really convenient, aren’t they? We even scrambled for it here in class, you know?」

Kirigamine and Aiba. The two of them have studied together, so they’re acquainted. While they did have a stormy atmosphere between them at first, thanks to their mutual acquaintance with Kaori, they quickly reconciled.

「There was a time it nearly got torn, that gave me cold sweats.」

The notes I diligently wrote down nearly got ripped apart, so I reflexively yelled at them. As a result, the notes were successfully recovered. After that, I had them choose one representative to make a copy for them to copy en-masse and that resolved the issue.

「Wait, can anyone explain this situation?」

Representing the confused class, Minagawa spoke up. The only ones that understand this situation are those that studied with us, after all.

「To put it simply, we’ve reconciled.」
「That’s too simple. I want to hear the details as well.」
「It’s tied to my private circumstances, so I don’t really want to elaborate on it.」
「Then it’s fine. Anyway, this means that she won’t pick a bone with you, right? Then I’ll leave it there.」

Honestly, it’s just tiresome to explain this one more time. Like, how many times do I have to repeat it? So I’m glad she’s understanding.

「I made a lot of enemies, haven’t I?」
「Just like me from last year, yes. So, how does it feel?」
「The worst. To think I did the same thing as the person I hated. It’s somewhat ironic that I only realized it thanks to you, Kisaragi.」

Even so, it’s still better since she’s not hated by every student in the academy. It’s just that the people I’m close with don’t have good impressions of her.

「Please rein the others in as well. Even though you’ve calmed down now, it’s meaningless if the others run wild on their own.」
「That, I can’t guarantee. Most of the people left me back then after all.」

The common pattern, huh. You suck up to someone who’ll give you a good future but the instant things go south, you change sides. A social art but it isn’t all that pleasant.

「Have your personal friendships been affected?」
「That one’s fine. I’m not just surrounded by lackeys, after all. Even I have a close friend.」

Then it’s good. I was considering reaching out to a helping hand if she were to end up all alone. After all, all things aside, the people of this class have a pretty soft side to them.

「Fwuu!」
「So, Kotori, why are you intimidating her?」

Don’t hiss like a cat.

「I don’t like this person!」

Well that’s pretty direct. She came here for lunch but then sees someone she dislikes, so intimidating… is probably not the end goal. She probably wants her to leave, so she chose a head-on attack. Well, she has discouraged her opponent though.

「Somehow, my future suddenly turned bleak.」
「It’s still just Fumidzuki, you still have the chance to recover.」
「But President Hadzuki doesn’t have a good impression of me either.」
「It’s him we’re talking about, he might instantly change his tune by some random chance.」

If anything remotely interesting happens to her, he’ll definitely stick his head into it. And she can turn things around, there’ll be a great chance that he’ll be interested in her. As for me, the chances that I’ll get dragged into it is high, so I really don’t want a situation like that happening.

「Come now, Kotori. Don’t be so upset, let’s have lunch.」

At this rate, I’m going to eventually run out of lunchtime. Kotori has a lunchbox but Kirigamine doesn’t have anything. I guess it shows just how overjoyed she was.

「I-I’ll excuse myself now.」
「Don’t come anymore!」
「Like I said, why are you so displeased with her?」

This should be the first time they’ve ever met.

「Because she was harassing you, Kotone!」

I’m the reason, huh. I’m not particularly bothered though. As a student, things like that happen at least once or twice.

「I’m not really bothered by it anymore. It did irritate me right after it happened, though.」

My stress was relieved on the same day after all. However, hearing my words, Kirigamine grew even paler. Ah, I messed up.

「It’s alright. I don’t plan on getting revenge or anything. Besides, if I had any reservations, I wouldn’t have helped with the studies to begin with.」

There’s another reason, but it’s not like I’d willingly teach her just for that.

「Still, if you can assume that much, I don’t understand why you decided to harrass me.」
「I really didn’t think it through then.」

Impulsive actions are basically all like that. She’s mumbling in deep thought but Kirigamine’s actions are really contradictory at times. Still, could she go back now?

「Anyways, it would be best to step out for now.」

Since the conversations are getting twisted. It’s gradually rolling into a worse direction. Recalling it is depressing her and that doesn’t help.

「You’ve really helped a lot, Kisaragi.」
「If you think so, then please keep on bettering yourself.」

I’m pretty serious about it. Since I see Kotori growing displeased. I don’t want to have lunch in this sort of atmosphere. Please have a fight somewhere I can’t see. The afternoon lessons are disheartening enough already.

「Now then, Kisaragi. See you later.」
「I wish you the best, in more ways than one.」

It’s going to be tough from here on out. I myself have had experience with a bad reputation, it’s pretty hard to clear. All you can do is move forward step by step.

「And Kotori, you can’t stay upset forever.」
「Kotone is so mature. If it was me, I would hate her after all that happened.」

I have adult experience after all. No matter how you dislike a coworker, you’ll definitely have to talk to them sometimes and maybe even work with them. Other than that, it’s all about patience. In Kirigamine’s case, she only caused a problem because of her biases but she doesn’t seem to be a bad person at heart.