Kiyotaka was joined by Suzune and Kikyo for lunch, but unlike the usual days where they would eat in peace, the two girls both had something important to talk to him about.
He could only take a good guess on why they would want to talk to him... which would be a problem if his suspicion was correct.
"Ayanokouji-kun, I may require your assistance later on while I teach some of our classmates. You are acquainted with Sudo-kun, right? It might be beneficial for him to have at least one familiar face around while he is studying," asked Suzune.
Kikyo flashed a nervous smile as she listened to her friend's question. "Uhm... I think I might also need Ayanokouji-kun to help me, hehe."
"Then why did you agree to help that many people in the first place, Kushida-san? You should have agreed to tutor a maximum of five people, not nine. What were you thinking?" Suzune asked, unable to understand why Kikyo would choose to do something ridiculous.
She was aware of how many of their classmates approached Kikyo earlier with pleas about joining her study group, and all she could do was stay silent and ask her about it the next time they talked. Tutoring a few people was already a daunting task, especially when it involved those who failed the mock test, but nine people?
Kikyo might as well volunteer to teach the whole class instead.
"I didn't want to turn down anyone who asked. And I really want to do my best to make sure everyone passes!" Kikyo defended herself.
Kiyotaka watched the two interact with each other like normal friends. Ever since Suzune accepted Kikyo's offer of friendship, they actually acted decently around each other despite their opposite personalities. For a moment, it seemed like they really were friends, only for him to remind himself that one of them hates the other for a pretty pathetic reason.
He wondered if telling Suzune the truth about Kikyo would make things better.
pαndα`noν?1--сoМ Suzune sighed in exasperation. "Good grief... you could have asked them to approach another one of the tutors. There are five of us, aren't there?"
"But—"
"Save it, you two. Hirata already asked me to tutor two people, so I won't be able to help either of you with whoever you're supposed to teach," he told them, which got their attention almost instantly.
The black-haired girl was surprised for a moment, before regaining her composed look. Hirata must have noticed that he had a higher score than most of their classmates in the mock test, so he decided to make Ayanokouji a tutor as well. Meanwhile, Kushida was surprised and was immediately curious about the students whom he will teach.
"Really? Who?" she asked.
"Not important. What about you two? Who are you handling?" Kiyotaka chose not to mention Airi or Kei to them, lest he risk the possibility of either of them being jealous or mad about the situation. Or worse, the both of them react negatively and make it an even bigger problem.
Thankfully, neither of the two seemed like they were going to insist that he tell them.
Suzune cleared her throat. "As I said, Sudo-kun is one of them, which was why I wanted you to help me. Onodera-san was with him when he asked for my tutelage. Apparently, he would rather study with her around instead of the two of them being in separate groups, so it may not be too hard to get him to listen."
"If that's the case, then you didn't really need me in the first place," he pointed out. For someone who's really smart, Horikita was as clueless as him in social interactions, maybe even worse. "As long as Onodera is with him, he'll be obedient and won't cause any trouble."
Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Is that so?"
"Wait, does Sudo-kun like Onodera-san?" asked Kikyo.
"I'm surprised you didn't know that already," he replied. Kiyotaka was pretty sure that a lot of the boys know that Ken had the hots for Kayano, and it boggled him that none of the girls have caught on to the guy's obvious crush yet. "Is there anyone else in your group, Horikita?"
"There were only about four people who approached me. Aside from the two that I have mentioned, there's also Nishimura-san and Minami-san."
Kiyotaka gave her a nod of acknowledgement, before turning to their other companion. "What about you, Kushida?"
"Oh, well... I think there's Hondou-kun, Yamauchi-kun, Ike-kun, Shinohara-san, Sato-san, Okitani-kun, Azuma-san, Maezono-san, and Ishikura-san."
He stared at her blankly. "Horikita was right. You're taking in more than what you can handle," he spoke.
Kikyo pouted at him, which was a sight that Kiyotaka found to be really cute.
"There's nothing wrong with your intentions. I'm just saying that it's not a good idea to take in a lot of our classmates and expect yourself to be able to teach all of them. Even you should be aware of that. You couldn't have asked some of them to go to Horikita instead?"
"I didn't want to burden her with the people who asked me for help," she admitted, hanging her head low out of shame.
"Horikita, will it be fine with you if some of our classmates from Kushida's group transfer to yours?" he asked, turning his attention back towards Suzune.
"I have no problem with that, as long as they know how to listen and to do as they are told."
"This might be a bad idea," Kiyotaka said in his mind, before going for it anyway. "Then talk with Kushida about who you'll be taking out of the students she'll be handling later on."
"Very well," the black-haired girl shrugged. "Kushida-san, we'll discuss this later. But now I want to make this clear. I trust that you'll be able to help our classmates to the best of your abilities, especially those who had a failing score in the mock test. Failing the midterm exams is not an option for any of us."
Kikyo nodded happily. "I understand, Horikita-san. Thank you for taking some of our classmates under your wing. You know, I'm honestly surprised that you're helping the class by tutoring our classmates. I thought you wouldn't really care, because... well, because you don't talk to anyone else other than me and Ayanokouji-kun. I mean no offense, though!"
"I understand why you would think like that," she closed her eyes and folded her arms. "However, like everyone else, I am dissatisfied with our current predicament. I don't want us to stay as Class D until we graduate, so I am doing my part in making our class better."
"Yeah! Let's work together, Horikita-san!"
Kiyotaka continued to stare at their interaction, both curious and interested to see where this would lead to. "If Kushida wasn't currently after her throat, then I'd say that they're doing well as friends so far... at least, that's what I think."
The three students continued on with their lunch afterwards, before heading back to the classroom once they were done. After their classes ended several hours later, many of the students of Class D left the room in various groups, each one led by the assigned tutors.
Kiyotaka stayed behind, but he wasn't alone. His red-haired classmate who wore a pair of glasses was also left in the classroom with him, though it seemed like she wasn't aware of his presence at all. She only remained in her seat, looking down on the floor, not caring that everyone else was gone.
With his bag slung on his shoulder, Kiyotaka walked towards the girl.
"Sakura," he called out to her.
His voice alone snapped the girl out of her trance, and it made her turn to him with a look of alarm on her face.
"Y-Y-Y-Y-Yes...?!"
Seeing her flustered expression, Kiyotaka suppressed the urge to sigh. Hopefully, her shy nature won't hinder her ability to learn, or this will be a hard task to accomplish. Then again, he was already dealing with a crazy superpower and this was nothing compared to that.
"Let's go. Karuizawa's already heading to the library and I can tell that if we make her wait long, she'll go nuts."
"Ah— o-o-okay..."
Nodding her head in agreement, Airi grabbed her bag and followed Kiyotaka out of the classroom.
As they headed to the library, Airi was in deep thought. She was aware of the study groups that were created earlier and while she would like nothing more than to join her classmates in studying to improve her grades, she also knew that her personality was a big obstacle for her to overcome.
Airi was completely sure that if she tried to join a study group, she would only drag her classmates down because she was nothing more than deadweight, someone who was only capable of failing.
When Kiyotaka told her that he was assigned to be the one who'll help her study earlier, Airi felt relieved... somewhat. At the very least, he was someone whom she had spoken to before... just in different circumstances.
Point is, she was already someone she's familiar with, at least in her eyes. Airi hoped that this would go well... because she didn't want to let her classmates down.
"Are you nervous?"
The girl was snapped out of her thoughts by Kiyotaka's voice, as she noticed that he was expecting an answer from her.
"I-I am, but... I also know that I have to pass the upcoming exams," she answered honestly, turning her head away. "So... that's why I can't fail. I don't want to."
"That's good. In that case, I hope you're prepared to work with Karuizawa."
"U-Uhm... w-would she be okay with me?" she asked shyly.
That question made the young man stop and think for a moment. Would Karuizawa be fine studying with a girl like Sakura? Or would she feel annoyed by her because of Sakura's personality?
"Hmm..." he muttered. "I don't think she'd have any problems with you. If anything, I can only see her complaining that we took some time getting to the library and made her wait. Other than that, I don't believe she'll mind that you'll be studying with her."
Airi blinked a few times in surprise. She was obviously prepared for him to say yes, and his response caught her off guard. "R-Really? She won't mind that I'm... like this?"
"I may not know her well, but I'm sure that she's not going to judge you for that. If anything, she'd understand why you're like that and even befriend you."
"I-I see..."
The two continued on their way in peace, though it was a bit hard for Airi because she still felt nervous about this whole thing. What if she doesn't absorb everything that Kiyotaka teaches her? What if she fails to understand all of it? What if Karuizawa didn't like her after all and refused to study with her? What if Karuizawa walks out on her and Kiyotaka?
All she could do was hope for the opposite.
As they reached the entrance to the library, they saw a familiar blonde-haired girl standing by the entrance while using her phone. There's no telling how long she has been standing there, but it's clear that she won't be pleased that they got here just now.
The girl seemed to notice their incoming presence and caused her to look up from her phone. Kei quickly realized that these were the two people whom she was supposed to meet in this place.
"What the hell took you two so long?" she complained.
"Give her a break. Sakura is a very shy individual, and it took a lot more effort than you think just to get her to come," he replied calmly.
Kei stared at him briefly. Her initial reaction to the idea of studying with everyone wasn't really pleasant, thinking that it would be a waste of time and not worth doing, since she wasn't even close to failing the test that Chabashira-sensei gave them. She did change her mind though, after Yosuke spoke about increasing their class's points by getting high marks on their midterm exams.
In the end, she was convinced, though it brought about the question of whose study group she would join. Kei considered Kikyo's group at first, only for Yosuke to approach her out of nowhere and inform her that she would be put in Kiyotaka's group instead.
Kei wanted to ask him why she was assigned under Kiyotaka's tutelage, when he said that everyone was free to join whomever they wanted and that he wasn't even one of the tutors that Yosuke mentioned earlier. However, she eventually accepted it since it wasn't really important.
Moreover, she didn't think Kiyotaka was a bad person at all. At first, she thought of him otherwise, that he was a pervert who thought of the new dorm arrangements as a way to get close to the girls and follow them around for a quick peek. How could she not? It was the perfect opportunity for the boys to do so, now that some of them were neighbors with the girls.
But after that conversation they had at Keyaki Mall, her perception of him began to change. Not once did he act like a pervert, and the only thing he did was talk to her like a normal person.
It reached the point where she asked him if she could borrow some points last week, after Chabashira-sensei revealed that they weren't going to receive their 100,000 point allowance this month. She expected him to refuse since they weren't close friends or anything, and she would understand why. However, he defied her expectations once again and gave her the points she needed, which completely changed his image in her eyes.
By now, she was pretty fine with him and had no complaints about Kiyotaka being her tutor until the midterms. She could only hope that this would be effective, though.