Chapter 68: Exam Scope

  Ever since that "friendly" conversation with Horikita in the courtyard during lunch break, the troublesome scenario Hachiman expected—where the girl would come looking for trouble—never happened. This made Hachiman sigh in relief, though he also cursed himself for meddling. This kind of "nice guy" behavior really needed to be corrected, or else he'd just be adding more embarrassing moments to his personal history.

  Looking back, he and Horikita were not only cssmates but also desk neighbors, meaning they saw each other constantly. Thinking about the "lecture" he gave her, Hachiman just wanted to find a hole to crawl into—or maybe just take a leave from school altogether?

  It was just too awkward!

  Even though Horikita acted as if nothing had happened after they returned from the courtyard, and she showed no unusual behavior, Hachiman couldn't shake the feeling of an eerie chill running down his back.

  Lately, he had been sneezing frequently—was he catching a cold?

  "Css C really doesn’t let people have any peace!"

  Inside the library, Hachiman, now wearing a mask, slumped back into his seat after once again dealing with a dispute between Css C and other csses. This wasn’t the first time he had to intervene in the library. The students from Css C seemed to be constantly on edge, picking fights with students from Css A and B as if they were on a constant adrenaline rush. Naturally, Hachiman had to clean up the mess, and frankly, he was fed up with it.

  "Having such a rowdy bunch in css must be tough for Shiina."

  He felt bad for Shiina, who had to deal with such aggressive cssmates. Lately, she had been absent from the library, likely busy tutoring them.

  "Hachiman-kun, what are you mumbling about~?"

  A warm breath suddenly tickled his ear, making Hachiman shudder like a startled cat.

  Seeing his exaggerated reaction, Haruno let out an amused chuckle.

  "What... are you doing here?"

  Hachiman looked at her with a mix of resignation and bitterness. Ignoring his expression, Haruno sat directly on the table, casually swinging her fair legs. The way she positioned herself revealed just enough to be suggestive, and she grinned mischievously.

  "Why do I feel like Hachiman-kun has a lot of compints about me?"

  Hachiman gave her a deadpan look as if to say, "You already know the answer." But he quickly averted his gaze.

  "Aww, don’t be so stingy~ As compensation, how about I treat you to a meal? A girl’s invitation isn’t something you can refuse~"

  Haruno rested her cheek on her palm, tilting her head with a pout, gazing at Hachiman with a pyful, pleading expression.

  The fluidity of her movements, the natural way she acted—it was all too practiced, too effective. With just a few words and gestures, she had completely taken the upper hand.

  Hachiman mentally cursed. This is impossible to win against!

  The gap between their "ranks" was just too vast—this was at least a thousand-point King-tier pyer against a lowly bronze.

  "So, silence means agreement, right?"

  "Can you sit properly at least?"

  Hachiman pulled out a chair for her, nervously gncing around. People are staring!

  Haruno giggled, sliding her chair closer to him.

  "You're so shy~"

  Hachiman’s face turned red. "That's because you have no shame!"

  Haruno didn’t seem bothered at all. She rested her chin in her hand, staring at his profile. Then, suddenly, she reached out and poked him.

  "I never noticed before, but your eyes look even more captivating with a mask on."

  "Should I take that as an insult?"

  With his mask covering most of his face, his trademark "dead fish eyes" stood out even more. Some people even found them a little eerie. Strangely, even dealing with troublemakers had been easier today—maybe they were intimidated.

  "Not at all~"

  Haruno stared directly into his eyes, a glimmer of curiosity in her gaze.

  "I was just thinking—how can a human have eyes like this? Do you have some kind of special ability?"

  "You should probably apologize to every person with these kinds of eyes."

  "Are you sure you don’t have x-ray vision or cirvoyance?"

  "Please, this is the real world, not some anime with Sharingan or Byakugan! And even in anime, plenty of side characters have dead fish eyes!"

  "Aww~"

  Haruno pouted and then, seemingly losing interest, rested her head on the table.

  "Lately, everything’s so boring… I wanna go home. I miss Yukino. I wanna tease her~"

  Hachiman suddenly grew curious.

  "Aren’t you worried about your css?"

  Lying on the table, Haruno zily replied, her cheek pressed against the surface:

  "What’s there to worry about? If something happens, they can just fight it out first. I’ll just cheer them on from the sidelines."

  "I think you're just trying to fan the fmes."

  Hikigaya quipped. He had come to understand this woman’s character all too well—believing she wouldn’t stir up trouble was about as believable as thinking getting hit by a dump truck would reincarnate him into another world as some overpowered protagonist.

  "Hehe, Hikigaya, what kind of inconvenient truth are you blurting out now~?"

  It seemed that Haruno had no intention of hiding her true nature in front of him.

  At that moment, Haruno seemed to recall something and looked at Hikigaya with keen interest. "Did you know? You're actually quite famous in our css now! Arisu seems very interested in you, and quite a few people around Totsuka have strong opinions about you joining the student council."

  Hikigaya didn't particurly care about this. However, the mention of the name " Totsuka " caught his attention!

  That follower around Katsuragi that day was named Totsuka Yahiko, wasn't he? Immediately, Hikigaya felt an inexplicable irritation!

  Damn it! Why does this guy have to be called Totsuka?!

  There is only one Totsuka, and that is Saika!

  Just thinking about the fact that someone else besides Saika was also named Totsuka made Hikigaya irrationally angry!

  "By the way, have you run into any trouble recently?"

  Recalling a dispute he had dealt with a few days ago, Hikigaya suddenly asked.

  "Hikigaya, are you worried about me? Aww~ I'm so touched!"

  Hikigaya remained completely unresponsive. Even heroes learn from failure, and he had long since acquired the skill to automatically filter out the Demon Lord of Bad Taste's antics.

  "Are you talking about Css C?"

  Haruno’s lips curled into a meaningful smile. "The leader of Css C is someone named Ryuen or something. He’s indeed quite annoying, like a fly. You really want to swat it dead, but it's so disgusting that you hesitate. It’s really troublesome~"

  Ryuen's methods were purely about making people uncomfortable—causing trouble for others without benefiting himself. And yet, he was a master at knowing just how far he could push things, staying right on the edge of the rules without actually breaking them. Every time Hikigaya had to deal with him, he could only issue verbal warnings without being able to impose any real punishment.

  Clearly, Haruno had experienced something simir.

  Ryuen’s actions were obviously a direct provocation toward the student council, as if saying, "I completely understand the rules of this school—you won’t be able to catch me."

  "I find it disgusting too."

  Hikigaya nodded. This Ryuen guy was constantly causing problems, and combined with Haruno’s habit of scking off, it all just added more to his workload. At this point, he was practically a corporate drone—no, a school drone.

  "Are those your cssmates from Css D over there?"

  Suddenly, Haruno pointed toward a self-study desk in the distance with curiosity.

  Hikigaya nodded. It was the idiot trio—Ayanokouji, Kushida, and Horikita. Kushida and Horikita were teaching the others, reviewing coursework and key points.

  To be honest, Hikigaya had already noticed them earlier. He was quite surprised—he never expected this "failing student group" to reunite for study sessions. Lately, he'd even seen them doing the same thing after school.

  It had barely been two days since their st "explosion," and yet they were back together. It was nothing short of a miracle.

  Given the trio’s personalities, they probably didn’t care much about midterm exams, let alone lowering their heads to Horikita. As for Horikita yielding to the trio? Sorry, Hikigaya had never even considered that possibility.

  His gaze shifted to Kushida—she was probably the only one who could keep these idiots in line. The true "monkey trainer"!

  But then he remembered that Kushida seemed to have some kind of hidden agenda regarding Horikita...

  Well, whatever. The retionship between Kushida and Horikita had nothing to do with him!

  "Hikigaya-kun doesn’t seem to care much about his cssmates. What a heartless man~"

  "Regarding that, I don’t think certain someone has the right to talk."

  "You’re so mean!"

  Haruno puffed up her cheeks and pointed at Hikigaya’s textbook in protest. "I was originally going to remind you that you got the study material for the exam wrong, but I guess I was just being too kind!"

  "Eh?"

  Hikigaya lowered his head and looked at his textbook, suddenly sensing something was off.

  "Haruno, can you show me the scope of your css’s midterm exam content?"

  "Hmph! When there’s nothing wrong, you act all cold. But the moment you need something, you call me ‘Haruno’ so intimately!"

  Oh no, she was acting up again. Hikigaya instantly understood.

  "Miss Haruno, I sincerely apologize. I was wrong. Please, I beg your forgiveness."

  Head lowered, instant apology, triple combo.

  "Hikigaya-kun, why are you so skilled at this?!"

  Haruno looked both heartbroken and disappointed as she questioned him.

  Damn it! That’s supposed to be my line!

  Why are you so skilled at this?!

  Hikigaya screamed internally.

  Seeing how much fun she was having, Haruno finally stopped teasing him and handed over the exam scope for her css. Within seconds, Hikigaya had his conclusion—the content for Css D and Css A was different, with a 50% discrepancy.

  "This midterm is a unified exam for the entire grade, you know?"

  Haruno added with a smirk.

  Hikigaya's expression darkened. He was already aware of this. Even with separate A and B versions of the test, the scope of material shouldn’t have this much of a difference.

  After a moment of thought, Hikigaya messaged Hiyori. Within a minute, she replied with an image—the exam scope for Css C. It was exactly the same as what Haruno had given him.

  "Heh."

  Hikigaya suddenly let out a cold ugh.

  "Wow, your Css D is really interesting. If I were in Css D, I definitely wouldn’t be bored."

  Haruno looked regretful, as if she had also noticed the underlying issue.

  Hikigaya only responded with a single "heh." If Haruno were in Css D, that would be an absolute disaster. He might as well just drop out.

  The good news was that they had caught the mistake in the exam scope.

  The bad news? There were less than ten days until the test.

  But what Hikigaya was more concerned about was why Chabashira-sensei had done this in the first pce.

  Was this revenge for what happened in the first month of school? Possible?

  Or was she just trying to mess with the students?

  Did she not realize that this could result in a massive number of students failing and dropping out?

  What benefit would she get from that?

  But if she was aware of the consequences and still chose to do this, then…

  Could it mean that there was some kind of hidden rule that would allow them to "pass smoothly" despite this discrepancy?