Chapter 9: So excited

“Emil, you know…”  

“Hm?”  

This was extra tutoring after the study group, which had been held at Marie’s request.  

In this space where it was just the two of us, Marie suddenly spoke up like that.  

“You’re really good at teaching.”  

“Really?”  

“Yeah, I understand everything right away. Hehe.”  

Marie said this shyly, her cheeks turning red.  

I quietly smiled as I looked at her, and suddenly, memories of the first cycle came to mind.  

Even in the first cycle, though it was me who had asked, I’d had time alone with Marie to study for exams.  

Of course, unlike now, all I could do back then was just be there with her.  

At that time, I was just an ordinary extra, so I didn’t have the ability to teach Marie anything.  

But even so, the Marie of the first cycle had agreed to my request.  

Even though there was clearly no merit for her in studying alone with me.  

Back then, Marie had gone along with my request.  

And so, just like now, we were able to have this time alone together.  

Though it was a little different.  

I recalled that we’d had a similar conversation back then too.  

“Emil, you know…”  

“…?”  

We were studying alone together in a classroom dyed orange by the sunset.  

“For some reason, you’re really kind to me.”  

Marie looked at me, hiding curiosity beneath her nonchalant expression.  

Caught off guard by her straightforward question, asked without any pretense, I faltered for a moment, at a loss for words.  

And then Marie continued.  

“Why’s that…?”  

“Hm? Why is what?” 

Seeing me unable to answer, Marie grinned at me as if she found it amusing.  

It was as if she already knew the answer.  

But as though she was determined to hear it from my own mouth, she kept pressing me.  

“We should study, Marie. Wasn’t the midterm grade important to you?”  

Back then, I’d pretended not to notice her obvious intent and changed the subject.  

At that, Marie, who had been grinning and prodding me, closed her mouth and shot me a faintly displeased look.  

Then, focusing back on her book, she muttered under her breath.  

“Coward…”  

She was probably sulking because she didn’t get the answer she wanted.  

Of course, I knew what kind of answer would satisfy her.  

But I couldn’t say it.  

Back then, I’d thought the timing wasn’t right.  

***

According to my plan, the proper “strategy” wouldn’t be complete until after the midterms.  

Since the strategy wasn’t even finished yet, I thought it’d be risky to give an answer that sounded like I was confessing my feelings.  

With that judgment, I avoided answering.  

To that, Marie glanced at me and grumbled as if complaining.  

What she said then was something that got under my skin.  

“Sigh… If I’d known it’d be like this, I should’ve studied with Malcolm instead~.”  

“Why’s Malcolm suddenly coming up?”  

“Well, either way, Malcolm’s grades are better than yours. If I’m going to study with someone, it’d obviously be better to do it with Malcolm, who’s got good grades.”  

“Then why didn’t you study with Malcolm?”  

“…Because you asked me to.”  

“You could’ve just said no.”  

“…I don’t know, idiot.”  

The price of not giving her the answer she wanted was a petty argument.  

In the process, Marie tried to provoke jealousy in me, and knowing the relationship between Marie and Malcolm from the original story, I easily fell for it.  

Thanks to that, I—an ordinary extra—felt pretty conflicted with jealousy.  

Though we argued, seeing my jealousy seemed to lift Marie’s mood in return.  

“If I studied with Malcolm, would you hate it?”  

“…Focus on studying, Marie.”  

“You can’t even answer this? Idiot, dummy, coward.”  

“Of course I’d hate it. Stop asking and just study.”  

“Why? Why would you hate it?”  

And so, with her mood improved, Marie repeated her probing questions to figure out my true feelings.  

It was really troubling.  

My mouth itched to say what I wanted, but I couldn’t, which made it frustrating.  

Yet at the same time, seeing Marie want “that kind of answer” from me brought a small sense of joy.  

It was proof that Marie had feelings for me too.  

***

Recalling those old memories from the first cycle, I looked back at the current situation.  

“…This isn’t about studying, though.”  

“What is it?”  

“Well, a few days ago, I asked you something in the infirmary. About Sierra…”  

“Oh, you mean whether I like Sierra?”  

“Uh… yeah.”  

Marie suddenly brought up something unrelated to studying.  

Her cheeks flushed, her gaze fixed on her book as she fidgeted with her pencil.  

“It just popped into my head. I mean, I asked you so randomly back then. Hehe…”  

“Did you?”  

“Yeah, anyway, this is also something I just suddenly got curious about.”  

Then, cautiously shifting her eyes from the book she’d been staring at,  

her round, pink eyes softly looked at me.  

“Emil… what kind of person… do you like?”  

It was an incredibly blatant question.  

Even so, Marie seemed to be trying her best to make it sound natural.  

I could see her biting her lip slightly to keep from stuttering or trembling, and she gripped her pencil tightly to suppress the shaking in her hands.  

‘So… what answer would be the best?’  

I paused for a moment, as if a set of choices had appeared before me.  

In a typical strategy, something like:  

“Hmm, someone a little dumb but cute?”  

“Someone who works hard toward their goals.”  

“Someone with a big chest.”  

And so on—answers that included Marie’s traits—would suffice.  

But my current situation was different.  

‘Unlike the first cycle, my goal isn’t to end up with Marie.’  

Right now, I was sharing a cozy, warm moment with Marie, but deep in my heart, there was a festering wound.  

I was doing this to cut that part out.  

And to do that, I needed Marie’s confession.  

Which meant my answer now had to be careful.  

‘If I answer like I like Marie too much… she’ll wait for me to confess.’  

In a position where I needed to receive a confession, it’d be the worst-case scenario if Marie ended up waiting for me to confess instead.  

After a few seconds of deliberation,  

I chose a rather vague answer.  

“Someone who gets good grades on this midterm.”  

Hearing my reply, Marie went silent for a brief moment.  

In my smiling gaze, I could clearly see her trembling eyes.  

Was she flustered?  

Did she think she’d been found out?  

Did she think I knew?  

I couldn’t tell exactly what she was thinking, but—  

Scribble, scribble…  

Marie refocused on her book and started solving problems again.  

“No more questions?”  

“Uh, no…”  

Marie didn’t laugh at my response; instead, she lowered her head with a tense, nervous expression.  

Seeing her like that, I couldn’t help but let a small smile slip out.  

Her obvious discomfort at my answer was oddly satisfying.  

Why was that?  

After a brief moment of pondering while watching her,  

I realized it tied back to the memory of the first cycle I’d just recalled.  

‘If I studied with Malcolm, would you hate it?’  

‘…Focus on studying, Marie.’  

‘You can’t even answer this? Idiot, dummy, coward.’  

‘Of course I’d hate it. Stop asking and just study.’  

‘Why? Why would you hate it?’  

Back then, she’d teased me, fully aware of my feelings, trying to coax out the answer she wanted.  

Maybe, just maybe, I’d wanted a little petty revenge for that.  

***

The next day.

After finishing regular classes as usual, I headed to the annex for the study group.  

Slide.

“Hi?”  

“…It’s just you?”  

“What? Disappointed Marie’s not here?”  

When I opened the door, the only one to greet me was Sierra.  

Neither Marie nor Malcolm was in the classroom.  

Just Sierra, who’d already spread out her books to study, smirked and teased me.  

“Where are the other two?”  

I casually ignored Sierra’s comment and sat down in front of her.  

“Hmm, they’ll probably show up soon?”  

“I see.”  

“So?”  

“What?”  

“Disappointed Marie’s not here?”  

But Sierra stubbornly pressed the question I’d tried to brush off.  

It felt like she’d keep asking if I didn’t answer.  

“She’ll be here soon, so what’s there to be disappointed about?”  

I deflected moderately, pulling my books out of my bag and setting them on the desk.  

Sierra looked at me with her usual deadpan expression.  

“You’re so unmanly.”  

“What now?”  

“In a situation like this, answering honestly would be the manly thing to do.”  

“What you’re annoyed about isn’t that I’m unmanly—it’s that you’re bored.”  

“Same difference.”  

“…Anyway, it’s someone else’s business. Aren’t you a little too interested?”  

I spoke to her with a hint of irritation.  

Not that I was genuinely annoyed, of course.  

But considering why I was pursuing Marie, Sierra’s interest was pretty inconvenient.  

Yet Sierra just glared back at me with narrowed eyes.  

“Well, if it bothers you, you should hide it better.”  

“Every study group, you two are always stuck together, flirting.”  

“Hmm.”  

She had a point, and I didn’t really have a comeback.  

Lately, for some reason, Marie had been approaching me during study group without caring about others’ eyes.  

It must’ve been pretty obvious even to a third party like Sierra.  

“Honestly, it’s not like we’re all together—it’s just the two of us sometimes, so it’s fine to talk a little, right? Between us.”  

“Between us…? You’re talking like we’re old friends or something.”  

“Hehe, we’re the top two in our grade, aren’t we? Isn’t that close enough?”  

Sierra grinned shamelessly as she said this.  

Her reasoning was nonsense, of course, but I paused to think about my response.  

Should I just say it outright?  

That “I’m not interested in Marie,” obviously.  

It’d make sense—then I could reject her confession later without any fallout.  

‘No, but what if it somehow gets back to Marie…?’  

If that answer led straight to a failed strategy, I couldn’t risk it, so I hesitated.  

Meanwhile, Sierra sighed with a deflated expression and looked at me.  

“You’re not seriously uninterested, are you?”  

She flipped the question I’d been about to ask back at me.  

And without waiting for my response, she kept going on her own.  

“Sigh, this is actually shocking. To think Marie was the only one serious here.”  

“Or is there someone else who’s serious?”  

“What?”  

“Hehe, like… me, for example?”  

Sierra winked playfully and pointed at herself with her index finger.  

It was obviously a joke, but I couldn’t laugh.  

“Rude. When a pretty girl like me says something like that, you should at least blush.”  

“Try it again. If my heart skips a beat, I’ll do it.”  

“Alright, then get ready—I’m going for real this time.”  

It seemed she’d given up teasing me about Marie.  

She must’ve picked up from my reaction that I wasn’t serious about Marie.  

Well, that was more convenient for me.  

I decided to play along with her teasing until Malcolm and Marie arrived.  

As I waited after her “get ready” comment,  

Sierra cleared her throat with an “Ahem,” then looked at me with a shy expression.  

It was clearly an act,  but with Sierra’s beauty added to it, that shyness carried more weight than sincerity.  

“Emil…”  

“Hmm…”  

“I like you…”  

“Sure.”  

“…Hehe, how’s that? It worked this time, right?”  

“Hmm… maybe 70 points?”  

“Did Malcolm hit you in the head or something? That was definitely 100 points.”  

Sierra’s confidence wasn’t misplaced.  

Honestly, that confession was flawless enough to deserve 100 points.  

But if I admitted that, the mood would get weird, so I docked 30 points for cheekiness.  

“Be honest. It was 100-point-level heart-fluttering, right?”  

“Quiet down. Let’s just start studying.”  

“Why~? You should answer this like a man.”  

Sierra poked my hand with her pencil, teasing me as I tried to avoid her gaze.  

Her playful grin seemed partly like teasing and partly like an effort to smooth over my earlier irritation.  

Maybe because I could see that intent,  

I smirked and said,  

“Fine, it was pretty good, so…”  

Slide— 

The classroom door opened, and Marie appeared.  

“…Ah, M-Marie.”  

Sierra let out an awkward laugh and stumbled over her words at Marie’s expressionless entrance, while I froze, unable to say anything.  

Marie wore an expression I’d never even seen in the first cycle.  

Step, step.

She walked over without a greeting,  thud, sat down in the chair next to me, and looked at us.  

Then, with a bright smile, as if the stiff atmosphere from a moment ago never existed, she said,  

“Hehe, sorry, I’m super late, huh?”  

That cheerful smile felt all the more terrifying.  

Marie soon started rummaging through her bag to pull out her books.  

In the awkward silence, Sierra glanced at me with an apologetic look, mouthing silently,  

‘Sorry…’  

I didn’t react to her apology.  

***

(Author’s Note)

Hello, readers! Thank you for reading!  

If you enjoyed it, I’d appreciate a like, bookmark, and a comment!  

Comments especially give me a lot of motivation to keep writing! Thank you.