episode_0024

What am I doing now?

Why are you solving meaningless workbooks?

He absentmindedly moves his pen and solves various math problems in an instant.

Shine, sitting next to me, was still fidgeting and solving the problem.

He rests his chin on his hand and looks at Shine.

Her face looks very cute when she is concentrating on something.

As I was rolling my pen around with a small smile on my face, Amy took my math workbook away.

“Jeff, are you done?”

“Of course.”

What do you think of me?

Wouldn’t that be a problem that’s easy to solve?

As I looked at Amy with a confident smile, she let out a subtle laugh and began grading my problems.

Of course, I expected it to snow lightly, but what fell on top of the problem I had solved was a heavy rain.

My gaze wavers.

I stare blankly at the red rainwater falling in pitter-patter, my mouth wide open.

“This too, this too, this too.”

Words that keep flowing out of Amy’s mouth.

She gets to the last problem and stops the red pen.

“Wrong.”

“Yes… ?”

I ask again in a trembling voice.

Really? Are you really wrong?

I look at the workbook in disbelief.

This is where I wrote down what I think is the correct answer.

A red raindrop was drawn over it.

That fact sank deep into my heart.

Feeling bitter, I held my chest and took the workbook Amy gave me back.

“Really… . Is that wrong?”

“Then, release it again.”

I look at Amy with a dubious face.

She just nodded and patted my head.

After receiving the workbook, I sat down helplessly.

“Jeff. Should I tell you?”

A voice coming from the seat next to me.

Shine was looking at me with a subtle, teasing smile.

Her workbook isn’t even halfway done yet.

“No…!”

That can’t be true.

It’s clear that I made a mistake at some point.

I erase all the answers with an eraser.

Then the pen moves again.

It’s a simple problem that can be solved entirely through mental calculations.

How did this happen?

An answer completely different from the one I wrote down earlier comes to mind.

It’s clear that I made a mistake.

Hands moving without hesitation.

As I looked at the problems that were solved in an instant, I put down the pen in my hand.

“Jeff, you’re not kidding, are you?”

Amy speaks in disbelief at how quickly I solve the problem.

I shake my head.

Is this really solved properly?

“It’s true. I worked hard.”

I talk while hugging my workbook tightly.

It was unbearably sad to know that the answer I had come up with was being denied.

Shine, who was looking at me from the seat next to me, looks down at her workbook.

A wide space with more than half of it still remaining.

She closes her mouth and moves her pen again.

“Shine, I’m done.”

I look at her and smile victoriously.

“It’s still too early to be proud.”

As Amy spoke, she took out the workbook from my arms.

I look at Amy with a nervous heart.

The workbook in her hand.

And my gaze turns to Amy’s face.

“Foot… !”

Amy bursts into laughter.

“Amy?”

He calls Amy’s name in an anxious voice.

Why are you smiling?

why?

“Look at him, Jeff.”

Amy opened her workbook.

Then he moves the chair, comes next to me, and picks up the pen.

“This is wrong.”

This time the red pen doesn’t move.

She kindly begins to teach me how to solve the problem.

I look at it with confused eyes.

I know it for sure, I know how to do it.

why?

Why is it wrong?

“Yes… .”

I nod and follow her calmly.

Write down the answer by working out the process you would have done mentally on paper.

The answer I got was a number that was very different from the answer I calculated in my head.

I touch the paper with the solution process written on it with trembling hands.

“This is… .”

“I’ll tell you Jeff.”

As I was holding the paper and being confused, Shine, who had solved all of her problems, approached me.

“Did you solve all the shine too?”

“Yeah.”

Shine nods with confidence.

I also shift my gaze and look at her workbook.

A page with only the correct answers written clearly.

She also seemed to have dealt with the problem through mental calculations.

“Where should I look?”

I look at Amy and Shine.

With a feeling of hopelessness and a little bit of anticipation.

I was wrong, I was wrong, but there’s no way Shine could be all correct.

yes?

I’m not weird.

“Oh~”

Amy lets out an exclamation.

I open my mouth wide.

This is because round eyes kept falling down in Shine’s problem book.

Something catches my eye at that unbelievable fact.

“Are they all correct?”

“How is it?”

“Awesome. You did a great job.”

Amy compliments Shine.

Shine looks delighted as she receives Amy’s compliments with a bright smile on her face.

She proudly shows off her workbook.

As I looked at the answers written above, I began to compare them with the answers written in my workbook.

does not exist.

doesn’t exist.

There was not a single correct answer.

I was all wrong.

Twice, at that.

“Ugh… .”

My tightly clenched hands are trembling.

An unbearable sadness comes over me.

Why am I wrong?

A drop of water running down the cheek.

The hot warmth cools down, leaving behind footprints.

“Jeff are you crying?”

Shine asks worriedly.

I shake my head and wipe my cheek with my hand.

Don’t cry.

It’s just so weird to be dragging your feet on this.

“No… . Cry… !”

Rattling breath.

I hide my tears and calm my rapidly pounding heart.

“Was it too difficult?”

Amy asks worriedly.

She takes a handkerchief out of her pocket and hands it to me.

I blankly accept that hand.

The handkerchief, moved carefully, gently pressed down on my eyes.

After the handkerchief disappears, the blurred vision returns to normal.

“No!”

It’s not difficult.

Seriously.

I swallow my breath and pick up my pen again.

“I’ll tell you Jeff.”

Shine brings her chair next to me and sits close to me.

“I can do it by myself.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Shine smiled slightly at my rejection and got up from her seat.

“Amy, I’m done, so do you want some juice and a snack?”

I raise my head at Shine’s words.

Amy, who had been sitting and watching me solve the problem, got up from her seat at Shine’s words and started preparing snacks and drinks.

Impatience sets in.

Me too. I want to eat it too!

My head is spinning.

Problems that were easily solved through mental calculations are now facing a huge wall.

It feels like standing in front of a huge wall.

I don’t see any way to get past this.

But I don’t stop.

“Why won’t it work?”

Was it because of impatience?

My thoughts began to flow out of my mouth little by little.

Shine, who was drinking juice and eating a snack next to the desk where I was solving a problem, smiled playfully.

“I’ll tell you.”

“No.”

I absolutely refuse.

I’m sure you can solve it by yourself.

This was a problem that would normally take less than 10 seconds per problem.

My face feels hot.

My tongue is so dry.

The rustling sound of cookies coming from next door.

The sound of Shine drinking juice through a straw.

They all fly into my ears clearly and stick in my ears.

The vision becomes blurry once again.

“Ugh… .”

A small hand covers the workbook.

Why can’t I solve it?

“I’ll help you.”

When did it come?

Shine, who was pulling the chair next to me and sitting down, grabbed my arm.

I nod.

The tears that had gathered in the corners of my eyes begin to disappear.

“It’s like this… .”

As her explanation continues, the walls that had been blocking her way crumble in an instant.

My eyes widen.

This? Like this? Is it really this easy?

Problems that are too easily solved.

But before Shine can finish speaking, when you try to move on to the next question, a huge wall blocks your way.

“Jeff. You’re still explaining this.”

“Ugh… .”

I nod my head quietly.

“You guys are really close.”

Amy, who was looking at us from the front, smiles happily.

I worked hard with my pen to solve the problem.

But without Shine’s explanation, the problem could not be solved.

It feels really amazing.

“I’m done… !”

I solved the last problem.

I raise my hands in the air, feeling a great sense of liberation and accomplishment.

It feels so cool that it makes me laugh.

“I’m done!”

Shine, who was sitting next to me, also moved in the same way as me.

They raise their hands and look at each other.

A bright smile appears on each other’s lips.

“Thank you Shine!”

Without her, the problem could not have been solved.

I really thought so.

“Jeff needs me.”

I nod to her words.

“Where should I look?”

Amy, who was looking at us, picks up her workbook.

I look at the workbook Amy is grading with a nervous heart.

At that moment, Shine gently held my hand that was trembling with anxiety.

I feel a warm warmth.

When I looked at Shine in surprise, Shine smiled gently.

It was as if he was telling me to trust myself.

That smile gives me confidence.

The tremors disappear in an instant.

Wait for grading with a confident expression.

“Wow~”

Amy finishes grading with a small exclamation.

The results are all correct.

As soon as I received the grading results, I shouted at Amy.

“I want some snacks too!”

Shine and I run to the table filled with cookies.

Small footsteps echo throughout the room.

The problem book that was fading away behind my back had already long since been erased from my mind.

I sat down at the table and stuffed my mouth with delicious cookies.

The rustling and crumbling cookies wrap around the tip of your tongue.

A feast of sweet sugar.

The subsequent wave of juice softens the hard cookies and guides them down the throat.

“It’s delicious!”

I was enjoying the snacks so deliciously.

Amy seemed to be pondering something and then asked us a question.

“When is your birthday?”

“Birthday… ?”

Shine tilts her head and asks again.

“Birthday. That is, the date you were born.”

At Amy’s words, Shine and I look at each other.

I didn’t know the date Shine was born.

It’s the same for me too.

Born in District 23, I never knew exactly when I was born.

“I don’t know.”

“Me too.”

“Umm… .”

Amy mumbles slightly at our answer.

It seemed like he had something to say.