It was Sunday. Today, I was going to meet up with Nora to see how progress was on the exam questions I asked him to make due to our deal with C Class.

Even though Matsushita and Alice told him not to worry about making questions for our class, in private I explained the situation to him and he agreed to help me.

"Mornin', Takanori-san."

As I entered the lobby, Himeji greeted me casually while sweeping the floor. He's always doing odd jobs for Fumio.

"Hey. Mind if I borrow your bike again?"

"Of course not. It's in the shed, as usual."

"Thanks."

These days, I've been borrowing Himeji's bike more and more to travel around Drachma Red. It saved me points while letting me squeeze in some extra workout for my legs.

Just as I was about to head out, Himeji called out to me again.

"Oh yeah, Takanori-san, you have some new mail."

"I do...?"

I went over to my mailbox and opened it. Checking inside, a single letter laid there.

That was strange. I haven't received one of these in ages. The last time I did was back in April, when X tried contacting me.

I wonder what happened to him. He became real quiet after I rejected his initial offer. Guess he moved onto some other chump who fell for his tricks.

Anyways, I didn't order anything online, so someone must've posted me this on their own accord. I opened the letter and read what was inside.

"What the...?"

In a plain font, a message was typed up in the middle of the letter. It read: "I'll kill you".

"...what rubbish."

I folded up the paper and shoved it back into my mailbox. I'm guessing Nakajima sent me this as a threat. How pathetic.

I already knew he was hot on my trail. There was no reason to take this seriously.

"What a waste of time..."

I grumbled to myself as I got up and cycled to Nora's house. Once I arrived, I knocked on the front door and waited.

I've become especially familiar with this place due to how often I've visited it in the past month.

"Takanori-kun!"

Answering the door, Nora greeted me with a small smile.

"Hey."

I entered his house and took off my shoes.

"It's just you and me today... Kou-san's out at the moment."

"Let me guess, she's at the gym?"

"Yeah... she's with the other members of the track and field club preparing for their upcoming marathon."

"When's that?"

"During summer break."

"Ah. You looking forward to it?"

"Umm... not really..."

"Fair enough. I'm not either."

"A ha ha... I guess what I'm worried most about is just going back home..."

Nora took out a bottle of green tea from the fridge and offered it to me.

"It's really hot today. Do you want one?"

"If you don't mind."

"Here."

"Thanks."

As Nora handed me the bottle, I cracked it open and took a large sip.

"To be honest, I thought about not going home myself."

"Eh? Really?"

I nodded my head.

"Um... if I can ask, why's that?"

"Like you, I'm not looking forward to seeing my family either."

"Oh... um... are you on bad terms with them?"

"No, I'm fine with my mom and little sister. It's just..."

As the words left my mouth mindlessly, a swaying shadow of him abruptly entered my mind.

"...I'd rather not talk about it."

As much I trusted Nora, this was something that I couldn't tell him about.

"Ah, that's okay. Sorry for asking..."

"It's cool. How about you? Are you going to go back or stay here?"

"Mmm... I'm not sure still, to be honest. But right now... I think I'm leaning towards going back..."

Me and Nora went to his bedroom, where he had stored and collated all the questions.

"Oh? That's brave of you."

"N-not really... I'm only going back so I can be with my friends."

"Did you make summer plans with someone already?"

I wouldn't be surprised if Shouko already invited him to join her on vacation or something.

"Umm... kinda...? Nothing's finalised, but... Mikitaka-san wants to bring me, Kou-san, and Sakigamiya-san to France."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah! He's fluent in French, just like Sakigamiya-san."

"I had no clue."

Talk about being a slick wingman.

Mikitaka was able to set up an amazing opportunity for Nora to get closer to Katsumi by inviting them to visit France with him, the country of love. This would give them the perfect chance to get closer to each other romantically without Shouko interfering.

Plus, inviting Alice was the perfect cover up, as it masked the fact he was trying to hook them up by inviting an unassociated third party, which was in reality someone who was aware of the situation and could assist Mikitaka in a pinch.

It was a genius plan, bulletproof even.

"Actually, how are things between you and Katsumi-san these days?"

"E-eh? Umm... it's been fine... I guess..."

"It doesn't seem like it."

His unsure language choice combined with the slight drop of tone in his voice indicated that something was bothering him.

"Umm... well, e-ehh..."

"Did you two get in a fight recently or something?"

"N-no! N-nothing like that! K-Kou-san would never!"

It was clear to see that Nora cared deeply about protecting Katsumi's image.

"So, something did happen?"

"Mm... i-it's more... nothing really happened..."

Finally giving in, Nora started opening up to me.

"I guess... I guess it feels like... t-the distance between us has grown... if that makes sense?"

"Oh? In what way?"

"W-well... it feels like... we've spent less time together recently. I know it sounds silly... s-since we live together, but... she goes out a lot while I stay at home... so it doesn't really feel like we see each other much even outside of school."

"Come to think of it, from what I've seen, you two don't really hang out at school that often either."

"Y-yeah... i-it, umm... it... m-makes me sad..."

Nora frowned as his voice trailed off.

"Why's that?"

"These days... we barely seem to talk to each other. At school, we started hanging out with each other less since I'm usually with either Shouko-san or Mikitaka-san... and even though I'm happy that they're spending time with me... I... I-I..."

Nora's face turned hot with red as he gulped nervously.

"I... want to talk to Kou-san... the most."

Admitting his deepest desire to me in near silence, Nora buried his face in the table to hide his embarrassment.

"You really do like her, huh?"

Nora lifted his head and nodded lightly.

"S-she's... the first girl who wanted to be friends with me... so, um... she's special to me..."

Even though it sounded silly, I could tell that he was being honest with his feelings.

"Can I ask you a weird question, Nora-san?"

"Umm... sure. G-go for it."

"Who do you prefer? Katsumi-san or Shouko-san?"

"E-eh...? Eeeeeeeeeeeeeh?!"

Nora's head exploded with smoke when I asked him this.

"W-w-what do you m-mean by t-that, T-Takanori-kun...?"

"Who do you like more, basically."

"Eh, uhm, umm..."

He definitely wasn't expecting this sort of question to be thrown at him today. Nora stuttered and stammered, unable to form an immediate answer to such a difficult question.

"If it's too hard, I'll make things easier for you. If you had to date one of them, which would it be?"

Of course, I just wanted to know more about Nora's side of the love square.

"W-w-why are you asking this?! S-since when are you interested in this kind of stuff?!"

"I noticed you spend a lot of time with both of them, so I was just curious."

"B-but if I answer that kind of question... i-isn't it just a confession of who I love...?"

"What makes you think that?"

"W-well... y-you asked who I'd date, and... umm..."

"It was to help make things easier. The one you'd prefer to date would be the one you like more."

"B-but, uhm..."

Nora started fidgeting before lowering his voice to an almost inaudible whisper.

"I-I like b-both Kou-san and Shouko-san... e-equally..."

"...eh?"

I genuinely didn't expect this response. I was fully expecting him to say that he preferred Katsumi, but it seems Shouko's aggressive flirting has finally worked on him...

"I-I can't choose between the both of them... I like them both for their own different reasons... there's no way I could simply just choose one! If I could have things my way... I-I'd... want to be... u-umm... w-with both... of them..."

In other words, if Katsumi and Shouko were down for it, Nora was totally open to having a polygamous relationship with them.

"Wow... I didn't expect that from you."

I guess Nora was less pure than I thought. Then again, he is a teenage boy... maybe he was a closet pervert, or something?

"S-should I have not answered so honestly...? S-sorry..."

"It's fine. I guess that means you have a crush on both of them, huh?"

Nora scratched his cheek and nodded his head lightly.

"I... I-I like both Kou-san and Shouko-san... is that greedy of me...?"

"Nah. I don't think it's an issue at all."

Considering his love for them was wholesome, rather than lustful, I didn't think there was a problem with it. As long as Nora chose someone at the end, he could like as many girls as he wanted for all I care.

"That's a relief... especially after what Shouko-san suggested we do over the summer break..."

"What did she suggest?"

For some reason, it felt very dangerous asking this question.

"Umm... she wanted me to come over to her place for a... s-sleepover..."

Nora blushed deeply, nervously excited at the idea of visiting her home. It was the most I've seen him blush when talking about Shouko.

"Oh? I've never been to a sleepover before, so I can't give you any advice unfortunately."

"Me neither... b-but it sounds fun, so... I want to go."

It also sounds dangerous if it were just the two of them alone. There's no telling what Shouko might end up doing to him if they were sleeping in the same room together...

"If you do end up going, tell me how it goes."

That, and I'm way too invested in their love square. This was a big chance for Shouko to sweep up Nora for herself if she played her cards right.

"H-how about you, Takanori-kun? Have you made any summer plans?"

Flipping the subject on me, Nora took a stack of papers out from under his desk and shared them with me.

"Um, those are the exam questions I've made so far for maths and science..."

"Thanks. How did the other subjects come along?"

"I'm nearly done with the Japanese exam... but for history, um... I-I got a bit stuck."

"That's fine, we can sort those out today."

I started rifling through the questions and answering them in my head. They had to be at a level that was sufficiently hard enough for D Class students, but not too high that the school would reject them when C Class submits them.

"As for my plans for the summer... I have none at all."

"Eh? I-I'm surprised. Did Kazuraba-san not make any with you...?"

Nora took out his uncompleted drafts for the Japanese and history exams.

"She's staying on the island for the summer break. Her parents are working overseas, apparently."

"Oh... that's unfortunate. How about Yukimura-kun?"

"I have no clue. He hasn't approached me about making plans for the summer."

"Ah... I guess that makes sense... h-he hasn't for me either. I'd like to make some with him."

"He'd probably just end up playing football the entire time since the weather's nice."

Nora laughed.

"He he... yeah. That's so like him."

"If he invited me to join him, I would go, but if he kept asking regularly, then we might have problems."

"You're not much of an outdoors person either?"

"Nope. If I had to choose, I'd pick staying in my room any day over anything else."

"Same, to be honest... I-I don't like going out. It scares me sometimes... s-seeing so many people can be dizzying."

Nora suffered from social anxiety, so it made sense why he felt this way. I don't think I've ever seen him out alone, except at the start of April when everyone was trying to form friend groups.

"It's just another reason not to bother going back, really."

I put down the math and science exams and took a look at the drafts for Japanese and history exams Nora laid out.

"I guess you're leaning on staying, then?"

"...probably. It's a boring thing to do, but it suits me."

"I see..."

For some reason, Nora made a sad face.

"What's the matter?"

"E-eh?"

"You're frowning."

"O-oh! N-no, it's nothing!"

Nora flailed his arms nervously, trying to hide the fact he frowned by laughing awkwardly.

"Did you want to spend the summer break with me?"

"A-ah?!"

Nora jumped back in surprise as I took an educated guess on what might be the problem.

"So you do?"

"Umm... w-well, kinda..."

"It's fine if you do... you're probably the only male friend who I can hang out with casually outside of school."

Unlike the others, me and Nora shared a lot in common. We were both socially awkward introverts who enjoyed the quiet and liked reading books, especially light novels.

"Y-yeah... compared to everyone else... you're more my style, if that makes sense...? S-sorry if it sounds creepy..."

"Not at all. I feel the same way. It's not stressful talking to you at all."

"I was just thinking... maybe we could go to a book store together... and buy some new novels?"

"That sounds nice. There's way bigger bookstores in Tokyo than in here."

"Mhm! And there's even some exclusive signing events that are happening too! The author of Circumstances, Tashimare-sensei, is holding an event at I-Sekai in August... I'd love if we could go together."

Nora clasped his hands to his chest, glancing at me shyly with bright red cheeks as if he were asking me out on a date.

Seriously, why is he so cute? It's not fair.

"...I'll consider it."

"R-really?!"

Nora gasped, smiling widely.

"Yeah."

"Aaah! T-thank you, Takanori-kun!"

Ah, when he pulls that kind of happy face, how could I resist...?

He seemed so excited over going to that bookstore with me, I feel like I have an obligation to go now. What have I gotten myself into...?

"Anyways... let's focus on getting this Japanese and history exam done."

"A-alright."

Together, me and Nora started working on redrafting the questions. It was fairly easy, since they were essay based subjects, but we wanted to make the subject of the essay tricky and challenging to write about.

"We should probably focus on foreign affairs for the history portion. Writing Japanese history would be easy, even for D Class. I say we fire questions about the British Empire on them."

"Is that even on the syllabus...?"

"Yeah, it is. We study that and the American unit for our foreign history studies. I wanted to avoid America however, since Zyriot-san and Albert-san are in that class."

"That makes sense... they're both American, so they probably learnt American history at school."

"That's right. However, the playing field is levelled when it comes to the British Empire. No one in that class should have an advantage due to how broad the unit is. The amount of content you need to learn is much higher due to how many different colonies are involved and how long the timespan is. The only drawback is, due to the breadth of the module, you can get away with writing more shallow essays, but if we ask a specific question about an obscure colony, then there's a higher chance D Class will be caught out."

"Obscure colony... we probably shouldn't choose a famous one, like India, or any colonies in Asia, like Singapore... uhm, how about one in Africa? There's a lot of smaller African countries that Britain took over, such as Uganda or Sudan..."

"Let's go with Sudan. We can focus on the rebellions that took place there, alongside it's link to Egypt to make things even more difficult."

"Alright!"

Nora got to work on revising the history questions. I turned my attention back on the math and science papers, editing it where necessary. Overall though, he did a great job at making these exams. They were challenging to do, but not impossible to pass.

We finished up tweaking the exams and put them together. Now all that was left was to pilot these exams to see how they'd fare in the real thing.

"How are we going to test them out...?"

"We'll need to find someone suitable for it. It's going to be hard though, since we're doing this in secret."

"Um... I could always give this to the study group to do as a baseline to see how much they've improved, then report back to you the results?"

"That could work, since we'd get data on how at least four people performed. The only issue is how long it'd take to gather those results, edit the exams, and somehow submit them in before the deadline."

"Yeah... our revision sessions last about two hours, so at most I can only do two tests with them. Since we have five to do... we'd have to do it over three days, which isn't ideal since they need to also revise for the finals."

"If we did things like that, then we'd be on a time crunch, working down to the wire. Not only would it panic C Class, since we'd barely scrape by finalising these before the deadline, but it would also sacrifice time for your study group to be revising."

That's what concerned me the most.

His study group had some of the weakest students academically, such as Katsumi and Shouko. Wasting five hours just to test out these exams would be detrimental to both them and the class in the long run, since the penalty for failure would basically invalidate any bonuses we get.

I didn't want to risk that, nor did I want to risk poor time management biting me in the ass again, so I decided against Nora's suggestion in favour of more immediate data.

"Yeah... that's true. There's only a week left until finals. I want them to pass."

"Me too. That's why, it's probably better to get someone to do it right now, rather than later."

"But who though...?"

"Someone who got average scores on the midterms, preferably. They'd be a good baseline on what an average student could do on these exams."

"Ooh... let me check the midterm results."

Nora took out his phone and opened the document containing the public results. Scrolling down to our class and sorting out the results in descending order, one name in the middle sprung out at us.

It was Rinbayashi Amou, who scored 50% on all of her exams.

"She's the definition of average... Rinbayashi-san would be perfect for the job, don't you think?"

"Yeah, she would."

However, I did have my reservations about asking her because she got 50% in all her subjects. Getting the exact same score in every subject was a difficult feat in itself, but to get exactly half marks too? There was no way it was just a coincidence.

That being said, we didn't have much choice aside from her. Our next best picks were either Ikesugi or Hono, but they weren't exactly the cooperative types. I'll have to keep how precise her grades are in mind if she does agree to do this for us.

"All we have to do is convince her to help us, then."

I got up and picked up the exams we made.

"If you don't mind, I'll take the exams so I can photocopy them using the lobby's printer for Rinbayashi-san."

"O-of course, not at all."

"Great. I'll return them either this evening or tomorrow at school."

We headed downstairs to the front door, where Nora unlocked it for me.

"I guess I'll see you then, Takanori-kun..."

"Yeah. See you soon, Nora-san."

I left his house with a small wave.

"G-good luck!"

I hopped on Himeji's bike and took off back to the dormitory.