"You may now begin your exam," the teacher said.

The exam had started and Y/N flipped his test sheet over. While he hadn't been going to the study sessions recently, due to the amount of customers that had been arriving over the course of winter break, he still had a general good memory of the lessons from when he studied with either Itsuki or Fuutarou. So some of the questions he was answering weren't fairly too difficult.

However, when he came to the next question, he stopped. His pencil paused in midair, hovering over the paper, the graphite not touching it's surface. Why did he stop? Was it because of that time? When he saw Itsuki with that man? He wasn't sure.

But such questioning thoughts were pushed out of his head as a small smile graced his face. 

Ah.

Another fond memory comes to mind.

--: Chapter 20| The Final Exam - Y/N's Side :--

"Brrr...! It's so cold!" Itsuki exclaimed to herself, walking along the street as she had just finished gathering some groceries.

Since it was the winter season, she dressed herself in winter clothing, obviously. But she was a bit surprised that the temperature had dropped to this low, as compared to previous weather conditions in the past, it had never gotten to this low. It was quite strange.

Itsuki lifts the grocery bags that she had and began to double check. Making sure she had everything as it was her turn of being in charge with groceries this week.

'Let's see. I bought that. I got this too...'

"Heeey! Nakano-san!"

The girl jumped, turning her head around with an almost freak out expression. When she turned around, all she sees is a cheerful green-haired teen waving at her, one of his bangs covering one of his eyes. Her freaked out expression only increased, sweat pooling down her face.

'...Who's that...!?'

---

"Huh!? There's a new song out?"

"Yeah," Maeda nodded at the L/N teen as the two walked the streets. "I hear it hit stores last week."

This was one of those rare occasions where Y/N isn't working at the cake shop and is instead out and about. Though it's even more rare with friends. How he's with Maeda right now is that the delinquent looking boy had actually found the shop Y/N's parents owned. When he went in to purchase a cake for his family, he was surprised to find Y/N there, so he decided to invite him out to hang.

And seeing that he rarely ever leaves the house, or hangs out with friends in general, he accepted the invitation and went with him. Of course, he didn't change his visage to his usual casual appearance, only comfortable in that whenever he's around Fuutarou or the quints.

Maeda shoved his hands into his pockets. "A friend of mine loaned it to me, and it's pretty good."

"Really? Can I borrow it too?"

"Sure. The lead singer's got this great voice... Huh?"

Maeda stopped, with Y/N stopping as well. The black-haired teen looked confused as to where Maeda was looking. On Maeda's end, something caught his eye. In the distance, well, not that far, actually, he could see a green-haired teen talking to Itsuki.

He grew confused, pointing at them. "Hey, L/N... Isn't that Nakano-san's sister? Uh... Itsuki-san, right? What the--? Is that guy picking her up?"

Y/N looked as well. "Huh? Naka--!!"

This time, Y/N paused. His eyes now wide as he sees that the person talking to Itsuki was none other than his friend, Lubbock. Gaining this feeling of irritation, he faces their direction and was about to dash off. Maeda raised his hand up and was about to call out to them.

"Heeey! Na--"

Y/N dashes off. "What the hell are you doing, Lubbo!?"

Shocking Maeda with an unusual burst of movement, Y/N quickly appeared next to Lubbock and essentially bitch slaps him in the face. The slap was so loud that it echoed a little, people looking toward them as they grew confused and shocked that a boy had suddenly ran up to another boy and just slapped him in the face.

"Bwef!?" Lubbock suffered critical damage... Kind of.

Both Itsuki and Maeda were shocked and very surprised. In fact, they weren't expecting Y/N to just do that. 

Though Itsuki has witnessed Y/N's tendencies of violence as she remembered the boy headbutting Fuutarou that one time, she really wasn't expecting this. But much to their surprise, Lubbock shrugged it off like it was nothing. The green-haired teen looks to Y/N, his face ever-so cheerful as he smiled casually and greeted him.

'Eeeeehhhh!? He just hauled off and punched him!? L/N did!?' Maeda was very appalled and shocked by such actions.

"Oh, L/N! Well, I just happened to run into her, sooo!~"

"Shove it!" Y/N slaps him again.

Lubbock rubs the side of his face. "Ow...~"

Itsuki looks at him, slightly worried. "Um... Are you okay?"

"Yeah, it's been worse," he replied casually. He then grabs Itsuki by her shoulder and gives her a side hug, grinning like an idiot. "See, I was so psyched to find Nakano-san that I just struck up a conversation with her!"

"Go home." Y/N grabbed his face and began squeezing his head.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow! I'm dyin' here! Stahp it!!!"

"Stay there year-round, never set foot outside, and do all your shopping online."

Itsuki's eye twitched. 'If he knows about me... Is this the guy who sent that email to him that one day...?'

"Die!" Y/N yelled into his phone.

It was... A bit of a strange scene to witness now that she thought about it. Though with what she had been told of his friend, she didn't think that said friend was... This kind of person. In fact, she didn't think he was the type of person he was. It was very strange indeed.

Maeda brought a hand up to stop him. "Hey, L/N--"

However, he paused. Now that he thought about it, whether it was Ichika or another girl, he wouldn't be sure if he would be able to go that far to protect them. Y/N, on the other hand... Most definitely.

"Nakano-san, I'll walk you home," Y/N said, trying to hurriedly get her away from Lubbock. "Maeda-kun is here too. Let's all go."

Maeda turned around, a gloomy atmosphere surrounding him. 'Am I an after thought...?'

"Oh, ok. ...Wait, are you sure about that? What about the other guy?" Itsuki asked.

"Ah. He's not a bad guy... But you don't need to bother with him," Y/N casually responds back.

Itsuki sweat drops. "O... Okay..."

"C'mooonn!~ We've been best buds for years!" Lubbock whined. "At least introduce me to Nakano-sa--"

"Lubbock Yoshitsugu. High school, first year. Former classmate. The end," Y/N replies nonchalantly.

Itsuki sweat drops again whilst deadpanning. "You just gave me a list of keywords..."

Maeda finally walks up to them. "Uh... Yo, L/N... You know this guy?"

"Huh? Nope," Y/N quickly denied, waving his hand and head to reinforce it.

'You just said he was your classmate!' Itsuki exclaimed in her head.

The words that left Y/N's mouth made it feel like it was stabbed into his abdomen. Needless to say, it was a critical hit toward Yoshitsugu. It was the worst amount of damage he had suffered today. Not even Y/N's slaps, punches, and other sort of physical abuse he had inflicted hurt this much. Then again, it was a mystery to them all that Lubbock was able to shrug off Y/N's physical abuse like it's nothing.

Lubbock then quickly recovered and moved to Maeda. The brown-haired teen backed up a little, somewhat freaked out that the green-haired teen had quickly recovered from Y/N's verbal abuse.

"Hello, I'm Yoshitsugu, L/N's best friend. I know everything about him," Lubbo says quickly, even doing a small bow in the process.

A tick mark appears on Y/N's head. "Heeeey!!"

Lubbock continued to blabber on, his face shimmering with a smile. "In his third year of middle school, he was 5'2" and weighed ninety-seven pounds. He was 20/20 in both eyes. He mentioned being interested in Ichinose-san in the next class over."

"Why do you know all that!?" Y/N exclaimed. "Creepy!"

'5'2"...'

'Ninety-seven pounds...'

The two boys continued to argue.

"Arrrgh! Why are you out today!? Don't come outside!" Y/N was shaking Lubbock repeatedly. "Stay home and sleep! And never wake up!"

Lubbock held a nonchalant grin. "Wait, did you just tell me to die in a roundabout way?"

"I've never seen L/N this violent before..." Maeda murmured, looking surprised. "He's talking rougher too... What the hell?"

Itsuki mirrored the expression somewhat, albeit in a deadpan manner. "I hear he's like this when he talks... To Yoshitsugu(?)-kun or anyone from middle school..."

"So if you're a first year, and we're second years about to go into third years..." Maeda murmurs again. "You're sixteen?" 'But you were in the same class as L/N...?'

"Nope, I'm seventeen," Lubbock says, pointing to himself with a sheepish grin.

Y/N feels smug for a moment. "This guy's dumb, okay? He's really dumb."

"And yet I go to Sobu. How mean," Lubbo retorted.

The other two jump in surprise.

'Sobu High...!' Itsuki was shocked.

'Whoa! A brainiac! Dude can study!' Maeda thought. 'And I thought Uesugi was an einstein...!'

Lubbock's stock jumps.

"Sobu's the best college prep school in the area!" Itsuki exclaims.

Lubbock rubs the back of his head in a sheepish manner. "Aww, it's not aaaalll that."

Maeda sweat drops. "I just can't believe that one of L/N's classmates is at Sobu High..."

"I still wished I'd gone to Asahiyama though," Lubbock says, looking at Y/N.

"Huh? Why?" Y/N looks at the green-haired teen with confusion.

"You look like you're having fun," he whispers into his ear, a devilish grin appearing. "Ohhh... Is it 'cos of her?~"

Immediately, Y/N blushes, hiding his face from the other two. In retaliation to this, Y/N lunges his hand forward and cover's Lubbock's mouth. The green-haired teen had a shit-eating grin behind the boy's hand, giggling to himself, much to Y/N's annoyance and chagrin.

"I'm tellin' you that ain't it!"

"Awww,~ c'mon, don't be embarrassed." Y/N had pushed his hand forward. "Oof!"

"Shaddup!"

Maeda deadpanned. 'So much energy.'

'Full of it, those two,' Itsuki internally agreed.

'When middle school didn't look like it was going to change for the better... I'm pretty sure Lubbo was that finally changed it,' Y/N monologued. '"You look like you're having fun."'

Itsuki groaned. "Geez, guys, if we're gonna talk, let's go to someplace warm!"

"Huh? Okay," Lubbo agreed. "How 'bout a diner of something?"

"As long as you boys pay."

"Huh!?" Maeda jumped. "I can do that! I'm tight on money, man!"

"Nah, I've got it, I've got it! No need to worry!" Lubbock chuckled. "Seriously, no need to worry at all!"

"The way you're fucking smiling is enough to make me worry, idiot...!"

"Eeehhh??? And I thought we just bonded. How mean." Lubbock pouted.

Maeda scowled. "Don't look at me like that!!"

"I'll scowl at you however I want!"

"Nakano-san!~ Maeda-san is being mean to me.~"

"How the hell didja know my name!?" Maeda looked shocked. "You fuckin' creep!"

"Ahh.~ You're so mean.~"

"Stop looking at me like that, dammit...!"

Y/N's monologue continued. 'But... I'm certain the on who's given me the chance...'

"Step it up, L/N-kun!" Itsuki flashes a smile toward Y/N as she turned her head back.

He blushed again... But he was able to hide it so she didn't see it. Seeing his blushing face was the last thing he wanted her to see. But still... It was that smile of hers that caused him to smile as well, nodding as he followed behind.

'That's right. She...'

---

Present Day

Y/N finished his test and stood up. The metal legs of the chair scraping against the classroom floor as he got out of his seat, his shoes clicking along the way as he made his way up to the front. 

He hands his test paper forward, the teacher taking the answer sheet. Y/N was nervous, unsure of what his result was going to be. He didn't want to be left behind as a second year. He wanted to move ahead as a third year with everyone else... And to be with her as well. Lubbock's words were right. He was having fun. And he wanted it to stay that way.

Y/N's blue eyes watch anxiously as the teacher's pen goes along down his answer sheet, her eyes scanning each and every answer of his. Some red marks were placed here and there, signifying his answer was wrong for that question. But that was okay.

What mattered to him was that he passed. No matter what.

He clenched his fists, which made an almost creaking noise. He was so anxious.

Finally... The teacher finished, turning to him and handing the test paper back to him. Y/N took a deep breath and took the paper, his eyes slowly trailing down toward the end of the sheet so he could read his results. Fuutarou looked up from his desk and smirked, nodding his head lightly as he puts it back down and closed his eyes.

Y/N read those words very carefully. The ones in big red letters.

His lips quivered upward, his eyes shining slightly as tears began to well in the tear ducts. He couldn't believe it, thinking his eyes were lying to him after reading those big red letters.

'L/N, Y/N. Pass.'

'That's right,' Y/N monologued. 'I'm certain... The one who's given me the chance... To change the here and now... Is Nakano-san.'

---

Originally, I had intended for this chapter not to happen. But... I had done some thinking and decided I would do this chapter. But I knew that if I were to do something like this for Y/N, it would be very short compared to the other chapters that have been made. And I had originally intended for Horimiya manga, chapter 19, to happen much later in this story.

But I then decided that the ending area in this manga chapter could serve as a basis for something similar that happened in the Itsuki chapter in the Gotoubun no Hanayome manga. So in the end, I decided I would do manga chapter 19 of Horimiya for this chapter, albeit with my own twists, takes, and editing of the dialogue so it could fit this story. And this last picture here is my first attempt in making something like this happen at the end of a manga. Kinda looks terrible, but I tried my best, so don't go expecting it for any other endings in future chapters or in future books in general.

In any case, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Until the next one, folks.