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Learning, in fact, was surprisingly captivating.
Especially when the instructor was a beautiful girl like Horikita.
She was not only pleasing to the eye, but her teaching style was also straightforward—never saying unnecessary words, always pinpointing misunderstandings with precision.
When Horikita explained the multiple pronunciations of Japanese kanji, she specifically used Akira's name, "Akira," as an example.
"Its kun'yomi is 'akarui,' describing a bright state of light."
"And its on'yomi 'myou'..." She paused slightly.
Akira was secretly surprised by this linguistic coincidence when he heard her voice suddenly soften. "However, when used as a person's name..."
Horikita looked up at him, gently uttering two syllables from her lips. "Akira."
In that instant, Akira shivered.
It was just an ordinary pronunciation example, but when his name was spoken by her in that tone, he had the illusion of being specially called.
In Japanese social interactions, forms of address are a profound subject.
Ordinary friends usually address each other by their surnames, and only when the relationship reaches a certain level of intimacy do they use first names.
And among peers of the opposite sex, these rules of address become even more subtle—unless they are childhood friends who grew up together, if a girl calls a boy by his first name, it almost certainly means they're dating, or at least one of them harbors special feelings.
"Focus, I'm just telling you the third way to say the name." Horikita lightly coughed, her voice returning to its usual cool tone.
"Then do you know there are four ways to write the character 'hui'?"
"???"
"That's all for today." When the clock pointed to 4:30, Horikita suddenly closed her notebook.
Akira, immersed in the grammar point he'd just clarified, looked up in surprise. "It's not the scheduled time yet, is it?"
The girl didn't answer immediately.
"Counting it..." Her voice was softer than usual. "We've been studying like this for half a month."
"And today is May 1st." She suddenly raised her eyes, her outstretched palm appearing exceptionally fair.
Akira thought for a moment, reached out to touch her cool skin, then suddenly recoiled as if electrocuted. "Again?"
He shook his head helplessly. "I've said it many times, I won't be your partner. You should give up on your naive plan early—the chips aren't enough, they're just not enough."
"You misunderstood!" Horikita suddenly squeezed his fingers tightly. "Last time I agreed to tutor you to pay back the sixteen thousand points. Now two weeks have passed, and it's a new month..." She narrowed her eyes. "It's your turn to show sincerity, isn't it?"
"Oh?" Akira raised an eyebrow. He slowly brought his index and middle fingers together, gently tapping them on her palm. "Is this enough?"
Horikita stared at those two fingers, then suddenly grabbed his wrist and forcefully pried open his thumb, pressing it onto her hand. "...Add one more."
"Hoh, so greedy?" Akira's eyes widened exaggeratedly. "Three hundred thousand points? You're daring to ask for that much."
"...You misunderstood." She abruptly pulled her hand back. "It's thirty thousand, not three hundred thousand. My tutoring isn't worth that much."
Akira couldn't help but chuckle. "So it's thirty thousand."
Thirty thousand points a month—he quickly calculated in his mind.
Last month, he only received sixteen thousand for two weeks—this was practically a discount, saving him two thousand points.
Horikita, this shrewd honor student, surprisingly didn't fight for herself when negotiating prices.
At first, she would be sarcastic toward him, but Akira felt her personality was becoming more and more innocent.
With a "ding," he directly transferred one hundred thousand points.
"You!" Horikita stared at her phone screen. "What is this? Charity?"
Akira couldn't help but rub his temples. "Seventy thousand of that is hush money. After all, only you and Chabashira-sensei know that I sold information to Class D... and that's how I got those one million points. This is for insurance—I don't want anyone else to know about this."
Actually, he trusted Horikita's character and thought it unlikely she would reveal anything.
But regardless, proposing a deal was only natural for the sake of caution.
However, there was also another reason—her tutoring fee was simply too low.
"...Is that so? I see." Horikita visibly relaxed quite a bit, nodding heavily. "I promise you, I will absolutely not tell anyone about this."
Akira returned to his dorm after dinner.
There were fifty minutes left until Kamuro arrived.
This would be the first girl to officially visit his room—Karuizawa's last visit was a surprise attack and didn't count.
His room wasn't messy—in fact, it was excessively empty.
Aside from the school authorities' standard furniture, he had few personal items: a laptop on his desk and a water heater next to it.
"It's still too simple..." Akira murmured, stroking his chin as he looked around.
He couldn't cook, so he didn't even have the most basic kitchen utensils.
Several boxes of mineral water were stacked in the corner, and beside the neatly hung school uniforms in the closet, only two sets of casual clothes were sparsely hung.
Come to think of it, this was almost identical to his single dormitory when he was a working adult in his previous life.
He rolled up his sleeves and began to tidy up: the crumpled bedsheet was pulled flat, and scattered stationery was put into drawers.
As he put the trash on the floor into a garbage bag, he took out his phone from his bag, glanced at it, and saw it was already 6:40.
"Oh, right, I also need to investigate what kind of person Shiina from Class C is," Akira slapped his forehead, suddenly remembering this important matter.
Since she'd already started investigating last month's "borrowed surveillance" incident as a "detective," he, as the person involved, had to find a way to prevent the truth from coming to light.
Although they'd met once in the library last month, it was merely a fleeting encounter.
Their conversations combined didn't exceed ten sentences, yet the girl had left a deep impression on him.
Shiina gave the impression of a literary girl who had stepped out of a literary work, exuding the rare Yamato Nadeshiko temperament in modern Japan.
Her personality was gentle and kind, which was evident from how they met—she'd kindly reminded him that he'd chosen the wrong book.
She must be a very intelligent girl.
After all, anyone who could consistently come to the library to read diligently must have an extraordinary mind.
'By the way, her personality doesn't seem like the type to actively investigate such things. Could it be Ryuuen's instruction?'
'I wonder how far she's gotten in her investigation?'