Chapter 243: The Blink-and-You'll-Miss-It Paper Shuffle

Time flowed on. In the blink of an eye, the calendar had turned to December, and the weather had turned thoroughly cold.

The leaves of the ginkgo trees along the campus path had already turned golden and begun to fall in large swaths. When the cold wind blew, the leaves fluttered and danced through the air like flocks of golden butterflies.

The girls began to put on gloves, scarves, and even long socks and trousers, wrapping themselves up tightly. This drew a long sigh from Fuyuji Mikage, who often leaned by the window, admiring the white pleated school skirts lifted by the breeze and the fair thighs peeking out beneath the dappled shade of the trees.

"Winter. It's bad in every possible way."

A week had passed since the incident where Ryuen got scammed. Although he didn't know what kind of deal that perverted loli Sakayanagi had struck with Ryuen, judging from the fact that Ryuen was still lively these past few days, leading a few of his Class C lackeys around everywhere, it probably wasn't a contract that damaged Class C's core. It was likely aimed only at Ryuen personally.

That made sense. Of Class C's three hundred or so points, a hundred of them actually belonged to Class D. If the incident escalated to the school administration or the student council and landed in that blond senpai's hands, there was no telling whether even that hundred points from Class D would get deducted along the way.

If this incident ended up wiping out Class D's only source of points, then Fuyuji wouldn't even need to lift a finger. Sakayanagi herself would be lucky if she wasn't blown to bits by the quasi-humans in Class D.

As for Cha-Cha, aside from her toxic remarks growing fiercer these past two days and her refusing to send pictures, there was nothing different about her. As for the math exam answers, she had probably been intimidated by Horikita's stubbornness, feeling that if she took the answers and still couldn't beat Horikita's pure hand-crafted work, it would be far too humiliating. So she had lightly brushed the matter aside, saving Fuyuji the trouble of dealing with that Kaneda Satoru from Class C.

A warm gust of air conditioning brought Fuyuji's thoughts back to reality.

He silently turned his head, looking at Kamuro Masumi, who was sitting upright in her chair, holding an exam handbook and muttering to herself. He calmly raised a hand and rubbed her back.

"Relax, bro. With the two of us joining forces this time, we'll definitely take the grade's number one spot with ease."

"Don't bother me!" Kamuro shot him a glance, a bit of irritation in her eyes. She briskly swatted his hand away and continued muttering, "That's a score you earned, not mine."

"You can't say that. What's yours is mine." Fuyuji said shamelessly.

"Boyfriend-kun, stealing Morishita-sama's lines requires paying copyright fees." A small foot wrapped in black tights stretched over from the side, its toe lightly kicking Fuyuji's calf.

Beside him, Morishita Ai sat in Fuyuji's seat, her head resting on the desk behind her.

She whipped the exam paper off her face, revealing that cold little face of hers, and spoke with full confidence. "Heh heh. I ate whole wheat toast specially this morning, so I'll definitely defeat my boyfriend and claim the top spot in the class."

Fuyuji's mouth twitched a few times. Was that whole wheat toast some kind of Doraemon memory bread?

It wasn't just Morishita. Even Yamamura Miki beside her, and the vast majority of the class, were at this moment immersed in round after round of reviewing knowledge points. The sound of flipping pages, the rustle of pen tips across paper, and the murmurs of low recitation interwove into a single tapestry. Except for...

Bored out of his mind, Fuyuji rolled his eyes, dragged his chair, and moved two steps to the side of Shiraishi Asuka, who was looking down at her phone.

"Asuka-chan, you look very confident." The moment Fuyuji got close and tried to reach out for a touch, his expression instantly turned black.

The smooth, delicate skin he used to be able to feel through the thin fabric, along with that wonderfully warm, moist texture, was now blocked by thick winter clothing.

Damn it. I hate winter the most!

"This, well..." Shiraishi shifted her attention away from her phone, reined in her gentle smile, tightened her cheeks, and put on a deliberately serious face. "Actually, I'm very strong, you know. It's just that I prefer staying by Fuyuji's side, so I don't make a move."

"Is that so?" Fuyuji's expression turned grave, his tone rather heavy.

"Yes." Shiraishi nodded, pressing her lips together, her tone sounding utterly sincere.

The two pairs of eyes met, each reflecting the other's image.

Fuyuji: "..."

Shiraishi: "..."

A few seconds later, neither could hold it in any longer. They both burst out laughing at the same time.

"Hehe. What's wrong, Fuyuji doesn't believe me?"

Shiraishi raised a hand mostly covered by her long sleeve, elegantly covering her mouth, and asked with a light laugh.

"I believe you, I believe you. Shiraishi-mama wouldn't lie to me." Fuyuji nodded repeatedly while poking his head toward Shiraishi's phone. "What are you looking at? You're so absorbed."

"This."

Shiraishi generously spread her phone screen out for Fuyuji. On it were scarf designs and samples of scarves in various colors.

"What style and color does Fuyuji like?"

"Huh? That direct? Aren't you supposed to give me a surprise or something?"

"Because if I give it to you then, it won't be much of a surprise. Might as well let you pick one you like in advance." Shiraishi's slender fingers slid continuously across the screen, rows upon rows of scarves scrolling up from the bottom.

"That does seem to be the case." Fuyuji said with an awkward laugh.

In reality, Fuyuji himself didn't buy clothes much. Most of the casual clothes he wore now were bought for him by Yamamura and Shiraishi when they went shopping and happened to pick them up.

And it seemed they treated him like some kind of clothes rack, again and again, never tiring of it.

"Which one?"

Shiraishi handed the phone over. Fuyuji leaned his head in, and the two heads naturally came together, close enough to smell the faint, fresh scent on each other's hair.

"Mm... this one." Fuyuji pointed at a pattern with a dark gray base and fine red plaid lines.

"Okay."

Shiraishi contentedly tapped the pattern to save it.

At this moment, seeing that the time was about right, Katsuragi Kohei walked steadily onto the podium, clapped his hands, and directed the Class A students to tidy their desks.

The format was roughly the same as a major exam in his previous life. All unnecessary books and other items were placed in the cabinets at the back of the classroom, leaving only the basic writing instruments.

Amid the clatter and clamor of moving books around, the preparatory bell for the exam echoed through the entire school building.

The Paper Shuffle special exam officially began.

The school-mandated total passing score was 682 points, even lower than expected. That meant the difficulty of the exams each class had set was even higher than in previous years.

The final exam was divided into two days. And on the first day, the first period was the very subject that had once sent Fuyuji scrambling for cover: Japanese literature!

The moment the exam papers were handed out, a chorus of rustling rose and fell through the quiet classroom.

'Oh! No mercy at all, huh, Ichinose.'

Fuyuji quickly scanned the exam paper. From the very first question, it was a comprehensive problem requiring multiple test points to be taken into account.

However, several of the questions bore traces of having been forcibly altered...

Every student in the class who had participated in setting questions felt a heavy stone slowly settle in their hearts, followed by a knowing smile.

Class A of the first year, having scoured and studied exam papers from previous years, naturally wouldn't make that kind of mistake. Difficult as the questions were, they were still within firing range.

In other words, we've won!

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