Moments before the meeting…

“Ugh, I can’t believe that I’m stuck in here with all of you.” Teru voiced her displeasure to the other girls in the room. Sitting with her legs resting on the table.

“I do agree. Why should I have to be even in the same room as someone like you.” Himawari followed up. “And could you have some manners and put your feet down?”

“Come on, like anyone here really cares about that.” She countered.

“Did we do something wrong?” Yuma asked.

“I doubt it’s something we did.” Himawari answered. “Not together at least.” Specially eyeing Teru and the only other girl who had yet to speak.

“While we’re waiting, did you guys hear what’s been the talk of the school today?” The last girl in this room spoke up. Her name was Waa Enokida.

“Oh yeah…” Yuma took a long pause. “Why would a boy come to this school?”

“Not just any boy.” Himawari remembered the last time she saw him. “But it’s that Arisawa kid. He’s always so annoying.”

“So you know him too?” Teru was surprised to hear that. “He’s just some punk, I doubt he’d do anything stupid here.”

“I wonder what he looks like?” Waa asked herself, trying to picture what type of person he was. Perhaps he was a guy that looked like a girl. Something that she would call a trap. While they were talking, the door opened.

“Ladies, I’d like you to meet your new tutor.”

“Hel-” All their heads turned to him. This was a twist of what they were expecting. The same could be said for Kouji as well. “Ahh!” He took several steps back from what he saw. “It’s can’t be…”

“It’s you!” Teru and Himawari spoke in unison, pointing at him.

“I didn’t realize that you were all familiar with each other.” Isako commented on the scene. “I guess that just means we can save some time from introductions.” She laughed at her own joke. No one else did though.

“I wouldn’t say that we’re familiar.” He said, meanwhile Yuma got up from her seat and got up really close to him. “Uh, what are you doing?” She was so close to his face now, Those bright eyes of hers really grabbed his attention.

“Hmm…” She simply responded, as if she didn’t hear him. “Oh now I remember you.”

“Really.” He already figured who she was the moment he saw her. She was the same girl running the register that night. Except, why was she here then? “At the store right?”

“The store…” She put her hand under her chin to think it over. “Oh yeah… I got fired from there. My name is Yuma Onodera.” While he might not be surprise at the end of her career there, she didn’t seem to mind it. In an attempt to not have to look her in the eyes, Kouji spotted the other familiar sight.

“You…” He squinted his eyes at her.

“I see you remember me.” She smiled back at him, smugly. “Name’s Waa Enokida, by the way.”

“Well if everyone is here now. Why don’t we get started, so I can explain to you what your job is?” Isako cut in between them. “We shouldn’t be wasting time.”

And so, everyone sat down to hear her out. The obvious bit was that Kouji was to basically tutor these girls. The level of work he was going to have to put in was astronomical.

Teru, a girl that often skipped classes and never did the homework. Not to mention all of the fights she found herself in. Waa, almost always late to class, slept in them anyway, didn’t even bother with homework. Yuma, of the tests she had taken, not a single one was fully completed. She didn’t even get half of the questions she did answer either. Himawari, just bad across the board in all subjects taught.

The only exception to the problems was Anastasia, but she admitted that she was having a hard time in some of the classes.

“Wow I never would’ve thought that.” To be honest, he wasn’t surprised to hear any of what he just heard. Even if he hardly interacted with any of them. All those encounters left a poor taste in his mouth. The bigger surprise was the fact that both Yuma and Waa were students here.

“Don’t act as if you’re better than us.” Himawari complained.

“From the looks of it, I’m at least smarter than all of you combined.” He smiled and leaned back in his chair.

“Now that everything’s out of the way.” Said Isako. “I’ll leave all of you so that you can fully acquaint yourselves.” With that, it was now just him and all these girls.

“So, I guess you should all pull out your homework.” He commanded them. Only Anastasia listened to him. Kouji understood what was going on, they were going to try and break him. “I can’t help you if you don’t pull out your work.”

“Fine.” Himawari relented. “But I’m perfectly capable of doing my own work. So don’t you bother help me.” Clearly, that wasn’t correct. Otherwise she wouldn’t be here. Yuma also followed her lead.

“I see you decided to do it too.” He said to her, but she had a look on her face as if she was sorry. This girl was pretty slow at the register, was she simply taking her time to get her stuff out?

“Well you can’t expect me to just start working now.” Teru complained.

“Yeah, I haven’t even gotten my afternoon nap yet.” Waa agreed with her.

“First off, we’re at school. So no naps.” He wasn’t going to back down from them. Not with what he had on the line here. “Secondly, yes you both will.” The two of them sighed, and did as he said. Lucky for him, this was easier than he was expecting.

And so, this study session could move along. He oversaw all of the girls while handling his own work at the same time. Not only was the juggling act irritating, but Himawari’s protests at any of his advice weren’t much better. Still, if this was going to be his daily life. Kouji could live with it, considering what he was getting from the deal.

“So, when are you going to ask?” After they had gotten into a groove, Himawari just had to break their flow.

“Ask what?” He didn’t understand what she was saying.

“Aren’t you going to ask about why any of us are here?”

“Not really, I don’t care.” He figured that she just wanted to inflate her ego. “Besides, I already know about your family fortune.” Her family was known for owning a large fast-food restaurant chain across the entirety of Japan. He had only ever eaten there once when he moved back here. That was when he met her for the first time, which was also the last time he decided to eat at that place.

“Of course, who wouldn’t know about me.” She bragged anyway to him. Kouji was certain this was directed towards him, since it’s not like the others girls would be that impressed at something they all had.

“I guess we could use an icebreaker.” He gave up to her game. “What about the rest of you?”

“My parents are just some scientists, they own a pharmaceutical company or something.” Teru answered first.

“Dad’s the CEO of a game company.” Waa followed up. “Mom works with anime and manga, but she’s usually staying at home for that these day.”

“Back in Russian, we own an oil company.” Anastasia told everyone.

“I just know we have a lot of agriculture.” Yuma said, lagging far behind from the last person.

“Great.” He said, then promptly returned back to work. Something that was odd to Anastasia.

“Are you not going to tell us about what your family does?”

“First, the question was why we were here.” He deflected from answering the question. “Secondly, You already know why I’m here. Besides, no one else here doesn't care to hear.”

“He’s not wrong.” Teru agreed with him.

“But I-” The bell rung, signaling the end of this little study session. Almost all of the girls were to ready to leave. In a flash, the room was nearly empty, with just him along with Anastasia and Yuma.

“Look, it’s not something I care to talk about.” Kouji was getting his things ready himself. “Just don’t worry about it.”

“I think that some of us do care to hear.” Yuma responded much too late for a previous statement. He would’ve just left, if it wasn’t for the entrance of a certain individual.

“My, everyone’s just so eager to get back to their classes.” Isako opened the door to see over half of this group was already gone. “Arisawa, would you mind staying for a little longer?” It sounded like getting in trouble with a teacher here, even though that wasn’t the case. As the other two girls walked out the door, she closed it behind them.

“So, what did you want to ask me?” He asked.

“I hope they weren’t too much trouble.” She ignored him. “Minus the new girl, they’ proven to be the most difficult of students.”

“They weren’t too bad.” He downplayed it. “If that’s all I need to do, then this will be easy.”

“You don’t honestly believe that all you need to do is tutor them, did you?”

“I don’t understand.” Isako took out the files of all the girls once more, showing them off with one hand. It was like holding cards in a poker game.

“There’s more to success in life than just doing well in school.” She pulled out one of them and handed it to him. When Kouji turned the page over, he witnessed Waa’s picture. “Why don’t you take a quick read, and maybe you can tell me the problem.”

Scanning over the notes in this file. It felt like an invasion of privacy, even if he didn’t like her. There was a lot wrong with this girl, the poor grades, always being late, sleeping through class.

“It’d be easier to say what isn’t the problem.” He finally responded after giving it a read.

“I’ll point it out.” She stuck her finger down at the bullet point of her being late to class. “Life’s no good if you don’t bother to show up. So I’d recommend you start there.” She said that word again, life. Why was that such a big deal to her, he thought.

“So not only do I have to help them with their homework, but all this too?”

“Remember, raising the overall grade of this school. Is more than just doing your homework.”