Oh bother. It’s another exam season. Seriously, why do Jindai has this many exams? It’s the third one we had so far, and I’m getting quite sick of it already. And we’re supposed to have another one a few weeks before New Year too. The joy.

   ‘Say, Takkun. You want to come over and play some games with me?’ Suzu comes over to my seat and asks me when school’s over for the day.

   ‘Won’t Nagano come and bug you to teach her about things she doesn’t understand again?’

   ‘Nah, Aiai prefers to keep it last minute. She never comes to me until one or two days before the exam begins.’

   ‘In that case, let’s go.’

   ‘Must be nice to be able to stay this composed when the exam’s around the corner.’ Masato says to us gloomily.

   ‘Hey, you call me composed? Look at Kazuki. He has the look of someone who’s going to ace the exams like he’s taking a stroll in the park or something.’ I tell him.

   ‘Actually, I had to study quite frantically just to get my grades, whether it’s at my house or at the cram school. Yoshinaga-san aside, I’m really amazed that you always managed to get into the top 30 despite the fact that you didn’t study at all.’ Kazuki who heard what I said tells me.

   ‘Come on man, don’t be stingy! Share your wisdom in doing it!’ Masato begs.

   ‘I hate to break it to you, but I don’t have any. I just listened to the lectures during class and that’s it.’

   ‘Same here~.’ Suzu joins in.

   ‘Man, this is so unfair! I still remember last year that while Kazuki and I were studying like crazy so that we can be enrolled here, you still had the leisure to play video games for the whole day! And you passed anyway!’

   ‘Don’t blame me. Sakai Jin wasn’t going to liberate the island from the Mongols all by himself.’

   ‘Whatever. I don’t care anymore. Can I come over to your house so that we could study together again, Nao?’

   ‘Of course, Kazuki-kun.’

   And Kazuki and Murata are going to the cram school together again. What loving couples. At least they stopped rubbing it to my face after they got back with their girlfriends.

   ‘Oh, are the two of you having an after-school date?’ Kanae asks us when she sees us walking together.

   ‘We’re just going to play video games at her house.’ I tell her.

   The manga author squeals in delight. ‘And you’re going to her house to boot? You guys are so close!’

   ‘Do you want to come with us, Ri-chan?’ Suzu invites.

   ‘I wouldn’t want to interrupt your alone time. Just remember to tell me what happened when we meet tomorrow, okay? Every. Single. Details.’

   ‘Kanae, you have a scary look on your face. And you’re drooling.’

   She gasps and wipes off the drool with the back of her hand. ‘My bad. My hobby has taken over me again. Anyhow, I can’t join you since I have to study too, so maybe next time.’

   ‘’kay. See you, Ri-chan.’

   ‘Bye-bye!’ Kanae says while waving at us.

   ‘Oh, you’re leaving already, Yoshinaga-san? See you tomorrow.’

   ‘See you tomorrow, Yoshinaga-san.’

   ‘See ya, Yoshinaga.’

   ‘Bye, Yoshinaga-san.’

   Suzu greets back and waves at all the classmates who greeted her goodbye. On a side note, none of them who greeted Suzu greeted me. Not that I care.

   ‘This school is really fun! It’s such a far cry from Kiseki~!’ Suzu tells me as we’re exiting the classroom.

   ‘Well, I’m glad that you’re having fun.’

   While we’re walking on the corridor, we bumped into Takaki Yuka. You know, the secretary of the Student Council who’s the self-proclaimed rival of Suzu.

   ‘Greetings, Yoshinaga-san and her friend!’ she greets us.

   Suzu looks at me. ‘Who’s that again?’

   ‘No clue.’

   Of course I remember Takaki, but I was so cross of the fact that she just brushed me off as mere Suzu’s friend and not even another human that I acted like I’ve forgotten.

   As I had hoped, she got a bit upset that we don’t remember her.

   ‘It’s me, Takaki Yuka! The secretary of Student Council!’ she reminds us.

   ‘Oh yeah, I think she picked a fight with you the last time the two of you met.’ I in turn remind Suzu.

   Suzu closes her eyes and concentrates hard.

   Takaki is absolutely devastated.

   ‘You seriously don’t remember me?’ she demands from Suzu.

   ‘Oh yeah, it’s you.’ Suzu opens her eyes and says to Takaki.

   By now, I’ve hang around Suzu long enough to be able to tell that she doesn’t remember Takaki. It’s just that she couldn’t be bothered.

   ‘...You don’t remember me at all, do you?’

   Wow. She could actually tell.

   ‘Nope. Not one bit.’ Suzu confesses.

   Takaki sighs tiredly and hangs her head.

   ‘Go. Just, go.’ she says with a barely audible voice.

   ‘You go ahead and wait for me at the school gate, Suzu. I want to have a word with her.’ I tell Suzu.

   Suzu nods and just passes by Takaki like she’s not there. As for the secretary, she raises up her head when she heard that I wanted to talk to her.

   ‘What is it that you want to talk about?’ she asks me.

   ‘Be honest and don’t lie to me. You want to be friends with Suzu, don’t you?’

   She flinches the moment she heard my question, thus proving my theory to be correct.

   ‘I-I-I-I-I have no idea what you’re talking about!’ she stutters while twirling her long hair that reaches until her shoulder.

   ‘Hey, I said no lies.’

   ‘Why would I want to be friends with her? It’s not like I’ve always wanted to hang out with a student from Kiseki! It’s definitely not the case!’

   ‘Look, if you want to sound like a tsundere, the least you could do is change our hairstyle into twin tails.’

   ‘W-Who’s a tsundere? I’m not a tsundere, okay?’

   ‘Sure, whatever you say. The two of us were about to head to her house to play some video games, you want to come with us?’

   ‘Are you for real? Exam’s coming soon, and you’re playing video games?’

   I shrug like I don’t care at all, which I don’t. ‘Exams don’t mean a thing to me.’

   She squints at me like she suddenly remembers who I am.

   ‘Wait a minute. You’re Bandou Takuya, the male student who got 23rd on the last exam.’

   ‘Yup. That’s me.’

   ‘A piece of advise. Just because you did well in the last exam, it doesn’t mean that you’ll do well in the next one too.’

   ‘Of course I know that. So are you coming or not?’

   Right now, Takaki has the expression of someone who wants to give in to the temptation, but is still too prideful to surrender.

   ‘I told you, I’m not going!’ she says adamantly.

   I let out a soft sigh. Man, she’s such a pain.

   I put my left hand on my mouth and pretend that I’m laughing at her in a mocking way. ‘What’s this? Are you scared that the two of us will thrash you during the gaming session?’

   Being a prideful tsundere, my question totally pissed her off.

   ‘Well I never! Me, afraid? Not in a million chance! Fine, I accept your challenge!’

   ‘That’s more like it. Now come on, Suzu’s waiting for us.’

   As promised, Suzu was waiting right next to the school gate. She raises an eyebrow when she saw that Takaki’s right behind me.

   ‘Is it okay if she tags along?’ I ask Suzu while jabbing a thumb at Takaki.

   Suzu just shrugs. ‘I don’t mind if you want her to.’

   I look back at Takaki and nods towards Suzu. Takaki walks over to Suzu nervously.

   ‘Thank you for allowing me to come along with you.’ she says to her.

   Good. She’s finally being honest.

   ‘You’re welcome. Now let’s go, shall we? Seriseri is waiting for quite some time now.’ Suzu replies.

   ‘Who’s this Seriseri?’

   ‘Just come with me. I’ll introduce him to you~.’

   As Suzu said, Serizawa-san the butler was already waiting right outside the school while standing beside the black car that he always drives. Takaki gasps as soon as she saw him.

   ‘Yoshinaga-san, you have a butler?’

   ‘Sure do~. This is Seriseri, or more commonly known as Serizawa. Seriseri, this is Takaki Yuka.’ Suzu introduces them to each other.

   Serizawa bows at Takaki. ‘Nice to meet you, young lady.’

   Takaki bows back. ‘Um, nice to meet you too.’

   She then realizes something.

   ‘Wait a minute! Yoshinaga-san, did you just told him my name?’

   ‘Sure did. What’s wrong with that?’

   ‘But you said that you don’t remember me!’

   ‘Let’s not sweat the small stuff, shall we?’

   The three of us go inside the car. Serizawa-san does the same and drives us to the mansion Suzu lives in. Even though this is the second time I’ve been there, the sheer size of the mansion still impresses me. Imagine what it did to Takaki who saw it for the first time. She couldn’t get her eyes off it.

   ‘Yoshinaga-san, you really are an ojou-sama, huh?’

   ‘I guess I am.’

   After we got inside, Suzu wants us to wait outside her room while she gets changed into her casual clothes.

   ‘I can’t believe this, I’m actually about to enter Yoshinaga-san’s room~~~!’ Takaki says to herself gleefully.

   ‘Say, you’re serious on wanting to become her friend, right?’ I ask for clarification.

   She nods without a single hint of hesitation nor lie. ‘Yes. Yes I do.’

   ‘Then stop treating her like an ojou-sama or the former student of Kiseki.’ I advise her.

   ‘But she is, and she was.’ she protests.

   ‘I know. The thing is, Suzu doesn’t want to be treated like some celebrity or genius. She’s just a girl who wants to live a normal life and make friends. She’s getting along quite well with her classmates mainly because they didn’t put her on a pedestal and gives her special treatment. You would want to do the same if you want to be close with her.’

   Takaki gulps loudly. ‘G-Got it.’

   ‘Is there a need for you to be that nervous?’

   ‘I can’t help it. The friends I made so far are those that I’ve helped out. They became grateful to me, and we’re friends by the time I realized it. I don’t think I can do the same thing with Yoshinaga-san who doesn’t look like she needs any help.’

   ‘Wait, is that how you fall in love with Nishiyama?’

   She flinches as soon as I mention her crush. She immediately has the look of a maiden in love. I would have find it cute if it wasn’t for her bad taste.

   ‘The thing is, I just can’t leave useless guys like him alone, and I find his clumsiness really cute. It’s like he’s my younger brother, or a distressed puppy.’

   I roll my eyes. See? This is why the world is so unfair. If you’re born under the right star, it won’t matter whether you’re an absolute wuss, or a world class jerk, girls will still flock to you. Of course, being rich helps too, but this point can be ignored here for now.

   Takaki then goes on and on about how she finds Nishiyama cute and endearing, and she’s really glad that he and Shishido-senpai has broke up since it means that she has a chance now. Thankfully, I don’t have to listen to her for long since Suzu’s finally done with changing her clothes.

   ‘The two of you can come in now~.’ she tells us.

   Takaki looks around in wonder as she’s fascinated by the sheer size of Suzu’s room. We join Suzu on the big screens at the end of the room.

   ‘So, which one will we be playing?’ I ask our host.

   ‘We got three people, so I guess it’ll have to be Sm*sh.’

   Suzu passes the controllers around. Takaki looks at hers like she’s looking at some alien lifeforms.

   ‘Can we really play it with these separated controllers?’ she asks us.

   ‘Don’t worry, they work just fine.’ I assure her.

   Suzu chose K*rby as her character. I chose P*c-man. Takaki hasn’t the faintest clue on who to choose, so she pressed random and got R*u.

   ‘So, how do the control works?’ Takaki asks us.

   ‘Don’t worry. You’ll learn them while getting thrashed.’ I tell her.

   ‘I beg your pardon?’

   ‘You know what they say. Learn from your defeat~.’ Suzu adds.

   Takaki shrieks continuously for the next few minutes as she’s desperately trying to figure out the function of each buttons on her controllers while getting beat up by Suzu and I. It only took around two minutes for her to get knocked out.

   ‘What, what just happened?’ she asks in bewilderment.

   ‘Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.’ I comfort her while fighting Suzu one-on-one. ‘The fastest way to master a fighting game is press lots of buttons randomly while hoping it’ll do something.’

   ‘And get defeated a lot.’ Suzu says while never looking away from the monitor.

   Our match took much longer since Suzu is quite skilled, and I’ve done a lot of practising on my own. I’ve won in the end, but barely survived with only one life left.

   ‘Boo~, I lost~!’ Suzu pouts.

   ‘You guys want to have another go?’ I ask while slightly panting from the intense match.

   ‘Definitely. I’ll totally win this time~.’ Suzu replies.

   ‘Of course I want to! There’s no way I’m going to take another beating!’ Takaki says.

   Despite what Takaki said, she still lost the fastest in the second round. The difference is that she’s starting to learn on how to move her character and commence attack and defense. I guess part of the reason that she’s one of the top students at Jindai is due to the fact that she’s a fast learner. By the time we’re done with the fifth round, she’s pretty much an adept.

   ‘I never know that playing video games can be this exhilarating. No wonder some of my classmates are so addicted to it.’

   ‘It’s very fun right~? Just get a game console of your own, and forget about everything-’

   Suzu got interrupted as I smacked her head with my fist.

   ‘Owie~! What was that for, Takkun?’ she demands.

   ‘Don’t corrupt her.’ I warn.

   I look at Takaki. ‘I can tell that you’re someone who can keep a level head, but let me warn you anyway. Never get addicted to playing video games. It might ruin your life.’

   ‘Yes. I’ll keep that in mind.’ she promises. ‘By the way, what kind of games do you recommend?’

   I let Suzu do all the talking, since she’s the one who owns literally all the consoles available in the market. Plus, Takaki wants to be friends with Suzu, not me. I just look on quietly as Suzu shows off her collection of game consoles proudly to Takaki, with the latter reacting like a small kid inside a candy store.

   ‘Whew! All this talking made me hungry and thirsty! You guys want some snacks?’ Suzu asks after the show-and-tell session is over.

   ‘Sure.’ I answer.

   Takaki widens her eyes. ‘Snacks, as in junk food? But, I’ve never eaten any in my life before.’

   Now it’s Suzu’s turn for her eyes to widen.

   ‘Y-You’ve never eaten a single junk food in your life?’ Suzu asks Takaki in a trembling voice.

   ‘Is it that surprising?’

   ‘It is~! You haven’t lived for real if you have never eaten snacks~!’

   ‘Now you’re just exaggerating.’

   ‘I guess I am, but you know why I’m so obsessed with them when you tried them for yourself. Just you wait!’

   Suzu leaves the room to get to her refrigerator, leaving me alone with Takaki.

   ‘I’ve never known that Yoshinaga-san is such an…interesting person.’ Takaki says to me.

   ‘I told you, didn’t I? Suzu’s just a normal girl. Just because she gets good grades it doesn’t mean that she’s an entirely different being than us.’

   ‘By the way, are the two of you perhaps, in a relationship?’

   I groan loudly. ‘Not you too! Why does so many people think that?’

   ‘Well, the two of you seem very close with each other. You even use nicknames to call the other.’

   ‘I’m just hanging out with her as a friend, alright? As for the nicknames, it’s purely her idea. I’m just playing along since she insisted.’

   ‘Do you think she would give me a nickname too?’ she asks hopefully.

   ‘Who knows? She’s expressionless most of the time, so I could hardly tell what she’s thinking. She might have seen you as a friend after the gaming session, but maybe not. Just don’t keep your hopes up too much and never, ever force her to accept you.’

   ‘I shall keep that in mind.’ she promises.

   Suzu soon comes back with her stash of snacks and soft drinks. Takaki picks up a bag of barbecue-flavored crisps and opens it. She then takes one crisp out and looks at it nervously.

   ‘Go on.’ Suzu encourages. ‘It’s not like it contains poison.’

   Takaki opens her mouth and puts the crisp into her mouth, then chews. Her eyes immediately widens in surprise.

   ‘It’s…quite delicious.’ she mumbles while chewing the crisps insider her mouth.

   ‘Right~? Now try this next.’

   Suzu hands her a bottle of cola. Takaki twists the cap and drinks from it. Again with the eyes widening. With a slight hiccup from drinking a carbonated drink too quickly.

   ‘This drink is gassy.’ Takaki comments.

   ‘And the taste?’

   ‘It tastes good.’

   ‘Right? I told you so~.’ Suzu says smugly.

   ‘Why are you acting like you’ve made them personally?’ I couldn’t help but ask.

   ‘I’m just happy that Takayu learned some new things~.’

   ‘Takayu? Is that supposed to be my nickname?’

   ‘Yup. You’re Takaki Yuka, so your nickname is Takayu.’

   ‘That’s a rather odd choice for a nickname.’ Takaki comments.

   ‘I can switch it to Yuyu if you want.’

   ‘...I’ll take Takayu, please.’

   ‘Got it, and you’ll be calling me Suzu from now on~.’

   The three of us played video games until night falls. Suzu wanted both of us to stay for dinner, but Takaki says she has curfew, so she can’t stay. The secretary of the Student Council goes to school by train, so she asked Serizawa-san who was asked to give us both a ride by Suzu to give her a ride all the way there. The train station isn’t that far from my apartment, so I got down from the car too.

   ‘Truly, I have to thank you for today. I manege to become friends with Suzu-san because of you.’ she tells me before she goes inside the station.

   I shrug. ‘I didn’t do anything. It was all you.’

   ‘Nonsense. I could have failed without your advise. Once again, thank you so much.’ she says to me while bowing.

   ‘Don’t make a big deal out of it. I’ll be seeing you.’

   ‘Yes. May we meet next time.’