Chapter 22 Regarding Hope's Peak Academy and your...
Daylight broke.
Today is not a day off.
In other words, today is a school day for students in the Hope Peak preparatory courses.
"Hey, do you remember the comic I mentioned before?"
"What?... Ah, I remember now, I vaguely recall it. What's wrong? You finally remembered the book title and author's name?"
"I guess so. But to be more precise, I actually discovered that the cartoonist mentioned in that popular ghost story is actually the author of the comic I just randomly flipped through the other day! Thinking about it now, it's really scary. Luckily, I kept my complaints to myself at the time, and what I said later was just sarcasm to prank you guys."
"Huh? So you almost got killed by that monster? How scary, how scary~"
"That's so mean, and you're still laughing so happily!"
With only a short time left before class, almost everyone in the class had arrived. Many classmates who were close friends were chatting together, and after the weekend, they had a lot more to talk about. Until the very last moment before the bell rang, they wanted to make the most of their time before class.
But he always felt something was off.
Hajime Hinata turned his head to look at the seat to his right that was still empty.
Why hasn't Tsukino arrived yet?
Perhaps he was overthinking things, but during the previous few days of school, unlike other students who arrived at different times, Tsukino arrived at the classroom at the exact same time every day, neither too early nor too late.
Hyuga Hajime once suspected that Tsukino and Chiya might have some kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder. It wasn't a question that couldn't be asked, and he had a good relationship with Tsukino, so one day he just asked her directly.
However, Tsukino and Chiya promptly denied this, stating that it was truly just a coincidence.
But... how should I put it, Tsukino and Chiya have already left an impression of "self-discipline" on Hinata Hajime.
It's quite rare to see a situation like this today. Could it be that he took leave?
Shortly after this thought crossed their minds, the classroom door was opened, and walked in Tsukino and Chiya, who had arrived just before class started, right as the bell rang.
"You're here, Tsukino Kazu." Seeing the black-haired boy pull out a chair and take out the necessary textbooks from his bag, Hinata Hajime greeted him. "Did you stay up late last night?"
Tsukino and Chiya had just successfully found the book they needed and were about to take it out when they heard this.
The black-haired boy looked over in confusion, implicitly admitting, "Is it very obvious in your face?"
"No, you've misunderstood. Your complexion looks the same as usual," Hyuga Hajime quickly clarified, his smile turning somewhat helpless.
Does Tsukino Kazuya lack this awareness? His expression always seems flawless, and even now he shows no signs of the fatigue one would expect from someone who's stayed up all night. Even his current "doubt" is based on Hinata Hajime's assessment of their time together... and it can't be guaranteed to be entirely accurate.
Hyuga Hajime continued, "Actually, I guessed that because you arrived much later than usual today, and it seems I was right."
"Yeah, I stayed out very late yesterday before going back to the dorm." Tsukino and Chiya put their bags back down after taking their books. "...Then I read comics in the dorm until dawn, and then I slept for a little while."
Yeah, it's the weekend after all, so staying up late is normal. But to stay up all night... well, that doesn't seem like something Tsukino would do.
Hajime Hinata was well aware that Tsukino and Chiya weren't as difficult to get along with as they seemed on the surface. Aside from their distinctive expressions and voices, they didn't seem much different from other ordinary classmates, and he could communicate and interact with them normally.
...However, his very individualistic appearance is indeed very deceptive. It's one thing to know that Tsukino Kazuya is the same age as him, but on the other hand, Hinata Hajime can't help but think, "So even someone like Tsukino Kazuya stays up all night to read manga."
It has to be said that this feeling seemed to instantly bring Tsukino and Chiya closer together.
Humans are creatures that find joy, companionship, and satisfaction in each other through the simple act of "So it's you too!"
"What manga is so good?" Hinata Hajime couldn't help but feel curious about the manga that he was willing to stay up all night to read.
Tsukino and Chiya rattled off several manga titles that sounded utterly unappealing, and before this, Hinata Hajime had absolutely no recollection of these manga.
Hajime Hinata: "Huh? You read all of that in one go?"
Tsukino and Chiya: "Yes, but actually it's because the content is too boring, plus some of them are short stories with very little content, so you can skip around and finish them quickly."
Although we ended up staying up all night to quickly finish reading them all, after hearing the rumors about the "ghost painter," Tsukino and Chiya started reading Eiichiro Saiyama's manga. Until last night... no, it was early this morning when they read a lot more in one go, finally finishing all of that man's manga.
Hyuga Hajime: "Is that so... Tsukino and you really have a lot of perseverance."
Even though the content was incredibly boring, I still managed to stay up all night and finish watching it, which is quite an achievement. Although I had just thought that I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, this seems to have reinforced my impression that "Tsukino takes everything she does very seriously."
"Speaking of manga," Hinata Hajime suddenly said, as if remembering something, "everyone in our class has been talking about some kind of ghost story related to manga lately. Tsukino, do you know that story?"
"This one..."
Tsukino and Chiya had barely begun their conversation when the classroom door, which had been closed again, was opened once more, and the teacher walked in with her lecture notes. The classroom, which had previously been noisy, quickly fell silent.
It was just a casual conversation, and Hyuga Hajime wasn't disappointed at not getting an answer. But just when he thought their chat was going to end there, the black-haired boy sitting not far from him spoke up again.
Tsukino and Chiya looked up at the teacher who had come to the podium and lowered their voices.
"Um... I'm sorry," the black-haired boy said slowly, "I don't know much about it."
*******
Every day in the preparatory course seemed to have no extra changes, just the same routine of going to class, leaving get out of class, and repeating until school was over.
Despite bearing the name "Hope Peak," it seems no different from other schools, or even... a bit more lifeless.
Most students in preparatory courses, though they don't say it outright, choose this program primarily because they aspire to undergraduate studies. Therefore, whenever a student inadvertently steers the conversation towards undergraduate studies, the atmosphere can easily become awkward.
However, none of this mattered to Tsukino and Chiya.
School was over, and Hinata Hajime had to stay behind to do chores today. Tsukino and Chiya packed up their things, said a brief goodbye to Hinata, and prepared to leave.
He still has some things to do in a while.
...However, it's also fine to stay in the classroom for a little while.
Although school had already ended, there were still students around who hadn't left yet because they were talking about interesting topics.
Perhaps because it was already time for school to end and most of the people around had left, they didn't pay much attention to controlling their volume while talking and laughing, as they didn't have to worry too much about disturbing others.
Do you remember the person in the next class who received the love letter?
"I remember, that person was smug for a long time because he received a love letter not long after the start of the semester."
"Well, he went there full of enthusiasm but got stood up! He waited and waited and waited and waited!"
"How lame! Were we tricked?"
"But I heard he received another love letter today. He thinks the girl might have had something come up and couldn't come that day, so he's planning to go again today!"
"Huh, is that really true?"
"Who knows? Oh right, the shop we're going to later..."
The students who were clearly on good terms with each other gradually walked away, chatting about new topics.
Tsukino and Chiya glanced at the clock hanging on the classroom wall; if they rushed over now, they should be able to make it in time.
The black-haired boy picked up his bag, left the classroom, and headed towards a certain place.
This area was still within the Hope's Peak Academy preparatory course grounds, but there were no other students around. Shortly afterward, Tsukino and Chiya pushed open the door and entered a room with a sign that read "Meeting Room" hanging by the door.
This is indeed a conference room. Normally, apart from teachers of preparatory subjects who come to hold meetings, not many students come in... Of course, even if they wanted to come in, they wouldn't have a key.
Now, apart from Tsukino and Chiya who had just knocked on the door and entered, there was only one other person in the entire meeting.
"Is it really okay for undergraduate professors to appear in preparatory courses like this?" Tsukino and Chiya placed their backpacks on the conference room table.
In a casually pulled-out chair sat a blond man with a languid posture. He smelled faintly of alcohol, and openly held a small bottle in his hand. Coupled with his unkempt beard, which looked like it hadn't been shaved in a while, he exuded a sense of decadence.
This person, who didn't look like a teacher at all, raised the hand that was still holding the small wine bottle as a greeting: "I don't think it's as serious as students from preparatory courses coming to undergraduate level."
“That makes sense.” Tsukino and Chiya nodded in agreement. Judging from Hope’s Peak’s style, that was indeed the case.
He casually pulled out a chair and sat down. As soon as he sat down, he saw the teacher, who was currently the class teacher of the first-year undergraduate students, push a document in front of him.
"So."
Huang Yinggong, who seemed to have no enthusiasm for work, reached out and pressed down the brim of his hat, apparently intending to skip the unnecessary pleasantries and get straight to the point, so he could finish early and go back to drinking and slacking off.
"Tsukino-kun, let's have a chat."
"—Regarding Hope's Peak Academy's request to you."
A note from the author:
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