The truth is, when I said "tomorrow" I actually meant "tomorrow" as in yesterday, but... ah, I wrote it. I need to get Yuuka's arc more organized or else it'll be an incomprehensible mess.
@everyone: Thank you for reading! I'm glad you're curious about Techi's past. I'll move up some of the development I had planned to earlier in the story so you can see more of Techi. I would reply individually to everyone, but... ah, I don't want to give spoilers. I don't know if there's a way to spoiler tag on this site, so I'll just refrain from that now.
Checkpoint 18
Light clouds were looming in the sky, hinting at rain to come. The bell rang, signalling break time. Hirate Yurina looked up at the board. Today, the scores on the latest quiz were up on the board and points were distributed again.
The short haired girl sighed and laid her head down on the table. She felt the hardness of the metal band around her left wrist as she tried to put her hands under her head. She hadn’t done well on the English quiz, which wasn’t too unexpected.
“Yurina-chan.” Neru came up to Yurina.
Yurina greeted her roommate with a mumble, “Neru.”
Looking at the board and back at Yurina, Neru offered, “We can study English together next time.”
Yurina paused for a moment, about to refuse but then she thought again. “Thank you.” She did need help with studying.
The roommates looked back at the quiz ranking on the board again. It was like normal, some classmates getting better, some not. Neru noticed that Yuuka had dropped almost ten places from her usual place as a member of the class who studied and got good grades.
Suddenly, the board flickered away from the grades. Instead, the usual man who made announcements was there again.
Neru flinched as the screen abruptly changed. Yurina looked toward the figure on the screen with a frown as well.
“I see everyone appears to be doing well.” He started with a fake smile. “Summer break will be coming up in a matter of weeks, and exams will commence before the break. These exams can be either taken as a boon or a bane. If they are failed, you will receive huge demerits. If you do well, then you will receive many points. I hope you will take advantage of this situation.”
“If you have read through your student handbooks, then you may have noticed that having a set number of points is a requirement for graduation. Do not forget to maintain your points so that you can graduate.
“An overview of the exams will be displayed on this board during your next break.
“This will be all for now.”
The figure on the screen disappeared, and the rankings from the quiz reappeared. However, no one was looking at those quiz rankings anymore.
Moriya Akane sighed as she heard about the upcoming exams. Even though the Keyaki class had a looser structure of learning with lectures on the board, she felt that she should have expected exams.
However, when she looked around the room, it looked like not everyone shared her opinion. Manaka had her face down on the desk in denial of exams. Suzumoto’s face was contorted in shock. Imaizumi looked half passed out. Yonetani, one of the smart girls in the class, was going along life as if she had expected exams being announced.
Harada Aoi was hanging by Yuuka’s desk, incessantly poking the horse-loving girl, “Hey, hey, hey. Yukka. Hey, hey?”
Risa came over to Akane and joked, “Ah, Aoi is being annoying to Sugai.” Then, the cool girl shrugged, “Better her than me, I guess.”
Akane raised an eyebrow and picked up a small eraser on her desk. The tennis girl tossed the eraser at Aoi’s head, “Hey, primary schooler.”
“Who are you calling a primary schooler!?” Aoi pouted and took Yuuka’s arm to complain, “Geez, Yukka, Akanen is bullying me.”
“Huh?” Yuuka looked up toward Aoi and back at Akane, “Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.” She quickly put her phone away.
“Was the announcement of the exams that shocking?” Aoi wondered aloud.
“Exams? Um…” Yuuka fumbled over her words.
Aoi frowned, “Did you not pay attention?”
There was a silence. Then, another eraser came flying at Aoi’s head, and there was a small snicker of ‘bullseye’ from the area of Akane’s friend group.
“Hey!” Aoi pouted, sharply twisting toward the perpetrator.
Yuuka wryly smiled, “Akanen, don’t bully Aoi, okay?”
“Okay, okay.” Akane relented. “I’ll have Fuu-chan treat her to ice cream next time we go for some.”
“Akanen, don’t say that.” Fuyuka sighed, hitting Akane lightly in the forehead with an eraser.
“Never mind them, I guess.” Aoi grumbled before turning back to what she was originally going to say, “But, anyways, Yukka, Yukka, Yukka, listen to this.”
“What is it?”
Sugai Yuuka listened to Aoi’s ramblings half-heartedly. As Akane watched her roommate, she couldn’t help but let out another sigh. The clouds outside darkened more, and it started raining.
It was still raining into the next class period. The droplets didn’t cease but rather increased like the worries in Sugai Yuuka’s heart. As she couldn’t pay attention to class, the horse loving girl’s mind gradually drifted off to another rainy day.
She had just finished an activity with her friends in the horseback riding club when it started to pour. The mud of the horse area quickly stained her boots, and everyone retreated inside to wait for their parents to pick them up.
The long haired girl chatted happily with her friends. However, she felt that it was strange that her parents hadn’t come to pick her up yet. It was rather embarrassing because they always came early, gushed over their daughter for a while, and then headed home.
Pitter. Patter. At that time, Yuuka didn’t know how fitting the rain was after her happy time on the back of the horse.
Waiting, many of her friends had already been picked up by butlers or their parents. Yuuka hadn’t received any phone calls from her parents, and no servant from their household had appeared yet. She felt an itch of worry in her heart.
Yuuka’s friend noticed and asked, “Hey, Sugai-chan, no one has come to pick you up yet?” The friend’s butler had arrived.
“It doesn’t look like it.” Yuuka shook her head.
The friend inquired, “Do you want us to send you home?”
“Thank you, but maybe the traffic is bad today due to the rain.” Yuuka politely refused, “I can wait for them myself here. Don’t let me hinder you.”
Letting out a huff of exasperation at Yuuka’s politeness, the friend nodded firmly, “I’ll wait here with you then.”
They waited. The rain grew heavier, and the sky was dark. Even though it was early summer at this time as well, the rain made the air colder and wetter than normal, chilling Yuuka’s heart.
Finally, another car pulled up. Yuuka’s male distantly related cousin stepped out of the car with an umbrella and greeted her.
Yuuka’s friend unconsciously grabbed Yuuka’s hand when she saw the cousin’s sharp look behind his glasses.
“Cousin, what are you doing here?” Yuuka asked.
He replied, “Your parents had something come up, so I’ve come to pick you up.”
“That’s strange.”
“Do you not trust me? We can call aunt to check again if you’d like.”
“No, it’s okay.” Yuuka shook her head, “It’s just somewhat rare for cousin to come out here since you don’t like horsebacking riding much.”
“It was a bit of an emergency.” His eyes were mirthful.
Yuuka bid friend farewell, and Yuuka and her cousin stepped into the car. In the car, they could still hear the sound of the rain and for some reason, the air conditioning was lightly blowing in the car.
“What happened?”
“Do you not know?”
Yuuka was silent. She clenched her hands tightly in her lap but she couldn’t bring herself to say anything and affirmed her older male cousin’s words.
“Uncle is in the hospital right now. It seems that he overworked himself especially now that they are discussing a merger of the Sugai Company with mine.”
“Father is…”
“No one told you? Your parents love you a lot, so they likely didn’t want to worry you.” He smiled, and Yuuka thought that it was a terrible smile, “You’re a beautiful young lady, Yuuka.”
The horse-loving girl didn’t know what to respond. She wasn’t sure why her cousin would add on such a praise for her, but in her heart, she felt that it was worse to be loved and not told anything by her parents. She didn’t want to have that kind of love.
Sugai Yuuka didn’t know when but some tears had gathered in her eyes.
Sitting up in her seat in the Keyaki class, Yuuka noticed that she had fallen asleep. Quickly wiping away her budding tears, she looked up at the board to at least try to pay attention to class.
It was still raining.
Topic: Eccentric (TechiNeru+) <DROPPED> - Thank You For Reading, a Summary (Read 96402 times)