Chapter 53: The Study Group
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 53: The Study Group
"Welcome."
As we entered the mansion, the first to greet us at the entrance were Karen and her father.
It wasn't the first time I'd seen him. I'd spotted him last time Karen and Sakamoto were on their date, tailing them in various disguises with his subordinates.
But since pointing that out might embarrass him, I bowed my head and greeted him as if we'd never met.
"My name is Kim Yoo-Sung."
"Right, you seem like a very dependable friend."
"?"
His voice was strangely gentle, and as I raised my head, Karen's father pushed her forward.
"By any chance, do you need a girlfriend? My daughter, contrary to how she looks, is very domestic… Oof!"
"What the hell are you doing! You idiot old man!"
Karen ruthlessly jabbed her father in the stomach for his mischievous joke, her face flushing as she huffed in annoyance.
"Everyone, follow me. I've already prepared a room."
"R-Right."
Karen started to lead the way, but then she seemed to spot Boris standing there awkwardly and turned to Sasha.
"If he follows my father, he'll be shown to a place where he can rest."
Sasha nodded and translated what Karen had just said to Boris, who was standing beside her.
Once that was settled, we began to follow Karen's small back down the wooden hallway.
*
"Here it is. This is the room we'll be using for our study session today."
"Whoa! It's huge!" Rika exclaimed excitedly.
She was right. The tatami room Karen provided was incredibly spacious.
It felt like the banquet hall of a high-end ryokan.
"This smell! This texture! I love it!"
Rika immediately lay down on the floor and began rolling around, this way and that.
In the process, her knee-length skirt rolled up, creating quite a dangerous scene, but Sasha suddenly covered my eyes, so I missed the most important part.
"Rika! Your skirt! Your skirt!"
"Ah."
At Karen's warning, Rika shot up, and the situation was resolved.
We all gathered around a large desk placed in the center of the room.
"I was thinking of putting out a kotatsu instead of a regular desk, but I figured we'd fall asleep if it was too comfortable, so I held back."
"Aww! A kotatsu! What a shame!"
"...That is indeed a bit disappointing. It would have been perfect for peeling and eating tangerines inside."
I couldn't hide my awkwardness as the three of them suddenly launched into a discussion about kotatsu.
My house used ondol underfloor heating, so I'd never used a kotatsu before.
"By the way, Sasha, you're a foreigner. How do you know what a kotatsu is?"
At Rika's sudden question, Sasha gave a small smirk and raised her chin proudly.
"I saw it in an anime."
"Ah~ Right, kotatsu show up a lot, don't they?"
Rika nodded in understanding, crossing her arms.
Honestly, it was incredibly awkward watching two people who, on the outside, looked like beautiful foreign girls having this kind of conversation.
Especially since Karen, the only normal person among the four of us, couldn't follow along.
"H-Hey, I've watched anime, too! The one with the magical girls in white and black clothes who fight with their bare hands!"
"Ah, you mean Pre○Cure? To think you like the original series, you have a surprisingly hardcore side to you, Karen."
"Impressive. To still like magical girl shows at your age."
"Huh? I was just talking about what I watched when I was little."
A sudden silence fell over the other two.
"Should we talk about something else?"
"I can't have a proper conversation with someone on her level."
"...Huh? Did I say something wrong?"
I placed a hand on the shoulder of Karen, who still couldn't follow the conversation, and shook my head.
"Sometimes, it's better not to know."
Karen, please, just stay pure.
*
The otaku talk between Rika and Sasha, which had started with the kotatsu, caused a brief commotion, but we decided to get back to our original purpose and start the study group.
There were only two days left until the exams.
Frankly, we had reached the point where it was more efficient to just memorize everything wholesale rather than trying to understand and solve the problems.
Before we dove in, we went over each other's weaknesses one more time.
"First, Rika."
"Yes!"
"Math is one thing, but you're generally weak in all the STEM subjects. So many people give up on this area that you can get an average score just by properly memorizing the formulas. So, your goal for today is to drill every single formula within the exam scope into your head."
As I spoke, I handed Rika the summary notes I had prepared at home, which contained neatly organized math and science formulas.
"I'm giving you a pop quiz in an hour, so no slacking off. Drill them into your head. Once you've memorized the basic formulas, we'll start solving simple example problems one by one."
"Yes..."
Unlike her initial energetic reply, Rika's voice was now noticeably dejected, but I ignored it and moved on.
"Next, Karen."
"Yeah."
"Looking at your grades, you're average across the board. You don't have any particular weaknesses, but you don't have any strengths either. And you seem to struggle with memorization. So, I recommend changing your memorization technique. A common one is the association method. You know that really famous one for dates? Like how the incident happened without any trouble (mujiko), so the year is '645'."
"Oh, I know that one. You're talking about the Taika Reform, right?"
"Just like that, try creating your own goroawase [Japanese mnemonics] that you can associate in your own way. It'll be much easier to memorize things than before."
"Okay. I'll give it a try."
I watched with a pleased expression as Karen clenched her fists, her motivation ignited, then finally turned to Sasha, who was arguably the biggest challenge of the three.
"Yoo-Sung, what should I do?"
"You..."
Honestly, unlike the other two, there wasn't a special method for Sasha.
Classical literature itself is written in archaic language, so even native Japanese students find it difficult. For a foreigner like Sasha, it was bound to be even harder.
Fortunately, classical literature tends to feature the same works and poems, so it was possible to learn the patterns by solving many similar types of problems.
As a former science student, Japanese classical literature had been my most difficult subject as well, so I felt a sense of kinship with Sasha for struggling with it.
I took out the 200 practice questions I had printed out during the week from my bag and showed them to her.
"It'll be hard for you to understand even if I explain it right now, so for classical literature, there's no other way but to solve as many problems as possible. I originally made these for myself, but I guess we'll have to do them together."
"Alright, I understand."
With our general study plans decided, we steeled ourselves and began to study.
*
[1 hour later]
Rika was starting to get a bit fidgety, but she seemed to be holding on without much trouble.
As promised, I gave her a pop quiz. The results showed she hadn't been slacking off and had properly memorized the formulas, so we started working through the easy problems in the practice workbook.
[2 hours later]
Her concentration must have been waning, because the speed at which Rika solved math problems began to drop sharply.
The same seemed to be true for Karen, as she was flipping through her history book more frequently than before.
[3 hours later]
Rika had now completely lost interest in studying and had started doodling on the last page of her math notebook.
Seeing her unnecessarily high-level drawing skills, it seemed she had inherited Teacher Kishimoto's genes perfectly.
As for Karen, her brain must have short-circuited from all the memorizing, because she had collapsed onto the desk with her book resting on top of her head.
The only one who was still completely fine was Sasha, sitting next to me and studying classical literature.
Unlike the other two, she was in excellent physical shape and still seemed full of energy despite the continuous problem-solving.
I took out my smartphone, which I'd left on vibrate, and checked the time.
3:31 PM.
This seemed like a good time to take a break.
"Alright, we've been studying for a long time, so let's take an hour-long break."
I woke up the sleeping Karen and had Rika, who was absorbed in her doodling, stand up and stretch.
Staying in one position for a long time is bad for your body.
What's more, the human body is built in such a way that just sitting for extended periods puts a strain on the lower back, so it's necessary to stretch every once in a while.
Crack! Pop!
Listening to the satisfying sound of my bones cracking as I twisted my waist, I looked around at the others.
They were reluctantly following my lead, but the energy of the always-vibrant Rika and the athletic Karen was incredibly low.
It seemed like a special measure was needed.
"Karen, can I use your kitchen for a bit?"
"...Huh? I don't mind, but why the kitchen all of a sudden?"
"Well, everyone seems exhausted, so I thought I'd make a snack for the first time in a while."
When your blood sugar drops, you need to eat something sweet.
Just sitting around and resting is fine, but relieving stress this way isn't a bad idea either.
"I'm going to make patbingsu. Anyone want some?"
As I said that and looked around, Rika, whose shoulders had been slumped, instantly revived and shot her hand into the air.
"Me! Me!"
Sasha, who was next to her, tilted her head and asked.
"Patbingsu? I've never heard of that food before."
Of course. There was no way a princess from a land of winter would have ever tried patbingsu.
I spoke to her with confidence.
"You'll understand once you try it."