Study and Notes (2)
"Please, just go. I'm begging you."
"Why! Why! The notes you borrowed are mine too! I have every right to be here!"
I shoved Belica's face away as she kept clinging to me. She'd already followed me all the way to my bedroom door.
"Then take your damn notes and get lost!"
"You idiot! You can't just give up on your studies like that!"
"Shut your trap..."
That's when it happened. The dormitory door flew open, and Ronari appeared. She had a towel draped over her head and stared at us blankly from the threshold.
"What... are you two doing out there?"
Belica seized the opening in a flash. She dashed into the entryway like the wind and threw her arms around Ronari.
"Miss Ronari! Were you lonely all by yourself until dinner? Don't worry, I'm here now! Did you just get out of the shower? You smell so nice~"
With that, Belica buried her nose in Ronari's nape and sniffed loudly.
"Eek! Bel...!"
Ronari recoiled in horror from the assault but didn't forget her model-student instincts—she started scolding anyway.
"Y-you can't do this! Go back to your dorm...!"
"Aww? But I wanna hang out with you, missy."
"Didn't you say we should study together in the room? You already forgetting?"
I threw in the jab, but Belica ignored me completely. She leaned in and whispered in Ronari's ear.
"And missy might not know this, but Ilsea here's actually a filthy beast deep down. Who knows what he'll turn into if a freshly showered girl like you is alone with him!"
Belica shot me a wink as she said it. What the hell? Some kind of signal? A warning she'd bury me socially?
My paranoia wasn't off-base. Ronari, hearing her words, glared at me like I was trash. Though, to be fair, that wasn't much different from her usual look.
"What did you do to Bel?"
Ronari's voice boiled like molten lava.
"As if. You're too naive. Don't buy every word from that idiot."
As I spoke, Ronari's gaze shifted to Belica. Belica flashed a cheeky grin.
"I came to study. Study. You know Ilsea skips classes all the time, right, missy? So your big sis here decided to help him out!"
"But why here..."
Belica pretended not to hear Ronari's question as she kicked off her shoes and strode inside.
"Thanks for having me~!"
Now it was just me and Ronari left in the entryway. With the perp gone and only the victim remaining, we faced off in silence as she glared daggers at me. This was too much. I felt wronged too.
"I was gonna do it at the library. But she was too damn loud, so I came back to study alone, and she followed me."
Ronari tilted her head slightly, her eyes saying So?
So I added, "...I'll kick her out soon. Just wait a bit."
I tried to brush past her, but her arm blocked me.
"What now."
"I saw."
Ronari spat out the words curtly. I asked,
"Saw what?"
"The match. I saw it."
The match? She meant the Ranking Tournament?
Ronari's expression turned haughty as she added, "...You were pretty good."
Praise from her? What a shock.
"Just luck. My opponent got careless."
*Hmph.*
Ronari let out an enigmatic hum before asking, "Did you practice?"
"Practice?"
I echoed her, and she suddenly snapped.
"I'm asking if you trained to beat that guy! That pervert Lorband or whatever...!"
Then just say that from the start.
"Nah. I didn't even know he was my opponent until I got up there."
Ronari's face cycled through expressions in an instant—first disappointment, then a smug smile bloomed.
"Knew it! A thug like you wouldn't bother training~"
She turned and headed inside, tossing over her shoulder, "Whatever. You're lazy, that's nothing new. But didn't you say you skipped class this morning to study?"
"Yeah."
"Then why not just attend properly from the start? Kinda dumb now..."
"If I'm bothering you, I can study somewhere else."
As long as you hold Belica back for a bit...
"Who said to go study outside? Don't just stand there—come in already."
Hot and cold, what was her deal? Still, the vibe was letting me in, so I complied without protest.
As I stepped inside, the two were already seated at the kitchen table. Belica had Ronari's arm in a hug and gushed,
"Thanks for lending the room. You're so generous, missy. Top grades, pretty face, and a heart of gold—what's a girl to do? Oh yeah, you won your Ranking Tournament today too, right? What can't you do? What's your secret? Are you a goddess come to earth?"
"Ah... ahaha..."
Ronari was trapped, unable to respond to Belica's machine-gun chatter.
...Yeah, no evicting her now.
Once Belica figured she'd won Ronari over, she sprang up and hopped toward the living room.
"Can I look around? I won't peek in your room!"
"Uh, sure... I guess that's fine..."
Ronari mumbled vague permission, and I nodded too. As long as she didn't interrupt studying, it was probably better this way.
"Charge!"
With no reason to hold back anymore, Belica flung open my bedroom door.
*Whoa! Check this out. Is this what they call a wall? Hilarious!*
I ignored Belica's voice from inside and sat at the table, flipping open the notes she'd brought. I started copying them again.
Having skipped nearly all morning classes this week, there was a mountain of material to transcribe. And Belica's handwriting was such a mess that I struggled.
"...What the hell is this equation? What's that denominator...?"
I muttered, and Ronari chimed in abruptly.
"It's 4. The cube root of 4."
"Ah. Thanks."
Ronari propped her chin on her hand across from me, watching me scribble. She'd figured out the exact equation at a glance. Probably memorized every class detail. As the academy's top student, it made sense.
Having her help would make catching up a lot smoother. Not that it'd ever happen.
Then, casually, she said, "...Your handwriting's surprisingly neat."
What a weird thing to say out of nowhere. Did she catch something from Belica?
"Belica's is such garbage, so it looks good by comparison. I think it's just average."
"Maybe... But overall, it's unexpected. I figured you had no interest in studying. You're a thug delinquent, after all."
"Who're you calling a thug delinquent?"
"Skipping morning classes, sneaking out at night to who-knows-where doing shady stuff. And all those fights last year. What else do you call that but a thug delinquent?"
The fights were mostly last year, but... yeah, hard to argue. Circumstances aside, I broke rules like it was breakfast.
I focused silently on copying again. Ronari's misconceptions about me couldn't be fixed with words. Even if I explained, no guarantee she'd get it. And I didn't want to drag her into my secrets anyway. If she knew, what'd be secret about it?
Sharing a room with her was just one semester. Survive that quietly, and done. No needless risks.
Eloquence is silver; silence is gold.
But Ronari's voice broke the silence again.
"Hey."
"..."
Couldn't ignore her.
"What."
Her response was totally unexpected.
"You... what's the deal with Bel?"
My pen halted dead center on the page. I slowly turned to Ronari. She looked a bit tense asking.
"You too, huh?"
Her face flushed crimson. She averted her eyes and mumbled like an ant.
"...Sorry. That was rude. Pretend you didn't hear it."
I didn't think her question was that odd. What's your relationship with Belica? I'd heard it a hundred times over the years. But no one had ever apologized for asking—except Ronari Sharino right now.
I still didn't want to spill much about myself. But she'd shown basic respect, so maybe I owed her a little in return. It wasn't even a real secret.
Keeping my eyes on the notes, I said, "She was my fiancée."
"Wh-what...!"
I continued undeterred.
"No need to freak. It was decided before we were born."
"Before you were... born?"
"Our grandfathers were sworn brothers. They made the pact while we were still in the womb. Whoever had kids of opposite genders would marry them off."
Ronari listened breathlessly. Only the scratch of my pen filled the pauses.
"So we grew up like siblings. We were too young to even know what marriage meant. Still are, really."
"So she's your former fiancée..."
"You've heard about my family falling from grace, right?"
No need to sugarcoat. It wasn't bragging. Everyone knew—infamously so.
Ronari nodded slowly.
"Once we ended up like that, I got dumped obviously. We didn't care, though. Like I said, we saw each other as siblings from the start."
I added, "Get it? She's nothing to me. Don't go blabbing. It's not something to brag about. I don't think you're the type anyway."
"Yeah... Got it. Thanks... for telling me."
Ronari buried her face in her drawn-up knees. Looked like she had stuff to mull over.
Come to think of it, this was the longest I'd ever talked to her. We were even in the same class freshman year, plenty of chances. Whatever, didn't matter now.
Then Ronari abruptly stood. Figured she was heading to her room, but she came back with something in hand.
She thrust it at me: several notebooks.
"...Gotta cover all subjects anyway, right? You skipped the whole week. Use these."
What was with her? I looked up at Ronari blankly.
She averted her eyes and shoved them closer.
"My arm's gonna fall off! Take 'em already!"
No choice. I accepted.
"Thanks, but... I got nothing to give back."
"Forget it! I don't expect anything from a guy like you! I just... asked a dumb question earlier, so... this evens it out!"