Chapter 35

Shinozaki was lamenting that there were few events after the midterm exams but looking back, I think that was not the case. There was Mei’s birthday party, the pool cleaning, and the visit to the sick Mei. That was so many that I can’t believe it all happened in just two weeks. It was a new experience for me as I don’t usually play around but it was more exhausting.

As always, I’m lying on the sofa while thinking about it. Then, Yuna came downstairs.

「Oniichan is only stretching out on the sofa even though it’s the pre-exam break.」

「Oniichan is tired. Give me a rest.」

I mean, you are too surprised. I’m only human and sometimes get tired to be motivated.

「Then, help me study. I have exams starting tomorrow.」

「Hey, wait, did you even hear me? Oniichan is tired.」

「Don’t worry. It’s just junior high school level which should be pretty easy for you.」

「What are the things you don’t understand? What’s the scope of the exam? If you can’t answer, then don’t bother me.」

「Oniichan, you probably don’t know this but junior high school students nowadays can use communication tools to ask about the scope of the subject.」

Yuna smugly shows me the screen of her cell phone.

Looking at the screen, it looks like Yuna has already asked about the scope this morning. Are you alright? Aren’t you an examinee yourself? Will you be alright?

I’m tired and not motivated, however, will I let my little sister be troubled with studying? I haven’t been able to teach her recently either.

「Yes yes, I don’t have any friends who can teach me the scope of the exams per subject.」

In the past, I had forgotten the scope of the exam so I had studied extensively for the exam but I didn’t get any marks for solving the questions outside the scope of the exam. I guess she was referring to that time. However, what kind of teacher doesn’t give marks to students for solving problems in a different way when the answer is correct? Is the method that important? It’s better to do the easy way rather than using the method within the scope of the exam which will make you make more mistakes. Ah, I’m angry just remembering that. I’ll put it in the things I’ll never tolerate.

「So, which part do you find difficult to understand?」

「I have no idea what to do in this part, sir.」

Yuna said so as she saluted.

You don’t know what to do from here to there? That’s almost half of the scope of your exam.

「That’s not good. Bring me your textbook.」

Yuna returns to her room to get her textbook.

It seems like it’s impossible for me to relieve my fatigue but it can’t be helped this time. Mother and father have asked me to watch Yuna study.

I took the textbook from Yuna when she came back and started teaching her after a quick look through it. What’s more, her English exams will be tomorrow so I went to the basics as well as the parts that seemed to have a high chance to appear on her exam.

Just 1 hour after I started teaching, Yuna’s concentration had waned off.

「Do you want to take a break?」

「I do! I want a café au lait.」

Even though she’s the one being taught, she doesn’t want to prepare a drink and even wants me to do it. If she wasn’t my sister, I would have punched her at least once.

「By the way, you’ve been home late this week. What have you been doing?」

When I returned to the desk with her requested café au lait and my coffee, Yuna asked me that.

「I’ve been doing a lot.」

「I don’t know about that “lot”. I’ve been living with oniichan for the past 15 years so I don’t think I understand everything.」

In short, she wants me to talk about it. She wants to know what I have been doing. We’re on break so let’s entertain her and let her enjoy her café au lait. It’s not that interesting though.

「What do you want me to tell you?」

「The last two consecutive days, you returned late.」

「Maa, it’s not a big deal. The teacher got mad at me when we were cleaning the pool so I received some sort of punishment. Yesterday, I went to visit Hirose.」

Yuna seemed to be more interested in the second one and came closer to me with shining eyes. In my opinion, the pool incident was more interesting. The part where Shinozaki splashed sensei with a bucket of water was pretty impressive.

「I’m not interested in your pool cleaning story so don’t bother talking about it. 」

「Nothing interesting. I just went there for a visit. 」

「You’re lying. Your nose twitches when you lie. 」

Oh, really? I didn’t know that. I wouldn’t notice that if no one pointed that out to me or rather, because I didn’t have any friends who could point that out to me. I guess I’ll have to hide my nose from now on.

「Maa, you’re lying. There’s no way you’ll be this upset if nothing happened after all. 」

That’s not fair. No, that’s a guiding question. I didn’t say anything.

「So, uhm, did you, uh, do that? 」

「What the he…」

「I’m only joking, eh, no way?」

「No, they only let me eat over there.」

「You did it, oniichan. You have blended with her family. Good good. You have no choice but to stick with Hirose-san now. Spring has come to oniichan.」

「No, it’s not like that.」

No, that’s not true. Hirose only changed at the end of last year, before she got involved with me. I remembered what Yuna told me a while ago, this opportunistic development can only happen to the main character of a light novel and I’m not one. I can only shake my head for holding onto false hope.

「What else? Hey」

「That’s enough break. If you continue like this, you might fail.」

「It can’t be helped.」

What do you mean it can’t be helped? I’m only helping you study.