Fast forward a few days later. Midterms had finally begun.
Whatever Rio did to Mina worked wonders. She told Yuuki she’d be busy studying and proceeded to lock herself away in her room. This combined with Rio’s notes allowed Yuuki to get some really efficient studying in.
The three major midterms took place on the very first day, making it by far the most important.
Yuuki went to bed early. He got to school with time to spare, sitting down at his desk. The classroom felt a little quieter than usual.
Yui would normally initiate conversation around this point but she was too busy furiously flipping back and forth through her notes.
She was awfully absorbed in this process, so Yuuki just kind of leaned in from the side and asked, “Are those Rio’s notes?”
“Shut up. I’m trying to focus!”
Yui seemed borderline frantic, yet she only had about twenty minutes until the first midterm.
The final push, huh. Awfully frantic for all your bluster these past few days.
After homeroom ended, everyone moved to the desk corresponding to their student number. Yuuki was at the very front of the middle row while Yui was at the very back, so he had no way of keeping tabs on her.
He thought he heard her muttering “I’m screwed. I’m screwed. I’m…” as she passed by at one point but Yuuki decided to focus on the test sheet in front of him.
✦ ✦ ✦
Once all three midterms were done and over with, the classroom went back to its usual volume levels.
While his classmates shared their thoughts on the midterms, Yuuki went back to his usual desk.
All three felt surprisingly easy considering how little time he had put in. It was all thanks to Rio’s notes, which perfectly captured all the important bits. That being said, it was only the first day. He couldn’t take it easy as more midterms awaited after the weekend.
Yui stumbled over to her desk as Yuuki packed his stuff back into his bag, so he naturally asked, “How’d you do?”
“F-F-Fine. I did fine...” Yui said, nodding repeatedly. Her face, however, was turned away, her gaze desperately avoiding Yuuki’s. Actually, her gaze was all over the place, suspiciously so. Yui then, oddly, started packing her stuff right away. “I have studying to do. So... yeah.”
“Hmm? Not going to ask Rio for help?”
“R-Rio has nothing to do with this!” She snarled, seemingly set off by the word Rio. “Hmph.” Yui grabbed her bag. “Rio this, Rio that, how about you go Rio yourself.” She said whatever that meant, leaving the classroom.
✦ ✦ ✦
After finally finishing all the midterms off, it was back to regularly scheduled classes.
During midterms, Yuuki and Yui, being multiple desks apart at times, coupled with the latter’s abrupt display of fighting spirit (?), the two spoke very little. It felt a bit odd as Yuuki’d either meet up with Yui on an almost daily basis or exchange DMs with her.
Yui herself would probably say she was purposefully avoiding needless interaction as they were smack dab in the middle of a heated battle. It also appeared she was under the impression that Yuuki and Rio had formed some sort of secret pact, which wasn’t even necessarily wrong, so who could really blame her.
Rio being Rio couldn’t shut up about saving Yui. Yuuki, meanwhile, wanted nothing more than to just get through midterms in one piece.
Although, once midterms were over, he did wish to do something about those two’s recently strained relationship.
All three major midterm papers came back in one go that day. First up was English: Eighty Five points. Not too shabby, by Yuuki standards.
“How’d you do?” He asked as Yui returned to her seat with her answer sheet in hand. She didn’t respond, staring sullenly at her desk.
Yui had folded a third of the bottom half up. She had also folded the corner where the score was placed.
Wondering if she was perhaps making a paper airplane, Yuuki asked again. “Yui, you?”
“Tonkatsu curry.”
“Points.”
Yui froze up, eyes locked on the corner of her desk, her mind seemingly wandering the cafeteria.
Yuuki stared at her, waiting for an answer, but beside the occasional cheek twitch, she showed no signs of recovery.
Seemingly choosing to ignore Yuuki, Yui didn’t say a single word the entire first period.
The Spanish and Math midterms came back one after another, making that three in total. Yui went into a similar catatonic state both times, as if their match had completely vanished from her mind.
Growing tired of her ignoring him, Yuuki addressed Yui as soon as the third period ended. “So, how about our match? Are we waiting for all our midterms to come back or what?”
Yui ignored him as she quietly snuck her answer sheet into her bag. Yuuki extended his arm, trying to snatch it out of her hands.
Yui pulled her arm back in a panic, ripping the corner with the test score off. Flashing before Yuuki’s eyes in the leftmost position was the number five. “Ah...”
As he looked Yui in the eyes amidst the awkward atmosphere, she abruptly frowned, falling onto her desk. “Hnnnnnn!” She began groaning and kicking.
Yui’s hissy fit eventually settled, yet her face remained buried in her desk. Yuuki gently tapped her on the shoulder.
Yui slowly lifted herself up, gazing at Yuuki with eyes of hope. “Yuuki...”
“I got a ninety in math. Show me your English next.”
“Are you the devil?” Yui’s face went back into serious mode.
Yuuki didn’t care, leaning in to get a closer look. “That’s fifty, how much? Need to add everything up.”
“Fine! You win, okay? Now stop. Please stop!” Yui put her hands together, bowing profusely; complete capitulation.
In a rather anticlimactic surrender from Yui, Yuuki won by default.
She had no shot of winning regardless but it raised the question-- did all her midterms go similarly poorly? What’ve you been doing all this time?
“You sure? Okay. Ticket, please.”
“T-Thicket?”
“You know what I meant.”
Yui then abruptly opened her bag, taking out a tupperware container and silently holding it out.
Yuuki wasn’t sure what to think, so he pushed it away.
“No? There are delicious cookies inside.”
“Why cookies? You’re trying to worm your way out of this, aren’t you?”
The fact that she had it on her meant she, at the very least, expected this particular outcome.
Yui, unfazed, began rummaging through her bag again. “Oh, alright. Here... take it.” She said, predictably busting out a concert ticket.
“I knew it.”
“It’s luxury.”
“And?” Yuuki calmly shot her distractions down.
Just as he thought she’d finally given up, Yui suddenly put on her famous teasing face. “I see. So you studied tirelessly, day and night, just to get your hands on that yes ticket, hmm?”
“Not really, no.”
Yuuki’s success was mostly thanks to his opponent self-imploding and, of course, Rio’s notes. The fact that Yui wasn’t able to score well despite having access to the exact same notes made him wonder if she had studied at all.
“Anyway. Ticket, please.”
“Okay, okay. Jeez.” Yui grumbled, almost like the whole thing wasn’t her idea. She ripped an empty page out of her colorful notepad, hastily scribbling the word “yes” onto it. “A high school girl’s yes ticket. Just saying it feels weird; has a real criminal ring to it.”
“Your idea, not mine.” Yuuki put out his hand, urging her on.
Yui still appeared hesitant. She shot Yuuki an upward glance before shoving the ticket into his hand.
Yuuki, afraid it might be cursed, carefully held it out in the light, gazing upon it. The fabled yes ticket… It was comically crude and easily forgeable. He’d definitely throw it in the trash if he found it lying on the ground.
The plan was to tear the ticket right up in Yui’s face... but Yuuki thought it’d be better to discuss it with Rio some more. If he did go through with it, Yui would almost certainly snap.
She’d probably throw another yes ticket at me. Yui, the dreaded ticket thrower. A smile made its way up Yuuki’s face.
Yui appeared to have noticed. “W-Why are you smiling?”
“Secret.”
“D-Don’t get any weird ideas, okay? Abusing the yes ticket is not cool.”
“Weird ideas? Like what?”
Yuuki asked with a straight face, turning in her direction. Yui’s face turned pink right before his eyes as she fell deathly silent. Yuuki stared, waiting for her to say something.
“F-Forget it!” Yui got up from her seat, storming out of the classroom.
She returned to her desk sometime later, composed yet clearly still a little on edge. Yui glanced his way every so often, appearing to be in a state of suspense. Yuuki glanced back at her, only for Yui to immediately give him the cold shoulder.
After repeating this exchange a couple more times, she began restlessly tapping her desk out of boredom, like an addict going through a bad withdrawal.
Yuuki pulled the ticket out, stared at it and put it back inside his pocket a few times.
“Oi.”
“Yes?”
“Cut it.”
It was almost like she wanted to get the whole thing over with quickly. Yuuki, however, had no such intention. Thanks to Yui, unaware of Yuuki’s true intent, kept her guard up, a weird tension hung between the two.