Chapter 66: Volume 3 - CH 2.1

A night passed after my Christmas date plan started to take shape.

The school was ready in preparation for the upcoming final exam for the second term1. However, compared to that, I faced an even bigger problem.

“What do I do…?”

Inside the literature clubroom after school, I had my stationeries lined up on the desk, yet I didn’t even grip a pen; my hands were holding my head in worry.

Of all things, I accidentally made myself go for a confession route… This is almost the same as already confessing!

“What should I do to clear this misunderstanding up…”

No matter how I racked my brain, I couldn’t think of a good idea.

While I languished like that, my meeting with Yuzu couldn’t be delayed. The clubroom door opened, and Yuzu returned from buying drinks at the vending machine.

“Sorry for the wait, I bought coffee. Here, for you, Yamato-kun.”

“Th-Thank you.”

I awkwardly accepted the coffee and she sat opposite me, sandwiching the table between us.

“Fufu, it’ll be troublesome if we get failing marks, so let’s study properly, okay, Yamato-kun?”

W-whoa, she’s so hyped up.

As I saw Yuzu arranging her stationeries on the table while whistling cheerfully, my heart beat only sped up.

Just how could I break the truth to her in this kind of mood?

“Alright, so we’re going to study for the exam, do you have questions to ask me? This cute and smart Yuzu-chan is going to teach you. Feel free to ask me anything.”

Ugh… At this rate, I didn’t think I could even study at all. I knew for things like this, it would only be more awkward as time passed; I just had to take the plunge and speak up.

“Heyyy, Yamato-kunnn?” Yuzu leaned forward and peeked at my face, curious as to why I was keeping silent.

“Hm… Ah, sorry.”

I finally broke from my reverie and made an awkward smile at her.

“What’s wrong?” Yuzu asked me curiously.

Isn’t this the chance for me to tell her the truth?

“Um, it’s just…there’s this problem that I have to solve no matter what.”

There’s no use wavering. It’s now or never!

“Problem? Okay. Just like I said just now, I’ll listen to all.”

“That’s… I reviewed it so many times, but I mistakenly remembered the wrong contents.”

I even bought a magazine and researched a lot about the event; but at the last moment, I ended up making such a silly mistake.

Yuzu’s face was serious as I resolutely told her my problem.

“Huh? By mistake… how much?”

“Almost all of the crucial parts.”

I never thought I had missed the part that said it was a confession event.

“All?! You mistook the whole scope?!”

I lowered my head at the wide-eyed Yuzu.

“Really, I’m sorry. At this rate, on the big day, the plan will only be a blank sheet2.

“Blank sheet, you say…? No, why are you so resigned to getting zero marks even before the actual day!”

Certainly, I’d get zero marks as a boyfriend like this, so I said, “That’s right, so I want to fill it up somehow.”

Filling up the plan for Christmas Eve.

“Anyway, you can’t give up. There must be something you can do even now.”

In this situation, it was not weird even if she got mad, yet she confronted my mistake by thinking about what to do alongside me seriously.

“Yuzu… Sorry, you even go so far just for my sake. Then, what do you think I should do?”

I decided to ask what Yuzu wanted so I could redo the plan for Christmas Eve.

“First of all, I guess it’s studying the five core subjects.”

“Studying? Of all things, studying?!”

I was so surprised at the idea of studying on Christmas Eve.

“Aside from this time, when else will you study?! Just what did you intend to do in the first place, Yamato-kun?”

“I honestly thought it would be about having fun the whole day.”

“Why?! Having fun here is ridiculous!”

“Re-Really…?”

I was only interested in Christmas game sales so far, I didn’t know nowadays it was mainstream for high schoolers to study on Christmas Eve. Was that the case…?

“Anyway, there’s still time, we’re going to continue studying – day in, day out. You gotta have that strong mindset that insists on doing it now. The most important is Shinnen3!”

“Shinnen4, until then?! Are we going at it for that long?!”

“Of course! If you don’t have such strong determination, how can you make up for your mistake in time!”

Did I make that much of a mistake?

“No, isn’t it enough to make a plan just for a day?”

When I thought about it calmly, I was sure that I only needed to make the plan for the day of Christmas Eve.

“How can that be?! It’s crucial to accumulate your efforts in studying!”

I was certainly at fault in this matter, but I’d like to spare myself from studying all day on Christmas Eve. I needed to convince Yuzu otherwise.

“B-But, the studying we do at school will never be useful to us for this! The school will never teach us about things like this!”

“This is the exact culmination of all the studying we’ve done at school! The teachers also have been saying that in class, haven’t they?”

“Huh?! If that’s the case, just what exactly they’ve been teaching up till now?!”

Those teachers must be eccentric to be bringing up the Christmas event during this important period before the exam.

“First of all, can this be fixed by studying?!” I expressed my doubt again.

“Of course! If not studying, then what?”

When Yuzu asked me, I mulled over a little and replied, “…By giving presents?”

“That’s bribery! That’s totally off limits!”

“That’ll be considered a bribe?”

It was my first time hearing that giving Christmas presents to your girlfriend equalled bribery.

“It will! In general, it’s not a wise move to try to curry favour with people with things. You have to do something with your ability.”

I flinched in fright when Yuzu pointed a finger at me.

“Ugk… Th-that may be right. I was wrong.”

I was thinking maybe I could make up for making her into a bad mood after clearing the misunderstanding by giving her a present, but this could be a petty way of doing it without any sincerity.

“It’s good if you could get that in your head. In cases like this, you just have to face it head-on. After all, you’d risk losing your Christmas if you get failing marks and get sent to remedial classes.

“Huh?? Haven’t we been talking about Christmas all along?” I was confused by Yuzu, who abruptly overturned the conversation we have had up to now.

“I didn’t! It’s not like we’re final year students preparing for major exams, where in the world would you find a couple studying all day long during Christmas?!”

“Yeah, right? I thought so too!”

Yuzu puffed her cheeks at my complete assent.

“Geez. Don’t talk any more nonsense, just hurry up and study. Yamato-kun, your attempts are almost as bad as not studying at all, and now you’re only wasting more time as we go on like this.”

“Nuh-uh, I’m doing well in my studies.”

“Really? Then what was all that talk just now?”

“I want to ask you exactly that!”

In the end, neither of us knew what the other was talking about, and the day’s study session proceeded in confusion.

chocolala: This chapter is full of confusion since Japanese language is an ambiguous language especially with subjects usually being absent in their sentence structure (people basically get it by the context), and this scene was packed with exactly that, resulting with them talking in parallel lines and homophones just didn’t help.