Even with chuunibyou, let's learn together!

Page 151

As a result, after all these years, I'm still no different from a child. I can't express what's on my mind, and all I can do is yell at the game interface. The only difference is that it went from 2D to 3D.

Other…

Forget it.

Xiaomai composed herself and looked at the computer screen.

Let's play games first.

……

Hayakawa has never been interested in socializing, or rather, he has no interest in anything other than studying.

"I'm talking to you,"

He frowned as he looked at Umaru's decadent state, completely absorbed in playing games, and said, "Do you play games as soon as you get home? I don't think I've ever seen you study. Shouldn't you be reading books normally? Did you review what you learned today? Don't you preview what you'll be teaching tomorrow? And..."

"what?"

Doma Umaru was busy operating the character when he heard this and said without turning his head, "Why do you still need to study after school? That's a school matter."

"Don't you ever study at home?"

Hayakawa was stunned.

"if not?"

Umaru shifted her gaze slightly from the game screen and said matter-of-factly, "After getting home, all I need to do is finish my homework. Studying is best done at school. Just listen in class, do your homework diligently, and you'll basically understand everything. Then, if you encounter a problem you don't understand the first time, just pay more attention to it, and you won't have any more questions later. So it doesn't matter whether you study at home or not. Besides, you've already spent a whole day at school; having to study again at home is too much work. Don't go too far..."

Hayakawa: "..."

This was the first time he had ever heard of such a thing. Someone didn't study at all at home. After all, in his eyes, even the exceptionally talented Fumino Furuhashi and Rizu Ogata studied every day, even if they didn't work as hard as he did, they still worked very hard.

Umaru, however, said that she never studies and only listens in class.

In other words... how could someone who has never put in any effort achieve such much better grades than me?

"Because they are geniuses."

Sawako Sekijo's voice echoed in Hayakawa's mind. At that moment, Hayakawa suddenly understood: Ogata and Furuhashi, in their respective fields of talent, should... no, not should, definitely! They definitely never tried!

They must be like Umaru, able to understand everything simply by attending classes and listening to lectures every day, unlike me, who has to ponder for a long time when I encounter something I don't understand, and I still get the questions wrong even after doing them a hundred times if the numbers are changed.

Perhaps the problem isn't with them, but with ourselves who can't figure out these simple knowledge points no matter how hard we try; with our notebooks of wrong answers piled up from the floor to our desks, yet we still make mistakes; with Hayakawa staring at those few points of difference every day, feeling dejected and gritting our teeth as we work our hardest.

But he really tried his best. Since starting junior high school, Hayakawa had never had a real holiday. The concept of rest simply didn't exist in his dictionary. While other students spent their weekend afternoons curled up at home playing video games, playing basketball with friends, or browsing newsstands, teenagers would stroll along the streets for hours in the evening breeze, only to be severely criticized in the teacher's office for having early romantic relationships that affected their grades, and then ordered to have their parents called in. They would then all run away from school, and passing cars would splash sparkling water as they drove over shallow puddles...

Hayakawa had nothing to do with any of that. He had the word "effort" engraved in his soul. All he saw was his swaying figure under the dim light in his room, a trash can full of empty pen tubes, and a mountain of test papers that could be seen when he opened the bookcase.

Hayakawa always believed that such efforts were meaningful. Even if he wasn't that smart or had enviable talent, he could still surpass others if he worked harder than them. It was this hope that kept him going.

But now it seems... I'm actually a bit dumber than I thought.

Even if they don't try at all, I simply... simply can't beat them, it's impossible!

Hayakawa had a splitting headache, and all sorts of voices were popping up in his head: Fumino Furuhashi's, Riju Ogata's, and Saeko Sekijo's. But most of all, he heard what Umaru had just said, which left him physically and mentally exhausted. An uncontrollable sense of powerlessness came from the depths of his soul, and he wished he could find a secluded corner to lie down and grow mushrooms on his body.

Perhaps I shouldn't have come to this place, shouldn't have come to Ichinose Academy. Instead, I should have listened to my parents and happily spent three years in Tokyo, then inherited the family business and became a noble young master. That would have been much better than what I am now.

Hayakawa felt an itch in his throat, and an urge to vomit rose from his stomach, making his face look even more ashen.

Never, not even for a moment, has Hayakawa ever wanted to give up as much as she does now.

"I'm going back..."

Hayakawa forced himself to stand up despite the intense headache and dizziness, said only one sentence, and walked towards the door.

"what?"

Umaru was startled, turned around but only saw Hayakawa's back, and subconsciously called out, "Hayakawa..."

Hayakawa stopped and said with difficulty, "When you come back later, tell your senior that I'm leaving, and tell her she doesn't need to come over. Have fun tonight."

After saying that, Hayakawa ignored Umaru's calls and left the room. As the door slammed shut behind him, Hayakawa finally felt relieved.

Standing in the corridor, Hayakawa felt incredibly relieved. The feeling of being far away from the genius Doma Umaru made him feel extremely relieved. Yes, such people should not have appeared in his life. Whether it was Doma Umaru, Ogata Riju, or Furuhashi Fumino, none of them should have appeared in his life.

Chapter 223 Leaving the City

The thought of Fumino Furuhashi and Riju Ogata caused Hayakawa a sharp, agonizing pain in his heart. They were the source of his suffering, and now all of this made him feel suffocated. Just thinking about them made him feel suffocated every second, and he wished he could leave this world.

Hayakawa took out his key to open the door. His trembling hand tried several times, but he couldn't get the metal into the small keyhole. Finally, he lost his grip and the key fell to the gray floor tiles with a "thud," the jarring sound causing the motion-activated lights in the hallway to suddenly turn on.

"..."

The light shone on Hayakawa's pale face. He stood silently in front of the door for a long time before taking a deep breath, calmly picking up the key from the ground, and opening the door in one smooth motion.

Upon entering the room, Hayakawa casually tossed his backpack onto the floor, causing the textbooks inside to fall out through the cracks. He had been too flustered when leaving Koumi's house and hadn't zipped up his backpack.

Hayakawa ignored the books scattered on the floor, instead throwing himself face down onto the sofa, sinking into it, his soft black hair curled up against his face.

He turned his head slightly to allow himself to breathe, but his face remained expressionless, his eyes filled with exhaustion and helplessness.

He was exhausted, indescribably exhausted. And what was most exhausting was not his unbearable physical strength, but his fading will and resigned soul. Hayakawa was now more destitute than ever before, trapped in this cruel reality from head to toe. The meaning of his past efforts had been completely shattered, along with his life.

This city, this street, the houses in this dilapidated neighborhood, and this lousy high school called Ichinose Academy... all of them were places of sorrow for him, causing him pain as if he had fallen into an abyss.

So he wants to escape from here, the farther away the better!

Hayakawa gritted his teeth and, with a determined heart, took out his phone.

He wanted to buy a plane ticket to leave the city, anywhere was fine, as long as he could get out of here and never come back. He wanted to forget everything about Ichinose Academy, to forget and seal away all the painful memories, and then start a completely new life.

Yes, a completely new life... that way I can become the Hayakawa I used to be, the Hayakawa full of hope and determination.

Hayakawa recalled his past self, when he had just entered high school, brimming with confidence, his eyes so bright they seemed to glow. Back then, he was so full of vigor, thinking he could become the top student in his grade through hard work. But now, Hayakawa looked at the full-length mirror on the wall, and the person in the mirror had no expression on his face, only the fatigue from years of staying up late and the faint dark circles under his eyes, his eyes dull and cloudy like broken glass beads.

No one understood him. From beginning to end, Hayakawa's world consisted of only one person, a person who silently worked hard.

So perhaps leaving is the right choice.

Hayakawa withdrew his gaze from the mirror, his eyelids lowered and his expression somber. He knew he could no longer be with Furuhashi and Ogata; they were from completely different worlds. They were in the heavens, while he could only stand on the ground and look up at them.

They ruined themselves. Hayakawa loathed them to the extreme, even hating them to the core, but it was no use. Hayakawa hated them, tried her best, and even mastered a new power of love, but nothing changed. They were still perfect, perfect, perfect...

Hayakawa: "..."

Her black hair swayed slightly across her forehead, her eyes flickered faintly, and her face resembled a frozen tombstone.

"I'm leaving."

Hayakawa muttered to himself softly, then picked up his phone and opened the app for buying plane tickets.

Going to Tokyo, going to Osaka, or even going abroad—it doesn't matter where I go, or rather, it doesn't matter where I go. As for the schools here, it doesn't matter, as long as I can leave this place of heartbreak, leave them behind, I can start a new life, I can…

Go back to being yourself.

A glimmer of hope flashed in Hayakawa's dim eyes as he tapped the search bar, intending to buy any random plane ticket.

However, the next moment, he froze on the spot.

Below the search bar is the recent search history, which contains only one entry.

Hokkaido.

Let's go to Hokkaido together!

Hayakawa: "..."

The empty room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. After an unknown amount of time, Hayakawa slowly placed his phone on the table and pressed the power button. He just wanted to be alone and didn't want anyone to bother him.

"I will never give up on you, and I will do my best to teach you."

"When we were studying on our own before, no matter how hard we tried, we couldn't see a glimmer of hope. Every teacher would just advise us to give up, but Hayakawa-kun wouldn't..."

"Thank you so much. You've given us the confidence to keep going and the hope to achieve our dreams..."

"It's so great to have met Hayakawa-san."

Memories flooded back, and Hayakawa felt a mix of emotions. Perhaps he had been deliberately ignoring these experiences, but now, looking back, all he could feel was pain—pain as if his heart was being clenched.

I gave you hope, but no one gave me hope.

Hayakawa turned his head to look at the textbooks scattered on the ground, but he couldn't muster any strength to pick them up, so he could only let his hands hang limply in mid-air.

In his mind, Fumino Furuhashi and Rizu Ogata must be the most vicious people in the world, ungrateful and treacherous. He had done so much for them, yet they had humiliated him. The sense of humiliation filled his fragile heart, as if it were about to burst.

Hayakawa was filled with hatred, his teeth itching with resentment at this humiliation. He knew that those two people were evil, the ultimate evil, who had made him so wretched and inhuman. He believed that as long as he stayed far away from them, he could regain his happiness.

He desperately wanted to clear his mind, to pick up his phone right now, buy a plane ticket to leave the city, and forget everything. But he couldn't. An inexplicable force was controlling him, preventing him from picking up his phone and even hindering his desire to escape.

That power might be the emperor's pride and dignity, which wouldn't allow him to escape this battle, or it might be something else entirely; he couldn't understand it.

Hayakawa lay on the sofa for a long, long time, until she heard the sound of rain hitting the living room window, and then she realized that it had rained that day.

Hayakawa stared blankly out the window. The drizzling rain brought coldness to the world, and his heart was soaked by the raging rain.

If this rain continues until tomorrow, we might not have to do the physical fitness test.

Hayakawa suddenly thought of this, then covered his face with the back of his hand. A series of tears silently flowed down his face, slowly falling onto the sofa without making a sound. The tears seemed to have been hidden in a deep well where no one could see the sun, and only now did they gush out.

Hayakawa's heart was filled with sharp pain, which caused him to lose all his senses.

Chapter 224 Mimi and Hayakawa

Hayakawa felt his eyes welling up with tears, his cheeks soaked with warm liquid. He felt numb all over, in a half-awake, half-asleep state, as if he were floating on a soft cushion without any real sense of touch, with cotton stuffed in his ears.

Countless memories spun before his eyes like a revolving lantern: the crowd watching them from under the school auditorium, studying together in the library, taking them for milk tea, the photos taken being displayed on the shop wall, the three of them walking along the night road after school towards the tram stop, looking at the bushes on both sides and the starry sky above.

If these memories are like chains binding him, like needles piercing his body, he cannot break free.

"never mind…"

Hayakawa thought to himself, then struggled to sit up, only to find that Minami Aizami had entered the room at some point and was standing next to the living room doorway.

Hayakawa paused for a moment, then asked, "...How did you get in?"

Kominami Aizami stared blankly at Hayakawa's dejected and strange face, noticing the tear stains at the corners of his eyes, and said with surprise, "I have a key to your house."

"That's it."

Hayakawa was slightly out of breath; his mind was a complete blank, and he had even forgotten that Mimi Aizawa had a key to his house.

"You left your coat at Umaru's house."

Xiaomei's bright eyes reflected the full moon like a pool of autumn water. A gentle breeze stirred the lake of her heart, creating soft ripples. She whispered, "Xiaomei said you told me not to come, but I thought I'd drop you off, otherwise it would be troublesome for you to go to school tomorrow."

Hayakawa looked at Mimi and realized that she was holding her school uniform in her arms.

When he left home as a child, he was so flustered and guilty that he didn't even realize he had forgotten his school uniform.

Hayakawa closed his eyes in pain. He realized once again that his brain was actually incredibly stupid. His usual calm and rationality was just a facade. As soon as something sad happened, he would immediately revert to his rotten wood nature, unable to think of anything or remember anything, like a lump of paste.

His heart was aching more and more. The pain came not only from his thoughts just now, but also from his current embarrassing situation. He remembered when he had "become an emperor" in the hallway before, it was also when Ayame Nami suddenly appeared. And now it was the same. Whenever he was in some unspeakable situation, the appearance of someone next to him only made him feel more ashamed!

"Thank you, senior."

Hayakawa suppressed the tearing pain in his heart, barely managing to maintain his composure, and said blankly, "Is there nothing else? Then you can..."

Kominami Aizami gently hugged Hayakawa, leaving his words hanging in mid-air.

"Junior..."

Komi Aizami pursed her lips, holding Hayakawa's slender body in her arms. Her eyes were like purple lakes, with a focused light flowing through them like the tide. Her voice was as soft as the clouds drifting in the sky: "It's okay."

"Senior sister..."

Hayakawa opened his eyes slightly and subconsciously parted his closed lips. In an instant, he heard the girl's breathing, like the whistle of a ship approaching the shore. Then came the sound of her heartbeat, slow, long, and gentle, gradually synchronizing with his own heartbeat, forming a melody that calmed him down.

Hayakawa felt the girl in front of him. Despite her petite body, he felt a sense of security, like a ship reaching the shore, a traveler returning home, a lover finally finding the love of their life, and a cold body finally finding warmth. It was even like a wandering infant returning to the womb.

Hayakawa looked into Mimi's eyes, which were like petals fluttering wildly in the wind, or like clear blue waves rippling in a lake, leaving him with a thousand words in his heart, yet he could not express them.

"It's alright, junior."

Xiao Meilang gently hugged Hayakawa's back and said, "No matter what you encounter, I will always be by your side."

"I remember all your hard work and efforts. You are the most hardworking student in the world, so relax a little."

She gently patted Hayakawa's back, wanting to comfort him, but didn't know how. She could only hold him like this.

"I know you're not very bright because I teach you often. I explain things to you many times, but you still often don't understand. So it must be very tiring for you to keep up with the school curriculum..."