#40 Horikita's Study Group

When they were about to stop for the day, Yuichi felt his phone vibrate a few times so he took a look at it.

[How did your study group go?] It was Horikita, however, Yuichi found it weird for her to message him first.

[Actually, I think it went excellently. We had some fun and Sudo learned a lot of things, if we will continue like this for a few days, I am confident that he will get average scores in all subjects.] Yuichi replied while slowly stuffing his textbooks into his bag.

"Eh? Looks like Ike and Yamauchi are upset with Horikita...I told them not to attend her study group, *sigh*" Sudo muttered while reading something from his own phone.

[I guess your attempt wasn't successful] Yuichi sent another message before Horikita could reply.

[How do you know? Kushida-san?] (H)

[Sudo...Apparently you had a small fight with Ike and Yamauchi. I told you that you need to stop looking down on people...And this time it was just my guess because I don't see any other reason why would they leave with Kushida being present.] (Y)

[They are dead weight anyway. If they don't want to study, we will be better off without them] (H)

Yuichi could already imagine her calm expression while typing that.

"Guys, you can go ahead without me, I still have someone to meet." Yuichi said before waving to Hasabe, Miyake, and Sudo

[Where are you? Are you still in the library?] (Y)

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[Yes] There was a little delay before her reply arrived together with her exact location. The whole library was enormous so a lot of students could fit in here therefore it wasn't surprising that 2 study groups missed each other.

"What the-? What are you doing here all alone?" Yuichi asked when he found Horikita sitting at the desk without anyone around.

"What do you mean? The study group already ended and I am waiting for you." She replied with obvious expression.

"But what about Ayanokoji-kun? I thought that he will remain here with you." Yuichi admitted.

"He went after his worthless friends...Still, I am surprised that your study group went well. I guess I underestimated Sudo." Horikita said with closed eyes.

Hearing her words, Yuichi couldn't help but sigh.

He approached her side and abruptly took her hand into his while standing above her.

"What are you-?!" Horikita immediately narrowed her eyes and snapped her head at Yuichi.

"Shut up. I want you to listen to me." Yuichi said in a very unfamiliar tone to Horikita while looking down at her with slightly dull green eyes.

Horikita could only stare at completely different Yuichi she knew from the classes in disbelief as her heartbeat increased due nervousness.

"It's not that they don't want to study, it's you being too arrogant. You think you are better than them but in the truth you are not, you are in the same way worthless as them. If you can't carry those dead weights than you are dead weight yourself. "We will be better off without these dead weights". That's a very mature view of the problem, Miss Horikita, I think you deserve to be promoted. You blame them for giving up so quickly yet you did the same, you gave up on them the moment they left. Is there even a difference between you and them?" Yuichi said in harsh tone while tightly holding her hand, making sure that she won't slip off and that she will listen to everything he has to say.

"I-" At this point, she completely stopped trying to slip out of Yuichi's grasp.

"Don't reply, please remember these words tonight before you will go to bed. For now, let's go out to a café." Yuichi said and before she could reply, he took her bag.

"Hey, wait! I haven't agreed to go with you! Plus, give me my bag back, I already told you not to carry my bag around." When she finally woke up from her daze, she quickly started barking at Yuichi who was already slowly walking towards the exit.

Yuichi stopped and glanced back with a smirk.

"I don't remember ever asking for your opinion." Yuichi replied before resuming his walk which prompted Horikita to follow him while glaring a hole into his head.

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"Here you go, your Highness" Yuichi said, placing a cup filled with hot chocolate in front of Horikita.

"...What are you doing?" Horikita asked with a weird expression, still without her bag which was the only thing keeping her here.

"Helping you relax. I know that I might not be the ideal company but at least you can discuss some things with me that troubles you. By the way, it's my treat" Yuichi said with a faint smile, making himself comfortable.

"I don't need to relax and there is nothing troubling me. However since you already paid for my drink, I will finish it and I would appreciate it if you could return my bag by then. Also don't expect my gratitude since you led me here without my consent." Horikita replied with closed eyes while holding the cup with both hands, feeling a nice and calming warm temperature from it.

"Interesting..." Yuichi muttered with a thoughtful expression while holding his chin.

"What is?"

"Is this like a date without consent? Does it even exist? Does that make me a bad guy?" Yuichi muttered but all he received from Horikita was her icy glare.

"Haha, come on, don't be like that. Is it really so insulting for you to even joke about such things?" Yuichi asked with a curious expression.

"Not insulting, more like childish without a meaning." Horikita said.

"But we are children, aren't we? Plus, not everything has to have meaning. For some, not even their entire life has meaning." Yuichi asked with a bit sad smile while looking at his cup of tea.

"How can you be like that?" Horikita asked after a long silence and Yuichi looked at her with a confused expression.

"A few minutes ago you were literally telling me to shut up and trash-talking me and right now you are all friendly as if nothing happened." Horikita explained.

"I am just a human, even I can get angry and when I saw you acting like that, I was already holding pent-up frustration. All of what I told you was my honest criticism of your person, take it positively or negatively, that's for you to decide but I already mentioned not to think about it right now. " Yuichi said with a helpless smile.

"However If you want to act all upset and that my words hurt you, feel free to do so."

"That's not it...What do you even want to talk about? We aren't that close to talk about each other's lives." Horikita said while frowning down.

"How about you explain to me what happened in your study group and I will tell you what happened in mine." Yuichi suggested and Horikita nodded her head after a few seconds of thinking about it.

*Sigh* Horikita sighed before she explained what happened.

"Haha! And you expect them to try harder because you trash-talked them? Haha" Yuichi couldn't help but put his hand on his stomach as he began laughing right into Horikita's face who kept her expressionless face.

"You missed a very important fact." When Yuichi stopped laughing, he said with a smirk before sipping on his tea.

"What?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You never tried to understand them."

"Not interested." Yuichi received an immediate answer.

"Then you can't tutor them. They aren't as proud as you, for you when someone better than you trash-talk you and doesn't believe in you, it makes you only stronger and more determined. They aren't you, they don't like it when someone is looking down on them, they can't take it. When they see someone better than them, instead of trying to catch up to them, they try to distance themselves from that person." Yuichi explained with a faint smile.

"What a weak mindset, they won't accomplish anything in their lives with that kind of mindset. Judging by your words, even you think that they are weaklings." She said with closed eyes.

"I won't refute your words but such people exist everywhere, some chose to live like that and some simply don't even notice it. You need to learn how to treat such people to not scare them away." Yuichi said before explaining how his study group went.

"Oh my god...He spent more than 15 minutes on that easy math problem?" Horikita asked in disbelief.

"Yeah but he solved it, how many math problems did your group solve? Zero, right?" Yuichi said with a faint ridiculing smile.

"..." Horikita frowned upon hearing his ridiculing tone.

"You also ridiculed my view of letting them drop-out if they don't want to study, why?" Horikita crossed her arms and asked with narrowed eyes.

"We literally have no idea how to gain points for our Class. What if losing anyone will make us lose the points? We need to be careful about everything we do. If you were to abandon one of your colleagues in your workplace, it also wouldn't be an exactly mature or heroic act. This school is trying to prepare us for the future, your view on this problem is completely immature and you are practically running away from it by choosing an easier way out." Yuichi said.

"I am not running away, they are the ones who don't want my help!" Horikita said in a harsh tone.

"Then let me ask you this...If you were to see a person you know in front of you attempting suicide, would you just watch because they "don't want your help"?" Yuichi asked with a serious expression.