My High School Nerd Rival - Chapter 35

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 35
It was then.
A voice came from behind.
“Tiffany. Are you really trying to kill her?”
“W-who said anything about killing?”
Tiffany spun around in surprise.
Evie stood motionless, holding her mobile phone with no expression at all—just as Tiffany had moments before.
“That damned lizard ruined my bag! And who asked you to kill her? I just wanted to water—”
She couldn’t let such terrible words echo through the hallway where students were passing by.
“Turn it off right now!”
Tiffany raised her voice to drown out the video’s audio, then strode directly toward Evie.
“Are you blackmailing me right now? You’re class president and you’re blackmailing me?!”
“No, just.”
Evie answered as if it were nothing.
“I’m not saying I’ll make this public. How could I? You’re part of the Third Dormitory too. But.”
She slipped the mobile phone into her pocket and stepped closer to Tiffany.
“As you know, our school’s network has terrible security—hacking is child’s play. Student servers are practically public cloud storage, you know? And if anyone gets their hands on this, there’s every chance someone might leak it anonymously on the internet. Isn’t there?”
“Evie Underwood, you!”
Tiffany’s voice rose sharply, and Evie stared at her with wide, round eyes.
“So you finally remembered my name? How flattering.”
“You think I’m just going to back down? You think I’ll let this go?”
“No, you won’t.”
That was as certain as the sun rising tomorrow morning.
Tiffany Vance hated losing more than death itself, and she never forgave anyone who outshone her.
“By the way, did you know, Tiffany?”
Evie crossed her arms and studied Tiffany from head to foot.
“That ring is really beautiful.”
“W-what?!”
In that instant, Tiffany’s face flushed crimson.
“You, you… what’s your angle with that?”
“You know better than anyone what my angle is, don’t you?”
Evie shrugged lightly.
“Isn’t it curious? How does that nerdy glasses-wearer you despise always manage to know absolutely everything?”
“D-don’t be ridiculous. This is—”
“Oh, another limited edition just for you this time? How enviable. I hope you post it on your account. I’m one of your followers, after all.”
Tiffany looked ready to fire back, but suddenly became aware of the growing eyes watching from nearby. She fell silent.
She had no choice.
If the conversation continued any further, someone would begin to dimly understand what Evie was hinting at.
And then the school’s Anonymous Bulletin Board would descend into chaos once more.
That place was like a pit of hyenas that never missed even the smallest morsel.
“Mark my words. You’ll pay for this tenfold.”
Tiffany hurried back to her room.
Left alone in the hallway, her lips curved upward inexplicably. It was a childish sense of victory.
If the Evie from those days when she claimed not to care what other students thought saw this, she would surely mock it as pathetic.
But truthfully, Evie didn’t feel bad at all. In fact, she felt good.
It was unfortunate that Emily had broken the School Rules, but honestly, compared to sneaking up to the Rooftop at night and drinking, it was hardly worse.
And when you thought about it, not all rules were just.
Evie herself was struggling against the rule about Marriage with Top Graduate, wasn’t she?
Perhaps it wasn’t entirely wrong for people resisting rules to help one another.
But that pleasant feeling vanished in an instant.
“Are you an idiot?”
A blunt insult came from directly behind her.
She didn’t need to turn around to know. It was Cyrus Quenton.
“You shouldn’t just say things like that to someone you meet in a hallway—”
Evie began to speak confidently, but fell silent the moment she saw him.
Because the teal eyes behind his glasses were fixed squarely on her hand.
The bandaged one.
“Why didn’t you answer your phone.”
“Huh?”
“Isn’t it past time to change the bandage?”
She’d forgotten about it during the confrontation with Tiffany, but time had passed. She wasn’t sure how much.
“Thirty-four minutes, actually.”
Quenton had even done the math. Remarkably thoughtful of him.
“Did you take the medication?”
At his question, her hand began to throb as if on cue.
“Y-yes, I did.”
“You can’t even lie properly.”
“I was going to take it, but something urgent came up and it got delayed.”
“There’s nothing more urgent than your treatment right now.”
He declared this flatly with a chin jerk. Go to the Medical Office. Now.
“Fine. I’ll go if that’s what you want.”
Evie turned sharply with a slightly sulky expression. But somehow she felt his presence following her.
‘Why is he following me?’
Afraid she’d slip away to somewhere else halfway through? What was with all this concern?
It was probably because of the experiment, but even so, he was being remarkably meticulous.
Evie stopped walking for a moment and looked up at him.
“Stop dawdling and move faster. Time’s running out.”
“Quenton.”
When Evie still stood there and called out, his eyebrows twitched slightly.
“What.”
“You’re being really nice right now, aren’t you?”
At that moment, Evie saw his eyes widen so dramatically behind his glasses that she burst out laughing right there.
What was he so surprised about?
No matter what the reason, it seemed only natural that someone who kept track of bandage-changing time and medication time would hear words like that.
“Did you already forget what I said at dawn?”
“To distrust you? I doubt it.”
Evie adjusted her glasses lightly and smiled at him.
“I trust what I see, Quenton.”
Maybe it was true that he really had stolen the test paper.
But so what?
That didn’t diminish the kindness she’d experienced from him in this moment.
“Underwood.”
He answered quietly.
“You seem to have no eye for people.”
“What?”
“The teacher’s waiting. Go in.”
He placed his hands on her shoulders and forcibly turned her around, then gave her a gentle push.
Evie shot him a look of indignation, but was met only with his sharp gaze.
“Go. Stop stalling. Are you trying to completely ruin Experimental Chemistry?”
She was stunned.
Wait, wasn’t that just a touching moment a moment ago?
She’d been expressing gratitude for Cyrus’s kindness, after all!
‘Kind? What kindness!’
Evie drew a thick line through any positive assessment of him. Completely wrong.
‘I’d never marry that rude nerd, not even if I died!’
* * *
Back in her room, Tiffany roughly threw her bag into the trash bin.
The one the lizard had disgraced.
Then she collapsed onto her bed face-first and thrashed about with her arms and legs, groaning in frustration. She could barely contain her anger.
“Evie Underwood…!”
To lose several times to some nerdy girl who did nothing but wear thick glasses.
“As if that timid little thing could ever look up at me in public.”
Just looking at the clothes she wore told Tiffany all she needed to know—mass-produced garments from some factory somewhere.
“I can’t forgive her.”
Yet even as she said this, Tiffany knew the truth.
She had few options for revenge against Evie Underwood.
If Evie had been the type to show off on social media, Tiffany could have enlisted her “Angels” to torment her endlessly.
But how could she attack a nerd who spent her days sitting in the Library reading books?
One misstep and Tiffany herself would face punishment from the school.
“Ugh! This is infuriating!”
Tiffany irritably picked up her smartphone, ready to hurl it away.
That’s when it happened. With a brief vibration, an unfamiliar message notification appeared at the top of the screen.
[No Sender Information]
Could it be spam sent by mistake?
Tiffany’s hand paused before she could dismiss it. A single sentence in the preview had captured her attention.
[Evie Underwood]
Tiffany gripped her mobile phone as if in a trance. She couldn’t ignore a message mentioning Evie’s name.
With trembling fingers, she opened her message box.
[Unknown: Evie Underwood. Quite irritating, isn’t she, Angel?]

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————