My High School Nerd Rival - Chapter 37

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 37
Ibi was startled to realize that the person who came to mind after Joi was Cyrus.
Why, of all people?
She had received his help more than once. That much was undeniable—she owed him gratitude.
But there was one fact she couldn’t forget: Cyrus was her rival.
Who lowered their tail before a competitor and asked for help?
The next time the word “help” appeared between them, the subject had to be Ibi.
She’d ask Joi instead. That was the right move.
Just as Ibi pulled out her Smartphone with trembling hands—
“Why won’t you pick up…… Ah, hello?”
A voice came from behind her, making a phone call. That gruff tone was far too familiar.
She stopped dead and turned around. Cyrus stood about ten paces away.
‘What?’
Ibi exhaled a long breath. His call continued uninterrupted even as she did.
“No, it’s the Dormitory. Hospital? Yes, I understand. Don’t push yourself. No, just… no particular reason. I just called.”
He ended the conversation with a brief status report and hung up.
Beneath the faint light cast by an old streetlamp, their gazes met.
“Why are you coming from behind me?”
Ibi asked in a deliberately sharp tone. His footsteps had startled her, and the irritation at being frightened made her speak curtly.
Though his call had dispelled that fear soon enough.
“A book.”
In his hands was a book wrapped in a Handkerchief. From the careful treatment, it had clearly been borrowed from the Library.
While Ibi was studying, he must have been somewhere in the stacks.
Ibi shot a brief glare at the book—the real culprit in all this—then spun around sharply.
“Hurry up. Lights out is soon.”
She quickened her pace.
She had no intention of walking alongside Cyrus.
But she was caught up within a few steps.
The fact that he kept pace so effortlessly with his long strides was genuinely infuriating.
Ibi walked faster out of sheer stubbornness, but soon found herself breathless and gave up.
Only then did Cyrus shorten his stride slightly.
As they naturally fell into step beside each other, Ibi glanced sideways at him.
‘Don’t tell me he’s actually trying to walk with me?’
Cyrus kept his gaze fixed ahead, his expression perfectly blank.
Ibi started to ask why he was walking with her, then thought better of it.
After all, being with Cyrus was better than walking alone down a dark path.
“Why?”
Perhaps because she’d turned to look at him, he asked a question in return.
“Oh, I was just… wondering who you were on the phone with.”
“My mother.”
There was something oddly bittersweet about hearing that answer. Though when she thought about it, it made perfect sense.
“So you lied and said you were at the Dormitory? Because she worries if you’re out late?”
“I just couldn’t be bothered explaining.”
Hmm—was that the same reasoning as her lie to Owen?
Perhaps it was a common falsehood among students.
Thinking of it that way, Ibi felt slightly relieved. There was something almost comforting about having an accomplice.
“By the way, is she unwell? You mentioned the Hospital.”
“No, there’s a sick child among those my mother looks after.”
“A child?”
“That’s just what she does.”
There was something oddly dissatisfied in his tone.
Either way, it explained the source of those problem solutions Cyrus often brought. They must have come through his mother.
“She must be fond of children.”
“Not so much fond of them as fond of meddling in their affairs.”
“Meddling means caring. That’s what it means.”
Ibi found herself reciting a sentence from some buried memory.
It was something her nursemaid had said long ago, while combing her tangled childhood hair.
“My lady, why would I lecture you so if I didn’t care? Meddling means caring, after all.”
Missing that gentle voice, a bittersweet smile touched Ibi’s lips.
“That.”
“What?”
“Nothing. My mother says things like that too, sometimes.”
“My mom used to tell me that.”
Only after the words left her mouth did Ibi realize what she’d done.
A lie.
Another lie had slipped out so naturally.
‘Though truly, my nursemaid was as much my mother as anyone could be.’
Ibi rationalized her own words, telling herself they weren’t entirely false.
By then, fortunately, they’d reached the Dormitory entrance.
And that meant it was time for them to go their separate ways to their rooms. A mercy, truly.
Under the bright light of the entrance, Ibi offered him a minimal gesture of courtesy—a wave of her hand.
It was meant to say: go to your room already.
But Cyrus followed her even after that dismissal.
Up the stairs, and even down the hallway toward her room. He just kept coming.
‘Why?’
The Dormitory did have its share of annoyingly adorable couples who insisted on escorting each other right to the door.
But that wasn’t something that would happen between Cyrus and Ibi.
“Where are you going, exactly?”
Ibi couldn’t hold back any longer and demanded an answer.
His reply was casual, as if it were obvious.
“Your room.”
“Are you insane?”
The question escaped before she could stop it.
I mean, wasn’t that crazy? What possible reason could Cyrus have for escorting her to her door?
“I’d like to ask you the same thing.”
With that, Cyrus knocked on the door of the Dormitory room that Ibi and Joi shared, which they’d just reached.
When an answer came from inside, Joi opened the door, and Cyrus handed her a book. It was the very same book he’d shown Ibi earlier.
“Thank you.”
Joi looked between Cyrus and Ibi, then accepted the book with a thoroughly satisfied expression.
“I’m leaving.”
Cyrus turned to go without further delay, his business finished.
……
Watching the whole exchange unfold, Ibi felt heat bloom across both her cheeks of its own accord.
‘What misunderstanding did I just jump to?’
She’d assumed Cyrus followed her to the room because of her—which, if she thought about it rationally, made no sense at all.
She wondered how amusing he must have found her, calling him insane like that.
“Why are you so embarrassed? Did something happen with Cyrus on the way back?”
“Yeah. Completely.”
Ibi brushed past Joi and stepped into the room. Then she set down her bag and threw herself face-first onto the bed, pulling at her hair.
“I’m dying of shame.”
“What? You did something that bad? Cyrus did?”
“No, Cyrus didn’t do anything. If anything… I’m the one who did it.”
“What? You?!”
“Is it really not a bit much to suddenly call someone insane, even if—”
“……?”
Joi put her hands on her hips and tilted her head in confusion before asking again.
“So what you’re saying is, on the way back from the Library, Cyrus didn’t do anything, and you called him crazy?”
It was strange, sure, but that was accurate.
“……Yeah.”
Joi continued tilting her head in bewilderment, then sat down on the edge of Ibi’s bed.
“How does that even happen?”
“How should I know? Anyway, whenever I get tangled up with him, nothing ever goes right. Never.”
“I see.”
Tap-tap.
Joi’s fingertips tapped gently on the book in her lap—the one she’d asked Cyrus to borrow for her.
“Joi, if you needed a book, you could have just asked me. You know I’m at the Library every day.”
Ibi pushed herself up from the bed and murmured weakly.
Now that she thought about it, it was strange that Joi, who didn’t usually ask anyone for favors, would contact Cyrus—someone she wasn’t even particularly close to—over something like this.
Not that it bothered her or anything.
“I was going to ask you, but I thought it would be more fun to ask Cyrus. He said he was near the Library anyway.”
That was odd in its own way.
If Ibi had asked Cyrus, “Will you borrow this book for me?” he would probably say, “Do it yourself.”
Of course, if Ibi were injured or hurt, he might show some kindness—but that wasn’t the case now.
“He just agreed right away?”
“Of course not. It took a bit of convincing. But he came around quickly enough.”
“What did you say to convince him?”

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