My High School Nerd Rival - Chapter 47

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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 47
Now I understood why so many schools banned Valentine’s Day.
The entire campus seemed possessed, utterly unhinged.
For starters, the lockers in the school corridor were decked out in heart-shaped stickers and balloons—a riot of color that scrambled the senses.
That much was just cute, I suppose.
But before noon alone, I’d witnessed five couples kissing like animals in front of their lockers.
That was just the ones I actually saw clearly; if I counted all the close calls where I’d turned tail and fled, the number would exceed fingers and toes combined.
Fine, let’s be generous and say lovers are simply celebrating in their own way today.
Even so, there were still inexcusable acts scattered throughout the school.
One was secretly throwing a Rival’s chocolate in the trash.
Sure enough, the hallway bins were littered with torn cards and uneaten chocolates—cowardly and filthy business, no doubt about it.
And then there was the other thing……
“Logan Blake.”
The popular boy of the Third Dormitory—Blake’s behavior.
“Class president, we meet again. Come to confess your feelings to me?”
He turned to face me while keeping one arm around the waist of one of the Angel members from the Second Dormitory.
According to my excellent memory, every time I ran into him, he was either holding or kissing a different girl.
Yet he didn’t seem the least bit ashamed or inclined to hide it.
I honestly didn’t think it was possible for anyone to consistently reach new depths of depravity.
I preferred not to encounter this frivolous boy if I could help it, but today there was no avoiding it.
I was on the Dormitory Student Council, and we were running a flower delivery event to raise funds.
And the person who’d contributed the most to this fundraiser? Logan.
He received more flowers from students across all grades and genders than anyone else.
So I was necessarily bound to keep seeing him.
My job was to deliver the flowers students had ordered, at the times they’d requested, along with the Message Tags they’d prepared.
“Right, I came to express feelings. Twelve this hour.”
In my hands were twelve crimson Roses, symbols of love. Each one had a Message Tag dangling from its stem.
Blake didn’t take them right away. First, he kissed the forehead of the girl still in his arms.
“See you later, babe. We’ll catch up soon.”
“Ugh.”
I contorted my face at the disaster unfolding before me.
That profligate calling every girl “babe”—I couldn’t fathom his appeal, yet there was Tiffany’s Angel member, her face beet-red, waving goodbye before disappearing down the corridor with him.
“Here.”
I thrust the Roses toward him.
“Thanks, class president.”
He gathered the flowers in his arms and began examining each Message Tag carefully.
Was he hoping for a particular name?
The thought crossed my mind for a moment, but the instant I realized he was staring intently at my forehead with his head tilted up, the pointless speculation vanished.
“……Do anything weird and I’ll kill you.”
I stepped back, glaring at him warily.
“What are you saying? I’m just expressing gratitude to the person giving me flowers.”
“Don’t play word games. These aren’t flowers from me.”
“But that’s a very practical point, isn’t it?”
As he said this, he took a long stride forward, closing the distance between us.
From the way his shoulders were shaking, he was clearly teasing. And his brand of “teasing” was bound to be annoyingly forward.
“You’re seriously—!”
I raised my delivery list to shield my forehead, but his laughter—infuriating in its proximity—kept approaching.
“Blake.”
Thankfully, a voice calling for him sounded from not far away.
Cyrus Quinton stood there, cradling a stack of books.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
Logan kept his distance from me, merely turning his head.
“Clean up that hideous box of yours on my desk.”
“Oh, that? Help yourself, it’s fine.”
“I’m not eating something that gross. Get rid of it now.”
“Cold as ice, huh?”
Logan turned back toward me, and I tapped his forehead with the delivery list I’d been holding.
“Get lost.”
“Ow, your affection is pretty violent, isn’t it?”
“That’s not affection—that’s pure hatred!”
“Affection and hatred are mirror images of each other.”
He reached up and patted the crown of my head with his hand as he answered.
“Don’t mock my genuine hatred!”
I hit his annoying forehead again. Logan played at being mortally wounded for a while before heading back to the dormitory.
With the day already so chaotic, having to deal with Logan’s antics only made it more exhausting.
What made it worse was that I still had flowers left to deliver to him.
What on earth did everyone see in that shallow guy anyway?
Sure, his face was objectively handsome. I’d even heard he’d received modeling offers from somewhere.
But surely looks weren’t the only criterion for choosing a partner?
There was personality, intelligence, and all those other things that should matter, wasn’t there?
“Something’s definitely wrong with the world.”
I lamented to myself and spotted Cyrus.
His retreating figure was already near the end of the corridor. I picked up my pace and hurried after him.
“Quinton.”
He paused mid-step as he was climbing the stairs.
“What.”
His expression was already pinched.
Was he annoyed at being stopped?
Or perhaps it had to do with what Joy and I had discussed earlier.
“Listen.”
I started to pull the Chocolate from my pocket, then hesitated.
His earlier words came back to me.
“I’m not eating something that gross.”
‘Does he hate chocolate?’
If so, giving him chocolate as an apology could backfire.
“Oh, well.”
I withdrew my hand from my pocket empty. His gaze flicked to my hand for a moment before returning to my face.
“It’s nothing big, just…… thanks.”
“For what?”
“For Blake just now.”
I offered a convenient excuse.
I knew Cyrus hadn’t dealt with Blake to help me specifically.
But it had helped nonetheless.
“I don’t even know what his problem is.”
“A slave to his hormones, I guess.”
His measured response made me let out a short laugh.
It was the perfect description.
“It’s not just Logan. The whole school’s gone insane. The fact that this nightmare repeats every year already feels like hell—wait, I didn’t mean to complain.”
I’d come to apologize, not to vent.
Besides, Cyrus probably didn’t appreciate wasting time like this.
“Then I’ll see you in class later.”
Whether I could find an apology gift other than chocolate by then was another matter.
Cyrus looked down at me for a moment, then lifted the book he was holding and set it gently on the crown of my head.
“……?”
Then he began rubbing it against my hair.
Several times over.
“Yeah, see you in class.”
After finishing this peculiar act, he climbed the stairs again and left.
‘……What was that?’
I ran my palm over the spot where the book had touched me. The sensation of the book’s cover still seemed to linger.
Now that I thought about it, hadn’t Logan also put his hand on my head earlier?
‘Did something get in my hair?’
I checked. It wasn’t that.
Then what could it have been?
I tilted my head in puzzlement, then gave up.
My attempts to find logic in Cyrus Quinton’s behavior had never succeeded once.
* * *
Something unprecedented was happening.
Cyrus found himself unable to look away from this astounding sight.
Evy Underwood was late to class.
Though that much was understandable—she’d been playing flower delivery girl, rummaging through the whole school all day.
The way that small figure had dashed down the hallways cradling an armload of flowers was quite conspicuous.
So that “conspicuous” had nothing to do with the nonsense Joy had claimed sometime ago.
That he harbored feelings for Evy Underwood.
Anyone carrying such an enormous bundle and running without pause would draw attention.
At any rate, the second astounding thing he discovered was this:
The class president, who always advocated for proper conduct, had begun nodding off during class.
Her small head seemed to have become the heaviest object in the world.
Evy’s head kept tilting forward, nearly striking her desk several times, and Cyrus flinched each time from right beside her.
That’s right. From right beside her.

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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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