My High School Nerd Rival - Chapter 59

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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 59
When Ivy slipped out of the Broadcasting Room, the tension drained from her shoulders and a long breath escaped.
She’d have to be careful about coming here for a while, she thought—but not before turning back one last time to glance under the desk where they’d hidden.
“Here.”
Cyrus held something out. It was the Experimental Chemistry Score Sheet she’d given him earlier.
“Take it to the teacher properly.”
“Weren’t you supposed to deliver it?”
“I never made any such promise.”
What is this.
She’d thought they’d opened up to each other a little, sharing secrets under that desk, and now he was dumping his responsibilities on her the moment they turned around?
“Hurry up.”
“You’re absolutely impossible.”
“I know.”
“I honestly thought we’d gotten closer.”
Ivy grumbled as she headed down the stairs toward the basketball court. The empty gymnasium echoed with nothing but the sound of their footsteps.
“…That’s surprising to hear.”
Ivy shot him a sharp look over her shoulder.
How could he say such a thing? Under the desk, we were… well, that wasn’t strange or anything!
“Watch where you’re going. If you trip, it’ll just become my problem.”
The way he said it with that characteristically blank expression was annoyingly remarkable, as always.
“Like I’d need your help—”
And just like that, the problem he’d pointed out became reality.
Of all places, there had to be steps of different heights right there.
“Ah!”
Her body tilted backward. Cyrus’s startled face filled her vision.
“…!”
She felt an arm grab her. Her falling body tilted toward him instead. Ivy reflexively gripped his shirt tightly.
Only after she made sure both her feet were planted firmly on the step did she release a long breath.
Then she saw the situation clearly. Ivy’s forehead was almost touching Cyrus’s chest as he stood one step above her.
It was the same distance as before, in the darkness.
But seeing it so plainly was another matter entirely.
In the empty gymnasium, only the sound of their breathing overlapped and echoed.
“Ivy.”
The low voice coming from just above carried a faint note of concern.
“Um…?”
Ivy lifted her head, still gripping his shirt.
Then she suddenly realized something.
The way he’d called her name was different.
He always used to say “Underwood” so crisply and coldly.
Had Cyrus also come to think they’d gotten a little closer?
‘…Why am I happy about this?’
Ivy had to keep pressing down the corners of her mouth that wanted to rise on their own.
‘It’s not even my real name.’
“Ivy, you need to…”
As if to prove his first call wasn’t a slip, he said her name again—familiarly, and this time gently.
Stupidly, a laugh threatened to bubble up again.
Why was she like this?
“Your focus needs work.”
……
Completely ridiculous. What had she expected.
Her expression crumpled slightly. Not that she had any grounds to argue back.
Strangely, whenever she was around Cyrus, small mistakes kept happening. It must be because her focus was slipping, just as he said.
But somehow it felt like there was nothing she could do about it. Not while he remained the school’s most excellent student.
“I’m not always like this.”
Though she’d fumbled just now, Ivy usually earned praise as a capable Class Representative.
Not just from her peers, but from the teachers as well.
“That’s good news then.”
He came down one step, standing now on the same level as her. With the step difference gone, his shoulders took up more of her field of vision.
“Especially in your situation.”
The remark, spoken without any hint of jest, was referring to what happened with Fabian.
“It means fewer things that’ll become my problem.”
“…Why would it become your problem?”
Ivy gave up pressing for more answers and went down the stairs first. She wasn’t about to stand here waiting until morning for his response anyway.
But the moment she stepped onto the basketball court, the air behind her felt oddly quiet.
He was following, wasn’t he?
Ivy stopped walking and turned around.
“…!”
He was right there behind her.
Close enough that the tip of her nose nearly brushed his shirt.
“We got closer, you said.”
He spoke. It was an answer to “why would it become your problem”—and simultaneously, a confirmation of the complaint she’d voiced just moments before.
<I honestly thought we’d gotten closer.>
There was nothing to refute.
The only saving grace was that she’d learned just now what to say in moments like this.
“Sometimes your intelligence is annoying.”
Having said that, Ivy shook her head.
“Not sometimes—often.”
Cyrus raised only one corner of his mouth. There was something oddly satisfied in that expression, which somehow made her like him even less.
“…I’m going.”
Ivy turned abruptly and headed toward the Staff Office.
Cyrus, who she’d thought would hand off the documents and go elsewhere, ended up following her all the way there.
She had no idea why he was following when he barely had anything to say, but one thing was certain.
The distance between them never widened by a single step.
When she realized that, the sharp edges of the solid unease that had lodged in her heart since talking with Tiffany seemed to soften slightly.
Even if he seemed to find the whole process tiresome.
* * *
Third Dormitory Anonymous Message Board
[HOT]
Is Tiffany’s withdrawal real?
Posted by: Anonymous | 08:23
Saw her loading her stuff and driving off earlier. For real??????
[Anonymous 1]
Yeah I saw it too at the main gate. She had a ton of luggage
[Anonymous 2]
Expulsion, not withdrawal?ㅋ
[Anonymous 3]
Must be nice not having to take the exam……..
└
[Anonymous 4]
Test got delayed 3 days so I forgot everything. What am I supposed to do about that
└
[Anonymous 5]
If you forget everything over a 3-day delay, you didn’t remember it in the first place, dumbass
└
[Anonymous 4]
ㅅㅂ
[Anonymous 6]
The Angels must be devastatedㅠ
└
[Anonymous 7]
They’re the first ones to cut her offㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Anonymous 8]
My guilty pleasureㅠㅠ
[Anonymous 9]
Bold move not closing the account though
└
[Anonymous 10]
Followers are currency, why delete it
[Anonymous 11]
But is it actually true that she made her followers hack the school?
└
[Anonymous 12]
What else would it be. There’s no way she could do that
└
[Anonymous 2]
Our Angel doesn’t have the brains for that.
└
[Anonymous 13]
Defamation report
└
[Anonymous 12]
If her reputation is harmed by the truth, what does that make her
[Anonymous 14]
Only the Class Representative suffered. Poor thing keeps getting dragged into every mess
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[Anonymous 15]
It wasn’t the Class Representative who got dragged, it was Quinton
* * *
The resumed exams proceeded amid considerable chaos.
With the original testing schedule thrown into disarray, students found themselves taking three or four subjects in a single day, and the student body grew tense enough to riot.
If the school hadn’t called a food truck to the front of the Cafeteria to comfort the students after exams ended, they would’ve marched on the Staff Office composing revolutionary songs.
“Two Crispy Chicken Burgers, please.”
After a long wait, Ivy received the burgers for her and Joy.
The Cafeteria was far more crowded than usual, and Ivy had only barely found a seat.
For the record, Ivy had no problems with the exams this time around.
She’d worried she wouldn’t be able to concentrate, but that concern proved unfounded.
The teachers’ questions always covered what was emphasized during class, and aside from a few applications of reasoning, they weren’t particularly difficult.
Perhaps this was the reward for holding out in the Library until the very end all semester.
Joy arrived at the table just as the burger wrapper had started to get soggy.
“Did you see the line for the non-alcoholic cocktails stretched all the way to the gymnasium entrance?”
Joy shook her head slightly, saying she was tired.
“That’s pretty fast for a line like that though?”
Ivy pushed the wrapped burger toward Joy.
Joy set down a single Non-alcoholic Mojito between them. Pink and yellow straws were stuck in it together.
“Yeah, someone gave it to me. Normally I wouldn’t have taken it at all.”
Ivy sucked on the pink straw and drank some of the beverage before answering.
“Why would you refuse such kindness?”
“Good grief.”
Joy paused mid-unwrap and looked at Ivy with disbelief.
“Ivy Underwood, you really have no sense of nuance, do you?”
What on earth was that supposed to mean?
“On a day like this, offering a drink that’s hard to get isn’t pure kindness?”
Ah…
Now that she thought about it, she’d gotten so close to Joy recently that she’d temporarily forgotten.
Joy’s influence over the students came from more than just her family background.
No one could help but love a female student with a small, delicate face and beautiful features.
“Get it? So when boys give you things, you absolutely can’t accept them at face value. There’s a dark desire mixed in there.”
The taste of the Non-alcoholic Mojito suddenly felt like it was dripping away in real time.
“You certainly seem to know your way around, miss.”
Then a response to Joy’s rather bold statement came from beside the table.
And it was agreeing with her, no less.
Ivy and Joy both looked up simultaneously. It was Blake.
He was holding a mojito in each hand, and he set one down in front of Joy with a tap.
“….”
Joy alternated between looking at the drink and at him before answering.
“I was too narrow-minded, Ivy.”
“Huh?”
“There are actually people in this world who demonstrate pure kindness.”
“That might be true, but I never expected such an honorable title to be applied to me.”
Logan sat down beside Joy and chuckled. Joy deliberately widened the gap between them in response.
“Get lost.”
“Don’t react like that. I gave these drinks to the lady who didn’t even give me flowers on Valentine’s Day! That’s genuinely gentlemanly of me, wouldn’t you say? Wouldn’t you, Class Representative?”
Logan rested his chin on his hand and smirked before turning his head back toward Joy.
“Kindness deserves kindness, right?”
Just as Joy was about to say something more, Logan suddenly threw his hand up and shouted.
“Quinn!”
Where did he come up with such a cute nickname? As if he were calling his girlfriend or something.
“Don’t call me that.”
……It was Cyrus, though.
“Pfft.”
Joy couldn’t help but laugh, and Cyrus irritably set down a plate of Pizza on the table.
Right next to Ivy.
Ivy shifted slightly to the opposite side, creating a small distance between them.
It was just… something about it felt weird.
Not that she was quite sure what, exactly, but ever since they’d hidden under the desk in the Broadcasting Room, sitting side by side in front of the others somehow felt a bit embarrassing.
Not that she was being self-conscious about it or anything.
She had no idea why she kept being conscious of Cyrus.
“Quinton, is what they said on the board true?”
Joy asked while drinking from the mojito Logan had brought her.
“Yeah.”
Cyrus answered with his usual indifference.
“You maniac.”
“When exactly did you do something like that?”
Logan and Joy each offered their own reactions, while Ivy simply watched the three of them.
“Something wrong?”
Joy answered with a surprised expression instead.
“You haven’t checked the Lecture Hall board?”
She had. It had a post from Ivy about some suspicious “in-school environmental protection award” and an article about reducing waste.
It was always a proud post to see.
But that’s not what this was about right now.
“Quinton got something from that, um, what’s it called, the Royal…?”
Cyrus, while eating Pizza, finished Joy’s sentence.
“Royal Youth Research Symposium.”
“Right! He won the Best Research Award there, they say.”
Ivy closed her mouth, which had opened wide to take a bite of her hamburger, and stared directly at Cyrus instead.
He won what?
“On top of that, he also won the Sustainability Award.”
Her grip on the hamburger tightened. The sauce inside spilled out over the sides, but that wasn’t what mattered right now.
“When?”
Cyrus slowly chewed and swallowed his pizza before answering.
“It was announced yesterday.”
Speaking as if it were no big deal at all.
“What was your research topic?”
“Single-use product usage data within the school and scenarios for introducing alternatives.”
Now that she thought about it…
This semester, all the dishes used in the Cafeteria had been switched to reusable containers.
Ivy had privately taken pride in thinking that came from inspiration in her own “plastic bottle recycling” initiative.
But that wasn’t it…
“You were the one who suggested it?”
“Just, I was bored.”
Ivy took out her smartphone and searched immediately.
Cyrus Quinton, Royal Youth Research Symposium, Best Research Award. Articles from every major news outlet came up.
“…Bored?”
Ivy lifted her head and glared at Cyrus.
Was this not a remarkable achievement?
Out of boredom, he’d measured single-use container usage, written scenarios comparing costs with reusable containers, submitted them to the school to get their cooperation and budget allocation, and actually observed and analyzed what changed when reusable containers were used.
All because he was bored!
“It’s not particularly difficult work.”
“You just attacked all of humanity!”
“That’s an overreaction.”
And he quietly returned his focus to the pizza.
Right, he must want to feed that brilliant brain of his.
“Is maintaining first place that important to you?”
Ivy knew his achievement wasn’t his fault, but she felt so deflated that the words came out anyway.
Cyrus wouldn’t have any deductions from his conduct grade this semester. That was because Ivy had devoted herself to keeping any prohibited activities in the Third Dormitory hidden.
Experimental Chemistry was a tie, and their points from the debate competition were split equally between them.
Of course, Ivy had pursued additional points through various Class Representative activities.
But if one asked what wielded absolute power in this royal academy, the answer was simple.
‘The word “Royal” itself.’
“Not really.”
Cyrus immediately denied any desire for ranking.
“I just end up in first place as a result.”
“You’re doing it again—!”
Ivy shook her head and reached her conclusion.
“…Right, I’m being overly interpretative again, then.”
He pushed a Strawberry Crepe—which he’d brought along with the pizza—toward her.
“Eat it.”
“Like that’s going to make me think kindly of you!”
“It’s not really kindness. I’m leaving.”
He swallowed the remaining pizza in one go and stood up first.
Ivy shoved the crepe—annoying just to look at—straight into her mouth.
Now that she thought about it, she seemed to have wanted to eat something like a strawberry parfait loaded with whipped cream recently. When was that?
……She couldn’t remember.
Anyway, how did Cyrus even know that?
Well, it must have been coincidence.
She decided to think of it that way.

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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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