My High School Nerd Rival - Chapter 77

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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 77
“What is this?”
Ivy laughed in disbelief as she watched the comments pile up in real time, while Joy shook her head.
“Sorry.”
“There’s nothing for you to apologize for.”
“No, some of it is my fault.”
Joy tossed her phone somewhere onto the bed.
“I made a mistake. I should have just said no, but instead I said, ‘I’ll be with Ivy that day.'”
“That wasn’t a mistake at all.”
Ivy stated it firmly. In truth, no one had made such a request of her yet, but she would probably have answered the same way.
That she’d be with Joy.
It was simply that Joy had more opportunities to make such statements.
“So everyone’s trying to find a Daily Partner for me now?”
“Honestly, I didn’t think they’d go this far. It’s just a school event, isn’t it?”
Ivy shook her head.
The students at this school were remarkably uninterested in their studies, but when it came to romance, anyone could heat up.
Last Valentine’s Day was proof of that.
“I bet they’re drawing lots right now to find someone to cover for me.”
“If there are kids doing something like that, I’m going to find them and grab them by the collar.”
Because Joy answered with genuine indignation, Ivy regretted speaking quite so bluntly.
In any case, it wasn’t impossible. Joy’s admirers seemed thirsty enough for this sort of thing.
“Whoever wants to be your partner has to get my permission first.”
“…What?”
“It’s my right as your roommate. You think I’d hand my best friend over to some incompetent who didn’t pass my test?”
At those solemn words, Ivy forgot her troubled mood from moments before and burst out laughing.
“Don’t laugh—I’m serious.”
At Joy’s slightly reproachful remark, Ivy nodded, saying she understood.
But truthfully, she already knew.
Joy would never actually test anyone.
“Joy, if there’s a boy you like, you can go with him too.”
“Is there?”
Joy answered sharply, arms crossed.
“I don’t need some boy running his mouth about my friend. Wouldn’t need one even if he didn’t talk, and besides, boys are filthy and loud and the worst. Well…”
Having answered so firmly, Joy tapped her lip with a finger and added,
“Of course, if you go with someone, I’ll try to find someone decent too.”
“That’s never going to happen.”
“You never know. Maybe a boy who’s fallen for you will ask.”
Joy looked at Ivy with meaningful eyes.
Ivy knew that look. She was definitely trying to pair her with Cyrus again.
But if she thought about what just happened in the Laundry Room…
“The new student—I don’t think he likes you, does he?”
The new student.
It took her a moment to understand who Joy was talking about.
Could she possibly mean Fabian?
Ivy’s eyes widened in surprise.
Why did Joy keep mistaking all the wrong people for having feelings for Ivy?
To begin with, Fabian dislikes Ivy.
Now they were both just making an effort to “dislike her a little less.”
Besides, they were “cousins” who spent their childhood together.
The royal family had plenty of examples of cousins marrying each other, but… well, in any case, it wasn’t going to happen.
Still, Joy lifted her chin and declared,
“His gaze changes when he sits next to you. My eye for these things can’t be fooled.”
Ivy was genuinely concerned for a friend who had absolutely no eye for these things.
“And what’s more, you even contact me sometimes asking if you’re in your room?”
Ivy laughed it off but paused slightly.
“…That must be about homework.”
“Well, maybe?”
* * *
Third floor of the Dormitory, the second room from the end of the hall.
Cool May evening air drifted through the half-open window. From the Garden in front of the Dormitory, the sound of someone laughing carried faintly from afar.
“Come to think of it, sometimes I think the most popular person in our school might be the class representative.”
At Logan’s words, spoken while he lay sprawled on the bed fiddling with his phone, Cyrus’s hand—which had been writing notes—paused briefly.
But he soon refocused on solving the differential equation without responding further.
“Every time the class rep comes up, everyone gets so excited they don’t know what to do. Idiots.”
Logan’s mouth was still light, but he couldn’t bring himself to argue with those last words.
“Quinton.”
Cyrus turned to him irritably. The round pen that slipped from his hand rolled down the notebook’s slant and fell onto the desk with a soft tap.
“Don’t call me that.”
“But it’s the only way you’ll look at me.”
Logan, with his head down, flicked his smartphone screen with his thumb.
“Oh, my name’s on here too. Well, I guess I am kind of close to the class rep.”
Right.
Cyrus nearly let a sarcastic comment escape his lips but held it back.
Not that it was his concern anyway.
“Everyone’s debating passionately about who should take the seat next to the class rep. It’s practically a seminar at this point.”
“Stupid.”
Cyrus saw no value in continuing the conversation.
The level of discussion among those gathering anonymously seemed to show no sign of improving, even now after everything that had happened.
He gripped his pen again.
Focus on what you were doing.
The debate about who becomes Ivy’s partner had nothing to do with him.
Let the chattering fools chatter.
Just as he bent his head back over the notebook,
his usually quiet phone chimed with a new message alert—a rare occurrence.
Was it the new book he’d requested from the Library finally arriving? He reached for his phone.
The message was not what he expected.
It was Joy.
Joy, Ivy’s roommate, who sometimes bothered him with strange messages.
A short message that read: ‘How about it?’
And there was an image attached.
How about what?
He tapped the attached image.
A screenshot of part of the Anonymous Bulletin Board.
[Anonymous 12] The class rep is cute sometimes. Bet she’d be pretty without her Glasses?
└[Anonymous 13] No, she’s cute even with the Glasses?
His thumb moved first.
‘I know.’ He stared at the two words that appeared on screen for about a second.
Then he pressed backspace. Even after the letters disappeared completely, the cursor blinked.
It wasn’t just that he knew.
But he had no obligation to let anyone else know.
[So what]
It was also a way of saying don’t respond. Because he didn’t want to discuss this issue with anyone.
Cyrus set his phone face-down, and soon the message alert chimed again.
It was definitely Joy again. She seemed determined to pair him and Ivy together.
He couldn’t fathom why she had such an absurd goal.
She’d definitely sent another provocative message. Something about Ivy.
Cyrus ignored the alert and gripped his pen. He found the last line he’d been studying before.
But noise from down the hallway filtered in.
Someone laughing, a door closing, slippers dragging across the wooden floor—the everyday sounds of Dormitory life that normally wouldn’t register.
He tried to follow the equations on the page, but meaning eluded him. He read the same line twice, and on the third attempt, still couldn’t comprehend it.
Evidence that he couldn’t concentrate. Cyrus finally picked up his phone.
“Who was texting you that has you so restless?”
“No one important.”
Cyrus glanced down to check the notification.
Just as he’d thought, it was Joy’s message.
[There’s another guy who likes Ivy.]
Cyrus set his phone down and spun the pen between his fingers.
Then his gaze drifted to one side of his bookshelf.
Metamorphosis Story Volume 1. The gold leaf on its worn cover gleamed faintly in the lamplight.
He’d lent it to Ivy, but she’d returned it to him after meeting “another partner.”
“……”
His eyes lingered on the book’s spine for a long time.
* * *
Ivy jolted up from bed with mussed, unkempt hair, having not slept well.
Her eyes were heavy. Too many things had happened yesterday, and her mind had been tangled all night.
The Anonymous Bulletin Board, for one.
The story about Fabian checking whether Ivy was in her room.
And…
Ivy looked down at the loose t-shirt she wore as pajamas. The moment when Cyrus had taken it out of the dryer for her yesterday still clung to her retinas.
Why did it have to be pajamas!
It was better than underwear, true, but there were ordinary things too—socks, towels.
No, actually, if she hadn’t left anything in the dryer to begin with, she wouldn’t have been embarrassed in the first place.
Ivy ran her fingers through her already disheveled hair, making it worse.
She didn’t hear “Why are you like this from the morning?” so she glanced to the side—Joy had already left.
‘What time is it anyway?’
Ivy reached for her phone.
I’m going to be late!

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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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