My High School Nerd Rival - Chapter 85

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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 85
Ivy’s hand moved.
To the right.
Cyrus’s palm, warm as she remembered, met hers beneath. When two different temperatures touched and mingled, her heart lurched violently.
For a moment, clarity crashed through her.
This wasn’t right.
Ivy had something she needed to say—a light remark about going to the party together as friends, something like “let’s have fun while we’re there.” She should have added that.
Right now.
“……”
But just as Ivy was barely opening her mouth.
Long fingers stirred, and he began to gently close his hand around hers.
Slowly.
As though he wanted to give her room to pull away whenever she wished.
But Ivy couldn’t withdraw her hand, and she was completely caught.
“So you’re going with me, then.”
He spoke first.
It was no longer a question.
Only a simple statement of a decided conclusion.
Ivy stared at their joined hands for a long moment before finally offering her answer.
“……Yes.”
Heat climbed from her captive hand all the way to her heart.
This wasn’t what she’d prepared to say at all.
After confirming that Ivy had turned and vanished into the corridor, Cyrus closed the door.
He tried not to think about the sensation lingering in his palm, but it didn’t work.
He set the returned Notebook on his desk and sat down.
Soon the door opened again.
Without so much as a knock—as if he had no consideration for whoever might be inside.
“Blake.”
Cyrus didn’t even turn around as he reproached him.
“Knock, would you.”
“It’s my room. Why would I knock?”
A weak excuse came back.
Cyrus felt like he’d already countered this argument forty times.
“……Fine.”
Cyrus gave up pressing the issue.
Logan wouldn’t have come here intending to stay long anyway. The guy was always wandering around somewhere at school.
He’d leave soon enough.
“So……”
But contrary to expectation, Logan lingered in the room.
Circling around Cyrus the whole time.
“What?”
At the terse question, Logan settled in—as if he’d been waiting for permission—and flopped down on Cyrus’s bed.
“Quinn.”
“Get off my bed.”
Cyrus was immediately irritated.
“Don’t be like that. Come on, roommates should talk sometimes.”
His opening was awkward as anything. Cyrus pulled a book closer from where he’d pushed it to the side of his desk.
“Make it brief.”
“You’re so cold. Seriously, you’ll regret this later. Do you have any idea how important what I’m about to tell you is……”
“Get to the point.”
Cyrus cut him off, spinning a pen between his fingers.
Besides, the way Logan was dancing around the subject like this was uncharacteristic of him.
“Carter was saying. The class president.”
His words trailed off there.
It was clearly intentional, and Cyrus, knowing this, turned to face him anyway.
Logan’s lips curved into a grin.
“You might end up with a partner.”
It was teasing, plainly.
“I already have one.”
Cyrus answered in an even tone, and Logan hesitated briefly.
“Huh?”
“Not ‘might end up.’ Already have.”
Cyrus turned his attention back to his book.
Logan watched him steadily transfer problems, then asked after a long pause, his face astonished.
“Don’t tell me it’s you?”
“Yeah.”
Cyrus answered without stopping his pen. There was a lot to study.
“Wait, when? Where? Who brought it up first? Hey, hold on.”
But when Logan kept pestering, Cyrus irritably set down his pen and turned to face him sharply.
“Today. Library. Me. Done?”
Logan’s mouth fell open in shock.
* * *
Ivy practically fled back to her room.
The moment she opened the door, Joy, who’d been sprawled on the bed, lifted her head, and quickly covered the Magazine.
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh, nothing?”
Ivy sat down at her desk and fidgeted with her Laptop.
Then Joy got up and came over, deliberately covering the Laptop screen with the Magazine.
“Where were you?”
“Just……”
Ivy gave up and spun her chair to face Joy.
“Cyrus’s room. I had to return his Notebook.”
Joy studied Ivy’s face intently, her eyes narrowing as if probing for more to the story.
Of course there was more.
And it was something she needed to tell Joy, though for some reason the words wouldn’t come.
“……I ended up going with him.”
It was a vague sentence, missing its subject and object. But it was enough for Joy.
“If your partner is Quinton, I have no reason to object.”
She set down the Magazine and gently cupped both of Ivy’s cheeks in her hands.
“I’m happy for you.”
A smile that felt genuinely warm.
Joy stroked Ivy’s cheeks with her thumbs before gathering up the Magazine and returning to bed.
Ivy felt the tenderness lingering on her skin.
That Joy didn’t ask how it had happened was clearly her way of sparing Ivy from embarrassment.
“……Hey.”
Ivy called out, and Joy turned to look at her, chin propped on her hand.
“What?”
“That day, what if the three of us go together?”
Ivy asked anxiously.
Joy firmly shook her head.
“I have a potential partner of my own. Don’t worry.”
“Really?”
“Remember the chaos on the bulletin board?”
Ivy remembered that. But the problem was that Joy hadn’t liked any of them.
“Who exactly? I haven’t even seen you messaging with any guy.”
“I have guys I message with.”
What?
Ivy had no idea Joy had anyone in mind.
“Who is it……”
“Don’t worry about me. Go splash some water on your face or something. Look how red you are right now.”
At Joy’s remark, Ivy placed her hands on her cheeks and immediately got up from her seat.
Both of them were genuinely burning hot.
Still.
While Ivy was off cooling down her face, Joy picked up her Mobile Phone from where it lay on the bed.
[What did you even say to Cyrus?]
[They’re already going together.]
To be honest, Joy had thought the two of them would avoid having such a conversation until the actual day of the Dance Party.
That’s why, reluctant as she was, she’d recently formed an alliance to monitor the situation.
Logan, that is.
When that impossibly carefree guy had said “I’ll get Cyrus to confess right away, don’t worry,” she’d been genuinely skeptical.
But results were already showing.
The typing indicator on his account had been hanging there for quite a while now.
She wondered what he was taking so long to write.
[Like I said—romance is my specialty.]
His reply was a short, boastful quip.
Normally, Joy would’ve responded with annoyance, but this time she couldn’t argue. After all, the results were good.
[Fine, I’ll give you that.]
Joy tossed her Smartphone down beside her. Then another message came through with a vibration.
[So the lonely miss ends up with me, then.]
Is he insane?
Joy thought so as she turned her attention back to the Magazine. It wasn’t worth answering.
But after a moment, she sighed and typed a reply anyway.
[Am I insane?]
[Sometimes it’s not so bad.]
This is ridiculous.
This time, Joy really did put her Smartphone down.
She wasn’t about to waste time on pointless remarks.
* * *
On the way up to the Dormitory Rooftop, Ivy found herself unconsciously gripping the hem of her skirt.
It trembled, just as it had when she’d lightly held Cyrus’s hand.
But with a very different sensation.
Creak.
She pushed open the rooftop door. The warning notice posted there seemed to have done its job—the space was relatively tidier than last time.
But that fact brought no relief.
Something important remained unsettled, and now Ivy had to face it.

Fabian’s suggestion.
“It’s been a while since you called me up here.”
Leaning against the railing, Fabian had been reading something on his Smartphone, but he pocketed it as Ivy approached.
“What’s on your mind?”
Ivy stood beside him and gazed down at the distant view of the School Garden.
“I had something to tell you.”
“Looking at you right now……”
He turned to regard her carefully before continuing in a quiet voice.
“You’re turning me down again, aren’t you.”
“……!”
She went pale and spun to look at him. The moment their eyes met, Fabian laughed aloud and gently patted her shoulder.
“Kidding, kidding. Good grief, do you know what kind of expression you just made?”
Ivy was flustered.
That word—”turning down”—had sounded cold just now, had it not……
Her heart had dropped.
“Sorry, I went too far.”
He studied her face gently.
“You okay?”
“……Yes.”
Ivy barely managed a nod, and he said, “Thank goodness,” before facing out toward the distance again.
Once his gaze left her, Ivy found she could speak again.
“About the Dance Party.”
“Yeah?”
“……I’m going with Cyrus.”
A humid summer breeze drifted past. From the School Garden visible beyond the railing came the sound of students laughing and calling out to each other.
Fabian didn’t answer right away.
It was only brief, but there was a weight to the silence that followed.
Yet soon came a soft reply.
“That’s good. I’m glad.”
As he said this, he continued gazing toward the garden.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what.”
The corners of his eyes lifted in a smile, but his gaze remained fixed on the distance, never wavering.
“It was only meant to be a temporary arrangement anyway.”
“That’s…… true, but.”
“Besides, I’m happy. That you…… get to go with someone you care for.”
Now he finally turned to meet Ivy’s eyes as she stood beside him.
“Cyrus will be a good partner to you.”
Ivy couldn’t look away from Fabian’s face.
He was smiling.
So…… it was fine, wasn’t it?
Even as she tried to convince herself of that, she couldn’t stop her breath from tightening in her chest.

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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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