My High School Nerd Rival - Chapter 99

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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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Chapter 99
There was no time to identify what it was.
She was thrashing, seized by the sensation of sinking deeper still.
Then the grip on her wrist tightened—a much stronger force—and Ivy’s body was wrenched upward through the water in an instant.
“Cough—! Cough.”
Breaking the surface, she retched. Water backed up her throat, and her lungs felt as though they were tearing.
And in that same moment, sound flooded in—a noise that had never penetrated the depths.
A thumping bass, high-pitched laughter, someone else plunging in, the water’s surface shattering.
Ivy coughed several more times.
Her body, still submerged in the murky water, flailed. Her feet touched nothing.
But her wrist.
Her right wrist was held fast.
Following that warmth, she lifted her head. Water clinging to her lashes fell away, and her vision cleared slightly.
Only then did it come back to her.
Glasses.
They had slipped through her fingers.
Ivy’s hand reflexively patted the water’s surface.
Nothing. Only the arms of other students brushing past as they swam.
They can’t be gone. They can’t be.
If this face is exposed…
A different terror seized her lungs—not the panic of drowning, but something else. Her breathing quickened.
Then.
Something approached her face. Without warning.
Ivy tried to flinch away, but she realized almost at once it wasn’t necessary.
Her glasses.
A careful hand settled them across the bridge of her nose, then tucked the frames behind her ears with a gentle touch, securing them properly.
Ivy remained still for a moment, then slowly lifted her gaze.
The wrist still gripping hers, and before it…
Cyrus.
Why?
That was the first question that rose in her mind.
His hand approached her face again, adjusting the bridge of her glasses with the gentlest push.
Now her vision aligned properly.
In that moment, meeting those teal eyes—unchanged even amid the fluorescent glow in the darkness—
the harsh din that had pounded her eardrums began to fade.
The silence was filled only with the sound of Cyrus’s breathing.
Shorter, deeper than usual—perhaps from hauling her from the water.
His hair clung wet to his forehead. Water had splattered his shirt collar, leaving dark stains.
The hand that had adjusted her glasses brushed across her cheek as it fell away. It seemed to be trembling.
Why.
Ivy’s lips moved to ask.
But he plunged his arm deep into the water first.
“…!”
From the stubborn depths where nothing seemed to escape, his arm wrapped around Ivy and pulled her upward.
It happened in an instant.
* * *
Did the class president really drown?
What’s with Quinton?
Chaotic voices floated about. Hardly anything was clear.
Ivy sat at the edge of the swimming pool, breathing heavily.
Her water-logged shirt and pleated skirt clung heavily to her body. Water droplets fell continuously from the ends of her hair.
She gripped the cold, wet tile firmly. Her fingertips trembled.
Whether from the fear that came too late or from the cold, she couldn’t tell.
Cyrus, who had been sitting across from her, shifted, and suddenly a hoodie was draped over her shoulders.
His warmth seeped gradually into her wet shoulders.
“Can you stand?”
His voice was composed.
Ivy remained still for a moment, then nodded.
She pressed her palms against the ground and pushed herself up. Her knees shook, but she held steady.
Cyrus’s hand moved toward her, then stopped. He seemed to read her determination to stand alone.
“Oh my.”
Mia, who had been drinking in the pool, finally turned her attention this way, noticing the commotion.
Ivy met her gaze directly.
Mia glanced at her watch, made an exaggerated expression of surprise, and then, still holding her can, made a show of wiping her hands apologetically.
It seemed more playful than genuinely remorseful.
Exactly the way she usually resolved problems.
“….”
Ivy saw no point in responding.
She walked toward the Bluetooth speaker and sharply pressed the power button with her sleeve-covered hand, turning it off.
Sudden silence descended.
Now every eye turned toward her. Ivy didn’t meet a single one.
“Oh, class president, just a little longer…”
Someone murmured, but didn’t finish.
Ivy spun around.
Her legs trembled, and her school uniform was heavy. Water continued to drip from her hair, soaking the inside of the hoodie. To anyone watching, she must have looked dreadful.
But she didn’t break.
She didn’t stop.
The surreal silence of the swimming pool receded further and further behind her.
* * *
Stepping out beneath the summer night sky, goosebumps prickled across the gaps in her wet clothes.
Cyrus slowly extended his arm beside her. He said nothing.
Part of her wanted to refuse this kindness. Perhaps in another moment, she would have.
But now…
She rested her hoodie-sleeved hand lightly on his arm.
The path to the Dormitory.
The campus was quiet now. It was already dark, well past Lights-Out Time.
As her mind began to settle, Ivy finally looked to her side.
“What were you doing at the swimming pool?”
Cyrus and a late-night swimming pool.
Could any combination be less fitting?
Though, to be fair, Ivy and a late-night swimming pool weren’t a great match either.
He gazed ahead and answered evenly.
“Logan.”
Logan called you?
As Ivy continued to stare in confusion, he exhaled softly and continued.
“He said you would come.”
Ivy rolled her eyes, recalling the phone call with Logan.
He’d said he couldn’t hear properly and demanded she come over.
“…Because he said I would come?”
“Yes.”
He answered immediately.
Now turning to face her directly.
For a moment, the warmth of the hoodie wrapped around her seemed to intensify.
“I figured it was about time you got into trouble.”
….
Never mind.
Hoodie or not, she felt like she was freezing to death.
Ivy narrowed her eyes at him, but didn’t quite have it in her to snap back immediately.
Looking back at the list of incidents that had swept through the past few months, his claim was reasonable.
“Come on. You’ll catch a cold.”
He quickened his pace. The creeping chill was indeed relentless.
They reached the Dormitory. When they passed through the darkened hallway after Lights-Out, they naturally fell silent. The ticking of the wall clock sounded unusually loud.
Ivy unconsciously tightened her grip on the arm she was holding. Her wet sneakers squeaked with each step, the sound seeming to amplify in the darkness.
If they ran into the residential supervisor right now, it would be a disaster.
Not only would they have violated Lights-Out Time, but they were both soaking wet, so an additional violation for unauthorized swimming pool access would be added.
She absolutely did not want to see her and Cyrus’s names appear together on the Penalty Points list tomorrow morning.
They crept toward the staircase.
The moment they reached the first step.
“Who’s there?”
A sharp voice cut through from deeper in the hallway—Holden’s.
Not far away at all.
Ivy’s spine prickled with cold.
Footsteps approached. Thump-thump. The intervals grew shorter, the sound more distinct.
Ivy’s eyes darted to Cyrus. His grip on her arm tightened.
“Run.”
A single low word.
He launched up the stairs first. Ivy was nearly dragged along as she ran after him.
His grip on her wrist was firm. A grip that wouldn’t let go.
“You there! Who is it?”
Definitely directed at them.
Her breath came quickly, her ears filled with the sound of her own heartbeat.
The wet skirt clung to her thighs, and her unrecovered body stumbled dangerously, but didn’t fall.
Each time she felt herself about to, Cyrus pulled her forward again, just a little harder.
The moment they crested the stairs and entered the hallway, Cyrus changed direction.
When they finally reached a door, Ivy instinctively glanced back. The supervisor’s footsteps were still echoing from the stairwell. They had to hurry.
She yanked the door open.
Without hesitation, they both squeezed through the gap, and with the last ounce of restraint, she closed it shut behind them—barely a sound.
They stood facing each other inside the doorway, their ragged breathing held tight.
Relief would come too early. Holden was still making rounds, and would miss nothing.
They didn’t dare move, just stood in stillness, their tense breathing close enough to reach each other.
Soon, footsteps sounded outside the door.
Thump-thump. Drawing closer.
In the dim moonlight falling through the window, their wavering gazes met.
Tick.
A single droplet of water hitting the floor—a faint sound that somehow seemed impossibly loud. It had fallen from Ivy’s wet hair.
Soon another drop traced the same path downward.
Cyrus’s eyes followed it, dropping from her pale cheek a little further down.
Her lips, drained of color, trembled.

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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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