The fake date to the festival committee meeting was, in a word, excruciating. We sat side-by-side, a foot of awkward silence between us. I tried to make small talk.
"So… uh… festival stuff, huh? Fun."
Rina didn't even look at me. "Riveting commentary. You should be a sports announcer."
I bought her a juice from the vending machine as a peace offering. She stared at it like I'd handed her a live frog. "I don't like orange."
"It's apple!"
"I don't like apple either."
Somehow, we survived. Aomei, true to her word, didn't leak the video. The rumors simmered down from a roaring boil to a confused gurgle. I thought my troubles were over. I had never been more wrong. The universe, it seemed, had a deep and abiding passion for making my life difficult. Its next weapon of choice: mid-term exams.
My report card was a horror show. A sea of red marks and teachers' comments like "Aoshi has so much potential if he would just apply himself," which is code for "This kid is doomed."
My salvation, and my damnation, came from the most unlikely of sources. The official mid-term rankings were posted in the main hall. And there, at the very top, in the #1 spot for our entire grade, was the name: Rina Hoshino.
Of course. The Ice Queen wasn't just smart; she was a certified genius.
That afternoon, I found Danawa in the library. "Dude, I'm going to fail. My mom's going to ground me until I'm thirty."
Danawa shrugged, not looking up from his manga. "Should've studied."
"I need a tutor," I moaned, slumping onto the table. "A miracle worker. A saint."
"Ask Hoshino."
I recoiled as if he'd suggested I ask a shark for swimming lessons. "Are you insane? She'd laugh in my face and then charge me an exorbitant fee just for wasting her time."
As if summoned by the devil himself, a voice cut through the air. "My rates are quite reasonable, actually."
It was Aomei, Yuna in tow. "We heard you were looking for a tutor," she said with that sly grin. "As it happens, Yuna and I could also use a little help. So we were thinking… why not form a study group? With Rina as our teacher?"
"No," I said instantly.
"Absolutely not," came an icy voice from behind me. Rina had appeared out of thin air, a stack of books in her arms. "I have no interest in wasting my precious time trying to force-feed information into this simpleton's brain."
"Hey!" I objected, pointing at my own head. "This brain is a finely-tuned machine! It's just… tuned to a different channel right now."
"The static channel, apparently," she shot back.
"Please, Rina?" Yuna begged, clasping her hands together and giving her best puppy-dog eyes. "We'll buy you snacks! Your favorite almond cookies!"
Rina's resolve wavered for a millisecond. I saw it. The Ice Queen had a weakness!
Aomei went in for the kill. "Besides, think of it this way. If Aoshi fails, he'll have to take summer classes. And if he has to take summer classes, he'll be miserable. And if he's miserable, he'll be even louder and more annoying next semester. This is an investment in our future peace and quiet."
That… was a terrifyingly good point. Rina's expression tightened. The logic was undeniable. Helping me pass was the only way to ensure she'd have to deal with me less later.
She let out a long, pained sigh. "Fine. The library. After school. All of you. And if any of you are late," she said, her glare sweeping over all of us before landing squarely on me, "the deal is off."
The first study session was chaos. Danawa came along for "moral support," which meant he put on headphones and started playing a game on his phone. Yuna got distracted by a bird outside the window. Aomei kept trying to start gossip about our classmates.
And me? I was actually trying, but my brain felt like a block of concrete.
"No, you idiot!" Rina snapped, pointing at my math worksheet with a pen. "You don't add the exponents, you multiply them! Have you ever even opened a textbook?"
"Words are hard!" I defended myself.
"This is numbers!"
For two hours, she drilled me. She was ruthless, sharp, and brutally efficient. She explained things with a clarity that none of my teachers ever had. And slowly, miraculously, something started to click. The fog in my brain began to lift.
At one point, Yuna and Aomei went on a snack run, and Danawa was off in his own world. It was just the two of us at the big table, surrounded by books. I had just successfully solved a complex physics problem all by myself. I actually understood it.
A wide, genuine grin spread across my face. "Whoa. I did it. I actually did it." I looked up at her, my excitement bubbling over. "Thanks, Hoshino. Seriously. You're… actually a really good teacher."
She was caught off guard. For the first time since I'd met her, the icy mask slipped. A faint pink blush dusted her cheeks, and she looked away, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Don't be stupid. You just finally decided to use your brain for once."
But her voice was softer. The usual bite was gone.
The moment was broken when Yuna and Aomei returned, arms full of snacks.
"Ooh, are we interrupting something?" Aomei teased, her eyes darting between us.
"You're interrupting my will to live," Rina said, her mask firmly back in place. But I didn't miss the way she refused to look at me for the next ten minutes.
The study group was agonizing. But as I looked down at my worksheet, filled with correct answers for the first time in my life, I had to admit a terrifying thought. Maybe, just maybe, spending time with the Ice Queen wasn't the worst thing in the world.