After the week of face-to-face meetings, the exam week arrived, and club activities were banned by the school, with the keys to the activity rooms no longer lent out.
As a result, all clubs, even those who wanted to continue participating, had to either go home or find other places.
Except for the Human Observation Department.
Dubian Che finally understood a little why the student council had been giving them trouble.
After listening to Dubian Che, Kiyono Lin’s gaze shifted from her red practice book, "Because our club members are among the top three performers in the entire school, participating in club activities doesn’t affect our grades, so we were allowed to keep borrowing the keys."
"I don’t think so," Jiutiao Meijie clearly intended to contradict her.
"Then what do you think the reason is?" Kiyono Lin responded tersely.
"It’s obviously because of money," Jiutiao Meijie twirled her pen, "Goda is a private school, it’s running a business. Cultivating excellent students is just a means; profit is the ultimate goal. It’s only natural to please us rich folks."
"I see, that makes sense," Dubian Che nodded a bit too seriously.
Jiutiao Meijie slapped the spinning pen onto her textbook and grabbed his ear, "Whose side are you on?"
"Then what’s with your tone? Do you think I’m an idiot?"
"I’m just trying to cheer you up! Studying is tough, so I wanted to lighten the mood."
Jiutiao Meijie scoffed, "Smooth talker, do you think I’m that easy to fool?"
"Now is the time for the study session, you two," Kiyono Lin said icily, focusing on them both.
Kiyono Lin, who thought high school knowledge only required attending class;
Jiutiao Meijie, who believed high school knowledge was like Dragon Clan memory inheritance, naturally acquired with age;
’Three lines that should never meet, finally converging through my efforts.’
With a tilted head and one ear grabbed, Dubian Che sighed, full of a sense of achievement.
The cost was merely a symbolic ear grabbing...
"Ouch ouch ouch! Meijie, let go! I’m going to end up with just one ear!"
Not just the three of them studying, hard-working folks were everywhere in Goda.
Even Yuzao Haomei was making her effort her own way.
During lunch break, while Dubian Che was buying strawberry milk from the vending machine, he noticed her passing by, looking at a booklet of English cheats she had compiled.
Dubian Che was pleased with her progress, but weren’t those English words a bit too simple?
With exams imminent, it wasn’t good if she wasn’t familiar with them yet, Yuzao.
Yuzao Haomei noticed his gaze and hid her cheats, along with her hands, into the sleeves of her knitted cardigan due to the chilly air conditioning.
She hummed lightly as she walked past him.
’So this is the "moe sleeve," where only the fingers are showing, and it looks incredibly cute?’
Dubian Che finished his milk in one gulp, the straw crying out in a ’I really don’t have any more’ whimper.
Quietly praying for Yuzao Haomei to successfully pass her final exams for a second, he threw the milk carton into the trash bin.
The finals ended uneventfully.
No second "believer of love" took the excuse of a bathroom break during the exams to confess their doomed love to a certain lady in the courtyard.
One more week of class and Dubian Che would welcome his first summer vacation in high school.
The day after the exams ended, the Wind Instrument Club immediately resumed practice.
And it wasn’t just the Wind Instrument Club; many sports clubs competing in the summer also trained hard.
Dubian Che admired their ability to train under the scorching sun, but the meaningless cheers were really annoying, especially in the summer.
During the ensemble break, the girls chatted about the final exams and summer cram school.
Dubian Che sat backwards in a steel chair, supporting himself on the chair back, playing a mobile game.
"What are you playing?" Ayane Kumi asked, setting down her bassoon.
"Here," Dubian Che tilted the screen slightly to show her.
Ayane Kumi, the only band member who still spoke normally to him; everyone else said it was because of her naturally gentle demeanor.
However, Dubian Che thought it was simply because he hadn’t "shamed" her yet.
So far, only Mayi Asuka and Ayane Kumi had escaped his personal attacks; he had even mocked Yuzao Haomei for being a ’bimbo with big boobs.’
That was very regrettable.
Because when chatting with others later, saying ’I’ve insulted all the girls in the Wind Instrument Club’ would seem inaccurate and Kiyono Lin would declare him a liar.
"A music game, huh," Ayane Kumi pointed at the phone screen, "Does it help with practice?"
"Uh," Dubian Che considered, unsure, "Who knows."
"So you play it just because you like it?"
"Not exactly. I used to play other mobile games too, but after joining the Wind Instrument Club, I thought since I’m going to play anyway, why not just play a music game, it might help."
Ayane Kumi was astounded and couldn’t help but admire him, "Even your game playing contributes to your performance, you really are incredible, Mr. Dubian."
"That I’m called ’the incredible Dubian’?"
Ayane Kumi paused, then covered her mouth and giggled, "I haven’t heard that one, but I often hear people say ’Dubian is such a scumbag.’"
"That’s just people being jealous of a great person," Dubian Che said as his phone screen kept popping up perfect scores in bright yellow exclamation marks.
"Could I try playing a round?"