The day before Yuriko and Nagai arrived at my house, Izumi had been in the kitchen making cookies since the evening. When I went down from my room to the living room, I could smell the sweet, savory aroma wafting through the room.

"Kenichi-kun, try these."

Saying that, Izumi handed me a plate filled with cookies. They were star-shaped, heart-shaped, diamond-shaped, and other shapes and sizes that all looked familiar to me. Perhaps she had used the molds we have at home. My mother had made the same shape for me and my brother a long time ago.

I picked up one of the cookies offered to me and took a bite. It was slightly sweeter than the one I remembered, but I thought it was cooked well.

"It's good, isn't it?"

"Really? I'm glad to hear that. Then, I'll make more like these."

Although I thought it was an appropriate impression, Izumi said happily.

"I'm sorry. Sorry for making you do this."

"It's okay. It didn't take that much time, and it's a nice relaxation, so don't worry about it."

Saying that, she returned to the kitchen, where bowls, stirrers, and aluminum foil had been set out.

"Then, I'll go buy drinks for tomorrow."

I suggested, since I didn't want Izumi to be the only one preparing for tomorrow. She turned her face and said with a smile, "Thank you."

The next day's study session was scheduled for 1 p.m. Five minutes before that time, the intercom rang. Izumi, who was sitting on the sofa reading a textbook in a red checkered short-sleeved shirt and three-quarter-length jeans, stopped herself as I stood up and approached the monitor in the living room. Yuriko is shown standing in a blue knit shirt and white shorts. Nagai is still nowhere to be seen.

After a formal exchange with Yuriko over the intercom, I opened the front door. As usual, it was a cloudy day in the rainy season, and the air was sultry and humid. Yuriko was standing in front of the gate at the end of the front yard, a white tote bag slung over her shoulder.

T/N :?the left one

When I stepped outside, "Hi," Yuriko said.

I let her in, and Izumi also came down to the front door.

"Hello, Mori-san. Thank you for your kindness the other day," she said with a soft smile and a small bow.

"Yeah. Excuse me. How are you feeling now?"

"I'm fine."

Yuriko, too, was showing a formal behavior and pleasant expression that she rarely shows to me. Then my mother came out of her room on the first floor, her footsteps clattering.

"Yuriko-chan, it's been a while. Are you well?"

She returned the bow politely to my mother as well.

"Auntie, it's been a while. I'm sorry to bother you."

The three of them started a kind of standing around talking, and I waited in the corner for it to settle down.

Their conversation went on for a few minutes, then my mother said, "Well, take your time," and went back to her room.

Then we went up the stairs to my room. I had cleaned up my room in the morning, set up two folding desks, and prepared a cushion. It was a little hot and humid, so I turned on the air conditioner as I entered the room.

"Oh. It looks more mature."

Yuriko said as she entered the room.

"When you were in elementary school, there were anime posters and stuff like that all over the place. Where did they go?"

Izumi, who had gone to her room to pick up her study materials and came in a little later, was tilting her head while clutching her textbooks to her chest, as if she had heard a snippet of the conversation.

"It doesn't matter what happened in the past."

"What? Are you embarrassed? Do you want me to say more?"

"Are you a sadistic?"

I ended the conversation before Yuriko could say anything about my past and took out my notebook and writing materials from my study desk.

Izumi and Yuriko sat down facing each other at one of the two desks, and I laid out my study materials at the other desk.

"Hmm, that was uncle's, wasn't it? So it was given to you, Kenichi."

Yuriko looked at the bookshelf by the wall and said.

"That's right."

"You read books like that?"

"No way. I barely read them."

"I guess so," Yuriko said, sitting down on the cushion and taking a notebook out of her bag.

Before long, Nagai also arrived at my house. When I went outside to pick him up, I was told that the train had been delayed. He was wearing brown shorts and a dark blue polo shirt. His hair smelled of wax or something. He looked a little more stylish than when we play with the other boys.

When I went up to the room again with him, "It's Nagai," Yuriko, who was sitting and spreading out her study materials, responded.

"Sorry, I'm late."

He replied so to Yuriko. Then Izumi, who had been staring at Nagai like a vigilant rabbit, stood up and opened her mouth, "Um."

"I'm Izumi Rina. I'm a relative of Kenichi-kun---"

"Ah, I've heard about you. I'm Nagai, from the same club as Sakamoto."

He said, " Hello," and bowed his head slightly. Izumi said politely, " Nice to meet you."

"Nagai's position, right there."

When they had finished greeting each other, I interrupted them and said to Nagai. "OK," Nagai said and put down his luggage, and sat down.? He was next to Yuriko and in front of me.

"Kenichi-kun, I'll bring the cookies."

"Oh, then I'll go with you. I'll bring the drinks."

As Izumi and I sat up, we went downstairs together. Unlike my room, which was now crowded with the four of us, the first floor was quiet. My mother was probably on the phone at work in her room, and her voice, which sounded like she was reprimanding someone, was leaking into the living room.

"My mom's pissed."

As I said this, Izumi wryly smiled as she took a large plate of cookies that had been covered with plastic wrap and said, " It must be tough work, isn't it?" Then she turned to me.

"Mori-san, she knows Kenichi-kun pretty well, doesn't she?"

"Eh? Why?"

"She seemed to know Kenichi-kun's father very well."

"Yeah. That girl was on the same soccer team as me in elementary school, and my dad used to teach us there. She had been a soccer fan since she was young. She came over here frequently with our teammates, so she's close with my family. She knows Ryou-kun, too."

"I see."

Izumi said, looking at the plate of cookies she had made. She took off the plastic wrap, crumpled it up, and tossed it into the non-burnable trash.

"But why?"

Izumi looked up and said, "No. It's nothing. It's just something that came to mind," she said, and then smiled.

"Hmmm," I replied, opening the refrigerator and pulling out bottles of drinks. Then I put four glasses, a bottle of tea, and a bottle of cola on a stainless steel tray. I walked up the stairs with Izumi and returned to my room.

"I made these yesterday. Please enjoy them while you study."

As Yuriko and Nagai were chatting, Izumi placed a plate of cookies on the table.

"Oh, perhaps you don't like sweets?"

As Izumi asked in a rushed tone of voice, Yuriko smiled.

"No, it's okay. Thank you, Izumi-san. Can I try one?"

"Of course. I hope it suits your taste.---What do you think?"

Izumi asked Yuriko, as she bit into a cookie.

"It's delicious," Yuriko complimented. Izumi looked pleased to be told so.

I held the glasses out in front of the four of them and said, " Have a drink as you like," and placed the plastic bottles on the desk with a thud.

Nagai and I poured cola into the glasses, while Yuriko and Izumi poured tea.

"Then, for the next two hours, talk about anything other than study-related topics is prohibited. We will have two sets of two hours with a break in between, and finish around 6:00 p.m., okay?"

Once the preparations were complete, Yuriko showed her management skills and suggested the day's menu.

"Okay," Izumi said, and I - and maybe Nagai, too - replied, "Yes," feeling as if we were in charge of the practice in the club, and Yuriko activated the timer app on her phone.

Novel ini diterjemahkan oleh Musubi Novel

This novel was translated by Musubi Novel

Thus began the day's study session.

I wonder why I can concentrate better when there are people around me than when I am studying alone. Everyone was busy running their pens over their notebooks, the atmosphere was nice, and I made more progress than I would have if I had been studying alone.

After about 30 minutes, Nagai asked me, "Hey," he said.

"How do you translate this?"

Nagai underlined the English sentences in the exercise book with a pen. I stopped my studies and looked at them. It was a long, complex sentence with a number of relative pronouns in it.

"Let's see, this whole second half of the sentence depends on this 'Woman', so it would be better to translate it from here....... But what does this 'one' mean?"

"It's not simply "one person," is it?"

"I don't know?"

Hmm, when we both groaned, confused by the long sentence and stuck on a small part, Izumi looked up and asked in a whisper, "What's wrong?"

"Izumi, can you translate this?"

I took Nagai's exercise book, placed it at an angle so that Izumi could see it, and pointed to the part in question.

Then, without thinking or stammering, she smoothly translated the English sentence.

"Oh. Thank you, Izumi-san."

Nagai, who was listening beside me, raised his voice.

I was a bit surprised, too, and said, " You're amazing, Izumi."

"You're welcome," Izumi said with a smile.

She doesn't look like the hardworking type, but it seems that attending a well-known preparatory school is no joke. When I looked closely, I noticed that Izumi's English textbook was different from ours in that it contained less Japanese and more English sentences in small letters, giving it a somewhat more prestigious look.

Then we would ask Izumi whenever we ran into a difficult problem. She was immediately able to tell us what we wanted to know.

While the three of us worked together, or rather Izumi taught us most of the time, Yuriko spent the entire time highlighting in her textbook, running her pen through her notebook, and studying on her own.

"Thank you, Izumi."

"You're welcome."

I had approached Izumi to ask her to teach me, but when I moved away from her and sat back down on the cushion, my eyes suddenly met Yuriko's, who was sitting diagonally in front of me.

Yuriko looked at me as she held the cookie in her hand. She took a bite of the pointed part of the star-shaped cookie Izumi had made.

A few moments later, the alarm Yuriko had set rang. She reached over and immediately stopped it. We studied for a little while longer before putting our pens down.

Nagai and I breathed heavily. The air rapidly loosened. Izumi, too, took a sip of her tea, putting her pen in a cylinder-shaped pen case. Then, next to her, Yuriko said, "I have a warning."

"Kenichi and Nagai, don't ask too many questions to Izumi-san"

"Eh, why?"

When Nagai and I raised our voices,

"Because it will decrease Izumi-san's study time. You should only do that when you can't really figure it out until the very last minute."

"Hmm, surely."

Nagai mumbled so.

I didn't think we were taking up that much of her time, but we apologized to Izumi, thinking it would have been a burden on her.

But she smiled wryly and replied, "Don't worry, teaching is also a good way to learn." Even so, Yuriko was still slightly pouting.

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