Chapter 5: The Class

“First, I’ll look at the books. Nishizuka Tsukasa’s grades were pretty good. As for me, even though I had forgotten a lot of high school knowledge, I used to manage just fine.”

At least, math and science had been Fang Jing’s strong points, and because of his past work, he could still keep up his level.

Besides that, the tricky subjects were English, Japanese, and history. Those he had long forgotten completely and needed to search his memory repeatedly to recall.

“As for English—I hadn’t used it for so many years, I really lost it, and this stuff requires a lot of memorization…”

He took out his crumpled English textbook and started flipping through it.

Nishizuka Tsukasa’s grades had always been excellent. Even if he himself was not satisfied, his scores had always remained second in the year.

And the person who always took first place… that had been a long-term thorn in his side.

Proud as Nishizuka Tsukasa was, he had never taken first place in the grade because first place was always held by someone else.

“Hey! Nishizuka, why are you so late today?”

He thought he could have a quiet day, but someone suddenly started talking to “Nishizuka Tsukasa”—that was really rare.

After all, Nishizuka Tsukasa rarely talked to others, and sometimes he gave off an “I enjoy studying” aura that kept people far away. Basically, not many took the initiative to approach him.

But there was an exception to everything. He looked up and saw a girl sitting on his desk, leaning on one hand, turned sideways, staring at him with interest.

So it was her… no wonder?

Fang Jing vaguely remembered that she was a girl in the class, like him, labeled as a “weirdo.” Her name should be Shokuba Haruka.

Shokuba was taller than other girls her age. Her skin was very pale, and her hair was messy and unkempt, with her front bangs covering one eye.

But her hair was of good quality and had a beautiful shine, making her look full of energy.

Unlike the typical schoolgirl, her looks and figure were close to those of a professional model—mature and pretty.

At the moment, this eye-catching girl was staring at him with a strange look.

“Shokuba, is there something you need?”

Fang Jing was a bit surprised. Shokuba Haruka was an outlier in the class, but of course, different from his kind of outlier.

She was capable and very pretty. Since starting school, she had attracted a lot of attention with her looks. Unfortunately, almost no boys had confessed their feelings to her.

It seemed she had come up from Kiryō Middle School, so after entering high school, many knew about her past.

It seemed that even in middle school, Shokuba was famous for her ability to cause trouble.

There were rumors that in middle school, she had provoked delinquent groups or Bōsōzoku, and the conflict between them almost led to the police blocking the streets.

The middle school’s head teacher lost his job because of a dispute with her. Besides, she was quite famous among the girls because she liked to stand up for others. If the girls had any problems, they could always talk to her.

…such as helping deal with perverts on the train, helping boarding students catch underwear thieves, handling troublesome stalkers, or breaking up with delinquent boyfriends.

Shokuba was good at these things and always succeeded—this was also why she didn’t have a boyfriend. Although Shokuba was pretty and nice, her personality and habits were not something ordinary boys could keep up with.

Such a girlfriend wasn’t something an ordinary boy could handle.

Thinking about this girl’s troublesome nature, Fang Jing felt a slight headache.

“Nothing much! I was just thinking that even though you made such a big scene a few days ago, you look like nothing happened now.”

“A few days ago? What happened a few days ago?”

He really didn’t remember much. Sorting through Nishizuka’s memories wasn’t easy; all kinds of scattered information was a tangled mess.

“Ha, the important man has a short memory. You forgot everything so quickly.”

For some reason, Shokuba Haruka suddenly burst into hearty laughter, startling the other students, who stared at the two with weird looks.

“Well! I don’t know if you’re pretending to be clueless?!”

Shokuba Haruka stopped laughing, her expression turning a bit more serious. She said quietly, “But this time, you might have offended Fujiwara. That guy puts on a good front, but he’s actually a really bad person. Given how petty he is, he might not let you off this time.”

Fujiwara… Could it be Fujiwara Shoichi from the class?

He remembered now. He was the flashy, handsome guy in the class, it seemed like he had been a popular figure since school started.

You know, the type that every class has—good-looking and popular with girls, great at sports, and well-liked among the guys too.

Fujiwara Shoichi was basically that kind of character.

Compared to the gloomy Nishizuka, he was cheerful and handsome, a key player in the basketball club, with friends all over the grade, and his grades were within the top twenty, sometimes even breaking into the top ten.

It all came back to him now. Fujiwara Shoichi had done exceptionally well on the test, ranking second in the year. That meant Nishizuka Tsukasa was pushed down a spot.

In this small test, Nishizuka Tsukasa had done pretty well, but for some reason, Fujiwara Shoichi performed even better, scoring higher than him.

This made Nishizuka rank third in the year. Actually, Nishizuka’s scores hadn’t dropped; it was just that Fujiwara had done better.

But the self-important Nishizuka Tsukasa couldn’t accept this. He didn’t believe Fujiwara was capable of scoring so high.

He was the type to value his pride above all else.

Naturally, Nishizuka Tsukasa lost control. After the results were announced, he grabbed Fujiwara by the collar in front of the class, demanding to know if he had cheated or stolen the test papers.

At that time, Fujiwara just sneered silently and didn’t respond, while the other students quickly pulled Nishizuka away to avoid a fight.

Afterward, everyone treated Nishizuka with more coldness and disdain, because he looked like a jealous, sore loser.

On the other hand, people in the class seemed to think even more highly of Fujiwara.

(So that’s it. It seems I’ve become the class clown because of this…)

That made sense. Although Nishizuka Tsukasa had good grades, he was arrogant and proud. Even if he didn’t openly show it, others could easily see his condescending attitude.

In contrast, Fujiwara was more down-to-earth and deliberately tried to get along with his classmates. Because of that, he was more likable.

This time, Nishizuka Tsukasa’s actions turned him into a clown who was jealous of Fujiwara, who was both handsome and talented.

Fang Jing looked around and noticed the other students deliberately avoiding his gaze. He hadn’t known about this incident because after realizing he had traveled through time, he took a few days off, claiming he was sick. Today was his first day back at school, so the incident must have happened a few days ago.

But he wasn’t really interested in dwelling on it. Instead, he propped up his English book.

“So that’s what it was. I’ll find a chance to apologize to Fujiwara then. I’ve been under a lot of study pressure lately, so I hope he can forgive my rude behavior…”

He looked up at Shokuba Haruka, who was still sitting on his desk, and spoke calmly. However, as soon as he finished speaking, he noticed Shokuba’s face showed unmistakable surprise. She stared at him, her mouth wide open.