Seconds trickled into minutes, which turned into hours. Unknowingly, it was already time to take the final test for today's exams; and the subject happened to be math.

Math was an intricate subject, different from the other tests, taken today. Unlike other subjects, present on today's tests, which only centralized on the memorization capabilities of a student, math targeted the analytical and calculative side of a student's skill set.

Kyle couldn't just simply answer from his memory like he did before, it was required of him to calculate and analyse the questions on hand to formulate the answers; naturally that would take far more time for him to finish answering each question, far longer than that of the tests he had taken previously on the day long exams.

Hence, 30 minutes went by in a flash, in that time, Kyle had finished solving all the mathematical problems that were present on the question paper. Finishing, he gave a thorough read over to see if he had done any mistakes, finding none, he sighed in relief and stretched a bit to relieve the tension built up in his muscles due to the monotonous and strenuous, both mentally and physically, tests he had taken all day.

Glancing around he noticed Kyōka; she was still answering the questions, her focused gaze, as she did so, was a refreshing vision, created due to the contrast drawn because of her usual savage persona. In the few seconds he had glanced at her direction he noticed a slight oddity in her that separated her from the rest.

Unlike his other classmates, Kyōka hadn't taken any extra pages or rough sheets to solve the problems by hand while writing them down. Instead, he realized, she was solving them in her mind using only her brain without the supplement of any tools to solve each problem. Doing such a thing without the help of any external apparatus sung volumes of her capabilities.

No wonder that she was hailed as a genius, such a feat was truly astonishing for one to have, reinforced by the fact that the math test today had questions that were both lengthy and complex with its intricacies. Her brilliance was awe inspiring indeed.

'Welp, it's not like I'm not doing the same.' thought Kyle and shrugged, he himself knew why he was able to do so, so he didn't take any unnecessary pride from achieving such a feat. Though, he still took sufficient amounts of it in his diligence in learning all the test materials.

About 20 minutes later, Kyōka was also finished with answering her question paper. Doing a thorough read over like Kyle, she stood up, elegantly walked to the teacher's podium and handed her test paper to the invigilator.

A few minutes later, reckoning that he had waited long enough, Kyle too stood up and passed his test papers to the invigilator in the same fashion Kyōka did, minus the elegant motions of course. On his way back to his desk his way was blocked by a grinning Kyōka as she inquired him with a cheeky tone, mischief oozing from each note of her tone. "Hey...do you think that I am blind? That I wouldn't notice it?"

"What do you mean?" Kyle asked, perplexed, confusion hanging on his face; it was all fake however, he knew what she was talking about; he just wanted to bluff his way out of this annoying predicament.

"Don't treat me like these idiots surrounding us, I'm not a fool like them, you had clearly finished answering EVERY SINGLE ONE of your test papers before I could finish mine, yet you waited for me to finish and submit my answer sheets, before submitting yours. I don't understand. Why are you doing this?" Were the queries of Kyōka, her gaze serious, her tone suggesting that she wouldn't take kindly to any of the bullshit Kyle could pull.

Luckily Kyle had slowly guided her towards a secluded spot in the exam hall, away from prying ears, if he didn't half the class would've already heard her speak. The invigilator was also a nonchalant person, since they had already submitted their answer sheets, she didn't care about them any longer, that they had chosen a corner away from all the students also helped in the decision of not giving a shit about what they were doing.

"Because it's troublesome." Kyle dropped his act. Seeing her gaze, he already understood that he was caught red-handed. Any efforts done afterwards would only drag this situation to nowhere, better to come clean and state his reasons to shut her up instead, at least that's what he surmised.

"Ehh… wut..?" Kyōka was blank, she was looking at him with an expression as if asking 'That's it?'. It was really too much for her to swallow, her incredulity was reinforced by the fact that she didn't detect any lie from Kyle's words.

She was always good at seeing through people's thoughts from young. So, either Kyle was a master liar or he was speaking the truth. The possibility of the latter being true was the highest and that just confused and bewildered Kyōka further.

"Yeah, that's it okay? I don't want to pass my papers before you because it would become troublesome later, sometimes it's better to be low key." He said it with a cool and calm tone, looking a bit bored from having this meaningless talk with Kyōka.

"Are you an idiot?"

"No, if today's tests were to be used as a base for comparison, I'm actually very smart."

"No, you aren't you contradicting dumbo, clearly you're being idiotic right now, I mean who would care for such a thing?" Exclaimed Kyōka, her tone held all the incredulity she was feeling from this messed up situation. She couldn't make heads or tails out of this decision of Kyle's, of being low-key. 'What exactly is the point in doing that? It's ridiculous.'

"I do, I care, okay? Just, you won't understand even if I explained it to you anyway so please let's call quits on this conversation." He shrugged at her, indicating his disinterest in lengthening this particular conversation.

His unclear answer and his disinterested gestures made her speechless, simply flabbergasted at this weirdo's behavior. Nonetheless, she decided to forget about it. It was clearly impossible to understand this guy's train of thoughts, further contemplation would only end in her going insane. So she decided to end this topic and start some casual talk.

Either way, her main reason for confronting him like this, excluding her intent of teasing him, was to talk with him. She didn't know why, but just being in his presence and exchanging light talks and banter with him like now, became the best part of her day, a time where she was in her most happy self.

'It's really hard to understand a weirdo, but I guess that makes him special? Maybe that's why I l-love him so much?' thought Kyōka, stuttering even in her mind while having that particular thought. All the while, she kept on exchanging banters with Kyle, her cheeks flushed a bit but luckily, for Kyōka, Kyle hadn't noticed it.

Glancing at him, from time to time, as they talked carefreely, reminiscence of their time together played like a record in her mind. All throughout, she couldn't fathom how she fell in love with him.

'He isn't particularly a handsome guy, he's very good looking just not remarkably so, but he has a lot of good points to himself, he's smart, sharp, a kind guy, although he can also be scary at times. He's also the first person ever to beat me, most importantly, he is of the opposite gender. He's so strong, he's also smart but foolish at times, he's also cute and and...'

Unknowingly in her contemplation of the reason why she had fallen for a guy like him, she only pointed out his good points in her mind. It was as if her mind was unable to think of any bad sides to him. Maybe, this was what falling madly in love was like? Kyōka didn't know when or how these feelings took root in her being, when they started reverberating in her thoughts.. it was a very contradicting feeling, but it wasn't bad.

Being in love was really a bittersweet flavor of life. Sweet because of all the sensations she went through being near him, being in his presence and observance; bitter because of knowing said person's love and interest lay in another woman whom he had an active relationship with.

'To think this guy has a girlfriend? My gosh who would actually like him other than me? Okay wait stop Kyōka... here we go again...my thoughts are so very misleading...damn it I can't understand myself anymore, this isn't me. What has gone wrong with me?'

Looking at his appearance once more, his lazy gaze and faint smile as he talked with her, she realized every day and every second her love for him only grew, even after knowing that he was already committed to someone else. This thought only led her to finally contemplate on something she, for the life of her, thought was impossible to even think of. 'Maybe...I should join Meru's harem plan?'

---

Finished with his talks with Kyōka, they went their separate ways, Kyle was heading towards his mansion, he didn't have a shift today, in the first act of kindness he had ever seen her bestow him, the manager had allowed him to take a paid leave during the time he had exams.

Mounting his motorcycle, he went towards his home. Not long after, he had arrived near the gate of his mansion, only to be greeted with the glorious sight of his cute and sexy girlfriend waiting for him again today. He had already asked her to not do that, but she kept on insisting so he had to comply, but on a condition that he would message her when he was near his home, in this way she didn't need to wait hours on end for his arrival.

Parking the bike, he approached her, instantly swinging his arms around her waist, he trailed it down, his palms finding its place on her soft pillowy bum. He squeezed it to his heart's contents. Her moans were muffled as Kyle had planted his lips on her's. It was a light kiss, but the love radiating in it was not at all less in intensity compared to their previous kisses. With her hands placed around his neck, they indulged in this moment kissing each other to their heart's content.

This had become a sort of daily occurrence for them, kissing each other after Kyle came back home either from school or work, they indulged and revelled in the sensations they invoked in each other. Truly, they were like a newlywed couple at this point, at least that was the image they were painting while doing these things.

Getting inside the mansion, in the same fashion they always do, his eyes searched for Hina, sadly they couldn't find their intended target, he reckoned that she was still at work, it was predictable since he had come far earlier than he usually did. "Kyle~ welcome home!"

His thoughts came to a stop when Kanna came and gave him a deep hug full of sisterly love. Her cuteness never ceased to strike an arrow straight in his kokoro. He felt blessed to have such a cute sister like her, blessed to have such a great family. He naturally reciprocated her by circling his free arm around her making Kanna hug him more deeply in joy.

While patting her soft hair a thought flashed in his mind. 'If only my elder sister, father and mother were to be here it would've surely been a perfect family.'

Speaking of his elder sister, he wondered how she was doing right now. He hoped that she was happy doing her dream job in America.

After playing with Kanna for a bit, Quetzalcoatl called him to practice magic once again, the lesson for today was a very complex one, he was having more troubles than he did previously. It was to be expected for a higher level of magic.

The basic rank was nothing compared to the beginner rank. From now on, the difficulty would exponentially increase, his efforts had to scale similarly or else he would never be able to keep that vow he made to himself.

---

Next morning, Nango-Kuren High School :-

The results of the exam came out and everyone was flocking around the merit board to see their rankings. It held the combined ranking of all the classes of each year, compiled in a single merit list comprising the top 100 individuals of each year.

1. Kobayashi Kyle :- 500 Points

2. Kagamiin Kyōka :- 498 Points

3. Hatenko Meru :- 497 Points

4. Tachibana Charlottes :- 495 Points

5. Ashbourn Paradox :- 494 Points

..

..

..

The results were according to his expectations. From the moment he got the question papers, he was sure of getting perfect marks. The math part was a bit tricky, there were some parts he was worried would not yield him full marks, no matter how much logically he answered. Fortunately, his paranoia did not come true.

There was a problem however, looking at the list the 4th and 5th names struck him as odd. They felt wrong yet right, as if he knew something but didn't, there was a complex feeling of contradiction he received whenever he focused on those names. Feeling it to be troublesome, he put those thoughts in the back of his mind, he would ponder about them some other time.

Kyōka appeared right next to him, grumbling in an annoyed tone. "Tsk, so I lost even in academics huh... you got a perfect score, tch, I didn't see anyone other than me do that in my time here, nor did I hear many do it before me, maybe a handful at best, that time I achieved it, I had to give my all, and you did it on your first try.. tch tch..."

Staring at her he spoke nonchalantly, trying to be humble. "Not really, I just got lucky that's all."

"Hah! There's no such thing as luck, this isn't a multiple choice examination that you can get perfect marks if you get lucky. You got lucky right, then answer this question of mine, the last part in the math test was a theory, a fucking theory on the numbers system, how in hell did you answer it that you got a full marks there, practically it should be impossible to get a full marks in a theoretical question but you did, so tell me how did you answer it that they gave you full marks, how does that foolish head of yours work, huh?" She stared intensely at Kyle's head as if wanting to open it and check how the damn weirdo's brain worked.

He covered his head from Kyōka's intense gaze, playfully replying to her inquiries. "My brain works perfectly normally, and please don't look at me like that, I'll turn bald if you look so intensely."

"Haha, you're hilarious…"

"Yes, I am." Was his cheeky reply, underlying in it however was a playful confidence that made the reply even more hilarious.

"That's why.. that's why I love you." Kyōka stutteringly uttered, smirking at the end of it as he looked at Kyle's face, her gaze was soft, filled with adoration as she waited for his reply.

Kyle froze, and everyone who heard Kyōka's sudden confession froze with him, painful moments of silence silently trickled by, it was the girls who were the first to snap back into reality, processing things much faster than Kyle, who seemed to have frozen in time.

"KYAHHHHH~~!"

"She's soo bold~!"

"A real public confession! This is strangely exciting to watch!"

"Wait, isn't the one who confessed, Kyōka-sama!?"

"Woahhhhh! You're right!! It's really her!"

The crazed surroundings didn't make Kyle react, still frozen in place he was panicking in his mind. He didn't know what to do, he was shocked, speechless and senseless. A public confession like this was not something he thought he'd be on the receiving end of ever in his life. For now, all he could do was be rooted in place.

---

Meanwhile in the national airport of japan, a woman in her early to mid 20s was seen exiting a plane coming from America. The woman had a tall figure, taller than most japanese women. Her face was mature yet cute, retaining an youthful charm unseen in women her age. She wore a black vest with a dress shirt of purple color underneath, black pants and stylish snickers adorned her lower torso. Over the best she wore a long grey colored overcoat with the front buttons opened, her slightly big bust was emphasized this way which gave her a seductive charm. Her long black hair was let loose as it flowed with every single of her elegant movements. Her purple eyes held the liveliness of youth and the seriousness of adulthood, currently however both were overpowered by the glint of excitement dancing in them.

Exiting the airport as a whole she glanced at her homeland and town, the warm breeze trickled her face, as it brought with it the nostalgia of her life spent in this place. Stretching out her hands in a childish fashion she exclaimed in an uncharacteristically enthusiastic tone of glee, excitement and longing, the last part she herself being unaware of. "Kai-chan! Onee-chan is coming! Wait for me, okay!!!"

( `END` )

E/N :- I present to you a hint, see if you can guess who the character is from this quote…

"Whether they are, aware of it or not, want it or not, mean it or not, people hurt each other just by existing."

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