Yamauchi Haruki and Ike Kanji were essentially the second and third worst students in the class. Their minds were rarely focused on studying.
"How do you even solve these questions? I can't understand them at all!"
"What are we eating later?"
"Wait, focus on the questions first... Still don't get it... Sudō, slide your paper over a bit."
'No surprise, these two are clueless as always...'
Saiki Kusuo sighed inwardly, shifting his gaze to the other side of the room. Ayanokōji Kiyotaka was pondering what score to aim for. To him, the difficulty of these questions made no difference.
The same went for Saiki Kusuo.
But controlling his score was what mattered most to Saiki.
'If I score too high, it'll draw attention, and Horikita might even ask me to tutor these guys... Just thinking about it is terrifying.'
'But if I score too low, Horikita might lump me in with these three and assign more study tasks, which would be even worse.'
'I need an average score... but there's no benchmark to reference...'
Normally, Saiki could compare his performance to the top and bottom scorers to gauge the exam's difficulty and aim for an average score.
But there were no top-scoring students to reference this time.
Kushida Kikyō and Horikita Suzune hadn't taken the quiz, and Ayanokōji Kiyotaka wasn't a reliable benchmark...
'Maybe I can read something from Horikita's thoughts.'
Saiki focused his attention on Horikita Suzune's mind—
But she was completely absorbed in her own studies, leaving Saiki unable to gather any exam-related information.
'Looks like... I'll have to...'
Saiki had no choice but to shift his focus to Sudō Ken.
He'd crammed a lot of knowledge into Sudō yesterday, so he should score slightly better...
But Saiki wasn't sure how effective Sudō's 'review' had been.
'No choice, this is it.'
Saiki quickly filled in his answers. Without a benchmark, he'd have to improvise.
Sudō's accuracy should be slightly higher than the others, but he'd still be among the lower scorers. Saiki just needed to score a bit higher than him.
With a plan in mind, Saiki used his telepathy to confirm that Sudō was still struggling with a few questions. All he needed to do was answer one or two correctly!
...
Time passed quickly, and the quiz ended. Saiki exhaled, handing his paper to Horikita Suzune.
For Saiki, the quiz felt like a personal trial.
Horikita glanced at Ike and Yamauchi's papers, frowning before tossing them aside like trash.
"Didn't you two review the material I gave you yesterday?"
Her eyes twitched, her irritation obvious.
"Uh..."
Ike scratched his head awkwardly.
"Something came up last night, so I didn't get to review... But I'll definitely study today!"
"That's just an excuse."
Horikita's tone was sharp.
'You have nothing going on every day! It's your procrastination and laziness that drag the class down!'
Horikita's inner monologue was scathing. Normally, she'd have spoken up, but today she held back.
"Maybe Ike-kun was really busy yesterday! I'm sure he'll study hard today!"
Kushida stepped in, playing peacemaker.
"Yeah, yeah!"
Ike nodded quickly, agreeing.
'Kushida's an angel!'
'More like rose-tinted glasses,' Saiki thought.
Horikita didn't press further, moving on to the next paper.
'Sudō... His answers are probably even worse than the others. Why do I even bother hoping for these guys?'
She sighed, glancing at Sudō's paper—
But her eyes widened slightly in surprise.
Sudō... had actually done decently?
While not a great score, it was a pass, far exceeding Horikita's expectations.
'Sud��'s usually dead last! How did he manage a passable score?'
"Sudō, did you study last night?"
"Uh... yeah, I did!"
Sudō hesitated before nodding with a laugh.
'Thank goodness for that dream! Is this what they call divine intervention?'
'You'd probably lose it if you knew your "god" was sitting right next to you,' Saiki thought.
"Looks like you're not completely useless. You've surprised me."
Horikita nodded seriously at Sudō.
'Is she... complimenting him?'
Her words weren't exactly praise, but they were a step up from her usual tone.
'Did Sudō actually study? Was that "review dream" just him lying to me? Did he really study?'
Ike frowned briefly before relaxing.
'No way! There's no way he studied! He just got lucky.'
'You really know your friend,' Saiki thought. But it proved his actions last night were meaningful. If he kept this up, the study group wouldn't be necessary anymore.