Chapter 31: Kimura Doubts His Life

Takahashi sat in his seat, not sleeping, not doodling.

His eyes were fixed straight on his history textbook.

Beside him, Yamamoto Taro looked at Takahashi's expression with concern, then at his history textbook, which looked brand new, and said, "Takahashi, don't worry, the history exam isn't until the day after tomorrow."

"Today's exam is math!"

"I've made detailed notes, I can lend them to you!"

Yamamoto's words pulled Takahashi, who had been zoning out, back to reality.

"Okay, thank you!"

Takahashi replied.

Kimura, in the front row, turned around and said, "It's no use lending them to him now. With so much content, can he remember it all?"

Yamamoto disagreed and said, "What of it? I believe in Takahashi's memory; it will definitely be fine."

"Just think, Takahashi only spent one month to beat Kirihara-senpai."

"A genius is a genius in every aspect!"

Mentioning tennis successfully made Kimura shut his mouth, and he turned his head away, disgruntled.

……

In the blink of an eye, the four-day midterm exam finally ended!

Friday.

The results for each subject were about to be released.

At this time, all sorts of rumors were flying everywhere.

"Have you heard? Someone in the first year only got 10 points on the math exam."

"The math exam was so hard this time, I almost didn't finish writing it! But 10 points is too exaggerated, right!"

"And English, they say there are two 100s this time! One is definitely Ben, who has American citizenship."

"Right, Ben's native language is English, he can get a perfect score every time. I wonder who the other perfect score is?"

"It's rare, actually having two people get perfect scores. I really want to know who the other person is!"

"History went very well this time, the average score is very high. They say only one person failed."

With the pressure of exams gone, every student was like they'd been injected with adrenaline, asking around and gossiping everywhere.

Takahashi sat in his seat and yawned.

For these four days of midterm exams, he had woken up at 7:30 for four days in a row.

For four days in a row, he had slept half an hour less.

Takahashi felt his sleep was severely lacking and needed a nap!

Kimura leaned over and asked, "Takahashi, aren't you worried about your exams?"

"You don't even talk to everyone."

"I heard that official members of the Tennis Club have requirements for their academic grades."

"Kirihara-senpai's English is very poor and he often fails. I heard that Vice Captain Sanada even spent time personally tutoring Kirihara."

"If you have any failing subjects, I'm afraid you'll also receive special care from Vice Captain Sanada!"

As Kimura spoke, he specifically placed emphasis on the words "special care."

"They should all be passing. It went quite smoothly when I was taking the tests, and I didn't encounter anything particularly difficult."

Takahashi recalled the scenes from the exams while answering affirmatively.

Hearing Kimura's description, he also felt a bit uncomfortable.

In his mind, he pictured the scene of Sanada tutoring Kirihara in English.

It was too beautiful!

Too painful to look at!

……

Finally, the long-awaited moment to hand out the exam papers arrived.

Those with good grades held their beautiful papers and showed them off everywhere, pretending to be well-meaning, but in reality, they were just trying to find out others' scores.

Those with bad grades silently tucked their papers into their desks, pretending nothing had happened!

"70, 80, 85, 90! This score is solid, I can get a reward!"

Kimura held his paper and announced loudly in front of Takahashi and Yamamoto.

"You're so amazing, you actually got a 90 in English!" Yamamoto said enviously.

"Let me see your scores." Kimura snatched the paper from Yamamoto's hand.

"68, 82, 74, 80, that's also quite good, keep up the effort!"

Takahashi couldn't help but yawn again.

He was looking forward to eating quickly so he could have a nice nap after lunch to make up for his lost sleep.

"Takahashi, what about your scores?"

After seeing Yamamoto's scores, Kimura set his sights on Takahashi.

"Not bad!"

Takahashi said indifferently.

For this kind of exam, passing is enough.

Any point more is just a waste.

Seeing that he had passed everything, Takahashi stuffed the papers into his desk.

As for the specific scores, he didn't care about them at all.

"Exactly what are the scores?" Kimura asked.

"They all passed!" Takahashi said impatiently.

"Let me see!"

Taking advantage of Takahashi not paying attention, Kimura pulled all the test papers out of the desk compartment in one motion.

Kimura's face was full of joy as he read aloud: "85, 85, 100, 100?"

He read out the scores one after another.

The originally excited voice grew lower and lower.

The smile that had filled his face instantly turned into a look ashen with defeat.

It was hard to believe!

The scores were actually this high!

Kimura looked over the test papers again and again, checking them back and forth.

He was trying to prove that it was the teacher's carelessness that had made Takahashi's scores so high.

However.

A continuous string of checkmarks.

They dazzled his eyes.

"Wow, Takahashi, you're amazing! You actually got perfect scores in both math and English!"

"I heard there were only two perfect scores in English for the whole grade, so you must be one of them."

"And math, it was so hard, yet you actually scored 100."

Yamamoto called out.

The three of them suddenly drew the attention of those around them.

"What! Takahashi actually got 100 in math!"

"There's only one perfect score in math for our grade, and it's actually in our class—it's Takahashi."

"This math test was so hard, yet he scored so high!"

"Truly amazing!"

The other classmates were also discussing it heatedly.

Kimura asked weakly: "Takahashi, weren't you still previewing before the exam? How did you score so high!"

That wasn't previewing; that was reviewing, reviewing what he hadn't forgotten yet.

Takahashi looked at Kimura with eyes full of sympathy!

Yamamoto Taro chimed in: "Because Takahashi is a genius! The effect of his previewing is equivalent to us studying it once and then reviewing it once. No, even better."

Kimura's spirit withered; although he was very unwilling to accept it, this seemed to be the only explanation.

As a classmate, he had witnessed Takahashi's study habits with his own eyes!

Dazing off in class, sleeping, and not listening properly.

As soon as school was over, not even a shadow of him could be seen.

His homework notebook was also completely blank.

The class representative had already gotten used to it and adapted.

Every day, they no longer took the initiative to go find Takahashi to collect homework.

This could no longer be called "Buddhist-style" studying; it was plain and simple lying flat, rotting away, and slacking off!

But, even so.

Takahashi could still get two perfect scores on the midterm exam.

Especially in math, where there was only one perfect score in the entire grade, and it was him.

This was not an ordinary brain.

It was simply Einstein's brain!

Truly, comparing people to one another only serves to infuriate!

Not only did he play tennis well, but his exam results were also good!

Both his physical strength and mental capacity far exceeded his own.

And his life was lived comfortably, with great zest.

Coming and going freely, at ease and unrestrained!

Looking at himself, studying painstakingly and training earnestly.

As a result, he didn't get into the Tennis Club, and even his grades weren't as good as his.

A joke!

Kimura hung his head and returned to his seat.

He began to doubt life.

Is hard work really more important than talent?

Is it really necessary for him to study diligently and pull all-nighters doing practice problems?

Should he go get an IQ test?

If he is just ordinary, then he should accept his mediocrity!

Do not harbor delusions of competing with a genius!

Otherwise, he is just a joke!